Tell me something good linky

I'm back! This week has been crazy. Tuesday night was Back to School Night, so I was at school until 8:00. Then during school I have begun giving running records to any students who failed the SOLs (Standards of Learning) or were below grade level on their word lists. I've given the first running record to all of 3rd and 4th grade, and today I need to start 5th. Then I have to go back and retest the students who were at frustrational. Thank God that Fountas & Pinnell assessments are pretty short!

So far, I've identified 9 kids in 3rd grade and way too many in 4th. This stresses me out because my numbers should get smaller as the kids get older. Right now, my 4th grade list could easily be 14 kids...craziness!! Oh, and did I mention their levels range from G to Q (Q's failed the SOLs, so I have to pull them until they show improvement)? Today the focus is on 5th grade.

Okay, enough focus on the stresses. I think it's perfect timing for this linky party that Jennifer from Rowdy in First Grade is hosting.

My Something Good From School: 

I have almost finished giving at least one running record to all of my "at-risk" kids! Now I'm just going back and giving another one to students who were at a frustrational level. One of the reasons this has gone so smoothly is because my wonderful parapro has been helping me. I trained her on giving running records (and taking lots of notes), and she's pulling half of the kids. Then all I have to do is grade it!

Also, we have started fully implementing Daily 5 and CAFE, and from walking around the school, I have seen a lot of great instruction and practicing!

My Something Good From Home:  

My sweet little boy, Keagan, can now sit himself up, pull up, and get around very well. He's still not officially crawling, but he sometimes army crawls. His preferred method is still the rolling pin, but I think he will be crawling any day now! Oh, and we lowered his bed this week to stay safe!

Another big plus is that we get to go to the beach this weekend! It's going to be a little cooler, but it will be nice to get away and relax for a little while.

Go link up!

Reading levels and funny kindergarteners

Word lists are complete! Well, I have to get a few kids who were absent, but that's it. Today I actually started giving a few running records to the kids who scared me the most (4th grader on an H and two 5th graders on L). The fourth grader was still at frustrational level there. People, that's end of 1st grade! How did she get this far with being retained or labeled?! I'm really concerned...

Oh, and did I mention she's not the worst case I found? The others are at least labeled special ed, though. This girl has NOTHING but Title I.

Okay, before I explode, let me share my funny story. Since I don't have a home base, I've been doing bus arrival and dismissal. After teaching 4th grade so long, I forgot how little kindergarteners know, especially at the beginning of the year. We have to do a TON of herding!

Well, my classroom is also tucked away beside kindergarten and 1st grade. Today I was making copies and heard a line of little ones behind me acting crazy, hitting each other with lunchboxes, yelling, etc. My first thought was, "Where is their teacher?", but I assumed they were following up the end of the line. The kids went on in the room, no teacher. Then a few seconds later, one kindergarten teacher comes flying around the corner like a tornado! Apparently the kids lined themselves up and walked back to class ENTIRELY on their own with nobody stopping them. When said teacher arrived ON TIME to pick them up, her table was empty! Needless to say, they got in a lot of trouble and had to march back to the cafeteria to practice waiting on their teacher.

It's funny because it wasn't me. Although I would have laughed. Eventually. After I finished having my heart attack.

I'm so glad I don't teach kindergarten. I thank God every day that so many of you love it! I'll take them after they've been house broken.

Reminds me of Recess: School's Out where they refer to the kindergarteners as the "savages". Does anybody else remember that? It's my favorite description for them. If I ever taught kindergarten (and I don't plan on it any time soon), I would totally do a jungle theme for it (and I'd call them my savages if it wouldn't be frowned upon)!

Word lists

I mentioned yesterday that our school has begun using Fountas and Pinnell for our running records this year. In the past, many teachers just knew if their kids were high, medium, or low, but most of us didn't actually know what level our kids should be reading books from. Yes, I said "we". Guilty. :::lowers head in shame:::

I knew about running records and the importance of them, but I never considered the importance of knowing each child's level. Thank God that our other reading specialist is AMAZING and helped push for this to be implemented! And also thank God for my master's program that taught me the importance of this and the best way to go about it.

So we ended the school year by giving all students running records. Each grade level used the level that students should be at for the end of the year. For instance, all fourth graders were given a level R. The only problem is that if students were higher or lower, we didn't know how much higher or lower.

In my program, we talked about using word lists to help decide where to start when giving running records. Most of these assessment kits come with word lists and give instruction as to what running record to start with. So starting today, I began pulling all of the students (grades 3-5) to give them a word list and see what level we should begin on. I started with 4th since I know all of the teachers so well (I love my former teammates!) and we had already talked about using the word lists.

The only thing to be aware of when giving word lists is that this is not necessarily the level they will be reading at independently. Many students can "call" words but have NO IDEA what they are reading. If they read it fluently but don't have comprehension, they need to go back a level. It does students no good to be placed in a level where they have no understanding.

I have more word lists tomorrow, and I start training teachers on administering the running records. Should be a busy, but fun day!

First day, hooray!

Today was the first day of school, and it was SO different from the past 6 years. I mean, I knew coming in it would be different, but still.

First off, I slept through the night without any trouble. That NEVER happens the night before school starts because I'm always thinking about what students I will have and if they'll like me and what kind of craziness will happen. You know, the usual, right? Surely every other teacher goes through that antzy sleeplessness the night before.

Anyway, since I won't actually have my own kids to pull out for another two weeks and couldn't push in yet while teachers are getting to know their own kids, my only responsibility was bus tagging and dismissal. That's it! Crazy, huh? I kept feeling like a total slacker, but what can I do?

Don't worry, I tried to be productive and helpful. I introduced myself to the classes with students I would most be working with and gave some teachers their much needed bathroom break.

Then I worked on finding the rest of the books on my inventory and typing in ALL of their levels. Our school is switching to the Fountas and Pinnell assessments, so I want to make sure the books all have labels so teachers can easily pull books that fit their students.

I'll leave you with two questions:  What reading assessments do your schools use? And if you don't have a homeroom class, what do you do on the first days of school?