It's Been a While

Happy New Year!

Here I am finally catching up on some blog posts. It is the night before school is supposed to start up again after a lengthy winter break. I put in some time over the vacation to write thank you notes to my students, do some planning, and finally read a book having nothing to do with education. 

I sat here this afternoon all ready to return to school tomorrow, but sad that I didn't make the time to catch up on my blog writing. Then it happened...Winter Storm Hercules! The call, text and email arrived informing us that we will have no school the next two days! I plan to get caught up on what has been happening in room 16 since my last post on August 5th.

At the end of August, I started a blog entry about my classroom set up and then never finished it because I got all wrapped up in school beginning and learning and teaching three new curriculums (new math program, as well as Lucy Calkins' writing workshop and reading workshop). I will start by finishing that post including classroom pictures.

I also want to share our progress in writing workshop including personal narrative and informational writing. This will include at least two blog entries and an additional one just to share pictures of our two celebrations. This is my first year teaching writing strictly from the Lucy Calkins series of books. I am teaching writing to three classes of fifth graders and it allows me to engage in some collaboration with the Social Studies teacher.

Along with Writing Workshop, I want to blog about my Reading Workshop with my homeroom class and my first try at book clubs instead of the guided reading group structure. I will share what worked and what didn't for me in this process and what my next steps will be.

I may also have time to blog about the organizational structures I have put in place in my classroom and how they are going. I have never been a binder kind of person, but I will share what is working for me this year with binders. 

We'll see what else I decide to write about in the next two days. It will be a valuable self reflection for me. I may even make some New Year's resolutions for my teaching. 

It's good to be back!