Flying Pretzels and a Comprehension Toolkit

It is Tuesday night, and already it has been a week!  I started this week really excited to get into the classroom, and ended the day with crazy student events and a 2 year old monster toddler chucking pretzel chunks at my head while we were driving home.  Happy place; happy place; happy place...

I came to the conclusion that a.) my toddler is amazing because he has a baseball arm on him for sure, you should have seen those pretzels flying b.) every teacher is feeling the same way right now and c.) we ARE going to have a SUPER 13 days before the holidays!

My favorite blog right now is Life in 4B; if you haven't checked it out, you should!  Her curriculum is so closely matched to us right now that I am finding tons of great ideas to keep my teaching fresh, exciting, and yet structured.  I will post pictures tomorrow, but we are building Thoughtful Journals using the Thinking Strategies and the Comprehension Toolkit activities.  I love her idea, but my OCD brain is struggling with the fact that it is the end of November so how do I find the time to add Quarter 1's learning to it.  Is anyone else doing these journals?  I would love suggestions!!

If life isn't complicated enough I am trying to create a new grade-book checklist that at some point I am hoping to share with the higher ups in the higher-ups building.  Really feel that students are getting grades for more of work ethics rather than proficiency.  Thoughts anyone?

Well, I have pretzel chunks to pick up and other blogs to surf. Have a great Wednesday!