My New Normal

Normal.  It's a word that gets tossed around a lot.  Ironically, although it's supposed to describe the status quo, there really isn't a standard bar for "normalcy".  Everyone's normal is different.  My "normal" as a single teacher was different than my "normal" as a married teacher, and now that my son is a part of my life (and a wonderful part of my life at that), I am adjusting to a whole new normal.  Life as a teacher-mom.  Oh my word.

My new normal consists of waking up entirely TOO early to get my son ready for daycare... and sometimes there are tears... from both of us.  My new normal consists of coating my semi-unkempt hair with product to tousle a few of my natural curls before running out of the door.  My new normal consists of locking myself in my classroom for lunch and planning and scrambling to keep my head above water.  My new normal consists of running out of the door at the end of the day to pick my son up and staying up after he's gone to bed to tie up loose ends.  I had NO idea.  I was naive.  :)

That said, I am still happily teaching.  Some days, I crave more time with my son and wish I could stay at home with him.  Most days, I know I am right where I am supposed to be doing what I feel called to do.  I've just had to make concessions, and blogging has been one of those things.  I have managed to update a few files, and I have a new writing unit in progress (barely), but it's just not a priority right now.  My son will only be this little for a moment.  He is already five months old, and I feel like I am going to blink and he will be walking, and then I'll blink again, and he'll be in kindergarten.  So, while blogging and creating are great creative outlets for me, I just can't justify losing out on precious moments that I will never get back.  I'm trying to find that ever-elusive thing called balance, knowing that I can always throw myself back into things online, but I can't always snuggle my baby.

I do want to keep updating you all on our classroom happenings though, so I will do my best to pop in and play catch up whenever circumstances allow for that.  So, that's the plan for today.  Here are a few snapshots to show what we've been up to lately.

We started out with a little Interactive Notebook 101 action to teach the how and why of interactive notebooking.  I used this last year too, and it has replaced some of the generic "getting to know you" activities that usually take place over the first couple weeks of school. This packet, in particular, helps students learn to manipulate templates and understand why we are doing what we are doing.  I LOVE IT! I use it and my We Are Authors pack to lay the foundation for future learning.  The writing pack is the perfect lead-in to help students begin to see themselves as authors with stories worth telling!

Early on, I always start with lessons on metacognition, so I started out with our Metacognition Salad anchor chart, Tanny McGregor's minilesson, and a little extension that I created for students to do during independent reading.  You can get this template for free HERE.

We've been working on personal narratives using my Personal Narratives: Interactive Notebook Resources and Minilessons.  Here's a few photos of the first day of the unit.  I LOVE how the templates help my students with prewriting, planning, and organizing, and then they are able to write their seed stories and elaborate beneath the templates.  It has made a world of a difference this year!

We have also been working on novel studies.  The third graders read Freckle Juice, and we used my unit to examine character traits and story elements more closely.  The fourth graders have been working with Because of Winn Dixie.  I am trying to teach them Literature Circle jobs through the class novel studies so we can launch those sooner-rather-than-later.

Since we are shuffling around our curriculum a bit this year, I decided to tackle "Prudy's Problem" a little earlier this year.  Since we are working on character traits so much lately, this was a fun and meaningful way to explore character traits with a really lighthearted book.

Of course, sometimes we have to do some heavy lifting too, and our homework is part of that.  My kiddos are still expected to read 20 minutes a night, and they choose one box from their Reading Response Menu each night.  I purposefully created prompts that require not only an answer, but also justification for that answer.  It's a bit of a learning curve at first, but once they start getting the hang of what a quality answer looks like, it is pure magic, and it definitely helps prepare them for the extended responses they are responsible for on state tests.  Practice makes proficient!

On the opposite end of the daily routine, we have our morning work.  My students have fallen head-over-heels for the Out of the Box Morning Work.  I think, if I could give them one daily, they would literally squeal, but as it stands, it's the perfect way to encourage critical thinking on a weekly basis without compromising time that can be spent spiraling through previously taught material.  :)

We've also been cycling through my September Quick Checks.  This was a snapshot taken on Picture Day for a review of visualizing.  The photos came out so cute... and this one made me smile with the pink cotton candy-esque trees.  Oh, third graders. 

Well, that's pretty much all I have managed to remember to take photos of.  It's been quite the whirlwind, and sometimes I just get so caught-in-the-moment that I forget to take a photo, and afterwards I think, "Wow, that went great!" Then I realize... DOH... I forgot to document it!  You win some...you lose some! I'd rather win on the content delivery and lose on the documentation piece...but I certainly will TRY to do a better job at capturing the ins and outs of our classroom journey this school-year.  I have a few really fun lessons up my sleeves over the next few weeks, and I can't wait to share them with you!  I hope your year is off to a fabulous start!!!