Global Glitter Tribe Monthly Linkup!

The October edition of the Global Glitter Monthly linkup is here and I am so excited to be supporting my fellow Global Glitter Tribe members by linking up! Of course, I really do hope that you come link up with us as well! As one of the founding members of Global Glitter Tribe, I put a lot of pride into this special creation! 

The goal of Global Glitter Tribe is to support teachers in making international connections. We also want to help create a more global perspective in our own schools and classrooms and we hope to accomplish this by collaborating and sharing our schools!

SO...with that....

Totally Inspirational

I am hard-core crushing on all things Sheila Jane Teaching and Teach Happy Membership. It took me a while to find my #THM groove but I am all over the boards lately. When I first found the THM site, I knew that I had stumbled across something special! I have always struggled in my teaching career with maintaining my personal identity. I never wanted to feel like I lost myself or the true person that I am deep down inside because I work in a very traditional and conservative profession. Sheila's message of positivity and hope really resonates with me and I love what she's doing to create a supportive and positive teaching community. One where you can just be yourself and everything is alright!

Responsiveness

Wow. This heading could have taken me to a lot of different places. This link up is meant to challenge you. I want for you to really think about your teaching practices and ideas when you sign up for the Global Glitter Monthly linky! I decided to take responsiveness on a different path today. I am looking at my responsiveness as an educator right now in the way that I understand my students' home lives. I really believe that this is key to "getting" the student...understanding the way they work...knowing what's going to work for them and what isn't. We all know that there isn't one magical formula in the classroom. You have to respond to what your students are bringing you and that might even mean knowing about their home life more in depth than you have in the past. Start asking questions, talk to parents, find out!!

Igniting Passionate Readers

My class is IN LOVE with our newsELA subscription this year and, quite frankly, so am I! They love the current, daily, engaging articles. They love reading about the world. They love taking quizzes with instant feedback. They are so into it! I am loving it too! The online grading is super fun! The quiz reports are super helpful for me to analyze! The articles are so so so so so interesting! I won a grant last year that paid for our subscription and I definitely hope to keep using this in future years!!

Bridging the Gap

Let's talk about the home/school gap for a minute. Sure, we try our best to overcome this. However, it's hard. One thing that kept teachers and families at odds last year was our math homework. You see, we were using this super complicated math program and we sent home homework from the math curriculum. The students had a hard time. Parents had no idea what on Earth we were doing. It was a flight. So, this year, in an effort to establish a stronger home-school connection around math, we revamped our homework. It's now a spiral review with more computational skills and I think that it was definitely the best move!

Enjoying Your Time

If you're a reader of my blog, you know that I really prioritize self care and taking time to just be yourself. Not a teacher. We all need to step away from time to time. Even I get so overloaded with things to do and places to be and calories to burn and...and...and....and.  I used to be super invested in baking. I mean really invested...financially and time-wise. Eventually, I burnt out on it. However, I loved baking at home. Decorating cakes became so therapeutic. I could just zone out and get creative for hours and hours. It was so relaxing. It was when everyone started asking to bake and decorate for them that I fell out of love with it. I miss it. I have all of the cake decor supplies around the house and I really might need to get into this again...just to take my mind of things and let my creativity soar!!

Here are some of my past cakes!

So...come link up with us! You have all month and we REALLY want to hear what's taking place in your neck of the woods!!