What's happening in your classroom?

[TamiJ]

I have a million things going on right now. To list a few: we just finished phonemic awareness assessments that I need to look over; running records; writing samples that I now need to score; math benchmark next week; caring week next week; Lunar New Year activities next week (including participating in our Lunar New Year parade).

All of our math centers will be Lunar new Year themed for next week (I am very excited about that).

We are getting close to finishing our Happy, Healthy Me unit (I think two weeks left). In reality, with all these extra things going on I honestly don't think we will do any actual social studies or science activity next week. It will be integrated into the writing (as I normally do) because we need to do activities for caring week and for the Lunar New year.

Does anyone else feel swamped?

What's going on in your classrooms?

[pwhatley]

I feel extremely swamped, but not just by school things. At school, the main thing "swamping" me is progress monitoring for reading and for math. I have to do it (during core instruction time) every other week, and it seriously cuts into instruction time! At home, my hubby just had rotator cuff surgery, so that's another story in and of itself.

Right now in school, we are:

studying magnets for science
in the middle of a huge black history unit for black history month
exploring (anti) drug materials for mandated hours of instruction (for which we have been given 0 materials
our normal weekly phonics & reading lessons
trying to write biographies (tied into black history month)
working on place value in math (and some are just not getting it, lol)
I need to figure something out for Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras (a big deal here)
and still move my kiddos forward on their nonsense word fluency, oral reading fluency, and missing number identification fluency (all tied to my student learning targets)
about to "test" a smart table for the rest of the school year (it's for a K classroom next year, but the P wants me to try it out first)
bending over backwards to intervene/accommodate my three non-readers who are making 0 progress

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now

[MissScrimmage]

Fun!

We are finishing up our math unit on shapes and are going to start mental math strategies

Valentine's themed activities start soon

In ELA we are going to write valentines to our favourite books

Social Studies we are doing a mini unit on families

I will start assessing for report cards soon

[pwhatley]

OOOhhh, I LOVE the writing valentines to favorite books!!! I'm gonna "borrow" your idea, MissScrimmage!

[agdamity]

Next week we will start researching disasters. They will eventually be researching how people overcame a disaster situation. We are studying historical fiction so they will begin reading a history nonfiction book that will be followed up by a historical fiction book. They will also be doing several character analysis activities from our class novel. For word study, we are continuing our study of prefixes.
In math, we are multiplying fractions. Lots of fun there . We have a big chunk test in science we will prepare for (covers light and planets).

[MissScrimmage]

The Valentines to our favourite books goes with "I Love to Read month" - borrow away!

[YoungTeacherGuy]

Next week, we're reading a story in our Anthology called Jalapeno Bagels.

In the past, I've always brought in jalapeno bagels for the kids to sample, but they've never been a big hit. Personally, I don't like jalapeno bagels, either.

This year, I'm going to bring in regular bagels: blueberry, plain, & cinnamon raisin and let them spread different flavors of cream cheese on the bagels.

I'd say 50% of my kiddos had never heard of bagels before I introduced the story vocabulary today.

Most of my kids speak Spanish, and one kid asked, "Are bagels anything like pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread)?"

[magistra44]

I just finished having my 6th graders make monsters by putting together Latin roots. The results were either cute or terrifying. They really like doing things like that.

My 8th graders are freaking out over the end of the year test they have to take in order to receive HS credit for Latin I. I have spent a lot of time talking about it in the last week trying to calm their worries.

The project I have coming up that I am excited about is having the students write valentine's to a god/goddess/hero we have been reading about (so they have to show their knowledge of the myths as well as practice Latin composition). I love this project! I made it last year when I was student teaching and it was my favorite thing we did all year. The trick is going to be modifying it down to where I can use it even with my 6th graders who have a limited experience with the language.

[Shanoo]

In Grade 7 Math, we're learning to add and subtract integers.

In Grade 8 Math, we're talking about congruent triangles - we're using lots of Geo-Strips to figure out minimal conditions necessary.

In Grade 9 Math, we just finished our mid-term and next week will be starting linear equations.

I also teach Health and we're in the middle of our bullying unit. I teach Health to 3 different classes, all of whom are at different points in the unit. In one class, we're discussing empathy. In another, we're talking about the differences between conflict and bullying and in the third, we're doing skits that show the different ways that one can deal with a bullying situation.

[TamiJ]

Originally Posted by YoungTeacherGuy

Next week, we're reading a story in our Anthology called Jalapeno Bagels.

In the past, I've always brought in jalapeno bagels for the kids to sample, but they've never been a big hit. Personally, I don't like jalapeno bagels, either.

This year, I'm going to bring in regular bagels: blueberry, plain, & cinnamon raisin and let them spread different flavors of cream cheese on the bagels.

I'd say 50% of my kiddos had never heard of bagels before I introduced the story vocabulary today.

Most of my kids speak Spanish, and one kid asked, "Are bagels anything like pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread)?"

Yeah bagels are nit a Mexican food. Pan dulce is such a staple here. For breakfast many eat pan dulce con leche o cafe. My husband puts the entire pan in a glass of milk.