Five for Friday: July 8th, 2016

It's Friday! I absolutely love linking up with Kacey of Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly linky party. I follow so many amazing blogs and it is nice to get to know more about everyone. This week, I had so much fun! We have family in town, so it was a nice mix of going out and staying in to relax. I cannot wait to share with you.

 

My husband and I kicked off the fourth of July weekend at the Nats game with my sister in law and her husband. I am not really a sports person and I definitely don't understand the rules of most sports games, but I really got into this. Hopefully we can go back soon. It was a wonderful experience with amazing weather!

 

Unlike the weather for the baseball game, the Fourth of July was a mess. It was rainy and humid ALL DAY. Fortunately, that did stop us from dressing for the occasion and getting out of the house. We ended up leaving the kids with the grandparents and going to see Independence Day with all of my husband's siblings. It was actually a pretty good movie.

 

Earlier this week I finally finished the second edition of my Grammar Interactive Notebook. Hallelujah! Not only is the first edition my top selling product, it is also the product I use most often in my classroom. I started working on a "Around the World" themed second edition at the beginning of the school year and just never finished it. I loved how it turned out and I can't wait to use it with my group of kiddos next year!

 

I also finally started shopping for my new little one this week. When I was pregnant with my daughter, Gracie, I had a ton of clothes and an almost complete nursery by 7 months. This time around, I am just buying the first piece of clothing, a super cute onesie with a matching shirt for big sis. This baby is already going through second kid syndrome. I feel kind of bad, but since I'm having another girl, I don't need a lot. We don't even have a name picked out yet. I need to get my life together.

 

At the beginning of this week, I enrolled in Chalk and Apples 3 Week Blogger Challenge Course. I cannot believe she is offering this course for free, it is awesome! I have finished the first week and I have already done so much to optimize my blog like add a blog description that will make my posts be more "findable" by search engines, organize and clean up my blog labels, and fine tune my "About Me" page. I highly recommend getting yourself enrolled and taking advantage of this resource!

Have an amazing Friday!

Five for Friday - July 1st, 2016

I'm back! Whew, it's been a long hiatus! What better way then to re-enter the bloggy world then with a Five for Friday catch-up, hosted by Kacey of Doodle Bugs Teaching. This school year was a blur for me. I had a lot going on at school and at home, which left me overwhelmed...I even had to delete my Periscope so I could cut distractions. I know, I know, I am probably so out of the loop now.

I am back in full force this summer and I am kicking it off with a look back at this school year.

Wrapping Up the Year

I transferred schools this year looking for a change and I had a really difficult transition. I'm proud to say I made it through! Our last day was June 17th and now I officially have 5 years in the books!

Good-bye Trailer Life!

I spent this past year with a trailer as a classroom. There were definitely pros and cons. What I found out is that I am not the type of teacher that enjoys being out of the building and away from my team. Some of the other teachers out in trailers with me loved it and would love to stay. To each their own. I am ecstatic to be moving into the building next year, right next door to my teaching bestie!

Celebrate!

Although this was the most difficult teaching year I've had, I also had some huge successes. My classroom community this year was phenomenal. One thing trailer-living did was teach us to rely on each other more, since we were separate from everyone else. I also had the highest scoring year of my career with end of year state testing!

It's a Girl!

This winter, I found out that I was pregnant with my second. We were so excited. I had horrible morning sickness all-day long last time and this time was no exception. It made for some miserable school days. But, all is well now and our baby girl is due at the very end of September. As thrilled as I am to have the summer off during my third trimester to rest, I am super anxious about only having a couple weeks with my new group before having to split. But, because I have teacher OCD, I already created a maternity binder and have started planning for my leave.

Here's to the Summer

I am so excited for summer. Not only does it mean a lot of rest for my swollen-preggo feet, but it means one-on-one time with my daughter. I can not wait to spend all summer going on new adventures with her. These are the last days that she will have me all to herself. I have plans to keep her busy with library trips, pool days, play dates, park-hopping, and daily walks. If any of you have good ideas for entertain a three-year-old, please share.

Have an amazing Friday!

Fall in Love with Teaching Blog Hop

I am so excited to be participating in the "Fall in Love With Teaching" blog hop. Today, I want to share my ideas for avoiding the paper trap. (Keep reading...there may or may not be a giveaway at the end of this post.)

Here's how I control the choas in my classroom:

1. Top-Cubby Turn In
Every student in my room has a cubby for their bookbag. The bottom part of their cubby is for snack, lunchboxes, and clipboards. The top part of their cubby is for turning in work. I typically just have a "Reading", "Math", and "SS/Science" turn in bin that my students put their papers in as they finish an assignment. However... I can be super lazy and let the papers pile up and then it's frustrating to try to match up all the different assignments from that subject and put them in number order for entering grades.

Now, as soon as my students finish an activity they put it in their "top cubby". Later, when most are turned in, I walk around and collect them. Since my cubbies are numbered, the papers are already in ABC order and it is really easy for me to see who hasn't turned it in.

2. The Grading Crate
Instead of having student mailboxes that I sort graded papers into, I have a grading crate. I throw all of my graded assignments in the crate and when I have time (assemblies, indoor recess, etc.) I sort the papers into the hanging file folders which are in order by student number. By this point in the year, I have my student numbers memorized so it usually doesn't take me that long to sort. I love this because it can just go in the corner when I don't need it and if I need to take it home to catch up, it is easy to do.

3. Unfinished/Absent Work Bins
In my classroom, I have these amazing shelves that hold paper bins. Every student has one to house their textbooks (on bottom) and their unfinished word (on top). I have noticed that unfinished work has a greater chance of actually getting done if their desk can't eat it.  When a student is absent, I just pull out their bin, set it on their desk, and assign a desk-mate the job of making sure all of the missing student's papers gets their name on it and into the bin.

There you have it! 3 simple ways that I have found to make my classroom-life easier.

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...Keep reading for yet another giveaway...

Looking for some Autumn infusion for your classroom? Check out my Autumn Themed Math & Grammar Task Cards, Hot off the Press! They can be downloaded together or individually.

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Don't stop now! Keep on hoppin' with Edventures4Kids!

#2getherwearebetter Bulletin Boards

I am so excited to be linking up with Angie and Ashley to talk about Bulletin Boards! My old classroom actually only had one bulletin board (gasp!?!)....I know, I know. So, I got pretty creative with using all of my wall space. This post will show case all of my boards (bulletin, white, chalk) and hopefully I can give someone in my same situation some inspiration!

*Disclaimer: Here in my part of Virginia, we are not back at school. We aren't even allowed back in the building yet. Yup. So that means all of these pictures are from the school year that just ended. I am also moving schools and leaving my beautiful classroom behind for a "portable" classroom (you can read more about that here). 

Portable = Trailer

Make sure to come back next month for another #2getherwearebetter linky where everyone will be showing off their rooms (and trailers), it should be interesting!

You are going to see a theme in my boards. It is my favorite tip:

....Now on to the pictures...

This is a panoramic view of my room. The bulletin board I told you about is the one with the black paper. You will notice a lot of wall space left unused. We have a very strict fire code in our county and their are specific regulations about how much of our wall we can cover and how much space we have to leave between the items on our wall and the ceiling. Don't even get me started on classroom doors...NO PAPER! You heard that right, as of 3 years ago, we can't even decorate our classroom door. Everything has to be at least 2 inches away from the door frame. Wack.

I actually don't use paper for my bulletin boards. I use plastic table cloths. You can get 3 table cloths in any color for $1.00 from Wal-Mart. I like these because they keep their color all year. I know a lot of people like fabric, but there are just too many hoops I would have to jump through to use them in my county (fire code again).

My chalkboard, which is huge, is along the entire front wall of my classroom. Right in the middle is my Promethean board, which leaves me with a left and right side to utilize. The right side of the board is my student center. This is the side closest to the door and it has everything they need to interact with throughout the day. 

Here's what the numbers mean:

1. My state objectives: I printed these on neon paper a couple years back . I keep them in a plastic sleeve. When I switch units, I just switch up the order of the papers in the sleeves. It works perfectly because I never forget to post my standards.

2. Missing Work Chart: This is my missing work station (you can see a better close up below). When I grade an assignment and notice a student didn't turn it in, I issue them a missing work ticket with their name, the assignment name, and the due date. I place these tickets in the pocket chart next to their number because let's face it, if the assignment never made it out of their desk, the ticket won't either. My parents always stop by to peek at this when they are in the building to see what their kids is missing.

3. Classroom Rewards: My school has a reward system where every class can earn stickers for good behavior around the school. We tally and reward by quarter, so these black papers became covered in our school pride stickers throughout the year.

4. Helpers: There is a list with boys names and a list with girls names. Each day I would circle the girl and boy helper of the day. The list went in order so the students always knew who was next.

5. Bathroom Checkout: My students got 3 bathroom breaks a week (outside of our regularly scheduled class break times). As they used each one, they crossed off a number on the red, yellow, then blue sleeves. Any bathroom breaks not used by Friday result in a ticket for our class drawing.

6. Lunch Count: All of the sections represent a different choice. The students move their name magnets (you can see those in a column along the side of the board) to the choice they were having that day.

The precious teacher who was in this room before me had a whiteboard installed, which I appreciate. This white board is not magnetic, which I don't appreciate. So, I decided to use it as my class calendar. I didn't expect this to build responsibility like it did. My 8 year olds were checking it to make sure they brought sneakers on PE day and that they were prepared for their day to be the helper. You can read more about what I included on the calendar here.

Ok, so this is my actual bulletin board. I might have had only one, but it was super long! I always divide my bulletin board into sections to house my retired anchor charts. When I add anchor charts, I only staple it at the top, so students can flip through if they need to get to an older chart.

About a year ago, I asked maintenance to hang another bulletin board on the wall, it ended up being about the size of the ones they sell for college dorms. But, that's ok! It was just big enough to hold my Behavioropoly board.

When you run out of bulletin boards, anything will do. My cabinets turned into my Data Wall and blank wall space turned into our Homework Turn-In Spot!

Thanks for stopping by!

Make sure to check out some of the other teachers linking up to get even more great ideas for your bulletin boards!!!