I'm back!

So I forgot I had this blog. But today I started going through different blogs on the Teaching Blog-o-sphere. And it made me want to blog again. So first up, personal update:

1. No longer Ms. M, now Mrs. M. Yay! (I thought about changing my blog to a different one but decided to keep firstgradewithmenendez, even though I am now Mora.

2. I am now a mommy!! My beautiful baby boy was born April 9th. Had a c-section since he was breech and a whopping 9 lbs 12 oz! He is now 2 1/2 months and has the blues eyes ever! 

I am still teaching first grade at that school in Nogales. I've been off since April on Maternity leave and am now itching to revamp my room, change my daily routine. The AZ Dept of Ed has all the districts working on a new Teacher Evaluation Tool. Unfortunately for the first grade teachers in my district, the only data that they have that is standardized is AZELLA and Diebels. AZELLA in First grade is way too hard. The passages have to be Second grade reading level. The directions are given too fast. Thus, many students stay in the same category or regress. Then Diebels goes from letter sounds, letter naming, and nonsense word decoding in Aug to Full passages and 35 words per minute in Dec. Passages that have LONG and short sounds. My grade level partner and I were deciding that since we usually spend the first 9 weeks reviewing short vowel sounds, we are going to go a little faster to make it to some long vowel sounds before Dec. 

So long story short, we needed something that would help us with those tests. I started going through pinterest searching for ideas to help us with fluency. (Isn't Pinterest amazing?!) And I stumbled upon 3rd grades a hoot and The Daily Five. So I bought the book from Amazon last night. And am now a quarter way through it and am IN LOVE!! So I'm hoping to set it up in my class this year! 

Hope everyone is well and enjoying Summer break! 

Mrs. Mora