Worst Blogger Ever

Wow! Haven't blogged since September of last year! Ooooops! Let's just say I've been busy!
Last year was awesome. I LOVED departmentalizing, and we had an awesome group of kids.

I continued to use Math Workshop last year with great success. I paired it with my own version of Spiral Math Homework and was so pleased with how much my kids learned. I even had the opportunity to share the way I do Math Workshop with other teachers by teaching a class on our district's in service day. It was an amazing and affirming experience for sure.

I am two days into the new school year and boy, am I TIRED! My summer was so wonderful and relaxing that I think my body forgot what it was like to work long hours at full speed. It's been a great two days. I only had 17 kids (don't throw things!) show up so I have absolutely nothing to complain about! :) This is a great group of kids and I am just SO psyched to see what we can accomplish with such small class sizes.

This year, we have changed up the way we are departmentalized, so I will be teaching math, science, and half of writing (2 of the 4 modes). I'll go back and forth between teaching science and writing units, and teach math every day. I am so SO sad to not be teaching social studies. I love 5th grade social studies- especially the Revolution. My kids get so into it and it's just so much fun to teach. I am excited to start our new science curriculum, though! Our district has adopted Discovery this year, which is a completely online resource. I had the opportunity to teach from it at the end of last year, and I can't wait to get the kids on laptops and interacting with all that is available to them.

Being a third year teacher is the best thing ever. This is the first year that I did not feel anxious on Meet the Teacher night OR the first day of school. I knew what to expect and only felt excited! It's a good thing I feel so on top of everything, because I've also just started my first semester of grad school and am on my way to getting my master's in School Administration. Eek! It will be interesting figuring out how to balance everything, to say the least. Anyway, this is the first year that I have even had time to THINK about decorating my door for Meet the Teacher. Usually, I am running around like a crazy person right up until the first kid shows up. I wish I had more pictures to fill this blog entry with, but I'll just leave you with this one!

BLOGGING IS HARD!

Well, here I am, 6 months after my last post. OOPS! 

Spring semester FLEW by- and now my first year of teaching is over! I can't believe it. I had such an amazing year. I learned so much and worked so hard and just loved every minute of it. The last day of school was filled with lots of hugs and tears!

Since I was so terrible at blogging, I'll just share a few pictures and things from the past semester!

 

We had a Family Reading Night in February with a camping theme! We all made bulletin boards, and this was mine. I had my students decorate a foil star for each week in February that they made their personal reading goal.

 These are the Valentines I made for my students. My mom helped me make them and I think they turned out really cute! I used my Silhouette Cameo's print & cut feature to speed up the process. My kids loved them- some of them had never tried a Twinkie before! Can you believe it?

 My beautiful room all taken apart for state testing :( 

I HATED my desks like this. My room is not very big and separating the desks killed so much space! Plus the tests were stressful and time consuming! Fifth graders here in Oklahoma take 5, yes FIVE, state tests. They were troopers and I'm so proud of all of them for doing their best!

The end of the year came so quickly after testing. We had an awesome graduation ceremony (complete with the entire grade singing Katy Perry's "Roar"- soooo cute), plenty of field trips (even a college tour!), Super Kids Day (an outside field day), and everyone's favorite day- Fifth Grade Fun Day! 

These are our fifth grade shirts. I think they turned out so great!

All in all, it was a wonderful semester. There are going to be lots of changes for the upcoming school year and I am so incredibly excited to organize, meet with others, and plan, plan, PLAN as the new year approaches. 

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer! Teachers in blogland seem even more busy creating resources and projects during the summer- I'm so impressed! I'm enjoying teaching students how to type at summer school right now, and have a few fun things planned for the rest of the summer. 

I'm going to try REALLLY hard to do a better job blogging from now on! No promises though! ;)