Guidelines for Discussions in My Classroom

I survived my first week. I'm exhausted and I think most of my students were too, but we had a great week! Even with 14 years of teaching experience, I still have to remind myself (every 5 minutes) that the more time I spend establishing routines/procedures with my students the easier my whole year will be.

There are so many things to talk about during the first week. The usuals...there is how to walk in the hall, how to do whole body listening, how to eat snack, how to clean up, how to put your papers in your folder, how to pack up at dismissal and how to use everything from the soap pump to the pencil sharpener. I even have a bathroom meeting to talk about rules in the bathroom. I'll spare you the details. My past students have laughed about Mrs. Gillow's "rules" because it seems like I have a few for everything.

One of the most important things we talked about in my room this week is our procedure for classroom discussions. When my students share their thinking and their work, I like to make sure we are all following the same rules. That helps me create a safe place for the children to share and discuss.

Here is my anchor chart. I keep it very simple. During the first part of a discussion in my room, students are asked to share and/or listen. In the next step, the students are asked to agree or disagree with the student who shared their thinking or their work. If a student disagrees, they need to be willing to explain why in a polite way. The student who shared their thinking first can either "revise" their thinking (change their mind) or explain why they would like to stick to their original answer. I model the language for my children during the first few discussions. After a few practice sessions, my first graders quickly start saying things like, "I would like to revise my thinking" or "I disagree, because I solved the problem by using the hundreds chart".

I really should probably go to sleep. Off to bed.

Soaked on Our First Full Day

Today was our first full day with students. Our time with our students went well...and then there was dismissal. It was a bit soggy in Michigan this afternoon. My leather shoes might be ruined. My hair ended up 6 kinds of ugly. My dismissal clipboard (the fancy one that I mod podged a few weeks ago) is dripping. But, all of our students made it to their buses (the right buses). And here we are soaked, super dedicated and still smiling!

And here is the banner I made in it's new space above my classroom door!

Happy Wednesday!

My First Day and a Last Minute Crafting Project

Yesterday was my first day with students. I cried on the way to work. It was my son's first day of kindergarten. My kids go to school in the district where we live. It's the same district where my husband works. I work in a neighboring district. Parents are supposed to come with their child for an hour orientation session on the first day of K. That is a bit of a problem for a child with two teacher parents. Dad to the rescue (again)! My dad came from out of state to take my little guy to kindergarten and spend the day with him at our house. The little guy was thrilled to take grandpa to school and I'm sure grandpa slept well last night after a day with a 5 year old.

We only have a 1/2 day of school on the first day. My students were great! I have 25 students in my class (13 girls and 12 boys). Seven of the students are from families that I have already worked with in the past - all great families. Four of those seven were in my Young 5's class a couple years ago when I taught Young 5's for a year. The day went well and I rushed off to the open house for my own children right after school. I'm exhausted. How did I get so tired?

On Labor Day, I cleaned up my sewing station and transformed it into a homework station for my kids before school started. Before I put everything away, I tackled one last project. I made this banner for my classroom. I've always wanted to try a banner project. It was quick and so easy that I'm sure it won't be my last. I just draped it over my kitchen cupboards for this picture. Please excuse the random coffee cup holding it in place. I'll post a picture of it in my classroom soon.

I'm off to my first full day with students. Today's goal is to teach them how to put the papers in their folders without smashing everything. Wish me luck!

Super Size Assessment Binder and a Freebie

As I prepare to start school (on Tuesday), I decided to revisit/rethink my assessment recording forms from the previous years. Unlike most of the teachers on my team, I have always kept my assessments for each child in individual student files. Then when I have a meeting about a specific child, I only need to bring one file. I keep my data for the whole class for each kind of assessment in another notebook. It's small and manageable for me. It also fits on my nightstand...just in case I wake up in the middle of the night freaking out about who understands (or does not understand) linear measurement.

This year, I'm going to TRY to organize my assessments in the over-sized, gigantic, extra-large assessment notebook that most of my teacher friends "love". You know...the kind where all the information for each child is in that huge binder that seems like it might erupt into a paper volcano if a kid bumps into me. Yep, that one. I'm really only trying it, so I can say that I still prefer one file at time. But, who knows? Maybe I'll learn to love it.

Here is my new JUMBO binder. It's empty, but I do love the cover. Unfortunately, I downloaded it from one of the teacher blogs I follow, but I can't remember which one. If anyone recognizes it, please let me know so I can give the person credit. It was shared with several other adorable binder covers.

The cover matches the one I downloaded for my lesson plan binder.  Oh, I wish I could remember who shared these!

Here is one of the forms I use to record some of the things we assess for literacy.  Feel free to click on the picture if you'd like to download either one.

This one is basically the same, just more generic.

Off to work on my to do list.  Enjoy this long weekend!

My First Award!

Thanks to Heidi, at Swamp Frog First Graders, my blog won it's first award today!  I spent 6 hours in my classroom today.  When I returned home to find the sweet message from Heidi it totally made my day!

If you haven't visited Heidi's blog lately, stop by to visit her. I've been checking out her pins on Pinterest as well.

I have been inspired by so many fabulous teachers with teaching blogs. Some of my favorites have already been awarded a Top 10 award by other bloggers.   Here are two blogs that are well deserving and definitely on my list.

The posts made by Kristin, from a Teeny Tiny Teacher, just plain crack me up! The popularity of Kristin's blog has soared in the past 2 months. I'm not surprised. If you haven't checked it out, you really should visit her.





Christie, from Teaching in Flip Flops, recently posted pictures of her classroom (which has a pink/zebra stripe decor). Head over to check out her classroom photos - super cute!

Back to School Sale This Weekend

All items in my Tpt and my Teachers Notebook shops will be 10% off today (9/3) through 9/5.

Some featured items include:

Personal Reader Sight Word Stories - You can read the post about how I use personal reader folders in my classroom here.

Activity Pack for Back to School - You can see a preview of this product and get a freebie here.

Daily Classroom Schedule Words - You can see the post about my schedule cards with a preview of this item here.

Fall Math Journal Prompts - You can see the post about these here.


All of the items in each shop will are currently 10% off.  I hope you will stop by to visit.

Mini-Lesson Planning Forms to Share

I made these blank mini-lesson planning forms for my student teacher. There is one for reader's workshop and one for writer's workshop. My student teacher will be using these forms to record information about the lessons I teach and to help her plan her own lessons.

I use a similar form for my own planning. By the end of the year, I have a complete list of all the mini-lessons I taught and the mentor texts that I used with each lesson. Feel free to click on the picture to download them if you would like to use them.  They are not exactly fancy, but they help me stay organized.

Don't forget, I am having a sale at my Teachers Notebook shop this weekend. Everything in my shop is 10% off until Monday, 9/5. You can click on the image below if you'd like to visit my shop.

Happy Friday!