Boy – the buzzword in third grade is MCAS. To ease anxiety and to help prepare Room 204 students, we have been doing a number of things. During Morning Meeting, we now allow 3 questions from students about MCAS (sometimes…
I spent most of my vacation traveling far west of Massachusetts. I started off in Snowbird, UT for the Gates Foundation ECET2 convening. Over 300 teacher leaders were invited from all over the United States to come together and talk…
We have been hard at work on our writing skills. Students have been learning strategies to hook their readers and keep them glued to their story. We’ve been analyzing what authors do and we notice there are many common features…
With the iPads rolling in on Monday, it was a perfect time to talk about our planet research. I asked students to think of what is important to learn when studying planets. Instead of having them raise their hand and…
Is your child Economically Literate? You might be surprised at the answer! Over the past several weeks, Ally’s mom has been coming in to Room 204 to present lessons from Junior Achievement as a curricular tie-in to our Social Studies…
I’m really old, but yet I can still remember learning my multiplication tables when I was in 3rd grade. Mrs. Lynch would have us listen to each times table as a song on her record player, and I could sing…
I am glad that we can soon put these short weeks behind us. As much as I enjoy the long weekends and vacations, the shorter weeks are a challenge when it comes to squeezing everything in. The upcoming months represent…
Usually around this time of year, I am writing newsletters about preparing 3rd graders for MCAS. MCAS has been a reality for students in my class since I began teaching third grade 9 years ago. Though the content has adapted…
Recently I was tagged by both Beth Holland (@brholland) and Drew Frank (@ugafrank) in a blogger challenge. I loved reading their posts, as it’s always fun to see what similarities we share across the World Wide Web. Thanks for including…
“Every day, we decide who we will be by the actions we take.” Inevitably, this time of year brings about thoughts of reflection, resolutions and resolve. I like that Jan 1st falls roughly in the middle of the school year.…