Groovy Educator

It has been an eternity since I've blogged or made a product for Teachers Pay Teachers.  This morning I got up extremely early and just could not rest.  My mind was racing about school in the middle of summer vacation.  I am a first grade teacher and I starting thinking about teaching writing.  The spelling dictionary I've been using needed to be updated and I decided to make my own using the Dolch High Frequency Words.  I did add it one word "question" so there would be a word for the letter "q" and because it is an important word.  Every year I use a spelling dictionary to reinforce alphabetical order.  I also teach the children to use it while editing.  I don't like for them to have it out during drafting as I have found some become too reliant on it and use safe writing.  Every week we add our new sight words to the spelling dictionary.  If they are already in the dictionary, I teach the children to highlight them.  If not, t...

Check out mycutegraphics.com ! I want every child to have a sense of ownership in my classroom. It is important for the children to develop a sense of responsibility.  The way to do that is to give them opportunities to be responsible. I assign classroom jobs.  There are weekly jobs that rotate so that every child is able to practice that skill.  There are jobs that are earned and there are permanent jobs that are chosen.  There are also jobs that change periodically. The weekly jobs that rotate consist of: door holde r-self explanatory equipment person -carries out the playground equipment and accounts for all the pieces lights person- self explanatory teacher assistant -This student is my go-to helper.  He/she passes out papers, puts mail in the mailboxes, stamps papers, takes notes up to the office, or any other job that pops up. classroom inspector- He/she is in charge of checking to see if chairs are pushed in, desks are clean, are...