Skypin' it up

We wanted to ease into the concept of mystery skype,

So we set up a skype chat with Ms. G, our former technology guru who has since moved on to a position at Ohio State University.

Our students had previously learned about the Midwest region with our {geography unit} and this was a fun review before we gave our {unit test}.  We prepped them with what is appropriate and what is not appropriate to say, then crammed eighty of them into one classroom.  (Okay, eighty is a bit of an exaggeration.  The actual number is closer to seventy three...but there were three teachers, it's okay!)

Before calling with the students, we did a test run...and boy am I glad!  We didn't have a working webcam, so we:

1) Tried with the iPads, but didn't have the password for the app store.  We could hear her, but she couldn't see us or hear us. She'd ask a question and we'd type a response.

2) Admin didn't have the password for the app store.

3) The person who did wasn't at our school that day, so Ms. G called him to have him email me the password.

4) Facetime didn't work.

After about an hour of problem solving (plus one iPad, one iPhone, one desk top, one Android, four adults, and two administrators...), we got it to work.  

The kids loved it!  She showed them various sites around OSU and we got to virtually meet her coworkers.  They asked thoughtful questions about the differences between Las Vegas and Ohio as well as which Disney princess is her favorite (obviously!)  The whole call took about twenty minutes.

Of course, I rocked a Michigan hoodie out of protest.

We appreciate you Ms. G!

Our next skype call will be to Ms. V after we learn about New York.  We've got a guest speaker for upstate NY (the neighboring kinder teacher), so Ms. V will be representing downstate New York!

Thankful November, Day 8 My Students

With so many students, it's easy to get bogged down with all the demands.  Grading thirty five of anything gets rather tedious.  When it's thirty five essays, I have to give myself small rewards for persevering through the task (and no, I'm not kidding).

So instead I'll share how truly wonderful my students are.  On average, they're pretty great.  They're also people, so we have good days and we have rough days.  They're pre-pubescent and sassy.  It's November and they're antsy for a break.  It's a tricky time.

However, I get hugs on a daily basis. I have, at any given time, thirty students who are truly happy to see me.  

They are so ridiculously excited about every little thing we do.  Commas? Thrilling. Multiplication warm ups? Amazing, especially if they are allowed the extra special treat of writing on their desks.  Our read aloud? Nothing quiets them faster than me pulling out a well loved copy of The Lightning Thief.  

Plus, cute gifts like this sweeten the deal:

How adorable are my families?

I'm using class dojo and it's really helped improve my parent communication this year.  I'm also using it in conjunction with my class blog (weebly), which is passcode protected because I post students' pictures.

Here's a snapshot:

Plus they reply! How fun. We've talked about online norms and appropriate ways to communicate with one another, so it's nice to have an authentic way to embed lessons on digital citizenship and online responsibility.

The one comment?  One of my students said she's going to beat me to graduating Storm.  My response? I hope she does. She's been on fire and it's great.

There are many things in education that are wearing me down.  Luckily, for the most part, my students aren't part of those problems.  They are the part of my job that I consistently love.

In an effort to focus on these happy moments with students more consistently, I found this adorable notebook at TJ Maxx:

I'm going to keep it at my desk and record those happy moments in the classroom.

What are you thankful for today?

It's been a while...

I've been reflecting on my classroom management and decided I needed a few tweaks.

I've decided to do a "ten for ten" where students are working toward earning perfect 10's in specials (perfect behavior).  Each time they accumulate ten perfect reports, they get to pick a ten minute classroom reward!

I've also noticed my attendance is a concern because some students have accumulated a lot of absences.  To try to combat this, I've also created a "perfect attendance" sheet where students will get to fill in a letter for each day that the whole class is in session.

The best part?

I've bundled these two classroom motivators and posted them, for free, on TpT!  That's right, totally free! This is product #160 (wowzers), so why not make it a freebie for loyal readers and fellow teachers. I just ask that if you download 'em, you leave (hopefully positive) feedback.  Snag 'em {here}.

Thankful catch ups!

Ah, the weekend.  It's time to catch up on blogging and class updates.  But first, time to pause and reflect upon the things that I'm thankful for:

-My students are so incredibly excited about everything we're doing.  Their immediate buy-in makes my job easier.  Their zest for learning is contagious.  Their desire for reading, especially anything by Rick Riordan, is insatiable.

-Many of my students are bilingual.  I have a new-to-country student who is just learning English. It's an incredibly tough struggle, but he's a sweetheart. He's from Mexico and about half my class speaks Spanish.  I've got him on English-learning programs, reading bilingual books, and he's very excited about math.  I'm so thankful he's got many partners who can translate and are so eager to help him acclimate to our classroom and feel successful.

-I'm thankful for the flexibility I'm allowed at my new school.  Math runs a few minutes over because I'm working with a small group? Ok. It happens. I'm not in trouble for it.  I decide to take my small groups outside to read because we are having gorgeous 80 degree weather in November? Sounds good, provided I let the office know.  It's great to be treated like a professional and not have every decision I make scrutinized. 

-I'm thankful for Rick Riordan.  In his latest books, he reveals one of the male characters has feelings for Percy and is struggling to admit these feelings to others.  The books are in no way sexualized because they're written for children, but I appreciate that Riordan made a gay hero for students to look up to.  Plus he's an amazing author anyway, so this just added one more reason to the why he's great list!

-I'm thankful my school cares about me as a person first and a teacher second.  I have yet to take a sick/personal day but am trying to coordinate schedules with B to see when we can sneak in a 3 day weekend.  I doubt I'll have to explain myself and I'm sure a mental health day will be encouraged, provided I leave sub plans.

-I'm thankful for the numerous potlucks at work!  Seriously, there are several each month and they are all themed. It's great!

-I'm thankful the post office had both Batman and Harry Potter stamps.  Mailing out Jamberry samples just got a whole lot more fun!

-I'm thankful for my (assuming) future parents in law for gifting Olive Garden gift cards.  We had a spontaneous mid-week dinner date and it was fabulous.


What are you thankful for on this fine Saturday morning?

Percy the Pumpkin

As I previously blogged about, my class designed a Percy Jackson pumpkin.

I'm going to preface this picture with the disclaimer that it was 100% student made.  All I did was supervise and provide the paint.

The backside has a trident, waves, skull, and Riptide.

Here's Percy:

You can vote for our pumpkin here!

We really want a popcorn party :)

Craft time!

The beginning of the year is always an expensive time for teachers. I've stocked up on supplies for six table teams, including new buckets for them.  I bought some new border and letters for bulletin boards, got burlap to make border, and various other items at the craft store(s) for new cute things in my classroom.

One of the projects I just completed is my "good effort beads":

I saw on pinterest a fellow teacher made "smart beads" for her students to wear.  I modified the idea to more mesh with my growth based teaching mindset. 

By switching from "being smart" to "great effort", this shows my students that I'm focused on them. Our goal is progress.  Our academic journey focuses on improvement.  My students are in competition with themselves.  They aren't all coming in at the same place academically, nor will they all end the same place.  I have high expectations and will continue to push each of them to do their best. I believe in praising growth and progress, not "smartness".  

In a TFA (Teach for America) flashback, I vividly recall one of our many Saturday sessions ending with this idea:

Smart is not something that you are.

Smart is something that you become.

How powerful for students to realize that being smart comes from effort, perseverance, and continued hard work.  It doesn't happen overnight.

I can't wait to encourage my students to keep trying their best.

Continuing with empowering students, I picked up some lanyards:

Which I turned into:

I'm very excited for my new brag necklaces.  Again, this emphasizes a student's progress over time rather than a numerical score.  

This year, my students will be reading...a lot.  We are utilizing AR with our "reading rangers" program that focuses on comprehension and stamina.  I'm excited that this is used consistently K-5 in every classroom, so there is a school wide support and buy-in from students.

I also am a realist and know I teach ten year-olds...

Which is why I created this:

I know I will have books get damaged. I understand small rips from wear and tear, but I think if a student completely destroys a book, the family should replace it.  I'll need to double check with my grade level and administration, but I'm thinking of putting that in the library contract I send home at the beginning of the year.  In five years of teaching, I've only had to collect from a handful of families.  One student left my copy of Hatchet on the bus.  One had a water bottle explode and flood her backpack.  A third left it out for the dog to find (comically yes, the dog ate it).  A fourth ripped the spine in half.  A few others lost the books in various places.  I think it's fair to hold families fiscally responsible.  After all, if they lose library books, they have to pay to replace the books...so why shouldn't the same be true for my classroom library?

I wanted to jazz up our information space, so I had a little fun with chalk board markers.  I bought a banner from the party supply aisle at Target:

I also borrowed a neighbor's cricut to make:

We are expected to post our calendar so it's obvious what the students are working on, so why not make it fun? 

I also want to to focus on small groups in math, which means I'll need an additional management strategy.

I decided on student math coaches, which would be designated by these:

I'm all about collaboration, so they'll soon say "math coaches".  Students will prove to me they can handle the concept, then I'll give them the lanyards and let them coach their peers while I work with a small group.

More pictures coming soon!

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!

Attention Getter

We do a lot of different attention getters in our class.

Here's our newest one:

What I say is in blue and their response is in green.  They're enjoying our new attention getter!

Motivational Posters

Since a majority of my room is covered with anchor charts and student work, there isn't much room left over for motivational posters.

However, I do have these two displayed at the front of the room:

For me, effort is everything.  I'm an inclusion teacher and I know my students have a wide variety of current levels.  I also know that it doesn't matter where they start, but where they finish with me.  Because we are standards-based with the Common Core (although I'm supposed to call them the Nevada Academic Content Standards, or NACS for short...I'm still getting used to the new acronym), my students have through June to master concepts.  This means a lot of spiraled reteaching and frequent opportunities for students to demonstrate mastery of concepts.

I would rather a student try a math worksheet, miss every problem and learn from those mistakes than simply write "IDK" or leave the sheet blank.  Not trying isn't cool!  At least that's the focus of our life skill this week.

Second, I really like our THINK poster. We are a be kind school and I think it's important that students realize not every thought in their brains needs to be verbalized.  Not that their thoughts aren't important, but sometimes they don't say the nicest things to one another and that's simply not okay in my classroom.  I do my best to create an educational environment where students feel supported, encouraged and safe.  Negative words take away from our community.

 I think we all, kiddos and adults included, need to pause to THINK before speaking some times.  The world just might be a slightly brighter place for it!

(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!

Peace Week Challenge One

It's Peace Week at our school and our awesome counselor posted her first challenge!

Students had to brainstorm a list of all the ways they could be kind to others in the upcoming week.

Here's our list:

I'm going to really focus on "catching" kids being kind and giving them that positive reinforcement!

New Year's Resolutions, Classroom Style

Like I don't know, 95% of America, I've made my new years resolutions to start next week.  However, I started thinking about my classroom and resolutions that we could make there.

We talk a lot about goal setting and academic growth.  We will have a behavior assembly first thing in January because some of their choices are not appropriate and attitudes are escalating quickly.  I expect the hormonal shift around testing time (March) but I'm pretty sure this group came in sassy and with attitudes.  It's been a long, uphill battle to get the talking under control this year.


They're also getting new seats and assigned seats for all subjects, not just my homeroom.  That means their desks will have 4 names on it: whole group, small group AM, small group PM and science.  That way there's more accountability and less theft (fingers crossed).

So I think I need something like this:

I'll have them fill out their own reflective sheets and we'll make our own chart.  This image is from a primary classroom but I think the idea can be adapted for fifth.

We'll hit the ground running in 2014, testing is coming up and we've got to prepare them for success in middle school!

Elf on the Shelf, Classroom edition

Perhaps I'm a little behind on the times, but this was the first year I heard of the "Elf on the Shelf" phenomena.

I don't have children of my own yet, so I didn't see the point in purchasing one for myself.

However, after browsing pinterest, I kept seeing lots of ideas for a classroom adaptation.  Granted, there are blog posts like this that discourage the Elf, so you might need to treat it cautiously.  I'd set up the elf as a winter visitor without religious ties and send a note home to parents & families before hand to cover my self.

Fellow teachers at my school used it this year and said it was very helpful with management!

Here are some of my favorites:

I'd need my sign to say Winter Break, not Christmas break but still a cute idea

I could easily hide him/her in my bookshelves...

In this case, it'd need to say "I will be a good listener"

The elf could totally hang out with our school supplies...

Or take a nap with a tissue blanket!

Perhaps the elf could use technology to leave us  messages...

Creepy...but in a fun way.

I can definitely see the elf blogging!

This would be easy to duplicate!

We already have jenga boards that have been upcycled to be character questions or multiplication problems...

He/she could be reading our grade level read aloud...

Or be mischievious!

I'm a fan of these simple (no mess ones) as opposed to these ideas:

My classroom is messy enough. I don't need to create additional messy areas.

I think I may need to pick up my own elf for next year!  Of course, I'll wait until after Christmas when it's on sale :)

I'm still debating between the "traditional" elf (which apparently can be dressed up!) and this version:

We'll see what's on sale!  Good thing I've got a year to think about it!

Tech Tip: Dafont

One of my favorite places to download fun fonts is dafont.

There are free fonts & commerical fonts, so make sure to read the fine print.

You can navigate easily with a search bar or use their categories:

At the time of this post, there were over 22,000 fonts there!  

You download the files, extract them and save the True Text files in your "fonts" folder on control panel. (I'm a PC person...so MAC, I'm sure it's a similar process).

Find your file (I usually save to the desktop or my downloads):

Extract it:

Open control panel, find fonts folder:

Select fonts from extracted files:

Drag your new font over!

You may have to restart word for the fonts to appear as an option.  

Some of my favorites:

If you create something and want to send it to someone who might not have the fonts, be sure to save as a pdf rather than a word document.

Dafont isn't blocked on my school computer, so I was able to use these fonts in my classroom.  If it is blocked, create documents at home and send them to yourself as PDFs.

Enjoy!