Polar Express

I had pinned this site last year.  It has a lot of activities with the Polar Express.  When the movie first came out I begged the theater owner in our small town to sell me the poster...  SO every year I display the poster and we watch the movie.  This year we have a WHOLE week before our 'winter' break and this will be our focus holiday book.

Thanksgiving

I realize that upper elementary don''t need all the 'stuff' that goes along with Thanksgiving, but I did find a great video called Plymouth Plantation on Learn 360.  Information about what it really looked like during that time of our history.

Solution to a short week...

And what do you do when you have a short week...have to follow a reading program...but a short week is looming in the future... and you're going to be gone one day during the short week?

I have found that readinga-z.com is the answer for me.  I have a four-day program:

• day 1-discuss genre and vocabulary
• day 2-make connections and read
• day 3-practice writing a summary 
• day 4-character analysis and author's purpose and ...day 5 if needed
• day 5-complete the quick check provided for each story

Not only do I use this site for my 4th graders, I print off books when we buddy read with the kindergarten class, and there are a lot of nonfiction stories I use when teaching 5th grade social studies...

Thank you 

you have made teaching much easier for me.

This is one subscription I have the school buy.  I don't order workbooks, so I think it's a good trade-off.

Happy Halloween

What a great day...really.  This is the first time that a class plans their own party.  All went well...AND for the first time in 4 years...NO ONE SPILLED THEIR SODA!

Good day...just waiting until tomorrow. Either they will be hyper from sugar or lethargic from not a lot of sleep!

Teacher Evaluation

Is there anyone in the blogosphere who lives in a state where all teachers are evaluated on the same or similar criteria?  

Is everyone evaluated at least once a year?  Are you expected to provide your own professional growth?  What about basing your pay on student achievement? 

I'm headed to a workshop this week where my state will be working on such an evaluation...bother teacher and principal.  My district will test-pilot the evaluation next year.  Let me know if you have any suggestions.  I'm wondering if we'll use Marzono's format or Danielson's?

Movie Making

I used animoto.com to make a video of our first field trip.  What do you use that will let you add pictures and movies?  I've tried iMovie with not much success.

Spelling Center

Scrabble Spelling...my kids loved it as an assignment (only had to choose 5 words), so I thought I'd try it as a spelling center.  Is there anything else out there that your students love?