Miss 5th Whiteboard Pages

Hey all! Long time no talk :) It has been a crazy school year and summer!

First of all, if you have not heard of Miss 5th's whiteboard. Go search the hashtag #miss5thwhiteboard on Instagram or Pinterest and your heart will be HAPPY! It is genius.  Also check out, Miss 5th on Instagram and her blog at miss-5th.blogspot.com. She is brilliant.

I posted on my Instagram page earlier that I wanted to make computer generated titles for Miss 5th's whiteboard for a couple reasons:
1. I am not creative on the whiteboard.
2. If there are pages already created for me ahead of time, I won't have an excuse to not complete it the night before. I can just tape it up!

I have made the ten weeks of my school year today because I got so excited. I want to share them with you, too!

I also wanted to share with you that in my sixth grade room. I teach two separate classes and I am still going to do it this year. I just split the board in half--with nothing else, but pineapple duct tape of course! 

Click on this link to download the first ten weeks. Enjoy!

#picturebookaday CHALLENGE!

I was first inspired by Literacy for Big Kids blog post and her experience with #nErDcampMI. She listened to a speaker by the name of Jillian Heise (follow Jillian on twitter). She reads a picture book a day in her middle school Language Arts classroom! How INCREDIBLE is that?!?!

I started doing my research with Jillian and her website and twitter and ended up finding her presentation that she did at #nErDcampMI (link here) and I became inspired! I am going to do the #bookaday challenge this year in my sixth grade room!

I am going to post the book each day on my markerboard and then after we have read the book, I am going to add it to the wall that will have all the books that we have read for the WHOLE YEAR! Imagine how much reading my kiddos will hear? Imagine how many literacy ideas I can teach them just through picture books! I AM SO EXCITED AND I CAN'T WAIT TO START!

I currently have 175 student days so I am going to set my board up for that!

Here are some freebies so that you don't have to create them too!! 

Picture Book a Day Hashtag
Picture Book Wall Display Dates
Picture Book Wall Display Title

Some of the books I plan on reading to my kids at the beginning of the year:

• A Perfectly Messed-Up Story by Patrick McDonnell
• My Teacher is a Monster! by Peter Brown
• This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
• Sam & Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett
• A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to School by Davide Cali
• The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach
• I Didn't Do My Homework Because... by Davide Cali
• I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
• The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat 
• Bot + Bot by Ame Dyckman
• Ninja! by Arree Chung
• Picture Day Perfection by Deborah Diesen
• What do you do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamada
• Little Red Writing by Joan Holub
• The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

Steps to Picture Book Success (And don't think I have all the answers--I haven't even tried it yet!)
1. Choose Picture Books you would like to read! (Jillian Heise presentation has great ideas)
2. Decorate your picture book wall!
3. Make a student version so the students can keep track of their favorites! E-mail me at snapshotsofsixthgrade@gmail.com if you would like my copy!
4. READ!!! :)

Follow my instagram at snapshotsofsixthgrade to see our #picturebookaday so you can continue to get ideas and feedback! 

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Don't you ever want to know more about the people behind the blog? Well here you go! Thanks to the Tattooed Teacher Blogger and her link up!

Enjoy! Link up with The Tattooed Teacher!

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Sunday Scoop!

What are you doing on this lovely Sunday?

Got Technology?

Happy Saturday!

I just spent the last two days LEARNING, LEARNING, and LEARNING! I was able to attend NETA, which is our HUGE technology conference in Nebraska.

It is so inspiring to hear everyones' stories about how they use technology in their classroom. I was truly amazed at all the new technology tools that I had NO IDEA about.

I have compiled a google doc for myself to use with all the new tools I learned about on. I am not an expert on any of these tools and plan to experiment with them this year. I am lucky enough to be at a school that is going 1:1 chromebooks next year so I will really enforce all of these this next school year after I have more time to work with them this summer. Feel free to use any of these ideas and try them in your classroom!

New Technology Tools Google Doc

Some of my favorite technology tools I use already in my classroom are: Kahoot, Zondle, Nearpod, Plickers, ClassDojo, and Google Classroom. Feel free to ask me any questions about those tools!

Best teacher moment in a while....

If you haven't seen this movement of "What I wish my teacher knew" go viral, you first need to watch the video below.

What I Wish My Teacher Knew CNN

If you have seen it and you haven't tried it in your classroom, do it tomorrow.

With this being my first year of teaching, my brain is already running 500 mph trying to figure out every possible thing I can do to make my students' sixth grade year the best year yet. Today about ten minutes before class, I remembered this article that I read on Facebook a couple of nights before and decided to add an impromptu lesson. I just simply printed out small sheets of paper that said, "I wish my teacher knew....", handed them out, explained what I wanted them to do, played some peaceful music, and sat back. What happened in the next moments is as amazing as this teacher from Colorado described. I wish I had done this earlier in the year. I learned so much about my students reading this notes after class from joyous moments to moments that my heart just broke for them.

We see our students on a daily basis and sympathize for them, but I think so much we think, "they are at school now, they are here to learn". In all reality, they have so much on their chest and we need to know it and they are not just going to tell us.

I am going to step into my classroom and teach with a different heart tomorrow knowing these tidbits about my students.

They have officially grabbed more of my heart......