Happy Sunday Friends!
Another busy week here - and YES I am STILL in school!! 8 more days!!
Here's what's new in my world!
Five For Friday - Almost Summer Vacation!!
Happy Friday Friends!
I am super excited to be able to link up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching and share some of my week!
We are down to 8 days left - I can make it. I can make it...right??
This week's Five For Friday is mostly school, but my little lady had some BIG moments too, so I HAD to share!!
Symmetry T-shirts
Every year we make these cool T-shirts! Every year I question why I spend so much time on them, but every year the kids' smiles make me forget the hard work!
We explore symmetry in math and at the end of the series of lessons kids get to create a symmetrical design using pattern blocks. They record this design with pattern block stickers.
Then we sign out the laptops and using THIS site kids put their designs on the computer (use Google Chrome if you want this work!). Teachers take a screen shot just of their image and we import it into a word document.
We print these onto iron on paper and iron them onto T-shirts and VOILA!
This is what you get!!
Addison's Big Show!
Addison LOVES gymnastics! Her big show was this past weekend and I had to share!
Reading Rainbow Book Reviews
Anyone else teaching book review writing as a part of their opinion unit?
We did and I of course remembered my childhood with Reading Rainbow and the book reviews that always aired at the end. I found a few on YouTube and of course the kids thought they were hysterical and dated!
The kids have been "fighting the white" on their covers and revising/coping over all week and are just about ready to hold up their book and record their video!
We are finishing up the year and focusing on adding and subtracting 10's. We have practiced the skill in isolation, but I wanted to try number grid puzzles and these Monster themed ones were too cute to pass up!!
They loved them and were able to use them again and again!
Order of events:
Sunday - flash freebies every half hour from 8:30 AM EST - 6:30 PM EST! These will be on my FB page.
Monday and Tuesday - come back here to find tons of $1 deals!!
From Sunday-Wednesday enter to win some goodies from my sweet teacher friends and a $50 Lakeshore Learning Gift Card too!!
Learn Like A Pirate - Chapter #2 - Common Concerns About Student-Led Classrooms
Have you been reading along with me? Whether you have or not this post will be right up your alley I think.
This week we read chapter 2 - concerns about student-led classrooms and I will be the first to say I am sometimes that teacher who has the concerns about change. I will also say that once I have some time to process the changes (and see the reasons for the change and anticipate the outcomes) I usually change my tune and JUMP on board full force. So, adding these concerns to the beginning of the book - before I could come up with them on my own was genius!!
There were many concerns that were brought up, but two really spoke to me...
"I am too overwhelmed. I don't know where to begin!"
Overwhelmed is my middle name right now! Between a baby arriving in 10 (EEK!) weeks, a 5 year old beginning summer break full of energy, 10 more teaching days, end-of-year chaos, etc, etc, etc! It would be SUPER easy for me to say I can't add this on top of it all! But, upon further reading the benefits truly do outweigh the negatives. Plus, we need to start small - talking with the class about the direction they would like to see things go or allowing them to interrupt and run the discussions - both can be great places to start!
"My students can do this."
I teach first grade, so some of the ideas I read about in PD books are tricky to adapt to such littles, but the book has some great ideas for the littles too!
The book reminds us to start small - giving kids jobs to do and then adding in responsibilities. Students need to learn to take ownership of their learning!!
Now that we have gotten the naysaying out of our system - are you ready for next week? We will be reading chapter #3 - Peer Collaboration! Hop onboard!
Two For Tuesday!
I know there was no link up last week and may not be one this week either, but I listened to you and you all seemed to like it, so here is another 2 items on sale for 50% all day today!!
Birthday Bash Bingo
Fun for anytime of the year!! And only $1 today!!
Grade 1 Writing Poster Bundle
Posters for personal narrative, nonfiction, opinion, and fiction instruction! A whole year's worth only $5 Today!!
Happy Shopping!!
Made-it Monday!
I am happy to have been able to make something new again this week for the Monday Made-It link up!
I'll be honest this one isn't my favorite and it almost didn't happen in time! Since I am preggo, I can't spray paint, and the HUBS has been very busy, so it wasn't until this morning that he was able to paint the bottles and then we and two cookouts, so this was a quickie - maybe I would have loved it more if I had given them more time!
I went to AC Moore and searched for red, white and blue goodies - This is what I found...
This first picture was taken by my 5 year old - She really wants to help!
I wanted something to stick out of the bottles and there wasn't anything unattached - so I found these decorations that I later took apart!
I decided to use empty beer bottles and paint them, but you could buy nicer bottles at the store!
First coat...
Third coat...
Decorating Fun...
Addison really wanted to add "real" flags, so here is a pic with the flags...
Thanks for visiting again this week - Please let me know what you think - hit or a miss??
An Accomplishment I am Proud of...
For an exciting third week in a row I am linking up with Monica from I Heart Grade 3! This week in her weekly link up series we are talking personal again - something we are proud that we accomplished.
I have to say that there is not one single thing that I am proud of accomplishing, but instead I am proud of how I reached some big goals in my life.
I was always a go for it kind of person. I was always reading to find out more, trying new things, and overall trying to improve myself as an educator. Once I had my daughter a few years ago, I found it really hard to balance everything. Around the same time my husband took a job that required on-call time and lots of overtime (often unexpectedly). These things were challenges to me and my ability to set and reach goals.
For the last year and a half, I have worked to stay in a good work/home balance, but also set aside time for the learner in me to spend time reading, creating, and learning. Since then I have launched my blog (yeah!), set up and made somewhat successful my TPT store (woo-hoo!), revamped the entire way that I teach math (hello Guided Math - I LOVE YOU!!)
These are not goals that were met over night, they took time and sometime some failures along the way. There were blog post deadlines that didn't get met, there were meltdowns too (I had one this morning, but I happily blamed that on 29 week preggo hormones!!), there were days that I didn't feel like the amazing mom, wife, or teacher that I strived to be, but I always kept working and I am happy at all I have accomplished during this time.
Now that in 11 weeks we will be welcoming a new little guy, I know that there will be some more transitioning happening and roles will change, and he will have needs that my daughter had at that age - forgive me if I'm a bit distant while we are adjusting, but know I have set a goal for myself to be a more consistent blogger and I WILL meet that goal!
What are some accomplishments you are proud of? What are some goals you have set for yourself for the summer or next school year?
Looking forward to hearing your stories too!!
Reflect and Refresh Part #1
One of my goals for this next year was to work more collaboratively with the teacher friends that I have made through TPT - things always seem to get in the way - life gets busy! But I seriously LOVE these ladies (and gents too!). We are taking some time to reflect on this past school year - what was good, not so good, what needs to change, and what we LOVED!
We each filled out this cutesy organizer to help us think about what we need to be working on this summer!
Organization - my book area starts off so neat and clean and then by the end of the year its always a mess - I hope to do some blog searching to find a way to help! I also want to use a class management system for behavior that won't take away from time on learning, but will be fun! I DO NOT want to go the clip chart route, so again I have some research to do!
Content - If you follow me regularly you know that I lOVE Guided Math and that it changed the way I teach math this year! FOR THE BETTER!! Of course after only one year - I have TONS more to learn! I hope to keep reading and learning all summer!
MY BIG SUMMER PROJECT! So most of you know I have 11 weeks until baby boy TJ arrives!! That will be a big focus of the summer! Otherwise, I really hope to save some time to be updating my products - covers, content, and previews!!
Check out what some other amazing teachers have to say - you know we aren't shy!!
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