Thanks friends!

I started this blog a few years ago as a way for me to document my growth as a teacher as well as share ideas with others.  Since then, I've had several wonderful educational opportunities and expanded my PLN outside of my district.

Maybe you're here because pinterest brought you here.  Maybe you follow my teaching board and clicked on one of the pins I generated about anchor charts. If so, welcome to my blog!

Maybe you're here because you saw something I posted on facebook about wedding planning.  If so, hi!  We still don't have a date or venue, nor have I officially asked most of the wedding party (just the MOH and officiant), so you didn't miss any major announcements.  

Maybe you're here because you saw my post on twitter or we're in the same professional learning network. If so, welcome tribe!

To my followers, thank you. I have followers here and on TpT, both are highly valued!

To my readers, thank you. I know my 50,000+ views aren't all my mom!  If you are a frequent viewer, why not become a follower?  

Don't Panic

We've been engaged for three weeks and we don't have a venue.  There's a few that I like and I'll look at them in September.

We don't have a date, just a five month range...which is over a year from now.  (Yes, beloved coworkers, a year from now.  I'm not in a rush, despite your loving pushes to get married in a few months. Too much pressure!)

We don't have colors picked out.  (I do have two very different color schemes in mind, which one we go with will depend on the season and the venue.)  

I haven't tried on a wedding dress and won't until December.  

We haven't taken engagement pictures (but I emailed my dear friend Amy to set up a date in October/November/early December).  Her photography skills are amazing.

I have asked my best friend to be my maid of honor and another best friend to officiate the wedding.  I haven't asked the other five bridesmaids yet (so if you think you may be one, hold tight!). I have a plan and it involves crafting (obviously).

Teaser:

I haven't thought about the save the dates and formal wedding invites (apparently you need specific dates and venues for that!) but I did make some decisions on our engagement party!  I'll be designing these online (etsy? minted? vistaprint? Who knows!)

This may be how B feels:

What I have planned: The Engagement Shower!

It will be over Labor Day weekend (my mom will be in town) and involve friends and family.  I want my mom to meet the other bridesmaids and get to know more of B's family.  I want to tell our engagement story and just cheers to a happily ever after.  

I picked up sharpies and invitations. 

 I stamped the envelopes with my snazzy wedding stamp. It looks like this, but with our info:

My goal is to get the invitations in the mail next week. I also bought thank you cards that match the invitations just in case.  We aren't expecting gifts but it's always nice to be prepared in case I need to write some thank you's. 

I've got a mental image of what I'd like our engagement shower to look like and have started a list of what needs to be done for that.  I've obviously made great progress on that front!

I also did start an excel document with addresses and columns for RSVPs, so that's an excellent start.  

I'm going to take my time with wedding planning because I want it to be a magical, wonderful day, not an event I am stressed about.

(If pinterest says it, it must be true!)

(I am aware there will be some stress.  However, I want to minimize it as much as possible.)

3 years and counting

Three summers ago, I toyed with the idea of starting a blog and having a store on TpT.  I had just finished another school year, was newly single, and excited for a summer full of professional development opportunities.  After weighing the pros and cons of my decisions, I decided to take a risk and go for it.

I wanted to create a venue for me to process my ideas and since I'm not very good at keeping up with journals (I've tried, for years, it's just not me), a blog seemed like the ideal fit.

I didn't start my blog to have a ton of followers.  I started it for me, as a safe space to reflect and grow as both an educator and a person.  I more than welcome followers and invite comments and discussions.  I turned down the option of paid Google advertisements on my blog because that's not who I am.  I didn't like the idea of having things posted on my blog that I didn't have control over.  Things that are advertised or discussed here are because I endorse them, not the advertisers over at Google.

I also started my online store on teacherspayteachers (TpT) not as a way to make a plethora of money, but to share the resources I'd made for my classroom.  Some are free and some are not.  I have paid products because I do value my time.  Many long hours were spent creating these products, especially the teacher guides for novels, so compensation is fair.  One product I'm working on, is sitting at fifty pages and I'm not done.  I've spent weeks working on it.  When I'm done, it will be available for purchase.  When the revenue is broken down, that's pennies for each hour worked.  

I enjoy making products for my classroom and since time is a luxury I have (mostly due to the fact I don't have kids yet), I am willing to share my resources with others.  As of right now, I have 160 products in my store with 38 followers (thanks guys!).

A colleague brought up wanting to start a store on TpT and I encouraged her to do so.  She was a tad annoyed that some of the products have to be free, but that's their policy.  

I warned her that TpT might not be an instant financial success.  My first month, three years ago, I put up a dozen products.  I anxiously checked my email, waiting to see if someone had downloaded my product.  To this day, some of my products have never been purchased...and that's okay.  I made them for my students and I know they're being used.  My first month, I sold two products and made five dollars.  Yup, five whole dollars.  That was beyond frustrating and I was ready to quit.

However, I didn't.  Things worth having take time.  Slowly but surely, I added more products.  I pinned the images on pinterest to expand my network.  I reached out to other educators and began following their blogs.  

I blog for me.  I blog to see my changes as an educator. I blog to keep all of my ideas in one place. I blog to start conversations and connect with others.

Some days, teaching is frustrating.  I am overwhelmed by work and I go for weeks without an update.  I'm working on this; I'm working on being more forgiving of myself and also more consistent with my commitments.

So if you're a newbie or an avid reader, thanks for stopping by! 

Happy third birthday to my blog and TpT store! It's been quite the ride.

Spring Break Goals, Part Two

I previously blogged about my lofty spring break goals and now that it's Thursday, I think I should revisit them.

1) Finish rewatching Friends on Netflix. 

This goal is part way done!  We are on season 7!

2) Finish Parks and Rec.  I haven't been emotionally prepared to see the end of this glorious show go, so I've been avoiding it.

This is tonight's goal.  I have tissues ready.

3) Try a new restaurant for date night.  A few new places popped up near us so I'm excited to try them.  As an added bonus, most are breakfast food places. 

Um, not yet. Maybe tomorrow or Saturday or Sunday with B's family?

4) Restain the bathroom cabinets.

HA! This didn't happen.  We spent hours at Home Depot and for the security door I'd like, it's just not in our budget right now.  Maybe summertime :)








5) Doctor's appointment. 

Woo hoo, I can check one off!


6) Finish going through my closet and actually take the pile of clothes and shoes to Goodwill instead of letting them accumulate in a bag in the garage.
Um...maybe tomorrow.

7) Finish the small tasks I've half-way started: ...yeah.  Not.  Grading is almost done! I've taken myself out to lunch a few times in an attempt to get that done.

8) Try a new recipe or two.  Maybe just one. Let's not get too ambitious here.

The ingredients are purchased and it's the plan for tomorrow!


9) Put away St. Patrick's day decor and decorate for spring.  Woo, two done!

10) Girls lunch date(s)?  Yes, I had lots of these :)

11) See new babies (?).  We were hoping to go see baby Sophia, but they're getting newborn pictures done Sat am.  Maybe next weekend.

12) Finish the books I'm reading.  One is for professional development and one is for pleasure.  I know which one will be read first!  



Yeah...didn't happen.

13) Cancel my gym membership....check! On a roll.

14)  Change my pedicure.  My Jamberry mint chevron wrap is holding strong at four weeks, but I think I want something pink...maybe tomorrow.



15) Make a new front door wreath.  I started one, then ran out of both burlap and wine.  This shall be completed tomorrow!

4/3 update: Finished! (For now)

 



16) Spend a whole day in pajamas!  Oh, this happened more than once!


17) Start crafting their end of year and testing treats :) 
I looked on pinterest? Does that count?




So, of the 17 ambitious goals I set for myself...I accomplished five and some parts.

And I in no way feel bad about it!  I did some grading, some shopping, got my hair cut, went dancing, and took a lot of naps.

How was your spring break?

Let's Stop Classroom Shaming

My pinterest feed is flooded with back to school ideas.  Friends in other states have already started their school year.  I know I have to set my classroom up soon but am already facing classroom shaming.

On my facebook feed, one of our district's other performance zones highlighted a new teacher's classroom that is completely done.  Yes, completely done...on August 6th.  We don't start in-service until the 21st and get students until the 25th.   Yet, this one teacher was completely ready. While I hope the intention was to celebrate this new teacher, the overall effect was classroom shaming.  Shame to those teachers who haven't meticulously decorated their classrooms yet.  To be fair, I'm not even allowed to get keys until next Wednesday.  Still, the message was shame to those teachers who aren't done yet.

I say enough.

Enough to the classroom shaming.  

My classroom will not be perfect.  It's not supposed to be.  In a few weeks, it will be filled with fifth graders. Perfection is not possible.

I have a few weeks of summer left and I'm going to enjoy it.  I don't need to be shamed about my classroom and all the unopened boxes.  I didn't spend my entire summer preparing for next year and that's okay.

Yes, I will do my best to make my classroom a colorful, organized, and fun place to be.  However, I will not spend hundreds of dollars doing so.  Like most of the world, I'm on a budget.  Everything won't be meticulously perfect and that's okay.

I'm not going to spend hours on bulletin boards and cleaning.  I'm going to spend that time on planning lessons, not decorating.

Enough with the shaming and pressure to make every classroom look like those on pinterest.  It's not going to happen.  It's unrealistic.  I love craft projects as much as the next person, but I also like sleep.

Every teacher is different. I'm going in on the earliest possible day and don't want to go in on weekends.  That's okay.  Other teachers won't go in until their contract days and that's perfectly okay too.  Some won't have their classrooms finalized until the students are finishing up their first week and that's okay too (as long as students are able to learn and move around safely).  Stop with the classroom shaming and holding all teachers to absurd pinterest/done three weeks early standards. My classroom won't be perfect. Stop the shaming.

Simplicity, part 4 (ideas 11-13)

Continuing the new ideas, simplicity trend, here are three more ideas for next year.  I'm excited for small tweaks to make a huge, positive differences.

Idea 11: Beginning of the Year "I am" statement for writing notebooks

This would be such a cute first page in their writing notebooks.  It'd be great for students to see themselves as multidimensional people and an easy way for them to get to know each other!

Idea Twelve: Clothespin revival

I've tried the push pin strategy with clothes pins, but I like this one for more permanent places:

Since I moved recently, I seem to have a plethora of extra command strips!  I could easily decorate the clothespins to match my classroom colors (once I you know, determine those).  Thanks Fifth in the Middle for the idea!

Idea Thirteen: Morning Memes

 To be fair, this isn't entirely a new idea for next year.  Last February, I started doing a morning meme to add some positivity in the morning.  They were a great way to connect with students and reinforce various topics (rules, grammar, being nice, etc).  The memes would inspire my students to talk with one another and start our day on a positive note.

I've been pinning ideas to my Pinterest morning meme board, which you can follow here!

What new ideas are you excited to try?

Simplicity, part 2

As I blogged about last week, I'm excited to try some new, simple tricks in my classroom.  Last week I chronicled ideas 1-3, so today you can find the next four gems! I'm all for small, simple tweaks to make my classroom run a little more efficiently.

Idea Four: "Partners" Poster

In the past, I've used a handmade version of this poster for groups to set norms:

This groups one works pretty well.  I found this "partners" one earlier this week and can't wait to use it as well!

I like that this poster goes more in depth with expectations.  I also like the "explain your answer" part because students need frequent reminders to do so!


Idea Five: The Ten Commandments of Math

I may need to tweak this idea so it's not so overtly religious, but I like this anchor chart:

I think laying down some ground rules for math would be a great thing! It might be cute to make it like a constitution and have my students all sign our declaration of math.

Idea Six: Additional Rewards for the Mystery Walker

I already implemented the mystery walker idea last year but I like this extension idea.  All I'd need to do is recreate this with my favorite fonts (we don't have time for cutesy clip art in fifth grade!) and dedicate a bucket to collect raffle tickets.

Idea Seven: Color Coding Notebooks

In a perfectly coordinated, OCD controlled world, all my students would have the same color notebooks for each subject.  I'm aware that won't happen.  But this could be a good back up plan:

The original pin was about text books, but we don't really use those in my classroom.  When we set up our notebooks at the beginning of the year, I could have each subject be a different color.  Having students search for their blue math notebook would definitely help with the desk organization and help struggling students with staying focused.  I know that it's tough for fifth graders to use a different notebook for each subject, but it's definitely necessary for middle school!  I'd rather they struggle with me and enter middle school prepared to switch classes and stay organized.

I'm committing to small, simple steps toward a better, more organized and positive classroom!  Who is with me?

Motivation

For the past few years, I've used the "kiss your brain" jar to reward students for thoughtful answers.

It works fairly well but I was ready to try something new.  While searching pinterest, I found this idea:
 

I think making a jar of treats to celebrate their growth and academic progress.  I just need a jar, a printer, and some markers!

Simplicity part 1

I'm always looking for ways to make teaching just a little bit easier.  Some of the grand ideas on pinterest seem wonderful but when I start them, I quickly realize that these ideas simply won't work for me.

After sifting through hundreds of pins (hey, it's summer!), I found these three gems that I can easily implement next year:

Idea One: Sticky Labels

Now, I love sticky labels but didn't think to use them this way for grading.  I think this would work best for grading writing but I'm excited to adapt it for other subjects.  It would also be easily modified to include the standards at the top of the assignments.



Idea Two: Math for the First Day(s) of School

The first week is dedicated to establishing routines, setting up notebooks, practicing procedures, and building a supportive classroom culture.  One of the things I struggle with is incorporating math into the read alouds, team building, and getting to know each other activities.  This gem fits right in with the first week vibe:

I also think it'd be especially helpful this year at my new school.  I think this thirty minute activity could be great for not only introducing me to my class but helping them see how math is incorporated into every day life.

Keeping in mind with the first week theme, I liked this idea from pinterest as well:

Idea Three is enabling students to be problem solvers when they're in small groups and I'm conferencing with students.  I would type up these "what if" scenarios and have table teams brainstorm how to solve these problems, then open the discussion up for a class debate.  In doing so, they are creating their own norms and thus have more of a "buy in".

I'm excited to try these three simple things in my classroom next year!

Sigh...one major project accomplished!

I'm finally feeling the sense of relief that accompanies summer.  With the exception of a guest bedroom where I dumped my classroom (specifically several thousand books), my new home is decorated and unpacked.  Over the course of my summer break, I painstakingly painted thirty seven cabinet doors to give my kitchen a complete makeover.  We also painted our master bedroom and bathroom because olive green wasn't my preferred shade.  We patched the doggie door so our kittens won't try to be adventurous and explore outside and patched several dozen wall nicks from picture frames.  We had our friends and family over for our house warming and I can now finally relax.

By relax, I mean spend a few hours on pinterest finding ideas for next year and tackle the pile of books I've been dying to read!  My boyfriend asked what my plans for tomorrow are and was a bit shocked when my response was simply to read.  I've got The Throne of Fire and Mark of Athena just waiting to be devoured!

I also need to start figuring out my classroom theme for next year.  What I love about my new school is the fact that every classroom is cute and organized.  It makes me feel accepted and not like a strange person for wanting my classroom to be organized with coordinating colors.

One of my former neighbors is moving to teaching sixth grade science and gave me her entire cube collection that she used for her classroom library.  I'm excited to get to actually organize my books by AR levels and author rather than just throwing them all on the shelf and crossing my fingers that students find ones they like.  Granted, the first few weeks in August will be spent organizing my new classroom but it's a great thing that my new school is only 8 minutes away!

Now that my home is done, I can leisurely enjoy my summer and catch up on reading!

Summer Break

I'm nearly a full two weeks into summer break, so I thought I'd share some truths:

1) I haven't used my alarm clock in weeks and it feels amazing.  However, I've also found that I'm unable to sleep past 8 am which is a huge bummer.  I don't have kids (yet) that wake me up early, I guess I'm just getting old.

2) Most of the time I don't know the date...or even the day of the week.  I know when the weekends are because that's when my boyfriend doesn't have work...but truthfully, most of the time I couldn't tell you what day of the week it is.  

3) I haven't picked up a book yet.  This truth saddens me, but at the same time, I'm painting my new house so we'll let this one slide.  July, post move-in, I will play catch up with all my reading.

4) I miss my structure and seeing students.  I miss talking about books with my kiddos.  I do not miss writing lesson plans.

5) I alternate between pinning classroom ideas on pinterest and avoiding it like the plague.  I'm excited for next year...but also excited for summer.

K-8?

I spend a lot of time online looking at teaching ideas on pinterest, products on TpT, and reading other teaching blogs.  I'll be the first to admit this.

However, I'm a little bit bothered when I see materials/activities geared toward multiple grades.  I understand the K-1, K-2, 2-3, 4-5, 3-5, etc bands.  Heck, the text exemplars in the Common Core are in grade level bands (which is why we always check with fourth grade about the texts they're using).

But I am bothered when materials are being promoted as K-8.  I certainly hope educators aren't using the same strategies and learning activities with kinders as they are with eighth graders.  So please, fellow educators, market your products to the appropriate grade(s).  I'm going to be very wary if your idea is self-proclaimed as appropriate for both five and fifteen year-olds.

Somebody Wanted But So...

One of the strategies I've been trying with my small reading groups is "somebody wanted but so".  I create a chart with those categories and we collaboratively fill in the boxes.  It's a very guided approach to summarizing and my students are having a lot of fun with it.

Example: (the Lost Hero)

Piper (somebody) wanted to rescue her dad and stay loyal to her friends but she was worried how she could do both so she told Jason and Leo about her problem and they decided to help her.

I also found this on pinterest:

I like that it adds the "then" category for students to explain how the problem was solved.  This teacher suggests using post-its and I think that would be a great way to introduce the concept, but I wouldn't necessarily use it every time.

Classroom Memes

As I wrote about before, we've been doing morning memes.  We start our day with a funny meme or morning message, like these:

We read these before going over our daily schedule.  The humor creates a positive classroom environment and gets them talking first thing in the morning.  Sometimes they need to explain the meme to one another, which emphasizes the importance of sharing ideas.

Since not everyone has smart notebooks, I decided to make a pinterest board with the memes I've been using.  You can follow it here and use the images in your classroom as well!  If you don't have smart notebook, use powerpoint instead :)

Hopefully your students love the morning memes as much as mine do!

Sheesh, one holiday at a time!

I expect Valentine's Day celebrations to go hand in hand with President's Day.  However, I was shocked when I logged onto pinterest yesterday (that'd be February 16th) and saw a flood of crafty St. Patricks' Day classroom activities.  It's a month away! 

I know teaching things need prep...but we just got done with one holiday! I haven't even thought about putting away house hold decorations and am certainly not done eating the chocolates my munchkins spoiled me with!  

So I slowly, carefully backed away from the computer screen.  I'll look up St. Patty's Day things during our upcoming Reading Week since the fifth grade was assigned "Europe" for the global theme.  One of our spirit days is to dress up like our chosen continent, so perhaps I'll tie St. Patty's Day in with my Ireland attire.  Other than that, I have no idea what we'll be doing for the 17th of March and I'm okay with that.  There's a lot of learning in the next month to cover and plan for anyway.  We've got assemblies, testing, a snake expert coming, kickball (our first surprise monthly motivator) and more.  I need to write sub plans before I dive into the next holiday.

But in all seriousness, one holiday at a time.  Enjoy the moment instead of just rushing to the next event.

(mostly) Candy Free Valentines Ideas (Part 2)

So I previously blogged about a cute candy free valentine idea:

And shared what I'll be doing with my class:

But I stumbled upon some more cute ideas for elementary students, so I figured I'd share!

My neighboring teacher loves owls and it's the quasi-theme of her classroom this year, so I could see her making these:

All you'd need is some free time, cereal (or chex mix, trail mix, etc depending on students' allergies), bags and construction paper.  On the reverse side, you could write "You're a Hoot!".  How fun :)

This idea is very similar to what I've done at the beginning of the year to welcome students:

But I love using colorful tape to attach the smarties!  I don't know if that yellow would have been my first choice, but the idea is still great.  You can snag this cute, free printable here!

Although my Nevada students would have no idea what this means, I still think it's cute:

It may be tricky to find candy corn at this time of the year...

Next, this idea:

How fun!

These pinterest pictures have lots of ideas:

Not all of them are healthy or welcome in the classroom (no soda!).  But the ideas are still fun :)

For the more patient and crafty families, 

Pipe cleaner pencil toppers are a creative option!

While I made Valentine's gifts for my home room, this may be happening for all my small groups:

How fun! I'm sure a local craft store has a heart shaped punch and ribbon is always easy to find.  What a great way to encourage reading!

With three(ish) weeks until Valentine's day, it's time to start planning!

If only I taught primary...

While procrastinating grading, I stumbled upon this adorable idea:

I kind of wish I taught a lower grade so I could do this type of lesson!  What a cute way to teach the basics and the kids would so benefit from hands on manipulatives!

Candy-free Valentine!

As part of our first week of school, I always make my students some variation of these:

(2 years ago)

(last year...no access to a colored printer, so I used labels instead!)

Not only does it make them feel welcome, but the more practical use is now they have a sharpened pencil to use and that's just one less thing I need to worry about :)

While procrastinating grading and looking on pinterest, I found these:

What a cute Valentine's day adaptation!  Plus there is no candy involved and I can't think of an elementary student who doesn't need a new pencil!  Seriously, some days I think they eat the pencils, I don't understand how these supplies go missing so often.  

If I hadn't made cute space valentines yesterday, I would seriously be on board with these!  Perhaps I could make a St. Patrick's day surprise with green ones...I do believe there is a shamrock die cut at our school!  Stay tuned for more crafty procrastination adventures!

New Strategy

I saw this idea on pinterest and I'm really excited to try it with my small groups!

I'll have them write down their favorite quotes from the novel we are reading and then justify why they chose those quotes :)

I'm also excited to try it for characters.  Instead of having students keep track of all the characters in the novel, I'll have them keep track of one or two in depth.  When we're done with our book, I'll have them compare and contrast the characters.

This strategy would also work well for settings or interesting words.

I'm excited for them to try this new format in their notebooks!

Thank You

I'm working on appreciating the positives and acknowledging others.  Thank you, blog readers. I know all the page views aren't spam :)  (Feel free to leave comments though!)

Thank you to the nearly 300 customers I had on TpT last year.  It was a very good start and I received a lot of positive feedback, which validates that the hard work I put in for my classroom is beneficial for others.  Why reinvent the wheel? If I've put in the work with my students, why shouldn't other educators gete to use these materials?

Thank you to the almost 60 people who have taken the time to rate my products on TpT and left comments.  I've got a 3.8/4 rating and 9 followers, which I appreciate!

Thank you to those who have shared my blog on pinterest or on TpT :)

Just overall, thanks and high fives/fist bumps to my readers and supporters.

I look forward to a new year of continuing to improve as an educator!