Some things just touch your heart........

Go ahead and follow this link - this little boy is a miracle. Enough said. If you want to help out by donating follow the link below - teacher bloggers united to create a way to raise money for research to help this little man and many others.
http://www.myheartbelongsinfirst.blogspot.com/2013/04/you-me-fighting-eb.html

One year ago......

One year ago today I was so very fortunate to be in Washington D.C. for the National Blue Ribbon School celebration! My elementary school is a 2011 Blue Ribbon School and I traveled to Washington D.C. with my principal to receive the award for our staff and students! What a tremendous time that was!

I truly teach in a special school with a FANTASTIC group of teachers. 

I am so very THANKFUL for them.

What are you thankful for today?

Happy Teaching!

{Common Core} Standards Labels

I created this label set to use in my classroom because I wanted to track how well I was including and teaching the CCCS (Common Core Curriculum Standards) in Language Arts.

 

I use the curriculum my District has adopted, materials from other sources to compliment and reinforce the areas my students need reinforcement in and my collection of thematic activities.

When I was completing my portfolio for National Board certification, I learned to give each portion of the question a color. Then as I answered the question, I color coded each part of the answer to make sure that I gave a complete answer.

I applied the same strategy to seeing how my classroom work is measuring up to implementing the Common Core.

I printed 20 sheets of these labels. I don’t know if I will actually use 20 for a particular standard, and maybe I will use 80. I guess that’s what I will find out.

So as I teach and work my way through the teacher’s manual, the theme binder and literacy station lesson plans, I stick a label in the margin or on the back side.

Now that we have completed 9 works of school:
*I can see by looking at the label sheets which standards I have used more than others

*I can also see which standards have been neglected. If there aren’t opportunities to cover them in the curriuculum I know that I need to find a way to include them for my students.

*I can see if my theme projects and literacy stations follow a logical learning progression

{Click here} if you would like to have a copy of the labels for yourself.

And if you have another strategy for tracking how you implement the Common Core, PLEASE COMMENT!