What the Teacher Wants!

Setting Goals

We at What the Teacher Wants love all you teacher bloggers out there!

It's so hard to keep up with everything that's out there, so I wanted to draw your attention to our friend, Mrs. Saoud at Primary Graffiti. She recently posted about this fabulous data notebook which has 45 pages of printables focusing on collecting data and helping students set goals.

I think it's important to have students set goals for themselves. Last year, my 5th grade team focused on reading fluency and every month my students had a monthly reading goal that they worked towards. I know that it really helped them improve their reading abilities over the school year. They specifically knew what to work on, they worked on it all month, I reminded them of it during our conferencing time, and then they were re-tested and given a new reading goal at the end of the month. I saw HUGE successes come from this!

(As an fyi - If students didn't meet their goals at the end of the month, they would usually continue with the same goal for the following month.)

This year, I want to make goal-setting more formal. I have created this page that will go in their binders to help them set goals in all subjects, all year long. I think it will be fun to look back at the end of the year and see all the progress they've made.

First Grade Fanatics!

I have posted a freebie on the wonderful blog, First Grade Fanatics! Head on over there today to pick up a spider pattern activity {for Halloween...I know it's August, but just file it away}! They are giving away freebies from different blogger/teachers EVERYDAY for 14 days! WOWZA! Don't forget to leave them a comment and become a follower. :)

{Click the picture below to head over there}

Write About Reading - Labels

I, like Rachelle and so many of you, am implementing {or at least trying to implement} The Daily 5. Today I turned those little GBESCO notebooks into Write About Reading notebooks. These can also work as any type of reader's response journals.

Here are my labels to share:

I'm not sure if everyone is in full-out back to school mode yet, but if so GOOD LUCK WITH EVERYTHING! I was in my classroom for 9 hours today getting stuff ready. There's just so much to do!!

VIP

Lots of our fabulous readers have asked if I do "Star Student". Well, I do.

BUT, I call it VIP.

I just think it sounds super official and important. YA! Very-Important-Person.

I send home a bag with the kiddo who is the VIP that week. I got the bag from Hobby Lobby and the dog from Wal-Mart.

Inside of the bag:
*Directions for the parents about their childs' VIP week
*Stuffed dog named Andy
*Adventures with Andy book for kids to write in
*Me Sack

VIP Directions:

Adventures with Andy book {I just stick it in a binder and put the writing pages in individual sheet protectors}. The kiddos take Andy home and play with him, then they have a parent help them write about it and draw a picture. This is their FAVORITE! {You can do any stuffed animal. In my student teaching, my cooperating teacher did this cute little frog because her classroom theme was frogs-I got the idea from her!}

The "Me Sack" is a label stuck on a brown paper bag. It's like show and tell, but the items need to be able to tell about the child and it better {p.s. I hate show and tell}. Then, the other students can ask 2 questions and have 2 comments about the items. :) My friend and teaching buddy Ashlee gave me this fabulous idea. Click {here} to download the labels.

At the beginning of the year, I send home an "All About Me!" poster to return the first week. I like to do that so when their child is the VIP they don't get overwhelmed. Sorry folks, I got this poster from my teammates and it's not digital! But I did try to recreate it and you can download it at the bottom of this post {you will need to print it out and then enlarge it on your copy machine to fit on 11X17 paper}.