Look What I Found Blog Exploring

This week I have been exploring many different teaching blogs around the internet. Some of these were based in the United States and some were international. One of my favorite new blogs that I found was Teach 123. This is a great website with tons of tips and ideas for elementary classrooms. It is written by a woman, Michelle, who has been a teacher for many years in many different classroom environments. This is the type of blog that I could spend hours on exploring. There are lots of resources on this site that I think will come in handy in the future for my classroom. There are tips and ideas on the website, Common Core Materials she has designed available for download, and lists of books for teaching various skills.


While I was exploring, I found a post that really caught my attention. It was simply titled Reading Goals. It caught my eye because next week I will be teaching a fourth grade reading lesson in my field experience placement. While this did not have any information to specifically use in my lesson, it did provide some great ideas for the future. She talked about how teachers can get more books in their classrooms for the students to be exposed to. She suggested sending home notes at the beginning of the year  and around the holidays asking parents for any books that their children no longer want to add to the classroom library.

Some of my favorite ideas that she had involved the Scholastic book orders. She had a letter that she sent to parents at the begging of the year explaining about the orders to parents and explaining some
of the benefits of them. She told them that the class earns points to get more books for the class library from their orders. I thought this was great because most teachers I have seen just give the orders to parents without any explanation. I also liked that she had her students work in pairs doing a scavenger hunt with the order forms. By making this a game, it can help encourage the students love of books. I think that most things in our lives that we are passionate about get their roots in early childhood. By reading for fun as a child, I believe that it encourages us to continue reading as adults. It also makes those of us in college more willing to read for class.