Happy to get back to blogging! It's been over 3 years since I last posted.

I am glad to be back into the blogging world! I will be posting at least twice a week about all of wonderful things I'm learning and doing in my new position. I will also be creating materials that I will use to assess, instruct, and co-teach! 

Since I last blogged (over 3 yrs ago), I have had a chance to serve and lead in many capacities, earn my doctorate, and start my own crafting business. I am now serving at a wonderful elementary school as an EL ( English Language) Specialist.  I will be Co-teaching with other teachers, and working with small groups in grades 2-4  and focus on increasing reading skills. 

Starting next Monday, I will begin a book study on Jan Richardson's New Book! It comes out July 22nd, and it should be delivered the day it arrives! Beyond excited to read her book and dive into learning all about, The Next Step Forward in Guided Reading: An Assess-Decide-Guide Framework for Supporting Every Reader  Hopefully, I will have a schedule for each chapter soon!

Stay tuned,
Alisha 

Long time, No Post and a Back to School Sale

I would like to thank all of you that became followers of my blog this summer. It has been two months since I made a post, I literally had to step away from my computer and college this summer so I can just focus on family. I have truly enjoyed my break away from everything and sometimes you just have to relax. I can't say that I have not blog stalked anyone or visited pinterest but it has totally been taken down a notch. Now that I am back in the swing of things, its time to blog once again! I'm glad my followers still had faith in me and to those who visited my store, thank you (that's still a work in progress)!!

As you know, It's a BACK TO SCHOOL SALE on TPT! All of my items are 10% off and if you enter BTS12 during checkout, you will get an additional 10% off. That's right, 20% off! Don't miss this sweet deal, my sale will go until 11:59 tomorrow! Have a great night and don't forget to shop til you drop!

Here are some of my items for sale!

Speller's Choice Homework on Sale for 10% off

Money March Madness Basketball Themed Unit on Sale 10% off
This is a 55 page Basketball Unit. This is one of my best sellers!

Summer Reading Linky Party!!!

I am linking up with Clutter-Free Classroom to share summer reading plans. About 4 years ago, I restructured my Math block. Although my students were performing well in math, I found the method rather boring and dated. I begin to read  research that suggested that students could benefit from a Math Block similar that was set up like my Reader's Workshop and Guided Reading. So I overhauled the old way and begin to look for books that I could use to get me started.  Here are the three books I have read and will do some refreshing over the summer. These three books have been instrumental in changing the way  I do math.

  I first started with  Larry Ainsworth's, Five Easy Steps to a Balanced Math Program for Primary Grades. This was an excellent guide into understanding the steps to implementing a balanced math program. It was my foundation to change the way I did things. It focused on what should the importance be placed on during math, how to set it up, and also grade level specific strategies with step by step guide.
Although Ainsworth's book laid the foundation for my new and improved math block, Sammon's book provided me with a new framework for approaching my math block. One day I accidentally ran across a website that gave great detail about their math block and how it was setup. I was thinking this is just like Guided Reading but no one wrote the book on Guided Math until a year after I discovered the site. One day I decided to just look on Amazon because I was like, there has to be something written by now and then I found Laney Sammons. I couldn't put down the book. I think I finished reading it in less than a week. I was just so excited about me new found information. Please let me know if you would like to have a book study with me about any of these books. I don't want to go into details, I want to make this a discussion if possible. I would like to share my plans on how I set up my Math Block. I would love to provide you with a sample of what my weeks looks like.
Please comment to join the discussion and I can set up a book study.

Thanks and Happy Reading!

Double Fact Swag Video- Created with my class!

This year we really got into creating learning music videos and doing some Green Screen Productions. This year I believe I wrote about 20 learning rap songs and my students were excited to learn each and every one of them. I have always wanted to create videos but never acted upon it until this year. This was the perfect class  to create them. This was really a class of personalities!! I have created many podcasts, online tutorials, and this year music videos were a hit. This is the first video I made and started my own record label...ha! It's not copyrighted but it's Mrz. Hayez Clazz Recordz....my kids flipped out when I told them about this (so did my hubby). I wrote this song at first to the tune of ABC to help students learn their double facts and then spiced it up when I heard someone humming this rap song. So with all that been said...here is my video...
May I present to you Double Fact Swag.....(Don't laugh..hehe.. and Enjoy!)

I also have this on my Facebook page. Feel free to like my page and this video!

Currently...June Edition!!

Linking with Farley from Oh Boy Fourth Grade to let you what is currently going on in June. Don't forget the Giveaway hosted by Tattling to The Teacher! There are many items you could win. You have a chance to enter up to 45 entries. It ends tomorrow night! Good luck!