PET PROJECTS

It's been awhile since my last post.... the joys of being a Dual Grade teacher means so little free time these days.  :)  And then there's my new "little" pet projects on top of all that!


#1- Math Committee Chairperson.  We are in the midst of planning Math Night.  Thankfully I have a great Math team and all of the pre-planning is done.  Date set, rotations set, volunteer list 1/2 way complete.  Just need to do the purchase orders for the food and the door prizes, as well as gather the materials for my assigned rotations.  Whew!  It's going to be a fun night!


#2-  My biggest pet project is our United Way After School Reading Camp!  I am really passionate about getting this program up and running.  It's a 2.5 hour x 3 days a week program after school for struggling readers in grades 1-3, using the Fountas and Pinnell Leveled Literacy Intervention program.   It is highly organized, and designed to increase the student's reading level each 10 days of instruction (every 3 1/3 weeks!)  Incredible!  First, the students get a snack, and then they go through 3 rotations: Intensive Reading instruction in a class with one teacher for 3 students at a time, a homework rotation, and a Literacy Activity rotation.  It's very exciting!  The only drawback is that it lasts sooooo long! The students are released at 5:30 pm (school starts at 8:00am)  It's a long day, but hopefully it will produce the results we are hoping for.  Today was our first day, and I ran the Homework Rotation in the Computer Lab.  While I helped get it up and running, now I can relax and just sub when they need me to.  I knew I couldn't handle teaching it every day with everything else I have going on right now, but I'm more than happy to help out when I can.  I can't wait to see the growth in my own students who are attending the program!


So, now that my pet projects are underway, I really do need to spend more time planning and prepping for my own class.  But that's a post for another day.  :)