IRA, Jury Duty, and More Snow

This is my overstuffed teaching bag. I clearly have many things to do to get back into teaching after 8 weeks off. However, I don't know if I'm going in on Monday!

I got a jury duty summons.

*Groaaaaaannnnn*

I am not happy. I had to go a couple years ago and watched while the judge dismissed teacher after teacher, and they never called me to answer the questions and I just wanted to jump up and yell, "Me too! I'm a teacher too! Dismiss me!" I don't think I would make a good juror to be honest. I've read too many Jodi Picoult books and watch too many true crime shows.

I have to call after 5:30 today to find out if I need to report on Monday.

Anyway, I am going to be planning a bunch of Interactive Read Alouds for our persuasive writing unit.

We have been working on writing about things we want, but we are struggling with giving solid reasons as to why we want something or why we like something. I have outlawed "Because I like it" as a reason! We ADORE the pigeon series in our classroom, and we are using those to help us think of reasons as to why we should get something we want.

I'm not good at planning IRA's. I like to have guidance and support when I'm planning as I'm not good at picking out parts of the book that are good for teaching specific skills. We have an IRA book that is AMAZING at our grade level, but there's only one copy. I'm dying to get my hands on it so I can get some more ideas and get better at these!

Maybe its just me, but with all the Common Core standards going into action, I would prefer a program that is structured, similar to our EnVision program for math, so I know that I am meeting the standards and teaching them effectively. I feel kind of lost and like I have to do it on my own. Especially with the new teacher rubric that we're being evaluated on, I'm willing to sacrifice my creative license as a teacher for a structured program that I can be confident with! Does that make any sense?

In other news, its still snowing here. I'm so over the snow! I'm ready for flip flops.