So!  I had a pretty decently working laptop computer...until a liquid spill happened and well...you can probably tell what I am doing right now.  I am installing all my wonderful digital publishing stuff onto a new computer.  And let me tell you, there is nothing more frustrating to me than Windows 10 and the changes to all the easy things I was used to on Windows 7...which is what makes me want a mac more than ever...well, I guess there is the Mrs. Sadler's Savings Plan...Don't think the Mac would have magically shielded itself from the spill, but I am sure hooking up a new Mac is not nearly as frustrating as hooking everything back up on a new operating system that is so drastically different than its predecessor.  

I have some new news....I am BACK IN SCHOOL!!!   I have been for about three semesters.  But I know for sure I have found the exact right fit for me...Certified Elementary School Counselor.  And to throw some really yummy frosting on that dream cake, where I live, school counselors can now hold the title of Registered Play Therapist or RPT for short.  (I do love letters behind my name.)  Then when the reality hits that I might leave the classroom, I get a pain in my heart that I can't quite explain...

Last but MOST CERTAINLY NOT LEAST!  My second graders took their MAP assessment today.  This is their Measures of Annual Progress Assessment and they take it three times a year.  Today on the math portion, my kids brought the lighting, rain and thunder!  The worked so hard and did their absolute best.  I was never more proud of a group of my students than I was today.  Felt good to see some really hard work pay off for all of us!  Now onto our student growth assessments for the teacher evaluation system.  Its just a piece of the puzzle.  But, one that I am focused on getting a good score!

Long Time I know…Needed To Get My Head Together!!!

I have tried to sit down and write this post eleven thousand times really…I just couldn’t get out what I wanted to say.  As you can see from the change in my blog, there have been some really big changes going on around here.  I was reassigned schools and grade levels after 14 years.  I am no longer a 4th Grade Shearer Shark.  I am now proudly a 2nd Grade Conkwright Colt!  Now you can see why I had to change my blog name, my store name, my facebook page etc…
I don’t do well with change AT ALL!  When I got my letter, I didn’t even look at it at first.  Then I read it and saw that I would be leaving my school for another school.  After being in a place for 14 years, building the relationships there and finally feeling like I was being accepted for the person I am, the powers that be decided I needed a change.  God knew I needed a change.  I had been wanting out of fourth grade for a couple years.  I am being placed in second grade and I couldn’t be more happy.  I have been stalking all sorts of second grade and primary blogs.  My old principal texted me the other day and said she knew I was busy trying to become the best second grade teacher in this county, but reminded me to slow down and enjoy my family.  God must’ve thought I needed a really big change because he brought me out of my little hole in wall at the end of an isolated hall and placed me in one gigantic classroom!!!!!  

I mean that is one really big place.  When we got to enter the building back on June 10, you could hear my big ol’ mouth ring out into the whole downstairs of my new building “OMG!!!  THIS ROOM IS HUGE!!!”  Sometimes I have trouble containing my feelings :)  Every person who will be working in my new school will have a new experience.  This is a newly remodeled building and we aren’t even allowed into our classrooms to work/setup/decorate/cute-i-fy until July 14 (first day of school for students is August 12, so not even a month for all the moving in and the planning)  This is all helping me accept the change I have been given. I don’t know if any of you have seen Evan Almighty.  It was a religious/political comedy with Steve Carrell playing Noah.  In the movie, Morgan Freeman mentions to the Lauren Graham, who plays Carrell’s wife, that God isn’t going to just give people what they pray for.  He will give them opportunities to embrace what they need or just the opportunity to grasp what He knows you need.  God is giving me an opportunity to start over and recreate so many areas of my life.  I can be a better mommy, wife, teacher, learner, friend and daughter.
I know it may seem a little far fetched that a change in my job placement/grade level could have this many life altering implications, but I tend to live in every aspect/moment of my life.  I put all of myself into things and my job is an easy one, because I truly in my heart love what I do.  I love being Mommy and Honey first and foremost.  That is the most rewarding part of my life.  Having someone learn from me and make something of themselves and I get to be a part of that, have an influence on that…that is the fluffy frosting on the top of my life cupcake! 
So, there you have it.  My reasons for being MIA from the blogosphere.  But I am back in the game.  I have so many post ideas to share with you in the coming weeks and I create my hiney off getting things ready for my second grade sweeties! 
I’m off to start on a little first day of school assessment fun pack to get us started off!  Until Thursday my friends!!!

Perhaps I am behind the times...

UPDATE!!!  I got it fixed!!!  I have my facebook page fixed and it works like I wanted it to!!

Go over and check it out, like it and follow me please!!  I will try to get a fan freebie link on there by the weekend so if you like it, you can get access to freebies I make up, and sometimes, I just make stuff!!!

https://www.facebook.com/shearerlysadlerfourthgrade

I have been trying to set up a facebook page for Shearerly Sadler 4th Grade.  I have done so, but I have to be doing something wrong.  It looks NOTHING LIKE ANYONE ELSES...Well, anyone else that I follow anyway.  I set it up as a personal page, should I have done something different, should I have set it up as a business page?  I don't know.  If  you know something I don't, can you help a girl out?  I want it to look cool, I want for folks to be able to like my page or follow, which ever they want to do.  I want it to look like other really successful edubloggers.  I don't have a personal page and never have, so this facebook, twitter, instagram stuff is kindof daunting!  Trying to grow in the world of social media is tough and I just want to keep up :)

Here is a link to the facebook page.  Any suggestions would be awesome!!!

Thanks friends, you all are an awesome bunch!! 

State test scores released...

This is the time of year when Kentucky releases their state test scores.  My sweet little school, Shearer Elementary, (hence the name of my blog) had a drop in scores this year.  It was hard for all of us who work at Shearer.  Looking at our RAW data, we looked good.  Really good.  Our fourth grade teachers had a group of students last year who gave us fits, but they got it, they got what those state tests mean to our school and that group rocked it out!  I was never more proud to be the teacher of a group of students.  They were a challenge, the kind of challenge that make a teacher pray summer will NEVER END!  We had girl drama to the 100th power, behavior issues, learning issues.  You name it, we had it last year...But despite all those things, the children had a desire to learn and they showed it on our K-PREP assessment.  Unfortunately, their growth was not enough to get our school to where we needed to be this year.

 Is it disheartening?  Yes.  Does it make me upset?  No.  I can only take the test data to look at my new fourth graders, analyze it and make sound instructional decisions to get my students this year moving in an upward direction.  This year, I have new challenges.  I like a challenge, but I don't LOVE THEM!!  We have talent in fourth grade, that's a solid fact!  Our students have some maturing to do. Another very solid fact!   Plus with the amount of reading and writing that is required by K-PREP, we have to increase our stamina.  I have started a reading stamina board in my room.  I took this idea from some Daily 5/Café classrooms from different blogs I have read.  I am not really familiar with Daily 5, tried a rudimentary version in my room last year.  I like the concept, but I would need to be trained like a dolphin to use it with fidelity :)  Any hoo, I digress...Stamina board...sorry the pic is so little :)

 

We have gotten to as much as 13 minutes without getting restless and off task.  It's a step.  We have got a bunch of steps to go before we get where we need to be..  

 

This drop in scores has been hard for my principal.  Last year was her first year as our principal and let me just say, she was dealing with a whole lot of healing.  Our school had been down, in so many ways.  We had an administrator which no one trusted, we were against one another (turned that way by the same untrusted administrator) we felt like we were fighting a losing battle to be professionals who make decisions to educate children.  All decisions (instructionally, behaviorally etc) were being made for us.  Shearer Elementary was a difficult place to work.  That administrator left and we had an interim, who was one of our own and she triaged us in the field and we did well the first year we took on Common Core.  When Ms. Dawson took over last year, we knew we had hired an excellent educator; skilled in curriculum and instructional practices.  But, she became Abraham Lincoln and our school was the Civil War.  She had to see us, staff and students, through a transitional period.  It was a wartime she never has been able to quite wrap her head around.  The war had ended and we were and in some ways, still are, in the Reconstruction Phase of our school life.  For the for the first time in a very long time we have been allowed to make professional instructional decisions about how to best educate our students AND we have a leader who knows how to guide us.  She is fair, honest, trustworthy and most of all, she loves us all, staff and students.  She has a genuine place in her heart for our school.

 It hurt my heart that our test scores affected her the way they did.  She took the drop in scores personally and wears the ten point drop like a Scarlet Letter on her chest.  She has cried and then cried when she said she wasn't going to.  She is owning this, weathering the storm with us and for us.  She isn't blaming us (our last administrator did this every time), she takes this as her own defeat.

 But there is no defeat in this, only a place built from which to move forward.  I tell my students to try everything I put in front of them and make as many mistakes as you can because from your mistakes you will learn. Shearer Elementary, with Ms. Dawson's guidance, will take all our data and use it to make a difference; to make instructional changes to get to the heart of the what is going on, address it and make it better.  We have great students, great educators and excellent support staff and overwhelmingly wonderful leadership at my school.  While I don't love challenges, I welcome this one and look forward to what the 2013-2014 class of Shearer Elementary Students can accomplish!!

Thank you for allowing me this time and space to share my thoughts, rants and raves.  That is what I love about blogging!!!