Primary In Idaho: Day 61 Teaching Fourth

Kelly teaches 4th in Alabama. In her About Me section of her blog she says she teaches Reading, Writing and Language Arts. This is the second 4th grade teacher that I've come across this week that doesn't have to teach all the subjects. Just the other day I posted about Elizabeth and her blog Fun in Room 4B. She teaches just math to the 4th graders in her school.

I think that's neat because you can get really good at something and you can work with more students. Lesson planning would be so much easier. The down side is that you would want that person to be an awesome teacher if they are going to teach ALL your 4th graders to read. At the school I was at last year the 6th grade teachers tried that. There were three of them. Unfortunately, there was a weak link on the team, and the other teachers had to make up for the deficits from that room. (this meant more work for them in the long run and lots of unhappy parents - never a good thing!)

But what I am finding is...for the most part...the quality of what teachers are blogging is amazing. I'm not sure if it's the chicken or the egg. Good teachers blog...or blogging makes teachers better teachers. Maybe it's a combination of both. I know I learn so much from all the bloggers I find. I am inspired and it gets my creative juices flowing to see what other teachers are doing and creating and what their students are producing and learning. That's what collaboration is about! {Don't get me started on district collaboration - but perhaps some time cruising the internet for strategies and ideas would be a better use of our time!}

Sorry Kelly, back to your blog...Teaching Fourth. Kelly has some great freebies.

One is her Pirate Homophone: Their, There, They're activity.

She also has a wonderful informational text graphic organizer packet for sale on her TpT store. But she has a freebie for you to check out from it.

It's always hard to just pick out one of two things to share. Kelly is so creative in so many ways that it makes it hard to choose. This past week our principal showed us a video about school climates. How to keep your school from looking institutional. One of the things she showed a lot of was PAINT on the walls! Something that wasn't that institutional beige or cream! If only they would let us paint our rooms! I should show them some of the work that Kelly has done to her room! It's so warm and comforting...