A Peek at my Week - Week #6

I'm excited to be back for another installment for a Peek at my Week linky!  It's funny, I have stuff to blog about during the week, but it's been hard to get going after a long day a work.  I have pictures from my Interactive Student Notebooks, a lesson called "Hooks from Books" and my common assessment woes.  (Woes!)

The posts I write in my head are pretty awesome people.  If only I had my clone available to write them.

It's another full week for me:

1.  Blog Anniversary!

This week marks the 2 year anniversary of my blog!  I've been working to gather together some fantastic bloggers to join my celebration and I'm so very happy with the people that are participating!  When I decided to have my little internet party, I wanted the bloggers that I enjoy reading their blogs and buying their products to join up. 

The bloggers that are joining me are:

• Susan from Middle School OCD
• Kim from Joy in 6th Grade
• Christy from Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road
• Erin from I'm Lovin' Lit
• Stephanie from Teaching in Room 6
• Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings
• Jessica from Ideas by Jivey
• Kristy from 2 Peas and a Dog

Come back on Wednesday, September 18th to see what you have to do to win all the fantastic prizes available!

2.  Re-teach, Re-teach, Re-teach!

My students totally bombed their common assessment this week.  It's pretty embarrassing, but I know that it's time to put a full stop to any new material and to go back to what they need to have mastered.

Have you guys read Instruction for all Students by Paula Rutherford?  (Amazon Link)

I love this book.  It has a lot of good ideas.  One idea listed is called "Chris' Test" - you put the students into groups of 2 and then they have to correct a fictional student called "Chris" and his/her test.  They don't know which answers are marked correct or incorrect - they have to go through and determine how to make their test better.  

I'm going to be using this on Tuesday to help my students review the common assessment and determine their mistakes.

3.  The Hunger Games (insert the music here)

Finally, finally, finally - my class is starting on the Hunger Games.  I think they are excited and starting to enjoy the first few pages we read on Thursday.  I had a few dissenters, but you can't make everyone happy.  I did purchase the famous Hunger Games TPT Lesson by Tracee Orman and it's as fabulous as you would think!

4.  Maintain Everything and Maintain my Sanity

Yep!  It's tough handling everyone, everything and to keep smiling.  Does anyone else feel the same way?

A Peek at My Week Linky!

Thanks to Middle School OCD, I discovered this fun linky!  It's hosted by Jennifer of Mrs. Laffin's Laughings and encourages you to share your plans for this upcoming week.

This week marks the end of our third week of school.  It feels like four because we had a mini week to start the year.  Am I insane that I feel like I'm behind ALREADY?!  Is it possible?  I'm trying to train these guys and move through plans and activities but I feel like I'm moving at a snail's pace.

1.  Finish the Fall of Ancient Rome

I have to finish up this chapter if I want to hit the Renaissance at the end of the year!  Sometimes, I drag on the first real social studies unit and this year I promised myself that I would take it easy.  Practice learning the note taking routines, doing actual work, etc.  Keep any "Projects" to a minimum.

2.  Finish Rikki Tikki Tavi and create a comic strip!

Again, I have to start closing out my smaller stories if I want to hit The Hunger Games in a week.  We have to finish reading Rikki Tikki together, discuss Plot Elements and then we are creating a comic book strip to help everyone retell the most important plot points.  For middle schoolers, they want to retell EVERYTHING and I have to train them to give me the highlights only!!

I use my Story Map/Plot Chart for teaching them Plot Elements.  I really like it because it hits all the important ideas in one page AND gives them their plot chart and summary section on the back.

3.  Create Sub Plans

I hate hate hate writing the first sub plans of the year.  You never know how it's going to go and how fast they will finish the work.

4.  Nurse my hubby back to health!

My husband will be going into get his deviated septum fixed on Wednesday and I'm taking off two days as his official "caregiver."  I'm more nervous about the surgery than he is!!  He has had his deviated septum forever from breaking his nose as a kid and seriously, the guy can hardly breathe.  He can't even get a decent nights sleep anymore.  I hope that everything goes well and... well... at least I can get 5-7 hours of quiet grading time in at the hospital, right?  (So horrible of me!)

Wish me luck!  Apparently, Kaiser has free wi-fi so maybe I'll even get in a blog post about my ISN's or my Roman Tweets activity.  We shall see!