Faith in School. I Discovered, It's a Must For Me.

I was struggling the first couple of months as a first year teacher. I was questioning everything and feeling like I was facing problems that I wanted to fix, but couldn't possibly "fix" it.

I am still running around like crazy now, please don't mistake me. I am flat out tired. But, about a month ago I made a suggestion to another teacher and I tell you it may have been the best idea I have had all year. We began a prayer group at school. We meet once a week to pray for our kids, our school, the community, and other things that are going on in our lives. It such a good reminder to me of why I come to school every day. I love kids, I have a huge hope for their future and I want them to all feel loved by me and to know they are loved by God.

I work in the public school system so I can't just tell my students flat out that God loves them. But I can pray for them everyday and I do. I worry a lot about my kids and I figured out that I can't carry all of their weights for them. I am trying very hard (sometimes not so successfully) to pray for them and either act on the prayer if I feel like God is telling me to or to just give the concern to God. Like I said, I am struggling with it, but I sure am trying.

My Tuesday morning are so wonderful. We have cried and laughed and prayed a whole heck of a lot. I'd love to pray for you and your kids too, just let me know.

Last week I shared a devotional from the wonderful site, www.teacherdevotions.com about Joy. I posted it below. Take a look at the website, it is good stuff for teachers.

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE JOYOUS

Hebrews 3:6 “But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast. [7] So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, [8] do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, . .' "

December is a busy time for teachers. We often find ourselves in the middle of preparing for Christmas programs, ending units of study, decorating, and doing our personal shopping. The joy of Christmas is often lost in the hustle and bustle of fulfilling each day's goals. The holiday season can be tough on us both physically and emotionally .

The older I become the more I know there are very few “perfect" days. Each season brings it joys and its sorrows. The key to a joyous season is to find the gift in every event and enjoy the moments. Learn to "Go with the flow;" or "Roll with the punches." Choose your battles. Forgive easily and often. Let go of expectations and choose to be grateful for each gift no matter how small. Choose to be happy! Choose peace with your fellowman.

God has given us promises in The Bible that offers courage and hope. We are told how God is intimately involved with the details of our lives. He even knows when the common sparrow falls. But we have the choice to believe God’s report or not to believe it. Without courage and hope we wander aimlessly like the Children of Israel in the desert never really going forward and never finding our promised rest.

This holiday season may seem like a season of stress, bad memories, or over commitment. The Spirit of God stands beside you to offer you courage and hope to find joy in all your daily activities. Count your blessings; name them one by one. Send thank you notes to parents, fellow teachers, school leaders or staff who have been supportive this semester. Do something unexpected for someone you love. Take some time to relax and praise God for all his goodness and blessings during this past year. These things will help to melt away the heaviness of duty. It doesn't take a lot of time, but it can lift your spirit to new heights. The Children of Israel rejected the good report and chose unbelief, fear, doubt, and anger toward God and the leader He gave them. They believed the false report. They lost their courage and hope, and they never saw the promised land. They never entered into the joy that God had set before them.

Choose a Merry Christmas season this year! Smile a lot. Give thanks a lot. If funds are tight, give gifts of appreciation rather than expense. Sometimes a personal card is valuable enough to save for years. A handmade gift can speak volumes of your love and care for someone. Seek to find the sunshine in every rain cloud. Remember, that in God’s timing He can and will make all things beautiful if you will cling to courage and hope in Christ--because God said it--that makes it true!

DEAR GOD,I CHOOSE JOY THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON. HELP MY ATTITUDE TO BE A REFLECTION OF YOUR LOVE. ALLOW ME TO VALUE AND REFLECT YOUR GIFT OF LOVE TO ME. I WANT TO GIVE YOUR LOVE OUT TO OTHERS THROUGH GRATEFUL AND ENCOURAGING WORDS. TEACH ME TO HAVE FUN AS I FULFILL MY DAILY REQUIREMENTS. I WANT TO BRING JOY TO THE LIVES OF MY STUDENTS AND COWORKERS.

Wyrick, Elderine (2002-2011). "Tis the Season To Be Joyous" in Polishing the Apple, www.teacherdevotion.com.

See? Good stuff right? I love my job. I love being with my kids and for the times when my patience/energy/creativity seems to be slackin' I am making the choice to pray.

Talk to ya soon,

Dee Dee

Fonzi says, "ay!" (Free DL)

We have learned the v-c-e rule for a, i, o and u thanks to the bossy e unit I purchased from The Teacher Wife and we are now moving on to -ay. I was trying to think how I could make this a little more interest and memorable for the kids. Finally (seriously I probably spend wayyy to much time brainstorming on these things) I decided to reference one of my favorite shows as a kids, "Happy Days".

I absolutely loved watching Nick at Nite as a kid. My bedtime shows were I Love Lucy, Laverne and Shirly, The Jeffersons, The Facts of Life and of course Happy Days. Sadly Nick at Nite now considered Goerge Lopez to be the classic show for Nick at Nite.

Anywho, Author Fonzarelli was a favorite of mine and now he his doing a fan-tab-ulous job of helping me teach ay. His opening line was always, "Ay!" (please imagine a New York/Italian accent). I showed my kids a brief clip of him saying it (be sure to preview ahead of time, not all words from Happy Days are completely school appropriate) and then we brainstormed words that had that sound in them.

We are so lucky at my school to have a poster printer! It's awesome and hopefully my principal isn't going to tell me to lay off the printing... eek! I created this -ay Fonzi poster and I can't wait to share it with the kids tomorrow.

They are crackin' me up walking around with thier thumbs up saying, "ay!" for hello. So glad I could revive Happy Days. Feel free to download it below, display on your active board or print.

Free -ay poster here

Also, I'd love to know if you have any suggestions for other ways to teach some of the long vowel tricks of the trade. Let me know what ya think if you decide to grab a copy!

Talk to ya soon,

Dee Dee

I've Got Some Questions... About Penguins!

We are all about using comprehension strategies this year. I have been trying to spice them up a little bit for the kiddos so that they have fun with it and enjoy learning about using them. Otherwise the words metagcognition, schema, questioning and inferring get a little over whelming for my firsties.

Right now we are working on asking questions before, during and after a text. I wanted to mix in a little winter fun so we are going to be making a Penguin Book of Questions and Answers complete. I am really excited about it and I think the kids will love it all including getting to make their very own penguin.

Although things never seem to go exactly like I plan, I am hoping this one will be a hit! Feel free to download it below and if you do let me know how it goes! I'll add pictures at the end of this week and show you how our finished product turns out.

Penguin Questioning

Happy rainy Sunday! I am about to settle in with "Once Upon A Time" and "Desperate Housewives" obsessed!

Talk to ya soon!

Dee Dee

Reading Block. Woah.

This is something I have been tackling since day one and I get the feeling I will continue to tackle for oh, the next 27 years or so. I've been pouring over website after website of people who seem to really have it going on when it come to literacy. I have been working to make mine work like I want it to. Our literacy block consist of shared reading, work stations, guided reading word work, and writing. It's a huge chunk of our day.

The first thing I tackled was organizing our work stations. Mine are modeled based on Debbie Diller's view on literacy. Although my stations continue to be a work in progress I am really happy with the station rotation cards and signs that I created. You can download these at the end of this post. All clipart is from Phillip Martin. You can find it all on his website, Phillip Martin Clip Art

We do two stations a day. The kids have a partner and their two pictures are beside each other on a pocket chart. On the same row as their picture is a blue card first and then a green card. The blue card is their first station and the green card is their second station. They rotate each day. I am still majorly learning how to make these work most effectively!!!

The things I am still working on are:

1. Making sure the kids are confident enough on the tasks found in each station so that they can independently complete them WELL.

2. Making sure the rotation of my station gets each student to each station one time through out a week.

3. Getting a manageable system created for getting the stations ready each week.

Any ideas?

Work Station Cards

Work Station Signs

Talk to Ya Soon!

Dee Dee

Hey There!

Hi!

My name is Dee Dee, I am a first year teacher here in the good 'ole KY. I absolutely love teaching and I am surely in the process of falling head over heels for first grade. I have been stalking looking at teaching blogs since I declared my major to be elementary education about 4 years ago. So far I haven't been one that has been able to contribute back to the people who have given me SOO many wonderful tips and ideas for teaching, but I would love to start sharing some things that I am doing in my classroom.

I am so thankful for the wonderful education I got at Western Kentucky University. I had some fantabulous professors and they taught me everything from how meaningful it is to students to show that you care about them to different approaches to teaching literacy. None-the-less, I have found myself in a crash course of how to be a first grade teacher.

Hopefully I will have the opportunity to share things but I'll tell ya, I'm a learner. Everyday I am learning just as much as my students and then I come home and try to learn some more about how I could have done it better! Everyday I am trying new things and learning what works and what just flat out DOES NOT. If I am stumble upon something that is great, I'll sure be sharing it :)

The main thing is, I like to share, I like to talk and I love people. Sharing experiences with other teachers and hearing about theirs has been one of my favorite things about blogging and now I have a place to do it! I'm finding that this teaching experience can be a bumpy ride at times but,

Talk to ya soon!

Dee Dee