five for saturday

Yesterday I was so tired I skipped my plans for the night (a wine fest!) and all I wanted to do was sleep, so even though I wanted to, no blogging either. There is definitely no tired like teacher tired at the end of the first few weeks of school!

I had a great week! Just wanted to share some of the memorable moments with you! Thanks to Doodle Bugs for hosting this weekly linky party!

Well it wasn't really happening this week at school, but today is college game day! So excited to see my ASU friends at the alumni association today. ASU is playing New Mexico - Go Devils!

My principal, our new AP, and myself all originally met at the middle school in our district - both my (current) AP and I taught 7th and 8th grade, and my principal was (then) my AP at the middle school. The three of us are all new to elementary, so you can guess there's a learning curve when you move to a different age group of kids!

Yesterday, my principal and I had to go to a meeting which was held at the middle school. Meeting was great, and then as we were walking back to the elementary school, through the halls of the middle school, where the lockers are over our heads and the kids are bigger, she says to me, "Well here we are, in the land of peace and harmony!" It was so funny - how we both feel about middle and see it as the peaceful place, when many others would hear middle and go running the other way! We're both happy to learn so much about K-5 kiddos and the ways they learn, but I know personally, I just love those middle schoolers and all their crazy antics!

At my grad school class this week, I did a read aloud and a questioning strategy demonstration. I read Amos and Boris (Steig) to my class and used voices for the mouse and whale, just like it was read to me in grad school, by one of my professors, Susanna. I remembered loving hearing that story with those voices, and just like I did, my class did too.

At first they kinda giggled to themselves as I unleashed the Amos mouse voice, and then Boris whale voice, but then, they just loved it, just like I did. We did questioning, we talked about what we thought of the book, and I think some of them might like it enough to practice it with their students. It was just so awesome to bring a room full of adults to total engagement with a mouse and whale voice. I may have sounded crazy at first, but I think they're seeing the big picture with read aloud now!

Speaking of my grad school students, just wanted to share a few things they learned this week - which were shared with me on their exit slips.

1 - "ELA is the most complex/complicated subject I will teach.

Why yes, it is! When you teach balanced literacy, it's messy and so involved. But balanced literacy is so good for kids!

2 - "Everyone's school is so different."

This came about because of a conversation about independent reading - some people in various schools (seems like charters mainly) don't have time for independent reading. I'm glad these conversations are coming up, and my hope is that my students question what's going on in their schools. I'm sharing balanced literacy as a best practice, and it makes me *so sad* that independent reading isn't a given in all schools!

3 - (something I found interesting) "Amos and Boris"

See what I mean? Read aloud + voices is so so engaging!

I really love the two teachers I'm mentoring. Building relationships is one of my fave things about teaching, so I'm glad to have two new friends this year and get to live their firsts vicariously with them. We have fun, we talk lots, and it really is a reciprocal learning experience for both of us, as I learn how to best support them, and they can come to me anytime they need - just to talk through something, to find out about school procedures, or discussion pedagogy. Good mentoring programs are really what can keep teachers in education, and I feel thankful for an awesome mentoring program in D100!

That's all for me this week! Have a fab weekend and enjoy the first fall weekend of football!

Cheers!