My clip chart helps to shape my classroom, and my beautiful students, into a caring community of productive citizens. Without it, I have no doubt that counselor and office referrals would rise, I’d spend a greater portion of my time on the phone telling parents negative things about their children, and the teacher-student relationship would suffer miserably….

When I began the school year this past August, most of my classroom was well below grade level in reading. I knew that I needed a year long systematic phonemic awareness program but I couldn’t find anything to fit the bill that was also reasonably priced. Therefore I did what any teacher would do, I researched and read… a lot! From there, I began implementing my own phonemic awareness program and to my joy, it worked….

Over the years, I’ve had several requests for 4th grade math units that were written in the same style as my third math units. The 3rd grade units were a massive undertaking for me, and I kept finding new things I needed for my students and could never carve out the time. Then, once I found that I would be teaching 4th grade I immediately…

When my students feel good about themselves, they try harder. And when they try harder, they do even better! To me, Math is all about confidence. When my students feel confident in their abilities, it makes my job a whole lot easier. This is why I feel so strongly about displaying student work in my classroom…

I have a list a mile long of new ideas that I can’t wait to try out for next year. My first one?!?! Close Reading Toolboxes…