Give them digital or give them death!

I know, I know... I'm bad at keeping up. It is still my goal to get better! This is my first blog and it takes some getting used to, that is to say, I have to get used to kicking my butt on here to blog!

     So here it is. I had a recent experience with my kids that just threw me completely off my mark. Mind you, this isn't the first time this had happened, but the first time, I thought it was a fluke. :) What happened, you ask? Well let me tell you. I told my kids I was going to read them a story. *Dramatic pause* Big news right? Their reaction was... they groaned!!! Tell me now, when you were in the first grade, didn't you LOVE it when your teacher said, "Class, put your pencils away and come to the rug, I'm going to read a story." We jumped for joy! (I know, all of you just had flashbacks *wink*) So anyway, it soon dawned on me that it wasn't the actual story that threatened to bore them to tears, but rather, the presentation they thought it would take. My kids love reading; they can't wait to go to the library most days, but I guess they just thought I was going to read, well, in a boring way. These kids are surrounded by digital media, computers, television, Iphones, and Ipads. The stories they get "read" come in the form of flashy pictures, music and on-screen narration. Heaven forbid someone actually sit with them and read a book! Or at least, this is the way I took it. While I was thoroughly disheartened by their reaction to my simple statement, "I'm going to read a story," it did remind me of the dramatic way the world has changed in such a relatively short period of time. When my mother was a child, she had 3 television channels and a computer was unheard of. When I was a child, we had 60-100 TV channels, and I didn't get a "home computer" until age 12. My own son, age 9, has 200 channels of TV delight, and got his first laptop at age 6. Then, I watch a friend of mine's son, age 2, swipe his finger on an IPad like he knows exactly what he's doing, and he does!! He reaches out for mom's Ipad and says "Netflix!"
We are in a day and age where children shout "if it isn't digital, it isn't fun, or right, or good..." insert adjective of your choice. I'm not dissing or dismissing technology,  (I LOVE my promethean board!) but what I am saying is that maybe we over-utilize it. It is a GREAT thing, but it's not the ONLY thing. I, for example, still get out a book, an actual book, and read to my son every night before he goes to bed, and I have since he was 3. Result? He always has at least 3 books in his book bag at all times. No lie! And he actually reads them! On his own! I actually have to make him take some out, lest he look like the hunchback of Notre Dame before age 12.
I did find myself stuck in this rut last year, partly, I'm sure, due to the fact that I was SOO excited to get my promethean board. I did EVERYTHING on it. I learned all the ins and outs, the tricks of the trade, scanned book pages, took pictures, and put it all on the promethean. I have a flipchart (many unfinished) for just about every topic I covered last year in class. This year, however, I've come to a poetic balance. I took a professional learning on foldables, did some "pinteresting" research, and have been pushed into the CCGPS, so that the results are LOTS of hands on stuff with my kids this year, and I've go to tell you, so far we've had a blast! Many of the things I was scared to try, worried it would be too much work or too difficult, wasn't actually that bad, and the kids really benefit. As I continue to kick myself into continuing this blog more diligently, I will share many of the things I have done with my kids that create amazing fun and serious learning.
What's the moral of this story? I did read my kids that story. And they loved it. ( I am... by the way, an awesome story teller *grin*)  I'm still reading them stories, and I won't stop.

The Power of Art

I am so sorry I have kept you, my limited public :), waiting! I have been so busy with our new school year and I've been having a blast! I love my babies! Have I told you that yet? :) Ok, so let me tell you about something great I do with my kids that they love and I love. Some teachers in the younger grades have "Fun Fridays," where they spend the last 30-45 minutes of the day doing something fun to break up the monotony and hard work of the week. Well, I do it too, but our "fun" is art! We are not lucky enough to have an art teacher or an arts program at our school. We do have Music, thankfully, but no art. So, I do the art teaching. Art is so important to a child's education because it teaches that creativity does not always come in the same package. It allows students to develop of love for art and learn about the many different ways to express themselves.

Ok, so there is my short version speech about why I think art is so important in school. Here's what I do. When Fun Friday rolls around, I have picked out an artist for us to study. I introduce the students to the artist, tell them who it is, where he/she is from, about when he/she lived, and talk about the artist's style. I will then show them samples of work created by the artist. Usually I limit the art samples to the style I want to focus on that day. For out very first artist study, we looked at Piet Mondrian. We talked about his style, the word "abstract," and how he used thick and thin lines to create boxes of different sizes, and only a few colors. I showed them several samples of his paintings, the ones that included only primary colors as well as some others which used a sampling of other colors as well. After the study, we created our own art in Mondrian's style. I gave each child a ruler and markers. ( I was not ready to dive into paint yet :) ) I let the students draw lines on their paper, as many or as few as they wanted, both vertically and horizontally to make boxes like Mondrian did.  Then they traced the lines with black markers, making some of them thick if they wanted to. Then I told them they could only pick out 3 colors or less, and then choose which boxes to color. The kids had a blast! They loved every minute of it. I will say again what I said last school year when I started doing artist studies on Fridays; It doesn't matter who is your class, one who is super well behaved or one is off the wall, regular ed or special ed, when we do art, everyone is there. All the students are into it, all the students are performing, all students are learning, all students are having fun, and you have the most well behaved class in the world. That, friends, is the power of art. It makes every kid proud and engaged.

Ok, next week comes around and another Fun Friday comes. Who did we study? Henri Matisse! But wait? didn't he do some not so child friendly art? Some, yes, but he also did some spectacularly child friendly art, particularly in his later years. I taught my darlings about Matisse, told them about his life, showed them some of his early works and talked about that style, the focused my attention on the meat of my lesson, his cutouts. We looked at a bunch of his cutout artworks, which were as diverse in pattern and style as my kids are. The kids really liked looking at them and talking about what they thought his pictures looked like. Then it was time for them to get to work. I had all this scrap construction paper that I was "saving" but never used. (C'mon, you know what I'm talking about, you've got a box too!) Well, I don't anymore. I placed a bucket of scrap construction paper at each group and let them go to town. The kids love that I tell them art has no rules when it comes to creativity, they can make whatever their hearts' desire! You would not believe the different pieces of art that came out of this activity. I am going to get the picture of the finished products and post them. They are so diverse, not a one is alike. I was so proud of my babies!

Aren't they having a ball!! They loved it!

This last Friday we studied Andy Warhol. The kids loved seeing Marilyn Monroe in different colors. (even if they have no clue who she is) We talked about pop art, what it was, and saw several examples of it. Then I gave students a blank piece of paper and had them divide it into 6 sections. In each section, they drew the same basic image, then colored each one with different, bright colors, just like Andy. Of course, they loved this activity too. I just love art! And so do they! This is the power of art my friends, and I encourage you to find its power as well! It is not nearly as hard as you might think to start teaching art in your class. Don't let it scare you. In the words of Ms. Frizzle, "get messy and have fun!"

Teaching my kids about "Fairness"

OK, I know it's been a minute... or two, since my last post. I have been working hard on getting the school year together. And just when I did, and was ready to post, my internet failed me for several days. But I'm back and hopefully to stay!

    So, we are in the fourth week of school now... yeah, that's right. Gotta double check myself! ;) I went from a class full of sardines, at 26 darlings, to 24, to 23, as I just had my first withdrawal today already! Just from these first few weeks, I can tell you what, even 24 is a challenge. It is so hard to keep that many 6 year olds all on task at the same time. No wait, it's dang near impossible! But I'm working it and we are going to make it. Definitely supports small groups instruction, I tell ya what. I have been trying to teach centers since the first week of school so they get it down pat, then when I do get my small groups going better I will not have any problems. I introduce a little more each time we do it, a new center, a new activity, a new procedure for small group time. They are actually doing pretty good with it. I am impressed. They seem to do better than any group I've had in the past, or maybe I'm just getting better. Let's go with that. :)

    I did the "fairness" activity with my kids, which I learned about on Pinterest the other day. It was too funny and they really did understand. Ok, so the activity was about fairness, and how being fair doesn't mean that I'm giving everyone the same thing. I told all the kids to make-believe they had some "boo-boo" they needed a band-aid for. First of all, just my saying "boo-boo" the way I did had them rolling. So anyway, I would call them up one at a time, and enthusiastically gave fake sympathy, and with much flourish, place the band-aid on their upper left arm, regardless of where their "boo-boo" was. At first I got some laughs, and some funny looks. It took a few kids for them to realize I was putting the band-aid in the same place every time, and a couple of kids tried to stop me or say something, but I just kept on with my exaggerated flourish and "healing" of their "boo-boos." At the end I proudly announced that I took care of everyone's boo-boos and did a great job. Of course, through grins and giggles my kids were like "no!" and "nu uh!" To which I replied by asking why I didn't do a good job. They pointed out my "mistake," of putting everyone's band-aids on the same place instead of on the correct boo-boo area. By this point half the band-aids were off and stuck somewhere else on their person, but that was ok. This reply from them was exactly what I wanted of course, and used it to explain that not everyone needs the same things all the time, and that I would treat them fairly, not the same, to make sure that every child always gets what they need to be a winner. ( I say winner because of the sports them. I'm always telling them how they are winners.)

   We also did our first art activity last Friday for our "Fun Friday." I love the arts and there is just not enough of it in school anymore. So what I do is spend a few minutes teaching the kids about an artist, teach them about his/her style, and show them some of the artist's works. Then, we create art in the same style as the artist. This past Friday we studied Piet Mondrian, an artist from the Netherlands who painted many abstract paintings. The ones he became famous for were largely made up of straight black lines, sometimes of various thickness, that criss cross over each other. Then, some of the squares and rectangles that are made are colored in with colors. Mondrian used mostly primary colors, though sometimes used other colors instead. All in all though, only a few colors were used in repetition. So, I gave my kids a piece of cardstock, a ruler, a black marker, and a choice of only 3 or less colored markers. Then they drew as many or as few black lines as they wished, and colored in some of the shapes created with their chosen colors. They really enjoyed this and colored boxes until it was time to go home. I wish I had taken some pictures, but quite honestly I just forgot.

So, there is more we have said and done, but I'll leave that for another day. I still need my 2 more stools, though (grin) and I still plan to do my ADHD posts, but for tonight I'm going to put it away. My son wants to watch Pinocchio, and how can I say no to that. Half the kids in my class probably have never heard of him, bless them. So I bid you all adieu! See you soon!

Week Two and What to do?

       Well, it's the first day of the second week of school. I still have 26 little darlings in my class and when I tell you we are packed in like sardines I am not kidding! I do really like the seating arrangement I created, with my stools in the center for materials tables. I still need two stools though! *pouts* I'm still holding out for some friendly donations from friends who clean out their garages! The kids seem to be a really good group, they are learning the routines quickly and trying to follow procedures in class. I tell you two things that I think they love so much, the hallway song and Molly. For those of you who don't know the hallway song, I found it on someone else's blog, through Pinterest. I will find it and give the person credit for it so you can see it too. But... it's a short, catchy song that gets them ready for the hall.  It goes "My hands are right beside me, I'm standing straight and tall, my hands are right beside me, I'm ready for the hall!" Then, they "catch a bubble" by closing their mouths like they have filled it with air. They love it; it keeps me from preaching, and it really does remind them about appropriate hallway behavior.  This year, I am really trying to model hallway behavior by following the same rules myself. Of course, it is important for students to understand that adults earn more privileges then children, but since the reason for quiet hallway behavior is to keep from disturbing other classes, it seems appropriate that I should follow the same rules as the children when it comes to the hallway. It's harder than you think, as adults, teachers, walking down the hallway and not speaking. Firstly, you want to fuss at a child who is out of place. Or, another teacher comes by and you suddenly remember you need to speak to him or her, or want to say hi. It's a true test in self control. I have handled this with two simple strategies. First I have my hallway sign. I made it with a ruler, cardboard, card stock pictures and key rings. (I will post the picture later) It has four different signs I can flip as needed. One is a reminder to stay quiet, one is a reminder to stay in line, and then I have a sign for "stop" and "go." 1st graders can't read yet! You say... no problem! I have pictures and words on the signs, which, after using it with my kids, has proven TOTALLY worth it. The kids figured out instantly what each sign was for, and through the context of the pictures, even knew what the words were. The second problem was handling my own urge to speak to other adults and not appearing rude to them for not speaking. So, I wave, and if the need to speak arises, I simply hand them a slip of paper instead, which I store in a small pocket on the back of my hallway sign. The note is short, sweet, and to the point. It says:

                  Forgive me for not speaking, I'm not being rude. I'm simply modeling appropriate hallway              behavior for my class.. I'd love to speak with you later!

It's great. I'm really excited about my hallway plan, and so far it is working wonderfully. 

The other favorite of the class is Molly. Remember her? I showed you her picture and the voki I made for her. The kids can't get enough of her. And get this, they tell her about what they are learning! Without me prompting them! The other day, we made a graph, and when Molly came out, the kids were like, "hey Molly, guess what? We made a graph!" And so Molly looked at it, and got so excited about it for them. When we reviewed the months of the year, they asked Molly if she could do, so of course, she did, by cheering them of course! I am so thrilled I got Molly and look forward to using her more. I'm improving my ventriloquist skills while I'm at it too! *laughs* 

I will tell you what, 26 kids is definitely testing my management skills, which was always the hardest thing for me. I am too nice and too fun! *laughs* I've been working on it for years and I'm getting much better at it. Thanks to the things I've learned on Pinterest, through experience, and planning, I think I'm in a good place. We have our baseball management board, my token system, and my smart beads for academics. So far, so good. As anyone knows, and we always tell each other, consistency is the key. And of course, as easy as it sounds, it is more difficult to do. But, practice makes perfect, and with sardines, it is essential!! So I'm trying to be consistent, reviewing rules daily, rewarding good behavior and offering consequences and corrections for improper behavior. We'll keep on trucking, constantly pray, and see how it goes! Let's make this post interactive, comment on this post by telling your most successful behavior management strategy or your class's favorite activity or "thing!"

The First day and some catch up!

Well, today was the first day of school! I know, I didn't blog at all this weekend. Let me tell you why. Friday was Open House, so I was at school from 8 am to 8 pm, and when I walked out, I left my computer right there in my classroom, along with my camera! I was in so much withdrawal this weekend without them! I did give myself a pass, figuring a 12 hour day at school was enough to make anyone forget something. But I have everything now, and I'm ready for you! Let's go backward a bit and I'll show you my final preparations for my room. I did finish my crate chairs in time, so I have them around my teaching table. I'm really happy about it too, considering the number of desks I have to have in my room!

So here they are, they turned out great!

Let me show you my room. I tried to take pictures of every part of it.

OK, so the picture above is my reading area. The bulletin board isn't 100 percent complete, as I'm going to add phonics and grammar skills to it as we learn them. The top of the cart will be the writing area, where students can get their writing binders and other supplies they will need for writing. The bottom picture is my computer center. I hate that big L-shaped desk, and whenever I used it as a teacher's desk it just got in my way, and ended up being a place to "collect" stuff. So, I put it to better use this year and made it into my computer center. The bulletin board is for great papers or work I want to show off.  I wrapped pink "cheer" material around the desk to hide the hanging cords, and made a little pink curtain that I hung from the bottom of the bulletin board to hide those cords. The empty space on the desk won't stay empty. I've got a little 13 inch TV and  V-smile game system that will go there. The V-smile has three different educational games and two controllers. (and only $2 from a yard sale!) And if you are curious, the little pink piece of paper on the wall is a sentence strip that has the computer password on it. There is a large chart on the left side of the picture that I'll use to add websites to, as students learn how to use them. (they will also be bookmarked on the computer)

Next is my birthday wall. This wasn't a bulletin board space, I created one with hot glue and fabric. *wink*  It is for the birthday idea I got from Pinterest, which came from someone 's blog. I am going to take a picture of students whose birthdays fall in the same month, having them hold a sign up with the date of his/her birthday on it. Then, I'll post the pictures of the students under each month's heading.

The bottom picture shows my AR board and my center cart. The AR board is designed to look like a football field, and there are footballs at the bottom with student numbers on them. Each section of the field is 1 point. As students earn points, they move their football up the field. I'm going to add a heading that says "Score in Reading with AR." The center cart is just that, a place to keep all my centers, which I keep organized in containers. When center time is over, students know where to return their boxes.

The above picture you've seen before, and here it is finished. I did glue the dugouts at the bottom to appeal to my fella's sports nature. The bottom part has my Homeworkopoly board on it and the game pieces.





The next picture is the smaller desk in the room, which I use as my desk. It has the computer that is hooked up to the Promethean board on it, and other technology, as well as a few office supplies. On the board above it is my Boggle game and my lesson chart, which we have to have posted in our rooms. Up above you see a glimpse of my number line, on which I used baseball and soccer stickers to mark off the numbers used to count by 5s and 10s.

Next is my guided reading area. See how the crate chairs fit so beautifully! Yay! Behind the table are some drawers that hold supplies and my leveled readers, as well as the calendar. The bottom picture is my listening center. The boxes on the left are those divided boxes. Last year I used them for sorting papers, this year I'm am going to use it as a drying rack for art, since last year I had papers lying all over the room after art. I'll sort papers in a file crate this year. As you can see, I use the space under the table for a little extra storage. Turned longways like they are, there is still plenty of room for students to place their feet when at a chair at the table.

And here is my room from as far back as I can get, so you see how my desks are arranged. I've got groups of five, with the stools in the middle as materials tables. The two other stools I had gotten where not really sturdy enough for me to use after all, so I am short two again, and HOPING that I find two more quick, fast, and in a hurry! As of today, I already have 24 kids, and I am supposed to get 2-3 more tomorrow, and so I have no idea where I am going to put 2 MORE desks, but I guess I'll have to make do.

Fast forward to today, the first day of school. It actually went pretty well considering I had 24 kids in the room, and my para didn't come in till almost 1.  They seem to know a lot from last year, so I was really impressed. I've got a couple of darlings who will need a little catch up, but I think they'll be fine. We just went over some basic concepts so I could see what they knew, and I was quite impressed when they recognized and could tell me the value of the four basic coins. I actually acted like they knocked me off my feet with their "smart-ness," they got a kick out of that.

Of course we went over rules and procedures, a LOT of them, and they did really well considering I had to talk so much. They loved the hallway song and the name on the paper song. I've got a great group of kids this year. Oh, I showed them the voki of Molly, and they enjoyed that too, especially after I brought her out to actually meet them. They were just a talking to her and asking her all kinds of questions! They even wanted me to bring out Jade to meet her. Jade is a stuffed dragon that I introduced at Open House. He gets to go home with a student every Friday and the student writes in Jade's journal about what they did together. We had a lot of fun with those two. It was nice break from talking rules and routines all morning.

Well, I've been writing for the better part of half an hour now, and I guess that by now you are tired of reading. If I had not had Open House on Friday, and not left my computer at school, I was going to start doing installments of FYI Friday, in which I discuss ADHD, what it is, it's indications, and how to accommodate for and teach children with ADHD. So, I'll start it up this Friday instead. Hope you enjoy!

Ahhhh!! You HAVE to see this!

Ok, I wasn't going to post tonight but I could not help myself. I learned about this from another blog I found on Pinterest. The blog is called "A Turn to Learn" and here is the link:
http://aturntolearn.blogspot.com

It is a really cool blog. But the amazing thing I learned about tonight that I couldn't wait to post is voki! It creates talking avatars and has many different options to make it unique. It is awesome!!! I can see SOOO many applications for this, especially introducing historical characters to my students in a fun and new way! I just created a voki and I created this specific one first because I just got this new puppet that I also LOVE. It's a cheerleader puppet, to go with my sports theme, and I love her and named her Molly. Here she is:

And.... here is the voki I created to match her, I think the kids will totally get a kick out of it! I'll play the voki first, then bring out the puppet after saying Molly came to see them!





Totally awesome, right! I flipped over it. Of course, I am easily amused... but you have to admit this is cool! It took me all of two minutes to create this voki so it's not time consuming and will get your kids interested! Check it out yourself at www.voki.com!!

Almost there!

Oh my goodness, the days are just counting down! We officially go back to work on Wednesday. I went in today and got most everything finished by around lunchtime. I was going to take pictures then, but I do have some finishing touches to do. I need to get a couple of borders, because I did not have any that suited me, so when I get them I will show you! I do have some other things to show you in the meantime that I've finished.

Ok, first is the take home binder that I am going to use this year. I have already made a mostly complete one, minus the agenda our school sells, so that I can show my parents at Open House and explain how it works.

Using my sports theme, the binder will be called a PLAY book. PLAY stands for "Preparing for Life All Year." This is the cover I made to go in the binder's front sleeve. I'll put each of my little darlin's names on the front.

Let's look at the inside!

When you first open it, you will see a label on the inside pocket. It says "Please sign and return." Obvious, yes. I will put anything I want mom or dad to sign and send back to school right up front. On the right side, the very first thing is a pencil pouch, this one just happens to be clear because they were on sale at Office Max for 50 cents a piece. The label on the pouch says "Notes and Money" It also gives a brief reminder of how money is supposed to be sent to school and that a written note is needed anytime a student is absent. I am also going to have my kids keep a pencil in this pouch, so they can never say they didn't have one for HW. (Yes... I've heard that excuse, I'm sure you have too *wink*)

Next are three sheet protectors. The first one is seen here, holding the PLAY book directions. It gives a description of pretty much what I'm writing here, only it's addressed to the parents. I am leaving NO room for excuses from parents or students about what I require done nightly or where things I send home can be found. The next sleeve is for my weekly newsletter, and the last sleeve is for my word work HW sheet. I give students options of what they can do for their spelling and vocabulary homework so A) they don't always have to do the same thing and B) it's a good way to differentiate because it plays to a lot of different learning styles. I've got the normal, write words 4 times each, to the unusual, draw a picture and "hide" your words in it. One assignment choice I used last year a few kids really liked, and that was to find the letters to each word in newspapers or magazines, cut them out, and glue them to paper to spell each word. I kept that choice of course. Anything that gets them working with words right?

OK, so in the complete thing, you would see the school agenda first, then a notebook like the one pictured above. The agenda is going to be used for: daily conduct, HW assignments, reading log, weekly sight words, quick reminders and short parent/teacher contact. Last year I had a separate page for the reading log, but I decided to include it in the agenda this year to save me time and paper. One thing that happened last year was that when a student brought me a complete sheet, it took me a couple of days to get them a new one, so that's no good.  I do participate in Pizza Hut's Book It program, and I use their reading log with it. When a student completes his or her reading log for a month, they get a free pizza coupon. The log being in the agenda will also be easier to keep track of because I can go back and reference it anytime.

Now for the spiral notebook. I haven't put the label on it yet because my printer quit... again.. this time for good I think. (I talked to HP, and my poor baby, my first teacher printer, is 6 years old) Anyway, I digress.... the notebook is for their word work HW. Lord knows I hate loose leaf paper all over the place and I hate wasting paper. So, all word work will be done in the notebook and stay in one place.  They can do more than one night on one page if there is room and not waste paper or space. I can quickly check if it's done and move on, voila! NOTE: I am going to glue a ribbon to the back of both the agenda and the word work notebook to use as a bookmark, so that my students and myself can quickly get to the page they are on.

Next you will see dividers behind the notebook. Each divider also has... a LABEL!  Can you tell I'm totally into labels this year? Ok, so the first divider is for "other homework." Math is usually a page from the student workbook and they have social studies and science projects now and then and those handouts will go here too. If I just put the math sheet in a pocket, sometimes it just mysteriously disappears... how odd. :)
The next divider is for school notes and notices. All that stuff that comes from the front office, I'm going to stick here. School newsletters, lunch notices, PTA reminders, etc. Just a side note, on the PLAY book directions I point out that parents should check out every section of the binder NIGHTLY. The last divider is for graded papers. I don't commit to sending them home weekly, though I do try. But at worst, I'm good for every two weeks on average. The graded papers label is a bit larger because I give directions on them. The directions are; look through the papers, correct papers that have a grade of C or lower, sign the cover sheet, and return it all to school the next day. Hopefully that last part will change when we get the IPads we are supposed to get, and I'll only ask for corrected papers to be sent back. There is a really cool app called Three Ring I want that will allow me to photograph student work and keep a virtual portfolio of their actual work and eliminate me having to keep up with all the ACTUAL paper. Yay technology!

Last but not least.... the back! Not wasted space...

 I duct taped a Ziploc bag to the back. It too will have a label, "Spelling Words." Every Monday, I will have my little darlins write their spelling words on flash cards (half of an index card) and stick them in the bag, so they have them to practice with all week.

So there it is! My take home binder, my kids (and me!) WILL be organized this year doggone it!

An addendum to this, my son will be too! He is going to go to the fourth grade this year and will be changing classes! (Tries not to faint) I've been imagining all summer my brilliant, highly unorganized, trashy book bag, ADHD son going from class to class and actually making it home with everything! *cringes* So.... we are going to make him a binder VERY similar to this one. I am going to label EVERYTHING and make sure he knows that he better come home with it every day complete! Hopefully, (crosses my fingers and prays real hard) this will help him stay organized and have what he needs too.

A couple more things for ya:

My hall passes this year! I found these cute sports ball luggage tags at the store on clearance for a dollar. So I scooped them right on up, brought them home and turned them into hall passes!

I finished painting my stools!!! I am still waiting on my sweetie to spray paint the legs of the other two stools, but I can't paint the tops of those. :( I have to cover them in my sports material. But here are the ones I painted, and they turned out SOOO good! We have to go get some polyurethane (spell that?) to put on top so that every little bump doesn't mess up my paint job though! I was so excited about how well they turned out!

I am almost finished with the crate chairs for my small group area too. My fella and I cut and screwed the tops together yesterday and I cut the foam for the seats. I left my handy dandy staple gun at school today ..grr.. so I have to go by in the morning and pick it up so I can upholster those bad boys. Then I'll post them for you to see and say "oo! That's cute! I wish I had time to do that!" Just like I used to say about, oh, everything! haha... ok, well maybe I have inspired you to realize you do have the time after all!

That's all for today, I have to put my blog away and my boy to bed. So see ya later world!

On a roll!

Ok, I am getting ready and cooking with gas now! I got into my classroom a little bit and got to organize is it some, and I'm excited about how it's coming together. When it's finished I'll post pictures of it. What I'm not so excited about is today we found out that thanks to budget cuts and economic crisis, I could have up to 27 little darlings in my class! Oh my goodness!!! I'm just going to have to pray about that and have faith that God is going to keep me strong and able to teach all those babies! (As you will learn quickly, all my students, from 1st to fifth grade, are my babies. I'm known as the Drama Mama by my Drama students! :) )
Ok, so what have I done to prepare? Well I'm have been working on the cute and efficient today. I finished my behavior management board:

It's a baseball field! (It is mounted on one really cool, one really big, oil pan from Wal-Mart, at a little less than 12 bucks.) Student's start in the "dugout" every day. (the brown area) My fella lovingly pointed out that the dugouts should be at the bottom, to which I replied I knew that... BUT, this was more efficient.. haha... At any rate, it is my plan to clear the board every afternoon, and students place their baseball in the dugout when they arrive in the morning, (attendance check!) and then they can go from there. If they do well, are caught being good, show kindness, whatever, they can "run the bases," meaning they move their baseball to 1st, 2nd, and so on. If they make a home run I make a BIG deal about it, raving and hugging and bragging to other classes, and even announce it on the morning show! My kids loved this last year, because they LOVE it when someone earns a home run, so they are really eager to run the bases. On the other hand, misbehavior earns a "strike," on the lines below.  Again my lovely pointed out there are only 3 strikes... (he's a sports nut, can you tell?) and I replied.. they are "1st graders dear... trust me" Strike 1 is just a reminder, a warning to get it straight, and I take no points from conduct. Strikes 2 and 3 lose conduct points and earn consequences. They have to fill out a reflection in the "penalty box" (a time out area) where they have time to think about and correct their behavior. They also lose some of their recess time. If they don't get it together, then they get their "out." If my kids get out, they really are out, I'm putting them in time out with another teacher, calling their parents, or sending them to the office.

What's with the big space at the bottom you ask? Well, I like to utilize space as much as possible, so that space is just the right size for my Homeworkopoly board, I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to use for student game pieces though.

The second thing I'm working on is my stools. These stools have taken some time to find, I got this idea stuck in my head and couldn't quit till I found them. So anyway, I finally got a hold of 5 stools, 3 perfect, 2 that will "do for now." *wink* So My fella, who loves me and goes along with most of my crazy whims, has been spray painting the legs green for me, and, on the perfect ones, I am painting the seats to look like sports balls. The other two are not perfect because they have padded seats. :( So, I'm just going to cover those with my sports fabric.  These stools are going to go in the center of my groups of desks at school. They will pull triple duty. First, they will hold the group supply boxes. Second, they will be author's chairs for special presentations, and third, they are just so darn cute to go with my theme! Here is the first one, and I'll post the rest when I'm through painting!

Whew! I'm tired now! I am going to get up in the morning and run down to the resource center and die cut some jersey shirts for my door for open house: "Tucker's Team Starting Line Up" with student names on each jersey! I can't believe school is about to start again! More to come!

Getting Ready for School!

I have been busy this evening! I finally got some card stock today so I started printing things I've created for school, getting ready to go to GLRS tomorrow and get it all laminated.  I printed so much I had a printer go on strike! I had to switch printers! I'm a little worried this one will go on strike when I start printing my labels tomorrow! But I am going to stay positive about it. Let me show you some of the things I have created.

My classroom has a sports theme this year, same as last year, but I am still learning to go overboard with the theme! So, here are my job cards that I will post on my whiteboard. They are soccer goals with the job name on top. I am going to get some little soccer balls from Hobby Lobby and put student numbers on them. (not names, so I can use them year after year!) To show students what their jobs are, I'll put their soccer ball in the goal of their job for the day! The jobs I have are Table Washers, Class Blogger, HW checker, and Official Filer. The Table Washer job is pretty self explanatory, they clean up the lunchroom and wipe down the tables. The Class Blogger is going to be a great job that I am starting this year.  Since I'll be back in 1st after all, it will be slightly different than I originally planned it, but I'm still going to make it work. I applied for the funding for a project from Donor's Choose. (an amazing site I suggest you check out!) I asked for a digital camera and the accessories for it so that I could get my kids excited about learning and allow them to be a part of the social media and technology world.  For the first half of the year, I will change this job weekly. The Class Blogger will get to use the camera to take one or two pictures of some learning activity they found exciting that week. Then, with the help of a parent volunteer or my paraprofessional, they will upload the picture to the computer and then write about the event in the picture on an educational social media site called Edmodo. Their parents will have Edmodo accounts too and will be able to see what they post! (I'll blog about Edmodo later!) When I get this project started, I will blog about it separately, because I am really excited about it! Another job is HW checker. This job description has changed too since my return assignment to first grade. Anyway, this student's job is basically to make sure that each student turns in their binder to its proper place in the morning.  This student will also let me know who is absent for the day, based on an empty binder slot. The last job is Official Filer. This student will sort student papers into their "mail slots" so they can go home.

Next thing I did!

I got this idea from Pinterest, which, thanks to my friend Drea, I am TOTALLY addicted to! OK, so anyway, this is a chart I'm going to put on my whiteboard as well. It basically shows the options that might be available for a given assignment. I will simply check off the ones that go with the task so students don't constantly raise their hands to ask if they can or not. Either that, or I'm going to cut them out and put magnets on the back, and just put up the appropriate ones at the time, I haven't decided yet.  That last one, "stick a rubric to it," is because of a local thing we have going on, where the county is encouraging us to have students evaluate their own work. So I made a bunch of labels that have a mini, student friendly rubric on it, where students can check off how well they think they did on their work. My rubric has a sports theme too, so I'll post that later too.

This is another Pinterest idea I found. It is a classroom management strategy that doesn't disrupt others. Each stop sign says "Please STOP what you are doing and make a better choice." Of course, 1st graders won't be able to read these at first, but they will be explained, and the bright STOP sign gets the point across. I can carry these with me in the hall, to assemblies, lunch, specials, library, and even in the classroom to use.  I will simply hand out a stop sign to a student when he/she needs to check a behavior.  They will hold onto it until they have corrected the behavior, then I'll take it back.  If this doesn't work, then further action will be taken.

A game I created for a math center. Base ten memory. Students play memory where they match the number to its base ten representation. As we learn more number sense skills, I'll add expanded form memory and word form memory.

Obviously didn't print these, I made them by hand, but they are another math center. I am pretty sure I got this idea from Pinterest too. This is a game played with playing cards.  You would take out the face cards and use only the number cards. (keep Ace and explain that it is one) Students pick a task card, then find playing cards to fit on the empty spaces that will make the card true. Some are more open ended then others, and students will also learn that they may have to change cards to be able to complete the task. (for example, on the far card to the right, students will have to find a low card to add to the 8 to be able to find another card to put after the equal sign)

Sports theme alphabet cards. Thanks to Pinterest again, I got the idea to have a bulletin board, sectioned area, whatever, to post a Boggle board on! Students can play Boggle as an activity if they finish work early. I think my friend Drea is going to use her Boggle as a word work station. This reminds me, I need to print out another set, because Boggle can have repeat letters!

These are my sports theme months labels for my birthday board. I have never posted birthdays, shame on me, but this year I am going to! (BTW, I have always celebrated birthdays with my students! More on how later!) Anyway, I saw on, ahem, Pinterest, a really cute birthday board. Here's what you do. Take all the students who have birthdays in the same month and take their picture together, with each holding a card with the date of the birthday on it! Then, post the pictures under the month it goes with. Love it! I'll post it once we've done it.

I got these cards from another blogger out there, who I found on, you guessed it, Pinterest! Anyway, I like how she did these cards, she made each set of 100 Fry words bordered with a different color. This is the printing that caused my printer to go on strike, btw. Anyway, I printed out 2 sets of the first 100 (eep!) so that I could use them in a Language Arts center. They are going to be available to play sight word Go Fish!

Ok, so this wasn't printed today, I did this a couple of weeks ago, but it's in the stack to get laminated. It's my Homeworkopoly board. I have never done this before but I have seen it very successfully done. My friend has done it for many years and I never got inspired to do it until last year, when another friend who uses it showed me the chance cards she created herself. Then I got excited about it. I asked her if she would share the cards with me and she said yes! Yay! She um, has since forgotten to email the file to me, so I'm going to have to give her a friendly nudge to send them before school starts.

Obviously not printed, but I did this today. I learned about a token system on Pinterest which seemed about the easiest way ever to offer incentives without keeping up with charts or rewards or anything. Which is great for me, because I am awful with keeping up with that sort of thing. Notice that on my job boards earlier I didn't have those staple jobs that all early elementary teachers have, including me, up till now. Those jobs like line leader, paper handler, helper, messenger, etc. Well...... here's why I scrapped them. I found these chips (finally!!) and wrote student numbers on them, about 15 of each number, and placed them in this sectioned off case. When a student does something great, is caught being good, kind, showing a character trait, paying attention, whatever you want, you reward them with a token. You do not give it to them, nor do they need to keep up with it. Instead, you just put the token in a bag. Anytime you reward a token, you add it to the bag. Now, you need a message sent, you need a line leader to PE, you need someone to pass out or take up papers, etc, which of course we know, students LOVE to do. I reach into the bag and pull out a chip and voila! I have someone to do the job. I can pull a token for virtually anything, including who will go to the smart board first, who will demonstrate something, someone to read... etc. Students learn quickly that the more they do good things, the more chips they have in the bag, and the more chances they have to earn extra privileges.  You also explain this at first, and use it a LOT the first week or two so they get the idea. Of course, a disclaimer is you would not want to use the "pull a token" for normal classroom response, you want all students to have a chance to get called on. Oh, and I'll start over every week.

Whew! I posted way more than I thought I would today! I got a lot accomplished! I'm proud of myself, hehe. Now it's time to sit back and relax for a little while, watch some of the Olympics, (gymnastics is my fav!) and play, instead of work, on my "nerd box." (Nerd box is my fella's playful nickname for my computer :))

Hope you got some great ideas from my post today! If you have ideas to improve mine, by all means, tell me!

New to Blogging

OK, so here I go. I can't believe I am actually starting a blog. As I type, I am wondering how in the world am I going to keep up with it on top of everything else I do! Let's see, School for me starts in about a week, and as of right now, I think I'm going to teach 1st grade again... the verdict is still out though, because a week ago I was teaching 2nd this year. Take a bet anyone? In addition to teaching school, I am a busy mom, and I have another half that I keep around because he makes me so happy. :) My son takes karate 3 times a week, my fella plays softball, I'm the Drama Coach and I teach Sunday school children's church. Whew! And now I'm a blogger. Well, I'm going to try to be one. We'll see. I am not going to say that this blog is going to be strictly about my teaching, or about being a mom, or anything else. It's going to be about all of it. All the things that make me, well, me! So, sit back and follow me, if you are as scatter-brained as me it will make perfect sense!