Working in reading centers gives you time to do small group with your students which is ESSENTIAL! I do reading centers in my classroom every single day for 20-30 minutes. There are tons of resources in this blog post to make setting up your reading centers simple and easy! Centers/What to Prep I have four centers in my classroom and teacher time. I have done a mix of Daily 5 and other center ideas that are found online. Working with Words Writing Time Listening to Reading ... Read More about SIMPLE and IMPACTFUL Reading Centers

I LOVE a good classroom transformation. They engage students and they cover high-level content. It is a win, win! But they can also be overwhelming and can cause anxiety. Let's answer a few questions first. What is a transformation? A transformation is where you add items to your room to turn it into a new learning space and experience. You then prepare content that matches that learning space. For example, you could turn your room into a doctors office and do reading surgery! Or you ... Read More about Make Classroom Transformations Simple with these Easy Tips!

Teaching character traits is SO.MUCH.FUN. I love looking at character traits, motivation, and feelings! The students love digging in deep to their character traits as well. My first lesson is always sticky note traits! For this lesson, you introduce character traits with students and then give them a post-it note. They have to write a trait you have and provide proof of where that trait comes up. They then get to stick it on you. I usually let them do this with each other too! Then we ... Read More about Teaching Character Traits in Upper Elementary

There are two facts about state testing: You have to take them and prepare your students. It does not have to be boring. When many people look at state testing I believe that they think of the big booklets with reading passages and questions that take up a ton of time and are not engaging for the kids. But I am here to tell you in order to get GREAT test scores you NEED to engage your kiddos in the test prep! I am going to share with you 5 different ways that you can ENGAGE your ... Read More about Top 5 Ways to Make Test Prep FUN!

Teaching is TOUGH. And sometimes life can be TOUGH. So, when life gets tough how do you still teach well? Let me start by saying when hard things happen in your real life teaching can be double hard. Sometimes it can be helpful to have that routine and those smiling faces every morning, but sometimes it can just be tough. My second year of teaching I found out that my grandma, who I was really close with, died. I found this out during my teaching day. I wanted to cry, run, and just sit ... Read More about When Life is Hard, but You Still Have to Teach