Books: George R. R. Martin

I love books, fantasy, and I love TV shows. This lead me to believe I would love George R. R. Martin and everything Game of Thrones.

Wrong....(kinda)

Okay, so not totally wrong. I like the story, and when I think back on all the plot twists and death of main characters, I do enjoy the story. I have characters I absolutely root for, and I am utterly surprised when some of those characters meet their deaths. I just wish some of those scenes were more detailed. The red wedding that I was waiting for was over in around 2-4 pages.

However, I dislike his writing. I understand that there is so much world building involved. I get that. It is hard to even begin to think of all the time and thought that goes into the background and lore of the series as a whole. I just hate all the background explanation about each house, what everyone is wearing or eating at the moment. I'd take an in-depth fight scene over the description on who's "grandsire" offended whom fifty years ago this past winter.

 Image found here.

I'm too far gone, so he must be doing something right! It just isn't my favorite series! I am currently reading A Dance with Dragons. Then I can begin watching the television series.

Collectively?    3 stars! I probably won't reread these books.

Teacher Bag Organization

Continuing with my organization frenzy, I decided to organize my teacher bag. I tend to carry a lot of things to and from school. Not that I always get to everything I need to at the time, but at least it is there if I have time to grade or plan. I purchased a new bag this year that has multiple pockets for my water and could accommodate everything in one bag. I wanted to get away from carrying my purse into school as well. However, I still have files and books that just get pushed to the bottom of my bag.  It can be very unorganized and annoying. I decided to put a hanging folder box inside the bag to hold my planner and files.

Load up the file box with all of your favorite things and there you have it! Serious organization! I used actual hanging file folders for my box. I figured I can have one per class, or one per assignment to grade. I sometimes put all classes responses in the same file folder, so that might make the most sense for me.   

I ordered my hanging file box on Amazon for $5! It wasn't a prime item, so I didn't get free shipping. I saw some of these  boxes at Goodwill (after I purchased mine, of course!), so that might be an option for you too. I love it. My other binders can be placed to either side of this box, so they will stay upright as well. It's one of those things that I should have thought of so long ago!

Organization Frenzy!

I have no idea why, but I have been organizing my classroom like crazy! It started around the last day of school and has not stopped. I wouldn't say that I had trouble organizing in the past, but there were some little things that bugged me about the way I organized things. I thought about some frustrating aspects of my day-to-day and I realized that they might be my own doing....opps.

I recently decided to use my hanging folders in a new way. I had never really had a place for students to turn in absent work. They were required to hand that over to me when it was done. I mean physically hand it to me. That was inconvenient for me, because I am often busy talking with other students or checking student work at the beginning of class. At the end of class, I am usually working until the bell and then recapping what they need to remember, so there just never was a good time for students to pass that to me.

I also get very frustrated with students when they do not have assignments. I have many students that lose papers that were given to them the day before, or the paper is misplaced in their locker or another class's folder. It is beyond irritating to have students not prepared or wanting to retrieve something from their locker. However, kids are kids and this does happen. I was thinking about ways to remedy this problem and keep the irritation and disruption to a minimum.

I have a separate place for assignments students need to retrieve when they have been absent (with their name on it), so I decided to just put all extra copies of assignments in these hanging folders. If a student has lost their copy of an assignment, I can have students quickly grab a new assignment, which would have students engaged and eliminates the need to go to their locker. This will not help their grades, if it is a graded assignment, but at least they will be engaged with the rest of the class. I like the placement of the folders! I am also thinking of adding a "no homework" slip that requires students to fill out when they haven't completed their homework.

Another annoying procedural aspect of my organization would be extra supplies. I have several students (we all have them) who never have any paper or pencils. I decided to put a drawer out with the Turn-In tray that only contained extra paper. That should help students if they are without paper.

I'm still working on the pencil idea. I'm not sure what to do about that. I know that some of us just give pencils away, but I don't have an endless supply! That is something that students lose easily, and with middle schoolers they sometimes break these on purpose! Why should I give a student a pencil every day? Meh. I'll have to think on that...

Challenge Capsules

While organizing and killing time online,  I found (Pinterest strikes again) an idea about Challenge Capsules.

I teach reading and English in a block, so we do a lot of work each day.  Since I plan our days with several tasks in mind, the amount of "down" time is minimal. However, there may be times when students have time to read silently, if they finish early. However, there is always that one student that finishes with five minutes to go and just sits there! Just sitting is one of my BIG pet peeves.Sometimes it is a student who has everything turned in and is all caught up with independent reading, but other times it is a student that has done no independent reading all year! Just make an effort to at least look busy! >.<

In order to keep my sanity, I decided I need to make some challenge capsules. It should work great for the student who didn't bring their book to class, and we have five or ten minutes to go in class. Instead of having that student go to their locker (which might be their main objective), I can have them grab one of the challenge capsules and get some extra credit (maybe). I'm not sure I want this as another added part of my class or just for extra credit.

Here's my finished capsule set up. I have some of these items for sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. I have a folder for my challenge cards and for completed challenge cards. To make my "challenges" I did a mix of tasks that are independent of my planned lessons (writing prompts and riddles) and comprehension questions on key content. I also put some tasks that could be recreated each week with vocabulary. These are essential questions that will gauge student understanding (as well as remind students - Hey, we learned this in September, I have to remember that?). I found that there weren't many junior high examples of challenge capsules, so it was hard to "just find" questions. I saw that a lot of the teachers used Mind Benders for their grade level.

I hope it goes well! It will be a different experience for students (and me) in any case.

Made it Monday - DIY Laundry Detergent

I'm not sure what motivated me to try this new trend! I can probably blame it all on Pinterest! It can usually go back to that.

Anyhoo, I am a singleton, so loads and loads of laundry are not in my repertoire. I think it was the cost saving factor. However, it didn't turn out quite as cheap as the blogs were saying. That wasn't such a big deal, because it makes a TON! I have always used the liquid detergent, so this will be a change. That liquid detergent doesn't last long, and is pretty expensive. So this recipe did cost a bit more than my average bottle of liquid detergent, but it will last much longer!

I found several recipes for homemade laundry detergent. The one I used was on the blog How does she?
If you follow that link, you will find her recipe for homemade laundry detergent. 

1 - 3 lb Washing Soda
1 - 4 lb Baking Soda (I had to buy two 2 lbs)
1 - 4 lb Borax
1 - 3 lb Tub Oxi Clean
1 - Bottle Purex Crystals Fabric Softener

5 bars Fels Naptha (5.5 oz bars). The recipe I found had 14.1 oz bars, so I just figured five at 5 oz was close enough! Meijer did not carry Zote, and I couldn't even find any Fels-Naptha. I had to ask an associate, and she checked in the back and didn't find any. However, as I was continuing my shopping, I found some over by the diary with a variety of soap! I went to tell her where she could find the product at a later date. Not sure if that was a welcomed act or not...

First thing to do is to cheese grate the soap. That takes forever! It took me about two hours including my breaks. I don't see how a person can do that in one continuous setting!! After that was finished, I just layered each item in my container to easily mix up the ingredients.

Since my Fels-Naptha is a bit yellow, you can see that within the mix. Zote soap is pink or white, and I think that would blend in much better! The soap easily dissolved in the laundry, so that wasn't a problem. This detergent smells amazing, and it cleans just as well as my old detergent! The clothes are soft and appear even whiter in some cases. I used it with the cold water cycle, and it turned out wonderfully! I have so much that I'm sure it will last for months!

Happy Monday!

Books: Way of Kings and Words of Radiance

These two books by Brandon Sanderson are my favorite books I've read all year! They might be two of my all time favorites! I stumbled across these somewhat by accident. I knew of Brandon Sanderson and his connection to Wheel of Time, which I haven't even read his writing for WOT. I saw these two books on Amazon as a recommendation based on past purchases. I bought them for my sister's birthday, because she also enjoys fantasy. The more I looked at them the more I wanted to read them. Thus, I bought my own copies.

Yes, the books are long. However, these are not books that feel like they drag! I think they move quickly and offer a new world that total becomes spellbinding. I found WOT to be very slow, and I really didn't fall in love with any of the characters. I instantly became enamored with the characters of Way of Kings. The only character issue I have with both books are the female characters. I'm not sure Sanderson can write a strong, female protagonist. The few women included come across as weak and whiny. I do not like to listen to pages of whiny inner dialogue.

Despite that problem, the plot motors on! The magic is a bit difficult to grasp at first, but that really is because it takes a while to wrap your mind around the bindings that take place and how the characters accomplish this. That is revealed a lot through Kaladin and his journey, which was my favorite character to follow.

One really nice feature of these books is the artwork. The details of the art is amazing! It contributes to the story, and I was always looking back to see if the creature described was featured in a drawing. 

The structure is interesting. You follow the POV of several main characters, and then you experience interludes, which update you with some minor characters in other places in the world. It was a nice structure, and I'm sure that those characters will make bigger experiences in the other books. There are 10 books planned in this series, and I can't wait to read them!

Way of the Kings by Brandon Sanderson


Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson

Happy Reading! 

New Testing; New Vocab

This school year will be the first year of the new generation testing. The computer based common core PARCC assessments. I am not looking forward to this transition, but it's not up to me or anyone I personally know. We all have to adjust.

The common core standards in themselves are a good thing. I enjoy what they expect, and I like what I'm teaching. I enjoy the collaboration and speaking and listening focus in the standards. I think these standards lend themselves much better to how I was trained as a teacher.That being said...

The testing is beyond anything that should be expected of middle school (and elementary) students. I don't believe that one test should measure the growth of a child, and I really don't think that the results should be linked to how well I teach the material! There are so many complex issues that come along with a student. How can we be pressured to differentiate all the material for students, but when it comes to this testing, it's one size fits all? As I said before, we must adjust.

One issue that I have found with students is the vocabulary of the standards. The "I Can" statements and even some of the organizer I used sometimes used language that students were confused about. I am not talking about all those lofty ACT words. I am talking about main idea verses central idea. They are the same term, and the standards use central idea more often. My students thought of central idea as "theme." That surprised me, because I thought that main verses central would be an easy transition.

That situation got me thinking. How many other students had this same problem, but didn't ask? That would be quite a few once I started looking for this problem when circulating. For the upcoming year, I am going to adjust further, because there are more words (tier 2) that need to be explicitly taught.

I had to rearrange several other word study components to make this happen. I would teach vocabulary (for context, antonym, and synonyms, and word origins) for two weeks then one week of spelling. In addition to this I taught one root word each week. I decided to take these critical academic words to teach each week. That meant shifting the root word study to someplace else. I had to come up with a new root word system, which I will share later.

I derived my Critical Academic Word Lists from a new book called 55 Words that Make or Break Student Understanding. I found this book on Amazon.

The book has a lot of good ideas on how to explicitly teach the words to students. I created lists with two words and no more than four words a week. After two or three lists, I built in a review week, which ends with a short assessment. I created a note-taking worksheet for my students will a place for notes, mnemonic devices, and a list of activities completed.

I have never done a word wall, but I plan to use one this year for these words.
I didn't think I would need to teach some of these words, so I left a few out. For example, retell seemed a very simple word for seventh grade. I was very surprised to learn out of the first 30 words--29 should be mastered by sixth grade! Again, these words are not highly cerebral. However, they have do need to be taught just for the understanding of the questioning that will appear in the new tests. A word like analysis or analyze would probably stump some of my students. They have heard it, but do they really "get" what steps they must take to analyze? I wasn't sure they would know what to do with that.

 We'll see how it goes this year!