One Happy Teacher!

Through a teacher friend of mine I was introduced to Kelly Anne of Appleslices Loving Writing Unit! I have been trying for week to no avail to get my students writing. No matter what I tried I could not for the life of me get them to enjoy writing. I downloaded it and decided what the heck it can't hurt to try it. My students absolutely loved it!!!! Today when they walked in the classroom I had 5 kids ask me are we going to write in our writing notebooks today? I was over the moon by the response.

I told them with my writing program they had to write the whole time, their pencils could not stop the whole time. I figured I would get some moans and groans, but I didn't hear a word. I sent them to find somewhere comfortable in the room and told them they had 15 minutes to write. They wrote and wrote, I had to practically beg them to stop writing so we could move on. After they had completed the writing I asked who wanted to share, I normally have a pretty reluctant class. However, in this case almost every hand in the class shot up to share what they had written.

I am so beyond excited I don't even know how to express it to you. The fact that I have found something I can use all year and they enjoy it is so amazing. I have them hooked and I can only hope that this is a step towards them becoming the strong, independent writers I know they can be.

Miss B.

Halloween Parties and Parades. Scarecrow Style!

This scarecrow survived the first Halloween party and parade of her teaching career and all I can say is oh man I am I glad that is over! My students had a wonderful and busy day, but it made for a crazy and stressful day for this teacher. As all my students returned from getting dressed up we began the parade. Did I mention the parade was outside and the temperature was 33* with the wind chill? It was freezing and in all the madness I forgot my coat, so you can imagine how excited I was to return to the comforts of our warm classroom.

Once we returned to the classroom we made witch hats out of cookies ad orange frosting. The students loved it and was a nice way to get some control over the end of the day! Finally we finished off the day by taking a group picture. My students were so tired of pictures by the end of the day, but I want as many ways to remember the day as I can.

Although I am glad Halloween week and the Halloween party day is over, it was a blast for my students and that is what is important. I am ready to hear all of their exciting trick-or-treating stories come Monday morning.

Miss. B

Surviving Parent-Teacher Conferences

After losing a weeks worth of sleep stressing over every little detail of parent-teacher conference, the conferences came and went with no problem. Such a weight off my chest to finally get to meet and communicate with parents and to hear them say they think I am doing a good job. Being a brand new teacher my biggest fear was mis-speaking or saying something that was taken the wrong way by a parent, having parents walk out of my room smiling made me feel like I might actually be doing okay at the whole communication with parent thing.

I had many parents express that they were very worried with their child having a brand new teacher, especially one that was hired the first day of school. However, they expressed to me that their children love me and that they haven't seen anything in my teaching that concerns them! They have no idea the weight that those words have lifted off my shoulders. I know I am a decent teacher, but hearing that they believe in me and that their children believe in me shows me I am on my way to being the best teacher I can be!

The two best moments of the day had to be when my Superintendent called me in to his office after I had completed a phone conference with a parent to tell me how wonderfully I had handled the conversation. Second, was when I handed a parent their child's grade card and they just lit up and asked me are these his real grades? I told her yes they are and she told me that he had never had grades this good in any other grade. I thought maybe just maybe I am actually reaching some of the students more than I think I am.

Maybe losing a weeks worth of sleep was worth it, because walking out of the meetings Thursday I was able to breath a sigh of relief. I am not an expert in the filed of communicating with parents, but I feel that I did a pretty good job with my first conference.

Miss. B

Teaching Art!

I am not an artsy person at all so when it comes to art in the classroom I am really bad at finding time for it. As the weeks have gone by I have been asked more and more by my students when we are going to do some art. Well this week I decided we would do some art and man they loved it! On Thursday we made pumpkins that I hung in the hallway, they ripped up construction paper and were able to design their own pumpkin! Today we made Owls that I am going to hang around the room for their parents to see at parent-teacher conferences later this month. With the upcoming months and the many art activities that the holidays provide I am going to try and do better when it comes to including art in my plans. It is a nice way for the students to have some productive downtime and it gives them a chance to really show their artistic skills off.

Pictures of the finished projects will be up so! They are pretty proud to shop them off and they told me they think it will add a bit more pop to the classroom. Any suggestions on how I can do a better job teaching or incorporating art into my lessons/classroom??  Does anyone else have to teach art in the classroom? How often do you teach or do art in the classroom?

Miss. B

First time blogger

Hello My name is Ashley Bolton and I am a brand new 4th grade teacher! I also happen to be a first time blogger. I follow many blogger on Bloglovin and decided to give it a whirl. I am excited to share the ups and downs of what goes on in my classroom on a daily basis. As I said being brand new, I am sure I am not going to be very good at this thing. Any help would be appreciated by my fellow bloggers.