Saddle Up and Grab a Great Writing Tip on Be My Guest Sunday!

Hello there everyone!  I hope you are all enjoying a little extra sunlight on this first day of daylight savings! The two little ladies and I were out with their BFFLs* last night at the Imagine Dragons concert. (*That's what those of us in the know call Best Friends For Life...and by "in the know," I mean just recently for myself, so don't be so impressed).  The "spring ahead" rule really messed with all of us today, but it's never to late to have a GUEST drop by!

Oh, if I only lived in Texas, I would love to visit Marcy's classroom!  I can't get enough of her cute, hands-on ideas.  You can check them out for yourself over at Saddle Up for 2nd Grade!

Be careful! Don't get lost in all of those cute activities!  We are lucky to have Marcy here with us today, where she shares a quick and effective way for handling students who like to think of their teacher as a walking dictionary.

If I had a dime, a nickel, or even a penny for every time I heard the words, "How do you spell........" I would probably be basking in the warm Hawaiian sun right now.  And of course, it's a real treat when that catch phrase becomes contagious and every little being in your classroom needs something spelled AT THE SAME TIME.  I swear, at this point in my teaching career, I can simultaneously tie someone's shoe, tell someone that yes, they can go to the bathroom, and spell a word across the room. It's an art, people...and I know you can relate.

Marcy has a quick tip that will have you yelling, "Yehawwwww!" (On the inside, of course! You won't want to interrupt your busy writers while they are hard at work!)  You'll want to take a peek at this post before you head back to work...I know that this is a strategy I will be putting into practice immediately!

Hey ya'll! Its Marcy from Saddle Up For 2nd Grade. 

I am very excited to be your guest blogger today! A big thanks goes out to Tracey for allowing me to participate! Today I'm going to share with you a quick writing tip. Does anyone else love to teach writing but really stresses out about it? (insert hand raise here!) That would be me! Every year it is always one of my top goals to work on writing more. I loved it as a child and still do. This group I have this year, not so much. One of my biggest pet peeves when teaching writing is when your in the middle of a lesson or trying to help a student and you hear five other students say "Mrs. Bernethy", how do you spell….this drives me CRAZY! To limit the 5000 "Mrs.Bernethy, how do I spell…" during writing time I use a post it note to control the issue. When we begin our writing lesson for the day, I lay a post it note on each child's desk. If they need help spelling a word, I simply walk by, write the word on the post it and move on.

Another reason why I love this is that it gives other students a chance to help out. Now when I hear "Mrs.Bernethy, how do I spell…" their neighbor might say I know, and then they write the word on the post it. I love it when this happens! When we are done with writing for the day, they place their post it in our writer's notebooks to use the next day.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who uses this little technique but it has been a huge time saver for me during my writing block and I hope that it can help you too. 

Thanks Marcy! It was great having you as a guest today!  Have a great week!