Five for Friday: Happy Birthday to me!

It was a long week! Seriously, 5 day weeks are really tough. (Ha ha!) Needless to say, I am excited about this 3 day weekend. 
I am going to cherish it because it is the last day off we will have until April. I will also be working on Saturdays for the next few weeks as we prepare for our state writing test. This time of year is crunch time, and we will be working incredibly hard to prepare for our state exams. 
I had this blog written out in my head already, but was just too wiped out to sit in front of the computer for the last 2 nights. Sorry I am tardy to the Five for Friday party. I am so thankful to Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting and not fussing at the late folks! 

Happy Birthday to me! And Happy belated birthday to Doodle Bugs who celebrated her birthday yesterday. 

My husband loved teasing me about getting "old," at least he will always reach the milestones first!

Nothing says "I love you" like roses! My mom had these beauties delivered to me at school, so sweet. 

It was a wonderful birthday (Wednesday). Well wishes all around. 

My teammate made a delicious dessert for me and I received a super sweet card. My best teaching friend gave me a new workout top, perfect for our after school workouts. 

My sons were so sweet this week in celebrating me. They reminded their dad to go shopping to buy me something really nice (he succeeded, love my new earrings), they insisted on a super yummy cake (raspberry elegance), and told all of their friends at school. 

It was really sweet when I saw both of their classes, they all wished me happy birthday. 

My 4 year old kept all of his drawings from school this week, hid them in his room, and on the morning of my birthday gave me them as birthday gifts. It was absolutely endearing and precious. 

Speaking of my 4 year old, his school celebrated the 100th day of school on Friday. They asked them to dress up like 100 year olds.  He looked pretty darn cute in his hat, glasses, and tie.

He took on the role of an boss. He kept telling his brothers, "I am the boss, do what I say or you won't get a green smiley." Guess his teacher's smiley face system is impacting him, he thinks that is the ultimate prize in life. Every morning when I leave he smothers me with hugs and kisses and well wishes for my day including the statement, "Have a good day Mommy, be good, get a green smiley!" 

We finished our first full week of Whole Brain Teaching's Super Speed math for fluency practice. I love this fluency practice. Friday I introduced the fractions fluency and we had amazing math talks about how to do the fluency practice. (I will blog more about this at a later date because I love it!)

Can't wait for me to blog, check it out here. 

We also began reading Esperanza Rising and Frindle in class. 

I have a wide range of reading levels so we needed two books. 

This year, I had the ultimate goal of encouraging my kids to self select books but I found that they were not reading. So I had to resort to assigning the book and assigning reading and writing responses to hold them accountable. One big task for me this weekend is scoring what they have done so far. 

With guidance they are doing well. A few of my higher readers finished the book and are planning to read Frindle for fun. One of my Frindle readers asked to read Esperanza Rising when he finishes his book. Hey, I would call that a success! 

I have taken on a new role this past week, student teacher supervisor. Wow, it is a lot of work. I have had students who did their field experience in my classroom and that was pretty easy, they just hung out, observed, and helped me out as needed. 

This time around I have a student who is going to be planning and teaching. This is her final experience before graduating. This week was full of questions, and changing the way I do things so that she can get the full experience. I do most of my planning at home, so that will need to be adjusted, not a problem.

She is already getting great experiences with discipline. Was it the full moon or the new person in my room? They must really want her to get a full experience as well! 

I want some tips from my readers. What are the best things your lead teacher did for you? What did they do to help you become fabulous teachers? What are some tips you would give to me to be a terrific lead teacher? 

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, especially if you are as lucky as me to have a 3-day.