Ratliff's Room

I LOVE Avery Address (5160) and Shipping (5164) Labels. I use them for everything! I have already printed my students names for next year on a few sheets. They make the first day back a breeze. I simply peel and stick. I don't like to label everything with their names just in case I have no shows. This saves me from the headache of writing their names over and over. I also get to use some really cute fonts so I don't have to look at my handwriting! I  use the labels to put my students names on my carpet squares. We are required to have our students line up in Boy/Girl order and it saves me from having line up issues. When I say line up they simply go to their square. I cover the label with shipping tape. I don't have any issues with the tape or label sticking to my carpet and leaving a residue,but you may need to test this on your carpet first. They usually start peeling after a few months, but I need to change the line around the same time so it works! I have put ano...

I had an amazing trip to Colorado at the beginning of the month! It was such a treat to get an invite to participate a meeting of the minds with other bloggers and TpT authors. I learned great things that have had an impact on me in the weeks that have followed the Meet Up. First of all I had no idea that there would be so many goodies! The giveaways were amazing!! I was lucky enough to get a giveaway bag filled with goodies from almost all of the donors for driving over 500 miles to attend the meet up. Here are all of the generous donors! I have already spent my Teachers Pay Teachers gift cards. I am so excited to use the GoNoodle lanyards and stickers in our class store next school year! Syllabuy had amazing donations! I got a really useful bag, t-shirt, and travel mug. WOW! I'm going to go through everything to see how I can put it to good use. I really enjoyed the school supply exchange. I got some new purple pens, Post It notes, and magnets! Here is your c...

Being a reflective teacher is my goal for this year! I am hoping that transitions into being more consistent with my blog posts. I have had a rocky start, but I am optimistic for the future. Weekly lesson plans are a great place to start. The lesson plans that I turn in to administration are a little lengthy! I am still working on making them more meaningful to what I need on a daily basis. It is a living document, so I make changes often. I keep my basic structure and the required components, but I have been trying to add for myself. My morning starts with the amazing Daily Morning Work from Young, Teacher, Love . I purchased it from TpT here: 5th Grade Common Core Daily Morning Work . My students love this resource and I love that is aligned to the Common Core! It is a great filler as my students trickle into the classroom from breakfast. After everyone is in we start our Read Aloud. I preferred to have my read aloud after lunch, but our lunch time has since moved so I now st...

How do you stay on track with small groups and centers? I use to try and track it in my head and put them on my weekly lesson plans that I turn in, but never look at during the week. Our Principal recently started requiring the teachers to turn them in at the beginning of the week and I was not on board…at first. I tried submitting what I gave my students to stay on track during the week which is a Center Menu. That was soon rejected and was asked to turn in a specific form. I tweaked it to fit my needs more and I love it! It keeps me on track and I can better record who I am seeing. I am sharing my Small Group and Center Planner as well as my Center Menu. Fun fonts from: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Kimberly-Geswein-Fonts and Graphics from: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Krista-Wallden

It happened again....I went missing.  I have a good reason this time. My classroom flooded a few weeks ago and I have moved twice in a week! Our current room is a more permanent option because the repair schedule is a little slow and with the government shutdown who knows when it will happen. (I teach at a federally funded school) The move kinda played a role in upsetting the balance of the class so we spent a couple weeks relearning appropriate behavior. I also had some student switching one moved to a new school and I got two new ones I am now up to 23. I wanted to give an update on student centers. I am new to implementing centers in my classroom, honestly they were always something I thought of for the primary grades and thought my kids would be too "old". How wrong I was! Our center work is educational versus busy type work. I finally was brave enough to release the reins and allow my students to work through a menu model versus me dictating what centers needed to be...

I have been struggling for over a month to find the perfect lesson plan template for my guided reading groups. I didn't find one so I finally made one that I think is just right for me. I am sharing it and hoping it will help you! Here is a link to it in my TpT store. It is a free download! :) Happy Wednesday to you! http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Guided-Reading-Lesson-Plan-Template-861095

Well I basically fell of the blog world lately (not that I have ever been real consistent, but it's a goal!). I have officially completed our first month of school and am excited for the long weekend! Between our air conditioner being on the fritz and water issues the school year has started a little rocky! This year I have started my reading mini-lessons with teaching QAR's, my guided reading groups and literature circle are in full swing, and I have officially started using centers (Yikes!)..(and I love them!). Centers....we have had some amazing help from some consultants based out of Phoenix (Empower). I love them!!! They have helped me rethink what I need to be doing in the classroom and now I don't feel as guilty for not pulling out the basal. Basically I have 5 reading groups (4 guided reading groups and 1 literature circle group ...and 1 student working on independent study (he does not play well with others any ideas???)). I have 2 centers a day, SSR, and a compu...

Well it seems like ages ago I talked about the book I was reading Notice & Note by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst. I have been teaching the signposts with my students in mini-lessons and have loved the conversations coming out of class. The book is incredibly helpful in describing how to teach the signposts. The signposts have given my students a starting point when writing their thinking tracks. This year was a new ball game for them and I and they struggled with determining what warranted a thinking track in their book. I met with my students individually in student conferences, however they still struggled. Thankfully I found this book and it has helped turn things around. My students have opened up to the signposts and are having great conversations. I will say when I used a familiar text and was able to show movie clips my students engagement increased and the conversation was richer. Well I have officially completed my Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instru...

I love to read but have always been a little nervous branching out with my reading instruction. Thankfully some great educators have published books that help me develop a reading program in my class without using a basal textbook. I have been trying my hardest to meet everything the CCSS ask for but was unsure if I was meeting the standards to the level of rigor I need to. I have found a great resource to add to my collection Notice & Note by Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst is a great book. An easy read that clarified CCSS in the classroom for me. I now feel that I am doing a better job guiding my students. I am hoping to become more consistent in posting when my Master's Degree is completed by the end of the month. Thank you for following!

I am a little late on reading the wonderful book Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  What an amazing book!  My students and I love reading it everyday.  The book is a great resource for teaching point of view and empathy something we can all use.  We have been using the book to look at persuasive writing.  My students are taking a point of view and writing a letter based on that character's point of view. I have also noticed fellow blogger http://www.wildaboutfifthgrade.blogspot.com/  has some great ideas for using the book as well.

November is in full swing and my students are loving our theme this month. We are celebrating Native American Heritage all month! I selected The Birchbark House a CCSS exemplar text, Island of the Blue Dolphins , and Walk Two Moons for our literature circles this month. The Birchbark House took awhile to come in so I had that group start reading Who Was Sacagaewa first. They love those biographies. If you have not added some to your class library I highly recommend them. My students have been reading them up! In addition to the literature circles we have been reading creation stories from various tribes including the Dine (my students are Dine/Navajo). We have been comparing and contrasting the stories to the Dine creation story. For Social Studies we have been reading about the various regions and our read aloud is focused on the Navajo Long Walk. I will post about our research project next.

What a busy month it has been!I have been busy with school, working on my Master's Degree, and the best job being a mom and wife! I have been reading a book I have heard of for a while, but have fallen in love with. If you have not already read Strategies that Work by Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis I strongly suggest that you do! The book has given me plenty of great ideas for my reading mini-lessons. I have also scheduled my day around the Daily 5 and loving my student conferences. What a great way to build relationships with your students. Well happy reading and hopefully I'll be back sooner!

Well it is official I am behind on curriculum mapping and aligning my curriculum to the Common Core State Standards. I am also at a crossroads when it comes to my lesson plans. I found the more detailed ones that I started out putting on our curriculum mapper to be more beneficial to teaching to the standard. However the ones that I turn in weekly to administration is more beneficial to me on a daily basis. I am wondering if I should continue to use two different lesson plans. I am also getting ready to implement Literature Circles. I have almost finished giving my old forms a much needed face lift. I always start out with my students all getting practice with one role before I start assigning all the roles. Discussion Director is a great place to start. We have been working on Question Answer Relationships and it is time for students to start applying that knowledge and writing their own questions.

I am excited to get Literature Circles going in my classroom in a few weeks. I am making the final touches on my preparations and gearing the kids up for roles as discussion director. One of the things I do to prepare them is to teach the QAR's. QAR is a great way to get students thinking about questions, how to answer them, and how to write them. In the beginning while we are learning the different roles each student gets practice at the same role. I have already made posters for the roles and will be gathering my role sheets for the students this week and uploading them. For some Literature resources head over to my store at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Ratliffs-5th-Grade-Rattles .

I have started making assessments for the Common Core Math Standards. I needed something that was at least 10 questions and included performance and multiple choice questions. Since I am gathering materials to meet the CCSS I have been struggling to find resources.  http://youngteacherlove.blogspot.com/  and http://www.teachingtoinspirein5th.blogspot.com//  have some great Math CCSS resources as well.

Sorry for the delay in uploading my pics but it has been a busy first week of school. I have taken some pics of my jobs chart designed like an iPhone. I saw the idea on Pinterest and wanted to try. I also made a picture frame collage for my this week board. My favorite is the DIY  bulletin boards with cork tiles and glued some fabric onto them for my Focus Wall. Hope you enjoy!

This is always one of the most exciting times of year to be a teacher. Our students first day is fast approaching (MONDAY!) and I have been preparing my class. This summer was busy with rearranging! My class was in desperate need of paint so I repainted my class with a little help from our school maintenance man and my janitor. It was more difficult than I thought and I told my husband to remind me of this if I decide to paint my class again! I was also very lucky to get a SMART board installed in my classroom so boards were moving around. I made some new bulletin boards and am now ready for the kids. The bulletin boards look great and are still sticking to the wall. I bought some cork tiles and hot glued then later stapled some fabric to them. I found the double stick tape in some of the packs were not any good so I found some double stick velcrow at Wal-Mart and used that to attach them to the wall.  I will post some pictures of my classroom tomorrow.

I am starting my ninth year teaching and my third in fifth grade. I am excited to embrace the changes that the Common Core State Standards are bringing. I hope to share my journey and share what is working (and not!) in my classroom.