Because sometimes we all need a little reminder of why we do what we do.

So here are two youtube videos that I like a lot. They both remind me of why I teach. I love the Taylor Mali one and I watch it when I am having a stressful day or need a pick me up. 

 The second video is one I just saw tonight. I don't teach teenagers, but I think it applies to all teachers and grades. I hope you all enjoy and are reminded about the great work that teachers do everyday.

Take Care -Erica

How fun it is to create stuff.

So when I started this blog I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with all the other great blogs out there today. I had resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be creating things to share with the blogging world. I figured that I would share things from my classroom and my ideas, but that was it. Then yesterday I was reading a post from DeeDee Wills Blog Mrs.Wills Kindergarten about starting a blog and how she did it. By the way, if you do not follow her blog you should. She is amazing! So after reading that I decided to create something of my own. 

I had mentioned to a colleague earlier in the day that I have a few students who struggle with letter formation. Many of the things that we do during literacy centers require the students to look at models and the write, sight words or sentences. I have several versions of roll a word where the student rolls a dice and then writes down the sight word that goes with that number. My students who struggle have a hard time with this and often their papers look very messy as result of not being able to form letters in the empty boxes provided. So I decided to try and create a roll a word that would be modified for students to struggle with letter formation. 

I have used the most recent sight words that we have been practicing. I included one form with the sight words but blank boxes, like I have generally been using, one dotted form, one dotted in yellow (this doesn't seem to print out well, but is another option),and one yellow letter (like a highlighter) form. Click the following words to go to the pdf file.  Roll A Word (no, and, can, we, my, up)  Rollaword version2 (no,and,can,we,my,up) 

Please give me your feedback about my roll a word and also about how easy or difficult it was to get the pdf as I just had to learn how to embed it here. 
Hope you are having a great day. 

Tree of Change

I am not a big fan of changing bulletin boards. It seems that there is only so much time in the day and for some reason changing the paper, border, and everything else on a bulletin board is never at the top of my list. So a few years ago I decided that I was going to find a way to have at least one bulletin board that would remain basically that same, but would change somewhat throughout the school year. A tree is something that changes with the seasons so I started with the idea of a tree. This bulletin board is located next to my classroom door in the hallway so it's often the first thing people see when they come to my classroom. In the fall, my tree is covered with apples of the names of my new students. 

In November, my tree transforms into a Thankful tree, which is my favorite version of the tree. Since it was several years ago I do not have a source to site where this idea came from and I do not believe I thought of it on my own (if you know me you know my memory is very bad). My students are sent home with sheets of leaves that they have to, with their family, write things they are thankful for. We then read them as a class and put them on our tree. We look at our tree after everyone has brought theirs back and talk about how we have lots of things to be thankful for. The Thankful tree stays up through December. 

This is what our tree looked like this year. 

When we return in January after vacation we start to learn about the seasons and weather. We read the book The Mitten Tree by Candace Christiansen. 

I love this book!! The "big idea" of this book is doing something kind for others. If you have not read this book I hope you get a chance to. After we read this book we make paper mittens for our mitten tree. 

I am looking for a new spring idea for my tree so if you think of something please let me know. 

How to follow my blog.

Not sure how to follow my blog?? Here's how: If you are interested in seeing my new posts, you can enter your email address in on the right hand side of the blog where it says, "Follow blog by email." Once you enter your email address a screen will pop up and ask you to enter the code shown on the screen (to make sure you want to follow the blog). You will then get an email for you to verify that you are signing up to follow the blog and there will be a link for you to click on. So what does following my blog mean? It means that when I post a new post to my blog you will get an email (only once a day and only if I post something new on that day). Following a blog makes it easier to see updates without having to remember to go back frequently to check and see if there are new posts. If you have questions about following my blog please feel free to leave a comment here. 
Erica Gower

Assessments- love them or hate them we must do them.

As I mentioned in a previous post a lot of my time in January is spent doing assessments. In our school we do formal assessments at the beginning of the school year, in January, and during the month of May. As with all teachers we also do lots of on-going and informal assessment throughout the school year. I dread the amount of time these assessments take, especially in January, when there is so much to do. What I love is the feeling I get when a student who knew no letters at the beginning of the year now knows 30 (upper and lowercase letters are counted seperately, this is for my husband who thought it was amusing that I somehow made up extra letters to get to 30) or when a student who could barely attend to the print on the page can now read. January is the time of year I start to realize how far my students have come and how far we still have to go. I am not going lie, sometimes January is the time I realize that a few students are not progressing the way I thought they were or as the other students are. This often makes me feel badly, but also motivates me to work harder to help them reach the end of kindergarten goals. It refocuses my attention on the students that need the most attention and interventions. So even though these assessments take a lot of time, I secretly (or not so secretly now) love the assessments.
Erica Gower

Fairfield Primary School

This is the school that I teach at, Fairfield Primary School. It is called, "The Little School with the Big Heart." The building itself use to be the high school a long time ago. Now the building contains six kindergarten classrooms, several preschool classrooms, a 3 year old program, and a before/after school childcare program. This building is filled with lots of energy and young children eager to learn. It is truly a fantastic place to go to work everyday.
Erica Gower

Happy New Year 2013

Its seems that these days everyone has a blog, so I decided for 2013 that I would start one of my own. Not sure what of importance I will have to say, but I thought I would give it a try.
In less then 24 hours I will be back with my 15 eager learners. We have had a week and a half off so I know it will take a little while for everyone to get back into the swing of things. This is the time of year I start to analyze what I have taught and freak out a little about all the things I still have to teach before June. January is also the time that we do our mid year assessments so there is a lot to do this month. Wish me luck.

Erica Gower