Mr. Bussey's Class

SUPPORT A CHILD IN MY CLASS FOR JUST $9!

It's that time of year again! I am so excited about my new group of students and want to share my love and passion for reading with them! When I send home the monthly Scholastic Book Flyer, you should hear the sounds of 😁 excitement. They have fun looking through the catalogs and selecting books they would like to have. It's great and warms my ❤️ but many of my students can't afford to purchase books. It makes me feel so 😔 because those are often the students who need the most support and exposure to fun and enriching 📚.

One of the best things about Scholastic Book Clubs is that every month, they offer at least one high-interest book for only $2!

Here's the idea:
I would love for each child in my class to bring home one new book every month during the school year from September to May! If I select a $2.00 book each month, that comes out to only $18 per child. To make this happen, each child will need to be sponsored by two people, bringing the donation request to just $9 per person. Would anyone be interested in sponsoring a child in my classroom this school year?

You would send the $9 to me, and that child would get a NEW book to keep at home EVERY month!

Any additional donations are used to purchase more books that are not on the dollar list, donate books to students in other classes in my school, or purchase other supplies that students may need throughout the school year.

Since starting this project four years ago, our 5th graders have set records FOUR TIMES for the highest 5th grade reading test scores in the history of the school, despite "learning loss" and the pandemic! Getting books in their hands is SO important, so thank you for all of your support!

Teacher Appreciation Week!

👨🏾‍🏫Years Taught: 14
🏫 Schools: 3
💼 Principals: 9
🗺Districts: 2
🌎States: Georgia
🍎Grades: 2nd, 3rd, 5th
📚Subjects: All of them (Currently ELA)
✏️Certified: All Subjects - Pre-K through 5th
📜 Highest Degree: M.Ed.
🍎 Alma Mater: THE Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

Want to help keep making magic happen in my class?

Donate or share the link below!

https://www.donorschoose.org/project/digital-dreams-powering-creativity-with/8378437/

First day of school… 10 years ago… these 2nd graders are soon heading to college! 😲

I teach 5th and our recess has a 5 minute overlap with 3rd grade. Somehow, I've built a fan club of 3rd graders who want to be in my class and come talk to me every single day for that 5 minutes 😂

Today, one of them brought me this picture that she drew of me, and it brings me so much joy. 😊😊😊

When you live and teach in the same neighborhood, your students coming knocking on Halloween! 😱😱😱

When you walk by a 3rd grader whom you've never met but you're dressed alike, you stop, take a picture with them, and solidify yourself as her favorite teacher she's never had lol.

on

My students have been "secretly" working on something all week.

I allowed whatever they were doing to go on, even though I could tell that they were up to something.

What I didn't expect was to be asked on Friday if they could show me a presentation.

Me: I mean... we have work to do... but I guess 🤷🏾‍♂️

Turns out it was a PPT full of reasons why they think I'm "The Best Educator." 😭😭😭

Here are a few of the slides.

This has been a tough year with all of the things required that have nothing to do with kids or learning... you know... the "adult stuff."

THIS was the exact reminder that I needed about why I do what I do. I can't actually say that I'm "the best," but I can commit to giving them my best everyday... even if I only turn in half of my paperwork on time lol.

When your class is under attack by a 17.5 ft dragon!


Vocabulary assessments don't have to be boring. Thinking about making a "mini-vlog" recap of this lesson. We had a LOT of fun!

First day read aloud (Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar)

Trying to decide of Mrs. Gorf will be the first villain we face in a Boss Battle, as most of them will come from books this year.

Also... not sure what I'm doing with my hand there lol 🤷🏾‍♂️

Ok... This Voila app is basically my new favorite thing lol. We've had a lot of fun with it this week in .


📸 I snapped photos of all of the kids, uploaded them into the app, and had them printed at Walmart as 4x4 photos ($0.25 each for the 1 hour photo). 🖨
They LOVED seeing the pictures posted on the wall in the room. It's making summer school a little less dreadful lol. 🥴


Then, as we're reading the novel 📖 , we looked up photos of celebrities that we thought could play the characters in movies (some characters are "played" by kids in the class), and uploaded them into the app too.
I printed those as well to go on our anchor charts as we track character traits and development throughout the book.

This helps students create the visual in their minds as they read. Using actual students as some of the characters just makes it that much more engaging. I always try to find a way to cast my most reluctant readers in a role to help them become more invested in the story.


Any other creative ideas of how to use this App?
👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾👇🏾