LIfe as I know it...

Friends,

It has been a while since my last post and I am so mad at myself. I have been swamped at work with using a new reading map plus a new social studies curriculum...and of course 36 new kids. Two Fridays ago, we recieved 5 new students in a day! That alone can set you back a week or two. Then it was progress report time! Yikes! Grades were low and it was a wake up call for most of our kiddos. My co-teacher and I reached an all time low these weeks. When in actuality I think reality just set in. Here is our reality:

1. We have the ESE kids which are wonderful and smart but learn differently than the majority of the kids. The have special needs that need to be considered.

2. We (my co-teacher and I) have slacked being on the same "wave" it showed in our kids. Thankfully we are back on the right track!

3. Our lesson plan expectations are going to kill us and we are not sure how to get ahead plus have all our admin is asking (individual teacher plans, but unity in what we are teaching and assessing, scales, essential questions, benchmarks, and evidence of small group remediation) Can I get a bigger piece of paper please?

4. We need to work and share and get along with 6 other people. Now don't get me wrong these people are wonderful! It is just hard when I feel like so much is being asked we don't have time for the creative brainstorming meetings that we all want. All I think about in the meetings is what I need to do before tomorrow. :( Not the best.

5. Our parent conferences are happening. Nuf said.

6. We have a student with behavior issues and need to do a lesson a week working on social skills. Um. Yeah. Haven't started.

7. The county has asked us to do Too Good For Drugs every Thursday for the first 10 weeks. I am on week 2. Sigh. So I think I will do 2-3 lessons each Thursday to catch up. Sigh. Sigh.

So here is the good news!

1. I am a great teacher...I am a great teacher...I am a great teacher.
2. I have the best co-teacher. I never do anything alone.
3. I have a great team. Who is always willing to listen or share.
4. I have kids I love. Even my new kiddos are amazing.
5. We have divided up some the team jobs and each person is responsible for something. Whew!
6. I think my parents like me! :)
7. We are almost done planning next week. That makes us one week ahead when we want to be 2. But I am happy. :)


Now here is the best part! I have been using my Kagan Strategies like crazy and even got some photos of my kids doing Quiz Quiz Trade. Some Whole Brain Teaching made it into my week by doing some gestures for our vocabulary words and we made some models out of clay while learning about the scientific method! 

Model of a Dolphin

Model of a snake

Freeze Dance - Brain Break

Brain Break

Lemonade Experiment 

So life isn't bad. We have a lot of fun. Just need to remember it is not what is important but WHO!

What are you struggling to get a handle on? 

Tiffany

Process vs. product...great reminder

Came acrossed this great article about process vs. product. So many times we forget which really helps our kids to think creatively and instead copy our model.

How can I let go of what I think their projects should look like and let them experience the process?  Really great read even if you just look at the pictures. Check it out.

Really


www.prekandksharing.blogspot.com

Delightful surprise!

I recieved a comment on my blog two days ago from a representative from EDC Education Services Home of Kane and Miller and Usborne Books and More. She was letting me know that if I wanted to use my grant money from the Youth Literacy Dollar General Grant, to buy books from her company then they would support us and give us 50% of credit to whatever we spend! So that means if I spend 1000 dollars on books from this company they will let me order 500 dollars more!

Teachers - if you have recieved a grant for books or to increase you literacy please check out this website!

http://www.edclibrarybooks.com/LFL.asp?H0240

I spoke with a wonderful rep from there and she has catalogs in the mail for me and my team. I hope to make the purchase order for our new books by next week. I am so excited to increase our school library and increase our students desires to read because we have books they are interested in.

Many of the books are not as well know and there is tons of non-fiction (Common Core Baby!) so we are going to stock up.

This was the highlight of my week. A real person read my blog. Crazy.

Now, who is ready to do some book shopping?

Tiffany

Dollar General Literacy Grant

Today's blog is short and sweet. I received an email at the end of the day letting me know that I will be awarded  $4000  for literature books to use at school this year! I am so excited and blessed because today was definitely a Monday - you teachers get my drift!

We will be able to get lots of books on lots of different interest levels on many different reading levels! This will really help us meet our students needs and differentiate our instruction by interest levels.

If you haven't ever wrote a grant and your a teacher - I highly recommend it. It takes a little work and even more time but it can be worth it. Practice takes perfect.

Some tips for those just starting:

1. Keep track of all your grants applications and make a folder for you submissions so you know what you are doing when you get the grant.

2. Copy all your recipts and all emails or letters stating your due dates and expectations.

3. Share you experience with your kids. It is a great example of how writing for a cause can make things happen.

4. Don't forget to keep track of progress and take pictures of your students using any materials you bought with the money.

5. Take a video showing how you are using the materials.

Here are some other grants to check out!

www.walmartfoundation.com

www.target.com  - field trip grants

Home Depot, Florida Department of Ag and Lowes have a garden grant 

I have a load of money to order books with! What are some of books you recommend for literature circles? 

Tiff

First week down...

I made it! The first week was a real success. I can honestly say 2 things.

1. I really like my kids. I think I will love them soon.

2. My kids are going to drain me for all I am worth.

I am really privileged to have our ESE kids this year (and I say I but I mean WE because my co-teacher is sharing in this responsibility) and I am glad for this push professionally. I have a couple of kids that are on the autism spectrum - who besides being great kids - are super entertaining. I really like their quirks and nuances though I am sure some days not so much.

I had the ESE kids a while back and the biggest thing they need is just love and encouragement. Something I think I am good at, only because I know God's love on a personal level. He comes to the rescue when I feel swallowed up. Plusvthey might never score the highest score on the FCAT but that's not the goal. Not anymore. I just want them to grow and have confidence. I want them to see that they can still learn and like it! There has been a few students in the past that I have had the pleasure of seeing this happen in them. I love knowing I may of had a small part in that change. That is what teachers live for. I am aiming for that this year. If I can turn any of my kids onto learning, I did my job.

So let's recap.
Monday was rough. But no tears so that was good! From me or the students. Ha.
Tuesday was awesome. I incorporated lots of Kagan structures like Mix Pair Share and did a fun brain break where we ended up dancing the Macarena.
Wednesday a student told me that he was a Warlock. Uhhhh....ok.
My two Autistic kids work together well,  minus some tears on Thursday because he was not the Zookeeper that day, and all he wanted was to hang out by my guinea pigs cage. One student must have the last word, and that will not work in the long run. I emailed parents faster than an eye could bat, and I fell really supported by my parents this year. Praise God.
Friday I managed to light a spark for reading with Voices in the Park, I highly recommend it for Character Point of View, and with my annual reading of The Tale of Despereaux. I even Differentiated my morning work with a tiered activity with our vocabulary words. Yep. I rock. 

Some things that are working great!

1. Poem of the day - we have a great poem that is really catchy that we say as we transition everywhere!

2. Implementing Kagan structures. Mix pair share is the one that I have done the most. I also have reverted back to my Teach Ok! from whole brain because it is comfortable for me. I want to use Rally Reader and Rally Coach but I didn't feel comfortable with starting too many structures. My goal for next week is Fan and Pick.

3. Brain Breaks - Mirror Mirror and Freeze tag made it into the plans. Next week I am going to do a Congo line with only the leader's eyes open. That should be fun.

4. Carpet time - I have really used my rug for meeting time. Though I need to work harder with sharing a current event. My co-teacher is doing great with this but I haven't found my niche yet. We want a student to share a newspaper article each morning to make our students more Globally Minded.

5. Band-aid lesson on fairness. I did the lesson on Pinterest, where you ask the students to pretend they have a cut, then you put a band-aid on the same spot on each child like the wrist. The kids were already wondering why, telling me that didn't make sense. I am being fair, I answered. Then we talked about why that wasn't the best way to treat a cut. I explained that everybody is going to get what they need to succeed, not the same thing all the time. Fair is not everybody getting the same thing but everybody getting what they need to succeed. Since it was my first time doing it, I thought it went ok. They got the point.

6. Judy Rex inspired us to have new jobs each day and allot a time for them. So before dismissal every student has a job. Here is the list: Desk Swabber, Sweeper, Rug Doctor, Board Cleaner, Zookeeper, Pencil Monitor, Filer, Morning Message, Cubby Cleaner, Messanger, Librarian and Gardener. My classroom is spotless. Lovely.

7. My twitter board! 

 8. My Welcome Note for the first day!

9. My portfolio wall - Something to Tweet About!

Some things I could do better:

1. Current events.

2. Reciting our motto.

3. Using Kagan strategies.

So not too bad.

What are you doing well? Need to do better? Drop a line!

Tiffany

My day in a nutshell...

The first day jitters. They happened and spread throughout me like a bad rash. I was not feeling so confident when my students rushed in yesterday morning. The first day is so unstructured I felt like I didn't have enough to do. I guess the day was ok until the end when dismissal started. I was responsible for about 30 kids from my pod to escort them to the car rider line. Well, let's just say I only got about 12 there. The big kids were swarming the hallways at the same time and my darling 3rd graders hadn't listen to a word I said about where to go. Wonderful. Luckily, they all managed to find my curly head and maneuver their way to the correct classroom. Then another teacher and I waited until 3:45 to get all the kids picked up. I guess there was a bad accident. Jeez, how inconvenient. Try keeping 50 3rd graders entertained at the end of the first day...no thanks. Overall, they were great and I knew that the second day of school would have to be better.

The second day rolled around and was absolutely perfect. Students came in, responded to my greeting, got straight to work and were complete gems. My afternoon group came over with smiles and no drama. We tweeted about our day, finished our math pre-test, started our interest inventory, and then danced to the Macarena! Definitely the most fun I had all day. It really helped to laugh with them and show them how we care and have fun together. Highly recommend it.

Then it was dismissal time again. My nerves suddenly on edge...I see the thunder clouds and know that here in Florida, those thunderclouds are coming to do a job and they will not disappoint. I lead my kids out and decide to wait in the open sidewalk so the 4th graders can pass. "I will not loose a child in this mass of bodies!" I said out loud. Then of course it started to rain. Pelt. Pelting us with penny size drops. "Okay guys, let's go! Stay together!" I had no choice. I joined the river of moving students that are all flowing downstream and pray that I can make it out alive. It was hard too, because the fourth graders all want to hug me and all I can think about is "What did my new kids look like? Was that one my kid who ran to the cafeteria?" Jeez. We finally made it to our drop off location and the lightening is really coming down. The stop calling names because of the lightening and thunder. Then I see some lightening, rain, hear people yelling then lights flicker and a overwhelming sound erupts in my ears. So I scream.

Yep. I scream. Shriek maybe. In front of all the 3rd grade car riders which leads to chaos, of course. I terrify a 3rd grade girl so much she starts to cry and shake like a leaf. She latches on to my co-teacher, who is bug-eying me.  She and my team lead are looking at me like I have lost my mind. They quickly try to calm everyone down."That thunder was loud!" I spit out to try to save face. My team leader looks at me and says, "That was the toilet flushing. Way to go under pressure teach."

Well, everyone (except the girl who is crying) start to laugh hysterically and we can't hear if any of our kids are even being called to the pick - up gate. So my apologies from the third grade dismissal room. We were a little off today.

Lesson learned: I am not so great, in severe weather...

My most embarrassing moment is done and out of the way. Whew.


Tiff

Break a Leg!

I always compared teaching to acting. For most of my life I wanted to be an actress and to this day I do believe my wish came true. I sing, dance, evoke emotion, motivate, inspire, and am a one person comedy act every day. Teachers everywhere should be nominated for Emmys and Tonys and Oscars. We should be flown out to LA and have the red carpet adorned by our comfy teacher shoes and stretchy waistbands....well okay maybe we will put on heels and a sparkly dress. And everyone would admire us and whisper "How do they do it so seamlessly?" Tom Cruise would high five us and invite us to be on the next Mission Impossible. We would interview with the reporters who would ask us our favorite class and we would say with completely surprise, "Teachers don't have favorites!" Such great acting, we would think in our heads.

So maybe it is not the same as acting but the show starts tomorrow and we all need to get psyched up. My wardrobe is laid out and my mind is buzzing with my lines. All of the stars are awaiting my support as I act in their show. Not my own. But that is okay because you have seen those movies where the supporting actor doesn't really support, isn't really funny and has no chemistry with the main actor, and the movie is a lemon. Well, not this movie! I plan on winning that Golden Globe this year for best supporting actress.

To my teachers everywhere - Break a Leg!

Tiffany

Meet the Teacher! Success!

Our school does Meet the Teacher the Friday before school starts from 9-11. Sometimes we get loads of parents coming to check you out and sometimes you don't.

This year a rumor must have gotten out about my classroom pet because I have 13 out of 16 parents show up! Woot! Woot! To be really honest, I haven't had much interactions with kids over the summer as most of our friends have babies or toddlers. So I felt rusty. Right before parents would come skipping (ha) into my room, I was NERVOUS. I was like, "How do I act, what should I say?" Blank. That is what I went. Scared. That is how I felt. And I was suppose to put these kids to ease? Not gonna happen!

Then that door opened and I saw that nervous, scared face and CLICK! It all came back. "I can totally do this!" I told myself. I smoothly walked over greeting my new student, shook hands, introduced my self to the family and said something witty (who knows what it was) everybody laughed, smiled and relaxed and I guided them to the sign in station, while asking my new student if they would like to meet my special class pet. This is how it went all morning. I also do this thing where I try to guess each students name as they come in....it is like my super power. I am not joking. I look at my roster and see who they look like. Totally fun way to start the day. It never fails to see the look of surprise on everyone's face when I guess right and compliment the parents on naming their kid correctly.

Here where some interesting things that were said to me at MtheT:

1. Hey Mrs. Forsyth, look at my muscles...(takes shirt off) now feel my back muscles!

2. Ummm. Rusty pooped. That is so gross. He is adorable.

3. I left you a pencil, sharpened under Rusty's cage for you Mrs. Forsyth

4. I like to pretend fight a lot. That is why my muscles are so big.

Some previous years quotes:

1. My name is Timothy and I like dirt bikes do you?

2. I am part wolf. I was raised by them when I was a baby and then my parents found me when I was two.

3. I don't like school but mom says that's ok because I am pretty.

4. My mom said my dad is Sting.

Seriously. I couldn't make these up.

Monday is the big day and I already feel good about the year!

So what about you? What was your favorite Meet the Teacher quote?

Tiffany

Finally Finished!

I have finally finished my room...just in time for Meet the Teacher Tomorrow! I am looking forward to seeing my new bunch of kiddos!

Here are some tips for Meet the Teacher:

1. The first 7 seconds are the most important! Smile, shake hands, give a positive greeting and say something unique to that student! Don't say the same thing to everyone...they will catch on that you are being lazy.

2. Next, greet the parents! It is important to see the child first then the parents! This shows where your interest lies. Shake hands and smile!

3. Encourage the students to look around the room and explore their new classroom! I like to have something that they have to look for - give them a purpose - for example: I will say, "We have a special classmate. See if you can find our squeaky friend!" they will search for my class pet Rusty the Guinea Pig.

4. Sit the parents down and get them to sign EVERYTHING you can. Our school district is doing things really easy now. If you do NOT want your student to get on the internet, video, picture ect...they have to sign. So if they don't sign it is an automatic YES! Love it. However, we do have some iPad forms, Pet Permissions, and info cards that need to be filled out. Another teacher of mine, gives our brownies for "brownie points" for filling our paperwork! Very creative!

5. If supplies are brought, I wait till the first day of school and have the kiddos sort, so for today I just have them set it on the table.

6. I like to fill out the student's name tags as they come in. Often time students go by a nickname or middle name and I like to write what they like to be called. I make it out and then show them where I would like them to sit on the first day. This helps with jitters!

7. I try not to talk to one parent too much but encourage them to sign up for a conference. This way you can mingle and chat with more people. Sometimes it is hard to pull away from a "talker" but I always just say "I think we need more time to talk, so when are you free next week for a conference?" This shows you were listening to their concerns and want to have a more proper time with them.

8. Remember this is the first impression families have of you - Look Nice! Smile! Eye Contact!


Now for the fun part! Here is my classroom - finished!

My co-teacher and I's doors! They turned out great!

Welcome Sign - Thanks Marie and Kim!

My connecting door to my favorite grade level boss! His baseball theme is a hit!

My door ;)

My desk - nothing special but CLEAN!

Left Side

Middle

Right Side

Twitter Board on the back of door...that birdy was the inspiration to our theme! It hold the markers for the twitter board and our job sticks.

My writing work station

My fabulous Common Board - duct tape from Kmart!

My motto and rules board

My library with anchor chart tree, plus my Tale of Despereaux Poster and book - can you find it?

Portfolio wall  - hooks with key rings. Anything that the students are proud of will go on their key ring to celebrate! It doesn't have to be a test but whatever they would like to keep to show their parents at the end of they year. The blue says "Something to Tweet About"

My Pinterest Filing Cabinet and some awesome Sorting Mats! Thanks Cathy! You rock!

 

 

 

 

 Leave me your best tip for meet the teacher! I will add it to mine :)

Tiffany

So 'tweet' of you to stop by!

There are so many different ways to do Meet the Teacher. I have compressed them down into 3 categories:

1. Choose a candy/cereal/food to go with your witty welcome note wrapping it up in some adorable baggie, buying an outfit to match your theme for the year, and having a plate of brownies or doughnuts to hype everyone up on sugar,  all to show them how glad that they came to meet you.

2. Do something half way cute but not too cute because your husband will kill you if you spend anymore money...this week.

3. Don't do much of anything besides writing Welcome to Third Grade on your really old easel that has stains on it because some kid couldn't tell the difference between a sharpie and an Expo marker.

So which one will I be....Teacher number.....2. Yep. I did do something absolutely adorable but it was quick and not too expensive. My co-teacher actually bought everything so I just need to pay her back! As you know we are doing bird theme this year and I am really excited about how my room is coming together. Meet the Teacher is Friday morning and I hope to finish everything tomorrow! My laminating came back today and I sat and cut with the Hubby for about 30 minutes while dinner was simmer away. Side note - Rachel Ray's magazine is so good. Look what I cooked tonight!

White Ragu Sauce with Pici

Back to Meet the Teacher. So you never know how many parents will actually show up and then you have all the kids from last year who want to stop by and hug you. It always does my heart good to see their familiar smiles and firm hugs as they go see their new teacher and I meet my new kiddos. I am hoping for a packed room and lots of hugs/handshakes/high fives. We made these ridiculously cute "nests" for our welcome note. I hope we have 100% turnout!

That is my coveted Kagan Timer in the background too! Love that thing. We put mints and rolos in the "nests". Thanks Noris!

I also key ringed my favorite Kagan strategies and have them loaded and ready on my white board. Whew. That's another thing to cross off the list. If you are wondering about my yellow and blue poster next to it - they are my 3 essentials for the first week of school from The Essential 55 by Ron Clark. He is the reason I went into teaching. If you haven't read his book and you are a teacher...seriously get on it!

Which teacher are you this year? I have been them all at one time or another!!! Leave me a comment and let me know!

Tiff

Kagan Cooperative Learning

This summer I went to a Kagan Workshop and loved it. I learned a lot that I can add to my Whole Brain Toolbox. I started Whole brain about 4 years ago and really haven't had any behavior problems since. I do a lot of praying though. :) I really do feel blessed because I have loved all my students and never have had a year I regret. So back to Kagan...my principal asked myself and another teacher to give a little PD on this during preplanning. YIKES! So we busted our butts to make sure we knew a lot about Dr. Kagan Spencer and his structures. We were given an hour to unpack the basics and show off the great structures he has created. We had 4 sessions and they all went great, I thought! I hope the teachers and staff saw the benefit of cooperative learning and the difference from just "group work". One student usually gets stuck with the work while with Kagan it is all about PIES!

P - Positive interdependence
I - Individual accountibility
E - Equal participation
S - Simultaneous interaction

I did those from memory! My partner was absolutely wonderful and she helped me so much as I did the structures with the teachers. She is a Kagan pro now! We even did some Brain Breaks during our session and I snapped a few pictures. Even some grumps were smiling as we did Mirror Mirror!

One person is "it" the other is the mirror

I think the Backstreet Boys were on as we danced!

What great sports!

So overall a great success for us presenting some very new material. I am super excited about doing Kagan with my class this year. I also am dipping into Differentiated Instruction and hopefully will be apart of a Professional Learning Community at my school to help me out.

Some housekeeping news: I found out that I will have the ESE kids this year and am really excited. I love this group because they are so diverse! Perfect for my professional goals this year. Besides that we have a great ESE team at our school. I know that I will have lots of support. :)

My classroom is just waiting on some lamination that Ms. Bunny is going to do hopefully tomorrow!

This lady does it all!

Some of you may be wondering about my die cutting adventure. I went back to that machine and made peace. I apologized for doing anything to hurt its feelings and asked it to please cut my stuff with a funky font. It accepted and now I am left with these lovely words:

Here is the machine that worked perfectly today!

For my twitter exit ticket door :)

So all worked out well! Now just to put it all together.

Another fun surprise was from my hubby for my bird themed classroom! He got these for me at Ikea!

I am not sure you can read it but it says, "Put a Bird On it!" Portlandia reference for all those people! Thanks to each one of my friends who came out and helped. You guys are awesome!

Tomorrow I am determined to do the rest of my pinterest ideas! :) So many....

Tiff

Thinking about Common Core, I am ready. I think.

This week has been hectic. I really wanted to get my classroom set up so that when Pre-Planning actually starts I can...well plan. Not decorate. I was asked to go to a Leadership Seminar with my administration and a couple of amazing teachers. I was looking forward to it and really enjoyed dialoging with them about Common Core and getting teachers to change their mindset from being extremely standard focused to teaching our students how to THINK and solve problems. So the excuse that we don't have time for Oral Language or real world math and science would not be acceptable anymore. Our speaker Keven Baird was exceptional. He said in a nutshell - "Don't worry so much about the standards but the critical thinking skills needed to figure it out! Failure is OK."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_E._Baird

This really blew my mind because I know my standards front and back and I am one of those teachers who is determined to teach everything they need to know before FCAT. Now, I don't think this is bad, but I do think I need to spend more time letting my students explore, discover, fail, and talk through their learning instead of always giving them the answer when I see them about to make a mistakes. Most of us would refer to this as teacher prompting or guiding but I think we are afraid to let them fail because WE don't want to look bad. At least that is how I feel. Plus my students do great on the FCAT. But I am missing the point. It isn't all about the FCAT.

He also said that out of 30% of our high school students who do really well in Math and Science only half of them even want those kinds of jobs! Like doctors, scientist, inventors and goverment jobs. Um. Who is going to even do those things if our high schoolers would rather work in retail or construction? Now we need people for all those jobs too and it's important. But the students who do well in those areas, aren't interested in them as a career. Why? Because they are bored. They aren't engaged. Because their teachers are too focus on a test.

Some really great ideas and links to getting our students ready for Common Core were:

1. Read more informational text. Example - pair up a literary selection with a informational text. We always read The Tale of Despereaux at the beginning of the year so a pair up could be with castles, monarchy, mice, rats, dungeons and even an author study! Yes. Mind blown! Why didn't I think of that?

2. Talk a grade level up from what your teaching. So I should be using 4th grade key words and vocabulary as I talk. This was a Aha! for me!

3. Talk about being College and Career Ready even in Kindergarten. Engaged them in math and science through reading.

4. Fourth and Fifth Lexile (lexile.com is a great resource to find out levels)  ranges have the biggest change. And our textbooks have gotten easier. You have to supplement with other texts.

5. Use current events in your classroom with magazines such as National Geo for Kids, Time for Kids, Ranger Rick, Weekly Reader and even USA today. These are informational text on a higher Lexile level.

6. When you are teaching math and science there is no 1 right answer without proof. We need to teach students how to find the truth through backing up what they think is right.

7. Have guest speakers from the fields of math and science come and share with the class.

8. Be a student led classroom. I am going to let my students have input on what they learn while still teaching the thinking skills they need to solve the problems they will face.

Now just some other great ideas as we were talking...

1. I am thinking of doing Shark Week but with books and videos. Having the kids choose a topic and really diving into that as we teach LA. I would love this to be a school wide thing too!

2. Starting up lots of Professional Learning Communities based on different things like Differentiated Instruction, Kagan Strategies, Whole Brain, and others.

3. More real world and problem based learning activities that stem from Higher Order Thinking.

4.Do more Writing in the Content Areas

5. Having the students plan out a virtual field trip. For example having them figure out how much it would cost to fly the class to Italy. They would plan the trip! What a way to cover a myriad of skills.

6. Ever heard of Lego Intentional Play? Each child has a set of Legos where they then creatively construct a picture summary of what they have learned. Example: After learning about the civil war create something with your Legos that gives a snapshot of the civil war that also shows me compassion. Or create something that shows animal life cycles and interdependence. Yes. I want some Legos!

http://www.tammyredmon.com/why-your-5yearold-more-of-team-player-than\

7. Use more pictures in assessing.

I know that was a lot but I need to assimilate. If you managed to get through all the list...leave me your thoughts about the Common Core Shift...how are you gonna get ready?

Tiffany

Half Way There!

So I am in the midst of decorating my classroom and I am pleased so far. My co-teacher and I are doing a fatty bird theme- kinda like that fat twitter bird? Yeah, we are having a twitter exit ticket wall. Thank you Pinterest! So after cleaning my room from all the cockroaches and cockroach poo. Yea, nasty but just a part of life. Our main bulletin boards have a huge tree with branches reaching out over the edge of the board. And that looked cool. But then we decided to make it 3-D by scrunching our butcher paper up and gluing it on top of the tree! This was a great idea! Noris (my amazing co-teacher) scrunched two humongous trees and made our bulletin boards absolutely "Twitterific!" The birds that Ashely helped me make at the Pinterest Party are up and looking adorable. Check out our board so far!

Slight change - the apples got thrown out for bark border! Yay!

Now for the bad news. Like many schools we have lots and lots of die cuts and it takes FOREVER to cut out a simple phrase. So last year our principal order a laser cutter that will cut out letters, numbers, and symbols. I used it all last year and had great success. Big time saver. So this year I padded in my fuzzy slippers (shhhhh don't tell!) to the media center with my paper in tow. Started that baby up and put the paper in flat and smooth. I type in my words and press GO. I hear it cutting and humming and happily turn around to tear some butcher paper for my boards. Then I hear it. Crunching and ripping. The tiny little laser knife thingy is ripping and tearing my paper up! I run over and frantically press stop twice. I remove the paper and think "it must not have been smooth enough and the laser thingy snagged it. So I reset and try it again. And again. And again and yes 5 more times. Failure. I was so aggravated. I did not want to die cut all those letters! I do not have time. I do not want to do it! So what is a girl to do? I want the cool fonts and not old nasty block letters!

Ok. My tantrum is over. So the question is should I use the block letters from the die cuts, hand write out my phrase and then cut, or print out the phrase and then cut?

Lemme know your thoughts on my problem!

The best invention ever! Ok. Well. The best invention I found today!

I am freaking out. So I saw all these apps and programs for scanning in my library books and then checking them out through my phone. Let me just tell you. Classroom Organizer online is rocking my world right now and they have an app! It lets you set up a class and scan all of your books plus it gives you the AR level, AR points, Lexile, Author, Illustrator, blah blah and many more!

This means that when a student needs to know the AR level or if you wanna check out literature circle book to keep track of them or if a student wants to know other books by the same author. YOU JUST SCAN THE ISBN. Done. 2 seconds.

Oh, how I love techonology, technology, techonology.
Oh, how I love technology, it's you so easy you see!

This is my phone...her name is Snowflake.

Ok. Done singing. But please, if you are a teacher you MUST check this out.

classroom.booksource.com

Tomorrow I hope to finish setting my classroom up. It has a long way to go. But I did kill several humongous cockroaches today. Oh the joys. Pictures of the finished classroom will be up soon!

Tiffany

Pinteriffic Pinterest Party

So the Pinterest Party happened and I was pleased! We nibbled for a bit and then we got straight to work! It was really fun meshing my two friend groups home and school. We had projects ranging from classroom decorations to knitted hair bands and hair and make up to homemade heating pads! Lots of good food was brought including my yummy Hocus Pocus Buns. They taste like cinnamon bus and monkey bread all mixed up. So good. So easy! Here is the recipe -

Success!

1. Get crescent rolls, marshmallows, melted salted butter and mix up some cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.
2. Unroll the crescents and dip the marshmallow into the melted butter, then roll generously around in the sugar mix.
3. Pop that mello into the crescent roll and tightly roll up and pinch any edges. You will have your own personal way to do this.
4. Spray a muffin tin and put your little buns in the oven at 350 for about 12 minutes. I did brush the buns with butter and more sugar just before baking and I think that made them even sweeter. But it isn't necessary.


I also made a huge book wreath - a friend of mine made one a while back and I love it. It was super easy and only took me about 2 hours. I think my door is too wimpy for it so I am not sure where to put it and all its majesty. I also want to put a bird in it. I think the hole is a bit big.

Giving a shout out to Ashley Poling because she cut about 30 birds for my Bird Themed Classroom this year! You were my favorite surprise guest tonight!

If you every want to do a pinterest party. I think it is a great idea. But even better if you have great friends like I do! Here are some more photos...

 

The beautiful Bagwells! Hair and Make-up extraordinaire

Homemade hot pads! Go Fefe!

Braids are in ladies! Look how fancy!

Gorgeous do! I see you photo bombers. 

So my question for you is, "What project should you be working on?"

Tiffany