Chapter 4: Ask and Analyze

We're already on Chapter 4: Ask and Analyze!

This chapter was a good one for me. I especially liked the section on asking yourself the right type of questions when you are planning a lesson or activity to make yourself think outside the box. I plan my units and lessons and things I sell on TPT around my students and what needs I see need to be met. I search for new books with my class in mind. Every year my classes are different. And sometimes it's just hard to come up with something REALLY good. The quote that stood out to me was, 

"How long should I wait for a good idea? 

As long as it takes!"

He mentions writing down your ideas because your best ideas seem to come to you when you aren't trying to force yourself to come up with something. I put notes into my iPhone whenever I have a good idea because I can never remember it later!

Kate from Purely Paperless has a great post on this chapter! Head over to check her out!

Chapter 3: Rapport

I just finished reading the third chapter of Teach Like a Pirate on my back porch and felt so connected to this chapter. It's all about Rapport that you have with your students. 

Would y'all believe at the beginning of last school year we were told by our administrator not to form personal relationships with our parents or students? "Just be professional and make sure your students and parents know your classroom expectations. They don't need to know anything about your personal life."

Ridiculous.

First, I agree that teachers should be professional. But when your students and parents really get to know you they feel connected. At open house one of my slides is about football. I tell my parents that my husband and I are Notre Dame fans....and that unfortunately because my husband is an Oakland Raiders fan, I too am forced to cheer on this sad sad team. I have pictures up of my family on my desk and when my niece does something hilarious I share the video with my students. I greet my students every morning and as a class we celebrate each others successes. If I've messed up a lesson I say, "Well, even teachers make mistakes." Because I take the time to show and tell my class about me they are willing to share about themselves. I developed an amazing rapport with my class this year and it was my best year teaching!

Dave Burgess says, "I actively encourage teachers to develop a classroom climate where students feel like doing the outrageous; where the out of the ordinary and sometimes silly are the norm." I loved this! I've been known to be a little wacky. The end of the year testing is torture for us all so my class and I came up with a plan and a goal. We wanted to be completely done in three days. They wanted to do some water color painting related to a book we had read and wanted a read-a-thon. When the last test was done I shouted "HOLLA! We did it! We're done!" Then I busted out some killer dance moves- lawnmower, shopping cart, cabbage patch. Then the rest of the class danced too because WE DID IT! Our plan worked! (I secretly wish an administrator would have seen that. It must have looked hilarious!)

Dave Burgess also mentions that he plays music as a transition. I do too. But not just any music. I'm certain there aren't a lot of teachers playing "Whip It" or the Lumineers. And I tell my students every song is my favorite song. "Shhh. Y'all this is my favorite song!" They roll their eyes and laugh. 

After reading what Dave Burgess does in his first three days of school I think I'm going to have to step up my game and come up with some really creative things to do that first week.

Jana at Thinking Out Loud is hosting this chapter! Head on over to see what she has to say about Rapport!

Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 2: Immersion

We're on chapter 2 where the "I" in Pirate stands for Immersion.

Dave Burgess uses an analogy of being a swimmer versus a lifeguard to further explain immersion. A lifeguard is watching the water, but a swimmer is in the water doing everything. I loved thinking of teaching that way. Your students learn so much more from you being involved and excited about a subject you are teaching.

The very last paragraph of this chapter speaks to all teachers in regards to the overemphasis of standardized state testing. Yuck. Too much testing in my opinion. I know in my district our third, fourth, and fifth graders are constantly taking benchmarks to prepare for "The Test." (Let's not get me on THAT soapbox right now) His point- just teach. Teach really well and get your students involved and don't focus on "The Test." If you're teaching what you are supposed to and teaching it well then your students will be successful....at least that's what I think!

Marie from The Hands-On Teacher in First is hosting this chapter. Head on over to see what Marie wrote. Line one is sure to grab your attention!

New Classroom Theme

About a month before school was out I was in Michaels looking for some inspiration for a birthday present and saw these glitter scrapbook papers! I about died y'all because really, 

GLITTER MAKES EVERYTHING BETTER! 

And I totally love chevron print!

Black and white chevron and mint green

If you took a peek inside my closet you would see how far my obsession has gone. This past school year I did blue and white chevron with some nautical elements. After seeing these papers (and buying the entire stock of them) I knew this was how I wanted to decorate my classroom next year! Black and white chevron and mint green! HOLLA!

And it just so happened that Schoolgirl Style just released her chevron themed classroom set. You can choose all different colors of chevron. I've just got to start printing my and laminating my items from this set. 

This afternoon I purchased these bins from Container Store:

Large Black Bin

I use a large bin to set my purse and school bag into every morning. It sits beside my bookshelf. 

Small black and white bins

These will be going on my bookshelves in my classroom. Now y'all know the OCD teacher in me is going to need an equal amount of black and white bins. They were all out so I guess I'll have to head back there next week! {DANGEROUS!}

The mint green is so fab isn't it? Growing up the Seafoam Green crayon in the Crayola box was always my favorite. Essie has a polish called First Timer that I've put on my toes for the last five pedicures! 

If only my nail place had shellac in this color! 

I would love to know what your theme is going to be in your room next year! I know my BBFF is having a pirate themed room.....wonder where she got that idea? {wink!}

Join me tomorrow for Chapter 2 of our Teach Like a Pirate book study!

Teach Like a Pirate, Chapter 1: Passion

I'm so excited that today is the first day of our Teach Like a Pirate book study! This book has been the kind that I just can't put down! 

Each letter in PIRATE stands for something and P, of course, is passion. Dave Burgess talks about professional passion, personal passion, and content passion. The whole chapter made me reflect on my passions and how I applied them during this past school year. In this book Dave Burgess says that we need to keep our passions in mind when we aren't teaching our favorite subject so that we still come across as passionate. That made so much sense to me! (I tried really hard to be excited about rocks and soil this year. Like Academy Award winning kind of hard.) 

Mary from Guided Math is hosting this chapter so head on over to her blog to see all of her thoughts. 

Teach Like a Pirate Book Study!

I am beyond excited to do this book study. My bloggy Bff Gina from Third Grade Tidbits and I are cohostingthe book study on Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess. 

 Have you heard of this book before? Read it? It is a really good book. Gina and I have gathered some FANTABULOUS bloggers to join us and lead discussions on each chapter. Each chapter (or set of 2 chapters for some) will have a host (or two) that will post their in depth thoughts about their chapter. Gina and I will post little blurbs about each chapter, but to get to the really good stuff and the discussion, you will want to head to the blog host for that chapter. Since there are a lot of amazing book studies going on this summer, we tried to make ours last only a month, so there will be posts on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Here are the blogs you will want to follow.

Chapter 1- (June 11)

Chapter 2- (June 13)

Chapter 3- (June 16)

Chapter 4- (June 18)

Chapter 5- (June 20)

Chapter 6- (June 23)

Chapter 7- (June 25)

Chapter 8&9- (June 27)

Chapter 10&11- (July 2)

 

Chapter 12- (July 4)

Chapter 13- (July 7)

and

Chapter 14- (July 9)

Chapter 15- (July 11)

Chapter 16- (July 14)

 

Chapter 17- (July 16)

Chapter 18&19-(July 18)

and

If you have read the book or are planning to read the book and want to join in the discussion and posts, we would LOVE to read your thoughts. We are going to have a link up where you can add a link to your posts for each chapter. If you link up, make sure you put your blog name AND which chapter the link will take readers to. This way you can link up multiple times. Make sense?

Talking, Drawing, Writing

Jennifer from Teaching with Grace asked me to participate in her summer book study on a book called 

Talking, Drawing, Writing by Martha Horn and Mary Ellen Galcobbe. I had never heard of this book but I was hooked from the introduction. (So hooked that I continued to read on while blow drying my hair!)

Like many primary teachers I have a serious obsession with books. It's physically impossible for me to enter Barnes & Noble without purchasing at least one book. I prowl the Goodwill book stores (books are $1!) and I pray my favorite authors will be making a trip to Austin soon! So for me the first chapter seemed like a winner!

Chapter 1: Storytelling

Raise your hand if you've practiced winning an Academy Award for your performance as a primary teacher! I totally have! You have to take those moments when kids are hanging on your every word and make the most of them! I love how using oral stories can show your students how to make their writing and retelling of an event exciting. I did a lot of oral storytelling when I taught writing in fourth grade, but for some reason I haven't done it as much with my first graders this year. I'm making note that oral stories need to be a big part of our writing- especially at the first of the year when students are getting used to my expectations.

Most first graders have millions of stories to tell you. About everything. EVERYthing! But

I really liked that the author mentioned this, "There are some children, of course, who don't come to school telling stories. It may be that they haven't been invited to conversations about what matters to them, haven't been read to, haven't been told stories." I try to have lots of discussion about new topics and ask what experiences students have had to get them thinking and talking. Eventually even your student who is the most shy will have exciting things to share.

I love to incorporate new vocabulary into my conversations with my class. Today, for example, I used the word headway. After we discussed what they thought I meant by making headway they nodded. An hour later "Mrs. Tice, you're right we really are making headway." The more we tell stories to each other the more practice students have with language. 

Although this book is written with a strong focus on kindergarten I'm finding it to have great reminders for ways I can reach my students and engage them in the beginning of the year!

Currently!

Currently my husband is whistling trying to mimic some annoying bird...help!

But really here's the June Currently! June means the end of school for me! The kids are done on Thursday and I have to be out of my room by Friday at 4:00. 

Matt Wertz has an amazing voice. My husband discovered him on Amazon. Then he was here in Austin and we went to see him- he was fantastic!

So the end of school is a little bittersweet for me. I have never had a class like this. My class loves each other and they are so kind. This past Wednesday one of my students was officially adopted. My kids were so genuinely excited for him that it made me teary! On Thursday we had an assembly and the leader of the assembly asked kids to raise their hands if they were ready for summer. My class didn't raise their hands. They shouted NO! Made me cry! I will REALLY miss this group..... But it sure will be nice to eat inside my house while reading blogs....instead of in my car while rocking out to XM 8- HOLLA if you love the 80's!

Feeling like purple will make it's way into my hair this summer.....oooooh yeah!

If you do not know about Jewelry Nut Auctions then save yourself and do NOT try to find out more! All their damn cute jewelry and me being obsessed with cute jewelry is not a good combo. I may have no money, but I sure do look good! {wink}

Lordy do I need a pedicure. No need to discuss.

Vacay essentials- Yeah, I said booze. Because really- who doesn't like a cold adult beverage while out at the pool? Come on now!  Sunscreen is a must! I get super duper brown in like five minutes, but I still wear tons of sunscreen. If you don't have the Peter Thomas Roth mineral sunscreen you need it! It fits right into your purse or pocket. It's great for the part in your hair!

 And of course, you MUST have good music. My hubby LOVES music. We try hard to find common ground. Unlike me he has not downloaded the latest Robin Thicke song (Blurred Lines---ooh it's hot!) or Mariah Carey's new song either. And he's never done a dance to Gangdam Style. (Sad, right?) But we NEVER stop trying to find new music! 

I can't wait to read what everyone else has posted!

I'm baaaack....with Goofy Grammar

I'm baaaaack!

Thank you, Carol Ann.

I'm really AM back! I've been struggling these past few weeks with possibly moving to a different district. A couple of months ago I applied at another district with full intentions of accepting any position I could get. Then some changes were made at my current school. Really POSITIVE changes and I started to doubt my decision to leave. I went on an interview at this other district and then began to panic about whether moving right now would be the right decision. (This other district is an AMAZING district too!) Several other things happened in my personal life at the same time and I just became overwhelmed.  Thanks for hanging in there with me!  

In April I posted a super fun grammar freebie that you can sang here. I mentioned that if it was received well that I would think about making a whole set. Well....it took me like a million years with all of my personal drama, but I did finally make a set for my literacy centers. If you do Daily 5 it will fit nicely with word work. My class did one of them today and want to do more. With only 5 days left of school I'll make sure they get to do a few more!

Your students will love these because they wind up so nutty! Your reluctant readers will want to read them over and over again and with the choices already there every student can be successful!

I will happily send a copy on to the first three people to leave a comment with their email address!

App Obsession

Do you remember playing games made by Ravensburger? I'm an 80's baby and we had a bunch of games with that blue triangle in the bottom corner growing up. Well now Ravensburger has an app that I can't get enough of! It's called Take it Easy. I'm pretty sure it's meant for children, but I can't stop playing it!

Each game is a puzzle. You are given puzzle pieces one at a time and you try to fit them together to make points.  It really requires some thinking and planning.

In the first game you cannot rotate pieces or move them after they have been placed so it's REALLY challenging. You can see a video of the app right HERE. It's an app that's great for students of all ages....and maybe for grown-ups too. It's $1.99 and worth every penny.