2 Stars and a Wish!

I'm still having my 20% off sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store... go check it out!  Today is the last day!

Fonts:  Rowdy in Room 300

I'm really excited to link up with Luckeyfrog's Lilypad to join in her fun linky.  She wants us all to tell about our two "stars" and our one "wish".   Your stars are the things that are going well and the wish is a wish for next year.

The school year is just about three-fourths done for me.  I'm sure the last quarter will just fly by so this is the perfect time to do a little reflecting.  Here I go!

My first STAR is my positive behavior management plan.  I wrote all about it here.  I have a very well-behaved, sweet class this year... but, I can't give them all the credit.  :)  I have worked very hard to perfect all of my rewards and my positive behavior management system.  Although they are super sweet and good, I feel like they work extra hard to please me and earn the rewards. 

My second STAR is how I keep track of their sight words throughout the year.  This system has allowed me to have 5 different sight word lists each week.   It is the one area that is REALLY differentiated in my classroom.  I adapted the freebie I found from DillyDabbles.  It allows me to show their growth... and it is rewarding for the student (and for me) to check a word off.  :) 

We have 5 words a week and a morning work activity for each day of the week.  I compiled all of my sight word "stuff" and added it to my TpT store.  Check it out! 

I happened to stumble across the BEST idea a while back and I definitely want to try it.  It's from Extra Special Teaching.   She puts the words onto a Powerpoint (one word on each slide) and just clicks from slide to slide as she is administering the test.  I do something similar but it's for whole group sight word practice.  I never thought to use it for their assessments.  Check out her awesome idea. :)

My wish for next year is to organize my lessons into units - especially with Language Arts, Reading, and Writing.  I feel like all of those things could gel together easily.  It would be fun to do themed units to incorporate all three subjects.... or even Math, Science and Social Studies, too!  I have a hard time making it "fun" when I teach them separately. 

I need to use the summer to make some creative units.  I feel like I was so creative in college when I was learning how to be a teacher. But, now that I AM a teacher, I'm overwhelmed with everything the job brings.  I just have to step back, turn on the creativity, and make it happen!  Does that make sense?  :) 

Don't forget to link up!