Writing Help

Hey everyone! Hope you had a great Tuesday! Tonight, my cousin and I are going to see Mama so I'm going to keep this short and sweet, but I'm having some major issues with our writing workshop and I was hoping you could give me some advice. 

 

I personally think the way we are approaching it is beyond a first grader's mind. The writing samples we've been getting lately have been just terrible. :( If the kids are writing about whatever they'd like, their writing is ok, but only a few sentences and a little disappointing for this time in the year. Now if we give them a topic like today which was on MLK jr after we've been talking about him all last week and watched a movie today, their writing was terrible. Some were off topic and others needed so much support we were practically telling them what to write.  (the topic was to write a dream they have after we talked about it and they told us on the carpet what their dream was before we gave them paper) 

Like I said, maybe it's the district and the way we are teaching it because I student taught in first grade in ohio and the kids were like night and day. :( I want my kids to be successful in writing, but feel like I am doing something wrong. How do you approach writing? Any ideas would be so much appreciated. Thanks friends!!

A little Help?

Hey Friends! Happy Saturday! I am so glad I got to sleep in today. I have a slight headache this morning because we went out last night and after a loongg week, I was ready to stay up a little too late. haha. So I have an issue with a little kiddo and I might have mentioned him before, but his behavior seems to be regressing and getting worse and sometimes, I feel like I have to devote all of my time and patience with him and neglect the other 26 kiddos. :/ So here's his behavior and the plan I have set currently....
 I split his day into 4 parts and in the morning if he completes his work and stays on task with behavior, he gets 2 stickers. Before lunch, he gets to go down to the EC room and play on the computer for 15 minutes as a reward. The same goes for the morning. Lately, he hasn't been getting both stickers and therefore, does not get the reward. 
He is constantly getting out of his seat, bothering other children (I have had to pull his desk away twice this week from the table group) He also constantly comes up to me and hugs and clings to me to where I tell him to get off multiple times before I am almost gently pushing him off of me. (let me stop and say I love hugs and gladly accept them, but he clinnggss) He also constantly shouts out on the carpet and at the desk and when I tell him no about something, he goes over to my assistant (who at times I think is too easy on him) and he'll ask her the same thing. 
Finally, in guided reading groups some days he reads very well and spells his sight words and other days I'll give him the word and and drag out the sounds with him, then he'll spell cat or some complete other different word. :( What am I supposed to do friends. He makes me want to tear my hair out. It's hard to talk to mom as well because she is Hispanic and speaks no english. Unfortunately, I am putting him on the list of recommended retainers for next year because socially and academically he is very immature. How can I help? Are there any individual student behavior things you've done with your difficult children? Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.

We need your help! :) Pretty Please!

Hey friends! This is a very noneducational post but still a goodie! As you all know, my fiance Steve and I are getting married next October 2013. We haven't chosen a photographer yet, but a very popular and talented one in the Cleveland area hosted a giveaway last week to win one of her packages. We had to submit a paragraph explain how the free giveaway could help us and why we are deserving..well guess what?! She contacted me today and we are finalists!! Yay (doing a little dance!) But...we are also up against about 6 other couples. :/ So I need your help! You can go to the link below to cast your vote, once a day and the voting will end Sunday July 8th. If you could help us out, we would be truly grateful! Thank you so much!!

Feeling Bad

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good week. It passed quickly for me and I'm just glad it's almost Friday. It was a busy week at my school with meetings and an assembly today.

I have one little girl in the 2nd grade who's really been getting to me. She's lost on the subject matter all the time and we had PT conferences last week and mom does not want to see that she needs to be on an IEP so she can get all the support that will make her successful. Mom just wants us to send  more work home so she can get more practice. It's been very frustrating in class because I am constantly helping her find her spot on pages when she should be following along. I know it's her learning disability and I feel bad because I find myself getting frustrated with her not knowing concepts. We are learning about time this week and the test is next Wednesday and I know she's going to bomb it. I feel helpless because being in Title, it's my job to make sure these students are understanding the material and I feel like I'm not doing a good job when they can't succeed even with my help. What strategies do you use to help struggling students? I feel like I'm at a loss as to how to help this child more.