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!

Word Wall freebie

The past few days have been more word lists (I'm pulling every student in grades 3-5, although I have a WONDERFUL math remediation teacher who offered to help me). I did, however, also make new word wall words since I need them to be much smaller to fit on my white board. I used the Dolch word list and color coded them based on what grade in which they should be learned. If you would like them, I'm offering them for FREE on TpT. Click on the picture below to download. Have a happy Friday!!

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?