leslie – Page 39 – Jack of All Trades

Notebooks & Journals in the Classroom LINKY PARTY!

leslie July 21, 2011 7 Comments

For the past two years, I have used journals in my Science classroom. Next year, I am planning on using them in math. I wrote a short post on that here.I LOVE JOURNALS!! It keeps everything nice and organized with all their vocabulary, lab experiments, and paragraphs about their thinking.For the past two years though, we did not decorate our covers or anything, but this year, I am...

Journaling in the Past…. Moving it to the Present

leslie July 21, 2011 6 Comments

Grading Journals is the hardest thing with a million questions...How often do I grade them? How do I grade them? Am I looking for one thing? Should I use a rubric?? How much should the grade count?? I have over 40 students.... I don't want to take 40 journals home over the weekend and grade them... what do I do???Then you scream AHHHHHHHHH!!!! And your next...

CH 6. Let Her Eat Cake!

leslie July 21, 2011 0 Comments

I had 2 days to get one of two principals to take a chance on me and offer me a contract, and they both did; however, I picked an elementary school where one of my best friends was teaching fourth grade. I too was offered a fourth grade Math/Science position. The hard part now was finishing out the year from March-May, especially when my students were starting to plan their schedule...

CH 5. Prayers

leslie July 20, 2011 0 Comments

The Monday after spring break 2009... a day that I will never ever forget.It was my conference time.. 10:30, and the head principal called me into his office. I thought this was a little odd since the principal that I always reported to was the freshman principal---my class was in the freshman wing of the school. So I went over there... all smiles, not worried, after all I had just...

CH 4 Living a Dream for 8 months

leslie July 19, 2011 2 Comments

When I became one of the 4 high school art teachers, I was in love. I had a new room, with tons of storage, a closet, and even a new kiln. I was going to rock this year! My kids were going to love my class and all of them were going to go off to college to study art... that was my thinking/dreaming.I was a little hesitant of teaching high schoolers though. I was 26 at the...

Bucket Filling 101

leslie July 18, 2011 4 Comments

I am still new to bucket filling. It is something that I learned through proteacher last summer. If you are not a member to the wonderful site, filled with teachers, for teachers, and tons of ideas about teaching... then you need to go now! Just click on the link, but would you please finish reading about bucket filling??Bucket Filling is a new take on the age old principle "Do...

CH 3. Becoming a Jack of Trades

leslie July 18, 2011 0 Comments

I was intimidated by fourth grade Science-- I had to make sure these kids were ready for the 5th grade test. Fortunately, we had a great program called AIMS that I really researched and tested the lessons to find what I liked, and soon enough I became "the science person" on our campus. Do you remember me saying that in my interview another teacher asked me about teaching factors...

Library Organization Strikes Again!

leslie July 17, 2011 3 Comments

Well... it did. That's what I have been doing all day. I had my books organized by genre last year, and I really liked it. This summer my goal was to find out each book's DRA level and put it on the book. But then I took a 6th grade position from a 4th grade. At my new school, the ELA teachers don't organize books by DRA... they organize them by grade level...

CH 2. Bombing Interviews

leslie July 16, 2011 2 Comments

I put myself out there. Went to administration offices then to just meet principals (not formal interviews) to just do a meet and greet. The 2005-2006 school year was not over, but I wanted to give anyone I could my resume and a face to put with it. When I went to a principal and told her how I wanted to incorporate Art into the main subject areas she literally said to me,...