Mrs. Frank's Classroom

Hi there! I am very excited to be posting my first blog entry!

 I am writing this as I wrap-up my first year as a head general education teacher. In December, I had the opportunity to work in a 4th grade co-taught classroom in Pound Ridge, NY as a general education teacher to 20 amazing students. While it was a challenge to shift from my role as special educator (which I had been doing for about five years), it was a rewarding one! Unfortunately for me, Pound Ridge Elementary School does not have room within their building to keep me on full time. Luckily for me however, I will be starting a new job in a new district in the fall! I am going to be teaching fifth grade in White Plains, and I couldn't be more excited!

I learned a lot during my time at Pound Ridge. For starters, I learned how to manage a class, follow an on-grade level scope-and-sequence, give reading assessments and benchmarks to all of my students for MOY and EOY, and how to effectively differentiate for a general education population! When I first started I was very nervous to be taking over someone else's classroom. The teacher I was replacing was very organized, and had many systems I was unfamiliar with in place. The transition ended up being an easy one, and I was able to take her classroom and her students and make them my own. Its amazing how adaptable children are! I can't believe that my six months at PRES are actually over!

Here is a look at some of the EOY things we did during June at PRES...

For Father's Day, we created "Fathers Illustrated" Magazines about our dads!

To check out these Father's Day Templates and others like it, head over to Miss Vericker's TpT page here.

For end of the year gifts for our students, we created Wordles. One day we had the students write one word for each of their classmates that comes to mind when they think of them. From their lists, we created the Wordles and chose shapes that reflected their personalities. 

Here is a look at our EOY gifts all wrapped up and ready to go! The "You are O-Fish-ally in..." tags are from no other than my best friends TpT store - you can find them here. 

 Our last read aloud of the year is "Absolutely Almost" by Lisa Graff. If you haven't read this book, run, don't walk to the book store and pick it up! (Or head over to Amazon) It is an adorable story about a boy named Albie who is always "alllllllllllllmost" good enough. He struggles in school sometimes, and he's trying to figure out why. The book can be used for character study, lessons on learning styles, and theme studies. My students look forward to the end of the day every day to hear what Albie is up to!

As we wrap up this school year in the next two days, I am feeling mixed emotions. I am of course excited for summer vacation, but I am sad I will not be returning to PRES in the fall. The PRES community - colleagues, parents, and students alike welcomed me with open arms this year, and for that I am forever grateful. PRES took a chance on me, and allowed me to break into the Westchester school districts. I know I have made friendships that will last a lifetime. I hope I cross paths with people from the PRES community in the future. 

Thank you for a great 1/2 year PRES!