April 12, 2015
It was the first week back after Spring Break, so a little tiring, but good to be back with my students! This week I celebrate:
- Books- It was great fun to share all of the books that I bought over break and hear all about the reading the students did!
- March Book Madness- Tony Keefer’s excellent book tournament had my kids hooked! It was funny, that we established routines. One student would grab a marker to circle the winners, another would call out which books had been eliminated, and because we have learned that we tend to get excited, it all starts with one student closing the doors, so we do not disturb our neighbors too much. It ended this week but definitely achieved the purpose of getting kids talking about books. Next up for us will be the Children’s Choice Book Awards. We have all but a few of the books already in the classroom and there are some favorites!
- Earth and Space- We have started a new science unit and the students are so excited! We will naturally focus on nonfiction reading and writing and looking for great mentors. The students have so many questions!
- Slice of Life Challenge Reflections- I gave my slicers a few small gifts (all students got a new pen and slicers who sliced 25 or more days got a purple pen too, while 30/31 day slicers got an additional highlighter or sticky note pad). Several students commented on how the challenge has really affected them as writers and how they plan to continue- ahhh…
- Learn Like a Pirate- As break ended I started reading Paul Solarz’s new book. I have recently been reflecting on how my class this year is not as student-led as I would like, so I looked to this as a way to get some ideas. One simple start was to give the students the responsibility of calling a “Give Me 5” moment. We practiced that this week and I have already seen that it is a small tweak, that has a lot of potential. We have to make sure that the person calling the moment is loud enough, otherwise it loses its immediacy. I look forward to trying out other ideas. I love that it is never too late to make changes- why wait for next year!?
I am so glad to be able to reflect a bit on what made my week special! Have a great week ahead!
Ms. Victor Reads 
Your students share your joy of reading and writing. This in itself deserves a big celebration. I agree with you that with change you don’t have to wait for a perfect moment but can get started right now.
I enjoyed reading your celebrations!
Great celebrations – I have the Learn like a Pirate book on my to read list to… I am usually pretty student led, but this year had a lot of changes for me, and I think I lost some of my student centeredness… but we can all grow and improve, right? Glad to know the pirate book could help me there.
Love that you gave your students slicing prizes! Fun!