Teach Support

Words to students. ⠀
Words about students. ⠀
Words about your teaching. ⠀
Words to fellow teachers. ⠀
Words to families. ⠀
Words about love, loss, hope, sadness. ⠀
Words fostering connection. ⠀
Words from books, notebooks, walls, mouths. ⠀
All these words and more⠀
Matter. ⠀

Every time there’s snow in the forecast, teachers become meteorologists! Making predictions, weather watching, reporting changes to each other, etc etc etc.
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Welp, the weather keeps changing over here! Still holding out hope for some snow days next week! ⠀
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My first year living in Portland, there was a HUGE snow storm that brought 10 snow days in a row! It was beautiful and magical and amazing! ⠀
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Well...until we had to make up a week of days in June. It felt worth it at the time though! ⠀
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I’ll be snow dancing, finger crossing, and weather watching all weekend.

2020 Vision Boards were our focus in writing this week!
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I decided to make a vision board for the first time this year and loved it! I had so much fun with it that I wanted to try it with my students! ⠀
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And guess what... they LOVED it! ⠀
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We spent 4 days creating our boards: ⠀
Day 1: whole class vision and discussion of what a vision is ⠀
Day 2: Brainstormed lists in our writer’s notebooks — goals/wishes, things they want to try, to learn, and to teach this year
Day 3: Looked at example vision boards for inspiration and started making our own⠀
Day 4: Finish vision boards and share! ⠀
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Such an awesome first week back activity! I was inspired by and ran with the inspiration! ⠀
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What first week back activities did you do this week?!

NEW FAVORITE BOOK! This book is so important! It’s about empathy and the importance of listening.
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When the child’s tower is knocked down, different animals come to offer support — growling, yelling, getting mad, etc — but the rabbit listened, which is what the child needed.
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I mean come on!!! Such a sweet book and a perfect one for teaching empathy! Also the perfect reminder about the importance of listening.
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Want to know a secret? ⠀
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I am not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. I’m not ready to wake up at 5:30 and fumble through my out of practices morning routine. ⠀
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My mind isn’t ready to make 1000+ decisions tomorrow or the day after that or the day after that. My bladder isn’t ready to be ignored until my class goes to recess. ⠀
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The piles on my desk that didn’t get taken before break aren’t. The email I forgot the send and the Google Doc I forgot to share aren’t ready. ⠀
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But I am ready for the hugs, the smiles, the “I missed you”s , the warmth, the excitement to be back at school and in our classroom. That’s what I’m ready for tomorrow. ⠀
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I’m giving myself a slow start to the week. I am keeping our classroom promise front and center for myself tomorrow to remind me of all the work we’ve done as a community this year and gear up for all the work we have left to do in the remaining months of school. ⠀
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What are you ready for this week? ⠀⠀⠀⠀

This is one of my favorite ways to introduce parts of speech! These books give examples of each part of speech and have a game in the back that my class LOVES. Then we pick a noun (students) and build a Sentence Patterning Chart around the noun with adjectives, verbs, and prepositions. The best part? We make the chart sentences into a song to the tune of Farmer In the Dell! How do you teach your students about parts of speech? Comment below with your ideas and resources!

3 day weekends for me mean extra relaxation time. But for this three day weekend, I was forced into an extra productive weekend outside of my apartment because I didn’t have WiFi for 4 days. That’s right.....4 DAYS! So instead of watching TV for most of the weekend I...
•went to sleep early and slept in
•sold and donated clothes
•filled up my tires
•figures out a new WiFi situation
•spent the hiking day with a friend (shoutout to for such an awesome day!)
•spent time with friends
•watched old dvds
•spent time on my blog and business
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It’s sad to say that I wouldn’t have been that productive if my WiFi was working properly...but it was a good reminder (and reality check) about how easily I get sucked into the world of TV. Does this happen to you too? Double tap if TV can monopolize your free time ♥️

We finished our first chapter book read aloud of the year yesterday 🎉 I like to use Freckle Juice by Judy Bloom to study character traits and to practice making predictions. After we finish the book, I get a jug of apple cider and put a big, freckle juice label on it and have students try it. It’s such a fun fall read and students remember drinking the “freckle juice” all year.

It’s that time of year folks!! Boundaries are being tested. Patience is starting to wear thin. Sore throats, tissues, and hot tea are right around the corner!
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I had a big talk with our classroom about how we encourage our classroom community — swipe to see our community agreements — and what happens if we break our classroom community.
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Helpful reminders to myself:
1. It’s still early in the year
2. Relationships are still forming
3. Consistency is key
4. Celebrate successes as often as possible
5. Wash your hands
6. Stay hydrated