#TeacherWeek15: Sanity Savers

Hi, friends

So, I skipped yesterday's classroom tour link up because I don't have a classroom this year, and I never took enough pictures of my classroom to do a tour of an old classroom.  But I am back in business for today's Sanity Savers conversation.


I think as teachers one thing that is INCREDIBLY important is working smarter, not harder.  I mean, teachers definitely work hard.  But it's also important to work smart, or you'll never get anything done.  So I'm going to share a few of my work smarter/stay organized strategies that helped me stay organized and calm when I was teaching.

Number those nuggets.
Every year, I numbered my kids.  Generally, our list followed ABC order, but invariably we'd gain and lose some kids throughout the school year so it wasn't always 100% true, but close.  Here are reasons why numbering kids is a sanity saver.
1.  It allowed me to reuse materials when students came and left class, so I could get more bang for my buck.  Students could use the same folders, pencils, scissors, and crayons as the student who just left.
2.  It eliminated line up issues.  Students always lined up numerically, so there was no arguments about who was busting, or how someone cut in front of someone else.  (Line leader was a job in my class; that person would just line up in front of number one for that day.)
3.  It gave students a certain sense of anonymity.  While students did know each other's number as the school year went on, it let me organize data, conference notes, and assessments in binders by number and they didn't necessarily know whose it was.

Use pictures whenever possible.
Now, I realize that this is mainly an early elementary tip, but using graphics in my classroom was key.  Especially early in the year, and especially with my lowest nuggets.  For example, our work station rotation board always had pictures as well as group names and pictures as well as the written name of the work station.

This was part of our fall work station board.  Each group is clearly named, but also has an icon/graphic to go with it so that if you can't read the word pumpkin you still know your group.  

And here's just a quick example of rotation cards.  Station name underneath, with a picture on top.  

Organize your student data.

Okay, so I realize this is a terrible tip because obviously you want to stay organized.  I don't have pictures to go with this, but I am planning a Periscope in the next few days about this same topic.  (You can follow me at Whale_Tails_DC.)  I'm going to give you the highlights of how I organized student data.  First, and most crucial, was a grid that I created and printed weekly.  In the header, it had the week (Week of August 31) and then below was a grid.  It would have each of my students' name in a square, and beneath their name it would say "math, reading, writing".  When I conferred with that student, I would highlight the subject so that as the week went on I could see at a glance who I had met with and who I had not.  When I met with students, I would quickly jot notes on address labels.  Address labels come in lots of sizes, but I have big handwriting so I always liked to get the biggest address labels, but you can get them in any size.  I would just jot their number or initials, the date, and the subject (which I usually abbreviated--M, R, W) and then at the end of the day I would stick their label on their page in the binder for that subject.  I realize that pictures would be really helpful to this; hopefully, it will make a little more sense after you see the 'Scope, but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about this method.  

Thanks for sticking with me to the end!  Those are my top 3 Sanity Savers.  And don't forget to check out Blog Hoppin' to catch other teachers' brilliant ideas.  You're almost to the weekend, teachers!  You can do it!

xoxo

It's August already?!

Y'all.

I need to stop the presses for a minute.  Today, August 2nd, the twinnies are FOUR MONTHS old!  Can you believe it?!  I sure as heck can't.  I can't believe that 4 months ago we were in the hospital and they told us that we couldn't go back and that we were going to have babies.  This has been such a crazy and overwhelming journey so far, and these boys have come so far in just 4 short months.  I can't wait to see where they go next.  #NICU #twinmom  Okay, enough sappy stuff.  Here's what's Currently happening in my apartment.

Currently, T is sleeping in his boppy, and M is making sweet baby sounds right next to me.  Baby sounds are the best.  Unless it's emergency hungry feed me baby sounds.  Those are NOT the best.

I don't know how the weather has been where you all live, but it's been so dang hot here that we haven't been able to participate in lots of outdoor activities because of the boys.  But this past week we've had a mini-break from the crazy heat and we've been able to do some fun outdoor activities.  On Friday, I took the boys and our pup out for a 5 mile walk.  It was so nice out we just kept walking.  And we went to a 90s cover band concert that night.  So fun.

If you read my blog on the reg, you know that this year is the first year in 6 years that I'm not going back to school.  I'm staying at home for at least half the year with the twinnies.  It was mostly a fiscal choice, but it still feels weird to not be in that hyped up back to school mode.  Even though I'm not going back to school, I still feel so busy.  I always have these really ambitious daily goals about blogging and creating TpT products, but these boys take up so much time!  I mean, I love them.  But I don't love the hit my productivity has taken.

Next Friday, we're taking our first trip with the boys.  Just heading home for a friend's wedding, but it will be busy because so many people want to see the boys.  But I really hate packing, and now I have to pack for 2 extra creatures.  Blarg.  It will be fun though.

One last quick plug--don't forget to give feedback on your TpT purchases so you can get credits for the back to school sale!

Happy back to school!
xoxo

Parent Odds and Ends--FREEBIE!!

Hi, friends!

It seems like lots of people are getting ready to go back to school; DC doesn't start until August 24th, but I know that if I was going back this year I'd be getting ready.  Instead, I'm trying to bring you helpful and relevant back to school content.  (Hopefully, it's working.)  This is the last post in my parent communication series.  It's a mix of odds and ends, and I'm hoping it will be helpful.  I tried to post this yesterday, but the littles had different ideas.

So this last post is just a mix of other quick ways I communicate with parents.  The first way I want to share with you is Remind (it used to be called Remind101, so you might know it that way as well).  This should link to their website with directions on how to sign-up.  I used Remind every year I was in the classroom, and I LOVED it!  It's so easy to use; you give your parents a code to sign up and then you can easily text reminders to every parent who signed up.  You can also create groups within your Remind, so maybe you need to text just your chaperones, or just your parent volunteers.  You can do that, too!  Remind definitely saved me time every year, and it takes about 1 minute to set up.  Definitely worth the time.

Last, but not least, I added a freebie to my TpT store today of forms that I use to send quick notes home.  There are 3 stock notes included--a NUT note, a volunteer reminnder, and a number change form.  You can grab this freebie here.  I always taught in a uniform school, so when students came out of uniform I would say home a NUT note.  NUT stands for No Uniform Today.  Parents would sign it and send it back and I would keep track of them.  If students accumulated a certain number of NUT notes there would generally be some other consequence, but nothing too serious.  My personal opinion is that most kindergarten and first grade students aren't doing their own laundry or dressing themselves so they shouldn't have super stiff consequences for uniforms.  I also included my "oops" form; I used this when I tried to reach parents and couldn't because their number changed.  I think it's pretty straightforward.  Lastly, I included my parent volunteer reminder.  I would just fill this out and send it home with parents the night before they were set to volunteer.  With all of these forms, I would copy a ton of them on brightly colored paper at the beginning of the school year (each on different colored paper so it was easy to tell them apart) and just have them available to my in file folders that I mounted on the wall or on my bulletin board.  When I needed one of them, I would just pull it out and fill it out.  Generally, I would staple it to their student's homework for the night so that they were likely to see it.

I hope these forms save you some time!  Happy back to school!
xoxo

Positive Pictures

Hi, loves

Twice blogging in under a week!  Can you believe it?!  (Don't get used to it; I don't think the boys will always be this cooperative.)  This has been a great weekend; I went to a concert on Friday with my mom, the boys, and some friends, and then we picked the hubs up from the airport.  Saturday we took a family trip to some breweries down in VA, and this morning I had to take my mama to Dulles to fly home.  Whomp, whomp.  I told my mom the last time she was here that if I could afford her salary I would hire her full time to help me out.  #ishouldputmoreproductsontpt

Enough small talk.  My #backtoschool idea for you today is called Positive Pictures.  Part of my parent forms that I collect on the first day of school is asking them if they are able to (and would like to) receive pictures messages from me.  I track all the parents who say yes and send them Positive Pictures.  I try to really hit Positive Pictures hard early in the school year, especially the first month, but it's an incredibly useful strategy all year long.

The way Positive Pictures work is this:  basically, you see their child doing something positive and you snap a picture and send it to them with a quick caption.  "Look how neatly A wrote their name!"  "Wow, D is sharing so nicely with friends today!"  "T got an A on our math test!"  These captions always go with a picture showing the aforementioned activity, so if I write about neat handwriting I'll snap a picture of the work with the neat handwriting.  If they're sharing I'll snap a picture of them working with a classmate.  Positive Pictures has always been really well received by parents, and they're a great way to bank up positive communication so that if you do have to have a difficult conversation with parents they're generally more receptive.

I hope you all can use Positive Pictures in your classroom this year to set up for a great year with your parents!
xoxox

Fantastic Fridays

Hi, friends

I hope everyone is having a great week!  My mom is visiting while the hubs is on a business trip, and the weather finally broke here in DC and today was beautiful!  We saddled up the pup and the boys and walked all over the Hill today.  The weather was way too lovely to be inside working today.

I'm coming back at you today with the second part of my series on parent communication.  I think that we can all agree parents are a hugely important part of the classroom, even though they're likely only there for specific events.  Having parents on your team can make a huge difference in your school year.  Previously, I blogged about the parent forms and parent communication binder I use each year.  You can find that post here.  Today, I'm going to share a tip with you that I call Fantastic Fridays, but really you can use it any day of the week--Marvelous Mondays, Terrific Tuesdays, Wonderful Wednesdays...you get the point.

The way this works is that during Morning Meeting I would pick 3-5 student sticks from my jar (read:  old Crystal Light container that I had fancied up and repurposed as a fancy jar).  These student sticks went right into my clipboard, but they could really go anywhere that students can't see.  Their names would remain a secret all day long.  If your name was on a stick, your parent got called at the end of the day.  I called it Fantastic Fridays because the idea was for it to be a positive phone call (although there were definitely a few times where it wasn't so).  The greatest kickback of Fantastic Fridays is that students don't know whose name was selected, so everyone works harder so that if their name is on the stick there is definitely something fantastic to say to their parents.  Examples of things that I've noted on Fantastic Fridays are:  high quality work, intelligent answers/contributions to class discussions, showing respect to a friend, being a friend, taking care of our classroom, solving a problem, or helping a friend solve a problem, and standing up to a bully.  These certainly aren't the only things that you can note to parents on Fantastic Fridays; just some food for thought.

I hope you're able to use Fantastic Fridays this year to share some positive communication with parents!
xoxo

Reeling in Parents, Part 1

Howdy, y'all

It feels so weird to not be planning for back to school this year.  I'm not going back to school this fall; I'm going to spend at least half the school year home with our tiny nuggets.  But just because I'm not going back myself doesn't mean I don't have lots of ideas and feelings for you.  Last night, I shared my gigantic parent contact form that I always send home the first day of school.  If you missed the post last night, you can find the forms here in my TpT store for a paltry $2.  Basically, I'm going to blog about how I used these forms to hit the ground running with parent communication and track said communication throughout the year.  Even though I'm focusing on how I use one specific product, I anticipate that this will be kind of a long post.  You might want to grab some coffee/Diet Coke/wine now and settle in.  Whatever floats your boat.

The first thing you should know about me is that I love to organize.  Specifically, I love to organize in binders.  Few things make me happier than putting projects into binders with post-it tabs.  I'm feeling happy just thinking about it.  So after I get these forms back throughout the first week of school, I put them into a parent contact binder that will stay close to my teacher table for the entire school year.  Generally, I print out some type of cover sheet to look something like this.

Don't you worry, my pretties.  There's a page like this in the pack of forms on TpT, so that you too can obsessively label your binders.  Okay, so once I label the outside of my binder, I get to work on the inside.  Something else you should know about me (and something I'll talk more about later) is that I number my students every year.  They use this number all the time; it's in their cubby, on their folders, pencils, erasers, and it's also how they line up.  They get a number on the first day of school and it stays the same until they leave my classroom.  So the next thing I do with this binder is put forms in by number.  As students return their form, I hole punch them and stick a post-it label with their number on it at the edge, so that when all the forms have been turned in my binder looks something like this--full of returned parent forms, and numbered tabs.

What you can also see in this picture is the pages I use to track communication I have with parents.  Unfortunately, that's not something I made so I don't have that available yet, but I can make something to share.  Before I had this handy tracker, I used to just put a few blank pages of printer paper behind each parent communication form to track our interactions.  I kept really close track of parent interaction for several reasons.  First, I like to make sure I have a balance of positive communication and constructive communication.  Tracking parent communication can also help me notice trends in behavior that I might not have noticed otherwise.  It's a little hard to see, but basically the way I tracked communication was by tracking the date, the way I talked to the parent (in person, via phone or text, sending a note home, etc.), and what we discussed.  If we were discussing a particular behavior, I tried to note our outcome so that I could follow up with them again.  It sounds a little aggressive, but it probably took me about 2 minutes to track, and I could do most of it while waiting for parents to answer the phone.

The last thing I keep in my parent communication binder is this schedule/calendar that I keep at the front.  It's just a quick overview of parents who are willing to come in and volunteer in our classroom.  I split it by AM and PM, and just put in parents who are willing to come in on each day and what they're willing to do.  Some parents say they'll do anything I need, so I don't mark tasks for them.  I only note if there are parents who have said they'll do specific things, like prep work stations or make copies.  I also make sure to put their phone number on the schedule so that I can quickly contact them without having to go back into the whole binder.  After I make it, I slide it into a page protector and keep it at the front of my binder for the year.  

Okay, friends.  Thanks for sticking with me to the end!  I'll be back 3 more times over the next week or so with more parent communication ideas.  

xoxo

Parent Communication Binder--Try it FREE for 24 hours!

Hi, y'all

This is going to be short and sweet; I'll elaborate more tomorrow, but for 24 hours (so until bedtime tomorrow) I'm going to have my parent communication packet up on Google Drive for free.  (After that it will be available in my TpT store for just a few bucks.)  If I understand the Googles at all, you should be able to download it here.  It's a really detailed form and I'll share tomorrow about how I used it in my classroom.  Please let me know if you try to download it and CAN'T.  And if you do download it and you wish that there was something more in said packet let me know; I can add it before I put it up on TpT.

Have a great night!
xoxo

Blog Hoppin' Back to School Week

Friends.  This is one of my most favorite weeks of the year!  It's Blog Hoppin's back to school week, where they pick a different theme each day for a week.  It's also a time when I generally tend to over commit myself.  Maybe this is really the week where I learn how to use the schedule post?  Stay tuned for that.  Without any more babbling I'm going to link up for Monday of BtS Week.

First up, let's talk about family.  Now I have the song We are Family! stuck in my head.  So, there's that.  But seriously, my family is fantastic.  I want to say the best, but I bet y'all are pretty fond of your families, too so I don't want to get anyone panties into a twist.  So we'll just say fantastic.  Because that's absolutely true.

Here's a picture of me and the hubs at our wedding.  Obviously.  Per the dress.  (As a side note, I wish it was acceptable to dress up in your wedding dress outside of your wedding.  I would wear that at least a few times a year.  That dress is my jam.)

This nugget here is the legitimate love of my life.  (Don't tell the hubs!)  My four year old niece is adorable.  I love hanging out with her, and it hurts my heart that we don't live nearby.  This is a picture from Christmas morning.  G got a make-up set from Santa this year and she had to do our make-up so that we looked beautiful.

This picture makes my heart happy, too.  It has almost all of my favorite people in it--the hubs, my parents, my super bestie and her boyfriend.  I wish all of these people lived close by to me.  Instead I settle for soaking up as much of them as possible whenever I'm back in Cincinnati.  I'm sure you're starting to get bored of pictures of random people, so I'll start moving along.

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...

Starbucks.  My sweet pup.  Color-coded calendars.  Running.  Drinking wine with the girls.  Watching re-runs of Friends.  And Criminal Minds (who am I trying to kid?).  Reading.  Especially reading an entire book in a day.  Baking.  Gum.  Shopping.  Visiting home and spending time with my fam.  

IF YOU WEREN'T A TEACHER, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO BE?

If I wasn't a teacher, I would want to be the President or a Supreme Court Justice.  Or an NFL coach.  Or a baker.  (Clearly, I'm assuming that actual skills aren't a prerequisite.)  

THREE LITTLE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU.

Friendly.  Out-going.  Team-oriented.  

FINISH THE SENTENCE, "________,  SAID NO TEACHER EVER!!"

"Yes.  I'd love to stretch a 20 minute meeting out to fill an hour!"

IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY AND YOU CAN INVITE ANYONE {DEAD OR ALIVE} TO THE PARTY. WHO ARE YOU INVITING?

Um, so this is weird, but Abraham Lincoln.  And Jennifer Lawrence, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler.  All together.  

IF SOMEONE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD BE THE TITLE?

There's No Such Thing As Perfect.

YOU GET TO PICK ONE SUPERPOWER. WHAT IS IT?

I don't know if this is really a superpower, but I want to speak all the languages of the world.

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE OR SAYING?

I know this is awkwardly long, but I LOVE this Teddy quote.  Also?  I sort of wanted to invite Teddy to my birthday party, but I was trying to tone it down a little.  

IF YOU HAD TO SING ONE SONG ON AMERICAN IDOL, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone.  Or Yesterday.  It's hard to decide.  It's unlikely that I'll end up on American Idol though, so I don't think a decision is necessary.

ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT OWL

Probably morning person.  Especially if I can get a few cups of coffee.

SHARE SOMETHING WE MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU!

I have a problem that I call Feelings Face.  It's basically the total opposite of Bitch Resting Face (BRF).  In BRF people are nervous to approach you because you look so aggressive.  With Feelings Face nobody needs to approach  you because they can already tell exactly how you feel.  

I'm sure that's more than you ever wanted to know about me.  I can't wait to hear more about you, and I can't wait to participate in the rest of BtS week with Blog Hoppin!  Have a great night, friends!

xoxo

Sale Time, Y'all!

Hello, friends!

Unless you don't follow any other blogs, I'm sure you already know that there's a HUGE Teachers Pay Teachers sale going on right now.  In most stores you can get almost 30% off.  (To be honest, the math confuses me a little.  Tpt gives 10% off with the code, and most teachers put their store at 20% off, but for some reason it only shakes out to 28% off.)  But still.  A discount is a discount, yes?

So if you're in the shopping mood, and heading back to school shortly allow me to make a few suggestions.

I use these data folders weekly, usually starting after the first six weeks of school.  I send them home on the same day each week (one year I did Tuesdays, and one year I did Wednesdays).  Students create a graph to show their scores on a quick weekly check-in.  I used assessments that monitor fact fluency, because that was a first grade power standard in my school, and a quick Fundations check-in for whatever unit we were currently studying.  I also had students write a note to their families about their work that week, and I had parents sign a sheet saying that they had looked over the folder with their students.  They also had to make a comment, which ultimately showed whether or not they had actually looked over the folder.  

I also have several bundles of math tasks in my store.  Math tasks are basically really open-ended word problems, but they usually have multiple correct solutions.  I've blogged about math tasks in the classroom here, here, and here.  But even if you're running a more traditional math block these tasks still definitely can be used to push your kids' thinking.  I have some tasks that focus on place value, as well as addition and subtraction.

This is the last product I'll highlight today.  This is a quick, informal check-in that I created for students struggling with rote-counting and number sequence.  I used it with first graders who were below grade level, and I definitely think it would also be helpful for kinderbabes as well.  It assess rote counting, number id (to 30), and 1-to-1 correspondence.  I would give my strugglers this assessment every time we finished a targeted unit to see if they were picking up the skills I was hoping for/making progress towards those fundamental skills they needed to shore up.  It was also helpful data when I took them to student support team meetings.  With the sale it's under $1.00.  It's a win-win.  =)  

One last reminder--during the TpT sale you can also use your credits that you get for reviewing products.  So if you've recently purchased items make sure you go back and give feedback to those sellers today so that you can use some credits towards your purchases during the sale.  

Have fun filling your cart!

xoxo

August Currently

Y'all.  How can it be August?!  I literally feel like June 24th (my first day of summer break) was just a few days ago.  This summer was so busy, with a week long visit from our nephew and a 10 day trip back to the Midwest that I refuse to believe that it's almost over.  For the first time in I don't even know how long I have not been to a pool or a beach all summer long.  That's a shame.  A damn shame.  As I generally take up residence at the pool over the summer.  But, it just didn't work out that way this year.  C'est la vie.  Well, I don't want to spoiler alert anything, but I'm linking up with Farley for the August Currently.  The design this month is super cute.

We got a new puppy almost 2 weeks ago, and she's so dang adorable.  I just want to play with her all the time.  Except that puppies are like babies, so after like 2 minutes of activity she wants to sleep for like 20.  It's so nice that she's gotten along with basically every other creature she's met, and she loves kids.  She's just been such a love bug.  Tonight, I took her to a grill-out (the reason this is a evening post, and not an afternoon post) with a bunch of friends, and a few dogs.  It was great!  Everyone had a great time.  I definitely am putting off a few things until tomorrow that I had planned to do today, but I figure that I'm allowed to have a fun evening with friends, yes?  

One last thing, friends.  Tomorrow (well, technically I think in an hour and a half) starts the TpT Back to School sale!  I'll be back with a more detailed blog post tomorrow, but I just wanted to let you know that I am participating and everything in my store will be 20% off, plus you can get an extra 10% off with the code BTS14.  I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a Fundations bundle?  I don't have my units bundled now, and I know that not all of them are out, but I was thinking maybe bundling by 5s for now, and then I could also offer a 10 as well, once I complete more.  Is that interesting, or a waste of time?  

Thanks for stopping by!  Enjoy the waning hours of summer.  =)

xoxo

Kicking Off the Cobwebs

In real life, I've already started this flippin' flappin' blog post about 100 times, but for a wide variety of reasons it hasn't been finished.  Until today.  This blog post is my Everest!  ;)

First, I'm so excited because I'm really close to putting up a new product in my incredibly neglected TpT store.  I just need to go over it again to make sure that all the formatting is right and there aren't any mistakes, but it's hard to look at it so many times in a row.

Secondly, I was at Target last week to pick up a new planner and I found the CUTEST stickers in the Dollar Spot.  I only got one of each because sometimes the hubs doesn't understand how school literally hemorrhages money from our bank account every summer, but they're so cute I would have bought like 5 of each if I wasn't in a hurry and trying to track the budget.  But seriously.  Check your dollar spot for these.

This pack of stickers says things like "I heart math", "Science rules!", "You+Math=Fun" and other super cute stuff like this.  Totally motivational for kinderbabes, or at least I think that if I was 5 or 6 I'd be really motivated by these ones.

These ones are nice because they share information with parents, like "completed with teacher's help", "please correct and return", or "completed together in class".

And this I just found in the back to school aisle, but it was so funny that I had to take a picture.  I laughed all by myself in the back to school aisle at Target.

I thought this notebook was so hilarious!  It doesn't help that another friend of mine says yolo all the time.  Like "should I call this guy back?"  YOLO!  "Should I eat nachos and wings?"  YOLO!  Oh, man.  I'm laughing even here right now writing this blog post.  This picture just gets me every time.

I promise next time I blog it will be more content, less fluff.  =)  I'm reading Smarter Charts right now and if you haven't read that then I would definitely recommend it before school starts.  It's a really quick read.

Okay, y'all.  Try to enjoy the rest of July.  I know that most of you are probably in various degrees of back to school prep mode.  I'm heading to a new school though, so really, I have no idea what back to school will be like.  It's driving me a little crazy, but I'm trying to be as zen as possible about the entire situation.  Have a great weekend, friends!
xoxo

It's past my bedtime. :\

Holy moly.  I can't believe my life/social calendar decided to explode at the same time as back to school.  The mess I leave on my circle table every day shames me until I get to school the next morning.  I am so exhausted; I feel like a little hamster on a wheel, just running and running in circle and never going anywhere or accomplishing anything.

I wanted to stop by tonight to let you know 2 things.  First, I'm working on (what I hope will be) a really great resource for anyone who does Fundations in their classroom.  And maybe even for teachers who don't use Fundations?  I'm hoping to roll it out unit by unit or several units at a time.  Look for the first unit to be up by the end of the weekend.  And secondly, once I can get my act together I'll be sharing the structures and routines that I've been setting up these last 2 weeks.  And maybe, maybe I can even get some pictures of my classroom together.  (As long as you promise not to judge my anchor charts!)

Have a great night, friends!  =)
Rachel

First Ever Five for Friday...And I'm Already Late

Y'all.  I can barely believe that it's Saturday.  Actually, if we're being really honest what I really can't believe is that I made it out with friends until 1:00am last night.  Or, this morning, I guess?  When we left I really thought we'd be home by 11:30 at the latest.  Suffice to say I'm beat today.  But it's okay because today is college football kick-off so I'm just catching up on all the things that got shoved off this week.  I'm also linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five For Friday.  Except I'm a little late.  Oopsie.  :/

Here are my 5 things.  Unfortunately, I only have 2 pictures, per some phone drama.
1.  This is honestly the best parent information form I have ever received.

  I love that this little girl's favorite thing to do outside of school is shopping.  I laughed out loud when I read this after school one day.  Watch out for this one.

2.  I love how quickly my little loves are buying into everything this year!  They're already giving the kids who are picked for line leaders silent cheers every day.  So sweet!  Yesterday, during Choice Time there were 3 girls at the art supply table and I could hear them playing school.  One of them said "Now pretend like it's your first day off the chart and you get a plus on your behavior calendar today.  Oh, yeah!  Woo hoo!"

3.  Yesterday, we worked on our hopes and dreams.  It literally took us almost all day to finish them, between having an assembly in the morning, teaching them each step of the project, plus embedding in lessons on how to use scissors and glue.  I mean, we really did hopes and dreams and read to self yesterday.  That was about it.  I snapped this picture of 2 cute littles working on their self-portraits.  The best part is that NONE of my kids wear glasses, but since I drew myself in glasses about half a dozen of them put glasses on their faces, too.  Love them.

4.  This first week back was NUTS!  I was so happy I planned the whole week over the summer; I had so much going on outside of school!  I had to 2 parties and a fantasy draft.  And really all I wanted to do was go to bed at 8:00pm every day.

5.  I'm so excited about college football coming back, and having a long weekend to recover that I'm going to put my TpT store on sale through Monday!  Take a look and snag some planning/organizing materials at a discount for back to school.  If there's something you'd like to see that's not there let me know!  =)

Have a great weekend, friends!
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Did that just happen??

Y'all, if I hadn't really just lived that first day I really wouldn't believe that it had just happened.  It was SUCH a whirlwind.  I was feeling so nervous about not having a special on our first day, and it ended up that even without a special we still didn't get to about 4 different activities!

I have about 20 of the cutest first grade nuggets you've ever seen.  So sweet and so eager to learn.  (And so buying into my crazy need to sing everything at the beginning of the school year.  LOVE!)  One of my cute little ELLs today just kept repeating things over and over again to himself in Spanish, then in English.  "Bathroom.  Bano.  Blue.  Azul."  So sweet.

I wish I had some first day pictures to share with you, but my phone was stolen last week and between trying to get ready for school, leaving town for 4 days, working with MPD, and Verizon I just haven't had time to get to the physical Verizon store yet.  (Cross your fingers no parents were trying to call me tonight.)  I'm hoping to cross that off the list tomorrow.

I hope you all had a great first day!  I have one more project to finish before I can hit the hay.  Hopefully, I'll be back with pictures later this week.

Take it easy.  =)

Fast and Furious

Hi, friends!  I know I've been a bit MIA this week, but between (attempting to) get my classroom set-up and making a surprise visit back to the Midwest for my FIL's birthday I've been so busy!  Tomorrow is our first day back (eek!).  I'm feeling so nervous!  Also, I just wanted to let you know about this fantastic give-away hosted by a smattering of lovely bloggers.  You have 2 days left to enter, so head on over and try your hand!

Good luck to anyone who's starting tomorrow!  And keep fighting the good fight if you're already back!  =)

Mid-Day Update

Friends!  Are you totally LOSING your mind getting ready for back to school, or is that just me??

I finally yesterday put every last stinking book into a book bin and I honestly think at this point if I find another unsorted book I might just throw it away.  That was such a never ending project! I'm 100% making that a kid's job during the school year.  Handling it from the end of the school year over the summer was plenty for me. That is one job I will happily pass off to a kid.  Now I'm just feeling nervous because my room is covered with random mess and we're in teacher meetings all week and I'm heading out of town this weekend.  Yipes!

My lunch break is over and our afternoon session is starting, so I just wanted to let you all know that I finished my guided reading planning templates.  You link directly to my store here to check them out.

Keep on keepin' on, friends!  =)

Short and Sweet

Hey, y'all!  I hope everyone's weekend is off to a great start!

I know some people are back in school already, but here in DC teachers go back on Monday.  I've already firmly vowed to myself that I will NOT go up to school this weekend...even though the mess I left in my room yesterday is threatening to give me an anxiety attack.  The weather here is beautiful this weekend, and I'm enjoying my last weekend of freedom.  =)

I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm participating in the huge TpT sale starting tomorrow, and with 20% off my store you can get several items in my store for under $1!

I think that  my next TpT project is going to be some guided reading planning materials.  Would that be helpful, or do you think that market is pretty saturated?

Happy Saturday!  =)

Teacher Tips

Two blog posts in under 12 hours?!  I know, I know.  However, if we're being totally honest this less represents my extreme commitment to Teacher Week and the fact that in preparation for PD next week I refused to allow myself to get back into bed after the hubs left for work.  I even made the bed so I wouldn't get into it!  But no one will be at school to let me in until 8:00am.  Which means that I have about an hour and a half to fill.  So you're getting a bonus blog post!  Once again, I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin's Teacher Week for their last day--teacher tips and tricks.  

Now, if we're being totally honest, I don't really consider myself a really tricky teacher, but I suppose I have learned a few things over the years.  I'm coming at you today with a really cool trick I learned last year from another teacher--data folders.  Previously, I blogged about my school's partnership with the Flamboyan Foundation in DC.  (You can check it out here if you missed it.)  Flamboyan has really been working with us on how to engage parents AND how to meaningfully share data with them. 

Last year, I went to a workshop after school hosted by Flamboyan about sharing data with parents and left with a ton of really great ideas.  The one that I liked the best and put into practice in my classroom almost immediately is data folders.  Here's the basic rundown:  You decide one day each week that these data folders will go home.  (I would not recommend Fridays because you really want them back the next day.)  I always do mine on the one day that we don't have a special because that gives us a little more time in class to get the folders ready.  So basically, you're selecting 2 goals that you're monitoring on a weekly basis and you're sending the data home to families each week, giving them information on how their students are progressing.  This is a little different from just sending home weekly assessment scores because you're really trying to track growth over time with these folders, so you're trying to assess the same skill (or group of skills) every week.  For example, last year I tracked my students' fact fluency scores because we took a fluency test each Friday and I also tracked their Fundations check-ups.  (I would give them a quick check-up, even if it wasn't in the plan for that week.)  Then, I can either grade them during a planning period or over the weekend and sort all the tests by kid so that they're reading to the put in the folder.  

There are 3 other really important pieces to the data folder that really bring this picture home to parents.  The first is the graphs.  You make a graph for math data, and ELA data.  You add in the benchmark line (where you want the kids to be; this is almost always 80% in my class) and then you have kids color in the graph to show their score.  This makes it really easy for parents to see where their students are, in relation to where we want them to be.  The second piece is the signature tracker.  Here, you're going to make a sheet with 3 columns.  One will be the date for each week when you send the folders home, the next will be a box for a parent to sign that they went through the folder, and last (and super important) is a comment box.  Parents MUST make a comment on the data.  They can really write anything in here that shows that they went through the folder.  I usually put a few suggestions at the top, like "So proud!" or "Way to go!" or "We need to practice short vowel sounds".  You just want to see by reading the comment that they went through the folder and looked at the data.  And the last piece (and the reason that I always do this on my no-special day) is that you have each kid fill out a form letter to their parents about their data for the week.  It's nothing fancy, just a little "Dear Mom/Dad/Grandma, I am feeling ____________________ about my tests this week.  Next week I want to ___________ (do better, do as well, study more, etc.) so that I can ________________ (get a treat, be smarter, know more math facts, etc.).  Love, ___________".  This whole process definitely takes some time to get rolling, but after the first few weeks this goes much more smoothly.  

Here's why I love the data folder:  you're sending home consistent information every week, so parents can't act surprised/won't be surprised when report cards come home.  I also love it because you can send extra information, like a note about increasing reading levels, but at the baseline they're getting weekly updates about the progressing their child is making in school in a really clear and easy to read format.  

Now, I've heard that there's a giant sale on everyone's favorite website this weekend, so I'm going to try really hard to have all the forms for this data folder up in time for this sale.  I wouldn't look for them before lunch time tomorrow, but that's the goal.  Have a great Friday!

Taming the Wild

Okay, y'all, I'm attempting my first link-up here, so in anticipation I request your patience.  =)  I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin for their Teacher Week soiree.

Today's theme is all about taming the wild.  Or classroom management.  Now, I want to be 100% real with you--if I did not have an excellent classroom management system I wouldn't even make it through the first day.  I absolutely LOVE my school, but it can definitely be a little rough around the edges at times.  So every summer I spend a fair amount of time thinking about how I will manage the behavior of my incoming little love nuggets.

The first 2 years I taught I did more a token economy system, where kids were earning classroom dollars and then cashing them in for prizes worth different amounts.  I liked it, and it was okay, but the first year I was in first grade I really didn't love it.  So I figured why stick with something I don't love.  Last year I tried something brand new--well, not really brand new, but brand new to me.  The clip chart.  Y'all.  I canNOT tell you how much I LOVE a good clip chart.  And if we're being totally honest, I was a big time clip chart doubter.  I thought there was no way it would ever work, and it was such a crazy idea, and it would never manage the behavior in my classroom.  But seriously.  I. LOVE. IT.  It's one of the best classroom decisions I've ever made.  (If the idea of a clip chart is new to you, you can read about it here.  Or you can just google "clip chart" and do your own research.)

Here's why I love the clip chart:  it moves the responsibility of tracking behavior from me to my kids.  (This is also why I love the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?)  The basic tenet is that good/positive actions clip you up, and negative actions clip you down.  I definitely add extra incentives into my clip chart, like class-wide bonuses if no one has their clip below the morning starting point--Ready to Learn.  I also clip my kids "off the chart" if they're having a great day.  "Off the chart" means that you were on the top chunk of the chart, and you were asked to clip up again.  Those students get their clips, give them to me, and I wear them on my lanyard for the rest of the day.  If students continue to clip up even after they are off the chart they get stars on their clip and when their clip is full of stars I paint it after school.  It starts red, and they can move through every color of the rainbow until they get the coveted (and extremely rare) rainbow glitter clip.  The first time someone gets a red clip it's a huge deal!  They all marvel about it when they come in and see it on the clip chart in the morning.  It's generally a pretty adorable moment.

In addition to the clip chart, I use LOTS of really specific positive praise for small groups, whole group, and individual students.  I always joke with the hubs that he probably hates the first 6 weeks of school because I come home and give him the same type of praise that I give my students--"Wow, honey.  It was so helpful of you to empty the dishwasher.  I really appreciate that you did that and now I don't have to."  Oops.  We also start a compliment chain every year to help with hallway/out of the classroom behavior.  The way the compliment chain works is that every time another adult in the building gives the class a compliment we get to add a link to the chain.  When the chain touches the floor we get to have a compliment party.  The compliment party is a HUGE deal.  You can really make it whatever you want; last year, I asked my kids what they wanted and they wanted to paint, have a dance party, make posters to hang in the hallway so other kids could get compliments, too, and have milk and cookies with the principal and AP.  Are you kidding?!  Done and done.

Just as I have really specific procedures in place for praising positive behavior, I also am very clear with my students about potential negative consequences that could arise from their choices.  I always tell my students that I can only give them good ideas; they will ultimately make their own decisions.  You're the boss of you, if what I tell them all the time.  And frequently what I ask them when we're having a conversation and they say that someone else told them to do something.  As soon as they say that I always say "who's the boss of you?"  The first consequence, obviously, is for students to clip down.  If they've already clipped down and they're still acting out then I'll ask them to sit in our naughty seat.  This is a seat that's generally away from the rest of the class.  They're usually going to be there 6-8 minutes.  After that, I'm either going to have a quick conversation with them and invite them back to class, or if they're still being disruptive I'm going to ask them to either take a few books or their work with them and go to another classroom, again for probably 6-10 minutes.

I blogged earlier this week about Responsive Classroom, and one aspect of RC is logical consequences.  Basically, logical consequences means that you're matching the consequence to the action.  So if a kid colors on the table you're going to have them clean up the table, not miss recess.  I do like the idea of logical consequences, but I'll be honest:  it's one of the RC structures that I have the hardest time with because I feel like sometimes there isn't necessarily a logical consequence.

I hope I haven't bored y'all to tears.  If you're still with me I'll end with this:  I think the bottom line of any classroom management system is creating a community where students know that you value them and you'll listen to them.  If kids know you care they'll do almost anything for you.