Pondering the year

One day that I would have to say makes me feel good about my job or gives me the "warm fuzzies" is definitely the first day of school!  I LOVE this day!!  We are so new to each other and get to learn about one another.  Since we can't have a first day everyday, another day would have to be Wednesdays of each week.  This is our "Creative Minds" day.  I take the reading story or novel that we are working on and focus on a specific skill (IE- Narrative Elements, Compare/Contrast, Inferencing...) and I do a "fun" activity with it.  Let me back up a minute to explain how the week works.  During my 30 minute whole group time, I have a theme for each day of the week.  Monday is "Vocabulary Madness".  We go over and discuss the vocabulary for the week and our spelling words.  Tuesay is "Teaching and Story Time".  We go over the skill for the week and read parts of the story, applying the skill.  (This usually takes 45 minutes!)  Wednesday is "Creative Minds".  We reapply the skill for the week and pull in other skills as a review and make something creative to hang up or share what we have learned.  Thursday is "Grammar Gurus".  We learn our weekly grammar lesson and apply it to the story as well.  Friday is "Final Day".  We take our weekly tests or finish up comprehension activities that went along with the story/novel we worked on for the week.

I really love Wednesdays because it allows us to do something "out of the ordinary".  It gives the students a sense of creativity and allows them to show me what they have learned.  Although this is the messiest day, I think the students really enjoy working together and creating something they can show.

As a pinnacle leader, I think days like this remind me that we need to be the teachers/helpers for our peers and then allow them to take what we show them and be creative in their own ways as well.  This gives them the freedom to use and show what we have exposed them to iand make it their own.

As I am writing this, I am coming up with newer ideas to incorporate technology and see what my students can do as a PBL in Reading, using the skills they have been taught and giving them the opportunity to show it through projects.