I was snooping around Instagram this morning and stumbled upon this awesome linkup!
Ashley and Angela have organized a fun, meaningful series about how teachers are really better when working together. I'm excited to contribute this month to tell you all about my SCHEDULE!!!
Here is the schedule I send home with parents at the beginning of each year in students' binders.
I'll be 100%, completely honest... I love my "schedule," but I am the type of teacher that does not follow a specific plan. Sure, we do reading, math, specials, theme study, etc. at the same time every, single day... But if a learning opportunity presents itself, we are going to steer of the plan on go for it. Hence the disclaimer at the bottom of the schedule. :)
We start our day with morning work. That used to mean supplemental practice pages that reinforced skills we were learning. Y'all... Since becoming 1:1 iPads this year, we don't use paper anymore for that! :)
When the kids come in, their iPads are already on their tables (Thanks to three cute, sweet teachers' kiddos who I spoil with candy, treats, and Christmas presents... I think I know why they help a sister out...). By around Christmas, the kids KNOW they have to authenticate their iPads (join the network) first thing. They do not pass go, they do not collect $200, they AUTHENTICATE! :) After that, they need to turn in their binders for me to check, select their lunch choice, and then get busy! I reflect their app options for the morning on the big screen at the front of the room. Usually it's a choice between Spelling City (at this point in the year), Reading Eggs, MyOn, Math Bingo, Hungry Fish, or Sushi Monster. I do have a handful of kiddos who are creating books based on their interests in the app Book Creator. So far, we have books about John Callipari, Yogi Ferrell, Star Wars, Ninjago, and Tom Crean.
While the kids are busy working away, I take care of the paperwork part of our mornings... Turning in lunch count, checking binders, answering parent emails and texts... You know what I'm talking about. :)
After announcements, we dive into morning meeting. During this time, we start our day with a song, read our morning message, and collaborate on our question of the day. I can't imagine our days starting in a different way.
Except on Wednesdays.
On Wednesdays, we do Spanish. (And yes, Mean Girls popped into my head there...)
From there, we go directly into Guided Reading. My FAVORITE resource for this comes from Deanna Jump and Deedee Wills.
If you haven't purchased these products yet, go check them out. I'll wait right here while you do.
I use a TON of resources for whole group word work/alphabet instruction from TPT. Here are a few of my favorites.
I've seen results with these products. I would show you my class ESGI scores from the quarter we just completed, but let's just say, they are REALLY good. I'm not trying to sound like I'm bragging... My point is, teacher created materials are almost always going to be better than things the companies put out. #justsayin...
From whole group work, we go right into our literacy station time. I love using Debbie Diller's model for stations. If you haven't read this book, you really should!
I create almost all of my station activities. I like to keep the activity similar as far as goal or objectives go, so making them myself is just easiest. You can check out some of my packs in my
TPT store!
My kids do two rounds of stations each day. Once a week, they meet with me in small groups. My intervention group meets every day.
When stations are finished, we go to our first recess. My kiddos have an hour of recess each day. That seems like a lot, but we have a pretty long school day and no PE in our schedules.
After recess, my kids go to their specials. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have what we call Tech Lab. Since getting our iPads, this has turned more into a project time. We do a number of PBL projects during the school year, so this time really helps us with working on our projects. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, this is my prep time.
When the kids come back from specials, we turn around and go to lunch. After lunch, the kids have a thirty minute recess. This is my time to work, work, work... Or head into town to quickly grab a refill on my sweet tea if it's been a long morning.
Oh, did I mention, our teachers don't have to do lunch or recess duty? We have wonderful duty aides who wear a lot of hats in our school, and this is one of them!
When we get back from recess, we decompress by reading a chapter out of whatever chapter book we are reading. We have read Junie B. Jones and Ready Freddy in the past, but this class is all about The Magic Treehouse series!
After reading a chapter of our book and getting really calm, we go into our math time!
We start with calendar, where the calendar helper for the week leads us through our daily math work.
Then, we go into our mini-lesson. Our district has adopted Pearson's Envision Math. Not a huge fan here, but we do follow the scope and sequence and give the common assessment. How we get there though isn't always the series. :) We do lots of games, use lots of manipulatives, and just make math fun.
After our mini-lesson and practice, we go into math stations! Math stations are set up in a similar fashion as literacy stations. The kids usually do one hands-on activity and one practice app during this time.
After math stations, we go to (another) recess.
When the kiddos come back from recess, we get into theme study! This time covers our science/social studies standards. We are usually found using videos about our topics, making craftivities, or working on projects.
After theme study, we get packed up and ready to go!
Shew... That's our day. Oh, and I'd be lying if I didn't add that we use GoNoodle A LOT during our day. The kids love it, and it works. :)
Anyway... Check out some of the other wonderful posts from other teachers about their schedules, and check out the #2getherwearebetter on social media!
