THE END...of Research Methods. Thank goodness!

Today I am celebrating the end of what has proved to be a very difficult graduate school class: Research Methods. Have you ever taken that one? The material is so boring and dry. I just can't seem to make it fit into my little world. I am happy to say that I have survived the semester. Thank goodness! Here's what my kitchen table looked like today when I took my final.

 And this is the pile of papers that I will be burning tonight as a stress relief ritual....

Anchor Charts and more Anchor charts...

      Our county is serious about the use of anchor charts. We should have a ton of them. And, to be honest, after two years of giving them a good try, I can definitely see the benefit. So I thought today's blog would be dedicated to anchor charts. Here are a few that we have been working on in reading class recently.

For this chart, we were trying to focus on mood-the effect of a writer's words on the reader. My students struggle with the difference between mood and tone. So we did another chart the following day....

This one helped them to really "get" it. Although, we did decide that there are not specific vocabulary words that only belong to one of these topics. That was a tough concept for fourth graders.

And this one...well, I just love owls. They match my "theme". So, when I saw this one on Pinterest about point of view, I had to recreate it. I can't remember my life as a teacher before Pinterest.

We do anchor charts for math as well! Here is a decimal anchor chart that is currently in progress (incomplete). We are adding to it as we learn more about decimals each day.

My biggest goal for the rest of the year is to involve my students more in the creation of anchor charts. I want to let them help make them. This will be hard for me because, sad to say, I do have a little bit of a control issue. And, I like for things to be pretty. I need to get past that. Clearly.

My question for you is where do your inspirations for anchor charts? Is there some online site that is more awesome than Pinterest (I doubt it!)?