Hello Mrs Sykes

Missed y'all lately.  As I'm sure you could tell from my last post , I've been a wee bit overwhelmed at school lately.  I'm trying to get my assessments ready for report cards - I know some most of you are in traditional calendar schools, but I teach in a year round school.  (You can learn more about my crazy calendar here .)  Anywhoo, here's a quick little assessment to see how my green beans do with CCSS standard 2.RL.7.  Feel free to download for free from TPT .  Enjoy!! Download from TPT here.

I know many of you are going back to school soon, so y'all should probably just ignore this post.  It's kind of a downer, and I don't want to cause you unnecessary stress, but it feels cathartic to share this, even though I'm telling you not to read it. I'm in my 6th week back in school, and having a very difficult time doing my job this year.  My green beans are very sweet, and I miss them when I am not there.  These kiddos remind me of why I became a teacher.  I am there to help them become independent, critical thinkers who will benefit our society and the world as adults.  My job is important, and I take it seriously. However, there's the downside: paperwork, meetings, new curriculum, little support for new curriculum, more paperwork, more meetings to discuss the paperwork, 10 different passwords to enter data in 10 different websites - all of which are {apparently} important, changes in how we collect the data, changes in how we analyze the da...

I know you've seen these around on the internet: I heard that they are super quiet, but didn't think much of them.  Then my electric pencil sharpener died... again.  I went through 4 heavy-duty electric pencil sharpeners in 2 years - not kidding!!  Most of it wasn't my fault, but things happen when your room in unattended during track outs.  One broke due to a crayon incident, another, due to a bang on the floor.  The last one sounded like it was dying for weeks before it finally stopped.  The irony - none of them sharpened very well.  My class perfected a twisting motion as you sharpen to avoid the "I'm only gonna sharpen on one side for you" attitude that these sharpeners had.   Enough is enough.  The 4th sharpener is off-limits to students, so it has held up well.  That leaves the dilemma of when students need to sharpen their own pencils because they have a special pencil from the prize box, etc.   I contacted Troy f...

Phew!  Fin-all-ly I finished my Mystery Word of the Week set for the year .  Check it out by clicking the pic below... ****Update - This set has been updated, again!! If you have already purchased this set, please go back and download again for free from your TPT purchases page!**** Need more Mystery Words?  Here's the beginning of year 2 !! I'm off to answer emails from parents about their green bean's interim reports!  (Can you believe I've already been in school over 4 weeks?!?)  Enjoy!!

I know.  Most of you are in the last throes of the summer break.  I just finished the 4th week with my kiddos, and I'm working on interims for my students.  Uggh.  I'm about to get 13 parents who won't understand why their green bean is struggling in the new grade, but we just switched to the CCSS curriculum, which is definitely more rigorous.  Anywhoo... I'm linking up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for Currently: My Back 2 School Must Haves: Daily 5/CAFE - read the books from the Sisters!! Mystery Word of the Week -  I am going to improve the vocabulary of my students with these!! Mystery Number of the Week - I'm trying to incorporate more best practices in math, so these should be perfect!!!! Enjoy!!

Hello!  I was chatting with my grade level today, and we had a question for y'all.  First, let me give you a bit of background - here is a picture of my amazing teammates: My lovely teammates (except for Sondra!) That's me in the middle of the back row.  Not too shabby for a day with no shower...  :)  (Long story!!)  Don't we look like a group who collaborates, works hard, and helps each other?  That's because we do!!! Anywhoo... we wanted to know what y'all recommend for 2nd grade reading intervention programs.  Currently, we have Great Leaps , but we have had mixed results.  Some of our struggling kiddos have used GL since Kindergarten, and we're looking for another option that can be easily implemented.  As a Literacy Specialist, I love, love, loved both Soar to Success and the Benchmark Education materials, but they really don't lend themselves to having a para-professional or volunteer for implementation.  Side note...

I have been such a slack blogger lately.  MIA.  I know.  It's weighed heavily on me this weekend, but I've been uber busy.  I've been back in school since July 9, (I'm in year-round school!) and there are a couple of green beans in my bunch that are a bit challenging.  In addition to the regular beginning-of-school-so-all-of-your-paperwork-is-due-at-some-arbitrary-yet-unachievable-deadline chaos, I'm pulling all of my positive behavior strategies out already!! I'm working on a couple of projects, but I'm very excited about the progress I'm making with the next 2 sets of the Mystery Word of the Week .  After I have these sets complete, there will be 40 weeks for teachers to use throughout the year.  Eventually, I'll go back and package the sets together, but my family, friends, and students will come first.  And my laundry will need folding... again.  Some days I'm feeling this scattered: { pin } As you lounge by the pool, at...

Here are a few more Amazing Resources !!  If you know of others, please share with the rest of us...  :) Your Next Read   - Super cool way to find new books.  Type in a title or type of book (or click on the images on the front page) and get a web of suggested titles.  They provide the book blurb from Amazon, too, so you can learn more about it.  I have a few students who I'll be using this with to help them "widen" their book interests!  Here is a web it created for my fav Elephant and Piggie book.  :)   http://www.wrsd.net/literacy/launch.cfm   Lessons, sample pacing guides, and resources to launch Reader's Workshop and Writer's Workshop.  Aligns nicely with Daily 5 and CCSS. Here's a little giggle for y'all... Have a wonderful week!!