Throwback Thursday: Morning Meeting

Happy Thursday!

Joining with Cara at the First Grade Parade for Throwback Thursday


I'm going to post about Morning Meeting-one of my favorite things! Unfortunately, due to the amount of kids I had in chorus and band (that of course took place first thing in the morning), I wasn't able to do Morning Meeting all year (although the kids missed it! I just didn't feel right doing it with 1/2 the class) Hopefully next year!

This is from July 18, 2012:

On one of my posts awhile back, I mentioned that I do Morning Meeting. I've had a few questions about how I run my Morning Meeting, so I thought I would share with you what I do.

The Morning Meeting format that I use comes straight from Responsive Classroom, which I was trained in a few years ago.

The are 4 sections to this Morning Meeting. Overall, Morning Meeting should be anywhere from 10-20 minutes, depending on grade level, things you choose to do/focus on, and attention span.

Every meeting starts with a Greeting. Students should be either greeted by the teacher, or each other every day. Greetings can be anything from a quick handshake, to a ball greeting. If you do not have a lot of time to devote to Morning Meeting, having a short Greeting is a place that you can save some time by doing something quick.

Greetings are important because it helps the children feel welcome and that they are appreciated and part of the community. New greetings should be introduced and modeled before having the students do it on their own.

The next section is Sharing. Students share something about themselves. At first, I would recommend a group share, which is asking a question and having the students respond (favorite color, food, etc.). I would slowly move to individual shares, where students could share whatever they wished (although I would limit that number of students who would share in a day, probably no more than 3 a meeting).

Sharing is important because it helps the students feel a part of a the community, and that we really care what is going on with them and their lives.

The third section is the Activity, which is a game that you play with the students. It's great community and team building, and usually gets the students up and moving and their brains working. Activities should be introduced step by step and modeled thoroughly.

The last part of Morning Meeting is the Morning Message. Depending on your grade level, your Message will look different. The Message lets the students know what is upcoming in the day, things they did well yesterday and can be a part of the activity, if you ask a questions on the bottom.

A lot of teachers also use their Message to practice sight words, grammar, fill in the blanks and more. Especially in the younger grades, the Message should be read a couple of times, once by the teacher and then as a group read as the class. In the older grades, you can move the responsibility of reading the message from the teacher to the students.

So those are the 4 parts of my Morning Meeting. I have a few book recommendations if you are interested in starting Morning Meeting. It takes a bit of time to set it up in the beginning, but it is well worth it and a great community building activity!

If you can only buy one, this is it! It has the structure, and greeting and activities in the back!

This is also another good resource.

Great for Activities, leveled for grades

Gives a good idea on how to structure your message for different grade levels

Really good resource, split up by grade level, has plans for the first 6 weeks

If you click on each book, it will take you to its Amazon page.
I hope you found this helpful, and if you have any more questions, please let me know!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Choosing a Math Program

As we move toward full implementation of the Common Core, my district has started looking at new math programs for us to pilot (since our current program isn't made anymore, doesn't align anywhere and is basically awful)

I'm on the math committee to help choose a new program (SO excited!), and yesterday we had our first meeting.  We split into two groups, one group to focus on the goals of what we want (for our district and CC), and my group focused on creating a rubric for us to use to evaluate the program.

Our Curriculum Director has found a few programs for us to look at, but he is open to more suggestions if we here of some.

Our list so far is:

Go Math!
Math in Focus
Envisions
Math Stepping Stones
MyMath

Questions for you...

Have you used any of these? What do you think of it?
Any suggestions for other programs?

We're going to get a 1st and 4th grade set to evaluate for each of the programs, and then narrow it down to two for us to pilot.

Wednesday's Outfit (a warmer day!)

Sweater and Shirt: Maurices
Pants: JCP
Shoes: Zappos/Endless (one of those two!)





Today's Outfit (not so warm :(

Sweater: NY & Co

Shirt: Maurices
Pants: Kohls
Shoes: Endless


TGIF!!


Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Meetings 2

Hi Peeps!

I was hoping to spend the morning in my classroom, doing name tags and organizing their desks for the Meet & Greet tomorrow. Instead, we had another staff meeting. Yay! So, I only got about an hour and 15 minutes instead. Hopefully, everything will be done enough tomorrow before the kids come in.

So, this afternoon and tomorrow morning, I had/have Literacy By Design training, since it is our new literacy program. I like some things about it, like how it's scripted, and lets us know teaching points. I came from a 4 Blocks school last year, so having this is a huge relief from having to figure it all out by myself.

Tomorrow's workshop is all about the technology aspect of it, which I'm looking forward to, since I can use the SMART Board with the kids.

The presenter wasn't all that great today, she had us looking at the materials by ourselves for an hour and half while she sat and watched us (it wouldn't have been so bad if she had circulated and asked us questions, or gave us answers if we had questions), and then she started going through the teachings guides and things. Only 1 more day of meetings and then we start on Thursday!

So, what I wore today (an my glasses since my eyes were 'tired' today)

Shirt: Burlington Coat Factory
Tank: Target (you can't really see it since it's flesh colored, but the sequins itch :)

Capris: JC Penny

No shoe pic today, since I switched shoes a couple of times...and discovered that I need to throw some pairs out because my feet somehow grew 1/2 a size and they no longer fit :(

Smiles and Sunshine,

Kaitlyn

Monday Made It & Meetings

Well, I made it through all the meetings today! It was a lot of sitting, and I'm glad it's over. Tomorrow and Wednesday I have a 1/2 day of Literacy By Design training (our new literacy program!), and 1/2 day at school with our grade level teams and PLC's. Here's what I wore today:

Pink Sweater: Maurices

Purple Shirt: NY & Co.

Tank: Target

Skirt: Old Navy 

Shoes: Famous Footwear

 Now onto Monday Made It!

These first two ideas I got from Amanda at The Teaching Thief. Click here to go to her post about it.

Exit Slips tracker

Guided Reading Levels Folder

The next two were more of 'I put them together'. The first one is the home/school folder. On the front is their name, number, and the sea animal I assigned to them (which is on every label I made...kind of like their personal mascot!) Right side is Return to School and Left side is Keep at Home.

I also labeled their notebooks (these are the extra's I made in case I get any newbies). They have Reader's Notebooks, Math Notebooks, Social Studies Notebooks and Writing Journals. My kids also have Writing Binders and an Unfinished Work folder.

Everything is almost all set, and I'll make sure to show y'all when everything is finished :)

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn


P.S. Teaching, Life and Everything in Between is having a wicked cool Back to School Giveaway. Check it out!

New Teacher Workshops

So yesterday was new teacher orientation for my district. This one was much better than the last new teacher orientation I was at (which lasted 3 1/2 days!), with a 1/2 day in meetings with the whole district, and a 1/2 day at our school learning about things and talking. We did get some time to spend in our rooms, so mine is now looking cleaner and more organized! (I'll show you all pictures when it's all done:)

In the morning, we did the typical introduce yourself and then the superintendent talked for about 1/2 hour. (He did say that he would go more in depth on Monday, when it's all staff meeting). He talked a little about how in the 150 years, education has changed greatly and will continue to change. However, he told us that now, we should focus more on if the change we have wrought has brought improvement. In order to keep improving, we need to continually assess to make sure the changes we are doing improving student learning and ability.

After the superintendent talked, we have 45 minutes of dead time. Our union peeps were coming to talk to us, but they weren't supposed to be there until 9:30, so we spent some time chatting, and I pulled out my Kindle for a bit :)

After them, we had about 20 minutes of dead time before the Technology workshop. It was so super helpful and not at all a waste of time (sarcasm, anyone?). The tech guy had to reset my password because he input it wrong in the first place. He made an inference that my handwriting was sloppy and he couldn't read it (Really? 'Cause I'm a former K-1 Teacher, and many people have told me that my writing is really neat). Let's just say that I'm hoping that I don't have to go to him for anything.

In the afternoon, we talked a little about school procedures and got a tour. We'll get a lot more info on Monday, since my school has a new principal and a lot of things have changed (He wasn't there today because of an emergency).


So, now that you have listened to my ramblings :) Here is the outfit that I wore to make a good first impression. (and ignore the painters tape and walls...my landlord is repainting my living room)

What I looked like before I left for the day :)

Blue Sweater: Maurices

Mint Shirt: JC Penny

White Tank and Shoes: Target

Skirt: Old Navy

Now, it was really cold this morning when I left, so the sweater definitely came in handy. (I had to put the heat on in my car!). However, after spending some hours in non-air conditioned rooms, and organizing/moving stuff...this is what I looked like at the end of the day.

Sweater came off, and I look slightly more frazzled...although I did rebrush my hair for you before I snapped a picture :)




What do you like to wear when making a good impression?
Happy weekend!
Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn

Freebie Friday

Today I go back for a day of New Teacher Workshops. So, depending on when you are reading this, I'm either sitting in a meeting or passed out  from getting up so early! ;) Here are some freebies to make your Friday better.

You can pick up my binder covers here.

You can pick up ocean animals numbers here.

You can pick up ocean animals letters here.

Some new ones....

Jabberwocky Poem

Spring Pools Poem

Tomorrow I'll tell you all about my wonderful and awesome meetings, as well as share what one wears to a new teacher workshop. Hope you had a wonderful Friday!

Smiles and Sunshine,
Kaitlyn