Teacher Week: Creative Ideas!

Hey y'all! Welcome back to Day #3 of Teacher Week: Creative Ideas! The idea of this post is to inform others of some of your tried and true techniques related to teaching. This is a pretty open-ended day and can really be anything - a lesson plan, a classroom management strategy, an organizational idea, or anything else that just works for you in your classroom.

Below is a picture of what my students visit as soon as they enter my room in the morning. The students drop off their take-home folders and planners in their respective containers (one for boys and one for girls) immediately. I have color coded folders (green for boys, purple for girls) that way it is easier to locate a particular student's things when I need them for something.

The squares you see below the "Our Class" label are actually these 2"x2" refrigerator magnets I picked up at Christmas Tree Shops* for 30 cents a piece. In place of the picture is a slip of paper labeled with the child's name. It stays on the board with a Velcro dot that I added above the magnet.

I expect each of my students to take their own attendance by moving their square to the "Question of the Day" board immediately to the right of this bulletin board. They use their square to respond to the question of the day by placing it above a given response; thus, when everyone is present, they will have created a graph that we can later discuss as part of Calendar Math. In addition, I can take attendance at a glance by seeing whose square still remains on the board. I hope that makes sense! Let me know if you have any questions.

Next up is a Making Words folder that each of my students will have for their personal use. This idea was adapted from J. Meacham. I purchased a class set of orange plastic folders that can hopefully be reused for a couple more years (crossing fingers!). I will just add a new label over top of the current one.

The inside of the folder contains a Making Words notebook where they will complete their lesson {which we will do as a whole group at the beginning of the year}, along with 3 baseball card sleeves. Each labeled pocket will contain 2 uppercase letters and 3 lowercase letters to use during our activities. The letters haven't been added yet because my kiddos will do this as a review activity during the first week of school (letter identification).

I made the letter template in word and laminated 2 pages worth of letters for each student. I spent a few nights cutting out sets for each student and putting them in plastic baggies. I would be happy to forward the template to you if you want.

This is the book that I use for easy-to-implement lessons. I highly recommend it!

If you have some creative ideas to share, please link up below! Thanks again for participating! This has been too fun :)

What I Wore Wednesday

Briefly interrupting Teacher Week to link up to What I Wore Wednesday with The Pleated Poppy! If you want to play along, go visit Lindsey and add your link! She usually posts sometime on Wednesday. Again, nothing is in the order in which I wore it, and I spent a lot of time at school so everything had to be comfy!

Grey Tank - Walmart (STILL $3.50!)

Scarf - NY&Co.

Jeans - Banana Republic Outlet

Flops - Rainbows

Sundress - Michigan boutique

Flops - Rainbows

Tunic - Thrift Store Find
Black Dress - Target
Belt - Macy's pre-Beckham
Purple Beads - Yard Sale Find
Purple Tunic - Thrift Store Find
Leggings - Gap Outlet Maternity (yup, you read that right!!!!)
Slip-on Shoes - Walmart
Black Tank - Walmart
Dress - Thrift Store Find
Beads - Thrift Store Find
White Top - Banana Republic Outlet
Shorts - Old Navy pre-Beckham
White Tank - Walmart {duh!}
Flower Pin - Homemade by moi
Clamdigger Trousers - Haystacks Michigan Boutique

Teacher Week: Must-Haves!

You all, I am so excited about the response for Teacher Week! I am floored that there are so many participants and that everyone is excited about teaching as I am. I am trying hard to visit all of your blogs and become followers, but it might take me all week to catch up! So don't think I'm ignoring you! And please, everyone, go visit other teacher's linked blogs too. We all know how desperately we need big ol' pats-on-the-back every now and again :)

Anyway, I'd like to be witty and entertaining right now, but I am coming off of a full day. We're talking 6 hours of Brigance testing for incoming kindergartners (I was helping out my old team...and acquiring six hours of PD!), playtime with Becks, and coding books according to lexile levels to be up to par with the new reading standards (please tell me you all are going through the same thing!). My mom and I just left school after lexiling (sp?) for 2 hours and I think I'm going cross-eyed staring at this computer screen. Gah!

But anyway, back to the matter at hand: teacher must-haves. Here are some of my favs...

1. DJ Inkers Fonts. I absolutely adore these downloads (you must buy the CD - not typically found free online, though I'll occasionally come across some...) and spend many a Sunday night deciding which font I will type my weekly newsletter in. Tough {important} decisions, you know.
2. My classroom would not be complete without a stock of pointer fingers. My kids loooove to pretend to "be the teacher" and walk around the room reading things as I do using the pointer to track their reading. I use these a lot during calendar time and morning message. I would also recommend witch fingers for the same thing, but I use these during independent reading or small group reading (though I only give the kids one for their pointer finger, though many have tried to pull off the whole handful before I catch them).

3. Diet Coke. Um, you know I keep a 12-pack under my desk. I have students bring me them in place of apples (this is the truth!) and on dress-like-your-teacher-day my kiddos were allowed to sit one at their desk. DC is my life blood to get me going in the morning and don't you know I'm totally cracking one of these open when I roll in the doors at 7:45am followed by a mid-morning one around 10:30am. I'm probably going to need a 6-packer to get me through a full day this year. Let's not even begin to think about how unhealthy that is - especially when my mom is fueling my habit by giving me a bottle of vanilla flavored syrup so I can make them more Sonic-esque...

4. Personal Laminator. This is when you know you've reached the pinnacle of teacher nerdiness - when your heart near plummets as you jump over piles of junk to lay your hands on a personal laminator at a yard sale. If you fight with your school laminator as often as I do, then you know that God was looking out for me that day at the sale so that I could laminate 8x11s at home while watching The Bachelorette on Monday nights and sigh contentedly at sheets of shiny goodness. Abby = Super Nerd.

5. A Class Set of Clickers. This genius idea is brought to us by my 1st-grade-teaching aunt who actually started school today (bless her heart). Clickers do exactly what they say they do: click. And what a better way to segment phonemes, perform syllabication, or drive your teacher crazy than with 25 clickers. No, really, I love them and my kiddos do to. They beg me to use them during phonics. They run about 30 cents a piece and are a great investment. Warning: make sure you have clicker practice and let your kids get "all their clicks out" before using them.

6. I must have Fall Break, Christmas Break, and Summer Break. I don't think an explanation is necessary.

7. Magnetic Tape and Velcro Dots. We have magnetic white boards throughout the building and I magnetize everything to stick to them. Similarly, we have painted concrete walls that tape has nothing on. Don't tell anyone but I Velcro everything to them! They peel off easily and hold even the darndest posters to the wall. (You know the poster I'm talking about - the one that you find on the floor EVERY morning when you arrive, the one you've threatened to dispose of on countless occasions. Yup, Velcro dots will even hold that baby up.) I've yet to try it, but I've heard that glue-gunning works too, and will peel right off whenever you want to take it down. Anyone tried that?

8. Mr. Sketch Markers. I love to write with "smelly markers," as my kids call them, and buy 3-4 packages every year. They're perfect for writing on chart paper and come in flavors like cinnamon and cherry. Thank goodness they're non-toxic because it certainly looks strange to walk in my room and see my students begging to sniff them.

9. My district issued DIBELS Palm Pilot. Unless your familiar with DIBELS, then I'm probably speaking a foreign language, but this piece of technology has saved our school hours of testing by enabling us to perform the entire test on a palm pilot and then sync it with software on our PCs. We can print out all assessment info and data online. I love it. So much so that I'm excited about the 3 hours PD on Thursday that's all about it.

10. Teacher Friends. How important are they?! I love being able to "talk teacher" with other educators, whether it's online, at a conference, in my building, or through a blog hop. I love to be able to talk to other who know exactly what I'm going through with the kids I teach, the problems I face, the many triumphs I experience, and about that one danged poster that won't stay on the wall. When no one else understands what you're doing at school at 9:34pm on a Monday night during the summer, a teacher does :)

Thanks again for participating in Teacher Week and I'd love for you to link up with your favorite "Teacher Must-Haves" using the Linky below. Have a great day!!!

PS. I'm tired and take little responsibility for any grammatical errors in this post! Forgive me!

Teacher Week: Open House!

Me with the Kindergarten Team December 2009

Hey y'all! I am so excited to be hosting Teacher Week this week, and hope that all my blogging teacher friends will participate {student teachers and education majors should participate too!!!!}. I constantly stalk check out teacher blogs/websites and love when I come upon a new one.

I've always heard that smart teachers are good theives - meaning that you usually don't have to reinvent the wheel to come up with new material and ideas - you can simply borrow from another teacher. Admittedly, there was a point in time when I didn't want to share, and have only recently realized that success comes through collaboration. My mantra should be: together we are better! Anyway, I think that Teacher Week will allow us to showcase our ideas, success stories, teaching materials, and talent. So, don't post something unless you don't want others to borrow your ideas :)

Today, I think we should just link up to meet other teachers around the interwebs. So, go create your bio on your blog {or a post similar to mine} and then link up your post below using the Linky Tool below. Sooo super easy, promise! If you'd rather not use the Linky, then please leave a comment with a link to your site :)

10 Things About Me as a Teacher...

1. I am entering my third year in education. I taught the past two years as a half-day, part-time kindergarten teacher {to be able to stay home with Becks as much as possible} and am looping this coming year. That means my entire class from last year will be my class this year also. I am so excited! However, this will be my first time working fulltime EVER, and I won't have an assistant this year. I'm a smidge nervous...

2. I wanted to be a teacher since I was in first grade. And then I got to college and decided to pursue a degree in psychology instead. Only after graduating from the University of Kentucky in 2005, and spending the summer going What am I going to do with my life?! did I decide to go back to become an elementary school teacher. So, two degrees later and thousands of dollars owed to the danged Direct Student Loans people, amd I doing what I love.

3. Beckham was 5 weeks old when I was offered my first job - just two weeks before school was to start! He slept in a bean bag as I decorated bulletin boards (nasty, I know!) and our male principal would die if he knew he almost walked in on my nursing! Ha!

4. I want to be a principal someday. Thus, I am currently pursuing my master's in administration. I can't wait for the pay increase that attaining this degree will allow. Here's hoping that will be January 2012!

5. I live waaaaay too close to my school (well, not as close as you, Aunt Deb!) and spend too much time there over the summer and on weekends. I hope that as I become a more seasoned verteran, that I will spend less and less time there. Wishful thinking?

6. One of the biggest compliments I have ever received from a student was when a little girl from a poverty-stricken school said I reminded her of Miss Honey from Matilda. She lived a hard life, even at 8-years-old, and I wanted to scoop her up and take her home with me. Things like that remind me that I am in the right profession.

7. My constant complaint as an educator will be the pay. And don't even try to give me the whole You work 8-3pm! You get summers off! Really, I could battle this argument out with anyone who wanted to give it a go. And I would win. Trust me :)

8. I haven't decided if Beckham will attend the same school as the one I teach at. It would be out of district, but being a "teacher's kid" would admit him. I just want him to have an equal opportunity education. Any thoughts on this teacher moms? Pros? Cons?

9. I have nine immediate family members involved in education. Think there's a genetic link?

10. I spent two hours at school tonight and have to be back tomorrow morning for an 8-3pm activity tomorrow (which is why this post is going live tonight!). I have professional developments all week and Open House is on Thursday. So, goodnight and be sure to play along this week!!!!

Happy Birthday, Sophie!

Four years ago from today, our little SophDogg entered the world. {Now she scolds us when we call her SophDogg - she's Just Sophie, she says.} That was the day I was the Abberatzi, taking a gobzillion pictures and asking the nurses and doctors too many questions to admit to.

And now, our little Sophster looks like this. All four years of prncess herself.

She had a Barbie-themed party, and received lots of very girly presents. Like a make-up kit, which she applied to anyone who would sit through the application process.

Sophie's mom (Chels), Me, and our sister, Aubrea...

Our parents - Nana and Papa K

And Becks...

Chels and Sutton

B was really happy Becks tried on the Birthday Girl hat...

Happy Birthday, Sophie!!!!!!

Reminder: Teacher Week!

Hey, y'all! This is a friendly reminder that Teacher Week will begin Monday, August 9th. As the above picture attests, I have spent far too much time organizing books for shelves that don't exist {yet}. Maybe I'll have cubbies and desks by the time the Classroom Tour comes along on Thursday, but I'm not counting on it!

The schedule for the week is below. Can't wait! Happy Saturday :)

Monday - Open House (this will be a meet the teachers in bloggy world day and can include a brief bio, pictures and referrals to your teaching website if you have one; make sure you don't list any information you want private (i.e. school where you teach))

Tuesday - Classroom Must-Haves (anything you just couldn't live without)

Wednesday - Creative Ideas (open-ended - can be anything you deem creative!)

Thursday - Classroom Tour (obvs must include pics!)

Friday - Favorite Websites (for resources, ideas, assessments, etc.)

cheap and easy: a no-sew fabric banner tutorial

I should probably be saving this post for Teacher Week, but couldn't wait to share, and lots of non-teachery people might also benefit from learning how to make a fabric banner because they're a super fun way to add a little flavor to, well, anything. I'm sure there are other {better written} tutorials out there involving sewing and needles and measuring, but I favor imperfection over pricked fingers and rulers so here we go...

When it comes to projects, I really like instant gratification, so whatever I'm making/doing must take less than an hour to accomplish from beginning to end. And it must be inexpensive because I'm working with a meager little budget here. Further, I had several yards of fabric from the bulletin boards I deconstructed when I moved into my new room and they needed to be repurposed less they take up room in my limited cabinet space. What to do? What to do? {Lightbulb!} Make a fabric banner!

But I don't like to sew! Boo. And all the fancy ones on Etsy have stitching and are $19.95 and up. Gag. Minor detail: I don't own a sewing maching. Hmmmm.

Bring on the Stitch Witchery!

If you're mom didn't pack some of this in your send-you-off-to-college bag (mine did!) and you're not familiar with this stuff, let me just tell you: it's magic. It's an iron-on adhesive used to bond fabric and works like a charm to quickly hem pants or make fabric banners, in my case. Also, it costs $1.77 for 8yds and you can buy it at Walmart or any other crafty store. Love, love, love it.

So you need 3/4 inch Super Strength Stitch Witchery (or something similar), an iron, fabric, and 7/8 inch ribbon.

Now, go cut out a bunch of isosceles triangles. Don't measure. Just eyeball it. That's my method and it works just fine. If they're a little uneven, just go with it. It's called: visual interest.

Now, roll out your ribbon and then roll out some Stitch Witchery right on top of it. If you use the measurements mentioned above, you'll see that the fit is perfect.Next, I overlapped triangles upside down side-by-side on top of the ribbon-Stitch-Witchery combo. You don't want to be able to see the Stitch Witchery because if you iron directly on top of it, your iron will get sticky and that's no good. Hold your iron on top of the fabric-Stitch-Witchery-ribbon combo for 3-5 seconds and it will adhere. Repeat until you have the length of banner that you want. And, voila. You've made yourself a pretty little no-sew fabric banner. And, believe me, it will make you really happy. I strung mine up in the living room for blog's sake only. I have other plans for where it will really go. Also, it cost me under $5 to make. Though the fabric was free this time, you could probably get enough triangles out of a yard to make a fairly lengthy banner (I used around half a yard total and my banner was 18 feet long). It didn't stay up for long because Becks thought it was a little out of place in the living room...Come back next week to see where it will hang :)