A Little Music for Your Monday

I have had my Pandora account for a few years now, but I've recently gotten hooked on Spotify.  (Personally, I find it's even better than Pandora because you can actually make your own custom playlists and look for specific songs, etc.)  ANYWAY...while jamming to one of the generic playlists this morning, I heard this song and instantly got hooked.  After playing it again and doing the "teacher scan" (foul language, innuendos, etc), I thought, "Bazinga!  What a great brain break song!"

Have a listen and let me know what you think!  I can see some controlled movements, as well as some stationary marching/jumping/hopping/air boxing.  I can't wait to have a movement break with my new 'thirdies.'

"Back to school...back to school...gonna show dad that I'm no fool..."

That has to be one of my favorite parts of "Billy Madison" by the way...


But {big sigh}, yes, it is time to start thinking about what all has to be done before officially starting back to school.  I heard the collective groan of teachers all across the nation when the first back to school commercial came on TV, and if you're like me, your list of what needs to be done has already grown three-fold.

I'm currently trying to relax and enjoy one last vacation with my in-laws (you see how well that is going since I'm on here posting...), but I wouldn't be able to relax at all if my awesome husband hadn't been awesome this past Monday.  Sunday, after receiving some very exciting news at my family's weekly post-church lunch, we met up with some friends on the lake.  When we were pulling into the community dock to load the boat at the end of the day, I leaned over to help keep the boat from hitting the dock and PLOP go my Costa's into the water.  Yes, I was devastated.  Yes, I was highly peeved with myself.  But alas, I have Superman as my husband {no, unfortunately he is not Henry Cavill, but I'll take him all the same}.

The next morning {Monday}, Chandler got up and said that we were going to go back to the dock and see if he couldn't dive down to get them.  I thought, "Riiiiight...like that's going to really happen."  But holy cow, he did!  He dove down 14 FEET and HE GOT THEM!  Like I said, Superman.  And on top of that, my sweet husband then proceeded to take me to Lowe's to get wood to build a shelf for me AND a shelf for my sweet friend who will be teaching first grade this year.  I tell you ladies, my man is a keeper.

 

After all of that excitement on Monday, I thought there was no way the week could get better {aside from going to the beach of course...}.  My principal asked me and three other teachers to attend a district professional development on Tuesday that focused on the iSchool Initiative.  It was a great opportunity to see some new and innovative ways to incorporate technology in the classroom.  We got to go aboard and explore the bus, and we also got Chic-fi-la for lunch {that made us SUPER happy}.  My administration is the best, and we all had a blast.

My coworker {who I work on the yearbook with} and I also won Otter Box covers for our iPads by winning the technology scavenger hunt we had at  the end of the day.  It was the icing on the cake to say the least!  After that, Chandler and I were beach bound!

Advice For First Year Teachers

So I am by no means a veteran teacher at this point in my profession (only going on year three), but I feel like in the past two years I have learned a great deal of lessons.  And now I want to share some of that knowledge with those who may just be starting out on their teaching journey.  So I have compiled a list of things to think about as a teacher starting his/her first year in the classroom.

 

How to Do That:

• I highly recommend starting out on a positive note with all the parents with some kind of treat and special note to them on Meet the Teacher or Back to School Night.  Providing them a business card magnet that has your contact information is a great way to show the parents that you want them to be able to reach you whenever they need to.

• I also encourage you to take time to make a positive call home within the first few weeks of school starting.  I know it is a hectic time of year, but it really pays off in the long run to let parents know that you won't always be calling with bad news.  They like to hear how wonderful their children are as often as possible.  ;)

• Lastly, don't take yourself too seriously.  Gage the type of parents you have at the first school events where parents attend, and make yourself as open and personable as possible.  I failed at this my first year, because (a) I was nervous as all get out and (b) I thought I had to establish that I was a "professional" (because of me being a 21 year old teacher).  And while it did help me with one parent that thought she could take over my classroom, I feel like I missed out on creating some wonderful relationships with some really great people.

How to Do That:

• With it being your first year or so, you have PLENTY of reasons not to get caught up in the "hallway talk."  You know what I'm talking about...teachers gathering together to complain or gossip about something or another.  Everyone does it at some point, but don't let it become the norm.  You can easily avoid it by saying you have some copies to make; you've got to get something done before you have to leave; you have an appointment, etc.

• The halls have eyes and ears...whether in the form of cameras or other teachers/administrators.  Just remember that, and while it is nice to feel accepted and your opinion valued...do it behind closed doors or just don't do it!  It's not worth it for someone to take your words and then misrepresent you to another faculty member or heaven forbid your principal.  If you don't associate yourself with that then no one can ever accuse you of doing such.  So keep your opinions to yourself and stay out of the gossip.

 

How to Do That:

• Make your plans [at least] two weeks in advance and have everything copied and filed ahead of time.

• Use what little planning time you have during school hours to do just that -- PLAN and GRADE.  Not socialize and procrastinate.

• Don't let Pinterest get the best of you...yes, there are lots of great ideas...no, you will not get to them all in your first year.

• If you are blessed to have volunteers...USE THEM!  Based on what they'd like to do to help, give them a pile of stuff and let them have at within their own time frame.

• Save your weekends for you.  Seriously.  Don't burn yourself out by thinking you have to be super teacher your first year.  Have a life.  Your kids will thank you on Monday morning when you're in a far better mood for it.  ;)

How to Do That:

• Eat breakfast.  Even if that means freezing breakfast burritos on the weekend and heating one up to eat on the way to school.  EAT BREAKFAST.  You'll stay full until lunch and won't be as tempted to snack throughout the morning.

• Drink water.  I have a huge water bottle that I fill up at least two times throughout the day as I chug, chug, chug.  Yes, that means I have to take quick restroom breaks throughout the day.  But most of the time my children are so engaged in what they are doing they don't even notice my absence.  It also helps I have an awesome teammate who is my "neighbor" and doesn't mind leaving her door open to listen out for my kids or popping in if need be (and it's an equal partnership).

• Pack healthy and light lunches packed with tons of protein and fiber.  Again, fills you up and will keep you full until dinner.  Those prepackaged "diet dinners" do not cut it.  Don't waste your money.  Invest some time each Sunday to pack all of your lunches for the week and then you won't be tempted to grab something quick and easy...or worse...cafeteria food...for lunch haha.

• Store healthy snacks in your classroom.  Cereal, trail mix, granola bars, fruit, veggies, string cheese, yogurt, etc.  There are tons of great ideas on Pinterest that will help for those days you either don't eat breakfast or don't have a great lunch...or have an after school meeting or conference.\

• Leave time to exercise!  That's why it's important to leave school work at school.  It becomes all too easy to make excuses for why you don't have time to exercise.  I'm blessed to have a great group of ladies that like to work out at school and a wonderful woman who leads the group through various cross fit exercise stations.  My husband and I have been doing p90x with our friends and I'm hoping that I'll be able to keep up with hour-long exercises once school starts.  But you will definitely feel better for doing it and find that you have more energy in the long run.

How to Do That:

• Don't stress.  Easier said than done, right?  But if you follow my previous four suggestions you are less likely to have a lot stress in your life.  Yes, there will be times you will question if this is really the job for you.  Yes, there will be hidden responsibilities that come out of the wood work and take you by surprise.  Yes, you will be upset on more than one occasion for one reason or another, but say it with me..."IT WILL BE OKAY."  

• The Lord will provide you with many opportunities for growth and not all of them are pleasant.  But just remember to put your faith in Him and ask for His guidance and then...here's the important thing...TRUST HIM.  He will lead you through.  I would not have survived my first year of teaching if it had not been for my faith and steadfast prayer.

Where Did My Summer Go?!

We just got "the" email the other day.  You know the one I'm talking about.  The one where your principal says the floors are all done and then proceeds to outline the back-to-school week agenda.  As much as I'm not ready for my summer to end, I am glad to (a) attend a really cool professional development with some of my coworkers and my administrators (b) go to the beach one last time and (c) get back into my classroom so I can finally finish organizing my files and a mountain of papers.

I went back into my classroom and got the basics out of the way (desk arrangement, uncovering bookshelves, starting to clean off the counters, etc).  But my to-do list and to-buy list are already starting to grow...

 

At the top of my list is a long bookshelf to go under the white boards and Smart Board at the front of the room.  I have amassed so many books over the past three years that my bookshelves are overflowing and I still have two Scholastic boxes filled with books to be sorted.  My two little bookshelves at the end of my carpet are going back to  my house...I just put them there temporarily to make my carpet go flat after being rolled up all summer.

I changed the location of my small group table.  I usually meet with my reading groups on the front carpet, and I use the table more for testing accommodations.  But this year, because I'm planning on implementing a new approach to guided reading, my children will need to sit and write while they are meeting with me.  I wanted to leave the carpet area for students to spread out and read, and I also like that I can now see the door to see who is coming and going out of our room.  More pictures to come soon!

My To-Do List:

• Make personalized postcards for my new kiddos
• Name plates for desks
• Name labels for notebooks and textbooks
• Procedures and expectations PPT
• Put caulk on the underside of my mini rugs to keep from sliding
• Make my birthday balloons with crazy straws
• Plan stations for Back to School Night
• Double-check materials for Back to School Night

My To-Buy List {Once I Get State & PTO Money}:

• Febreeze Wall Plug-Ins
• Cookies and popcorn for B2S Night
• Avery Labels
• Crazy Straws
• EOY Gift {so I'm sure to use school money and not personal money}
• Playdough and auction prizes

MM + TT = Secret Ninja Math

Yesterday and today = grad school work (blah...but only two more weekends this semester!).

As usual, however, my procrastination of grad school work has led to me working on something for my classroom.  I introduce to you...SECRET NINJA MATH!

This idea came to me during the last few weeks of school while I was trying to motivate my kids to continue to practice their multiplication facts.  It was one of those ideas that pop into your head and make you drop everything.  We stopped working on our math boxes and I had the kids write down a fact or a composite number on a sticky note.  I turned off the lights and played "Inner Ninja" by Classified (you have to play it past the 1 minute mark to avoid the one profanity in the song...still waiting on a clean version to come out).  The kids moved around the room and tried to covertly leave their sticky note on another student's desk without being seen.  Well, they LOVED it!  I had them answer the problem or write out the factors for the number on a piece of notebook paper.  After we did a few rounds, I had them buddy up to check their work.

This is a great way to get students up and moving while practicing basic boring facts, OR you can create your own "ninja stars" or cards with long division problems or word problems.  Another idea is to have a "ninja star" with a problem on it, and place it on a student's desk first thing in the morning.  It becomes their mission to solve it and then covertly pass it on to another student (and so on).  At the end of the day, I would ask for all of my secret ninjas to meet me with their answers and give them a reward for their hard work.

A few things to consider with this activity:

- Students may get the same problem/number more than once if you have the kids create them.  I tried to eliminate this problem by assigning each table a fact family.  I also gave them the rule that they had to put their problem at a different table when we went into "ninja mode."

- If you create a set of cards (or use my set off of TPT), you don't have to worry about more than one student having the same problem, but they still could get the same card again.  If that happens, I usually had them trade with someone at their table.  *I told them real ninjas could secretly switch without bringing it to anyone's attention.

- I'm thinking about using this to replace my timed multiplication quizzes.  If I use the "Scoot" idea and have students leave a card on their desk and then just have the students move around the room quickly and quietly to write down the problem and the answer then I don't have to worry about them repeating a problem.

You can grab a free copy of my Secret Ninja answer sheets I made at my TPT Store.

Please feel free to share your questions/suggestions/comments!

Classroom Organization

I'm using the mantra, "Wait one more week.  It can wait one more week," to keep myself from driving up to my school and messing in my classroom.  I know that once I start messing, there will be no stopping me and my summer vacation will be over [sigh].  So instead, I'm focusing my OCD tendencies on this blog post to share how to organize your classroom and STAY organized, because isn't that the hardest part during the year?

1.  The Endless Piles of Papers

You need...

• A place where students turn-in their papers when they finish an assignment
• A way to transport papers to grade
• A way for papers to get home to parents

A.  Place for Students to Turn-In Papers

  VS.  

I love both of the ideas that are pictured above.

With the crate, you can easily have students flip to their file and put their paper in, and then all you have to do is take a folder and grade their papers and put them in their Take-Home Folder.  With the tray-method, you can have students turn in papers for a particular subject, and then I have a student alphabetize them (we have students put their "number" in the top right corner of their paper to make this easier) before I put them in my accordion file grader.

If you have room in your classroom, you can also have students put their papers in a mailbox system.  I love my mailboxes and use them for students to store their writing materials, and they can also write friendly letters to one another and place them in there.

 

B.  Way to Transport and Grade Papers

    and     and  

If you have not discovered ThirtyOne yet, oh my my my, you are missing out.  I love my ThirtyOne tote, and it is the perfect size for carrying papers, teacher editions, etc to and from school.  If you decide to use the crate approach, you can take home a handful of files a night.  If you like the tray approach, you can paper clip your papers and sort them by subject in an accordion file (middle image).

No matter how you decide to transport your papers, there is one tool that will make it easier and faster for you - an EZ Grader!  I absolutely love mine and it makes it simple to grade something based on the number of items on your assessment.

C.  Way for Papers to Make it Home to Parents

 My school provides the students with a vinyl folder that has our school logo printed on the front.  Inside, the pockets read "Keep at Home" and "Return to School."  The fourth grade sends folders home on Tuesdays and the parents can expect to find graded papers, important news from the school and PTO, and a newsletter from the teacher.  The folder is due back on Fridays, and parents sign a paper that is found in the back pocket of the folder to indicate that they saw the papers and leave any comments they may have.

Dollar Store Deals

I don't know about you, but I always sometimes get into trouble when I go to the Dollar Tree or stop at the Dollar Spot in Target.  I think the difficulty of leaving the store without at least $20 worth of "stuff" comes from my teacher mind going into overdrive...not to mention the always fully stocked teacher aisle.  Here are just a few of the wonderful things you can find there and some ideas of how you can utilize them in your classroom!

First Thing's First:

• Stock up on classroom rewards and small gifts.  My students love decorative pencils.  Every holiday that comes around, they get a new pencil.  I can always count on the Dollar Spot to have seasonal pencils (packs of 12), and the Dollar Tree will too, but usually only a 10-count in a bag.

• DIG for the good stuff.  The party favor section in the Dollar Tree is a great place to find some pretty good little prizes...usually at the bottom of the bin.  I hit the scenty-eraser jackpot in the Dollar Spot at Target back in the spring, but that also meant I had to stand on my head for about 5 minutes to dig through the other junk to find them.  DIG - it's worth it in the end. 

• Have a purpose.  Don't break the #1 rule in dollar shopping -- HAVE A PURPOSE FOR AN ITEM BEFORE YOU BUY IT.  Otherwise you are going to end up with a ton of stuff you thought you could use, and people are going to start whispering the word "hoarder" behind your back.  Space is something we as teachers lack, so don't fill up what little space you have with things that were half a thought.  Make sure the items you DO have a plan for have a clear and fitting space in your classroom before you buy as well.  Trust me on this #speaking-from-experience.

** I'm more for the free-prizes (wear your slippers in class, bring a small stuffed animal, computer time -- a post on that to come soon), but sometimes little incentives and prizes are necessary for other times in my classroom (like when the Organized Owl checks out cubbies or desks).

Mini Pocket Charts

• Lunch Count / Status of the Class - Put their lunch cards (or name strips) in the chart and have students move their name under their choice for the day.  Quick and easy way to take attendance.  Also, have students' names in a chart and have them move their name to one side when they finish an assignment to get a quick visual for the status of the class.

• Objectives / Schedule - Cut sentence strips in half and put your objectives, "I Can" statements, or schedule in the chart.

• Vocabulary - Display spelling or vocabulary words in the chart for students to refer to.

• Poem of the Week/Day - Print your poem out and put the verses in the chart.

• Use as a Center - (See Image Below)  Construct a simple and inexpensive pocket chart stand for students to use during centers to sort things or play different games.  [I could totally see my kids using this during a math center to sort angles or match equivalent fractions! #4th-grade-moment]

Here's a tutorial on how to make the PVC pocket-chart-stand.

 

 

Mini Accordion Files

 

Check out "Tattling to the Teacher" (Laura's blog)

 

• Storage for Flash Cards and Other Center Materials

• Classroom / School Economy - My school uses "Blaze Bucks" as positive behavior slips.  Students write their name on the back and then turn them in with their "passports".  The student in the class with the most Blaze Bucks at the time passports are collected gets to choose a prize from the administrative team.  [I love Beth Newingham's classroom economy!]

• Reader's Toolkit - Store index cards with different strategies, post-it notes, pencil, sticky tabs, etc. Store in students' reading bins so they can have access to them during independent or guided reading.

• Combination - Using Laura's idea, the students use them as personal containers for flash cards and their classroom economy.

Small Tupperware Containers

• Dice - Put a die or dice in the container for students to use during centers.  Dice won't clank and roll all around the classroom, and you won't have to replenish them!

• Counters - Store counters or Bingo markers for each table in your classroom.

• Money - Store coins for students to use at their desk or at a center.

• Craft Storage - Glitter, sequins, and googly eyes are all small things that can become quite annoying to sort out when trying to do a craft of some sort.  Have them already sorted and make crafting that much easier in the classroom.

 

More to Come Later!