T.W.I.R.L Journals and a Freebie

Hey Friends,

I've been meaning to get this post written for almost a month now!  It seems like every spare second I have I feel like I should be doing something productive for the beginning of the school year.  But I wanted to get this Freebie out before school starts for anyone who may wish to use it.

My first year teaching a coworker introduced me to T.W.I.R.L Journals.  T.W.I.R.L stands for "This week I really learned."  It is a journal the student write in every Friday about what they've learned.  Then someone at home or that the student will see over the weekend will write back to the students in their journal.  The kids love it and our parents have absolutely raved about it.  It's a great way to get the kids to reflect on all the learning they've had throughout the week and communicate that with parents.  We also love looking back at our first T.W.I.R.L letters and seeing how much progress we've made throughout the year.

Here's how I made our T.W.I.R.L journals.  I purchased composition notebooks from Walmart.  I prefer composition because the pages tend to not rip out as easy and the covers are thicker and keep the journal well protected.  I printed off a cover for each student which you can download for free here. The fonts I used are free Hello fonts from TPT.  Hello Dot Stick was used for names.  Hello Doodle Print was used for the parent letter.

Here's a quick pic before we continue on. :)

I found that it's best to double stick tape the cover page onto the notebook then I cover it with contact paper.  They lasted all year that way!

Here's a picture of the parent letter...

Now on to how we use T.W.I.R.L.  Every Friday we gather together and make a list things we learned throughout all content areas (yes, we include phy-ed, music, and art).  Then we review a friendly letter format i.e. date, greeting, body, closing, and signature.  I'll model a quick letter on chart paper.  Then I let the kids get to work.  You definitely need to scaffold this journal.  We usually start with one sentence of what we learned and a picture.  As the year goes on we get into paragraphs and adding details of what they learned.  Eventually I had kiddos writing 2 pages of all the information they learned.  Oh this is important, often they only want to list different things they learned.  When we write ours, we identify what we learned in our topic sentence, describe it with three detailed sentences, then we write a closing sentence.

Hopefully that wasn't too lengthy.  I hope you can put the freebie to use.  I'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback as this is my very first freebie and I have a lot left to learn :)

Blessings,

Re-Launching of Miss Miller's Edventures

Maybe it was out of pure delusion from not sleeping for 26 hours straight.  Or the coffee Mama Miller and I grabbed on the way out of the airport at 5am this morning. When most normal people would have hit the pillow, I decided I couldn't pass up a beautiful Minnesota Morning for a run.  Wow, am I thankful I did.  During this run all of this crazy passion and inspiration from an incredible SDE conference, the encouragement (and a little bit of a push) Mama Miller has given me, and our bible study readings all came together. That seems like a mouthful.  Let me back up a bit.

Recently I joined a local women's bible study.  We are reading and discussing this fabulous book by Susie Larson, Your Beautiful Purpose.  In our discussions we've been sharing what we sense God is calling us to do.  I'll be completely honest up until about an hour ago I had absolutely no clue.  As I was catching up on the reading I missed from this weeks session (Yes, bible study ladies if you are reading this, I was behind).  Anyways, yesterday I caught up on the facing your fears chapter.  As I was reading this I couldn't stop highlighting but for the life of me I couldn't really think of a fear I had in my life at the moment.  Not that I thought I didn't have any, believe me I have a ton, but I just couldn't put my "finger" on it.  Now let me back up a little more.

I'm sure most of you are so very aware, cause I never spare a moment to share it, I am crazy passionate about being a teacher.  This week I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas, Nevada for the National I Teach 2nd conference hosted by SDE.  The inspiration and passion all of the presenters and teachers had has completely consumed me.

Alright, I think this is where it all comes together.  On my run this morning God spoke to me. I know, I know, it sounds crazy.  I've always been that girl that's been like "Okay, sure...'God spoke to you.'" (Which is awful.  I've been praying about it.)  None the less, it happened but not through "his voice" through a song that I've been listening to about a thousand times a day for the past few weeks.

I highly recommend listening, but take caution it's a bit addicting.

Suddenly I realized my call is to blog.  I started blogging my first year teaching first grade but my fears consumed me.  I was so afraid of what others would think of me, or readers judging my writing, that my coworkers would think I was one of "those teachers", and convinced myself I had nothing to share that would be of any value to anyone else.  Which is where the bible study readings come in.

Deuteronomy 31:6 says, "Be strong. Take courage. Don't be intimidated. Don't give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you.  He's right there with you.  He won't let you down; he won't leave you." 

"He qualifies those He calls.  If you'll walk forward in faith, you will find Him there to meet you every step of the way."-Susie Larson, Your Beautiful Purpose

I truly believe I wouldn't be consumed with this crazy passion/calling if he didn't put it there or intend to give me the tools I need to successfully do so.

To address those fears I have had many friends and family share with me how much they love my posts about my students and about my faith (I think they were being genuine about it.)  As far as readers judging my writing, my second graders seem to think I'm a pretty phenomenal writer. I tell them the more they practice the better they will become.  I guess I should probably start leading by example.  I'm completely embarrassed I even admitted I was afraid of my coworkers thoughts.  All of my coworkers have been nothing more than great supporters of all my dreams and have become great friends!  I don't know what I would do or where I would be without them. They have been a true blessing in my story. (Sorry ladies, I love you all!!!) Finally, I still don't know if anything I have to share will be of any value to anyone out there but I'm convinced this was put on my heart for a reason.  Maybe it's so I don't turn into a crazy person keeping all my passions in my head.  I pray it's to share some courage and stir up a little passion in a friend somewhere along the line.

So here's to the "re-launching" of Miss Miller's Edventures.  I can't wait to share my "edventures" with each of you.

P.S. I'm sure there are an unbelievable amount of errors in this post.  I realize it's most likely extrememly challenging to follow my "miss-mash" of thoughts. BUT I'm currently running on a solid 28 hours of no sleep.  I'd appreciate sparing me a bit of forgiveness.

Do Life Big Friends!

Blessings,

New Atmosphere

I am so ecstatic that I finally got a kidney table for my classroom.  I had to do quite a bit of re-arranging to get the right feel but I am so in love with how my room looks and feels now! It finally feels like a real first grade room!

Take a look...I'd love to hear what you think!

8 Days of Love

I know I have been awful at keeping up with my posts and I apologize for that. But here are a few sneak peaks of our classroom after eight days of students (or like I like to say 8 days of love).

Here is our word wall with a few review sight words and some of our friends names. Everyday we discuss one or two friends names, sing a song with the name, clap, stomp, jump, and cheer the syllables in their name.  Then we write a quick shared writing and we retire their name to the word wall!

Below the word wall is our quiet place. Everybody makes mistakes and just needs to take a break sometimes. We discussed what our favorite quiet places were, drew a picture, and hung them up in our classroom quiet place.

Our birthday graph! The kids love this! We each decorated a cupcake with our name and birthday on it.  Then all together we built the graph.  As you can see January and July win with four birthdays! 

Finally, our hopes and dreams.  We all discussed what our hopes and dreams were for first grade. Most of us wanted to read chapter books, count to 100, count money, subtract, and learn all of our sight words.  Then we created hot air balloons with our hope and dream and posted them on the bulletin board!

That's all for now! I can not express how lucky I am to have such a bright, adorable, and spunky class. It is going to be a fabulous year!

One Day at a Time

 I have loved every bit of working in my classroom, chatting with my awesome coworkers, and attending workshops... but I won't lie...the stress is getting to me a bit (this may be the perfectionism coming out.) However, after tomorrow I will be able to meet the first batch of my firstys! I am THRILLED! Here are a few pictures of what I've been up to! I know it still looks empty, but I'm hoping 22 smiles, our hopes and dreams, anchor charts, etc. will add some personality and feel like home!

A few items for check in! Each of which I (or my awesome mentor) found on Pinterest!

Our classroom library! Waiting on a rug and hoping to find a few bean bags and lamps to make it more "comfy."

Student book bins with a book for each student to take home at check in!

Mail boxes! Below will be our classroom blocks (which need to be put together yet :s.)

Weekly bins and community supply bins! Hopefully after the first day of check in they won't look so empty!

My desk...and multiple fans :) Hoping to down size the desk so there is more white board space!

Our word wall! 

Math wall (and all my junk to take home)!

Finally the student tables!

That's all for now! Thanks for stopping by! 

All in One Day's Work

Here's a sneak peak at the progress I made in my classroom today!

My Very First Classroom

I was able to check out my classroom for the very first time last week!  Boy is it EMPTY! A little nervous about getting everything I need in time, but I know it will all turn out!  Here is a quick sneak peek at a few pictures I took!  

To the right of the board is the entrance. The darker green board is a chalk board...I am thinking it will either become a word wall or a place to display student work!  The lighter green is actually a bulletin board.  I'm hoping to turn this into an interactive math display and a birthday graph.

This is the front view of my classroom!  And yes I am very spoiled I get my very own REAL Smart Board!  The rest of the "white space" is a marker board.

Here is my favorite part... Check out all of these windows!  So in love!

I'm hoping to have a classroom library along the windows somewhere.  The bulletin board in the back corner will be used for our calendar!

Finally, our coat room with quite a bit of storage space for all of those teaching goodies I will accumulate!

That's all for now!  Wish me luck :)