Peek at My Week: Narrative Writing

Happy Sunday!  It is a nice day in Southern California, the heat is finally fading.  Of course it will heat up again and the Santa Ana winds will blow for Halloween, but I will take the nice weather when I can get it.  And since other parts of the country have been going through terrible weather and tragedy, I will not complain.   So this beautiful morning, I thought I would link up with Jennifer over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her Peek at My Week linky.


Narrative Writing
With Read 180, there is little time for writing, but I am determined to fit it in this year.  We started working on four-squares last week and wrote an essay together in our small groups.  However, as I much as I love the four-square, this group is struggling with it visually.  Thus I woke up this morning before 5:00a.m. thinking about narrative writing.  Please tell me that other people do that too?  It was useless to try and go back to sleep, so I got busy in my makeshift office trying to figure out an easier way for my students to organize their prewrites.
It took a little maneuvering and mock-ups (and maybe a little profanity), but after a few rough drafts,  I think I am onto something.  We will try it out in class this week, and if it works, it just might be my first "real" item in my TpT store.  Oh, did I mention that I opened a store over at Teachers Pay Teachers???

FitBit
This will be my 5th week of working out with my group at the YMCA.  We workout four times a week; weights, circuits, and the dreaded Zumba.  I am not "dieting," but rather just trying really hard to eat healthy.  This last week, I started to notice that my clothes were fitting better and I am definitely feeling better.  Yay me!  

Then tragedy struck...with all the new activity it was trying to keep track of my FitBit bit the dust.  Okay, maybe it was three years old and the casing cracked.  I broke down and ordered a new one.  

It came Friday and I was giddy with excitement.  It is pretty and new!  I know I can do more steps with this one! (I have found that being delusional really helps with this fitness stuff).  So after a week with no FitBit, this week's teaching will be carefully measured in steps.  On good days, I can get in 4,000 steps before lunch.  It helps me remember to "walk the classroom" and keep moving.  I do not want to turn into that old school marm who never leaves her desk!

R-Books
Our R-Books have finally arrived.  They were stuck in Purchasing Purgatory.  I have seriously mixed feelings about them.  At first when we realized that they were weeks out from arriving, I panicked and was frantically trying to come up things to do.  Then we settled into Maroo, our Interactive Notebooks, and writing.  It felt so good!  

So when the librarian called to tell me that they had finally arrived, I wanted to cry a little.  But, I know that there are really good things in those R-books, and they are part of the program that I am using (and accountable for) in my classroom.  After thinking on it, I am pretty sure I can incorporate the Notebooks fully into the Read 180 program. 

Later this week, if I have time, I will share what we have been doing with our Interactive Notebooks and how we are merging them into Read 180.  It will be a full post with lots of pictures to share, but today I have to actually grade the Interactive NotebooksI swear, I don't know how some of you bloggers keep up the bloggin' pace during school.  Me, I can only do so many things at once or my old brain explodes.

Don't forget to check out my NEW STORE (with only one item in it:) over at Teachers Pay Teachers, and pick up my Behavior Expectation signs for FREE!

4 comments

  1. Congratulations on opening a TpT store! That fitbit sounds great! Do you use the alarm on it too?
    -Lisa
    Grade 4 Buzz

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  2. Hi Susan:
    I've never heard of a FitBit before. Sounds like something I will need to check out...
    Congrats on your new store! I promise to be one of your first purchasers when that writing organizer makes its debut...

    Kim
    Finding JOY in 6th Grade

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  3. I wake up all the time thinking about school. That's probably why I'm up at 5:00, even on the weekends. Ughhh....

    Have a great week! Glad you could link up today!! :)

    Jennifer
    Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

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  4. Please share your narrative organizers. As a READ 180 teacher, I squeeze in any additional writing I can, too.

    ReplyDelete