Library Thing

I came across this website www.librarything.com. LibraryThing is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. It is great. I have so many books and each year I struggle with how to keep track of my books. This is a great place for me. It is free for the first 200 books that you catalog. After that there are different membership options. I like that I am able to locate just about any book I have. I haven't quite figured how I will use it in my classroom, but it certainly allows me to keep track of my books. It is also a great way to read book reviews and review books for authors.

Library Thing

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

      I was in Sam's Club and this book caught my eye. Being that I am moving to 5th grade next year, I figured this would be a good book to read in hopes that I could recommend it to my students. I had no idea it was a New York Times best seller.  Well, it turned out to be a GREAT book in so many ways. Not only was the book heartwarming it was filled with many teachable moments. It address such issues as identity, appearance, acceptance and bullying. This is a great book to use to follow characters into meaning. It will allow students to go into a deeper comprehension by inferring and analyzing the different characters and how they react to the main character, Auggie. There are several resources out there and I would suggest to read the book and then find or create resources that you could use in your class.

     My son is in 6th grade and I encouraged him to read it. He read it in 2 days and commented that he would never look at people and the world in the same way.

     How have you used this book in your class?

End of Year

"Trust in what you love, continue to do it, and it will take you where you need to go." 

 - Natalie Goldberg 

      My dream has always been to be a teacher and for the past 18 years I have been one. As each year passes I reflect on the things my students have taught me. This is the amazing thing about teaching. You end up learning just as much about yourself and life as the students you teach. This gives me the ability to continue to grow in my profession. I am incredibly grateful to the students, families, and staff at Blessed Sacrament School. You have left your footprints in my heart.
     I will be making a change to my parish school next year. I will continue my vocation in Catholic Education. I will be teaching 5th grade and have a new challenge ahead of me. My passion is in reading and writing, so this summer I will be reading books for 5th graders and I will also be attending the Advance Writing Institute with the Coastal Savannah Writing Project. I hope to post book reviews and anything new I can share with the teaching community.

Blabberize Poems

My students loved this project. They picked their favorite poem or wrote their own poem and illustrated it. Then I scanned their pictures and uploaded the pictures to www.blabberize.com (it's free) and recorded them reading their poem. Check it out! They were so proud and I love hearing their sweet voices.

Teacher Moment

This year I implemented Reading Workshop and my students have so enjoyed reading. They are inspired to read and love sharing books with me and each other. I had a student who always had trouble finding the right book. Well, now he finds his own books as well as recommends books to everyone. He ALWAYS wants to share what he reads. At the end of a crazy day, this is what I found on my desk. He usually reads chapter books, but now he enjoys reading whatever he can get his hands on. This is an AHA moment for a teacher. It brought a smile to my face!

Published Books by Students

My student's books came in and their excitement was incredible. I think they could actually see themselves as writers. A little over a month ago, my students started to write their own books. Some students (mostly boys) wrote ABC book, others used mentor texts as inspiration, and some just had an idea they ran with. We used Student Treasures to create the books and their success was by far worth all the work. My students received their original hardbound for free and if they wanted to purchase a copy it was $19.95. The catch was that we needed as a school to have at least 80 participate. 6 classes did class books and the fourth grade students did individual books. I will definitely continue to do this project. After doing it once, I learned ways to make it better next time.

Student sharing with her classmates

Authors with their books!

I Wish Poems

What a crazy time of year! I haven't been good about keeping up with this blog, but I'm going to try to be better. April is poetry month and my students have been writing some great poems. The wish poem idea came from pinterest. (What did we do without this years ago?) Some students made a list of wishes, while others took one wish and expanded on it.  Here are a few. I even had one of our former teachers and sub do we she enjoyed it just as much as the kids.