Principal Observation - Go Ahead and Feel Sorry

Hi Girlies!!!

A lot of you stayed in your jammies all day long today - didn't you?  C'mon, don't try to tell me any different just to make me feel better about trying to instruct 23 wiggly, squirming, hyped up, overcooked firsties - I've been reading your blogs.  "Teaching? What's that?" says Kristen, over at Teeny Tiny Teacher. Heather from Heather's Heart sweetly states "It is after 5:00 and I am still in my pajamas!" Well let me just tell you somethin'...good for you, you deserve it and I hope you're enjoying every minute of it!!!!!

In spite of the constant fidgeting and hummin' and squirmin' and jigglin' I'm planning for my formal observation tomorrow.

What Was I THINKING!?!?!

Well, two weeks ago when I scheduled it I'm sure it was right after taking my first seasonal bite of peppermint bark and I would have agreed to anything at that moment of pure bliss. 

What might I be attempting to teach my freaked our first graders tomorrow?  Well, Mr. Principal is coming in to observe writer's workshop.  I'm sure it will go okay.  We're hot and heavy into making our writing easier for others to read {one of my favorite units of study}. 

We started this unit by dividing our huge stack of writing from our writing folders into two piles - easy to read and hard to read {Lucy Calkins}.  I was so impressed with what big kids they were.  Typically, first graders write it and wanna be done with it.  To ask them to look at their writing again, not just one story, but all of them and really look at it with a writer's eye and do something REALLY big-kid by admitting {or even noticing} that some of it isn't so easy to read...well, that's just asking a lot of a 6 or 7 year old...but I'm telling you, they rose to the challenge.

After that we shared with the class what we felt made our writing hard for others to read.  They came up with a really insightful list {including "Peach juice on my paper"... can't Delmonte package their fruit cups differently...seriously?!?!? No worries...I'm pretty much ready to ban them in my next newsletter}.

We've taken each "problem" and together we worked through a solution/tool/strategy that we can use to make improvements.  So far we have:

This is how our classroom chart is organized - it has more items on it.

For the big day {probably while you're all watching Ellen, drinking your cuppa joe...} I'm going to post a story that I've written but of course it won't be easy to read because I will have done some lazy erasing and written write on top of that lazy erasing.  They'll come down to the carpet with their Writer's Eyeglasses and they'll do some detective work - detecting what needs to be fixed in my writing.

After that I'm going to give them all a brand new PINK, smooth, delightful eraser.

Doesn't that just make you smile?  Might not seemlike much to you - but we only use these little guys...

So they are going to be mighty geeked about their new writing tool that will magically help them erase better {same concept as new gym shoes help them run faster}. 

Click on the picture below to pick up the list we're using to keep track of our learning:

Clipart: Scrappin Doodles

Wish me luck {and I'll wish you some good guests on Kelly, or good juicy topics on The View}...

OH, and I'm SOOOOO excited that I reached TWO HUNDRED followers!!!!  WHOOPEEEE....I'm thinking, with the holidays and all...and with my current frazzled state I'll hold off until I reach 250 followers to do a little somethin' - somethin'!  Stay tuned...{and maybe put my cute lil' blog button on your blog...maybe? Hey, you can do it while you're watching The Doctors}