1. Testing is OVER!



My student worked hard for two days, we were the last class to finish both days.  On the Reading test I had three students sit there and do NOTHING for an hour each!  Seriously!?!  I have the group of students who shut down when frustrated, four hours for a reading test is quite frustrating.

2. First Crush {heart}



My oldest son is in Kindergarten and told me last night at dinner that he had a crush.  He was smiling and blushing through the whole conversation.  He informed me that he had a crush on not one but TWO girls. I asked him how he knew he had a crush on them and preceeded to tell me they were good looking...I couldn't help it but I busted out laughing {I know not my best mommy moment}.  They had Splish-Splash day yesterday and my son informed me that he thought the girls looked hot in their swim suits, and I then turned the conversation into a serious one.  I asked him where he heard talk like that and said the tv, I know exactly what shows too because I have been contemplating blocking those shows.  I explained to my son that six year old boys do not talk about how hot a girl is and if I heard it again he would loose all tv shows.  I taught him that we treat girls with respect and say respectful things about them, we can say they are beautiful, pretty, and nice.  I even went as far as if he heard any other boys talking like that about girls that he needed to teach them respectful ways to talk about girls.  I am just excited that he felt comfortable enough to tell me, his mommy, about his first crushes and I had the opportunity (at a young age) to teach him we treat girls with respect.

3. Best Tutor E.V.E.R.!

Mrs. M. and I have worked together the past three years, I appreciate her sooooo much!  She has been with me when I completed grad school, when I had my third son, and through this year of H-E-double hockey sticks!  Her last day was yesterday and this is the best gift she has given me at the end of the year :)

We won't be working together next year because I will not have the EC inclusion class, it is time for a break and I need to LOVE what I do again {it was that bad this year}.  Mrs. M, my co-teacher, and I will be heading out to dinner and drinks one day next week to celebrate surviving the school year!

4. Five and 1/2 Days!





Only 5 1/2 days left of school, that's right we finish on a Monday and it's a half day.  Who thought that was a good idea needs their head checked.

5.  June Monthly Goals

I posted my goals for June yesterday, I hope you set some for yourself and link up!  I did okay with my May goals, but let's be real here I am SO GLAD TO SEE MAY GO AWAY!  It was a ROUGH month!

Read more »

Anonymous

It's a new month (well close enough), time to reflect on last months goals and create some new ones!  So how did you do last month?

I didn't do to well with my health goal, I only went to the gym once and went on two walks.  I didn't meet my personal goal, but ONLY went to Walmart two times!  That's pretty good for me :)  I did accomplish my School goal!  I didn't bring a stack of papers home once in May!

Onto a new month!

Personal:  I need to clean out closets and kitchen cupboards!  I can't find anything I need without junk falling out.

Family:  I didn't do this as much as I wanted in May, but look forward being able to take them to the park, pool, and splash park this summer.

Health: I NEED to cut back on the Dew, I REALLY NEED to cut it out completely but working on baby steps. :)

School:  Let's face it, we never stop working on school stuff.  I am going to work on some new ELA plans for next year.  I would like to get at least two weeks done in June.

Blog/TpT:  I have just finished up my classroom theme pack and math centers for 4th grade.  I have a few other products I would like to get done before we go back.

Read:  Right now I only have two books on my Summer Reading List, Girls with Swords and Wonder.  I started Girls with Swords last month, it is a GREAT book about women have God's Word as their sword.  I've read a few blog post about Wonder and read the Amazon review on it, I can't wait to read it!

Read more »

Anonymous

I am joining Kim for her first linking party over at Joy in 6th Grade!  This is such a great idea!  We are to list things we will DEFINITELY do next year.

1. I have LOVED Collaboration Cuties and Jivey's Mentor Text post so much that this is one new thing I am going to implement next year.  The best part is being able to refer back to their post for a starting point and reference but they have already given me a ton of ideas on what text to use and how to use them.  I am so set on implementing this I have already purchased Jivey's Mentor Text pack.

2. I have been wanting to change up my math instruction to allow for a spiral review, and what better way than with Math Workshop.  I have been pinning and reading several blog post for ideas and inspiration.

3. This year has been a difficult one, and that is putting it nicely!  Next year I am going to remind myself to just breathe through the headaches and frustrations.  The upcoming 4th graders are not a "rough" bunch so I am looking forward to a year where I can relax and enjoy teaching again.

Testing starts tomorrow for us, FINALLY!  Prayer will be in school these days while I walk around and monitor my students, I will be praying they stay focused and making smart decisions :)

Read more »

Anonymous

I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day!  As a military family our thoughts and prayers go out to our military families who have lost a love one.  A few years ago my husband found out that his medic from his last deployment committed suicide, he did not die physically in the war but suffered in silence with PTSD for several years. The effects of war eventually were too much for him to live with. Please pray for those who lost love ones and those who continue to suffer from war.

Okay, now back to organization....

I am a bit late to the party over at Fun in Room 4B with Elizabeth and her BB Kristen.  I haven't even started reorganizing my classroom yet, but finding some AWESOME ideas from this linky!  What I have cleaned up and organized is my laptop.  This took some time and I recovered 2GB of memory!

I have an Apple and when I download an item my computer saves it in a Downloads file, then if I save the file there are two of those files saved on my computer (one in downloads and one elsewhere).  I had  about 1,500 downloads to go through!

Once I cleaned out the Downloads file I started organizing my folders...I never realized how many files I had until I started this.  I have organized my School Stuff folder and currently working on my TpT folder, and avoiding my Pictures Folder.

Nice and Organized

School Files, so easy to find something now!

Math Folder by the CC Standards

Now to clean up this mess!

Read more »

Anonymous

WOW!  Have you checked out the 60 Budding Blogs!?!  There are so many new bloggers with some great ideas and information to share.  The best part is there are several from around the world, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Canada...how awesome is that!  I hope you give them some love and start following their blogs.

I have missed out on so many great linkies this week, I just couldn't find the time to sit down and write a post :(.  I finally have a little time to myself, my boys are currently being babysat engrossed by the Disney Channel, to share some highs and lows of my classroom.  When I kept up with my family blog I used to post highs and lows of what was going on in our lives, but today they will all be related to school.

High

I met with our new team member last week.  I usually sit in on the interview committee, but she was interviewed over Spring Break.  I think she will be a great fit and have some new ideas and things to share with the team.

Low

I don't believe I can say "sit down" with out a bit of agitation in my voice.  Seriously, why is it SO HARD to stay in your seat!

High

My end of year awards are typed up and just waiting to be printed.

Low

Apparently the new thing to do at lunch is pull at your loose tooth until it comes out.  I screamed, yes raised my voice as loud as possible, "Does this look like the dentist office !?!" at my class today in the lunch room, it went silent...very silent.  Thankfully there was only one other class in there at the time.

High

Thanks to my awesome co-teacher ALL my DIBELS, WTW, and DAZE assessments are completed! I {Heart} her!

Low

Student on a two week vacation BEFORE state testing, will return the day before testing...REALLY!?!

Source :mrscaldwellss.blogspot.com 

High
I am not the only teacher currently loosing her mind this time of year :)

Low

I can't take the crying, fussing, and arguing from 4th graders, almost 5th graders, anymore!

High

10 1/2 days of school!

Low

10 1/2 days of school is still TOO MANY days!

Read more »

Anonymous

Is it me or has this been a LONG week!?!  I feel like the last few weeks of school NEVER end!

1.  This week my car hit 100,000 miles!  It's only a 2009!  We did drive from NC to MN round trip and NC to OK round trip this summer.

2. Maxton and I got hair cuts this week.  Isn't he handsome :)  Please note he did fix his seat belt :)

3. Correct and Return.  Yesterday I had 13 out of 20 students in class, it was nice :)  Instead of starting something new students worked on C & R work, this is Correct & Return work for my class.  It was a great day for remediation.

4. Illnesses.  My family is still in need of prayers for health.  My son has a horrible double ear infection, my Grandma's Cancer is back with a vengeance, and my Grandpa had a heart procedure done yesterday.

5. TpT.  I have started working on some products for TpT, in the process I am learning some rules about copyright.  I am working on a post for this as well.

Read more »

Anonymous

This month has been so crazy I forgot to post a Budding Blog for May, so to make up for my slacking I am hosting a Budding Blog Linky.   If your blog has less than 200 followers please link up and show case yourself :)

In your post please answer the following questions, include the image above and link back to I {Heart} Recess:

1. Why did you start blogging?
2. What is your favorite subject to teach and why?
3. Describe your teaching style.
4. Give three interesting facts about you.
5. Do you have a TpT store? If yes, post the link :)

I look forward to "meeting" all the Budding Bloggers!

Read more »

Anonymous

Stop over and link up!

This week's topic is Math Manipulatives; how do you use them, store them, etc.  I did not work today {my oldest has a double ear infection} so I was unable to take pictures of my classroom and simply forgot to do it on Monday and Tuesday...oops.  After my son's doctors appointment today we headed over to the school supply store for some summer workbooks, while there I was mentally preparing a "wish list" for next year.  I snapped some pictures of a few Math Manipulatives I would LOVE to add to my classroom.  I already have a ton of manipulatives because our old curriculum came with individual student sets and I have hoarded saved and collected some other manipulatives handed down to me from other teachers.  Here are a few items I saw today:

Random thought:  I really dislike that "manipulatives" comes up misspelled in ALL spell checks.

Read more »

Anonymous