School Week and Let's Get Acquainted

Two blog posts in two days...who am I?! I will begin with my favorite read alouds in linking up with Tracey over at The Teacher's Chair and her fabulous School Week Linky! 

Favorite, now that means just a hand full, right? I can't just take a picture of the two totes full of my personal read alouds that do not go anywhere near my classroom library? Ok seriously, some of my faves are: 

This is a fairly new book, released in 2012. I used it with my third graders last year as an inference lesson. Before reading the text, we looked at all of the illustrations in great detail and tried to tell the story ourselves. Then I read the story and compared it with our initial predictions/inferences. Eventually, we watched the short film. My student teacher/para was out on the day that I read this and the kiddos could not wait to tell her about it when she returned. This was one of their favorites, for sure. It quickly became one of my all time favorites. 

I have always been rather hesitant to read Edward Tulane to my third graders, but last summer at the reading clinic, I read this book to students going into 4th and 5th grade. They were struggling readers and probably could have read it, but would have missed out on the comprehension if they read it independently. I had to do quite a bit of clarifying with vocabulary words and activating schema, but the kiddos got really into it and fell in love. I am looking forward to getting to share this book as a read aloud with my new 4th graders this year. 

 I think The Polar Express speaks for itself - no explanation needed!

I have read Sideways Stories from Wayside School for the last couple of years to my third grade classes. They L-O-V-E it! Never fails to crack them all up and the extra copies that are in my classroom library are always scoffed right up as students like to follow along and try to read ahead. It is a fun one, for sure!

I could go on all day, but I won't do that to all of you. The pictures of the books above are links to them on Amazon. 

Moving on to Latoya's Let's Get Acquainted linky. This week it is Upcoming School Year Goals! Latoya's blog is Flying Into First. 

#1 - Learn everyone's name 

I am working in a new school this year, so I know very few people. It is weird to think back six years ago to starting a new job, but I do remember worrying about keeping track of who-is-who. So hopefully I will learn everyone's names quickly!

#2 - Be organize and efficient 

I have always prided myself on being organized in my classroom, but teaching a new grade level this year, I am going to need to be more organized and efficient than ever. I will also have to be evaluated for the next 3 years, being a "new teacher" again. BOO!! Yet another reason to be very, very organized with the new evaluation system in place in my state. 

#3 - Parent communication and involvement

I am coming from a school where getting in touch with parents was like pulling teeth and getting parents involved and coming to school was even more difficult. The school that I will be teaching at this year has much more parent involvement, so I would like to be better at communicating openly and frequently with parents and getting them into school in meaningful ways! 

Enough about me, now it's your turn. If you haven't done so already, head over to The Teacher's Chair to link up with the School Week Linky and Flying into First to Get Acquainted! 

Thanks for reading!