Standards, Teaching, and GNOMe's....oh my!

I find that there is so much that I strive to do when it comes to teaching.  I want my lessons to be jam-packed with content, engaging, and meaningful for my students (as does every teacher, right?).  After six years of teaching the same grade, I felt that I had a good grasp of what I was doing.  Then...new standards were adopted and our state and district were jumping into them.  The first few meetings that we had which revolved around the new standards were frightening overwhelming.  Like most teachers, I want to know exactly what I should be expecting my students to do by the end of the day, end of the week, end of the month, and end of the year.  Seeing the pages, and pages, and pages of standards made me a bit queasy.  Our district had many teachers that worked tirelessly to look at each unit and each teaching point to make sure that we were teaching each standard.  Of course there were some gaps, which were filled in.  Even with the newly revised units, I felt like I was just treading water when it came to making sure my students were taught everything - and making it enjoyable for them.

You can imagine my relief (and excitement!) when I was asked to check out the new Math GNOMe book and bulletin board set by Creative Teaching Press!  You can check it out here.  

This book is jam packed with ideas for creating and managing a common core math classroom.  I love that there are ideas on how to efficiently run your common core math workshop.  The authors have done a great job of explaining how they ran their math period - in a Common Core 4 setting which includes math fluency practice, math games, mathematical practice, and technology.  They explain how to set up bulletin boards, math games binders, math boxes, and manipulatives.  While I will be following my districts curriculum and lessons in the units, I love the ideas that I gained.  I always stress the importance of math fluency, yet never really gave my students time to practice other than assigning it for homework.  I'm now utilizing the time in my math block a bit differently, which includes a math fluency section so that students can practice their facts in fun ways including Xtra Math on our computers and various math apps on our iPad.

A bulletin board set is also available and I love how cute it is.  I love how this set comes with cards using kid-friendly phrases for each of the standards that can be displayed on your bulletin board.  The headings - Geometry, Number Sense, Operations, and Measurement are nice and bold and colorful.  Nothing makes me happier than color coded organization, and this set has just that.  Each of the standards are outlined int he same color as the heading that it belongs to (insert happy face here!).  As if it couldn't get better, the little Gnome's, mushrooms, flowers, and leaf cutouts are so cute!

I plan on posting the standards that are relevant to each of our units on our math bulletin board, along with an anchor chart.  This will keep the students aware of what the expectations are.  I'm also putting examples of problems they may find on the leaves as our unit progresses.  

Sorry for the glare....it's nice and rainy here today, so overhead lights are all I've got to work with!

Out with the old, in with the new!

Each June I have very high hopes for what I will accomplish during the summer.  During the last few weeks of school, I find myself reflecting on the school year as a whole and what I would like it to be like in the coming year.  While I reflect daily on each lesson, or every so often on how a unit as a whole is going, the end-of-the-year reflection usually brings me back to one specific thing.  Organization.  Why can't I find my rhythm when it comes to organizing student work, student materials, my own materials, and the never ending pile of papers that accumulates on my desk each day?  This year I am on a mission to stay organized and to spend less time tidying up each day because everything will have a place (or so I hope....).

While I find going into school during the scorching hot days of July less than desirable, I also find nothing more exciting than finding my classroom all clean and ready to be put back together.  It is at this point that furniture gets put back in different places, and a new organizational system is born - with hopes that it will be the perfect one.

I'm so excited about these new areas in my classroom:

This great locker used to house books by my favorite authors.  Over time I realized that fourth graders had a hard time reaching the top areas so it is now holding all of my unit binders.  I love these dots on chocolate labels - you can find them here.

I used to spend lots of time cleaning the labels off of each book box and the shelves so that they could have new students names on both.  I've decided that putting each students' number on the box and the shelf is going to save me some time.  I LOVE how the border strips look on the shelves! 

These great drawers will hold copies for each of the subject areas.  Creative Teaching Press chevron border strips came in handy again - I just cut them to size and popped them into the front of each drawer.

I wanted a cute and organized way to hold my monthly read alouds. These great magazine boxes from Ikea were spruced up with a bit of mod podge and scrapbook paper and I love how they turned out!  Good ole' Dollar Tree had these bins which fit perfectly on this bookcase.  Our book club books are now going to be in the bins rather than in a box on top of my cabinet.

These great bins from Michaels now hold all of my worksheets and window decorations for holidays.  

My room is still (and will continue to be!) a work in progress, but I'm loving it so far!

Why, hello there!

I've decided that I'm going to give this blogging thing a shot.  There...I said it, now I have to do it, right?

I've been a bit obsessed with reading teacher blogs and have become inspired by so many amazing teachers.  "Start a blog" has been on my to-do list for quite some time now, and if I'm ever going to cross that off of my list, I need to start somewhere, so here goes nothing....

My name is Porsche and teaching is my passion.  I've always known I wanted to be a teacher and could never see myself doing anything else.  I am beginning my 8th year of teaching (wow...where did the time go?!) and have always taught 4th grade at a cute little school in Connecticut.  I'm a mommy to three amazing boys...all under 4 1/2, so life is a big hectic but also amazing.  I love doing anything crafty.  I love wearing tutu's to school with some of my favorite people in celebration of various holidays.  I am excited to see where this new venture takes me!