April 26th's Five for Friday...on Sunday the 28th

Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday this week!

1. AIMSweb benchmarking is over - a long two days of benchmarking the whole school and all I wish is that I could hear the end of the passages!  Since this was the last time of the school year, I had so many kiddos trying to stay to finish reading the stories because they won't read the same ones next year; even one wanted to come back and get the binder when we were done testing so that they could finish reading the passages!

2. The Chicago Blackhawks won the President's Trophy for most points in the season and home ice advantage during the playoffs!! It was announced late last night that they'll be facing the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the playoffs!

3. The Bulls had a KILLER triple overtime game yesterday that lasted 4 HOURS with very feisty players...totally awesome and worth procrastinating on my work to watch it :-)

4. I have 20 school days left and I feel like they'll be the longest ones yet - I had 2 substitutes this week because of the AIMSweb and let's just say, these were not the best times that I ended up having substitutes in my classroom...I've never had a problem before which is interesting.

5. Now that benchmarking is over, it is time to start testing sight words and guided reading levels. Data, Data, Data! Bring on another week! - at least this one is supposed to warm up and include sunshine!

Last Week's (April 19th) Five for Friday Linky Party - Attempt 1 :-)

As I've mentioned before I am new to the blogging world, so today I am going to attempt to participate in Doodle Bugs Teaching Five for Friday Linky Party from last week (This will be my trial run for future Five for Friday and other Linky Parties!).  The Five for Friday Linky Party involves listing 5 random things from Friday or throughout the week.  While I won't have pictures for last week or this week, I'll work on adding those in as I get used to this.

Five for Friday Linky Party

1. The end of the school year is quickly approaching which means getting the students more motivated is becoming a challenge.  Integrating Quantum Learning more and Brain Breaks more has definitely been beneficial!

2. We have been very busy at our school with the transition of the Common Core which has led me to more and more blogs and TPT stores - which then also tells me that I'm spending more time on the sites and getting sucked in, putting me behind on other things that need to get done. :-) Including this blog post and attempting to figure out how to create a blog button.

3. Many schools around me had one or multiple "Rain Days" due to flooding but my kiddos stuck out the rain and made it in!

4.  My mind is already thinking of all the things I want to change for next year and what I want to accomplish over the summer.  The list is a mile long already...it's going to be one busy summer!

5.  With only 22 school days left, and being a special education teacher, it is time for Data Collection! Lots of testing coming my way which means finding other activities that the kiddos can work on independently while I test the others.

Enjoy! I promise to work on getting better at blogging...It's on my summer list as well ;-)

Books, Books, and More Books!

So recently I got this urge to read for enjoyment (I know something teachers RARELY get to do during the school year!).  I'm currently working on my Master's in Educational Leadership (just 3 classes to go!) and I'm also part of my school's School Improvement Team.  So instead of finishing the 3rd novel of the Millennium trilogy or picking another one of the 50 million books on my "To Read List", naturally I head to Barnes and Noble to pick up Education Books.  I selected 3 books this time, with 4 others in my Amazon cart.  The first 3 I selected are:

1. Pathways to the Common Core: Accelerating Achievement By: Lucy Calkins, Mary Ehrenworth, and Christopher Lehman

Since I am on the School Improvement Team and the Common Core is everywhere (including in my goal writing for my IEPs), I'll be reading this one first.

2. The Learning Leader: How to Focus School Improvement for Better Results By: Douglas B. Reeves

For my Master's I have to read 10 leadership books, summarize them, and give insight to them.  Since this one is also about school improvement, I figure it will kill 2 birds with 1 stone for my Master's and the School Improvement Team.

3. Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement 2nd Edition By: Ceri B. Dean, Elizabeth Ross Hubbell, Howard Pitler, BJ Stone, and The ACSD

This is another great book for my Master's, and since many teachers will ask what they can do in their classroom to help all students, this will be a great reference guide.  While I don't teach in a "normal" classroom, I am sure there are things in here that I will be able to tie into my resource room.

I'll be doing my own little book study for each one as I am reading, so be on the look out for posts on the different chapters! (as well as other posts too!)

Happy Teaching!

Hello Blogging World!

After a year of exploring all of the wonderful blogs in Teacherland, I thought it was time I start my own!  I'm new to this and not sure what I'll be putting in here but I am always up for new adventures and challenges!  I still have to figure out all the kinks including how to truly participate in the Currentlys, which is my first post! The Currently is created by Farley - You should check out her blog, it's amazing! (Just click on her name and it'll take you there!) Anywho I am off to do more work...or enjoy the weather which ever comes first! :-)