This year my goal is to blog much more often. I clearly failed at that the first time I tried but this year I want to try again! So hopefully you are as excited as I am!
This summer, to kickstart my thinking of the 2018-2019 school year I read two books. Throughout the year I hope to share how these books have shaped my teaching in these areas. And if they fail, I am ready to document that as well and add my own twist to make it work for me and my new 5th graders.
The first book I read was The Morning Meeting Book by Kriete and Davis. I have been completely inspired to implement a full 20-30 minute morning meeting to my classroom this year. I have always known the importance of sitting down with your class, debriefing and getting a positive start to the day. But after reading this I am ready for some intentional morning meetings that not only benefit students' social-emotional development but set them up for successful learning throughout the day. I hope to write a lot about this journey on this blog.
The second book I read is one that I have actually had for quite a while now. It has been in my classroom, on a shelf, for a few years. I have started to implement it each year but never quite read the book all the way through. I often struggle with teaching writing, so I am really hoping that this will help shape my writing instruction for this year and help me to feel more successful. This book is Notebook Know-How by Aimee Buckner. It isn't necessarily how to teach the Common Core Standards or how to get the students to write a perfect 5 paragraph essay. Aimee writes about how to get students to just write and love it. It has shifted the way that I think about writing and I hope I can engage more of my students with this approach.
I am starting to work on some presentations to share an overview of this info with others and will share them on here when they are complete. Until then, I hope that some of you will check out these great books!
