Workshop Wednesday-Setting up for a Writer's Workshop

I love preparing for a new school year. There is something fresh and exciting about the start of a new year. One of the things I really enjoy about teaching is that we get the chance to reevaluate what we do each year. I love knowing that each year I can tweak what I am doing to make it better.

One area that I have spent a lot of time focusing on is Writing Workshop. I have shared before how much I hated teaching writing when I first became a teacher. Then, a few years ago I attended the National Writing Project. Spending a summer immersed in the world of writing completely changed my perspective. It was doing that institute and reading books by Ralph Fletcher and Katie Wood Rae that transformed the way I teach writing.

First: To help my students and I be more organized I created a Writer's Notebook Set-up. (You can download it for free.) I started using A Writer's Notebook by Ralph Fletcher to help me decide what I wanted in our notebooks. I've shared here how important our Writer's Notebook is in my classroom.

Second: I also spend the summer time working looking through my plans from the previous year. I like to see what mentor texts I used and what new books I purchased over the past year. (Have I mentioned I have a book addiction?) I like to plug in new mentor texts as well as a few of my favorites each year. I find summer is the best time for me to plan when/where I am going to use the new mentor texts...otherwise in the "thick" of the year I forget that I have them!

What do you do to plan your Workshops? Be sure to link up with Ideas by Jivey for Workshop Wednesdays. I'd love to hear what you do to plan over the summer.

I'm also excited to link up with Digital: Divide and Conquer and Third Grade Galore for their new Win, Loss, and a Thing of Cost linky.

 

Win:

My husband and I booked a Disney cruise for December 2014. We went last summer and had the best time. My parents, brother, and his family will be joining us again. We cannot wait for next winter.

Loss:

I've spent the last two days coaching a few of the teachers going through the newest National Writing Project. It has been really exciting to help fellow teachers work through their inquiry units of study. The loss part of this is that it makes me miss going through the institute. It was a lot of work, but it was a fantastic time collaborating with fellow teachers.

Cost:

An item of cost I want to share with you is my Graphing QR Code cards. I just updated them and made them cute. They were the first item that I put on TPT that cost so they really needed to be "touched up."

Be sure to link up and share your Win, Loss, and a Thing of Cost.