It's a Super Hero Sale!

TeachersPayTeachers is having a quick, one-day sale on Wednesday! Several TpT teacher-authors will have their stores at 20% off. Combined with the additional 10% off when you enter code HEROES at checkout, that's some super savings!

We want to help you find "heroic" products that have helped others in their classrooms. I've received a lot of wonderful feedback on my novel units. 

All of my novel units come with chapter by chapter break downs, with comprehension and inferencing questions, vocabulary, and any instances of figurative language that was used. They each include a multitude of extra activities that can be done with the book as well. 

I wanted to share this particular bit of feedback with you that I received for my Invention of Hugo Cabret Novel Unit. It really made my day! 

If you happen to be reading this Christine P., e-mail me your choice of one product from my store as a thank you for taking the time to write such a great feedback!

Click {here} to go check out my other novel study units. There's also a link at the top of my blog that will let you get a quick glance at which titles I have made units for.

Browse around the linky for other "heroic" products, or feel free to grab the graphic and link up your own!

Link-Up Steps

1. Link to a post containing one heroic product and its feedback. Use the graphic if you wish. (No direct links to stores or products, please.)
2. Include the linky button and link it back to this post so others may find great "heroic" products.

An InLinkz Link-up

A couple ways I've motivated my kids this week.

As usual, it's been a busy week! I'm sharing a couple of the things I've done this week to help Spark Student Motivation. Check in with Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching to see more! 

Reading

Recently, I ended up with one of those weird 20 minute blocks to fill due to special events being planned in the middle of my reading block. I've been noticing that some of my kids' book bins have been a little light on back-up books, and that there have been a lot of kids trying to book shop during Read-to-Self. 

I don't allow them to book shop when they're supposed to be reading, so this is a problem. I decided to take advantage of the time by having an old-fashioned Book Look a la Donalyn Miller (The Book Whisperer). If you're not familiar with the concept, it's simple! You select a set of books that you think your kids should read for one reason or another, and your kids sit in a circle passing the books to the left after looking at them for about 45 seconds. By the end of the 20 minutes every kiddo has been exposed to 20+ new book options. At the end of the Book Look I give the kids the opportunity to add the books to their bins if they found one or two that interested them. If two people want a book, we Rock, Paper, Scissors for first dibs. At the end of this Book Look 18 books (all classics that are worth reading no matter who you are!) found their way into a book bin...some with waiting lists attached! 

Math

I've talked recently about one of the cool things going on in my math class, but I haven't talked as much about how much it really motivates my kids. 

In the past I've done Monster Math Battles to cover a lot of different math skills in class. This year I looped up with my kiddos, and even though they begged me to do another Monster Math Tournament, I wanted to do something different. Two of the biggest skills we've covered so far are multi-digit multiplication and long division. This is something the kids just need lots of practice with. 

I've never seen my kids more motivated
to practice math skills!

I knew I wanted to make it more than just boring practice, so that's why I took my Monster Math Battle approach to it, with a twist! I made it a battle between Ninjas and Samurais! My kids love it! They literally beg to see who will be "fighting" the next day. They can't WAIT to do the math problems to find out who wins each battle. They're totally clueless that I'm tricking them into doing the math. There are 5 battles in each pack, and both packs are available as a bundle for $4. If you like the idea, check out my Monster Math Battles, which come with a full 31 battle tournament in a bunch of different skills. 

In other exciting news, my wife and I finally got our printed hard copies of our Adoption profile. We used a website called Mixbook.com. I am super pleased with the results. The pages are thick, glossy, and very well bound. Honestly, they are of a better quality than the school yearbook! Considering this is probably one of the most important documents I've ever designed in my life...I was really nervous. We actually went with a local printer at first, but were very disappointed. Luckily, the local printer told us we didn't have to pay for the ones they made because that prompted me to try out Mixbook. Now...we just wait for the right birthmother to look through one of these! 

In the meantime...grab this up while you can! It'll only be available for a few more weeks! Many of the products are fall themed, so would be great to use in the coming weeks. 

Summer's End and What Did We Miss Linky

Have you heard the good news? TpT is having a second chance sale on the 20th! This is great because when the last sale hit I wasn't really ready to be thinking about back to school yet! But now the month has dwindled away and it's time for me to get ready for school again! I start inservice tomorrow, and the kids return the following week.

I have been CRAZY busy doing paperwork and making preparations for our adoption. It's amazing how many forms there are, and other steps that have to be taken just to get to the point where we're eligible to be matched! I've also been trying to wrap up the construction on our house...which means that I have not had the usual time to go up to the school and get ahead of the game by setting up my room before school starts. I have a feeling this first week will be full of long nights!

So check out my bought, wishlisted, and must have for the sale!

Diane from Fifth in the Middle has put together this great set of ELA centers to help out during Reader's Workshop throughout the year. The activities included cover skills like alphabetizing practice, determining synonyms and antonyms, parts of speech, and vocabulary. Each of the individual products included are perfect to help you plan out one of your centers for at least a week, and with 6 products currently included, that's a lot of help! The best part? Buy it now on the cheap and when Diane adds another product to it and raises the price...you'll be able to re-download it for free and get the new pack!

Coming up with meaningful morning work can be such a struggle. But it doesn't have to be! Why struggle when someone else has done all the work for you?! This pack from Pinkadots Elementary covers a ton of those English Language Arts grammar and usage type skills that sometimes kids just need to practice a bunch to get a firm grip on them. You know, stuff like "Its and It's" and comma usage. I really like how the Friday page is an assessment for the week! I think it's crazy not to grab this up while the sale is going on...a year's worth of leveled ELA morning work at what comes out to under 70 cents a week? Yes, please! My time saved is worth way more than that!

In addition to the rest of my store, I decided to go ahead and put all of my bundles on sale 20% as well! I'm really starting to feel the crunch from all the adoption fees... so maybe I can help you, and you can help me! This would be a great time to grab up my Back to School Bundle! It has six of my most popular back to school products included. During the sale it will be just $9! That's the cheapest these products will ever be! That's kind of like buy 2 get 4 free!

This would also be a great time to grab up two of my most popular Monster Math Battle Tournaments bundled together! The multiplication and division tournaments can be mixed together to have one big tournament! During the sale you could grab the bundle for $5.76! That's almost buy one get one free!

My whole store will be on sale for 20% off, and don't forget to put in your promo code to get your extra savings! I've got a lot of other great products that you could grab for cheap! People seem to love my novel units and my math games, and this is a great time to save on those. So, please check out my store!

The Julian Chapter - MMI!

I am super excited to be sharing my Monday Made It from 4th Grade Frolics with all of you! 

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am obsessed with the book Wonder by RJ Palacio. It's amazing, and if you haven't taken the time to read it yet...what are you waiting for?!

If you're not obsessed like me, then you might not be aware that RJ Palacio has written a companion novel titled The Julian Chapter. It's available pretty cheaply and only as ebook or an audiobook. It is definitely worth the read. 

If you're familiar with Wonder, then you know that Julian's perspective was missing from the original storyline. Now Julian has his chance to tell his side of the story. Even better than that, Julian's story continues past the ending of Wonder and gives us a chance to see what happens next! I don't want to ruin anything, but I'll leave it at saying that you have to read this wonderful redemption story.

And...OF COURSE I had to make a novel unit for it too! I spent a lot of time giving this book my usual detailed treatment, and in the process fell back in love with all of the characters from Wonder...this time that includes Julian. The Julian Chapters Novel Study Unit includes my usual chapter by chapter break downs, and also 7 more activities to use with this book and Wonder. I just put the finishing touches on it, and I hope you'll grab it up in my store for just $3.00!  A steal, right?!

I also took this as an opportunity to freshen up my original Wonder by RJ Palacio Novel Study Unit. I added the Symbolism with Wonder Activity and my Picture Vocabulary Sheets, so now this 174 page unit is even more of a steal!

My lovely wife took lots of pictures
while we visited Sapelo Island.

So grabbing up my new unit would certainly help motivate me during my second Monday Made It. I guess this one would have to be considered a work in progress at the moment because I am currently doing it. Killer B and I have been in GA vacationing and visiting family for the summer. 

But it is finally time to make the long drive home. 14 hours to be exact! Visiting with family has been nice, but It'll be great to get home and start focusing on getting things ready for next school year, getting my home improvement projects done, etc. 

So, wish me luck on my long drive with a cranky-while-driving wife and two very restless German Shepherds! I'll be counting down the miles!

Back to the Archive - 7/23/13 - Advice for New Teachers

I'm popping in from the past again with another Back to the Archive post! This one is from last year! I'm giving out some sage advice to all the new teachers out there! ;)

So...let's go BACK!

I'm tripling up and linking up with the "Loving Wisdom for New Teachers" Linky from Fabulously First, the Let's Get Acquainted - Teacher Advice Linky from Flying into First Grade, and this linky from Miss Kindergarten:

To do a little linky alchemy, my ten things are in the form of advice, gleaned from my observations and personal experiences + mistakes + successes over the years. (Also, I've thrown in some photos to break up my wordiness.)

Me as a fresh-faced first year
teacher! Bwahaha! Look at that
cool guy...

Well, this next year will be my lucky 13th year of teaching and I have definitely noticed some trends, and learned quite a bit in that time. I'm going to try to not repeat too many of the great ideas I've already read in these linkies. If I do repeat a bit, sorry! I'm afraid some of these will come off as preachy or know-it-allish, please know that that's not my intention! I've definitely even been guilty of a couple of these. But that leads me to my first one...

#1 - Don't ever think you've mastered it. I once worked with a guy who told me that he was planning to move into a principal position because he had "completely mastered" teaching. He'd been teaching for all of 5 years. I refrained from punching his lights out, but I did imagine doing it. If there's one thing I've learned from teaching, it is that one can never master it. You should always be striving to become a better educator.

#2 - Don't let people or "things" steal your passion. Less than desirable trends, admin, parent interactions, curriculum programs, NCLB, etc will come and go. Close your door and do what's best for your kids. Easier said than done sometimes, I know!

#3 - Love what you teach, and if you don't...pretend or at least still love how you teach it. Like our friend Dave Burgess will attest, enthusiasm is key. If you have to teach American History up to the Civil War to 5th graders and couldn't care less about history... pretend. If asked, my students would say I'm crazy about history. In reality I didn't have any interest in it...until I started to act like I did and used full fledged, in depth simulations to teach it. Now it's actually interesting to me!

#4 - Share. Seems simple, but I've found that it's not. If you do something cool in your room, share it! I want to believe that the reason teachers don't share is because they are shy about their ideas. (But I know that some just don't like to share the limelight of a good idea. :(  ) The students always benefit when teachers share. So don't be shy, and don't wait for a colleague to ask you! If your colleagues don't like your ideas they won't use them. Afraid you'll look too proud of your own ideas? Who cares? You SHOULD be proud. The end.

Don't fall into the trap of
being a screamer.

#5 - Keep control. We've all had kids with behaviors that are...less than perfect. We've all known teachers who are screamers. (Or maybe you're lucky and haven't!) Don't be that teacher. If you're screaming, you've lost control...don't blame it on your kids. 

#6 - Have high expectations for learning and behavior...AND enforce them. If you don't back up your expectations then they're meaningless. I think a lot of teachers who struggle with classroom management tell their kids that they have high expectations but then when the kids don't meet them they just let it go. 

#7 - Plan. I know that many of you will read that and think, "duh!" But in my opinion planning is not just smart, it's our duty. Kids deserve their days/lessons to be well thought out and planned with them specifically in mind. Taught it 12 times before? Not to these kids you haven't. "But I want to be flexible in my teaching." Great! But being flexible is not NOT having a plan...I've heard that from teachers across my career and it's a pet peeve of mine.

Freebie!

#8 - Fair is not the same as equal. Our society stresses that everyone should be treated equally. And in many cases that is true. But I think when it comes to education it's more important that people are treated fairly. Everyone should have the equal opportunity to reach their full potential. Click my poster over there to download one for yourself for free! Check out my band-aid lesson post for more on this topic.

#9 - Remember your real job. I almost think the hidden curriculum is more important than the actual academic curriculum. Public education was created to make people into better citizens. If I help make my kids into good people, give them good life experiences, provide them with a place that they feel safe and loved, plan exciting and engaging lessons, and get to know them as people...the test scores and all that will work itself out.

I met Killer B when she was a resource teacher
and taught in the classroom next to mine. I
eventually tricked her into marrying me!

#10 - Keep an open mind. Whether you've heard rumors about a kid on your roster, think you can't learn anything from a professional development meeting, think your methods are already good enough, etc...chances are, you're wrong. Sometimes it's easy to go into something with a fixed mindset rather than a growth mindset. And when you do that, you're bound to miss out on some wonderful opportunities. 

My contribution to Let's Get Acquainted!

So I hope that didn't come off as too soapboxy. A lot of those served as great reminders to myself! Hopefully there are some new teachers and veterans out there that at least can read this and think, "Right on!" 

Didn't win? It's just $5! Click the image to get one!

So, Killer B picked a winner at random (she didn't even know what I was asking her about!) for my pin it to win it for the Book of Awesome Tasks, and it was Joanne M.! I've already e-mailed your prize to you, and I hope you love it as much as I do!

Don't forget to link up this summer!

An InLinkz Link-up

Back to School Goals - Planning for 2014-15

Howdy all! As promised, I'm linking up again with I {heart} Recess for the Back to School Goals linky! Last time I reflected on last year's goals. This time I'm looking ahead!

My goals for the 2014-15 school year:

Killer B is my lovely wife, btw!

Personal: I'm definitely guilty of being one of those 24/7/365 teacher types. Killer B and I have no kids of our own, so I end up putting a lot of myself into my school kids. Oftentimes too much. Not to get all sappy but, I really need to learn how to shut down teacher-mode and take more time for myself. It's tough because I'm filling up that hole in my life (all those hours most people my age are spending with their kids) with teachery things. Still waiting to figure out what Killer B and I are going to do about that... But on a lighter note... I also want to be sure that I keep my blog up to date and relevant with handy tips and useful activities!

Organization: My desk is sometimes a wreck, and sometimes it's super clean and organized! The problem? When it is super clean it is usually because I've stacked up all the random stuff and papers and stuck them in a drawer! Then at the end of the year I have this drawer full of papers that need to be filed... I really just need to clean off my desk and file the stuff right away. I need to turn my hideaway drawer into something useful!

Planning: Since I teach a 3rd/4th grade looping multi-age, half of my kiddos will be coming back to me next year. So the unique challenge I face is that my new 4th graders have already seen all my tricks when they were my 3rd graders. This means I need all new read-alouds, all new word work activities, all new writing mini-lessons, all new math projects and games, all new mentor sentences, all new science and SS units, and so on. Keeping it fresh means planning this year almost as if it were my first year teaching... and I can't use some of my tried and true favorites! Aaagh!

I was even in their promotional video!

Professional: Penn State has an amazing PDS program. The interns (student teachers) we get from PSU spend the entire year with us, from before the first planning day all the way til the last day of school. They work the same hours I work. They end up getting an amazing pre-service teaching experience that prepares them for teaching better than any other system I've seen. I've been mentoring interns and working with the program for 4 years, and this will be my 5th! I am trying to become more involved with the program, and would love to be a professional development associate for them in the future.  

One way I try to motivate them is by using
read beads and brag tags!

Students: I feel like I do a good job of challenging my kiddos, but I want them to have more intrinsic motivation to challenge themselves. I want them to try and read challenging books, and write more interesting stories for the sake of the challenge and not just because they are supposed to do it!

Motto: The good news is that after I survive this year, the following year should be much easier because I'll be able to go back to "Year 1" and use some of the materials I've made and procured instead of having to reinvent the wheel AGAIN for every single subject, every single day...

Wish me luck this year! What are your goals for the year?

Five for Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July! 

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

1.

This is what our 4th Fest looks like...

How do you all celebrate the 4th? I know a lot of people get really into going to a huge fireworks display, or have a picnic or BBQ...but Killer B and I have always been a bit more laid back. We usually buy a few rockets and roman candles to set off for our dogs to watch, and that's about it! Woohoo!

Seriously though, we're almost always visiting family in Atlanta around this time of year, so it's hard to do too much.

It's kind of a bummer that this holiday is in the summer. It'd be a lot of fun to celebrate it with the kids at school. There are so many cool things you could do with them too! 

2.

Don't forget to stop by and enter this giveaway! Today's the last day to enter! There are lots of great prizes to be won!

3.

I'm sharing my favorite font of all time today! It's one I made a while back for the express purpose of using only a little ink. I make a lot of my bigger TpT files using this font. It's called Nick's Typewriter because it's my handwriting in typewriter style letters. Grab it up for free! 

4.

Not at all related to the Fourth of July, but I'm getting excited about the Institute on Academic Differentiation I'll be attending in a couple of weeks at the University of Virginia! The leader of the institute is Carol Ann Tomlinson. The workshops are all about things like flexible grouping, mindset, close reading, teaching up for complexity, etc. The institute is offered at two levels, and I'm excited to be going to the more advanced version because I hopefully won't have to worry about any of the workshops being too introductory. 

Monticello is right next door! I'm looking forward to
marking this site off of my must-see list!

Spending a week away from my lovely wife, while doing teachery things in the summer is sure to be a challenge...but luckily I'll have some good company! My principal and another teacher from my team are going with me! They're both cool, so I'm sure dinners and after workshop activities will be fun too. This is one of the few times that being a male teacher in elementary pays off by the way...can you say "hotel room to myself?" I can! I can finally snore all I want without Killer B punching me in my sleep!

Hopefully if the jealousy I have of all my BBBs who are going to the TpT Conference in Vegas hasn't worn off by then, this'll help.

5.

Just for fun I thought I'd put some of the patriotic products in my TpT store on sale for Independence Day! Actually they're on sale all weekend. I also put all of my Kaboom math games on sale too, because you know... kaboom... like fireworks!

So grab some stuff at 20% off and let's help stimulate the American economy together! ;)

Here's a few of my favorites that are on sale:

The full list of all 10 on sale items can be seen here:

My BBB Emily over at I Love My Classroom is also having a sale!

Enjoy your weekend!