Wednesday, July 30, 2014

What I'm Loving Wednesday- 7/30

It's Wednesday friends, and that means it's time for my weekly "What I'm Loving Wednesday" post. Keeping me positive.


By this time next week I'll be busy working away in my classroom as students start on the 13th of August. As hard as it is to imagine summer ending and school starting back up again, there are a couple of things that I'm kind of excited about changing in my classroom this year. Here's what has lit my fire:
The first thing I'm loving this week is the homework series by Amanda Madden. 


She started off describing how she felt about her old way of doing homework and she was speaking to my heart. Homework packets (and homework in general) make me nauseous. I dislike making the packets, I dislike collecting the packets, I dislike tracking down those that don't turn in the packets (and they never do), and I dislike reading logs with a passion. Those things go against everything I believe in teaching. Unfortunately homework seems to be a necessary evil at my school, so I fell in love with Amanda's ideas for it right away. She brings in family involvement, choice, and games. Oh, and very little prep for the teacher each week! Definitely a bonus.

If you haven't read her blog series on homework you must!
When I saw last week that there was a second edition of The Daily 5 book I immediately downloaded it to my iPad. 


Now folks, I'm not much of a reader at home. I find it hard to sit still for any period of time without getting sidetracked by something else I should be doing. This book, however, kept my interest and was such an easy read. I kept nodding as I was reading it- so many points that I loved! I'm pretty excited to try reimplementing The Daily 5 in my class this year. I love that it breaks down the beginning stages so much. Not only did I get a ton of great ideas, but I feel like a lot of my first week of school is planned out! Score!
Last but not least, Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade has inspired me to look a little closer at my long range planning. She shared her long range plan (below) and it really made me realize what a more focused teacher I would be if I had something like this (you know, aside from what the district wants you to teach and when with their pacing guide- meh!).

My school to-do list is long people. Ridiculously long. But I am so glad to have found these tidbits of information to help reenergize me. 

What's an idea that you came across this summer that has you a wee bit excited about the upcoming school year? Let me know in the comments below. Or link up with me! 






4 comments:

  1. I loved Amanda's series as well! I just started my D5 Book, my kids come back the 27th, so I didn't want to read it too early in the summer.
    Sara
    Frampton's FUNdamentals

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  2. I'm finally organized enough that I'm writing next Wednesday's post to link up. Now that summer is over, I gotta get organized. Will you keep doing the linky each Wednesday once school starts?

    Mercedes

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    1. The plan is to keep doing the linky when school starts. I think the upcoming class of students will dictate whether that happens or not :)

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