About Me
- Fran Richardson
- Welcome to my blog!I'm a teacher in a beautiful, small, rural town. I moved here a few years ago, but I have taught over 20 years in this same small town that is now my home. My experience is in teaching second, third, and fourth grades with one year in sixth grade. I am always reading, learning, and reflecting on what goes on in my classroom. I love the work that I do with the parents, my fellow teachers, and most all-my students.I hope you will enjoy reading my blog.
The Scholar, Age 5
I'm A Lifelong Learner...
My first and only microscope
I Still Love Learnin'!
Still The Scholar
Seriously getting ready for school: Our fourth grade summer team meeting ( 2009_
More Scholarly Stuff
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My Blog List
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Alphabet Three Piece Puzzle Literacy Center - Finding class time for your students to review the skills you teach them each day can be challenging! These Three Piece Puzzle Alphabet Center Games are pe...
4 days ago -
Poetry Friday - Holiday Poetry Swap and a Poem - For years, Tabatha Yeatts, who blogs at The Opposite of Indifference, has coordinated both a summer and winter (holiday) poetry swap. I appreciate what a...
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1 week ago -
How to Teach Kids to Code: Strategies for Every Stage of Learning - From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter Today, we’re exploring one of the most exciting and relevant topics in ...2 weeks ago
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ATTENTION TO ALL WHO SUBSCRIBE BY EMAIL!! - image via Unsplash You will no longer be receiving email notifications for this blog because Blogger email subscriptions were handled by FeedBurner, whic...
3 years ago -
New Christmas Drama Circle Activities - The month of December always brings out the excitement in my students, and for me, one of the best ways to take advantage of that excitement and energy is ...
5 years ago -
My Latest BAM! Radio Show Is On Using Tech In English Classes - Ways to use Tech Effectively in English Classes is the topic of my latest ten-minute BAM! Radio Show. I’m joined in the conversation by Jenny Vo, Jennifer ...5 years ago
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GYTO ~ Get Your Teach On National Conference - Last week I was so blessed to attend the Get Your Teach On National Conference in San Diego. This conference was started by Deanna Jump & Hope King. T...
6 years ago -
Smashing Strategies for Guided Math: Daily Reflections - This is our final week of sharing Smashing Strategies for Guided Math!! In my previous two posts, I discussed different options for Math Warm-Ups and Inc...
7 years ago -
Celebrate The Last Day of School and Happy Teacher Appreciation Week - Happy end of the year to you, phenomenal teacher! Hats off to you and the hard work behind all you do. Finish out the school year strong - and treat yourse...
8 years ago -
I'VE MOVED!!!! - Hi my lovely, loyal readers!! Please note that Mrs. Mimi has up and MOVED to a shiny new blog with fabulous new content. Don't worry, I took all the old s...8 years ago
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How to Get Started With Genius Hour for Elementary Classrooms? - I believe that every single child is gifted and that every kid has a talent which we as educators should help uncover. This is not easy when you have a c...
8 years ago -
Teachers Pay Teachers Sale - For all the Aussie teachers going back to school and any one else looking to update their lesson plans, don't miss out on the 2 day sale, you still have t...
8 years ago -
Classroom Resources for Martin Luther King - My class is focusing on biographies right now and I've compiled resources over the years on my blog for Martin Luther King. I hope you find something u...
8 years ago -
Tangle Tables: Multiplication FUN!! - Hello, all! Hope you had a MERRY Christmas! This break has been so relaxing, yet productive for me! I hope it has been for you as well. :) So, have you eve...
8 years ago -
Word Study Workshop...Units 3, 4, and 5 Visited! - So, being 40 weeks pregnant I've slacked with posting highlights from these units! They have been posted though, and are available in my TpT store! I'll gi...
9 years ago -
FUN Ways to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day - For over twenty years, the leprechaun would visit my classroom and then my home when I began to homeschool. My kids have made countless traps all in hop...
9 years ago -
New School Year! - Dusting off the shelves of this blog for another school year. I'd like to use this more as a personal journal for my schoolteacher life this year so what b...10 years ago
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Navigating the Dangers of Research - *Today's guest post is by Karen Blumenthal—author of YALSA Nonfiction Award finalists *Bootleg* and *Steve Jobs: The Man Who Thought Different—*and a co...
10 years ago -
Exciting News! - We are excited to share with you our newest adventures! We are both opening up our own individual Teachers Pay Teachers stores, as well as our own indivi...11 years ago
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Waiting on Jake. - I often complain about having to wait for my 15 year old son. As much as I love him (to the moon and back) he tests my limits on frustration because I am ...11 years ago
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Auntie Claus Preview and our Polar Express Day! - I wanted to give a sneak peek at our Auntie Claus unit that my friends, Michele and Elana (Lana) and I are finishing up for teacherspayteachers. We are ...
12 years ago -
It's a Lifestyle - I have noticed that everything I do is not a career or an event or even an activity/ chore.... it's a LIFESTYLE. The problem is making sure my lifestyle c...12 years ago
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Calling all teachers!!!! - Alright, this is kind of a poll... I'm about to *finally *open my TpT store, but I'd like to know from y'all what kinds of things you'd like to see first a...12 years ago
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Tennessee's Teacher Evaluation - What a mess! http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/education/tennessees-rules-on-teacher-evaluations-bring-frustration.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&smid=fb-share13 years ago
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Five Friday Freebies - Week 22 - f you are not a TN member, membership is FREE. Here is a link to register so you will be able to download. *Teacher Notebook Registration *Click on log in...
13 years ago -
Connecting Children With Nature: Learning About Trees - Our playground is surrounded by an abundance of beautiful trees, which always seem to captivate my very curious kindergartners. Who would have guessed that...13 years ago
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First WAS Fab...Second will be Super! - Thanks to all followers of this BLOG. I will be moving to second grade and will no longer post to this BLOG. I will, however, leave it active for viewing a...13 years ago
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Summer Book Club (for students!) - Our recent post on Teaching Blog Addict has me thinking.... I know I can't wait to read over the summer, but what about my students? How can I help preven...13 years ago
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New Year - New Plans - It's been a whirlwind end to 2010. My school was in the middle of a Quality Review when I received a call to take a position at another school. It was such...13 years ago
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Wednesday, June 22, 2011
WOW- It’s already WEDNESDAY!
I’ve spent the past few mornings working on some things in preparation for the upcoming school year, and these past few days I’ve just been overwhelmed at the amount of great websites and blogs and classrooms that I’ve visited all while sitting here on my comfy little couch. In case, you didn’t already know it:There are some amazing teachers out there in the world who are just a click away!
Despite all the negative news that teachers seem to attract these days, the majority of us go to work each day and close the doors to our classrooms and teach! It’s sad then that most of us will never make the six o’clock news unless we retire at age 100 having taught five generations in the same school. Teaching can sometimes be thankless but also very isolated.
That is all the more reason that we as teachers need to come together collaborate and support each other even across long distances, and visiting and sharing and ENCOURAGING via classroom websites and blogs is a great way to do just that.
I feel enthusiastic,renewed, and encouraged in my beliefs about both education and what I do as a teacher, but I’ve also discovered better ways of doing some things that I already believe work well in my classroom.
For several years, I’ve been a fan of Ms. Powell ( Angela Watson) of mspowell.com. As someone who is organizationally-challenged, I admire her skill in lesson planning and storing her materials, but she also has some instructional practices that are worth checking out. I believe that her book The Cornerstone should be a gift for all first year teachers in the primary and elementary grades. It’s THAT good in helping to set up a classroom, set procedures, communicate with parents- everything.
Her website is the first place where I saw the idea of a content-based bulletin board that would serve as a visual review for students.
http://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/
My district supports a literacy-based model of reading that encourages the use of anchor charts. Having used Strategies That Work for a decade, I am familiar with that idea. I found many good examples at readinglady.com.:
The Reading Lady
http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/AnchorChartPhotographsfromKellyandGinger/
The Mosaic Listserv
http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/tools.htm
Another teacher that I am a HUGE fan of is Angela Bunyi who blogs for Scholastic. Her use of anchor charts and bulletin board incorporate several great ideas from the Daily 5 and CAFÉ books and Tanny MacGregor’s book on comprehension.
http://blogs.scholastic.com/3_5/2008/08/combining-readi.html
Last year before my job description was social studies teacher, I hung up a “chart wall” as described in Denise Leograndis’ book, Launching The Writing Workshop which I LOVE because there are plenty of colorful pictures of the classroom and examples of the charts. However, once I became a social studies teacher, it was difficult to adapt that idea to a content-area. I was really bummed!
So now I have found something that seems to take the best of all of these ideas: FOCUS WALLS!
Take a look at the Power Points by a third grade teacher in California
http://schools.cajonvalley.net/webpages/tlee/hm_reading.cfm?subpage=262015
My imagination is just running wild for FOCUS WALLS!
I imagine my focus wall as a content-area chart wall that is very LITERACY-BASED. I imagine my wall being a place that includes something along the lines of Michael Gravois (who has so many wonderful hands-on ways for children to create study tools and manipulatives in his many books such as the one below about publishing research). The class mural or quilt would be ideal in my social studies classroom.
Using my imagination and some online examples, I’ve come up with my own focus wall based on what’s expected with my district’s literacy model and also what I believe is best for my own classroom such as reciprocal teaching during my small group/ guided reading block. Here are my headings for my new focus wall.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yLgXZ05cnBsXipFd1E-oMWvppmc9IvqsuKSqWYC8-Qk/edit?hl=en_US
I am looking forward to later posting some pictures of my very own content-area, literacy-based focus wall.
I hope you’re WOW’ed by focus walls, too!:)
Despite all the negative news that teachers seem to attract these days, the majority of us go to work each day and close the doors to our classrooms and teach! It’s sad then that most of us will never make the six o’clock news unless we retire at age 100 having taught five generations in the same school. Teaching can sometimes be thankless but also very isolated.
That is all the more reason that we as teachers need to come together collaborate and support each other even across long distances, and visiting and sharing and ENCOURAGING via classroom websites and blogs is a great way to do just that.
I feel enthusiastic,renewed, and encouraged in my beliefs about both education and what I do as a teacher, but I’ve also discovered better ways of doing some things that I already believe work well in my classroom.
For several years, I’ve been a fan of Ms. Powell ( Angela Watson) of mspowell.com. As someone who is organizationally-challenged, I admire her skill in lesson planning and storing her materials, but she also has some instructional practices that are worth checking out. I believe that her book The Cornerstone should be a gift for all first year teachers in the primary and elementary grades. It’s THAT good in helping to set up a classroom, set procedures, communicate with parents- everything.
Her website is the first place where I saw the idea of a content-based bulletin board that would serve as a visual review for students.
http://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/
My district supports a literacy-based model of reading that encourages the use of anchor charts. Having used Strategies That Work for a decade, I am familiar with that idea. I found many good examples at readinglady.com.:
The Reading Lady
http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/AnchorChartPhotographsfromKellyandGinger/
The Mosaic Listserv
http://www.readinglady.com/mosaic/tools/tools.htm
Another teacher that I am a HUGE fan of is Angela Bunyi who blogs for Scholastic. Her use of anchor charts and bulletin board incorporate several great ideas from the Daily 5 and CAFÉ books and Tanny MacGregor’s book on comprehension.
http://blogs.scholastic.com/3_5/2008/08/combining-readi.html
Last year before my job description was social studies teacher, I hung up a “chart wall” as described in Denise Leograndis’ book, Launching The Writing Workshop which I LOVE because there are plenty of colorful pictures of the classroom and examples of the charts. However, once I became a social studies teacher, it was difficult to adapt that idea to a content-area. I was really bummed!
So now I have found something that seems to take the best of all of these ideas: FOCUS WALLS!
Take a look at the Power Points by a third grade teacher in California
http://schools.cajonvalley.net/webpages/tlee/hm_reading.cfm?subpage=262015
My imagination is just running wild for FOCUS WALLS!
I imagine my focus wall as a content-area chart wall that is very LITERACY-BASED. I imagine my wall being a place that includes something along the lines of Michael Gravois (who has so many wonderful hands-on ways for children to create study tools and manipulatives in his many books such as the one below about publishing research). The class mural or quilt would be ideal in my social studies classroom.
Using my imagination and some online examples, I’ve come up with my own focus wall based on what’s expected with my district’s literacy model and also what I believe is best for my own classroom such as reciprocal teaching during my small group/ guided reading block. Here are my headings for my new focus wall.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yLgXZ05cnBsXipFd1E-oMWvppmc9IvqsuKSqWYC8-Qk/edit?hl=en_US
I am looking forward to later posting some pictures of my very own content-area, literacy-based focus wall.
I hope you’re WOW’ed by focus walls, too!:)
Technorati Tags: focus walls,literacy-based classroom,content- area reading,teaching,visual learning
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