Monday, February 23, 2015

Amazing Experiences, Amazing Connections

If you have been reading this small, or tiny, blog you know that I spent last week at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT). I HAD A BLAST! This was by far once of the greatest experiences of my teaching career thus far (even though I missed a week of snow). The week was spent discussing benchmark data (mClass) and how we can use that data to really figure out what our students needs are. We also discussed best practices for using anchor charts in the classroom to enrich student experiences. While there, participates also had the opportunity to reflect on their current teaching practices and network with other teachers from across the state. Although it was quite windy and very chilly, we also had the chance to explore a few parts of Ocracoke Island. If you ever have the chance to do, I HIGHLY recommend it!

Here are a few pictures from the trip:
Beautiful Ocracoke Lighthouse
The Ocracoke Lighthouse is closed to the public, but as part of the NCCAT experience we were able to see the inside.
Sand Dunes
The NCCAT Building- this use to be a Coast Guard station and was remodeled

 Anchor chart to describe character's and how they change through the story.
Modeling how to use pieces of the anchor chart to create a written response for comprehension. 

Sunday, February 8, 2015

NCCAT

I am so excited to announce that my teammate and our mentor will be attending NCCAT the week of February 16! If you are not from NC, or even if you are and haven't heard of it, NCCAT is the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teachers. They have two locations in NC, one in western mountains of NC~Cullowhee, and one at the NC coast in Ocracoke NC. NCCAT has several programs throughout the year that focus on a variety of different topics. My teammates and I will be attending a session on Building a Strong Literacy Foundation in the Early Grades. We found this session about a week ago and word all afternoon to come up with a way to get money for substitutes for those 5 days. This session aligns directly with my schools School Improvement Plan, as well as with my Personal Development Plan. Moving from 3rd grade down to first, I sometimes feel like I am missing pieces of solid literacy instruction to help my babies learn to read. I anticipate coming back from this workshop with lots of new techniques and tips that I can use to help myself and my students. I'll have to spend this coming up week get all my lesson plans together and organized for the sub that is coming in, lucky for me she is a retired teacher so I know my babies are in good hands! I can't wait to come back and share all the wonderful knowledge and ideas that I got!!! 

Sunday, February 1, 2015

February Currently

I feel like it has been FOREVER since I have had time to sit down and blog! Between tutoring 3rd grade after school on Mondays and Tuesdays, meetings on Wednesdays and Thursdays, along with conferences and an awards assembly... I am EXHAUSTED! However, I am very excited to link up for the February Currently with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade!


Listening: I ABSOLUTLEY LOVE The Pioneer Woman, both her show and her blog. If you haven't watched it, you simply MUST! 

Loving: Sundays that I do not have a million places to go or things to do are always a winner in my book. Hubby is still sleeping, the dogs are curled up around the living room, and I'm blogging away in my PJ's! I LOVE IT !! 

Thinking: Although I do not have places to go, and none of my grad work in due tomorrow.. I should probably use some of today to get ahead incase something crazy comes up. 

Wanting: I saw this wonderful planner on someones blog, and of course all over Pinterest! I must have one for next school year! Although I love to make my plans online, there is just something about having them written out for me to get to in an instant, and I just LOVE PLANNERS! 

Needing: You know, the usual, laundry and working out .. not to mention I should start working on my North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching application. If you are from NC and haven't heard of NCCAT, please check it out!! My teammate, my mentor, and I are trying to go to a wonderful week long professional development in Ocracoke, NC for Balanced Literacy in K-3. We aren't sure that we will have the funding to pay for ours subs, but I need to go ahead and get my application submitted just incase we can come up with the money! 

Pageant Title: As you saw above, I LOVE PLANNERS, however I still am the queen of procrastination. I always wait until the last minute to do anything! In my defense, it has been proven that I get better results when I do things last minute! 

**Side Note: This currently took me longer than any other! I just recently purchased a MacBook Pro, and couldn't figure out the best way to put my own text on the Currently from Farley's page. What program do you use to add text to your pictures for your blog? **