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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Common Core Alignment

I've been busy aligning my products to the CCSS.  Although it is taking quite a bit of my time, I hope that it will save YOU time!  Still have lots of products to go, but summer is here...


Click here to check out the products I have finished aligning.  Come back often as I continue to add more aligned products.  Then, take some time to enjoy your summer!




Monday, May 20, 2013

Do You Speak Reading Recovery?

While going through my files, organizing for the end of the year, ...


... I came upon the following poem.  At the end of my training year in Reading Recovery, I wrote it for our "graduation" program.  Hopefully, it will give you a grin. 



Do You Speak Reading Recovery®?
by Barb Evans



Many fields, as it’s well known,
Have alphabets all their own.
A lawyer earns a J.D.
Doctors review a C.T.,
While in football the QB
Will try to score a TD.
Now in this, my training year,
I’ve developed a new ear
For the RR alphabet.
How many of these can you get?

We teach RR (letters tall).
We take rr-s (letters small).
Each day we must M-S-V,
Decide what made them SC,
Then conduct some M & B,
And pray we’re not O-O-T.
And much to our grief and woe
It’s B. T. G. we must go.                        
We started with the O.S.S. 
Which consists of all of these tests:  
L.I.D., O.W.T.,
C.A.P., and W.V. 
Then of our students we ask
To complete the Dictation task.
They must wonder, “What could be next?”
Why, then they must read leveled text!
After that it’s R.A.T.K.
Then F.A.R.T. for one day.
Our job is to closely observe,
Then record so we can preserve
The things that the child does well.
That’s the programme – Oops!  S.O.L.
The prompts that were written by Clay
Are the things we must learn to say.
One prompt is N.R. T.T.A.
Another:  Can we say it that way?
My favorite prompt is, I confess—
G.Y.M.R.F.T.F.S. –
It really is in the Guide Book –
In italics!  It’s there, just look!
“Take your G.B. with you to bed,”
So our T.L. has often said.
And so with our spouses we plead,
“Just go to sleep, dear.  I must read!”


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Pinteresting Boards for G/T & HOTS



Collaborative Pinterest boards for Gifted & Talented,  Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS), enrichment, and differentiated instruction!

If you follow my blog, you know that these topics are near and dear to my heart.  You also know that I have been posting lists of collaborative boards on specific topics; kindergarten and 1st grade, to date.  But when I tried to compile a list of Pinterest boards for G/T, HOTS, enrichment, and differentiation, I did not get very far.  Here's what I have been able to find:






So, I'm asking for your help.  If you know of any collaborative boards for G/T, enrichment, HOTS, and/or differentiation, will you please post the link in a comment?  Then I can expand this list to make it more comprehensive.   


Thanks!



Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Poetry Month Resources





Take time to celebrate National Poetry Month by checking out these resources:

                                                        
You may also be interested in a blog series I have written about poetry.  It is an 8 part series called "Using Poetry in the Classroom."  It starts here and goes forward.  

Finally, just a quick reminder that I'm having a National Poetry Month sale through April 30. You can save 20% on ALL of my poetry products on TpT.






Saturday, April 13, 2013

Pinteresting Boards for First Grade



Collaborative boards dedicated to teaching abound on Pinterest. A few months ago, there were scores of them. Now there are hundreds of them. Some have 1000s of followers. Others are just getting started. If you teach first grade, you should check out these collaborative boards:


This is certainly not a complete list. Is that even possible? Hopefully, you will find a few in this list that are new to you. If you have a favorite 1st grade collaborative board on Pinterest that isn't listed, please put the address in a comment. I'll happily add more to the list.

Happy pinning!