Professional Books Worth Reading with Mrs. Grooms' Room

Hey everyone!!  

It's Shana Grooms from Mrs. Grooms' Room.  

Today is our first day of summer vacation!! 
(BIG WOOHOO!) 

I am so excited to be on vacation. Have you ever needed summer vacation in your bones?  Usually, I do summer school during the summer but not this year. 

(a little yippee!)

However, I will be hitting some of the professional development courses that our school district offers. Which isn't sooo bad during the summer!! 

(secret yes!)

Probably one of my all-time favorite professional development workshops that I have taken and one of my favorite professional books is Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites by Marcia Tate!! Let me tell you...when I came out of that workshop, I came out a refreshed teacher and a teacher full of purpose!! 

This is my copy.  The is the first edition so the second edition looks a little different.  Marcia also signed my book...soo cool!!!!!! I wish I had my picture made with her but I didn't.  Darn.  

There are so many things that I learned from this course....here are a few: 

 This is why we launch lessons, question before, during, and after stories, and check for assessment at the end of a lesson. 

My favorite is number five!  Be purposeful!! If you have a purpose, you will learn.  When we did our project-based learning unit on plants, learning seemed so easy.  We had to know how to take care of our plants and what they needed to grow to grow them.  Learning came naturally.

I love going on field trips and I love having students perform the actual task at hand.  You do, you definitely remember.  I myself am the same way.  

Tell me and I'll forget.  Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I will understand.  -Chinese Proverb

Fellow teachers!!!  THIS IS WHY WE DO THESE THINGS!!  We just don't do them because we have to...we are organizing thoughts, making memories, creating comprehension, and we are growing dendrites!!  

Does your classroom look like this?  I have room for improvement for sure. We will be working on number four and number eight. We will be role playing in our stories and in our lessons, and we will also use puppets in our stories we read. (I love puppets!)  

Starting today!!! I mean August!!!!    :)

How do you grow dendrites in your classroom?

You can check out Marsha Tate's website here!