Teacher Talk Tuesday--Mentor Text Day 4

I swore that blogging would be an enjoyable activity and not another item on my "To Do" list.  I also committed to five entries per week.  Several events have taken place that have given me pause to reconsider and revise my ideals.  I still swear that blogging will be enjoyable to me, but I will create entries when I have the desire to write and not stick to an arbitrary number.  With that being said, I thought it would be interesting to jump start the creative juices by participating in a little linky party.  So.....

Teacher Talk Tuesday!

Everyone has written great advice so far.  My advice is rather simple:

1.  Well-meaning teachers who have had your students in the previous year will want to tell you all the things wrong with the student.  Smile, nod and say,  "Thanks, let's hope that he/she had some growth this year," then walk away and forget everything they said.  It IS a new year, there WILL be some growth and YOU are a different person.  Let the child start new!

2.  Be humble.  You don't need to know everything, and if you act like you do you will create a divide.  Ask your team members for help...but don't expect them to hold your hand.

3.  Find the most difficult child in your class and love them and protect them like a mama grizzly bear.  It is easy to love the good kids, but your true teaching spirit will come out with the difficult ones. 

4.  Rest, take your vitamins and rest some more. 

5.  Finally, when things are not going well in a lesson, don't be afraid to throw in the towel.  Stop the lesson, move on and reflect on it later.  A talented teacher is not one who can execute a lesson plan perfectly, a talented teacher is one who recognizes that a lesson needs to be executed.  (Theme song to Godfather should be playing in your head right now).

Here is a favorite Mentor Text to refer to when life hands you lemons. I'm Gonna Like Me-Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem, by Jamie Lee Curtis.  This is an upbeat book with repeating text, "I'm Gonna Like Me."

 The story finds the good in all the annoying, scary things that can happen to little kids.  It is a wonderful text to use to get children to brainstorm situations when something goes wrong.  Have them write as many ideas as possible...a perfect list for small moment ideas!

Mentor Text Madness--Day 3

The Hello, Goodbye Window by Norton Juster and illustrated by Chris Raschka is a delightful text that describes, through the eyes of child, what happens outside the window of her grandmother and grandfather's house.  This is another great read aloud for the beginning of the year, because you can revisit it for several mini lessons throughout a unit on narrative writing.

Mini lesson ideas:

• Small moment
• Seed Story
• Show, don't tell
• Voice
• Point of View
• Closing with a reflection of character's thoughts and feelings

Children identify easily with story and often are eager to share their own experiences with visiting grandparents or other relatives.  This is a perfect time to have them turn and talk with their elbow partner about those experiences and then send them off to write while they are excited!  Younger children enjoy modeling a similar story with another object or place.

• Hello, Goodbye Treehouse
• Hello, Goodbye School
• Hello, Goodbye Pet

Enjoy!

Mentor Text Madness--Day 2

Today's Mentor Text is Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney.

Me on the Map is a great first week read aloud.  I like the book for many reasons.  It lends itself perfectly to a social studies unit on geography and it can be used to introduce science unit on habitats.  I like it for writing because it can open up many possibilities.  For those not familiar with the book, this is an excerpt to give you an idea:
          This is me.
          This is me in my room.
          This is a map of my room.
         This is me on the map of my room.

         This is my house.
        This is a map of my house.
        This is a map of my street....
The story continues all the way to This is my country on a map of the world. 
I like the story for writing because of the following features and potential lessons:

• Use of text features.  Labeling, diagrams, and maps.
• Repeating text.
• Circular story.
• Simple transitions.

This is a simple activity to get started:

Click here for file

Jenn over at Finally in First has an adorable activity that also goes with this book.

Jessica Meacham has an amazing unit with other activities.  (Scroll down the page).

Mentor Text Madness--Day 1

Are all of these words rattling around in your head?  It is easy to get distracted with everything we have to do in those first few weeks of school. This time of year is perfect for reading mentor texts that will support Writer's Workshop throughout the year.  I like to read many, many picture books during those first few weeks of school to help break up the monotony of rules, regulations and procedures. I read the books for the pure pleasure of reading and listening.

The bonus?  Later in the year when you want to use one of those books for a writing mini-lesson, you can say, "Remember when we read this book?  Well today we're going to visit just a piece of it as we talk about...." 

Today's Pick:  What Do Authors Do? by Eileen Christelow

This story is about two writers who conveniently live next door to each other.  Their dog and cat start to chase each other and each author begins the process of writing a book about the adventure.  This is a perfect book to demonstrate where authors get their ideas, the process they go through for writing and the challenges they face during editing.  Students love to hear this book and beg me to read all of the thought bubbles from the dog and cat.  We return to this book many times throughout the year when talking about the writing process.

Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk

This is a story of a little mouse who lives in the library and reads book after book every night.  One evening he decides to write a book of his own and tucks the tiny book onto the library shelf. He writes several more books and the librarian leaves him a note inviting him to a "Meet the Author" gathering to share his secrets to writing. The mouse is too shy to come to the gathering, but he sets up a box that says "Meet the Author".  When the children peer in to the box, they see themselves in a tiny mirror.  Next to the box are small blank books and pencils for everyone to try writing their own book!

I love to read this story and have tiny books all stapled and ready to go.  There is something magical about writing in a tiny book and I use one of the mini pocket charts from target to display our newest treasures!  How fun!

Bucket Filling Freebie

One of the activities I created for Work on Writing as part of my second grade Daily 5 was our Bucket Person of the Week. 

Like many of you, I created a bucket filling environment.  During the first few weeks of school we read the book How Full is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer and  Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids by Carol McCloud. 

Once the students were comfortable with the language and purpose of bucket filling, we created a "Bucket Person of the Week.  Each week we selected a student to highlight and during Work on Writing the rest of the class would write a bucket filling message to that person.  I kept a special mailbox to store the written bucket messages and at the end of the week I would bind them and present them to the student.  Students LOVED receiving their special messages! 

(I'm still new at the embedding Google docs thing so if this link does not work let me know and I will try again).

By the way, in case you haven't discovered this there is a Bucket Fillers website that offers a free e-Newsletter and they have a nifty shop with Bucket Filling emblems!

My Not Weird School

I mentioned yesterday that Dan Gutman will be coming to our school for our Young Author's Day.  Usually our author comes in the spring, but Dan was available in early October so we jumped at the chance.  The downside is that everyone will be crazy busy with back-to-school.  But I have a few tricks up my sleeve:

• I have encouraged everyone to make their back-to-school bulletin board do double duty as their author bulletin board.  To emulate Gutman's My Weird School series teachers can create a board rhyming their name.   So if your name is Mrs. Fry your board might say:  Mrs. Fry's Class is Soaring High....and you might have a hot air balloon with the name of each student. 
• We always create a board in our lobby with pictures of the entire staff to help new families on back-to school-night.  Title of this board?  The Not Weird Teachers of (Insert school name here).
• In honor of Gutman's Million Dollar series I'm thinking of labeling The Million Dollar Office, The Million Dollar Water Fountain or The Million Dollar Lunch Room.

Do your students love The Weird School Series?  Listed below is a pdf Teacher's Guide. 

Teacher's Guide for Weird School Series

You can find this and other fun things at Dan Gutman's website.

What types of activities have you done for Young Author's Day or Author's Visit.  Let me know!

Death of the Bookstore

Borders, is closing.  Believe me when I tell you that I have done more than my share of trying to keep it alive.  I have the shelves of books and Mastercard bill to prove it!

Borders was my go to place when I needed to get away from everyone for a bit.  I would announce, "I'm going to the bookstore, anyone need anything?" and then zip out before they roused from their baseball watching, video game playing coma.  Whenever I walk into a bookstore I get a smile on my face. 




I love the way bookstores are laid out!

 Here is what I love about bookstores:

• They are grouped by topics or genres. 
• The displays call out to me, "Pick me, pick me."
• I can order a latte, grab a pile of books and sip and browse.
• They have cutesy book-themed items to go with the books, which is why I have Mo Willems' pigeon, Laura Numeroff's mouse and many Dr. Seuss plush toys!
• The books smell new and you get to keep them (assuming you buy them which I always do).

Don't you wish libraries would become more like a bookstore?  If I were in charge of the world, I would put a cafe in the public library and dump Dewey and set up my library like a bookstore.  Sigh!

My good friend told me that Borders was having their closing sale, and at first I couldn't bring myself to going, but I convinced myself that they were going to go out of business whether I liked or not, so I might as well pick up a bargain or two.



How sad.

I headed for the magazine rack and picked up a few titles that I would never pay full price for but don't mind 40% off.

Next, it was on to the children's books.  The day I went they were only 10% off, but people were stuffing their carts like crazy.  Just to be polite, I picked up a few myself. 



Please note:  Dan Gutman is coming to our school for an author visit in October, so the above books were in the name of research.

How do you feel about this behemoth store closing?  Has the Kindle and Nook replaced our bookstores?  Tell me what you think!

A Teacher with No Class

I have no classroom.  I have often moaned that the worst part of teaching is keeping up with the real estate so I should be thrilled. I am.  Really.  Okay, maybe thrilled is a strong word.  I'll say that I am optimistic, yet guarded.

My move to the Teacher of Writing has required me to downsize from a classroom (with nine years of stuff) to a desk and a cart.  To be fair, my desk comes with a filing cabinet and rather large bookshelf. 

My "classroom" will be a little red wagon similar to this. But not all decked out with side pockets.  I'll post a picture when I go back to school. Within the wagon I will have all the materials I need as I go from classroom to classroom providing Academic Support Services. 


The good news is I downsized from classroom to cart pretty well.  The bad news is my dining room has become my classroom library.

Does anyone else have a dining room that looks like this?  Bins hold paperbacks.  Grocery bags hold picture books. 

How full is my bucket?  Pretty darn full of books!

Three more bins.

 On the left are bins that are stacked in the garage for now but need to come inside.

The three bins tucked into this closet were from last year when I went from second grade to third.

 This is the office table with a few bins.

So my job this week is to get all my books organized, placed in bins and stored in one place. Finding that one place is the trick.  Suggestions from husband: 

• Basement     (Sometimes it gets musty, I don't want musty books)
• Garage         (Temperature change not good)
• Attic             (Who is going to carry all the bins up the ladder into the attic?)
• Landfill         (Not funny)

My plan is to keep the books in my tiny office, neatly stacked in bins.  They are close enough in case I need them AND they will start to annoy me after a year.  If after one year (maybe two) I haven't gone back to the classroom, I'll send these books to a good home.

Anyone else storing their classroom in their house?  Any good tips?