I'm Back with A Peek At My Week

Hi Bloggy Friends! I honestly have absolutely no idea where the last 3 weeks have gone. I have been so busy and so overwhelmed in my new job...but in the best way possible! I love my class, the "North Hall" (3rd and 4th grade) has been extremely welcoming and helpful, and my 7 minute commute is GREAT! This week is going to be one of the busiest so far, but hopefully after this things will finally calm down a bit. 

I am excited to have the time to finally get back to Jennifer's A Peek at my Week linky. Check it out over at her adorable blog Mrs. Laffin's Laughings. 

My district is using the text "Comprehension Connections" by Tanny McGregor this year. On Friday, I used "Rachel Delevoryas" to work on making connections with my kiddos. Click here to check out the video of the song. This lesson went so well that we are going to try it again on Monday with another song. "Don't Laugh at Me," is a recommended read aloud text when teaching metacognition, but I didn't use the text so I'll be using this song on Monday. My 4th graders continue to amaze me everyday with their knowledge, so I cannot wait to share this song/video with them. 

Apparently it is a tradition in my new district for all of the new teachers to attend the first school committee meeting of the school year with their principals to be introduced and speak about themselves. Tuesday night I will be attending this meeting to give a short speech about myself. I typically don't mind speaking in public, but I am not excited about this as it will be televised on our local tv station in town. YIKES!

Picture Day...and one busy afternoon. We have a school-wide behavior reinforcement system. On Wednesday afternoon the whole school will take a group walk around our grounds carrying flags that our kiddos made in art class. After the walk we will visit all of the recess stations as grade-levels to review the rules. While this is going on many students will be getting dismissed as it our "town day" at a local fair - if you're from New England, I am talking about the Big E - and kids will march in the parade with their teams/groups/etc. I of course will be heading over right after school to indulge in all of the tasty treats. I LOVE the Big E!

Another "Comprehension Connections" lesson on Thursday. To teach inferring there is a great lesson where you share your "neighbors' garbage" and have the students try to infer who the neighbor is. From what I understand, some other teachers in my building tried this one out last year and it worked really well. I am pretty excited about this one. 

Thursday is Open House at my old school. Some of my friends there mentioned that I should stop by and after a lot of thought, I think I have decided to. I am hoping to run into some of my old kiddos while I am there too! 

In continuing the inferring lesson from Thursday, I will be using shoes to have the students infer who the shoes belong to. We will take it one step further in this lesson and cite/record our thinking/schema that helps us infer. 

If you haven't read "Comprehension Connections" yet, check it out on Amazon. It is a wonderful resource for anyone who teaches reading. I highly recommend it. 

Have a great week! Thanks for reading!