Linking up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for Currently September!
LISTENING - Just listening to Pandora. It's Saturday morning and I usually don't turn the TV on for a while.
LOVING - I LOVE my new school and my group of 7th graders! My kids are so sweet and they all try so hard! I love the fact that I only have four classes and I can get to know my students more.
THINKING - We are starting our first project on Monday which is a figurative language t-shirt. I need to make my example so they know what theirs should look like.
WANTING - When I taught third grade it was departmentalized and I taught 4 classes of 3rd grade reading each day for 60 minutes each. We did stations on Wednesdays and Thursdays and it worked perfectly. My 7th grade ELA team met the other day and we are all on-board to start stations in our classrooms! I am so glad that we think the same or else people would think I was crazy when they pass my class and see students rotating stations! "Aren't stations just for elementary school?!" Ummm...no!
This is what we're thinking about doing (which is the same thing I did when I taught 3rd):
Monday - Introduce new topic/concept/skill - "I do"
Tuesday - Guided Practice - "We do"
Wednesday & Thursday - Stations spiraling previously learned skills and the new skill of the week - "You do"
Friday - Assessment (grade in class for immediate feedback)
NEEDING - I need more college shirts! My new school really pushes college, which is great! On Mondays teachers are allowed to wear jeans if they wear a college shirt or military branch shirt. I only have one college shirt, so I need more. We're also allowed to wear jeans on Friday if we have on a school spirit shirt - I need some of those too!
I guess you could also say I need a paycheck, too! LOL! I was issued my last paycheck from my former district around July 20th and I'm waiting for my first paycheck from my new district on September 15th. I will be so happy to see that paycheck!
3 TRIPS - I went to Aspen 2 years ago during Christmas break and I loved it! I will be going back this year during Christmas. I hope to make it to NYC during Spring Break and to Aruba during summer break.
My dream would be to teach older kids English/Reading. I always worried they wouldn't take it as seriously as me, and then I would be miserable. Not that 2nd graders are too terribly serious about it...but, at least my enthusiasm rubs off on them! I also think stations are great for ALL ages. It's about what you do to make them enticing, right? (PS: I grew up in Texas-a little town outside of Waco. We go back at least 2 times a year!)
ReplyDeleteHi Mr. Bradley! I found you from the Linky. I am a TX girl too! I am the District ELA/R Specialist K-12 in Elgin ISD- near Austin. I love that you are using Stations in your 7th grade class. Our teachers are using Daily 5 this year in middle school and I am thrilled. Love the pic of your classroom library for those 7th graders too! Have a great year!
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