Dun dun dun duuuunnn! Post the First!

   So here I am, with my shiny new (and empty) blog!  I have been so inspired by the blogs of other educators that I decided to give it a go.  A slow go.  How often does one update their blog?  Who should I assume my audience is?  Should I capitalize blog?  So many questions.  What I really want to do is contribute at least a little bit to the wider world of education that I have been benefiting from each time I visit another's blog.  I see a classroom library tour post to come.  I love virtually visiting classroom libraries, and would love to share mine.  When I began to think about what to write this Number One post about I started looking through my pictures.  So, what follows is a mini tour through my favorite photos (the ones without students, which REALLY cuts down the favorites pile).

 The view from my classroom!

 The above board was created using post cards students wrote to me over the summer.  I let students check out up to 10 books to read over the summer.  Then any interested families share their mailing addresses and I give a packet to all students which includes: addresses for peers and myself, stationary, stickers, post cards with postage and envelopes with postage.  This way students are keeping up with reading and writing while continuing to share that reading and writing.  Each postcard tells me a tiny bit about the book a student finished.

 I use this board to track the books read by my Bookers book club students (Grades 4-8).  We read books on the Maine Student Book Award list and participate in voting in the spring.  I took Jon Scieszka's Guys Read movement idea and posted a Guys Read sign and made a Girls Read sign.  Then kids tracked books read with a little guy/girl cutout.

 This book is a wonderful mentor text for a writing piece on celebrating the best parts of ourselves.  Students thought of a part of their body and wrote about why it was the best part of them.  Pieces were displayed with pictures of the body part.  They were so amazing.  The book is filled with student written pieces.  Check it out!

 These are Appreciation Trees.  We cut out leaves from scrapbook paper and write the things we are most thankful for on each leaf.  My fiance even came in to make one with the class.  These are our trees.  Kids collect a branch and bring a jar.  Then you hot glue the branch to the bottom of the jar, fill part way with small pebbles of your choice (dollar store) and hot glue the leaves to the branches.  I made leave templates for the kids to trace.

 Oh, who wouldn't throw this on their blog? 

News station WGME 13 awarded 2 of my kiddos as Kids Correspondents a couple of years back.