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

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!

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

Here we go!

Here is why I am NOT doing a blog:


1. Because everyone else does it.
2. Because I want to be famous.
3. Because I want to make money by...however people make money on these things.


Here is why I AM doing a blog:


1. I want to live a life worth writing about.
2. We don't keep journals anymore so I need to document my life for my children.
3. In order to be the teacher, I want to be. I need to write.
4. I love sharing ideas in the world of like-minded teachers, it only makes us better!


5. And maybe being famous would be ok.

So now that we are all on the same page, I am embarking on many new things this year as a professional. I have taught third grade my whole life (as a teacher of course!) and I love it. Here in Florida we have the big scary FCAT (standardized test, pass or fail) but to me she is like an old friend, ready to test my teaching skills. We have a love hate relationship but she helps me stay focused and gives me purpose. Though it may sound like I teach to the test, I feel that I do exactly the oppostite. Hopefully that will come out as I blog and share the life of an ordinary girl doing extrodinary things. Let the adventure begin - 2 weeks down and counting.

Birds of a feather learn together! 

http://kindergartenkhronicles.blogspot.com/2011/07/kindergarten-preparations.html

So my creative juices have been flowing and I have been thinking about my beginning of the year theme. I have a great friend who is doing pirates and polkadots - so darn cute. She just realized that there is a "Talk like a Pirate Day" in September and she is on cloud nine. I can't just copy her idea so I am forced to browse the gazillion pins on pinterest for ideas. I see loads of ideas but nothing is resonating with me until I see this adorable bird theme! I had already decided to do a Twitter Exit Ticket for the back of my door so I am excited to see my birdies come together! 

So cute!