"High Five" for Friday

Busy, busy, BUSY!!!!!

I have been dying to jump in on the Five for Friday linky hosted by Doodle Bugs Teaching for For.Ev.Er. but could just not seem to find the time to do it.

Finally...I chose to post instead of sleep found some spare time to share with you five snapshots from my week.

We have been working on commas in a series. My kiddos are obsessed with this grammar skill now. No idea why... but if it makes them write then I am all for it!

This week, Christmas came early in my room!!! My small group table and a mailbox/messenger center were delivered. AND, they started working on the electric for my SmartBoard. YAY!!!!I was just a tad excited. 

My little friend "Boo" is a recent Dollar Tree find. He has been making appearances and telling fall and Halloween related jokes to the kids. 

We are working on our graphing unit. Since I am technology-less at the moment, I decided to do coordinate graphs on the floor. The kids have had a ball with the life size coordinate graphing plane.

I will wrap up today with this beauty of a photo. It touches a soft spot in my heart. Our class went on a field trip to the corn maze. I turned around and two of my girlies were walking through the maze this way, and I just knew I had to sneak a picture. THIS is one of the things that we need to help our students embrace! I am thankful for the opportunity to be a teacher and to work with students who continually bless my life and remind me to smile, love, laugh, and LIVE!

Happy Friday, friends. I wish you a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

Rocking Our Data

It seems like one of the big buzz words in education right now is DATA. The four letter word has had a lot of impact in the educational community recently. 

In my classroom, I use data in many ways. It tracks student growth and progress, drives my instruction, helps me individualize learning experiences, and simplifies my student grouping. There is so much data out that there it can become TOO much. But, my school is using data in a positive way to help us realize our classroom strengths and weaknesses as well as  help us set student learning goals. 

Our district participates in Discovery Education's Think Link testing. These tests are are used to help us track what standards our students have or have not mastered. We assess our students, using this assessment tool, three times a year. There are four levels- level one meaning little to no mastery on a skill, level two shows some mastery, level three shows on grade level comprehension, and level four represents above grade level performance. 

The graph above is the one that is posted in my classroom. I get excited making my data wall. I conference with all of the students after each assessment measure. Then, I place a paw print for each student in the correct category. The students know which category they are in. We set goals together both as a class and individually, and I always make a big deal when it is time to change the data. Hopefully, we see progress and the paw prints move up the levels instead of down! :)

Below are examples of other data walls from fabulous teachers throughout my building. I love the uniqueness  of each data wall! 

How do you track data in your classroom? 

Lions and tigers and October's Currently...Oh my!!

Like most  teachers, I keep asking where time is going. I mean..seriously folks...it's OCTOBER!! 

Fall, pumpkin patches, mums, leaves, smores, campfires....ahhh fall.

Listening...to my Bichon snore. It is adorable. 

Loving...all of the pumpkin-ish things out there. I have now switched from my caramel iced coffee to pumpkin iced coffee. And, my scentsy is now putting off a pumpkin spice aroma. :) As we say here is Tennessee...it's fall y'all! 

Thinking...that my to-do list will never end. To be honest..if it did end then I wouldn't know what to do. 

Wanting..a mini-shopping spree. 

Needing...to finish my parent/teacher conference packets that start Thursday.

Trick or treat...treat time! Grab my newest freebie here. I revised my poetry homework menu!