Polar Vortex - TAKE 2

So my nails say "Spring is in the air..." and the imaginary birds are chirping. The 4 foot icicles hanging from the roof say "get real Jessica..." and the set in salt stains on my Uggs agree. I NEEDED a dose of Spring after TWO MORE COLD DAYS set our school schedule soaring into summertime. 4 days and counting people! 

Bikini So Teeny is one of my ALL TIME favorite summer colors. It looks bomb on the nails when you are sporting a tan - my paleness doesn't give this color justice. :sigh:

Then there is Mimosas for Mr. and Mrs. - Finding an opaque pinky neutral is near impossible. This one is legit, but know this is three coats. Yeesh.

This week in 6th grade it has been a whirl of realizations. The first one is that I really, and I mean REALLY love my students this year. The past two years on the last day of school I have cried, and just thinking about loosing this group is sickly painful. Okay enough sap, sorta. I also have realized how much of an impact I have actually had in my couple years in 6th grade. In the past couple weeks I have seen a handful of my past students who have come to visit me. I get some pretty tight hugs when they tell me that 7th grade just isn't the same. I think that's pretty gutsy for a cool 7th grader to admit. So THIS is that feeling you are supposed to get as a teacher? Pretty. Dang. Awesome. 

I also had my post conference for my second observation. I love walking out of those meetings. I always feel like I am in the right place. I also walk out thinking. As much as I think I think too much (yikes) I like thinking, and people who make me think. Oh hey, Ms. Spethmann rocking out that metacognition lesson - thinking about her own thinking. Is your brain exploding yet? Mine is :) One of the questions my AP posed to me was on my assessment of my students annotations. I had spent SO much time, SO many lessons, SO many smelly marker notes, SO many articles, and an anchor chart or two on the teaching of annotating - building a relationship with text. Here's the think tank moment: how was I assessing their annotations. BING! Hello Jessica, assessment driven instruction? Shame on you! So I posed the question to my team and blabbered on with my way of "thinking out loud," on how I want to develop a rubric for annotating. Here you have it....

 My fantastic teammate proposed the idea of an acronym. This would help the students focus while annotating. I started a couple of letters and passed on my notes. My other teammate flawlessly filled in the letters I had missing, and here you have it! 

In classic Ms. Spethmann fashion - I included a bookmark for the students to have out as they are annotating. Always supporting my 6th grade peeps! On neon paper of course, because REALLY is there any other way?

Because let's face it - life is better in neon :)

Snag the Annotation Assessment Rubric and Bookmarks HERE :)

Stay chip free and standards based!