Getting Back into the Swing of It All

Howdy all!
Just wanted to touch base after all the holiday fuss...its been great hanging out with all my family during the past few weeks. It was difficult to get back into the swing of getting up and out the door early in the morning.
It has been fun to reacquaint myself with my kiddos in class. How did you refresh your connections with your students? I used 3 statements to prompt them:  Explain to me something you did on the break. Tell me something you got for Christmas that your really excited about, and describe one goal you have for 2014. This turned out to be a great way to get reacquainted and allowed students to share about their break and themselves.

We are hitting the ground running now that STAAR season is almost upon us. I have a great team of ladies that are so hard working, innovative, willing to try new things and enthusiastic! I am blessed to call them my teammates and friends. We have decided to try a new format - stations for all subjects! It is quite an endeavor! It has allowed us to begin to focus on students' needs, have structure, and differentiated groups. It has been such fun to see students excited about learning! It is basically a workshop type model. Is anyone else doing something like this other than Reading/Writing workshop?
Anyone doing it for Math, Science and Social Studies? I'd love to hear how it is going for you and what types of things your implementing to help students be successful.
Thanks for your input!

Howdy Y'all!

Howdy y'all! I have not blogged in For-Ever! I have missed you all, but like an old friend you haven't seen in a while, I hope to greet you with a huge hug!

Just as most of you, there is always so much to do from planning, documenting, teaching, grading, family and home responsibilities (just name a few), that I find myself rarely taking time for myself. 

So...yes before the new year begins: I am turning over a new leaf -

If things don't get done, it will still be there tomorrow!

Although I still don't know much about blogging, I really want to do this. I read tons of other peoples blogs!!! I am almost a blog reading addict! They are quick reads when time is short, and give some of the most valuable information! 

Anyone out there willing to  "teach an old lady some new tricks", contact me! 

Until we meet again, (which will be sooner than later, so watch out!), have a wonderful time with family and friends during the holiday season. Like Arnold, "I'll be back!"

Bringing Cattle to School!

Cattle drive day at school 2012. Even though these pictures are a year old, they remind me of one of the best days at school. About 80% of the students in 4th grade have never been up close and personal to a live horse (yes, in Texas!). I took 2 horses to the school grounds (along with the help of my awesome hubby and eldest daughter, of which I could never have done it without them!). We set up stations in the yard complete with an art center where students learned about the anatomy of a horse, saddle up races where students had to properly saddle a horse rack, pole bending races on stick horses, roping a cow head, and of course getting to touch a real horse! This was a culminating activity after students had learned about Texas cattle drives and participated in a "mock cattle drive" using raw eggs. The students had to apply for their "ranch job" and maneuver through a laid out trail without "loosing any cattle" (breaking eggs). With the help of some "wranglers" (other teachers) students had a great time and realized just how hard it was to "drive cattle" arriving at their destination with few losses. The team with the most "cattle alive" got "paid" the most. 

In Texas, 4th grade is required to study Texas History. This is an important part of it. Trying to bring a "real world" experience to the students was a blast! Everyone seemed to enjoy it. Students had a great time learning to rope a cow head, racing on stick ponies, learning to saddle a horse and be up close to one. It incorporated teamwork, art, physical activity, real world experiences and just good 'ol fun!

Anyone reading this post, I would like to know how you bring real world experiences into your classroom. I would love to hear about it! 

What are you working on now?

Well, considering the writing test for Texas students is coming at a furious pace, I recently analyzed data from a writing test. Our students have a difficult time with homonyms/multiple meaning words and subject-verb agreement while editing. 

In trying to figure out how to get the students to understand subject-verb agreement, I was thinking of ways to tie it to some prior knowledge I know they have. This is what I came up with, let me know what you think.

Ask students: What do you know about magnets? (should answer - when two charges are opposite they attract positive to negative. When the poles are the same, they repel, negative to negative or positive to positive.)

TE: OK, great! This is how subject-verb agreement works too! If the subject (noun) is plural-lets say its positive, so the verb must be negative (not plural)  Here is an example: The boys run down the street. [subject:boys-plural or positive, verb: run-singular or negative, agrees with (is attracted to) the plural subject]

The same is true if the noun is not plural (negative) the verb must be positive (plural). Another example: The boy runs down the street. [subject: boy-singular or negative, verb: runs-plural or positive, agrees with (is attracted to) the singular subject]

Finally, using two negatives, they do not "attract", in-fact they repel. So you can not say:"The boy run down the street"(two negatives). Nor can you say: "The boys runs down the street"(two positives). In addition two negatives might also be,"My paper does not have no mistakes". Its appalling and repel from saying a statement like this! 

Then move into an activity using sentence strips where students have to put sentences together using different colored words (red positive, green negative) to create grammatically correct sentences. 

What do you think? If you have any ideas or have taught this element in language in a different way that worked for your class, please feel free to share your thoughts. I would love to read your posts!

Have a great day! Spring break is almost over, 2 more days....so, gotta head out to get some RR real quick (Ride and Ride more!)

Hope to hear from you!

CowgirlTeacher4

OK - I know I am not the only one feeling myself rattle around the house aimlessly. As I find projects I have needed to do, but have put off for so long, I am not sure I want to do them anymore! For all of those that don't know me well, I have always got to have a "to do list" going. Then I don't I feel lost!

So, I decided my list has got to change from the endless paperwork, planning, catching up on cleaning (yes, spring cleaning was a major one on the list this week off), and other incidental errands to some RR. You may think RR is Rest and Relax...nope - its Ride and Ride some more!

However, as I went to my truck today, the battery was dead. Had plans to go riding at a local state park, but can't hook up the trailer to a truck that can't haul! So, decided to hit one of those projects and create this blog.

So, here goes....jumping into the world of blogging.

New Blog!

Hey y'all! Just decided I should finally get into the blog spot! I am really excited to start this project. I hope to share some great teaching ideas with you (and you with me of course) to network with each other. Together we can make a difference in education and in our circles of influence.

Look forward to meeting with you here!