Escape Room The Game

So things have been going well work wise. I am so glad that the struggles of last year seem to be behind me! Really my only struggles seem to be adults, and honestly since I am in the classroom most of the day the time spent being annoyed by other adults can only amount to so much! I've been busy making new work friends, cleaning house, getting involved-ish with my new church group, helping friends move, being a dog sitter to said friends, reading books with said friend's toddler, working on new lesson ideas, dealing with foot pain, and SLEEPING. I have some funny stories and updates I have catalogued to tell you about including, but not limited to: I get in trouble for being snarky in the morning I get in trouble for not saying good morning the correct way I get in trouble for not placing my lesson plans in the correct folder at the exact precise moment (I get in trouble a lot) Students say the darndest things (these kids have some personality on them) How my reward system is ...

It's been a busy week that I will have to catch you up on a little bit later.  In the meantime here is last week's and this week's lesson plans! Also, I just noticed the date on the first lesson plan below should be 9/10....oops. Lesson Plan Week 5 Lesson Plan Week 6

So I was doing some reading tonight and I came across this article. I really do not enjoy Sarah Silverman, but this made me cry for about an hour straight: http://www.buzzfeed.com/jordanzakarin/sarah-silvermans-dog-died-and-she-wrote-a-touching-obituary Duck “Doug” Silverman came into my life about 14 years ago. He was picked up by the State running through South Central with no collar, tags or chip. Nobody claimed or adopted him so a no-kill shelter took him in. That’s where I found him — at that shelter, in Van Nuys. Since then we have slept most every night together (and many lazy afternoons.) When we first met, the vet approximated his age at 5½ so I’d say he was about 19 as of yesterday, September 3, 2013. He was a happy dog, though serene. And stoic. And he loved love. Over the past few years he became blind, deaf, and arthritic. But with a great vet, good meds, and a first rate seeing-eye person named me, he truly seemed comfortable. Recently, however, he stopped eating or drink...

In need of a little pick me up like I am? Here are some of my favorite starred items on my inoreader lately:

So we were covering foreshadowing this week and last week.  This is probably one of my favorite things to teach for a few reasons.  1. It is one of the first prezis that I made and I guess there is a little nostalgia. 2. I have a dark sense of humor and being so I get to pull out my favorite dark stories! 3. Every year the kids mock one of the songs I use to teach foreshadowing "Buenos Tardes Amigo" which is, granted, a really weird song. However, by the end of the song they GET IT and they end up quoting it for the rest of the year.  4. I just feel like this is one of the literary elements that I really excel at teaching. After the prezi and songs I always start by having the kids read "Death by Scrabble" the foreshadowing in that story really just smacks you in the face. A husband and a wife are playing a Scrabble game. The husband really, really hates his wife. He notices that the words that are being played are coming true in real life (example: When he plays ZA...

The last two years I "hired" kids to update my chalk board during bus waves each afternoon.  That worked out well, but I decided to add some extra jobs this year, and open the jobs up to anyone who wished to participate.  I printed out the jobs that I offer to kids most frequently and put magnetic tape on the back of them. Each day I put up the jobs that need to be done up on the board.  If a kid wants to do one of the jobs he/she takes it down and places it in the basket that I have provided.  I need a new camera! Blurry picture of all the current jobs I have kids doing. The basket they place completed jobs Jobs I offer: -Change the daily agenda and SOL objective -Update the vocab word of the day and wall Agenda is seen above Daily Standard & Vocab Word I have the student write the vocab words on an index card and place on the word awl Organize the class books I don't like when books are falling down and out of order (like a few in this picture are!) Clean / lin...