Mrs. Tina's Tots

Hey friends!! Just wanted to drop in to let you all know that I have picked topics for my social studies units this year!! I just wanted to start off by saying how disappointed I am in the Arkansas state social studies standards! They are so vague, broad, and redundant it's ridiculous. I'm all for teachers having more of a say in what topics they cover, but I don't want to teach something that the teacher before me previously covered thoroughly. (Yes I know that's where vertical and horizontal alignment come in, but in my tiny school there is very little of that, unfortunately) There is also no need to have basically the same standard from K-6th. I liked our old standards much, much better. They were more defined, but still broad enough I could pick my topics. I also learned that from K-8th grade there is only one standard on the Civil War, and one standard on both of the World Wars. That seems crazy to me. Anyway....I'm sure there could be a lot of debate on our ...

Hello friends!! I am bound and determined to keep my blogging going during this school year. I usually blog a few times during the summer, and then the school year hits and before I know it's May again! Sound familiar??!! So I thought I'd start this year off by sharing how I set up the first part of the school year. Now that I've been teaching this grade level for 2 years, I am getting more confident about sharing what we have been doing.  But first, I want to share with you my situation because it is a little bit different than most teachers, and it will help you make sense of my schedule a little more. I teach at a small Title I school. We are actually consolidated with a school about 10 miles away, but we kept our building. We are a K-5 campus, but we do have 3 and 4 year old Pre-k program that share our grounds.  I teach fourth and fifth grade ELA and social studies. I have fourth grade until lunch, and then fifth grade until the end of the day. Fourth grade is my hom...