A day in my shoes!

Yes, I know it's bad blog-etiquette to post 2 posts in one day, BUT I'm a rule-breaker by nature!  :)  And it's a holiday, so I'm taking a break to do some fun stuff.

Adventures of a 6th Grade Teacher is hosting A Day in My Shoes Linky Party.  I've been reading what other teachers' days are like and thought I would add my own!  How fun!

A typical day for me:

5:09 - The alarm goes off and I find the snooze button to hit.

5:36 - After hitting the snooze button 3 times, I realize this is the VERY latest I can get out of bed or I will be late.  I drag myself out of bed to shower while contemplating if I have enough time to either shave my legs OR iron my clothes for the day.  Yes, I go through this every day.  I put the PRO in procrastination.

6:05ish - Go wake up the kiddos and tell them to get dressed while I finish drying my hair.

6:15ish - Send a crying kid back to their room to put on a different outfit and fix them breakfast.

6:35ish - Herd the load of kids out the door, get onto the neighbor kids who are waiting in front of my house for the bus and also arguing with each other (this also happens everyday), and finally drive to school.

6:55ish - Get to school, tell my OWN children to quit running in the hallways and stop arguing about who got to the door first, laugh with my co-workers who comment that I have arrived with my ducklings in tow, put the kids on PBS Kids after I broke up another fight about who gets to sit at what computer, check my mailbox and sign in.

7:20 - Kiss my kiddos goodbye, break up another fight about who's turn it is to walk in front, middle and back of their 3 person line to go to class.  Report to cafeteria for morning duty.  

8:00 - My 3rd grade boys show up for reading.  We do a Corrective Reading lesson and then either guided reading, whole group, read to self, comprehension skill, assessment, etc.

9:30 - One 3rd grader leaves and the rest of us do Language Arts/Writing.

10:00 - Two more 3rd graders leave.  The rest of us walk to the other side of the school to pick up another 3rd grader who comes to me from the self-contained class for math.  This gives us a brain break and a little movement.  Then we go back to my class for math.

11:00 - All my 3rd graders leave and my 1st graders show up for academic support.  I'm in the stages of making a new plan for them and deciding what I'm going to do with them academically.

11:30 - 1st graders leave and I wait for one of my 3rd graders to come back and get me so I can come to his class for math support.

12:00 - My lunch time

12:30 - 1st graders come back for more academic support.

1:00 - 1st graders leave and I go pick up my kindergarteners for academic support.

1:40 - Take kindergarteners back to their class.  Stop by the self-contained classroom to chit-chat with the teacher and visit her kiddos (I love all the students in the self-contained classroom).

1:50 - Report to carpool duty and load kids in their cars.

2:20ish - Go back to my room to plan, surf the net, do paperwork, call parents, chat with friends, etc.

4:00 - Pick up my middle schooler (can you believe they don't get out till 4?!?!?!) and head home.

4:40ish - Walk in the door and get bombarded with what's for dinner, homework, practicing sight words,  reading decodables, whatever the older kids and hubby needs, etc.  

5:30ish - Make and eat dinner.  Get kids through all the homework/reading, showers, pjs, etc.

8:00 - Put triplets in bed and then watch tv with the hubby and middle schooler.  I'm usually working or trying to find the end of the internet while the TV is on.

10:00ish - Go to bed and hope to be asleep before 11.

Then repeat everyday.  Sometimes I feel like I live in Groundhog Day!!!  The weekends of being able to relax are so nice!!!

Link up to tell about your day!

Dinosaur Sight Word Game ~ Free!

One of my sweet Kindergarten students put in a request for a dinosaur sight word game.  He put a lot of thought into what he wanted, because he told me what the cards should have on them and what the special cards should say.  He asked me everyday last week if I had made the game for him yet.  I know I could't let him down, so I whipped this game up today.  I wasn't able to give him EVERY special card he wanted, but I did get one with a palm tree on it.  I hope it lives up to standards!  Click on the picture to get your FREE copy!

On another note, are there any 3rd grade teachers from FL out there?  In FL, 3rd grade students must take the FCAT standardized test in the spring and this can determine if a student passes or fails 3rd grade.  As a back up in case students do poorly on the FCAT, 3rd graders also complete a reading portfolio.  It's a set of 14 reading passages covering many different skills (i.e. author's purpose, multiple meaning words, figurative language, etc.).  

We started our reading portfolios last week.......WOW!  My poor students haven't been doing that well so far.  Since they are all below grade level, I knew this would be difficult for them.  I know a lot of the problem is that they are not able to decode the passages enough to fully comprehend them.  However, the types of questions were really tricky for my students.  We've spent so much time working on building their reading abilities that I haven't spent much time focusing on the types of questions found on standardized testing.  This is an area that we will really need to work on ASAP.  

Right now, I'm putting together a unit on Author's Purpose where they can work on reading shorter text and answering the types of questions that they will likely see on FCAT.  I'm going to try and really work on all these skills between now and late April when they will take the test.  Would anyone else be interested in units that would focus on standardized testing questions?

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday!

Graphics by Scrappin Doodles.

Problems with Scribd downloading FIXED!!!!!

Over the last few months, I've gotten several emails saying people how trouble downloading my freebies because of Scribd.  I finally sat down and decided to fix this problem today.  I think I have everything fixed so it's either able to be downloaded through Google docs (some of my earlier posts) or it downloads as a direct link once you click on the picture.

If you have trouble, please let me know.  I hope this fixes the problem!

I'm also working on some new phonics games that I should be posting soon.  My husband has duty today (he's a Marine) and won't be home till tomorrow.  It's beautiful outside so the kids can run amuck outside.  I'm hoping to get some work done soon and not feel so behind.  If there are any phonics games that you would like to see, please let me know.  My students probably need the practice with it, too!