Setting Goals

In the beginning of the year I like to have my students set goals for themselves in reading.  This year I started off the year with reading Pete the Cat I Love My White Shoes by James Dean. This is a great read aloud!  In this book Pete the Cat goes walking down the street in his brand new white shoes.  On his way down the street he steps into all sorts of colorful things which makes a big mess. But no matter what color his shoes are, he keeps on walking along singing his song. I take the moral of the story and help the students understand that no matter how hard reading may seem as first, you need to just keep on trying and singing your song.  With that being said we form our goals for reading.  Goals can be as simple as reading every night, or reading a chapter book or even a new book!  My students really enjoy the story and creating their goals.  When all our goals are done we watch the animated version which can be found here:http://www.harpercollins.com/childrens/feature/petethecat along with many other Pete the Cat videos.

The students wrote their goals and colored in their own 'reading shoe'.  We hung our goals out in the hallway.  The night of open house I had the parents write a wish for their child on a Pete the Cat paper to hang write next to their child's 'reading shoe'.  

 So you know I am new at this, I have no clue why the text gets flipped when I upload this picture, so I am just winging it at this point. 

The Beginning

Hi! My name Susan and I am a Reading Teacher in New York.  I have been a blog follower for a few years and now it is my turn to share and join in on the fun. I started this blog with the idea of sharing and meeting fellow teachers.

I have been debating over a name for the blog for quite some time now.  This name was inspired by my friend Rosie. When we got together to make a meal we never had a plan of what to make. We would just make meals out of what we had in the pantry and fridge.  We always said that if we had our own cooking show we would call it:  Just Wing It.

I got to thinking, that's kind of how you have to teach. You never know what students you will get, what their needs are, what materials you have to work with, what your district/state expects you to do- I can go on. So, with that being said you just have to "Wing It" or " Teach on the Fly".  I am saving the title "Just Wing It" for our cooking show.