Back to School Goals - Reflection

I'm linking up with my BBB I {heart} Recess for her Back to School Goals linky! I love the idea of reflecting on last year's goals, so I'm going to start with that! I'll be back in a couple days with my new goals for this year!

Here were my goals for the 2013-14 school year:

Personal: I have to admit, Killer B and I started off really strong with this one...then it petered out. As the school year went by we'd come home tired and just feel like vegging out sometimes, or I'd have too much schoolwork to do. Before you knew it, it was a Tuesday and we really just wanted to relax in front of the TV...and then BAM...once you break a rule once it's easy to break it again.

Organization: I think I set up a pretty nice classroom this year! I was moving classrooms and took it as an opportunity to totally change my colors, theme, all the posters, etc. I think it turned out really well. I'll make a few changes this year, but not too many!

Planning: Since I was also totally new to the 3rd/4th multi-age I kind of had no choice BUT to plan like a pirate! I put a lot of effort into making several Math project-based learning simulations, and I really worked hard at making my Writer's Workshop interesting. 

I made this bookmark for myself to use while planning. Grab one up for yourself for free!

Professional: I've gone totally digital with my lesson planning now, and I think it has been great. I made a block planning sheet in Google Presentations that I can duplicate each week and then type into to plan. The bonus? I can SHARE my plans easily with my intern, and all of the special educators and paras I work with. No more, "I didn't know you were doing such and such at this time!" I've talked to other colleagues about this and they can't believe that I share my plans like that...I say, "Why not?!" I'm proud of my plans, I've got nothing to hide...I plan awesome stuff.

Just a fun throwback picture. We took these fun
photo booth pics at the beginning of the year. You
can get the props in my TpT store for $1.50!

Students: I worked really hard for this one too. I had a particular kiddo this year that usually hated school, and I feel like I made him like school. I think I succeeded at this one!

Motto: This past year was great! The move to 3/4 was definitely a good one for me! I am still loving what I do!

See you soon for my new goals!

Vacation time, 150th post, and three $1 deals!

The Sapelo Island lighhouse!

So, we've made it down for our annual trip to GA - just a 13 hour drive - and I have finally recovered from the driving part! Aside from visiting family, we'll also be spending a few days in Savannah and a few days on Sapelo Island. I'm excited to go to Sapelo, because it's one of those places off the coast of GA where there are no street lights, no businesses really, it's not a tourist destination, and you have to take a ferry to get to it!

So in honor of my vacation, the end of the month, and this being my 150th post I've decided to put three of my products up as dollar deals for the rest of the month! Summer is a great time to create, so hopefully these will help with that! The sale ends at the stroke of midnight on July 1st, so grab them while you can! Just $1 each! Get all three and save $5!

       

 I'll be chiming in again soon with another Back from the Archive post! See you then!

Last Day of School, and a Bittersweet Goodbye!

Our End of Year All School Gathering!

Today was our last day of school with students for the year! It's hard to believe that this year is already up! My first year teaching a 3rd and 4th grade multi-age was full of fun, surprises, challenges, and learning opportunities. I like to think that we did a pretty good job with our kiddos this year! 

Ending the year was a little different this time around. For the last two years it was really bittersweet because I was sending fifth graders off to middle school. This year, half of my kids will be with me again (looping up to be my fourth graders) so while I'll still miss them this summer, I know that it won't be long before I see them again. The other half will just be a few doors down in their new 5th grade room. And I'm almost certain to run into a few in the neighborhood over the summer! 

Chelsea, with her Thank You Gift Basket from the
kids and I!

One person that won't be coming back is my intern, Chelsea. She's officially graduated and completed her internship, and will hopefully be offered a classroom of her own somewhere very soon! A smart principal will snatch her up right away, because she will be an amazing teacher! This year wouldn't have been the same without all of her help, for me or the kids. I'll really miss her help, perspective, and ideas...but mostly I'll miss her friendship. But I know it's time for her to continue her teaching journey (and to finally get paid to do it!) She did an amazing job this year, and I'm super proud of her. I'm hoping for only the best for her and her future. I love knowing that by mentoring her this year I'll be touching the lives of all her future students. Those students will be lucky to have her!

On a happier news front, before the kids left for the year, I was able to unveil a new addition to our school grounds that I'm super proud of! Teacherspayteachers has been such a blessing to me, that I wanted to do something to give back to the students in my school (who always serve as unknowing guinea pigs for my products). I'm a BIG reader, often reading a few hours every night, and I know that reading in the summer is one of the best things kids can do to avoid summer slide. So I decided to donate this Little Free Library to my school! It was installed and presented to the kids today! It's already been stocked with books, and I'm looking forward to seeing those books disappear into kids' hands when they visit the playground, the local pool just down the hill, or even if they just drive right up to grab one! If you're interested in putting a LFL in your neighborhood or on your school grounds, check out the link!  

So now I've just got two more days of professional development and meetings and paperwork to go before finally kicking up my heels and binging on Netflix shows! I've got lots of home improvement plans, like the basement flood-proofing that is going on right now! And of course, I'll also be popping in to update throughout the summer! Have a great one!

Well, it WAS Friday when I started this post!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! (Well, at least I STARTED this post on Friday!)

I'm sad to say that this picture was taken on Wednesday.
After 2 full days of work! PS - I HATE my yellow wall.

First and foremost is the thing that has been consuming my life this week...you guessed it! Prepping my classroom! As I've mentioned a hundred times, I'm moving to a 3rd/4th grade multi-age classroom this year (and hopefully for the next decade or two!) and that means changing classrooms. Even though I just had to move down the hall, I'm still starting from scratch as far as materials, classroom library, bulletin boards, etc. 

Also, I discovered that I have accumulated a lot of stuff in my 12 years. I'm a teacher-stuff hoarder. I admit it. But this week I was looking at my mess and I noticed this jack o'lantern bucket amongst the piles. I realized I've carried that bucket across four different schools in two different states and I have NEVER USED IT for anything. It went to the teacher freebie table in the lounge along with a ton of other stuff!

So the next thing is something that makes me happy. When I inherited my new room it came with a classroom rug that had been stained and cut, and stained and cut some more. So much in fact that it is now basically about 4x5 feet in area. I call kids to the carpet a bajillion times a day it seems, so I need a good rug. I shelled out the big bucks myself and got this one for my classroom. I had a similar one way back when I taught Kindergarten and I loved it because each kiddo had their own little box to sit in! I like this one even more because it is six across and four deep, AND the colors are more muted and not primary. Fingers crossed that I don't have more than 24 students in my class this year...

Just thought I'd share Killer B's idea of "helping" when we took a load of boxes up to my classroom the other night. She's checking out the first batch of books to make it into the classroom library while I set up my desks!

So of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the big Back to School sale over at TpT on Sunday and Monday! I've got a few things on my wishlist that I'm excited to finally buy! Here's a handy trick...buy 3/4 of your list on Sunday, leave some positive feedback to get those TpT credits and then use those credits to help pay for the rest of your list on Monday! If you haven't wishlisted half of my store yet...what are you waiting for?! Sheesh!  ;)

So, longtime readers of my blog will remember that I've been trying to get back into shape this summer and have been pretty successful. I officially hit 30 pounds lost two days ago! This mission began when I took my 5th grade class on a field trip to Philly at the end of last school year. I wore my bright red Spider-Man hoodie so that kids could see me when crossing streets. Well, at one point a middle schooler from another school points at me and says, "Hey look it's Spider-Man!...the FAT ONE!" Hahaha. I'm not going to lie, it was funny to me when he said it. Then the next day at school some kids brought me pictures they had taken of me on the trip and it hit me...I was Fat Spider-Man. That had to change.

So after a radical change in diet (I went from a SeeFood diet to controlling my portions, basically) and some walking, I finally weigh what I did when I started teaching 12 years ago! (My wife has never known me when I was this in shape! What-what?!) I'm 6'1" and somewhat muscular, so having 30 lbs on top of that was making me look like a giant. 10 more lbs to lose and then I'll be at what I would consider my ideal weight! 

To celebrate my loss, Killer B and I have signed up to run in our very first 5k ever, and it's a Color Run! I can't wait! It's not until the end of September though.

Well, it's officially my LAST weekend of Summer! I'm going to try and enjoy it! 

Sunday Smorgasbord Randomness!

So it's a good thing that Fabulous in First hosts this fun Sunday Smorgasbord linky, because everything I have to blog about right now is kind of random.

I've been reading everyone else's back to school posts with a mixture of jealousy (I know, easy to say that now!) and relief. I'm a crazy planner, and I love to be ahead of the game. I'm moving classrooms AND grade levels this year, so I feel like I'm already weeks behind the curve. Right now my school is being cleaned, so I can't get into my new room and work. So that's where the jealousy comes from. The relief is that I still have a few weeks of summer to get my act together.

So, time for some randomness! If you follow me on instagram, then maybe you've seen my growing addiction to one of the latest craft trends, washi tape! As a long-time crafter I've been using colored/patterned craft tape for years. But I always bought it online with a very specific use in mind. But now that washi tape is becoming popular, I can find it in stores easily. Before I knew it I had accumulated these 18 rolls in the matter of a few days. 

While working on non-teaching related crafts I've ended up with lots of scraps, so I randomly started doing this to my keyboard. Now it has become a craft of its own and I'm using it as an excuse to buy some more varieties of tape to finish off the last 13 keys I plan to do. (I'm not going to do the letters and punctuation I don't think.) See how this problem is growing? I've found myself washi taping all kinds of things. It's out of control.

You could tell the mailman was wondering
why I was delivered 3 giant boxes that weighed
almost nothing!

So, I did a donorschoose project last year and acquired a bunch of brand new beanbags for my classroom. And when I moved my stuff into my new classroom (all in boxes, stuffed in closets...stress) I discovered that the exiting teacher had left behind 4 large black beanbags for me too! The problem? They're all flat as pancakes. So, that's why I went ahead and ordered these big bags of bean bag pellets from Walmart online for $12 a pop. I couldn't find any in person. It looks like a lot of stuffing, but I'm curious to see how far it goes in the beanbags. 

I broke down and solved a problem that I've dealt with every few years for my entire career. I don't know if everyone else deals with this or not, but I have been buying and replacing these blue cardboard mailboxes every 3 or so years because by that point they're collapsing and broken. I bought some new ones the year before last with classroom funds, but since I am moving rooms and grades I had to leave them behind, leaving me in the position of either buying the same blue ones or investing in something else. 

I decided to try out this plastic set from Staples. I bought two of them, but put them together to just make one big set of mailboxes. It's still only about 2 feet tall. I'm pretty happy with how sturdy they feel, and I'm looking forward to not having to worry about replacing mailboxes ever again. Of course, spending another $110 out of pocket was the trade off. Shhh...don't tell Killer B!

Now I just need to find a durable and reasonably priced solution to book boxes. My magazine files are BEAT. I'm thinking about doing plastic shoeboxes in their desks. Thoughts? Solutions? Help!

Have you seen this documentary yet? If not, it's on Netflix instant streaming right now and well worth the hour and 40 minutes. Killer B and I watched it last night. To see how some of these community members and educators handle (or not handle) bullying is heartbreaking, but eye-opening. It's a good reminder that this stuff is happening everywhere, every day.

On a lighter note...

Today is the last day to sign up for my 350+ follower giveaway! I'm going to put together one of those fun "everybody wins" giveaways if/when I finally hit 500!

I hope you've stopped by the great Grades 4-6 Pins board on Pinterest. The $50 TpT gift card is still up for grabs for the rest of today! Go enter if you haven't already (the rafflecopter is in my last post), and thanks so much to everyone who has taken the time to follow my TpT store!

New classroom theme and other goodies for me...

Because you can never have
enough border...

So, as everyone who reads this humble blog of mine knows, my basement flooded recently and was being a real downer on my summer vacation. So I took some measures to make myself feel better and they worked pretty well! I'm not sure if "retail therapy" is the best way to deal with things...but I needed these things, right?!

I decided that I am going to take the fact that I am moving grade levels and classrooms as an opportunity to change up my classroom theme and colors for the first time in years and years. I've had an insect theme for sooo long and to be honest I tired of it two years ago. My colors have been primary green, yellow, red and blue (solids, no patterns) for as long as I can remember too...and I'm just over it now.

80% off at the Hob Lob made all this under $80.

Of course, a new theme means shopping! So, after some virtual and in-person trips, I found some great things to go in my room!

In my new division we study Africa, Japan, Air & Aviation, Ecosystems, and Pennsylvania History, among other things. This, plus a few other factors (like my rockin' new blog design) led me to decide to go with "180 days around the world" or basically a world travel theme as my new focus and a color switch to more subdued earthy/jewel tones. I haven't even started fixing up my new room yet and I'm super excited.

Because I really needed more scrapbook
paper, right?! Killer B says no.

I've redone most of my old classroom posters already, made new CAFE headers, made all new CAFE strategy cards for my board, made some new library labels, made a custom writing process progress clip chart, pinned like crazy on pinterest, and busted out my washi tape and mod podge. (That's another post!)

I do have some challenges to overcome though... This is my new classroom. See the giant primary yellow wall?! Aaargh. Also, notice anything missing on the floor? It's not just because they're cleaning the floors...this room doesn't come with a carpet! Apparently it kept getting cut smaller and smaller because of stains until it didn't really exist anymore. Double Aaargh! I call the kids to "the carpet" like a hundred times a day! But I've been doing some research and just might invest in a cool carpet of my own. (Shhh! Don't tell Killer B! They're crazy expensive!)

And, Killer B was already nice enough to not say a word when I insisted that we really, really needed a new high-quality (for a change!) color printer. This is the one we got, and I must say it r.o.c.k.s. The print and scan quality is ridiculous. 

All those fancy new posters, student numbers, CAFE headers, etc that I've been working on look great. 

But what good would printing high quality images be if they just got torn to shreds on the first day of school?! Well, that was all the justification I needed to finally take the plunge and get myself one of these bad boys. And I have to say, if you have been hesitant about getting your own personal laminator...jump in. 

This is my current "to cut" pile. Getting bigger every day.

I love it. It laminates at a MUCH higher quality than when my school laminates stuff. And in my district teachers can't laminate for themselves. We have to/get to send it (and all of our copies) off to the "print shop" where they are printed or laminated and then sent back to us about a week later. Obviously this has its ups and downs. It's really nice to not have to do most of my own copying, but every once in awhile it's a pain to have to get everything approved and sent in a week in advance. But, no more downs for me when it comes to laminating!

I was reminded of this some ecard!

Anyone else changing themes this year? I feel like I'm so obsessed with getting my room organized and decorated that I can't focus on making myself get down and dirty with the actual standards, objectives, and how I want to do my workshops, etc. But I'm justifying it because it's early in my summer! I'll worry about that in August!

A freebie sandwich during my looong drive ahead!

 

Killer B took this photo of the Atlanta skyline!

So, my long vacation with Killer B to visit family in Georgia is finally at end. Time to head back home, which means a 14 hour drive that will potentially be ended with me coming home to a flooded basement...let's all keep those fingers crossed! 

Despite it being my vacation, I have been SUPER busy working nights on some ongoing projects for my own classroom and TpT store! I love that TpT kind of makes me prettify my stuff. I think the kids benefit because it's more engaging when it's cute. My Monday Made it is my freebie sandwich!

So, what's a freebie sandwich?! If you bear with me, there's a freebie, some jibber-jabber, a deal, and another freebie for you at the end! (Don't skip ahead! I won't know you cheated, but God will!)    ;)

First, a freebie. Before I even have my kids write their first word in  my writing workshop, I have them think and think some more about a nice list of things that they could write about. I don't want to be writing about "Small moments" like Lucy Caulkins says, and the kiddo can't even think about a big topic to get them started! So I usually start by having my kids brainstorm a list of things they love. I made this sheet to put in the front of their writing folders next year. It's "50 things I love..." Of course, I don't expect them to fill out the whole sheet at once, but I wanted them to have space to add things throughout the year. It would be a fun beginning of year activity too! If you download it and like it, I'd love for you to rate it!

Now for the jibber-jabber. I want to show you something I'm proud of. I have been working on this for a while now. I read this book and did these activities with my students this past year and we loved it. Tom Angleberger is the genius behind Origami Yoda. One of his newest books is Fake Mustache. It's all about this kid who has a friend named Casper that buys a fake mustache that has hypnotic powers. Casper eventually uses the power of the mustache to become president of the United States, but is thwarted by the two protagonists of the story, Lenny Flem Jr. and Jodie O'Rodeo. The book is great fun, and presents a lot of learning opportunities.

I especially like that it is really light hearted...which makes a great follow up to one of our more serious read-alouds like Wonder. (Check out my 170 page novel unit on that wonderful book!)

I prepared a lot of activities for Fake Mustache, including a lapbook that students can make and work on while reading the book. I wrote both comprehension and inferring questions for every chapter of the book. This unit also contains some of my more popular reading group activities, including my Theme Defense activity and my Teach Plot Three Ways graphic organizers, which can be used with any book. So you're really getting a deal when you buy the unit! I've got the entire Fake Mustache Novel Unit marked down to just $5 for the whole month of July! That's just 8 cents a page. Spread out over a 30 year teaching career...that's just .2777 of a cent per page! A steal, right?!

If your kids are anything like mine, they are probably obsessed with anything with a mustache on it. Aw, who am I kidding? So am I! So in honor of finishing my fake mustache unit, I made this cute little clip art collection of mustaches, in rainbow colors! I've been working on these for a while now too, and I was happy to finish them just as I wrapped up on my novel unit! Just $5 for all 156 images! (3 cents a mustache! Come on, people!)

Finally, I finished working on this fun little pack of worksheets. I've had my kids do this before, and they loved it. It makes a great math center, morning work activity, or fast finisher activity. I've even had kids ask to do it when we have to do indoor recess! 

Basically, the student rolls dice and then adds or multiplies (depending on the sheet, both are included!) to determine how many body parts their monster should have. Sometimes the things that come out of their minds when they draw are just awesome. Like this little guy in the picture here! 

So here's the deal. I have a 14 hour drive ahead of me. A cha-ching here and there would definitely make that drive more bearable! So, anyone who buys the Fake Mustache Novel Unit between now and when I get home around 8am Monday morning, (and e-mails me to let me know you saw this post!) can have their choice of the Mustaches Clip Art or the Roll and Draw a Monster sheets for free!

Not good enough, you say? Well, just for bearing with me this long, you can head on over to my facebook page and grab up your Fan Freebie for liking my page! Just click on the "Fan Freebie" tab to get your very own copy of my version of the "In Our Class" poster! I don't like the ones that say "We do kindness. We do edit.We do questions. etc." So, I made my own, more grammatically-pleasing-to-my-ears version! Here's what it looks like!

Thanks for taking part in my freebie sandwich! I hope you found something worthwhile! Please come back on Tuesday for info on my first linky ever...Tunes Tuesday! I'd love it if we had a lot of participation!