I Definitely Need a Hall Pass!!

This week is the first week I did not link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday or Teaching Maddeness for Friday Flashback. I am sad to say that I just didn't have five things to share, or something that was worthy of a flashback. Have you ever had weeks like that?? Partly, it was because it was a short week, and partly it was because this week stressed me out. You know from my post yesterday, I'm feeling the stress of THE TEST. It all came to a head on Thursday when we had a half-day planning session (my whole grade level had subs for the morning so we could hash out what we had left to teach by Spring Break... because the week after is generally reserved for review before the test the following week) and I realized we had about 2 and a half months left of content to shove into 6ish weeks. As I sat there, with a migraine brewing, all I could think of was, "can I just get out of here?!"
I really needed a hall pass.

So I'm linking up with Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits for my HALL PASS today!

P-Product:
It's hard to choose a favorite product of mine because it would be like having a favorite child (and we know that is not allowed!! hee hee) - so I'm going to include one that I had a lot of fun using with my kids fairly recently.

My kids LOVED this book. It goes with our Revolutionary War unit perfectly, which is why I use it, but it is such a good book, regardless of what you teach in Social Studies! My unit is aligned with 4th grade Common Core, and my kids actually begged to do some more of the activities in their "packet" that I gave them. One of the activities is naming the chapters- they are only numbered in the book, so after we read each chapter, they had to come up with the main idea and create a catchy title. They loved that! They also enjoyed listening for figurative language and drawing a picture of the literal term. They got very invested in some of the characters, so the character comparison was perfect, too!

A-Area:
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of my favorite area and, since I'm at home, can't take one. So you're just going to have to use your imagination. :)

This is my desk area (much cleaner than the last time you saw it!!) - I have a huge open space to the left of it which is where my students will sit to listen to me read. I sit in my desk chair turned just the way it is (because it's the most comfy chair in the room!) and they sprawl out in front of me. That open space is also where I sit with small groups and our manipulatives in Math Workshop. Next to the big open space is my classroom library, which is a few huge shelves that literally take up the length of the entire wall. So, that is just one more reason it's my favorite area. :)

S-Signal:
My tried and true signal is, "GO." I know that sounds weird, but hear me out. It never fails, before they are trained (and yes, every now and then even after they are trained...) as I'm giving multi-step directions, the kids start getting up to do what I've said before I get to direction #2. So, I have trained them to listen all the way by saying first, "When I say go..." then telling the instructions. Like I said, every now and then you have that one who jumps the gun, but for the most part, this makes them actually listen to what I'm saying before they just get up and do it.

S-Sanity:
What keeps me sane at work... chocolate! Have you seen these new M&Ms? I am excited to try them out- I just picked them up today! I loooove white chocolate!

And friends! Lunchtime is one of the best times of the day for me. We get duty-free lunch, and some of my favorites eat lunch at the same time as me so I always go into our "teacher's lunchroom" to eat... no matter how much work I could be working on in my classroom as I eat. For me, getting to talk and laugh (and even vent a little) helps get me through the rest of the day if it's been a long morning. Sometimes it's tempting to think I could have 20 extra minutes to get some grading done in my room while I eat, but my sanity depends on this "talk time" with adults! :)

Go link up with Reagan and share your HALL PASS!! (That is, if you haven't already... seems I might be the last one in bloggy world to get around to doing this!!)