Positive Fridays - Week of May 5th, 2014

Happy Friday!  So sorry I haven't posted a Positive Friday post in a couple of weeks, I've had plenty of great things going on, but been so busy!  Mr. Positive is back though!

First up on the positive train, I am so thankful to have finally reached 700 TPT followers.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart to each and everyone of you 700 followers.  You rock!

The past couple of weeks have been so busy filled with DRA's, FAIR, and interim assessments.  My kids though did AMAZING!  One student jumped in Feb. from an 8 to 16 (remember I teach Kindergarten!), others since the first two week of April jumped from a 1 to a 3 and a 1 to a 4.  I am so excited seeing those lower level children make huge jumps at the end of the year.  Another one who has having difficulty with comprehension read a 1.5 passage on FAIR (2nd to last 1st grade passage) with 96% accuracy and 100% comprehension!  She also read a level 10 independently to me with comprehension.  We would like kids reading a level 6, which is a tough level for Kindergarten, but I'm pleased that over a 3rd of my class is reading at least a level 8!  Hats off to my Kinder kids and their hard work.

I also had a child tell me that he was going to miss me when I had a sub to get my evaluation results and he knew he'd have another sub while I went to the dentist in the afternoon.  He filled my bucket right up!  Then another sweet girl gave me a flower (weed of course) at recess today, it just warms my heart.  One parent and her child got me several things for Teacher Appreciation week, of course the handwritten card by her daughter meant the most to me.

I would love to hear about the growth of your students or anything else you'd like to share.

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on hoppin'

Positive Fridays - Week of April 7th, 2014

It's Friday!!!  Happy Friday to each of you!

I hope everyone has a terrific week and saw some terrific gains made by my their students!  It is always exciting to see those gains!

• Starting off on a personal note, as I mentioned before I found out why I kept getting sick, I had a kidney stone.  Thankfully, I am fairly certain I passed it on Monday morning and without any pain!  I went through a lot of pain before that having to miss a couple of days of work.  I am so thankful that it didn't hurt when I passed it.  I am off work today due to a doctor appointment, hoping for that clean bill of health!
• A student of mine who has difficulty with behavior was a shinning super start this week.  She was able to read a Reading Counts book with perfect, 10/10 comprehension!!!  Remember I teach Kindergarten.  When I checked her DRA in January she was an instructional level 8 with some comprehension.  The principal, assistant principal, another lady who has been helping out in my class from time to time who had the child read the book, and myself all made such a big deal out of it.  She will not be reading books and taking quizzes every day, which I believe is going to help with the behavior problems.  I have another child who can read much higher, but he can't comprehend so she's the only one on Reading Counts right now, which she is going to love!
• Another student of mine who held the door on the way to Music this week, raised his hand at the door and said Mr. Hopkins you are my favoritest teacher ever.  He filled my bucket right up!  He has a wonderful family as well.
• I've been busy DRAing children this week and many children have shot up making huge reading gains.  Our goal is a level 6 by the end of the year and I have 4, possibly 5 children reading level 8 books already.  I have several others on a 4 that I am hopeful will make the splash to a level 6 in mid May.

I hope each of you has had a terrific week.  Don't forget to leave me your positives.  I look forward to reading them all.

Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on smiling!

Positive Fridays - Week of March 31st, 2014

I was happy to be back to work after a great start to Spring Break for my birthday where I went to 3 days of country music concerts.  It was so much fun seeing Keith Urban, Toby Keith, Sarah Darling, Joe Nichols, Rodney Atkins, The Band Perry, JT Hodges, Neon Summer, and more!  Toward the end of spring break I ended up at the doctors twice and found out I have a Kidney Stone.  Your thoughts and prayers would be appreciated!  Enough of the unfortunate news, let's get to the positives!

It was great to be back with such a wonderful faculty and students.  My students really shined this for me!

• One child who was having a rough day raised his hand and said Mr. Hopkins, you're the best teacher.  I think you should be the teacher of the year!  How sweet is that?  That is bucket filling at its finest!
• They worked on making some wonderful bunnies and wrote about why they are a lucky bunny.  They did such an amazing job, I'll try to get pictures and try to find sometime to get that up on here for everyone to see how cute they turned out!
• They worked so hard in groups together doing an Open Picture Sort with cards.  They had to figure out the beginning sounds and then group them together and write the sound on each card.  I challenged my Kindergarten children and had both long and short u.  Surprisingly the group that had low/average children (all in my 2 intervention groups) was the group who figured out the long and short u as well as the rest!  
• I started doing DRAs on my students again and I am so pleased that 2 of my girls have jumped considerably.  In fact so much that I need to hear them read again!  One has jumped at least 2 levels and the other 3!  Our goal is to read a level 6 at the end of the year and they read a 4 independently!  I was so excited and so were they!  The smiles on their faces told it all.
• We said goodbye to an intern I've had for awhile.  She is a freshman in college and worked so well with the children, always asking me what else can she do to help me or the children.  This wonderful lady is going to be amazing teacher.  She wrote me such a sweet card thanking me for everything and said she got some great classroom management tips and classroom ideas.  I also helped her see that she truly does still want to be a Kindergarten teacher.  I'm glad I could influence a future teacher!

Anyone have any group student success stories?  Thanks for hoppin' by Hopkins' Hoppin' Happenings.  Keep on smiling!