Jen's Notebook

One of my goals this year has been to work with my kindergarteners on understanding their goals and when they have achieved those goals. It has been a very interesting process. I  started by telling them what their CCSS goals were each time we started a lesson throughout the school year so far and they are starting to understand a lot of the reasons they are learning what they are learning. Wow!! Step one is going well. Step two was to communicate their goals to them and with them. So, I made goal sheets and have been discussing this with them from the second week of school during individual assessment time each week. Step two is going fairly well. Step three was to post their goals on the board daily. OK! That goal didn’t go quite as well. It was to over whelming for both the kids and myself. So I now post the most important goals for the week! Step three is going fine! Step four was to post the goals they have met in the classroom. ( This wonderful idea came from my teaching partner Natalie! She is awesome!!!) We made up goals sheets in student friendly language or the  I Can statements for each goal we were asking them to accomplish! Then we posted the goals for a quarter at a time. At the end of the quarter the goal sheets are moved out into the hallway for everyone to see. The greatest part of all of this has been what happened as each child met a goal for their kindergarten year. As they meet a goal, we take their picture and put it on that goal sheet (first hanging in the classroom and then in the hallway). We have them stand up in class and everyone claps for them as they make each goal (this only takes a few moments a couple of times a week). And the students love it. They talk about their goals all the time. They can’t wait to get up on a goal sheet, they bring their parents down to the classroom or hallway to show them their picture on the goal, and they are understanding what it means to accomplish something and be proud of their work at school on a whole new level. This idea has been a huge hit with both the students and myself. And our principal loves it too!!!Here is a picture of the hallway display I took around November of this school year. Their are a lot more goals posted now!!! 🙂  Here are the I can statements from Kindergarten CCSS that we made to use as goals for this school year. look at me

Math! Math! Math!!! My district is one of the many districts in our country this year that decided we should jump into teaching all of the CCSS’s! Yet they also chose not to provide us with any curriculum! Yikes!!! We were told that the CCSS is our curriculum. So I, as well as the entire staff of my district, have been scrambling trying to find great ideas to teach math while also trying to still use the manipulatives and other resources that were provided to us earlier in our employment. I have been trying to find anything else I could that would match with the standards, and be developmentally appropriate for my Kindergarteners. I am overwhelmed at the amount of work this has taken us, yet my colleagues and I have taken it on as we were asked too and tried our best to get our students all the resources we could find while still trying to smile. With that said, we have found some really awesome websites to use in our quest to match all the standards to activities and lessons.  The following websites are a few of my favorites. I hope they will help you with your quest to teach the CCSS’s in your classroom also.

http://www.k-5mathteachingresources.com/

https://gradekcommoncoremath.wikispaces.hcpss.org/Kindergarten+Home

http://www.engageny.org/

http://www.mathwire.com/index.html

Lions & Lambs

It’s hard to believe March 1st in already here. That means my students only have 13 weeks left in kindergarten. The year has flown by.  Now comes the big push to see how much we can get done before the end of the school year!  On a lighter note, yesterday in art we made one of my favorite projects. Lions and lambs. Here are a couple of pictures of the bulletin board we made with them. Happy March!!!

Living in eastern Washington gives students a variety of weather to go to school in. Mainly it’s wind!!! The wind blows here during every season but summer!!! We have nice cool autumn breezes that help us feel that it’s time to pick apples and get ready for Halloween! WE have wind chill factors of 5 and below in the winter, which shut down recess of any kind for weeks on end. Causing all kids to ache to go back out and play on the playground. And then we have spring winds. BY spring winds I should say late February and on winds. Gusts of over 50 miles an hour. Winds blowing non-stop everyday and night for weeks at a steady 20 or more miles per hour! Yikes!!!!! The wind makes everyone at school act differently. I’d say I can’t wait for the spring winds to stop blowing but that would also mean the end of the Kindergarten year and my wonderful bunch of students moving on to first grade. Isn’t funny how each thing we wish away also takes with it something we will miss?

I’m so sad to admit I haven’t blogged on my web sight in well over a year. Why??? The main two reasons are CCSS and New teacher evaluations! Yikes!!! Every teacher in America understands with only that said. So, I am now a year and a half into teaching CCSS in every subject and half way to finishing my first year in the new evaluation system. With that said, I am so tired! 🙂 I wonder how new teachers are going to make it through all of this. My district has no set curriculums so we are inventing everything and I am on the long comprehensive form of evaluation. If I had known this is what it would be like all those years ago would I still have become a teacher? If I am really honest with myself the answer would be yes. I love working with the students and their families, being around other educators who have so many great things to offer, and most importantly I have found that I truly love inventing curriculum! So, yes I would be a teacher again and again! Teachers are hardworking, caring, kind, and all together a great group of people! Thank your child’s teacher today for what they do! It will mean more to them then you can ever imagine!

Once August 1st comes I can hardly stand the overwhelming feeling that I need to get my classroom ready for all those beautiful new 5 year olds that will be walking through the doors soon! But our janitor has an overwhelming amount of work to get the building ready before they come back to school also. So how do we find a nice balance, I go on Saturday so I can stay out of his way! I don”t mind, I mean we both need to get our jobs done. Saturdays are always nice and quiet in the building. Only a few teachers venture into the school. I usually can get a lot finished. And if I get it all finished, I will have much more time to visit with my colleagues and hear all about their summer adventures when we come back to work! 🙂 Enjoy your Saturday! I will happily be cleaning out my classroom library and putting up bulletin boards!

Every year about this time I start shopping a little more than usual. Gratefully , I have noticed  throughout my years of teaching that each year brings better and better bargains for teachers as well as the students. So lately I have been out looking for these wonderful and great bargains for my classroom ( All of us teachers know, we have to find good bargains!).  And this year I have found lots of great items for my classroom ranging in price from $1.00 to $2.50 each. My favorite finds have been at Michael’s, Target, Walmart and The Dollar Store! Each of these stores have a teachers section with their back to school bargains. Name plates for a dollar, bulletin board borders for a dollar, totes, and lots of organizational tubs for 2.50! I am having a shopping hay day! Here are a few pictures of my great finds.

I hope each of you is out finding great bargains as well and enjoying our last few weeks of summer vacation!

I am always looking for new and exciting websites that have to do with teaching kindergarten. This is a fantastic site titled Kindergarten Kindergarten. The author has tons of free ideas that you can use in your classroom. She has included pictures as well as detailed step by step instructions on how she teaches each activity. I hope you will enjoy her ideas as much as I have. Here’s a link to get you started on the Kindergarten fun: http://crisscrossapplesauce.typepad.com/blog/

Have you ever noticed that everyone thinks teachers  love everything apples? I’ve received  tons of apple gifts from friends, family and students over the years. And I have loved them all! They have been thoughtful and kind gifts that I have proudly displayed in my classroom. But, I am not an apple kind of person. Before I became a teacher no one would of ever thought to give me something with an apple on it! It’s funny to me how we as people attach certain items to professions and the people that work at them. And apples are definitely for the teacher!

So, I had to laugh when my daughter bought me a black shoe tape dispenser and a black purse sticky note holder for my desk at school recently. They are so me! I love shoes! I love purses! I love to wear the color black!!! I can’t wait to put them on my desk! My colleagues will laugh and say that is so you! And I will be wondering how many of my teacher friends would much rather have the black high heel shoe on their desk than an apple? I bet  at least a few!

I started this website almost a year to this day because I wanted to give back to teachers. I love that teachers are so willing to share their ideas both at work and on the Internet. I have found so many fantastic ideas to use in my own classroom over the years. So I thought let’s share. Through this year process I have learned three valuable lessons. 1). It is really hard to blog! My hat is off to all the bloggers who post such great things! 2).  I am not very good at keeping up with my website but I have promised myself I will try harder this next year. and 3). The world wide net is made of SPAM! Yes, SPAM!!! As of today I have received 500 spam comments on my website!!!! Silly, I know, but it sure made me smile this morning!! Have a great weekend all! 🙂