Teaching with Jennifer Findley
Upper Elementary Teaching Blog
My first year teaching third grade, I had a student in my class who had very strong feelings toward writing. He hated it with a passion and wasn't afraid to let others know about how he felt. I am not sure that first year that I made that much of an impact one way or another on his feelings toward writing. To be honest, my first year teaching was kind of a big blur. I … [Read more...] about How to Get Students Excited About Writing
Over the summer, I made math toolkits with tons of math charts and resources to help my students during math centers. I knew I wanted something similar for writing and I finally have it ready to share with you. These writing toolkits are full of FREE writing resources and charts that will help your students become independent and confident writers. This post … [Read more...] about Writing Toolkits (Free Writing Resources for Upper Elementary)
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays by far! You can find several Thanksgiving activities for math and literacy (including free writing prompts) HERE in a previous post I wrote. In this post, I will share two of my favorite Thanksgiving read alouds and the activities I use with them. These read aloud and the accompanying activities are perfect for literacy … [Read more...] about Thanksgiving Read Alouds for Upper Elementary {Free Printables}
One of the biggest questions I had to tackle as a new teacher was "My students failed this test. What am I going to do about it?" Instead of binging on junk food (or in addition to), I learned to look at it reflectively and use these situations to grow myself as a teacher and to grow my students as learners and test-takers. Read on to learn some constructive next steps … [Read more...] about What To Do When Your Students Fail a Test
