Preaching to Acquire

I'm so exhausted, but I just had to write this post about how much I am in love with Tina Hargaden's daily instructional framework! I'm including a video of my first day with my 6th grade class (I had them last year in 5th grade).  I spent about the first 20 minutes or so of class laying out expectations, discussing needed supplies, hiring a videographer, and allowing them to share about one thing they were looking forward to and one thing they were nervous about for this upcoming year. Here's what happened in this video: Norming the class (for 80 years lol... whoops) Reading Workshop: library tour Guided Oral Input: calendar talk Scaffolded Oral Review: oral questions Shared Writing: Write and Discuss Shared Reading: I read in L2, students chorally translate in L1 Student Application & Assessment: WHOOPS ran out of time Check out the video if you'd like!

The past 2 weeks have been a whirlwind! I was finally able to get my surgery scheduled for August 14th.  Surgery was a success and I am talking again! YAY! In time for the first day of school! YAY! I will be filing away all of your (and my) ideas for when I need to take some vocal rest.  Thank you so much for the support.  This community of teachers is more than I could have ever dreamed of.  Check out the videos below for more of my story/journey (and to hear my brand new voice!), and if you're brave... keep scrolling to check out the before and after of my vocal cords! It's not too creepy or scary... no blood. I promise. Before surgery, large polyp on right side, small on left side After surgery... brand new voice!

Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted.  I had a busy summer, and I'm just starting to think about school again.  I wish I could be writing a post about how I would start my year on day 1 with CI, but this year and every year to come is probably going to look different than I imagined it would.  In mid-July, I was diagnosed with vocal cord polyps.  I had heard of these before because many famous singers have this issue, but the idea of me, a teacher, having polyps was crazy to me.  You can watch my video at the bottom of this post to see more about the what my journey has been so far... but I'm also hoping some of you can help me with ideas for starting my year with no voice or possibly not even being able to be present. Here's a summary of events: -Fall of 2018: started using CI in all class and became very dramatic with story telling -Feb. of 2019: began easily losing my voice and becoming hoarse -May of 2019: voice was so bad I couldn't even...