End of the year Unit

This year, we finished our last unit with just seconds to spare, or so it seemed. We read a book in 8 days!! (which is incredible!) The kids read almost 5 chapters a day, although that equaled only about 25 pages. Still, for struggling readers, that's a lot! Thank goodness for audio books!! They did really well, and most of them actually loved the book.

We read The Skin I'm In by Sharon Flake. I've taught this book for four years now and I absolutely love it! It's about a seventh grade girl named Maleeka who is bullied because of her dark skin tone. It's perfect because it deals with middle school, bullying, self-confidence, and skin tone bias. These are all things my kids have to deal with, and it's very relatable. It's great for the beginning of the year, and I taught it that way for two years. Then they changed the order of our curriculum and it was moved to the end of the year. That worked because it is a quick read and very engaging, so it's great to keep kids hooked in May.

Next year, this book is "too low" in Lexile points, so it won't even be in our curriculum! :( I think I'm going to use it anyway as a read aloud because I know they'll love it!

Do you have favorite books to teach?

Five Lists

5 School Supplies I CAN'T Live Without:
1. Post-it Notes in all shapes and sizes
2. Sharpies in a million colors
3. Black clicky pens
4. Hand Sanitizer!
5. Bean Bags - great for stress relief and antsy kiddos!

5 Middle School Books I've Read This Year:
1. Wonder by R.J. Palacio
2. Pivot Point by Kasie West
3. Ordinary Magic by Caitlen Rubino-Bradway
4. Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer by Katie Alender
5. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

5  Twitter Hashtags I Use:
1. #thingsmystudentssay
2. #greatbooks
3. #middleschoolROCKS
4. #booksarebetter
5. #techtime

5 Apps On My School iPad:
1. Remind101 (Haven't used it much this year, but I love it!)
2. ClassDojo (Behavior tracker)
3. Timer+ (We time everything!)
4. Booksource: Classroom Organizer (great to organize your library)
5. Chain of Thought (two player word association game)

5 Websites We Use in Class:
1. Edmodo.com - this is our virtual classroom, and the feature of a future post!
2. Lexile.com - to know the Lexile scores of all of our books.
3. Prezi.com - Jazz up our presentations and research projects!
4. Newsela.com - same article on different lexiles. Great for differentiation!
5. Flocabulary.com - we can rap AND learn! Perfect combo! Definitely worth the subscription price!!