Back at it!

It seems the end of the school year swept me up and I've been away from blogging!  I finished my first year of teaching and shed a few tears watching my little one leave on the last day.  After a week of fishing up north, I'm ready to get back into the realm of education.

Throughout spring, my class worked on a service-learning project to reduce graffiti and other vandalism seen around our school and community.  I have lots to share about that project, including the literacy activities we did to kick-off our work, but I'm saving all of that story for a later date.  I collaborated on those lessons with two wonderful colleagues - Dr. Sarah Montgomery and Erica Christie.  Their support and ideas throughout the spring helped my students make global connections.  We just finished writing an article this morning that we submitted to Social Studies and the Young Learner based on our efforts this spring.  I am so thankful to both of them for their help during this process and excited about possibilities in the future!

My next project is to begin my summer reading.  I am so excited to get back into books without distractions!  My reading pile has been growing over the course of the year and I had a hard time picking out which book to start with!  I'm really focused on improving my literacy instruction for next year, especially my guided reading block.  To do this, I plan to implement Daily 5 and will be participating in a book study with other teachers during the month of July to dig through two texts and really consider how to make the ideas work for my classroom.  A blog has been set up to guide the study:
Before I dig into the book study though, I'm starting to sift through my pile by reading The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.  I have heard great things about this book and am excited to read it prior to starting my planning for Daily 5.  I'll be sure to let you know what I think!