A Day in the Life of a Classroom Teacher

Oh Where, Oh Where, Has This Little Blog Gone...

2011-12-08T21:22:00.000-08:00

Remember how I told you all that I don't have my own classroom because I teach half the day in one teacher's class and half the day in another teacher's class? Well... I have had to rethink some things and adapt a little. Because I teach math (calendar included) and I didn't have the wall space for my calendar materials, I had to improvise a little. A friend gave me one of those huge science project presentation boards (covered in clear contact paper) and here is what I came up with...

I will obviously be sharing all of these files with you all in the post. But are a few things to note. I tried just using StickyTac to stick everything on and then used labeled clothes pins to mark the Days of the Week, Season, and Months. Both of those ideas did not work. Stuff was sliding off every other day and the kids were having a hard time with the clothes pins. I then switched to foam mounting squares to stick everything that was permanent down. This has lasted. I also swapped the clothes pins out for velcro. The calendar is a bulletin board set from DJ Inkers. The Days in School pocket chart is from a local teacher supply store.

If you want to make your own... here are the templates.

((I bought the weather one so I can't share it with you. Sorry.))

Well, as always I hope someone can use this stuff and I really have missed you all! I will post again very soon.

Kinder Math Sorting Mats & Updates

2011-09-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

Wow. After this last summer, I didn't think I could take a one month break from blogging... but look at me. I did. This last month has been nothing but C-R-A-Z-Y! I opened that kinder class that I told you all about, but two and a half weeks into it, I got an offer to go back to the school I taught at last year. I could not say no. I loooved my principal and had made sooo many great friends there that I took the offer and had one afternoon to pack up and move. ((I was secretly hoping this would happen and hadn't brought much stuff with me in case I had oh, a good 2 hours to pack.))

So my new position is kind of interesting. I am teaching math and writing in two kinder classes of 33 kiddos each. It's kind of weird because all I have is a desk and a cabinet to put my things. Not to mention, I am like a lot of you and obsessed with room environment. I have no control over that with the classroom. Plus the back and forth between the classes makes for a looong day.

Now you know why I have been MIA... but I am BACK and plan on posting a lot. Especially when it comes to writing because our writing curriculum is awful and I just plan on using it very loosely.

As a way of saying sorry for neglecting you and get you all back in my good graces... here are some math sorting mats I made. Just laminate and place in a tray or tub or baggy and you've got yourself some workshop activities.

So... I hope that makes up for me being MIA. I really have missed you all and can't wait for things to calm down and get back to posting!

I got my job back!!

2011-08-28T18:49:00.000-07:00

Soooo first, I am feeling all kinds of guilty for not posting in forever. As I've mentioned before, I received a layoff notice last year and have just been crossing my fingers and hoping that California could get a budget together and my district could find the money to bring me back. Well guess what?! They called me last Tuesday and offered me a kindergarten spot at a new school. No more 2nd grade, which makes me a little sad, but I am really excited to be back in kinder. I wasn't really able to do much in my classroom until last Friday and we start back on Tuesday. Yes, TUESDAY. Not a lot of time. Crazy.

The really good news is that now that I know what grade I am teaching, I can start creating things and taking pictures and posting very soon. I really have missed sharing with you all. Oh, and if you are a kinder teacher, please leave me a comment so I can come stalk your blog or Pinterest!

Vocabulary Template and Exciting News!

2011-08-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

I was accepted as an author to "Me and My Gang". It was originally made for 2nd grade teachers to find each other, but now the girls who started it are opening it up to other grade levels. Head on over and get yourself an author spot.

Also...

I made this page to go with our Imagine It!/Open Court adoption. I had the students write the word (broken into syllables) in the long box, a picture in the smaller one, and the rest is self-explanatory. Hopefully some of you can use it as well! :)

I have a confession to make...

2011-08-08T17:48:00.000-07:00

... Pinterest has kind of taken over my blogging. I am loooving all of the ideas out there. When I first started using Pinterest, there were no other teachers out there using it and classroom pics were so hard to find. Now that we have all found each other through Blogland, I am spending hours pinning away. It's kind of crazy too because it seems like we all kinda like the same things -- even outside of teaching. So I just thought I'd share some of my favorite things I have pinned lately...

Obsessed with this balloon idea from Mrs. McComish at Monarch Madness. She is new to the blog scene and has some really cute classroom pictures you guys should check out. Not to mention she is having her first giveaway... $20 to Target.

Cupcake Linner Ribbons?! Yes please. Totally cute and super easy to make. This idea is from Charlotte's Fancy. This site is super addicting. It's not all crafty and cutesy though.

How cute would it be to get ahold of your teacher friends' class lists and make them these as a little Back to School gift. Adorable. The idea is from K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, sister)

I.need.these.now. How much cuter would everything be if this bordered it?! Print Candee on Etsy of course.

Not only does this look super colorful and cute... it's sooooo true...

Just when you thought Shark Week was over and you were safe...

And because I am hoping that I am not the only one who tortures myself by watching Criminal Minds, at night, in the dark, while I am home alone, which obviously makes me the biggest scaredy cat ever --- I leave you with this.

Matt Damon defending teachers! Looove it!

2011-08-03T08:45:00.000-07:00

Have you all seen this?! I have always been a Matt Damon fan, but now I am ~~going to leave my boyfriend for him~~ loving him even more! Check out this video!

Happy Birthday Freebie!

2011-08-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

Hey Bloggy Friends! I just wanted to share with you all what I do for birthdays in my classroom. Mine is coming up -- 2 months away, but it's close in my mind. ((I've even started a Pinterest board full of gift ideas so when people ask me what I want I don't have to answer with the usual "hmmm. I dunno."))

Soooo.... back to what I do in my classroom.

I print out one of these... I color it and type their name on it. I obviously had to take the name part off so it would be more "blog sharing friendly". ((I have such a love/hate relationship with PDFs right now. ))

You can click on the picture to get a copy of it.

Then I make a class set of this... the Birthday Boy/Girl gets to share some things that want for their birthdays and I draw a quick sketch of it on the board and label it. Then the students head back to their desk and draw what they wish they could give the birthday b/g. It can be something we discussed or something else. ((In kinder - I had a boy that would always give the girls a princess Barbie. Sooo cute!)) Then they sign their name, turn it in to me, and I make it into a book. Also, in kinder I would use a tracing font so the kids could trace Happy Birthday ____ and Love, ____.

Classroom ABC's

2011-08-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

So, I was doing some "Summer Cleaning" of my files and blog posts and accidently deleted a post ((totally thought it was a draft)). I didn't think anyone would miss it so I never reposted. Well, much to my surprise, people are actually reading this little ol' blog of mine and using the stuff I post. I have been getting a lot of emails for the Classroom ABCs form that was on the post I deleted, so I thought I'd put it back up here.

I have to tell you... I did not come up with the ideas of ABCing your classroom rules/procedures. I originally saw it on Christina Bainbridge's website. I loved the idea so much that I googled "classroom abcs" and a ton of other teachers do it as well. If one of the letters' words on here doesn't work for you, check these websites and I am sure you will find something.

1. Mrs. Bainbridge's Class Website

2. Mrs. Sano's Class Website

3. Pro Teacher

4. Mrs. Niemiec's Class Website

5. Mrs. Gerew's Class Website

Anyways, here it is and hopefully you can put it to good use!

If you want it in Word, just email me and I will send it your way - fonts attached! :)

Click the picture to download a PDF.

I am soooo loving all of these giveaways right now...

2011-07-31T16:54:00.000-07:00

One of my most favorite blogs to read lately is Kristin's from A Teeny Tiny Teacher. Her friend's daughter just got a job at a charter school that is ... are you ready for this... IN A MALL! Seriously. Read her posts on it. Hilarious. Also, she is a Big Brother fan and I loooove me some BB! Anyways, she is having her first giveaway. (($20 to Barnes and Noble)) Head over and enter!

Another fav, Doodle Bugs Teaching is having a sticker giveaway! I am sticker crazy and love just about every single thing she makes. I just need my job back to I can start buying her stuff. In the meantime, I will just enter her contest, cross my fingers and hope I win!

Winner! Winner! Winner!

2011-07-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

First of all, a big THANK YOU to everyone who entered my first giveaway! It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do another one. This contest has gone on long enough and I won't keep you waiting any longer friends. The winner is .....

::: drumroll :::

Congrats Ashley, at Just Reed! Email me at brittmale@gmail.com with your grade level and the name of the incentive pack you want. She is actually having a giveaway of her own, so I am heading over there now to ~~enter myself~~ tell her she won some Cootie Catchers! ;)

Last Day to Enter my Giveaway!

2011-07-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day to enter for the 3 Cootie Catcher resource books and an incentive pack from Creative Teaching Press. Click the "giveaway" sign to link to the original post! Good luck!

So much free stuff in Blogland!

2011-07-23T16:29:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to enter my giveaway. It's my first ever and I will be honest, I think I set it to last too long. The suspense is killing me. I just wanted to give bloggers some time to come and find me and enter. I love these Cootie Catchers and can't wait to give them away!

Click here to go directly to my giveaway post!

Denise, at Yearn to Learn is having a giveaway of her own. Now, I have to be honest. I have been ~~stalking~~ checking in on Denise for years... even before blogging days. A long time ago, I joined a yahoo group for 2nd grade teachers, and then we moved to Ning. Well let me tell you, that "club" is the best ever! We all shared so much and Denise was one of those teachers. She probably doesn't remember me because I was very "small time" but she had/has this incredible website that really helped me get through those first few years of teaching. One of the things I always loved were her Task Cards. And guess what?! She is giving them away to 3 lucky winners! Here's to hoping I'm the winner!

Click here to go directly to her giveaway post!

And last, but definitely not least, Jodie at Fun in First is having a giveaway. She is celebrating 1000 followers (I cannot even imagine) and is giving one item from each of the following sellers to a lucky winner. Pick me! Pick me!

Click to enter!

Erica, at Erica Bohrer's First Grade, is having a Back to School Bonanza contest! Check out all the stuff she is giving to a lucky follower!

Click to Enter!

My Very First Giveaway

2011-07-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Okay. Okay. I am so excited about my giveaway!! I have been working on this one for awhile and now I can officially announce that it is being sponsored by....

Yay! I love EVERYTHING that they make and I am sure you do too. They are being super generous and offering their new and VERY POPULAR Cootie Catcher Resource Books and Classroom Incentives to one of my lucky followers! They recommend these books for grades 2-5, but after looking them over, I am sure some of our super bright kinders and firsties could use the 2nd grade Cootie Catchers too! The Classroom Incentives come in a pack of 30, in color, and pre-creased. The resource books cover language arts, math, and science in grades 2, 3, 4, and 5!! They are great for reviewing, your kiddos will LOVE them, and they are reproducible! Even if you aren't the winner, look into purchasing these books... with 20 games per book, it works out to $0.25 per game - what a deal?!

So here it is....

So that's 3 Cootie Catcher Resource Books and one pack of Cootie Catcher Incentives! Can I enter my own contest?!

There are 5 ways to enter...

1. Follow me.

2. Add my button to your blog.

3. Blog about my giveaway.

4. "Like" CTP on Facebook.

5. Follow Tommie's Tools.

Leave one comment for each thing you do and I will pick one lucky winner on Friday, July 29th.

A little reminiscing and an idea...

2011-07-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

It seems like blogging has really exploded and I am really excited about that. My blogging experience started 2 years ago exactly when I began stalking Chris at Just a Girl. o.m.g. you guys. She is hilarious and very creative, not to mention, she's a teacher! Anyways, I kind of just made my blog at first to keep track of ideas I was finding from her and through her. Check her page out though - she is like super blogger!

Then this past year, I found Deanna Jumps website which led me to her blog and then from there I found Cara Carroll's blog and now here I am! I have mentioned before that as of now, I do not have a job or a classroom for the coming school year and because of that money is obviously tight and this whole summer's mission has been to find FREE FUN. Well, bloggy friends I have that right here and am so thankful to have found you all! I don't know what we all did before finding each other. I wish someone would organize some massive meet-up for us!

I am in the process of getting an awesome giveaway together. I am hoping to have a company that we all know and love sponsor it, so just sit tight. In the mean time, here's an idea to keep track of all of those giveways that are happening! I just have a table on Word and fill in the cells as I enter. I also make sure to hyperlink the names of who is having the giveway, so I can just click and check if I am the lucky winner. Here's a screenshot of what it looks like.

Love you blog friends! You all are so amazing and inspiring!

Comprehension Strategies Bookmark and Mini Posters

2011-07-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

I posted before that I feel like I have nothing to offer because my district is very strict with what we teach and how we teach it. It needs to be VERY closely related to our Language Arts adoption, SRA's Imagine It! (the new Open Court). Well a few of your responded saying that you actually are fellow Imagine It'ers! I was soo excited and I immediately started digging through some stuff. These are some bookmarks I made that have the comprehension strategies on them. I am sure they can apply to other teachers out there too. Also, I am attaching some mini posters I put on my whiteboard.

Mini Posters!

Bookmarks!

Giveaways!

2011-07-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

Kelli at Castles and Crayons already has 300 followers! Amazing because she has only been blogging for like 3 weeks!! I need to take some tips from this girl. I love her blog design and especially her button, not to mention I seem to have met my pink obsession twin! Head over to her blog and enter her giveaway. She has 3 super cute TpT products she is giving away to 3 lucky winners!

The always hilarious Mel D at Mrs. Dillard's First Grade (aka Seusstastic!) is having a 300 followers giveaway as well. She is giving away a very adorable Bucket Filler bucket to use in your class. Or if you aren't a bucket filler, she's got something else ready for you.

Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade is hosting an amaaazing giveaway because she has reached 400 followers. She got 27 people to offer up one item of choice from their TpT store. Yes, please!

Free Desk Name Tag Template

2011-07-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

One of the things that drives me crazy is buying desk name tags. They will come in packs of 30, well I have 33 so then I have to buy a-whole-nother pack. Or they will come in 20, so I buy 2 and that means that I can only get 7 new students or make 7 mistakes when writing them out. It's all so exhausting and I am sure you know what I am talking about. So, to make my life easier... and hopefully yours too I found one I liked, did some tweaking, and put it into a PDF. Now, all I do is print exactly how many I need and aside from colored ink costs, it's free! I write the students' names in, back it onto some colored paper, laminate, and Taaa Daaaa... ~~stress~~free desk name tags!

click on the name tag to get your very own copy (2 to a page)!

Update: I spelled "Trapezoid" wrong on the original post. How embarrassing!! Thanks Janine at Faithful in First for letting me know. :)

Blog Mixer Linky Party

2011-07-14T10:53:00.001-07:00

Denise at Yearn to Learn is having a Blog Mixer Linky Party. As ridiculous as this sounds, sometimes I think linky parties are more fun than real life parties. So let the fun begin...

1. A blogger who is a “New Kid on the Block”

2. A blogger in my same grade:

3. A blogger in a different grade:

4. It’s all about the button. Find a cute blog button and post it:

Giveaways in Blogland!

2011-07-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

Teaching Happily Ever After is having a HUUUUGE giveaway. $150 in Touchpoint Math materials. I looove Touchpoint Math so I had to get in on this one.

Mrs. Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching is having a super cute giveaway. She is giving one lucky winner a Personalized Portfolio! Aren't these the cutest?!

My Favorite Mac Tip EVER!

2011-07-11T23:48:00.000-07:00

I commented this on my "How to Download Fonts on a Mac" post but just in case you missed it...

My favorite trick is screen shots. If you hold down "command+shift+4" it will give you a little crosshare that you can stretch around whatever you want to take a picture of on your screen. It then saves it to your desktop. It is so much faster than the PC "print screen". Try it!

How to Download Fonts on a Mac

2011-07-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

I have had some questions about how to download fonts on a Mac. Ohhhh how I remember the days of switching to a Mac. It can be very scary but I am a firm believer that once you go Mac, you will NEVER go back. Sometimes I am forced to, like at work but it's nice that I know how to use both. Anyways, I made this quick little font downloading tutorial that may interest some of you.

2011-07-07T09:29:00.000-07:00

Donna at Peace Love and Learning is giving a way a super cute Classroom Birthday Packet. Hurry over and get yours. I mean, how cute is this?! Love it.

My Favorite Fonts

2011-07-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

Jenn from Finally in First is having a linky party for favorite fonts. I am one of those teachers that cringes at Times New Roman or (gasp) hand written worksheets. My coworkers know, if you give me something like that, it is instantly going to be retyped and turned "cutesy". Anyways... back to the linky party. Here's my favs!

If you can't find any of these fonts, I am more than happy to share. Just leave me your email in a comment! I have been known to be a "font-pusher" at school. :)

Happy "Tea"cher Appreciation

2011-07-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

With lots and lots of time on your hands comes lots and lots of organizing. I've been going through my files and cleaning them up and came across this "Tea"cher Appreciation gift we made and gave out this year. It was very inexpensive and the teachers really seemed to appreciate it. All you do is print and tape a bag of tea in the middle. I'm sure you can change it around and bit and make it a Back to School surprise for teachers, or let's be honest... it's never to late to celebrate teachers! Enjoy!

Classroom Behavior Stuff

2011-07-04T19:29:00.000-07:00

Linking up with The Lesson Plan Diva for this one...

I'm sure most of you can relate, but I just have to say that I get sooooo excited when someone sees something on my blog and wants to use it or gives me a thumbs up for it. We all work so hard and I feel like Blogland gives us all a chance to make each other feel the love. Am I right? Okay so the number one thing I get requests for is my Ooops Behavior Log. I'm just going to go ahead and post everything I use for behavior purposes in my classroom and hopefully you can get some inspiration. If you are missing on font, or want some of the wording changed, just feel free to leave me a comment with your email. It's summer and sadly, I am still laid off so I have A LOT of time...

Here is the behavior chart I laminate and hang. Just print them on to different colored paper.

This is the infamous Ooops Log!

Here is the weekly behavior notice I send home to parents. It took me a long time to figure out a way that I wouldn't have to write in the date... Headers and Footers! Each student gets one page. For example, Student A's name would be on page one, twice. Student B's name would be on page two, twice. (Each kid is getting their own page... is this making sense? Geeez it's been a long day) So I have 25 students and they each get their own page. I change the header to week 1's dates and then the footer to week 2's dates and then print. It works for me bc I don't have to do ANY writing this way. All I do is color in the kids suns. Also, I send these home on Thursday and the kiddos bring them back Friday, when their homework is due. I had a lot of these get lost over the weekend. Which actually leads me to my next reason why I love this layout... if someone loses it, I just quickly print them a new page and color it in then and there. No copy machine trip.

A teaching friend found this contract online and I just did a little bit of moving around on it. (I wish I knew where it came from) For students that need a little more "attention" I use a daily behavior notice that I fill out several times throughout the day. I have only had to do this for about 4 students and it works well.

Here is the daily in a template you can edit. (no pictures)

And for all those amazing students that need a little note home...

Again, let me know if you want some changes or for me to email it to you so you can make your own changes!

Father's Day

2011-06-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

a little late... I know. Maybe you can use it next year? I do these every year with my kids because I think they are just so adorable. In the past I pre-cut the collar part, but this year I gave my kids a ruler to lay along the top, trace a line, and cut a little on each side. They turned out so well, my best friend invited us to her class to help her kinders make them. :) Here are some pictures.

Click here for copies of the tie, pocket, coupons, and insert.

Kinderglynn and Friends Giveaway!!

2011-06-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

Amaaaaaazing Giveaway over at Kinderglynn. Anna from Crazy for First Grade, Melissa from Mrs. Freshwater's Class, Erica from Erica Bohrer's First Grade, Michelle Oakes from Fabulous in First, Amanda from One Extra Degree, Cara from The First Grade Parade and Kinderglynn

have put together a HUUUUGE assortment of goodies. Head over and enter. There is not much time!

Drawing will be held Sunday night at 10:00 est.

**On a side note, I have been having trouble entering this. I've been trying since Monday and no luck. Anyone else having trouble leaving a comment?

Linky Party!! Top 10 Favorite Teaching Things

2011-06-05T21:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in fooooorrrreeevvvveeeerrrr. Things have been crazy and super stressful. I got a lay off notice and am just waiting and hoping that California can get it's act together and I can get my job back. On a happy note... blogging always cheers me up and Deanna's favorite things post made me think about some of the things I love and couldn't teach without. Linky Parties also make me happy. Feel free to link your favorites at the bottom of this.

1. My Scotch laminator : It cost me $18.99 for the machine and 50 laminating pouches at Sam's Club.

2. Sharpie fine point pens : enough said.

3. iPoint pencil sharpener : Okay everyone. Student teaching and credential classes did not warn me about the thing that would drive me the most crazy. Pencil sharpening. It took me 4 years to figure out a system that works for me and this sharpener has been my savior. It was like $15 and has lasted me years. It sharpens pencils REALLY well. Better than the Xacto ones most teachers have. Costco. Get yourself one.

4. Sterilite storage drawers : I use these on my desk. See my classroom tour photos for more explanation. I just like how clean they make things look.

5. Swingline 3 hole punch : This was one of my "bigger" purchases. Well worth the money.

6. A ladder : I know this is soooo random to some people, but I got so tired of hunting down ladders that I bought one my second year. Best idea ever. Costco and not expensive.

7. Fabric: Now if only I can stay in one classroom long enough to experience the amazingness of not having to change your bulletins.

8. Starbuck's Venti Black Iced Tea with 2 Splendas : So the closest Sonic to me is like 40 miles away and I don't drink soda anymore so this is my addiction.

9. Staple remover: I know what you are thinking. "Brittney, what teacher doesn't have a staple remover?" But this is a wall one! When I found this little treasure, I decided to set her up with my ladder and send them on a date to my classroom walls. Too many teachers before me had left their staple stragglers all over the walls and these two made such a great team and got rid of them all super fast.

10. Lakeshore Learning All Purpose Teacher's Organizer : This has to be their top seller. I was lucky enough to find mine in their warehouse. This is a great gift for new teachers.

So what do you all love? With summer here, I know we all have some shopping to do! Link up here and let me know what you could not teach without.

SRA Imagine It and looooving Mrs. Tabb right now...

2011-05-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

Geeez. I get so many ideas from you all out there and feel like I have nothing to share. My district is REALLY strict about what we teach and how we teach it, so all of the things I create are directly related to our Language Arts adoption (SRA's Imagine It! -- verrrrry similar to Open Court). Is anyone else out there using either of these? Leave me a comment if you are so I can start sharing some stuff. I have things for Kinder and 2nd grade.

On another note... my new favorite blog to stalk... Just another Day in First Grade. She has some amazing freebies and the most recent one is incredible. It's totally TpT worthy, but Mrs. Tabb is such a sweetheart and offered it for free. If you have an ocean unit, this is for you. Or if you just like cute stuff and dream of having the freedom to use something like this in your class ::cough, cough:: save it and pray for the day. Click the sample picture of her packet below and leave her a comment letting her know how great she is.

Have a great week everyone! In California, we are having a Week of Action, rallying and protesting all of the cuts to education. I have been lucky to dodge the cuts the past 4 years, but as of now, I have a pink slip and it doesn't look like I will be hired back. Wish us luck in our battle! I can't imagine what I will do if I can't teach next year.

More Giveaways?!

2011-05-08T09:05:00.000-07:00

Is it Christmas?! It seems like everyone is hosting a giveaway! Sooo exciting! Kelley at Mrs. Randall's Learning Library just reached 200 followers and is giving away a $25 Pottery Barn gift card. Be still my heart. Be still.

Amazing Giveaways....

2011-05-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

So excited about these... Considering I just spent a small fortune on TpT stuff last night, free stuff is right up my alley. Wish me luck and head on over to Teaching in High Heels and May the 4th be with you! I forgot to use that one yesterday. Is it to late? Or nerdy? Oh well...

And in case you want to double your odds, Little Treasures is having a giveaway as well. She's giving away one of these super cute signs (Don't worry - She is having your name put on it. LoL) and a $25 Scrappin' Doodles gift card! Yes please!

Who doesn't need a Blog Makeover? Ladybug's Teacher Files is giving away a free design! I really, really, really, wanna win this one. How cute is this?

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to Me!

2011-05-04T21:01:00.000-07:00

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week everyone! All of you bloggers out there really inspire me and make me love my job even that much more, so thank you! I bought myself a little gift, or actually a lot of little gifts, at TpT. I went totally nuts and am too embarrassed to admit how much I spent, but I thought, "you know what? You deserve it!' and went ahead and bought everything on my wish list. Eeeek! I haven't even had time to go through all of it. Sooo excited! I know the kiddos are going to love it all.

On another note, Mother's Day is coming up and I had to go and be a copy cat. Growing Kinders had this idea posted and I thought it was too precious. Plus, I didn't have to spend a dime! More money for TpT! lol. Here are some pictures...

Our laminator was broken at school and I went to my friend's class to complain to her and she offered me her little personal laminator. I actually had one already, but had never took it out of the box. Well, now I am obsessed. I swear, if I could marry this Scotch laminator, I would. It is AMAZING! I did A LOT of laminating today and it never bubbled or wrinkled, was actually pretty fast, and the lamination itself is pretty thick. I of course ~~blamed~~ thanked my friend for my new found obsession and went back to my class to find something else to throw in the machine. In case you are wondering, the machine is super cheap. I think I payed like $20 for the machine and 50 laminating pouches at Costco or WalMart/Sam's Club.

Well, I'm off to print my new purchases and do some laminating. Wild Wednesday night, I know.

Pinterest ... my new obsession.

2011-04-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

Linking up with Michelle at Michelle's Math in the Middle's Pinterest Linky Party!

Hi. My name is Brittney and I am a pinterest-aholoic. My friend started using this website for wedding planning and I almost love it as much as getting lost in blogland. So you get an account through pinterest.com. Then you create different "boards"... think of them like bulletin boards.

Then every time you see something you like, you click the "Pin It" on your online toolbar and a new window comes up. It will show all of the images from the webpage you are currently on. Click the image you want to pin, choose the board you want it to go on to, and Taaa Daaa ... it is now saved for you. Exciting!

Here is a screenshot of my "classroom" board.

Now the really awesome part of this website... not only do I have a visual of all of the great things that I find online, but if I double click on one of the pictures, it takes me to the website where I first saw it. Now do you understand why I haven't had much sleep?! Isn't this too perfect for all of us bloggers?? Please, please leave me a comment below with a link to your Pinterest board if you get one/have one. I'd love to ~~stalk~~ follow you. :) Oh, and here is the link to mine... My Pinterest!

Kindergarten vs 2nd Grade

2011-04-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, so after teaching 2nd grade for two years I was moved to kindergarten. I was terrified and to be completely honest... I cried for the first few months. Everyone should teach kindergarten once in their life so they ~~don't make comments about how easy it is~~ can appreciate just how difficult it really is. My district decided to switch to full day kindergarten that year and give me 33 little ones, only two of which had actually gone to preschool before coming to me. Thankfully, I had another teacher ::my soulmate:: with me for half the day and she is AMAZING! We both worked so well together and if you have ever had to share your classroom, you know how hard this can be. By January, we had it down. And by the end of the year... I was in tears for a completely different reason! Students that couldn't hold a pencil were writing paragraphs! I was placed back in 2nd grade this year and after only a week, I put in my request to go back to kindergarten. I miss it so much. Don't get me wrong, 2nd grade is great too. I just think kindergarten is a better fit for me. At the moment, I have a pinkslip which you all know means I could possibly not even have a job next year, but just in case something works out and all my dreams come true and I end up back in kindergarten, I have been doing some stalking. We all know and love Deanna Jump but I am becoming Kathleen at Growing Kinder's biggest fan. Her 100th Day post is something worth archiving. Okay, so enough rambling... off to find some more blogs. Leave me a comment with yours so I can follow you!

Math Vocabulary Posters

2011-04-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

It's about time I learned how to use googledocs. Geeeez.

classroom in April

2011-04-12T20:35:00.000-07:00

fraction kites (my partner teacher's wall)

food pyramids and Brag Tags

Focus Wall - We were doing a Unit on Camouflage at the time and these are all projects/pictures the students brought in.

Vocabulary words - focusing on prefixes, base words, and suffixes

Seed Mosaics projects. Its a mess. I know. They installed that beautiful new AC unit finally, but left HUGE holes in my wall. That's why I had to put that ugly piece of chart paper up and scatter the projects like this.

George Washington Projects from The First Grade Parade

Gift Idea

2011-01-04T17:15:00.000-08:00

I saw these on someone else's blog and thought they would make cute Christmas gifts for a few teacher friends. All you need is a picture frame, cork board tiles, thumbtacks, and flowers (I made mine from scrapbook paper). You just remove the glass from the frame and cut the cork to fit. Then you hot glue some flowers to the thumbtacks and taaaa-daaaa! It looks super cute standing up on the desk with little notes on it.

If you haven't used Mod Podge before... you haven't lived! I am obsessed. My boyfriend even put some in my stocking this year because he knows how much I love it. All you do is paint the Mod Podge on the clipboard and stick down some scrapbook paper and decorate with ribbon. I made 9 of these in a few hours. If you are going to do that many, I suggest making a template because the cuts around the top are kinda tricky if you start from scratch each time. With the template, they are super easy and everyone seemed to love them. Target has a set of REALLY cute school scrapbook paper that I love using.

Classroom Tour 2010-2011

2011-01-02T15:17:00.001-08:00

When I went into my room over break, I finally did something I had meant to do for a long time... take pictures. My room is a portable with no storage and I also share the space with another teacher who teaches half day with me, but needs to store her stuff here as well. I have tried to make use of every square inch of this room.

Here is the view from the door. You can see the small group u-table and the writing wall straight ahead.

This is also from the front door, looking slightly right at the front of the room.

Another view from the door.

Here is the door. I have been meaning to cover the cabinet (This is one of only 2 cabinets I have -- a teacher's worst nightmare, right?) with butcher paper but couldn't stand them plain, so I threw some borders up to tie me over. Also, I use command hooks EVERYWHERE. I hang the red emergency backpack and first aid kit with them.

Here is the behavior wall. Everyone starts on Star Student and then if they break a rule, they move their clip down. When they are on green, blue, and/or red, they must fill out a behavior log. That's what is in the yellow oops folder. (Oh, and I hung the folder and chart with the command hooks)

This is the reading area. There is no organized theme here. Every year I mean to organize my library, but then I get told I need to pack up and move classes/schools/grade levels and it never happens. Oh, I am an expert packer by the way ;)

The other rooms have a "teacher corner" but since there is two of us in here, I call it our "teacher wall". This is my partner teacher's desk.

Loooove loooove looooove my Lakeshore Daily Organizer thingy. It's empty because we are on vacation for 3 weeks, but usually each day is packed full of everything we need for the day. In front of it I have trays for us to put loose papers in. I am the first to admit, I'm a neat freak and I love my partner teacher, but she is not the neatest teacher you've ever met (Love you Sheri). So I decided to throw trays all over the room and she can put whatever into them and that way at least they aren't just laying around loose. So far, so good. If you have organization issues, do this. It works!

Here is my desk area.

I used to do stacking trays to organize my papers, but I love this way more.

Those little colorful crates are the best ever. I wish I would have bought all of them when I saw them at Office Depot a few years ago, but didn't know how amazing they were at the time.

This is what I use to organize the student's files. I like this because I can roll it across the parking lot and into my car if I need to. Another little tip, if you have ugly hanging file folders like me, make them cute by glueing a cute piece of paper from a notepad on the front.

This bookcase stores all of my TE's. On the side, I hung command hooks (I told you I was obsessed) and binder clipped and hung my sentence strips for the year.

So I came in on a Saturday during vacation to get caught up and take these pictures and as I am doing that, I notice that yellow paper there that looks like it's been folded. Weird... I didn't fold that. Looking up... up... up... ohhhh my roof is leaking! Good thing I came in to take pictures. Who knows how this would have looked 3 weeks later?!

Try not to pay attention to the awful window covering job I did. The sun comes beating in and I have to wear my glasses when I sit at my desk! The balloons up there have the student's birthdays on them.

Some math charts to help the students know when to add or subtract with word problems.

Weekly grammar/mechanics posters.

I turned some plastic filing crates on their sides and stacked them and put the student's Writer's Notebooks in them.

Word Work Area - write spelling words, use magnet letters, etc.

A view from my teacher desk. I usually have stuff out on it, but we needed to stack chairs and clear table tops so they could be cleaned over break. In the back you can see the TV stand. Soooo ugly so I covered it in fabric and used magnets to clip the blue pocket chart to it.

Another view from my desk.

I thought I'd share this pencil idea. It works for my kiddos. It's just a cute way to remember prefix/baseword/suffix. Now that I am looking at it, I am having a thought, it may be better to have prefix on the pencil tip and suffix on the eraser. Explain it that you write before you erase maybe?

My listening area needs help.

Writing table and word wall.

Concept/Question board - week 1.

So when they made this ~~hideous~~ super cute bungalow, vents must have been in. I have like 50 vents all over, little boxes with nothing behind them and panels, panels, and more panels. My incredible boyfriend spent a whole day covering this wall, cutting out around each of these nuisances, and then because he ~~knows how crazy I am~~ loves me so much, cut little strips of blue paper and made little borders for me.

I could not find any cute writing borders this year! Where are they?! So I was just going to do plain white and then a friend had done this cute little idea with DJ Inker's pencil die cuts. I copied her and I love it.

I made my buckets with clear plastic solo cups and then hole punched them and made a little handle from glittery sparkly wire stuff. The kids decorated, cut, and glued the front of their buckets. If you have a cabinet like this, I have an idea for you!! I bought cork board tiles from Target (4 for $1) and then stuck them up here and now I can staple to the wall without damaging the cupboard. Yay!

Math wall and some storage.

Our Brag Tag Board. Check the Brag Tag post for more info.

This wall has so much going on with it. It's to post social studies projects, display Brag Tags, and has our white board for the small groups.

After packing up my room every year for the last 3 years, I have learned to put everything into shoeboxes and label them. If it can fit, it goes in a shoe box. I rarely struggle to find what I need.

The left side of the cupboard, not quite as proud. But hey, it doesn't fit in a shoebox so what am I supposed to do?

This is the inside of my 2nd and last storage cabinet. I have art stuff and student supplies in here.

Well I hope you enjoyed the tour!

Old Classroom Pictures

2010-12-12T16:44:00.000-08:00

I was going through some pictures and found these of my old 2nd grade class. The school I used to be at is only about 8 or 9 years old so the rooms were huge and had tons of storage. Now I am at an old school and teaching in a bungalow with NO storage. Anyways, thought I'd share...

Here is the classroom entrance.

This is a view of most of the classroom. On the other side of those windows are back offices for my room and 2 others. I miss my back office.

This was my behavior board. Just a simple card pocket chart.

My writing wall - the kids made little Corduroy bears after we read the story and I thought they were so cute that I just couldn't send them home. I had to put them on display for the year.

This is the writing area for workshop. (In case you are wondering - my district requires us to ONLY put up perfect work. We all know that is impossible. The loophole? Stick up a "Work in Progress" sign and ta daaaa!)

Self Explanatory

We use Step Up to Writing. This is earlier in the year when they are just using a basic paragraph template. Oh, and my classroom clock is actually on the wall above the front board so I can't see it when I am using the docu-cam so I slapped this little guy on the back wall, and now we are never late for dismissal. Like that was ever a problem... haha.

I loved my math focus wall. My students used it ALLLL the time. The pocket chart was for workshop. If anyone would like some of the vocab posters I made, just comment below with your email and I'll be happy to send them to you.

Here is another view of just the math workshop pocket chart. Under it are all of the workshop materials. The games are from my favorite... Teacher Treasures. Every year I go to her seminars at the CTA conference... even though they don't change much. She is just such an amazing speaker and has the best ideas. I am always excited about teaching when I leave her seminars. Oh, and the games are so easy to make. Cut and laminate and throw in a bag. D-O-N-E!

For each unit, we had a different theme and obviously a different fluency goal. I would write the names of the students that passed on the sheets and post them up on this bookcase (mostly to hide the junk behind there. hehe) The notebooks are part of the Imagine It! (the newer Open Court)

Part of the reading area. That wall actually slides open, connecting the rooms.

Another view of the reading area.

This was for math fact fluency. They took tests on the computer and each time they passed a level, they got an ice cream scoop to decorate.

A figurative language project we did to go with "How the Guinea Fowl Got Her Spots". Oh, and another Work In Progress sign.... just in case ;)

close up. Look at those lion's eyes... and apparently I am working these kids too hard at PE? lol.

George Washington Directive Cutting project and writing.

comment with an email for the directions to this and writing template

Cat in the Hat acrostic poems.

Science Projects.

Listening Area - if you can hang your headphones on hooks like this, it will make your life so much easier.

Computer Area.

Language Arts Workshop Materials. Every teacher needs Hot Dots in their classroom!

The kids and I looooove them.

Make one of these! It will help your students sooo much! We brainstormed a list of words that are in the beginning of question sentences. I thought they got them all, but noooo ...

as the year went on we found 4 more!

A little magnet game area.

They would do rainbow words or stamp vocabulary and display them on this wall with magnets.

What teacher doesn't love highlighter tape? I made these sentence strips and then the kids would use highlighter tape to mark their answers. Later in the year I found the Correct a Sentence Pocket Chart Kit and it saved me a ton of time! Click here for that.

Reading Focus Wall - We used Open Court so that's what all of this is.

Fish Sticks. Get it? The kiddos love these and I just peel off the letters at the end of the year and change them out with my new students so I don't have to keep making new ones. Or if I'm really lucky, my new students have the same names as my old ones! I just taped two popsicle sticks together, painted them, and used some foam fish stickers.

Here they are thrown into their fish bowl.

Workshop

mailboxes and daily copies

math Fruit Loop graphing

Concept/Question board for the Courage Unit

Vocabulary Word Bank - students took turns creating sentences. One student would write a word, another would come up and add a word, and another, until the vocabulary word was used correctly.

Calendar and Phone Wall

Food Pyramids and our breakfast table

Hope you were able to get some ideas! If you have any questions or requests for things, please leave a comment. Happy Sunday!

I'm Obsessed...

2010-12-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

...with Brag Tags that is. How cute are these?

Like I said in a previous post, I saw these on Mrs. Carroll's blog, The First Grade Parade, and haaaaaadddd to have them. I emailed Mrs. Carroll asking her a million questions about them and she wrote back right away explaining how they are used at her school and what a positive response they have had. Of course I grabbed my "cutesy" partner in crime at school, and her and I ran around researching the tags, creating them, and begging PTA to buy them for us. It worked and they came on Friday! I looooove them!!! They are just plastic laminated Army dog tags that you can personalize and reward students with. We are following Mrs. Carroll's lead and having students keep them proudly displayed in the class all year, wearing them to assemblies only, and then taking them home at the end of the school year. We ordered from imagestuff.com on a Wednesday and they were in our hands by Friday! I can't wait to show the kidlets!

a little peek

2010-11-21T17:00:00.000-08:00

here is my room after all of our boxes were moved from our old school...SCARY!

Here is day 2...

day 3 doesn't look too much different...

day 4 - fabric going up on the walls...

and because i broke my hand and ended up in a hot pink cast (great way to start the year... i know)

this is the final product...

so there's a little peek.

loooving these right now...

2010-11-21T16:11:00.000-08:00

Sarah Cooley from First Grader...at Last! has a some really cute ideas... here's some of my favorites:

How cute are these scrapbook themed book reports?!

I am loving this "Five Bees" idea instead of just a generic rule chart...

Cara Carroll of "The First Grade Parade" introduced me to my new obsession. Seriously, I am losing sleep over these Brag Tags. I emailed her for more info, (she is soooo super nice and helpful by the way) pitched the idea to my PTA, and starting next week... my school will be Brag Tag crraaaazzzzy! So exciting.

She also has some great Classroom Management techniques...

I am going to use this pumpkin vine idea but with a Christmas twist. A fabulous 1st grade teacher friend suggested a Christmas tree and the Bingo Dots would be ornaments?

I've had Bucket Filling on my mind for a while now, but I think this is the year I am going for it. Cara has a really cute Bucket Filler poster and some links to get this started in your own room.

So these are two of my favorite teachers at the moment. I am hoping to get a new camera this Christmas so I can take some pictures of my room and share. Until then...

i'm baaaack

2010-11-21T15:43:00.000-08:00

okay. okay. it's been a long time. i just could never figure out what i wanted to do with this blog. after some time off, i have made a decision. this will be for me to keep track of all of the cute ideas i find. so here goes nothing.

These are a few of my fav-or-ite things...

2009-07-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

wow. blogging is addicting. or do you call it blogging when you are just looking at other peoples projects? 111 views! too bad 100 of those are mine and 11 are from my friends at the 2nd grade teachers' club. anyways...

i am loving these right now.

i could totally turn this into a class project with all of the chewed up crayons that end up on my floor.

i found another person to stalk now. (lucky you, chris)

how cute are these!?! they are made using those giant paper clips all of us teachers looooove. i could use these to keep the little one's papers clipped up on the writing wall (below) with the kiddlet's pictures on them (instead of the p)! or even on my white board to clip up lunch calendars or make up work. or what about making a bunch and giving them to the staff as welcome back gifts. and i could keep going but i still am not sure if anyone is even looking at this ;)

Okay and my last favorite thing... to share for today at least is this.

blogging 101: always keep track of where you are stealing ideas from so you can give them some credit. sorry. if you see this and you are the creator... let me know. believe me, i know all too well about wanting credit for things i make. i'm a teacher. remember? back to the picture. i am thinking this would be a cute project to make and display for back to school or open house. maybe some life cycle project or an all about me project?

okay ... that's it for now.

maybe when i wake up in the morning i'll have 2 followers.

Table Tents

2009-07-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

Okay ... so I haven't figured out the direction I am going in with this whole blog thing. I am thinking it will just be a place for me to post all of the cute things I find or create for the classroom? Anyways... on to today's internet find: Table Tents! These have to be the cutest things I have ever seen. Right now, I am trying to think of a way to bring this idea into my classroom. It is screaming READING AREA! to me. Here is a sample of one... ikat bag made a cute princess themed one. She also posted some links to other table tents. What do you think? Are you in love with these as much as I am?

Here goes nothing...

2009-07-27T16:41:00.000-07:00

After someone on The Second Grade Teachers' Club (ning) posted a link to Chris' blog I began to stalk... and by stalk I meant I looked at every post she ever posted. Please don't be scared. I also began to think. I have a website that no parents look at. It's pretty much just for teachers and my nosey family members. Maybe I should start blogging instead. I am going to give it a try. It's gotta be better than Twitter. Oh and my sister turned 21 today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY COURT!

Yes. That is a Tinkerbell birthday cake. and yes I did say she was turning 21. I made her a card with the Cricut. I'll upload that later.