About three weeks ago, I found out that we will be adding a new member to our family! We are happy to announce that our little bundle is due in October! This will be our first child together and so it will definitely be a different experience since my son will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. I have a lot of decisions to make regarding my job situation. I commute an hour to work each morning and it has been difficult on my family for the last three years that I have been working at my current school due to the long hours, long commute, and extra activities that we have after school almost every day. I love my co-workers and I feel like I finally have a "home" at school, but I am already exhausted when I come home each day so I know it will be even more difficult in August, September and early October.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
BIG news!
It has been quite a while since I have posted and there is a very good reason for that! I have not only been extremely busy and exhausted from two Saturday make-up days and other extracurricular activities at our school after hours, but I also found out something HUGE for me and my family :) Well, tiny...
Sunday, February 16, 2014
Snow, Snow, Go Away!
If you're in NC or another southern state like me, you've likely been out of school more this year because of snow and ice than any other recent year. In January, we were out for four days in one week (only went to school on a Monday!) and this week we were out another four days. The first time we were out, the Monday we went back was very chaotic. We had to shorten our lesson plans from the week before and somehow merge the next week's plans in with them. I have a feeling this Monday will be similar. So many things have to be rescheduled for this coming week... a Valentine's dance for K-2 and 3-5, Candy grams, Valentine's Day celebrations, a staff soup lunch. It is definitely going to be an exhausting week.
I have not been a very good teacher this week. I have been more focused on spending time with my family at home, going on walks through the neighborhood in the snow and trying to not get sick (still fighting it!). Our dog got out of the yard yesterday and we spent a good part of the afternoon looking for him before calling the front gate. Someone took him in and my husband went to pick him up that night. I guess he felt like going on an adventure. He loves being outside, even in the snow and cold weather. He is very much an "outside" dog.
Even through my laziness, I updated my blog to include a widget for my TPT store (thanks to this awesome tutorial by Ms. Fultz's Corner! Check it out!) and FREE social media icons with a tutorial (thanks Beautiful Designs! Tutorial and Icons). Their tutorials are so easy that even I figured them out and I am by no means an HTML expert or even close to knowing how to use it).
Now my family and I are off to Sam's to stock up our pantry since we have used a lot of our food this week during the snowstorm!
I have not been a very good teacher this week. I have been more focused on spending time with my family at home, going on walks through the neighborhood in the snow and trying to not get sick (still fighting it!). Our dog got out of the yard yesterday and we spent a good part of the afternoon looking for him before calling the front gate. Someone took him in and my husband went to pick him up that night. I guess he felt like going on an adventure. He loves being outside, even in the snow and cold weather. He is very much an "outside" dog.
Even through my laziness, I updated my blog to include a widget for my TPT store (thanks to this awesome tutorial by Ms. Fultz's Corner! Check it out!) and FREE social media icons with a tutorial (thanks Beautiful Designs! Tutorial and Icons). Their tutorials are so easy that even I figured them out and I am by no means an HTML expert or even close to knowing how to use it).
Now my family and I are off to Sam's to stock up our pantry since we have used a lot of our food this week during the snowstorm!
Friday, January 31, 2014
Fluency
Wow! Time has flown by this year! I haven't updated this in so long but one of my resolutions is to become better at updating, so here goes.
My little group of 2nd graders have been AMAZING this year. I am blown away at the great readers that I have in my class. Unfortunately, I still have a few friends who struggle with their reading skills. Improving their fluency was a big part of this school year and based on assessments, most of them have shown significant growth! So excited! I am passionate about fluency and stress to parents that it is a very important component to their children's understanding of what they read.
I began using fluency passages for homework last year and that seemed to help many of my struggling readers. I would love for all of them to have help from parents at home so that they could hear their children read, but I know that it isn't always feasible. Each year is an improvement on the last in teaching, so this year I also added a fluency center in my literacy time. I use poems and short passages that follow our unit of study. The students work with a partner and read it once to themselves silently. Then they take turns reading to a partner. Finally, they read the passage together. It is a very simple center to set up and maintain throughout the week.
Occasionally, I will have fluency assessments for my struggling readers and students with IEPs. There are some simple assessments you can perform with them 2-3 times each. I do not have a teaching assistant in my room and it can get difficult to pull these students over for an assessment each week. I try to get an initial read with them, using a timer and recording mistakes and omissions on Monday. They practice reading the passage with their partners and then Wednesday or Friday, I will pull them back over to read again to see check for improvement. These are good for documentation for students who are having difficulty with their reading.
Another activity I use is a flipbook for nonsense word fluency. We do not assess NWF after the beginning of the year, but we still progress monitor this skill with struggling readers. I created several notebooks for a NWF center. For each notebook, I wrote a letter (a-z) on a flashcard and punched a hole at the top of the card. I put the consonants on the first and third ring and the vowels in the middle (making sure that the combinations didn't create a word that was inappropriate!). Then the students will flip the cards to create CVC words and make a list of real and nonsense words. They have to read the word and write it in the list where it belongs. My students love it! I'll add pictures later because the notebooks are at school and we've been out since Monday because of inclement weather here in NC.
There are so many great resources for fluency passages online. I have bought several packets from teachers on TPT and have created some of my own using excerpts from stories and books I already have in my classroom.
I hope this helps give you an idea of how I am working on improving fluency with my students.
My little group of 2nd graders have been AMAZING this year. I am blown away at the great readers that I have in my class. Unfortunately, I still have a few friends who struggle with their reading skills. Improving their fluency was a big part of this school year and based on assessments, most of them have shown significant growth! So excited! I am passionate about fluency and stress to parents that it is a very important component to their children's understanding of what they read.
I began using fluency passages for homework last year and that seemed to help many of my struggling readers. I would love for all of them to have help from parents at home so that they could hear their children read, but I know that it isn't always feasible. Each year is an improvement on the last in teaching, so this year I also added a fluency center in my literacy time. I use poems and short passages that follow our unit of study. The students work with a partner and read it once to themselves silently. Then they take turns reading to a partner. Finally, they read the passage together. It is a very simple center to set up and maintain throughout the week.
Occasionally, I will have fluency assessments for my struggling readers and students with IEPs. There are some simple assessments you can perform with them 2-3 times each. I do not have a teaching assistant in my room and it can get difficult to pull these students over for an assessment each week. I try to get an initial read with them, using a timer and recording mistakes and omissions on Monday. They practice reading the passage with their partners and then Wednesday or Friday, I will pull them back over to read again to see check for improvement. These are good for documentation for students who are having difficulty with their reading.
Another activity I use is a flipbook for nonsense word fluency. We do not assess NWF after the beginning of the year, but we still progress monitor this skill with struggling readers. I created several notebooks for a NWF center. For each notebook, I wrote a letter (a-z) on a flashcard and punched a hole at the top of the card. I put the consonants on the first and third ring and the vowels in the middle (making sure that the combinations didn't create a word that was inappropriate!). Then the students will flip the cards to create CVC words and make a list of real and nonsense words. They have to read the word and write it in the list where it belongs. My students love it! I'll add pictures later because the notebooks are at school and we've been out since Monday because of inclement weather here in NC.
There are so many great resources for fluency passages online. I have bought several packets from teachers on TPT and have created some of my own using excerpts from stories and books I already have in my classroom.
I hope this helps give you an idea of how I am working on improving fluency with my students.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
New Kid on the Block
I have been checking out all of the wonderful blogs out there and I am AMAZED at all of the great ideas that my fellow teachers share. I wanted to join in on the fun and I hope I can be as helpful as everyone has been to me over the last few years!
Just an intro: This will be my third year of teaching 2nd grade. I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2007 (GO HEELS!) and I taught 6th grade for one year after graduation. I have to say, teaching middle school was not my thing and I have to give props to all of you amazing middle school teachers out there. I took a year off to take care of my newborn son and after some soul-searching and random other jobs outside of teaching, I decided that I needed to get back into education in the right grade-level for me. An opportunity teaching 2nd grade (MY FAVORITE!) became available and I ran with it! Now I've been there for the last two years and even with all the difficulties that come with teaching, I still wouldn't do anything else!
I got married this past June to the most amazing man who loves my son like he is his own. I'm still getting used to being called Mrs. Dull and sometimes I forget when I'm calling parents and give them my old name! They were so confused on our Meet and Greet night since my name on the outside of my door hasn't been changed and my id badge still has my old name! Haha, oh well, it will be fixed in good time :)
I look forward to another great year in 2nd grade and sharing funny stories and ideas with everyone in the teaching community! Love all of you fellow teachers out there!
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