Thursday, November 26, 2015

Merry, Merry Christmas-Math and Literacy Center

We have finally made it (almost) to December y'all!!! I have thoroughly enjoyed my Thanksgiving week long break. I know be jealous! LOL! I have been busy working on Christmas related math and literacy centers for my classroom. Go check them out. They are on sale now until Saturday. You can't beat 5 math and 5 literacy centers for less than 5 bucks! Here is a look at what all you might find in this holiday beauty!!! 
 Check it out here.

Happy Thanksgiving! I have much to be thankful for this year. Very thankful for a job I love and for the opportunity to create items that might help other teachers. What are you thankful for this Thanksgiving season?
Much love and many blessings,
Elaine


Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Whole Brain Teaching Presentation and More....

To say I have been busy is an understatement. It has been just a little CRAZY! I was asked to do a presentation on the way that I use Whole Brain Teaching within my classroom for a recent PD day that our school had. I happily obliged and enlisted some help from my one of my best teaching friends. I don't like to present alone. I'm a scaredy cat. LOL! We have similar teaching traits and philosophies. It makes it very easy to present together when your ideas coincide. We were overwhelmed by the turnout from our faculty. What a blessing! Thank you to each one who came!!!
The presentation took place in my classroom so that everyone could see how the super improver wall, scoreboard, etc. were set up and actually worked.

My friend, Jayme, who teaches first grade presenting about "Class, Yes" and "Hands, Eyes". Truly blessed to work with her!!! Although, we don't teach the same grade, we talk often. :) LOVE her!!


I will blog later about how I use WBT within in my classroom and will show slides from the PowerPoint we used. :)

Of course, I had to have my pic made with my sweet Gabbygirl before heading to present that day! Love that sweet doggie. And of course I had to have new shoes to wear for the day. LOL! Bought these cuties at Belk. You can find them here. Top and kimono came from my boutique. 
You can find it here



In other news, October is special to our family. My Nana died at 47 with breast cancer and my Mom is a previvor of 2 years. Many don't realize what a previvor is. 

Previvors are survivors of a predisposition to cancer.

Previvors are individuals whom have a history of breast cancer in their family and/or have tested positive for the BRCA  gene. My mom had a double mastectomy two years ago this past summer. What a journey she has had through reconstruction and throughout the entire mastectomy process.   Mom, along with other breast cancer survivors, were honored at a recent Breast Cancer Awareness Pep Rally at our middle school. It was absolutely phenomenal. Proud moment!!!!
Each survivor had their name hanging from the ceiling as you entered the school with how many years listed that they had been cancer free!!

Lee, Mom and I after the pep rally.

Thank you to all who helped with this pep rally and who came to honor
 the survivors. #thinkpink #hmslionsthinkpink

Keep moving and trudging along! We have almost made it to Thanksgiving folks! 
Can you believe it????
WE CAN DO THIS!!! 
Of course, I have to throw in a ROLL TIDE!!! #sabannation #rollwiththetide
Much love and many blessings,
Elaine




Crankenstein and Stellaluna

WOW is all I can say! We have been busily working on our October Rooted in Reading units from Step into Second Grade and Queen of the First Grade Jungle. I have to say that I love teaching reading this way. I am super in love with the fact that I am not tied down to a particular reading series story that I can pull these stories and use them and the students are so much more interested in these stories versus the basal stories. They love the different books so far.

We started with Crankenstein. I do have to do a little more and add a little more to challenge my students since they are geared toward second grade and I teach 3rd grade. However, this has not been a huge problem. I have tried to mainly change the grammar skill. The comprehension and the vocabulary stay the same.
I am very impressed with how my students writing has improved since I starting teaching with Rooted in Reading.





Coming this week...... Spiders story and more. Have a great rest of the week!
Blessings,
Elaine