Fiction vs. Non-fiction

As a reading teacher I have always been a firm believer that there is a MAJOR difference between the reading "strategies" or techniques used to read non-fiction compared to those used to read fiction.  As a reader, I have personally experienced this difference.  However, I had an interesting experience today.  I was told that there was virtually no difference between reading the two types of text, and teaching non-fiction in the classroom was not worth the instructional time.

This is the first time I have ever heard a reading teacher say this and I am very very curious as to others' thoughts regarding this topic.  Opinions?  Thoughts?  I would love to hear your ideas . . . .

First Week Survival

Do a little dance, because we made it.  Despite a hundred challenges that should have  never happened, we survived.

The kiddos started this week on Monday, and I must say that I am rather excited about my class.  I have never taught in a school where the same kids have stayed year after year.  I can already tell a difference in these kids from last year's in terms of behavior, and am excited to see the progress they'll make.  They already know the routines, schedules and expectations, now I just have to break some bad work habits! 

Aside from the kids, however, this week was interesting to say the least.  The copier broke last Thursday (before school even started), and didn't get fixed until THIS Thursday (yup, you heard me, 6 days with no copy machine).  The laminator broke.  My document camera broke. The second day of school I forgot my flash drive at home (that will NEVER happen again, all my precious documents are now in drop box).  We had no preps this week.  We all had lunch duty every day and only about a 20 minute break later in the day to actually eat our lunch. Then Thursday I woke up sick.  This one was for the books.

Now that we have our prep schedule, I know things will get better, but geez I'm exhausted.  If I were in Arizona right now, I would get up early and go for a hike in the mountains to release some of this steam.  However, mountains are no longer available, so I'm going to walk up to the Farmer's Market instead and get a cup of coffee.  Today will be spent shopping for a few last minute things for my class, and then tomorrow I will hit the books and finish up my unit plans for the next couple weeks.  It will be very very nice to have all of those done.  Off to the market.  Who knows, maybe I'll buy some pretty flowers for my classroom!

Goals for 2012 - 2013

As every teacher does, once the school year ends our minds immediately go to the upcoming year.  So, this year I am creating my own goal list (something I teach my students to do on a daily basis).  So here it is.  My 2012 - 2013 Goals:

#1 Start using raffle tickets again:  once a day for a piece of candy, once a week for the "treasure chest."  I have noticed that this year I have moved more toward the negative and strayed from the positive.  I need to go back to the positive.  The kids love the raffle, and they are super motivated by food.  Why not use this to my advantage?

#2 Use music to time things:  Make playlists this summer of music for working, music for chatting, etc.  I think this adds a mood to the classroom that encourages community and positivity.  This is what I need more of. 
#3  Reward academic goals with food!  Enough said. 
#4 Grade at least 1/2 of papers the day they are turned in, this will lower my stress level by about 50%.  I'm going to be able to reuse so many of my lesson plans this year, and grading was where I really fell behind (as always!).  Next year, I need to get them back sooner so that we can discuss them and I can give them feedback.  (PS - I'm using an actual gradebook next year instead of the stupid charts!).
#5 Create a web site for the class (facebook?  Shutterfly? Suggestions?)
#6  Go to more extracurricular activities.
#7  Start Independent Conferencing with kids during silent reading.  I have always done this in the past and this year I have let it fall to the wayside.  Time to get back in the groove of things.
#8  Incorporate more vocabulary into my instruction.  Not quite sure how to do this most effectively, but this was the area that they were lagging the most in their NWEA scores.  Prefixes, suffixes, root words and using context clues . . . not my favorite thing to do in the world, but it must be done.
#9 Start celebrating not just the kids' achievements, but the kids themselves (i.e. birthdays, special occasions, etc).
#10 Incorporate 1 "Habit of Mind" into instruction every two weeks.  This will be a focus of both of our classes and will be involved with everything.  Create a poster to put on the wall each week, and as the kids see us doing these things they will add to the poster.

I think that's enough for now, maybe even too much.  I have big hopes for next year, and hopefully I won't have to work quite as hard as I did this year :-)

Changes to the room. . .

The countdown has begun.

The last three days have been absolutely insane, as we have been sitting in meetings from 7:30 - 4:00 both days.  In other words, I have spent every possible second before and after school trying to get my room put back together before we get kids on Monday.  Chaos. Organization Madness.  Monday with children.  No wonder I haven't been sleeping well (not to mention I've just HAD to stay up and watch the Olympics!).

There are a few things I am changing this year, and am pretty damn excited to see how it works.

Change #1 - An Organization Center.  After reading a post from Teaching in Room 6, I was inspired to add this area to my room.  One thing I noticed yesterday was that my kids, even after thousands of reminders, seemed to get temporary amnesia when it came to finding things or putting things away.  My thought was that if I had all supplies in one place and labeled, we will drastically reduce the number of "Where is . . . ?" questions.  This is my hope anyway, we'll see how well it actually works.

Change #2 - Group bins for independent reading books.  I know that a lot of younger grades keep their independent reading books in bags on their tables, and this eliminates the getting up and wandering around in search of your book.  I figured if 8 year-olds can do it, so can we.  Instead of bags, I created a bin for each group to house both class' independent books.  I paired them up with supply boxes for each group and gave them their own home on top of the bookshelves.  I would prefer that there were bins of organized books up there, but I think this is a relatively adequate use of this space as well. 

Change #3 - Library organization.  Last year each classroom received 500 books for an independent reading library from the network.  These books have been separated from my own personal books since last May, knowing that I was going to reorganize things this fall.  SO, I labeled each of my books with my own personal label, and color coded them (with sticky "dots" on the spine) according to genre.  Then, I mixed them all together!  I now have over 1000 book library in my classroom and it looks awesome (if I do say so myself).  They will no longer be able to complain about not finding a book to read!

I'll be posting more pictures as this next week progresses and my room continues to add a little more personality on the walls!  Only two more days until the kids come. Still so much to do . . .