I *Just Barely* Survived a Week of School | Teacher Vlog

we have made it a complete week without a snow day a delayed start an early dismissal or a holiday I'm feeling very like lazy I didn't get myself in the groove like to bring a camera into your everyday like routine at home and like what you do at home I feel like I'm opening myself up for criticism and it's scary yeah I hope that makes sense we haven't had a full week of school since December I am exhausted this week have any of you ever had that feeling of but you can't sleep it's like 3 4 o'clock in the morning you're already starting to wake up you're ready to go ahead and go start the day go to work I had one of those feelings this morning I was up I was like ready to go I was pretty much ready at like 6:18 in the morning which is not usual for me but then I get here and then I'm like I was in here Thursday afternoon my room is a hot mess welcome back papers on the floor a reading a bucket that's not mine chairs are halfway put up pencils are out on the table cushions are not picked up markers are over here notebooks books papers erasers wadded up pieces of paper okay I'm gonna get focused and I'm gonna start cleaning up my room I don't know who the culprit is totally feeling better at this point like my room is at least cleaned up and am I ready to start the day I got all of this taken care of I have a couple of books that I need for my librarians to put away I want to make a trip to Ikea guys if you do not have these these are amazing so I kind of figured out how I wanted to organize all of like the materials that I had here I was going back and forth and I wasn't liking any other systems that I was doing and finally those baskets dawned on me I was like this is the most amazing thing ever so here is what I'm gonna be able to do so I have a math notebooks writing notebooks and folders and then I have science notebooks the science notebooks they could keep with them they just don't have to keep it with them so we try to get it to where if you don't need it put it away it's not a big like you don't need to have it like going back and forth in all locations and I really really like this system so let me show you guys how we ended up how I ended up deciding to sort it all out all of my students are placed into houses so you're gonna notice here like I have a losing I have in daraa our beach reom and then zygote 'as i think fell out or as that goat is there it is you need attachment so the little ribbon disappears so then it would be a zygote as math notebooks so all of the math notebooks are here and I don't have them sorted by groups I have them sorted by houses so whatever house that you are in you are gonna place your math notebooks inside of that but that bucket for for your house and then you'll know exactly where it is and you have to go get it I think what my problem was is that I kept trying to sort them by their groups but because they were all moving so quickly and so like here's one group and then the next minute I have this group and the next minute I have that group it was really hard to kind of keep track of them because we're trying to move kids at like a pace that they would like to go at now obviously you're like going a little bit slower do you need to like another day or two but we pushed you along anywho so I didn't want to do it by groups because the groups just kind of go all over the place and it was really confusing for in time there then I just said okay well that's working out really well well why can't I do that for their writing because the writing is the same situation we have the writing and you know I had two baskets for the writing and two baskets like yeah two baskets for my writing and science and so like what I was doing is I had to a mu Z and Endora placing their things in here and it was just mass chaos like it was just way too big of a headache so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna create little labels here and I'm gonna do the exact same thing that I'm doing with their houses now here is where I think these like gold baskets would come in huge huge handy and I need a good idea to get a couple of more so I'm gonna cross my fingers and hope that maybe I can make an ikea trip this weekend so like I was saying I had two houses putting their site there writing and science folders in here so what I want to do is actually have a bucket and you see if I could show this to you guys so what I want to do is I want to have like a bucket here so let's imagine like they're writing notebooks there and then right up above it which is where I have like all of my word work stuff which actually will end up coming out there science notebooks would go in there do you see what I mean like look how nice and organized that is so they know exactly where it's at they know exactly where to go to get it and there's not any confusion and it's sorted by houses so that's never changing the kids are always in there exact same house for all three years which is really easy I really like this system but now what I need is I need two more of these like gold tray baskets one here one there and then I want to put two more up here because I still do sort my word study that way unless I can figure out somewhere else to put my word study I don't know but I thought that that was a really really great way of kind of organizing their things I've had this idea for a while and I just haven't executed the idea I think was all like the snow and just everything I'm a little off my game y'all which is not good I'm putting away stuff most I'll stop but I'm just a little bit off my game which is not good I'm hoping that this week will get me back into my game that everything is going to be normal it's supposed to be in the 50s all week we have some sunny days some rainy days so I think that this is finally the week where everything kind of falls back into place although now that I'm thinking about it Wednesday and Thursday are not going to be incredibly normal because we have s our eyes to give for fifth graders and we have the days that we need to complete for the entire group so we're gonna take those two days to be able to do that in the afternoon so those days will be a little bit off but for the most part we're all in school all day long every single day this week yay I have about 15 minutes before I have to go to my meeting this morning but I wanted to show you guys a couple of things that I was working on so this morning I have a reading group and then I have two math groups my reading group that I do in the morning is a guided reading groups I do have a couple of kids in my class who were on a first a second grade reading level so I try to accommodate kind of them and then also work with their intervention teacher that they meet with because I get pulled out for reading so I tried to meet work with her and figure out exactly what is she working on so that I can kind of incorporate that into my lessons she uses a like an actual program to teach them so I try to mimic some of the things that she's using in her program but I try and apply it to other books that they can are reading in my classroom so I have that one group and then I have two math groups so then I have one CPM group which is college preparatory math it is a program that my district uses from sixth grade all the way I think through middle school maybe even going in no I think it's just middle school so sixth all the way through middle school is what use for math then I have an algebra group so this group is kind of reviewing some fourth-grade skills and then going into fifth grade skills and I wanted to show you what I am trying to put together for them and because I'm noticing that I'm not finding a lot of things online for algebra for us we're looking at patterns we're looking at missing symbols creating expressions in with word problems and there is one more thing that I'm looking for function tables so we've done function tables we've used gizmos which is an incredible app or website that you can get and I think my district pays for it so that's how we're able to get it so the kids were able to use gizmos for their function tables to kind of review on that and they've done really really well we did some activities here at the table and now we're going into missing symbols so here is what I'm trying to create for them so I have a missing symbols sheet here that I'm trying to make and the directions is simply complete the equation by filling in the correct symbol so that gave them the symbols here that they're going to be using and then they're going through and they're filling it in so for blank 5 equals 20 so it's 4 times 5 so there have to come up with some type of reason and here it's an equal sign so I know that this expression is going to equal that expression so I need to figure out what exactly needs to go inside of the boxes in order for it to be equal so I'm creating this so that I can give this to them obviously you can see that none of these are made so I have to kind of finish it up but yeah it is almost time for the kids to start arriving and I've been kind of hustling to just get a few things done that I need to get done I have my Evie three challenges kind of out so I'm going to set them out over here on the little booklet for the kids to be able to get to and then this week I'm gonna have the kids design a marker holder for Albert to be able to hold and be able to write so today is simply the design process I'm going to have them kind of try it out they can try it out with Albert and see if it kind of connects and it'll hold the pencil the way it needs to hold it each team will be responsible for designing their own using the Legos that are provided for them and then they'll keep their design so they don't have to keep taking it off putting it back on that type of thing so they're gonna design it I'm gonna have a little trace out for them to be able to place their designs so that other people can kind of look to see what they're doing and see how they kind of want to improve from that but I'm gonna get that little area set up and then I will show you guys what it ended up what it ends up looking like during our lunch time I asked for a day of normalcy and I got a day in normalcy but I am so flipping tired it's unbelievable I don't know what I was trying to say there I came out with flippin um but yeah I'm exhausted today oh my goodness we had a really really good day it was a good day of just kind of normalcy and having everything kind of schedules and everything was just kind of rolling pretty smoothly I don't know I felt good it felt good to be like back teaching and doing what it is that I love to do so yes I'm very very happy with that I'm meeting with Katie we're gonna sit down for a little bit talk about our PBL piece we introduced kind of talked about the application process and the purpose of the application process tomorrow we're going to be giving them their applications and I promise to show you that once they're finished but I have to go in and add a few things and somebody's gonna come into my room so I'm gonna hang up okay anyways so we're gonna sit down talk about our project-based learning piece figure out exactly where I with instructions instructional II where would we like to start first and then kind of start planning out some things there so I will touch base with you guys once we kind of get all that kinked out knocked out fixed up I don't I'll talk to you guys later before we get it all together I've come to the decision that I will never tell my husband that I need to be home at a certain time because it's exactly what happened yesterday I ended up telling my husband that I was gonna be home at a certain time and then I was pleading with my partner on our PBL stuff and I'm gonna show you guys that in a second and then like he calls me he says you said you were gonna be home and I'm like I'm sorry we're still planning good I can't leave yet because I still have these ideas in my head and we are almost done so I ended up not vlogging for the rest of it because I was just like I got go so I'm like packing my things up katie is still talking and I'm like trying to walk out the door to be able to get home because I said I was going to be home at a certain time um anyway I said that we were working on PBL stuff and we were working on PBL stuff so the kids have at this point we've created kind of our question web we've gone through we defined like our purpose so what is our kind of end goal which is creating the community garden to help support our pantry that we have in our districts and then we from that point said that well we need to kind of create these factories so the kids brainstormed and came up with four different areas that we need to kind of have employees for which are like our farmers our PR department our builders and then our researchers so at this point what we're doing is we've kind of tried to map out exactly well what is it that we're integrating into this area what are we integrating into this area because that's what PBL is project-based learning is that you're integrating a lot of subjects together to give it a real-world experience right so there's trying to come up with a solution or develop some type of a and answer to a real-world problem so while at the same time meeting a bunch of standards so that's good oh sorry so that is pretty much what we did yesterday is we came out with like our map because we are kind of like in a pickle at the moment we have to teach je BizTown while at the same time we are doing our PBL piece so we're having to figure out how are we going to manage to be able to do both of it we have two weeks before we have to start je BizTown curriculum and then after those two weeks then we've kind of come up with a master different plan so let me show you guys what we ended up coming up with and then excuse my madness it's just the way my brain works I don't know it's just the way it works yesterday we're starting our community garden to help support our pantry that we have in the district but at the same time in two weeks we also have to start our je BizTown crickey so with those two things kind of colliding and coming together it is what it is we're gonna have to make it work so we ended up sitting down and kind of coming up with our ideas of okay well this is what we could be doing or this is how we can fit it into the schedule so at the same time we're doing both so we sat down try to brainstorm some ideas for our schedule coming up with ways that we can fit J a biz town while still also doing the PBL while still also teaching the curriculum I think we came up with a nice compromise where we're still doing a little bit of everything and we're getting our kids kind of at that exposure to this PBL piece which is what we feel like is incredibly important and valuable to them so if you follow me on Instagram then you would have seen at my insane madness because this is just the way my brain works so this is kind of the madness fund that was created from yesterday we sat down kind of started brainstorming what is it that we are teaching during what time so the kids are going to be doing questioning and researching and then we kind of came up with an alternative schedule for how we're going to be able to fit nj8 and also the PBL piece and teaching at the exact same time so I think we came up with a pretty good compromise of course that you guys are gonna learn more about the schedule and how we're gonna be able to fit things in but that is gonna want that is actually gonna happen later on so we have two weeks to be able to fit our PBL piece during our writing in our content time which is shortly after lunch so with that time we're gonna see spending a lot of the time right now they're gonna start doing their application and then we're gonna do the questioning the researching and the writing so that is going to be our focus focus first and then we're gonna start diving into everything else a little bit later and I promise I will tell you guys all about it once it gets here but it is still very very far away today is a very like easy morning I have my one reading group this morning which we're doing pretty good there I want them to do some response to their reading we talked about inferencing and what that means so I want them to kind of write some of those thoughts down onto paper and I have one group that is going to be taking a post assessment and then a pre assessment for the next unit for them and then CPM we're just going to continue working on what is that we're working on which is really focusing on integers and how we can combine adding and multiplying integers into its like order of operations but it's without teaching order of operations if that makes any sense it's more of a visual way of being able to see order operations and being able to understand truly why is it that we teach the order of operations um so that's kind of what we're focusing on it's a really cool method me I'll show you guys that a little bit later on I'm gonna go ahead out make some copies really fast and then I want to show you guys what we're doing with - so really quick I wanted to show you guys my outfit I I'm not like a hundred percent sure that I look the most professional today um I did bring another shirt just in case but I really really wanted to wear this outfit I saw it on Pinterest and I was like ah I have something kind of like that I can totally pull that off right Pinterest is bad because then it gets ideas in my head and it's like I really want to wear that today I don't even care so here's what I came up with I'm standing on top of my table okay so do you guys see like I feel super like what's the word oh no awesome I don't know so here we go so I have like this gray top it's a very loose-fitting because you know I don't like tight stuff and then I also have a kind of a blue jean button-down that's left open and then I have a vest from j.crew that my mom bought me ages ago and I've never worn it um along with some like black pants and some boots like I feel super like cool I do I feel like young and hip I don't know since is stupid but I did bring another shirt just in case because I feel like the genie button-down makes me look a little too cash I don't know maybe I can pull it off all day I don't know oh my cross their fingers I did bring another shirt though but I wanted to show you guys this cuz I felt like it's super cute now if I had a different vest I would totally wear a different vest unfortunately all the other vests are like super short so it just didn't look right with this outfit but I don't know I feel super like hip feel super hip today it's all I got for you this is probably really sad to say but I'm still working on getting this quilt together with everything that has been happening it's been a little crazy but I do want to get this up before parents kind of come for our next conferences so it'll get there I need more bags so school is about to start and I have enabled a skill on Alexa which is the sleeping sounds I love love love this sound it's like that crackling fire raining crickets oh I just love it so much it's such a great sound so I enabled that I have my morning message up there so that is ready to go the kids are gonna come in in just a few minutes and we're gonna get started with our morning's so hopefully it's like relaxes them and eases them into the day crossing my fingers so for those of you who are wondering this is kind of what my table looks like in the morning I always have one computer out that has my message on the other computers what I'm working on and then I have all of my materials in my binder here with what I am teaching for kind of my morning rotations over here like this is my little cabinet door right here I have my communication folder just like on a binder clip and then I just have one of these hooks here but I have it kind of easily accessible that I can just get to it this morning in case students bring me either money or things to send to the office not totally sure why I decided to show you guys that but that's kind of what my mornings look like am I always haven't either something like a tea or Diet Coke in the morning today I chose Diet Coke oh well all right let's get started with our day so I feel like I need to apologize to you guys because I did not vlog for the rest of the day at school it wasn't a bad day it was actually a really really good day it was just very very busy during lunch I ended up not eating at all I don't know food wasn't like really appetizing to me but it didn't ended up not eating I had like a bag of hot cheetos in my room so i had some hot cheetos and then I ended up making copies so I needed to make copies for one of my groups that is working on theme made copies for our applications and then I made some other copies who are working on plot so I was trying to get kind of all of those things together I did that during lunch and then over my second break which is actually like my real break like it's mine my prep time and then over my prep time I sat down with Katie and kW we went over a couple of things on the schedule and I started to get like really really really tired not sure why but after school I pretty much just kind of cleaned up my area left everything the way that I need to have it for tomorrow which I felt really good about like I didn't even bring off my lesson plan book and I didn't bring home my binder that has all of my materials in which I really want to go over with you guys later um but I left both of those things at home which normally I'm like bringing that thing back and forth back and forth and so like my this bag right here is like heavy from carrying all of that crud and back and forth so left it at school because it was pretty much ready to go I had all my lesson plans ready didn't really need to worry about anything tonight so pretty much just came home because I was feeling exhausted and got everybody food everybody's kind of relaxing at the moment every my house is a little subdued at the moment I think everybody's still trying to get over their sickness and I'm crossing my fingers that I am NOT getting sick because I've been having some like wheezing and some coughs which might just be sinuses so I have to take that into consideration anywho I figured that I would just do a little bit of logging at home which is not something that I normally do um and I don't know why I just feel like my home is like my private place and um I don't know like it's so weird like I don't even know how to explain this to you guys and I just like I protect my home because it is my husband and my babies and it's scary it's like putting them out there and I know I put them on the camera and I know that I do that you know I have them like talking on video and stuff but like to bring a camera into your everyday like routine at home and like what you do at home I feel like I'm opening myself up for criticism and it's scary yeah I hope that makes so I'm upstairs away from everybody and what I figured I would do is I'm gonna open up my laptop and I want to show you guys what our application looks like just so that you can kind of see it then I need to go clean up downstairs because I left the kitchen a hot mess so I'm gonna go clean that up and start getting everybody ready for bed but let's open up the laptop let's look over the application so I can walk you guys through kind of all of the different pieces that we wanted to put it for it in for our project-based learning segment okay so I know my desktop is a hot mess I need to get it organized that is on and that is on the list of things to do eventually okay so let's open up our project-based learning so here's what the application looks like we wanted to almost base a little bit off of what's gonna happen during je BizTown so we kind of took the application and we also looked at the interview questions look at that now my lighting is better so we looked at the interview questions the application for je BizTown can incorporate it a little bit of that so some of the things that you're gonna notice we kind of took it from je BizTown and then we incorporated more of what is it that we're doing like for our project-based learning so we wanted to do we want it it's relate to that as well so here is what it looks like so the beginning part is gonna have personal information we did last first middle initial we told the kids to go home and figure out their address that they don't know it and then we have their date of birth so it's just your personal information here the second part of it we wanted them to go in and look at choice so we have four different positions that are available we wanted them to put them in order so from the one that they like the most to the one that is the least desirable job that they would like so you know they could do builder than farmer than a researcher than PR that would be an example the third piece of it was going more into about the job choice and how much they truly know about the positions that they want so if I was ending up choosing builder then I would put down what our four responsibilities that a builder would have so I would write those down on the second page it starts to go into describing skills that you have that helps you to fulfill the responsibilities of the of being like the Builder the first position and they would just kind of go through and explain it here then we have do you have any past experiences of something similar and then explain in the space provided and then asking why do you want this job so we only did that for the first two choices we didn't do it for the three in the four because we're hoping to give them either choice one or choice two that is what our hopes are so that's kind of what we've done there so then they would feel the same thing out but four choice job choice number two that they would pick and then we're gonna have management positions within each of the different categories so we started counting going in about management again what are the three responsibilities that a manager would have seemed here kind of tell us why what are some skills that you have in helping you fulfill this responsibility have you had any plastic experiences being in a leadership role and then why would you want this position and then we had them have a signature down at the bottom with the date anyways so that's kind of the application process we went through explain it with the kids that we went through and kind of set our expectations with them today they did not get the opportunity to actually get started on it so tomorrow while the kids are working like the other grade is finishing up with their SR I the other kids will have the opportunity to be able to work on it so don't get some time to be able to do that we're telling them there has to be due by Thursday so that we can get them sorted into their groups and then we can assign them which categories that they're gonna be on on Friday that is our hopes and dreams but yeah I just wanted to show that with you guys they did they were really really excited about it which I'm enjoying and I liked some of them are really kind of taking their time they were able to at least go through put their knee like their personal information and then they were able to go through and start like putting their choices by category so we were able to kind of get an idea of what were some of the positions because we collected them back so we were able to kind of get an idea of some of the positions that the kids wanted to be in the group that I had I had a ton of builders and it was really interesting because another teacher like kW did not have as many but she didn't have any builders she had a lot of kids who wanted to be in PR so I am really excited about where this is gonna go it just makes my heart my future heart all sorts of happening but now I want to open up another package I got a package in today and I figured I'd open it actually got two packages so in case you're wondering you're in my bedroom but you're like on the wall like this is my closet right here um we haven't really done much in my bedroom I told my husband that I kind of want to do a wallpaper like on one wall and here he's not down for that will soften him up it's gonna be okay anyway so one of the very first things that one of my packages that I got was a like non-teacher related package but I wanted to share it with you guys because I don't typically get excited about these types of things because I'm not this kind of person like it's a drawer it's a piece of jewelry like I am NOT a jewelry person like the one thing that I will probably like I wear the same things over and over again you guys know that about me like I am just not I'm a plain Jane and I'm a creature of habit so it's kind of weird that I would get so excited about a piece of jewelry anywho I don't know if any of you watch them but I have like this like love on YouTube of like these UK families that I like to follow because I'm a weirdo but anyway so I have this like a guilty pleasure of watching like zoella and Tanya burr and Mitchell axe and this would Kony Jolie's like if you guys watch them please leave a comment like down below please let me know that I am not the only one that has like this bill T pleasure of watching these families anyway so the Mitchell acts totally loved them oh my gosh I'm like filmmaker fantastic videos every single Sunday well Hannah which is the mom she has a little line of like makeup bags well she also came out with a ring that I was really thought that it was just like perfect I feels like oh my gosh this is so me and this is what it looks like it's just a little circle ring I'm sorry that I have ugly hands I think I have arthritis so just kind of bear with me and then I got to repaint my nails please don't judge me I'm sorry okay between arthritis and like ugly nails but here it is it's super simple really cute it's like the rolls gold but I ended up purchasing this and I was really excited that it came in actually it came in a really fast too so it's just uh so I went on ahead and I got one of these the second package that I got is from Amazon um and I already but I told you guys that I was doing a a book study with my one of my groups and I just didn't have enough books for that group so ended up not being able to find enough books which was kind of sad but it is what it is like and I was like determined to do this book so I went on ahead and by it's five copies of how to steal a dog so we're gonna be starting this Thursday we're gonna start it on Thursday and I'm really excited to start this with them so I got my books in now I need to go and actually get my hiny downstairs and clean my kitchen let's go do that together let's go clean together [Music] alexxa start sleeping sounds you were listening to crystal would you like to resume no this is fire so I realized last night that I've never shown you guys our new dash station and what the kind of the challenge is for this week so I figured this morning this is the very first thing that I'm going to do with you guys so dash is a stem rotation for me it's using technology and I want the kids to be able to kind of problem-solve design items and challenge themselves to be able to create something unique and also to create something that could be that could do multi purposes so you'll see what I mean by that today so this week I saw this week I wanted the challenge to be that they were going to teach - how to write so the situation is that Albert which is our - is excited to learn who wants to learn with everyone else and he wants to start by learning how to write his letters so I gave the kids some Legos I have a sheet of paper that's down and then I had trays that was something that I didn't do last week that I decided to start doing this week and you will see what I mean in just a moment so here's kind of the gas state - stationed on the floor I'm going to change out the paper today just because that is a lot of paper on there and then I have the teams just working with different colors so you can see here where the kids have tried to start one trying to make a square but it was doing some kind of funny little curve here you'll see the curve there they were able to make get the - to go in circles another one was able to make a C or part of a C at least and so they're kind of exploring what the idea of being able to get them to create letters they have to be able to create something on - that is able for them for him to hold some markers so there are the markers and then I usually have like some Legos here and so here's kind of what they've done and this is something new that's different from last week last week I had them creating a plow but then they had to demolish the plow every single time and then recreate it every single rotation which I felt like it wasn't like best fit for their time so I put out trays with their rotations on them and you can kind of see the design so this is gonna like stick on to - like this and then they have a little spot here where the marker supposed to be held same situation here but they're all different designs you can kind of see this exact same idea they're not sure what this little guy is but you can see here is one design there they have yet to create their design here is a separate design here and there's another one and then I don't think I have a rotation 9 and then here is another design so you can kind of see the design process of them kind of creating a device for them to be able to hold the pencil so let me kind of show you guys what that looks like let's grab a marker and then let's go get - - is charging there she is all right buddy come on I'm really uncomfortable shoes on ha ha don't ask me why I wore them that I just did so here's kind of here's our Albert this is - and then he comes with when you purchase him he comes with this little these little tools here which pop in and out so you can place it on his head or here we've been having that placed here on the sides because this is what we use to create our plow and this is kind of what they're using to create the little pin that's going to go in there - so you can kind of see here where they kind of they'll attach these pieces like so so now it looks like this and then what they do is when they put - down this will hold the marker down and so when he drives the marker will move with it so that's kind of an idea of what the the design pieces of it is is that they're designing this you know contraption to be able to hold this pin the part that's hard now that a lot of them are having difficulties with other than just making a circle is creating letters from it so now the kids are having to figure out a code to be able to create letters which is what they're kind of been trying out um I'll add the new sheet of paper for them so that they can have a fresh sheet of paper today so they'll try out their letters but so far they've gotten oohs one of them has kind of a see it's not exactly a seed because it starts at a weird angle but I want them to be able to try to figure out how to create a code to be able to write a letter so we'll see what is what they end up coming up with they have sent me designed through Schoology they submitted their designs they've submitted their drawings to me um so now it is the process of figuring out their code and then once they do figure out their code they're gonna kind of give me a really quick like I'll have a discussion board where they'll just kind of give me a blurb about here's kind of the process that we went through of figuring out how to create this actual letter this is the letter that we chose to go with and here's why we ended up choosing this letter and then they'll submit their videos for the very last day so I thought it was fun it's cute I like this guy I like having him in my classroom so if you don't have one you should definitely have one I asked my mom for mine so and my mom got me my - which I was so incredibly thankful for all right so I'm gonna go ahead and start getting everything else ready for today so this morning I need to create our word study tests for a few of our words that you like words that we're doing on the kids today are gonna take their tests they're gonna start their new work study tomorrow so I like it because I have Schoology I don't really have to create like an exam but I do have to say the word so when I go through in Schoology and I actually create my little test like I will just see the word into the microphone I'll type in the correct um like word like the spelling of it and the kids will be able to take it during the like afternoon time when we're doing our s RI now I know what you're thinking you're like oh my gosh but what about like autocorrect so we have the kids turn off their keyboards they have to show it to us it's like an exam like so I'll stand around it and I will watch them typically we would do it in small groups so we only have fewer of them and it's a little bit easier to kind of manage them but today we're just doing it in a big group because this is the only time we have to do it and I'm just gonna just stand around I'll check them first and then I'll just walk around constantly to make sure that they do not have it on and that everybody's taking the test of the way that they should be taking it so I'm gonna create my test right now and then I have to film my word stay words for Friday which I can get that done so I'm not too stressed out about it so I'm gonna do this now and then I need to start looking at what I am actually teaching this morning yellow eat gift I need to stop at the store to pick up a gift for the birthday party gift nice the new student in our class is really nice nice all right I got my word study test up in Schoology so that's up and running I've got what I'm doing today for my math groups and for my one reading group this morning and then after that we are doing s RI so it's gonna be looking a little bit different I'll hopefully be able to talk to you guys during lunch time so I need to head out to meeting i'ma grab my computer at my planner and I will chat with you guys later on today was an incredibly accomplishing day I feel so stinking good about myself at the moment like I just go smack it helps a ton with the fact that I had 6th grade during like my art to our block our 5th graders were taking an SSRI so we ended up deciding to split our kids by grade levels so kW had 4th grade at Katie was administering the exam to 5th grade and then I had 6th grade so my 6th graders were working on the application and there's only like 13 or 14 of them it was so so nice and they were very helpful like they were cutting things out for me they were helping me put away things whenever they were done because they didn't have anything else to do so I am like rockin on organization right now I feel really freaking good about myself so I want to show you guys all of my like glorious beautiful organization that's going on right now okay but seriously let's it's not that beautiful but it is beautiful to me at least so inside of this little cabinet here I have the little file these are just kind of some important documents that I just keep on hand that I can refer back to it has like passwords things like that that I keep for my kids this one right here has a couple of things that I just need a grave it's not a ton I have pride tickets and then I have like house points that I can keep right there and then I had something that I need to end up copying but like all of these are like reference material so I don't really want to put these away until the end of the year so I just kind of keep those there for the time being but I had a ton of papers here that are all gone I had a ton of papers in here that are all gone and it's nice and neatly organized and then all my binders down here other than the fact that they're not labeled they are all organized which makes me feel so freaking good so if you are new to my channel then you probably don't know but I like to organize all of my units that I Halleck has all of the materials that I teach inside of binders I like binders I feel like minders are just a little bit more organized I know that if I'm teaching plot I can go grab my plot binder and then it has all of the materials that I've ever used to teach plot I did the same thing in kindergarten like when I taught I but I organized it by theme like I knew that if I was teaching winter or if I was teaching weather I would just go grab that binder and he would have all the materials that I ever used for it I just love it it because it's feels so much more organized to me and then I put everything inside of page protectors here's why I'm going into this because I've started something new and I really really really like this system it helps keep you more organized I have everything kind of put together and I feel more I feel like I know exactly where I'm going with my lessons there is no more of that feeling of saying like oh what was I gonna do next or oh where was I gonna go from here and not I need to go and find this like I know exactly where I'm going with each of my groups it's not like I have to have like a written out plan for each of them because I know what I'm doing with them since I have it all in one spot so I'm gonna show you guys exactly like what this new like a binder that I have it looks like okay so I have a cover on my binder right now and it has kind of my schedule on it I do need to update it because some of the times and the groups that I have are not right anymore so I am planning on updating it I just haven't gotten around to putting it out but I just kind of keep a binder this one's from Staples it's a one and a half inch there's what it looks like it's a one and a half inch binder and I've been keeping all of my group materials inside of it so when you open it up I have a list of kids that I have for each of the stem rotations I just keep that in there and then I think somebody's coming in my room and then I have these separated by colored card stocks I do want to put tabs on them I just haven't gotten around to buying the tabs themselves so the very first one that I have is for my first group so when I kind of open it up to my first group I have a list of the words that they're using I typically have the story in here but I did not and we're in we're changing out story so I need to print and add a new one inside of it again it's inside of a page protector so I know that whenever we are done I can simply just take this out and put it into the unit binder that it belongs with then I have my next group so when I open it up you can see that it's my cp/m group so these are this is the next group that I have I just have it kind of sticky note with a I have a like a placeholder for with a sticky note to tell me exactly where I'm at and then I can always refer back to other lessons and see what it is that they've been doing but this is kind of what I use for them and then any materials that I add I will just kind of add it to this little chunk right here then I have my next group and then I have some different units some different things that other teachers have given me that they've used to be able to teach I have certain things sticky noted but all of the materials that I could possibly use for these lessons I have them here so that I can just go make a copy and then have it ready to go for that group then starts one of my reading groups they're working on plots so I have just some stories that I use for plots kind of readily available I have also some story maps that I use and then we're going to be started starting kind of the Pennsylvania PSS a kind of prep with them so I have this available ready to go here so I can just make copies like I said and then place it inside of my file folder so that it can use it for their group but this just gives me a really good nice organized way of being able to keep everything together and then once I'm done teaching this like this will end up going into the plot all of these will end up going into my plot binder I don't have to take anything out I can just open it up pull this out place it inside of my plot binder and then I'm pretty much done so there is not like a huge pile of papers that I have to sit through and kind of organize with does that make sense I just like it because I store all of my materials inside a page protectors in binders so why not have all of my materials in page protectors in one binder that I'm using currently to be able to instruct all of my groups with so this is just kind of my little here's all my stuff that I use for all my group so I always have them ready readily available I can make copies in the morning so I have that one binder and then over here I still use sorry about this this is like stuff I got a grade so I still use my teacher planner in order to kind of plan out some of my lessons now these are very like a generic lessons but I still have it here to be able to plan them out and then I just kind of write little notes and jot things in and this is kind of what I refer to to figure out oh this is where I'm going next with them this is what I'm doing with them so I still do use this so I came to my in-laws brought pizza we just got done eating and now I'm gonna go up to Pottery and we are gonna glaze our pots that we made that a lot like a long time ago so the boys have some that they're gonna do I have one a few that I'm gonna do look around and tell me what you types of things you like it's very complicated so what's the difference between raising and painting well paint you don't fire and it's just paint like huh that's how they did no and if they're in you take that with you if you want so what do you wanna know they got a lot nice you have so much work to do well yeah this is yours brain I know that that's the one you did on the wheel it's cute isn't he just gonna paint a face that's a piece tiger I did that one that one hmm I think my fault our dream dragon in the movies [Music] here's the final product it was not me Thank You Nick so I feel like I'm gonna be fiddling with this cardigan this cardigan all day long I don't know it's just cuz I got hips and I cannot lie I just don't know how to wear it like do you put it high up like here or do you lower it and then this thing is like SuperDuper long which I'm okay with but then my hip stick out really bad huh I wore this hoping that I was gonna be super adorable and I'm not feeling over adorable I took my precious time getting ready this morning like I'm not even gonna lie y'all typically I will like I have a whole routine down like I'm a creature of habit so I wake up I hit my fruit well actually my alarm goes off the first time I hit it snooze it wakes me up eight minutes later I get up I go to the bathroom TMI and then I brush my teeth I put on my contacts I go into the shower I take my shower it depends on if it's a hair wash day or not I go and get dressed I go downstairs my hair is still not done at this moment I do my makeup well actually I make a cup of coffee I do my makeup and then I go back upstairs to do my hair and then I'm pretty much ready to go okay today I put on my bathrobe after I got out of the shower I went downstairs I made my coffee and then I did my makeup watching some videos and then I went into the basement I sat on the couch with my coffee watching more videos I was just over lazy and I'm just gonna be okay with it um actually I was pretty much lazy because I felt very accomplished yesterday at the fact that I was able to get so much done like all of my papers have been stored away everything is ready to go for today I don't have to stress out about it and I know that today is gonna be a really relaxed relaxed day because today is dr a comprehension assessment day I had someone who asked me weird voice crackle I had someone on I think it was YouTube that asked me about what it's a Dra so a Dra is kind of like a running record so if you're familiar with a running record basically it just tells you what level of kid is on so there are different forms of it and I have sorry I have like on this door right here you can kind of see where I have the little plastic sheet protector that's just pink to the door um an example from book source but some of the different reading levels that you would find so if you look carefully like you have grade level guided reading level Lexile level DRA level so what we give our kids in this district is the DRA it goes into more depth than what a normal running record like the guided reading level does I did guided reading when I was in kindergarten so we used the fountas and pinnell like method of reading records so basically what it was is I had the kids read up you know a book to me I checked their fluency their accuracy the rate at which you know they read all that good jazz check them for that if they were able to pass that then I checked their comprehension and it was for questions going for a literal to kind of your higher thinking like inferential type questions so they had those four questions if they received three out of four for their comprehension that that means that that was kind of their independent reading level and that's what we used here it goes it just so much more depth there is kind of like these reading questions that you can ask at the beginning we don't do that in this district just because I did it at the beginning of the year and then I don't do it typically and like I hold conferences so I I do it regularly so I don't do it for the DRA but the kids will sit down we'll do the running record piece which will check for their accuracy their fluency their rate at which if they read all that good jazz it'll check for that and then afterwards I will tell them to go back and kind of fill out a comprehension piece now depending on what level you are for a DRA once you kind of get to that 38 level and above you can have the kids kind of fill it in anything below you're supposed to fill it in as a teacher so they're supposed to verbally tell it to you and you write it in for their DRA so I will have my kids just depending on their level the majority of them are pretty much high so I will have them go fill out the first page the first page just asks you know something about the characters typically or it'll say let me pull one out it's a DRA book this one is a pack of wolves this is on the level forty so it's a fourth grade reading level um here is kind of what the DRA piece looks like this is the teacher form this is what I use to kind of keep track so I will do the oral reading fluency is what they call it the introduction and I will say this informational text a pack of wolves tell us about wolves that live in North America please read aloud to the start on page two so they don't even read the whole book they only read that much I will time them they will read I will mark what they get correct what they do not get correct if they insert words if they omit words if they say different words I will mark all of that then I will put their time here and then I will circle where it actually went I have an idea I'm sorry because this is so hard to see and I know that as a new teacher I was terrified to do running records like it was the scariest thing on the face of the planet if you would like for me to have my son Ian I could do a whole like here's how I do a running record with a DRA and a guided reading level I can do both of them I can have him do one and I can show you and walk you through how I actually do this if you wouldn't want to see that leave a comment down below it won't make life so much easier because I was terrified to do running records and I know that every year like I took me about three or four years to really feel comfortable doing them because it's like you do them twice a year or something to that extent and then you forget except for your kind of your intervention kids but the intervention kids I did something totally different it was like a whole thing of a thing I was terrified as a first year teacher doing running records now I'm just like ah let's do it go so I would be more than happy to do that and I'm sure Ian would be okay with it um but I can do a DRA in a running record with Ian with you guys so if you want to see that just leave a comment down below and I will totally do it um so anyway once you're kind of done with that piece the kids have like this little comprehension piece and the first page says like your prediction what are some questions that you had while reading the first part and then what do you think will happen in the rest of the text they're supposed to write three things okay so typically what we do is we will do all of our running records for our kids because we don't have enough books so we will do all of our reading records for our kids and then what we will do is we will then um have a day where we do the comprehension piece so we'll have like a two-hour block kind of blocked off for the kids to be able to we'll give them this book and then we'll give them their paper they will have to go back and read the entire text and then they have all this stuff to fill out so it's a summary then they have literal questioning interpretation reflection and then metacognition which is on the back so they have to complete all of it and then there's like a scoring rubric that's on our teacher page that will go through and score to determine are they truly independent are they you know and like what was the cost advanced instructional so and so forth so um yes hi we're gonna do these today so I have two kids that I actually have to get done this morning because they were absent and then I totally forgot about it in the morning but they'd go really really fast so I didn't need to get my materials ready for my two kids said I need to do this morning then we need to go and collect all of the books that we need to have for our homes because we're gonna do it in homeroom which is why my day is gonna be pretty much really really easy um so yesterday kind of planned it out here um so yesterday we met with our rotations one through five and then in the afternoon we did not meet with our kids because we had s RI right this is where I was able to get so much stuff done okay today we are gonna meet with rotations 7 because 6 is writing doesn't really count we're gonna meet with rotation 7 through 10 so that we can meet with them today so we're kind of taking yesterday and today and creating a whole day so that we're not going a huge long period of time without seeing them because if I was to meet with rotations 1 through 5 again this morning then that means I would have not met with the other group twice so I met with them yesterday I'm gonna meet with 7 through 10 today and we're gonna do our DRA in the afternoon so hi and like this is like a super easy day today which is why I spent so much time at home just kind of relaxing and taking my sweet precious time if you're wondering why I keep this here this little book source cuz you're like well you know what they are a they're on why do you have this because when I taught kindergarten I did everything by guided reading level so all of my lower level texts a through like f h i j k like all those um they're labeled as guided reading so i have a couple of learners that I instruct there that are on a first grade reading level and I like to be able to reference it so that I can pull books for their guided reading I also have like these little homework bags that I send home with a few students who are also again like on a second ish grade reading level and I pull books from reading A to Z and I all stare a lot of them are like on guided reading levels so it just it's easier for me to just have this chart there so that I can constantly reference it just in case you're wondering yeah I'm gonna go put this back now but for real yeah I know I should do this yesterday but look how good my little hot mess back there is it's like I had papers like that it's all gone all gone I need to make labels for these I need to make labels for that but I am uber proud of myself and I got all of this stuff cleaned out so I have the applications that my sixth graders finished yesterday I have a few things for today some things for Friday I am feeling really good about myself and I stocked this thing up so I put more this really should be over here um so I have like I put some more clothes what are these these are not clothespins Bridget paper clips some of these I got all might die back there but my markers I stocked up y'all and some pencils or erasers back there with my bow my ball yep I'm feeling good about myself here looking good Bridget it's about ten to eight so I have to go to a meeting this morning I pretty much have all my things together I do need to finish up my morning message on my computer so I'll do that during my meeting just hisk on my part so I will catch you guys a little bit later on I'm feeling very like lazy I didn't get myself in the groove we have made it a complete week without a snow day a delayed start an early dismissal or a holiday we haven't had a full week of school since December I am exhausted this week I just was so so tired which is why I have been failing and vlogging in the afternoons because I go I get done at the end of the day and it's like I'm completely drained and I go home and I've been going to bed at 8 o'clock so like my poor husband and kids like they're just like where's mom mom is sleeping yet again this morning I've gotten a lot done I was able to come come in kind of get some things stored away put some things back I had to go out and make some copies and look like a 12 year old my beings were not working for me today so I kind of just pin them back so I'm really sorry about my parents I made some copies this morning that I needed to make for the kids folders to be able to kind of keep track of the standards that they've been doing so I need to go back and do that because we haven't been doing it so I have that I also took out the gingka set for this morning I'm just gonna have those kids play Jenga for their morning meaning they enjoy it they like to talk and yesterday and the day before they did a lot of quiet time so it's like alright I like I need to give you guys some talk time because if not you're gonna go crazy I'm gonna go crazy it's gonna be a day so I took out Jenga talk for them this morning made some copies I do have a couple of things that I need to laminate so I'm about to do that and then I have to go to a meeting this morning so I'm gonna mosey my way down to the fourth grade ela group and just kind of hang with them this morning so outfit of the day kind of goes with my whole I look like a 12 year old and I probably like I mean I did this to myself let's just be honest but we got to wear jeans today because it is the like United Way jeans day on Friday or this Friday today so we got we all got to wear jeans which is exciting so it's kind of what I ended up picking to wear and I think this kind of goes along with my mood because I just felt very like and I was not motivated to get my butt to work today because it was the first full week so I'm a little bit drained anywho all right let's do outfit of the day all right so I have my j.crew jeans that I always wear that have holes in them because it's the only jeans that I ever wear um I have this Darth vader-like sweater that I found in the boys section at Target so I'm wearing Darth today and then I have this made well cardigan that my mom got me for Christmas which are really loved because it's incredibly cozy so I'm feeling over cozy but I also feel like I look like a 12 year old and then I have what are these these are Michael Kors shoes that I found at t.j.maxx a while back I'm gonna be okay with it I'm okay with it so I'm gonna get my stuff laminated get my things together and then head out to my meeting this morning it has been a long day and I am so tired but still so excited because we're gonna go to Mexicali for dinner with my in-laws which is so nice because that means one I don't have to cook - I love Mexicali and I love Mexicali that's really about it today was a good day we ended up kind of changing up our schedules just a little bit and I think like the most exciting part I don't think I know but the most exciting part of our J was getting to do the PBL so we put our kids into their jobs so we have four different jobs we have the PR department we have our researchers our farmers and then we also have our builders so we broke them up into their jobs which they were so excited about and they all got to start accreted their questions similar to what we started doing at the very beginning of the year with like our panther pantry but they did it more specific to their jobs so here's a look at kind of what they have done the blue are my researchers and then they ended up kind of putting them into little categories so they started talking about money in this one buildings and community gardens and then this kind of stick went from what we will grow what plant what season what type of soil differences between above ground below ground and so on so forth so that is theirs then the farmers kind of created their questions here to start help guiding them so they created these questions and then we ended up kind of bringing both of them together because I have both of these groups kW has the builders katie has the PR department but we ended up bringing both of these groups together at the very end and really looking at the similarities once we did that we were able to then start talking about where is it that we really want to begin and the researchers decided that we really just need to kind of talk with the people who have like our pantry here that kind of supports our community members in our district so we need to talk to the pantry to kind of get an idea of is this a possibility for us to be to do this we want to be able to do it so they're gonna do an interview with her kind of have like a meeting Akal at like a collaboration time with her where they're gonna discuss the pantry and then afterwards we ended up saying that they need to kind of figure out what is it that's gonna be most beneficial to our families because we're not gonna grow a bunch of Brussels sprouts if our families are not going to need it plus then we started talking about well are we gonna grow herbs our herbs going to be useful for our families or do we need to really look at something like tomatoes and potatoes are those possibilities so once they kind of finish their meeting they're gonna set up a meeting next week I'm gonna get them some some guiding questions kind of help them out plan them out there their meeting and where they want to go what they want to ask that type of thing so they'll do that at the beginning of the week then from there they're gonna go through and collect data from the school so they're gonna go to just different classrooms collect data as far as like which vegetables which fruits are most appealing to family members in our area and then they're gonna go back and kind of collect give that data to the PR department that's gonna give them kind of a ground to figure out what is it exactly they need to start researching and then our farmers decided that they were going to start with seeds versus seedlings and figuring out what exactly we want to go with cost-wise seeds are going to be way cheaper but depending on how they actually grow it may be more beneficial for us to do seedlings so I think we're gonna do a little bit of experiments and the very beginning to kind of get an idea of how we can start our garden in the first place like how are they gonna actually start the process of growing the fruits and vegetables so that's kind of where we're at I am so flippin excited I have so much work to do we got together and we ended up at the very end of it like once all of the different groups were done in the rooms we got together as an entire group and kind of touched base as an entire group PR department kind of gave us an idea of what they need from us we gave them an idea of what we're focusing on and what we're doing and then we gave ourselves about a two-week timeline to have some some things done so let me show you guys what we had here so up on the board we kind listed out the four different areas and then we kind of put down what is it that they're looking for so P or P R is kind of focusing on what is it that we can spin they're going to be talking with pto designing the logo they need cost and sample builds they need to know what is it that we can grow farmers are going to be working on the seeds of ur the seedlings the builders are going to be working on plans getting ideas the plans that may be cost estimates and then looking at some different ideas maybe like watering plans greenhouses raised beds water barrels etc and then the researchers are going to be meeting with some people and then we're all sort of figuring out when where we can grow and then maybe even coming up with a chart in a way for us to be able to look at the Sun and where it hits in the school so that we can figure out an exact area around the the building that we will be able to do all these plants overall it was such a productive day I was really really excited I have my stuff ready for tomorrow not tomorrow I'm ready for the weekend but I do have my things ready for Monday morning which I am very proud about because I typically don't have my stuff this prepared so you can kind of see here I do have my Monday plans ready to go I'm not gonna stress out too much about my Tuesday and my Wednesday plans someone really wonderful once said I can't plan for tomorrow until I know what my students can do today so I am gonna just kind of leave this here I have my Monday stuff ready to go and then over here I have all of my materials ready for all of the groups for Monday so I am all set and now I can head out so I'm gonna call this a wrap y'all I'm gonna end the vlog here I'm gonna go have me some exit alley and enjoy my weekend with my boys so I hope you guys had a really great weekend be sure to give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it like always subscribe if you are not subscribed already I would so appreciate it and I will see you all very soon bye [Music]

Channel: The Lettered Classroom

Views: 12,346

Rating: 4.9117646 out of 5

Keywords: A day in the life of a teacher, education, elementary school, new teacher, how to become a teacher, how to teach, math, reading, writing, education videos, teacher, elementary teacher, middle school, tips, teaching, vlog, teacher vlog, a teacher's life, school vlog, teacher mom, classroom vlog, classroom weekly vlog, The Lettered Classroom, Bridget Spackman, weekly vlog, a day in the classroom, multiage classroom, intermediate school, upper elementary

Id: 5v3Anxv7uL4

Length: 75min 3sec (4503 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 28 2018