by Carly Black | Aug 26, 2017 | Mom Solutions, Teacher Solutions
Monday morning we will finally welcome students into our classrooms. For me, it will be a new classroom, in a new grade with a new schedule, but only a few new faces. The excitement has been bubbling over for weeks now. I’ve managed to add all the finishing touches to my classroom, worked out the first nine weeks of curriculum and feel confident in my new position. This will be my second year working with the same co-teacher, and we are both thrilled to build upon what we started last year. This school year will mark my 15th year as a classroom teacher. Typing that number makes me realize that I’m nearly halfway through my career, and I still have that nervous sensation in the pit of my stomach.
Much has changed since my first year in 2001. I’m having to learn what it means to say goodbye every morning to my toddlers and that can be one of the most difficult tasks as a teacher-mom. Morning cuddles, afternoon messes, and evening family outings provided us with a fulfilling summer season. Because there was a major transition to make at school my husband and I decided to keep our babysitter two days a week throughout the summer. This was the greatest decision we made! It gave me two full days to take the time to move my classroom, start this blog, and prepare for the upcoming school year. In all my years of teaching, I don’t think I have ever had a smoother transition from summer to school year. There was no summer slide for me.
Dedicating two days a week gave me the freedom to spend the rest of the week loving on my children and spending time with friends. This was a fulfilling summer, and now I feel ready to be back in the classroom full-time. In the past, I’ve dragged my feet across that school year threshold, but this year I’m skipping.
Spending time to learn what a #teachertribe is all about helped me feel inspired and validated in my teaching practices. Knowing that so many of them are also teacher-moms who are creating that balance of work and home helped me feel at ease. These past few weeks have been crazy busy, hence the lack of blog posts, but I don’t feel a sense of guilt about anything. I’m excited to get back in the classroom with students because I have so many fresh ideas to share with them. I’m content to know my own children are cared for lovingly by family and friends. So as I sit here on my final Saturday of summer there is no pressure this year. No pressure to be the best teacher, no pressure to have the perfect classroom, no pressure to be a better mom. This Saturday will be spent feeling content that I’m a great teacher, with a very nice classroom and fully loved toddlers.
Thank you for walking this journey with me. Share your reflections of summer in the comments. I’d love to hear how you are making the transition from summer to school a smooth one.
by Carly Black | Aug 10, 2017 | Classroom Solutions, Lesson Plans, Library, Teacher Solutions
This summer my classroom library got a makeover. Mostly because it gained another 1,000 books! I’ve taken over the classroom of a retired teacher who left her beloved library behind for my students to continue to enjoy. I’m beyond grateful for this kind of gifting, and I’m having a fabulous time getting to know some of the new books. I can’t wait to introduce them all to my students.
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3 Engaging Ideas to Share Your Classroom Library
Let me share a few ways I’ve discovered to help share all the different books living in my classroom library.
Show and Tell Book Style:
This is exactly what it sounds like, ask students to find a book in your library that they have read and enjoyed. Give students a few minutes to think about or write what they remember liking about the book and two highlights from the story. Students can then share them with the whole class or in small groups for a less intimidating audience.
Sail the Stacks:
This activity takes a little set up and works well when desks are in small groups. Start by creating stacks of 8-12 books of the same genre. Choose books that tend to be popular within the genre and are great representations of the genre. You could add genre labels to each table, or simply place a sticky note on the stack. Write on the board or announce, “If you were shipwrecked on an island and found a crate of books that contained only one genre of books what genre would you want it to be?” Have them “visit” that island and allow them a few minutes to talk about the stack. Add a “rowboat” and allow them to travel to a different island.
Speed Booking:
It’s similar to the concept of Speed dating. I always like to share this funny eHarmony commercial to introduce the activity. This activity also takes some set up. I have tried this with several different desk formations, but a circle works best.
We start by talking about the things that “attract” us to books. That leads to a discussion about how we make the decision to read the book. We write the list of options on the board. The list usually includes ideas like the cover (kids almost always say this first), favorite authors, reading the back to see if it spikes interest, reading a page in the book and a number of others.
You’ll want to have pre-stacked books on student desks in no particular order. I like to choose books that get a lot of traffic throughout the year, books that I’ve purchased over the summer, or books that I think often get overlooked. Obviously, I can’t show them all my books, but this is a great way for them to get a cross-section of what’s available. So be sure to provide all the different genres represented in your library, as well as reading levels.
Students are then given a sheet to record any titles they find interesting. This sheet is kept in their binder so when they finish a book they have a place to go for ideas about what to read next. The idea for keeping a Future Reading List came from Donnalynn Miller‘s books, The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. Whenever a student is taking their good ‘ol time searching for a new book I like to direct them to their list to speed up the process.
If this sounds like something you’d like to do in your classroom find all of the directions and forms to print in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I’ve updated this product to include a record sheet for the more visual learners in the form of an Instagram feed. Students can draw or copy the book cover into the square and then caption why they think it’s interesting. This keeps students occupied when there aren’t interesting books in the stack for them.
Do you have a great idea for sharing books with your students? Share them in the comments below.
