One of the most anticipated times of the year has arrived and around this time is when I begin thinking of ideas for the next month. Here are a few ideas I use in my classroom during the holiday season.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, are you ready to embark on a sensational adventure? Taking a field trip, whether actual or virtual, offers a plethora of benefits. From a historical adventure where students travel back in time to the colonial period of St. Augustine... to an excursion through Florida's scrub habitat... to virtual explorations where my students can be transported to other places in the United States and world, I feel field trips expands my students' schema, piques their interest in local history and promotes reading a greater variety of literary genres. 

Thanksgiving has nearly arrived, and several classes are discussing their upcoming decadent feasts. Walls are adorned with various displays of students' writing explaining their gratitude for their families, friends, teachers, coaches and other mentors. Classes may be discussing opportunities for becoming involved in the community. Yet in the midst of all this, it is also a tremendous time to discuss the first Thanksgiving, early European colonies, and what Native Americans faced during that time of colonization. This time is a tremendous time to incorporate reading, writing and social studies.

How do you define yourself as a reader? Are you an avid reader who reads every chance you have outside of work? Or would you rather define yourself as more of a newspaper or magazine reader? Just like us, every one of our students possesses different reading interests. Not every student is realistically going to devour every single Harry Potter book or excitedly head over to your classroom library to peruse the historical fiction books about World War II. Additionally, not every student is going to understand every word he or she reads. Their fluency or prosody may be strong, but their comprehension may be a struggle.

Here are some ways you can make reading better for your students and enhance their comprehension in the process:

During my junior year at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, I recall a profound moment when my Classroom Management professor, Dr. Pace, asked us why we were considering the teaching profession. Though it may have seemed like an ordinary moment to Dr. Pace, my mind was stirring with a whirlwind of thoughts and I remember that moment like yesterday. What was my underlying motivation? What did I want to accomplish once I entered the classroom?

“In the year 1075, a knight of an order called The Order of the Red Rose was falsely accused of striking a deal with a dragon. The dragon was known as Neborex and wasn’t the friendly type. He lived within a volcanic mountain called Fire River Mountain since it had multiple rivers of flowing lava. Neborex was a fire-breathing black dragon who had a reputation of raiding the village of Golden Rock, which was the knight’s hometown.”

These words were written two years ago when I gave my students the freedom to write about whatever they desired for a publishing project. Astounded by this student’s “gift for writing”, I thought about where the quality of where the class’ writing would stand if I had never granted them the freedom or had encouraged them in the first place to write about their “passion”.

This has been a very busy week in Jasztalville and it is going to be even more busy during the next few weeks because of fall-related festivities. I tell myself in the midst of times like these "...Take a deep breath." Sometimes my mind races at 120 miles per hour with loads of creative ideas, yet reality has me steadily going at 50 miles per hour. Let me tell you about this very important time of read-a-thons, conferences, and preparing for the many fall-related festivities to come.

The month of October opens up many opportunities in my classroom. Not only do we enter the "season of many celebrations", we enter the season of trillions of science experiments (or so it seems).

Some of you may remember last week's post about choosing "Just Right" books. I am posting a follow-up because the situation is getting better. Last Thursday, for one, was Open House, and I distributed a letter to parents that talked about the Five Finger test. Additionally, I have opened up the majority of morning work to Independent Reading Time and encouraged my students to write book recommendations. When my students walked in this morning, they saw this written on the board- There is an index card on your desk. Today you are going to write a book recommendation. When you are done, it will be included on our Book Recommendation Board. I then told them to include the title of the book, the author's name, the number of stars they were rating the book, and a short summary.

In the picture- Two boys developing a data poster about students' heights together.

I have posted about learning to embrace a hands-on approach in math. At first, it was very challenging for me, but I am becoming more comfortable about using various methods to make math "real" in our classroom.