This Day In History

I stole this idea from an interview candidate from my old school.  This is how he started each day in his Social Studies class.  The videos are free, and great journal prompts!

History Channel's This Day in History

Getting Started

If you've been following my blog, you can see that the layout of things have changed a bit.  As has the purpose for this blog.  I have now gone from teaching kindergarten to 5th grade Social Studies and Science, and I'm definitely out of my element.  While I intend to continue to share fun stories, ideas, and other happenings from the classroom with my friends and family who are now almost 1000 miles away from me, I'll also be using this site to 1) post new ideas for lessons that I'm teaching, and 2) steal ideas from others whose blogs I'm following.


My intent as a new 5th grade teacher is to transform Social Studies from the typical boring, dreaded class to a fun, exciting journey through our nation's rich history.  I want my students to be able to come away from this year saying, "Wow, Ms. McCall's class is really fun, AND she taught us a lot."


I remember once being in elementary school, and my parents coming for conferences.  I had a C in Science, and I was very upset.  My mom took one look at my folder, which read:  "Amber's Sience Folder", and said:  "Well honey, I think I realize why you have a C in Science class."  If you can't already tell, Social Studies is more my interest area than Science, so I'm going to need to teach myself a thing or two about teaching Science.  I hope to use the great world wide web to expand my knowledge base, as well as my wealth of teaching resources (and possibly brush up on my spelling skills).


So....that being said...if you're a fellow Social Studies or Science teacher and would like to advertise your blog by posting some sweet lesson ideas, I'd be more than happy to plug your page and give credit where credit is due.  If you're family or friends, as always, you can rest assured that you'll be in for some interesting stories as I start on my newest adventure.

Did I Really Make It?!?

One month from today I will have (hopefully) survived my first year as a classroom teacher, amazingly with only minor cuts and bruises.  In celebration of this milestone in my life, I thought I'd share with you some of my more interesting "firsts", that every classroom teacher probably experiences.

First...day of school.  I honestly can't remember a thing about the day.  I hope I'm not the only one who can't remember their first day as a teacher, but I really can't make anything come to mind.  I know I was so nervous, but this year has been such a whirlwind, it all sort of runs together.  Oh well, moving on.

First...time I cried at work.  I think it was only a week or two into school.  I was convinced that I was doing a terrible job, and it was because of my lack of skill that I could not get these kids to behave!  Not once did it cross my mind that most of these barely-5-year-olds had never stepped foot into an organized setting, and THAT was why they were acting like Tasmanian devils unleashed in a shopping mall.  Nope.  It was my fault.  I cried for quite a long time to my lead teacher, who just smiled and handed me a tissue.

First...time a student said "I hate you."  Whaaat??!?  These tiny little creatures were supposed to worship me.  I was supposed to be their role model, their teacher, whom they loved and adored.  They aren't supposed to hate me!!  Another of the many times I shed tears inside those classroom walls, and my student just looked at me like I was nuts.  Turns out it wasn't the last time a child lashed out at me, and once you get used to it, it become hard not to chuckle a little bit at their tantrums.

First...surprise observation.  My boss's boss, and his boss, came in for a visit.  Luckily for me, they came on a day where the kids were wound up even more than usual.  The academic awards assembly had been that morning, and quarterly celebration had just been announced.  Just about the time I decided to throw my lesson out the window and start in on a nice long lecture about why they "JUST WONT LISTEN!", they all popped into my classroom to check things out.  Stage 1:  panic!  Stage 2:  tears.  Stage 3:  embarrassment.  How two of those three people ended up as references for my new job, I will never know...

First...time a student vomited in my classroom.  This story may also be interchanged with "First time a student went potty in my classroom."  My sweetest, shiest student got up to tell me that he wasn't feeling well.  He didn't even make it through his sentence before he got sick.  Puke on his clothes, on the walls, the chairs, the desks, the floor, the other kids...well, you get it.  Their reaction:  "Ewwwwwww!!!"  My reaction:  "Ewwwwwwww!!!"

First...time I realized they were actually learning.  It took until about January before I noticed it.  I had finally gotten them organized into small groups for reading instruction, and one of my kindergarteners picked up his book and just.....started reading.  I was amazed!!  How did he learn to do that?  Certainly I didn't teach him that, did I?  I am still surprised every single day by how smart they are.

My first year in the classroom has been so many things.  I could probably tell enough stories to write a book.  It has been stressful, exciting, scary, exhausting, and every other adjective you can come up with.  There have been many times that I've complained to family and friends, wondered if I picked the wrong profession.  But every time I even wonder something like that out loud, my mind is telling me that I'm nuts.  I wouldn't trade a day of this year for any other job.  Looking forward into next year, where I will be moving on to a new city, a new school, and a new grade level, the only thing I can guarantee myself is that it won't be boring.  :) 

Things I Stole from Others

So, I decided that its about time to start updating my blog again, and sharing what has been going on in my classroom lately. Recently I've been very focused on enriching my centers time for reading and math. Not an easy task, let me tell you. I'm currently working on implementing Daily 5 for reading, but right now its pretty boring for the kiddos, so I'm trying to spice it up a little bit. My next task is to tackle math centers. Here are some cool things I've seen on Pinterest recently that I'm going to try to use in my classroom:

Source: zeekszoo.blogspot.co.nz via Amber on Pinterest

These little guys are "quiet critters" that I'm going to put on their desks during silent reading time. They only come out when its VERRRRY quiet. We'll see how this works!

Source: havingfunathomeblog.blogspot.com via Amber on Pinterest

I'm going to try to do some word work during centers with these. Its simple, cheap, and easy. The three things I look for in centers activities!!

Source: fairydustteaching.blogspot.com via Amber on Pinterest

March is a Solar System unit for us, and the kids are loving it! I'm considering making this play-dough for them and letting them represent the solar system with it. More pictures to come of their Solar System creations soon! :)

Just a Quick Update...

Just wanted to give a quick update as I have a few minutes on my lunch hour today. My class was announced as Class of the Week this week...whooo for small accomplishments!! :)

Website Is Up and Running!

My school website is FINALLY up and running. I am so technology illiterate, so it really is nothing fancy, but there are a few things listed. You can find the link below.

Hopefully soon I will learn to add videos and other fun interactive resources!

http://homeroom-c.patriots.chicagointl.schoolfusion.us/modules/groups/integrated_home.phtml?gid=2885152&sessionid=162a9ef1f5c3809b6242072a34a625ba

The Mixed Up Chameleon

We are currently in the middle of a science unit on colors. To introduce the world of colors, we read some books by Eric Carle, who does amazing collage art. We chose to do some collage art of our own after reading The Mixed Up Chameleon.

This project is SUPER fun for the kiddos, although it does require some preparation on the part of the teacher. We tore pieces of tissue paper and "painted" glue onto a pre-drawn chameleon. When they were all dry, I cut them out so they could be displayed on a mural in the hallway for everyone to enjoy!

You can check out http://www.eric-carle.com/ for a list of his books and resources to go along with them. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a very popular one, along with Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?