Welcome

Welcome to my blog site. This year I will be teaching 4th grade ELA/SS. I'm excited to embark on the new changes approaching me. I'm always looking for new ideas to get students engaged and eager to learn. I hope you enjoy my blog. Please leave comments or ideas.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Reading Materials

My campus will be completing a book study on "The Power of Our Words" by Paula Denton, EdD. The back of the text explains that the most powerful and essential tool an educator has  ------is the words and tone of  their voice to faciliate an atmosphere of learning and achievement. I will share tid bits of information as I begin the book study. More to come : )

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Making Connections to Text

I'm sorry if this picture is blurry. Tomorrow we will be reading a story and making some connections to the text. The hexagons located on the picture say the following: (STOP! I'm wondering if), (STOP! I'm picturing in my head), (STOP! That reminded me of,) and (STOP! I'm predicting that).. This is a great tool to get the kiddos thinking. I provide my students with a chart that looks like the material on the board.

Homework Agenda for Third Grade

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/74194149?access_key=key-1c7883e91ieo3uoujls8

Spelling Tic Tac Toe for the Students

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/74193572?access_key=key-pk48anfomxd985k4pe4

Monday, November 28, 2011

Neat Idea

Thanksgiving break is over and it's time to get busy. Both my ELA blocks were very engaged  today as I introduced the story "Christmas Trolls". The fun part was that I covered all the words within the text. My students had to utilize their  inferencing and predicting skills to try to intrepret what was happening within the story. Afterwards we used the big chart to write our evidence that supported our theory regarding what we think was happening in the text.

This year students in Texas will be taking the new state assessment known as STARR. STARR focuses on students using their  higher-order-thinking. I'm searching for any new concepts to incorporate within my lessons to activate HOTS. (Higher Order Thinking Skills). Help if you can. : )



Sunday, November 27, 2011

ME


Hi! My name is Deborah and I teach Third Grade in Texas. I have a degree in Education with a Specialization in Early Childhood. I recently received my Masters in Education. Let me tell you it was totally hard to teach, take care of two teenagers, and go to class. I’m so glad it's over and I can eventually pursue my second dream job which is to take on a leadership role. Please be patient with me because this is the first time I’ve ever created my own blog site. Please feel free to give me any information that will help me with this new adventure of blogging.



Saturday, November 26, 2011

Thanksgiving Assignments

We read a story "Yonder Mountain" and the students had to pick one of the four characters for their
assignment. They wrote factual info about their character and on the back of the plate
wrote a summary using BME.

I got this idea from a pinterest site. I will find the site and post the address soon.
I don't deserve credit for someone else's ideas.

The kids loved this project. They learned about the Mayflower from an interactive
Thanksgiving site from Scholastic Books. They worked in pairs and labeled the parts of the ship. (The yellow dots represent the part of the ship). Students then wrote factual info that
they learned. The students were so engaged. Afterwards the groups presented one interesting fact that they
learned from the interactive video.

Great Idea using a Shower Curtain

I have a huge cabinet that shows all of the clutter. I bought a shower curtain from Walmart and my third grade partner wrote test taking strategies on the shower curtain.

Classroom Pics

"Reading is Thinking Chart"

Daily Objectives must be posted daily.
I write the objectives and I ask the students to read them to the class.

If you can't tell my third grade class is located in a portable.
The school that I teach at is actually where I went to school as a kid.
Next year the old campus will be torn down and a new building will be built.
I'm going to miss my old school...

Friday, November 25, 2011

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." -- Benjamin Franklin

My Favorite Quote Concerning How Children Truly Learn: Engaging Lessons that Promote Curiosity and Learning in Every Child.