Reflective Teaching - Day 4

I'm survived day 3 of school.  That part was easy.  I love my kids.  It's the packing that is pushing me over the edge.  Packing up all of your teaching possessions in Rubbermaid containers at night during the first week of school, while you try not to make the room look empty, after you just spent the entire summer changing classrooms, preparing for a new grade level and setting up your new room is absolutely not fun.  When the packing is over, the class will have a new teacher and I will be off to my new job. I'm excited about having a new adventure and excited to be done with the packing/moving!

Here is what I learned this week...
I probably qualify for the Hoarders show simply because of the number of plastic bins I own.  It's kind of embarrassing and handy at the same time.

Dt. Dew is necessary during major life transitions.  I don't care what it has in it.  It's my coffee.

Focusing on kids is always a good idea.  I'm enjoying every single minute with my class.  It is an amazing feeling to have the same group of kids (even if it will only be for a couple weeks).  They are just ready to jump right in and get rollin'.

 I'm participating in the 30 Day Challenge for Teachers hosted by Teach Thought.  Reflecting on my own work is important to me.

Day 4 - What do you love most about teaching?

Kids, of course!

 My next favorite thing about teaching is planning.  Not the hours of busy work that you have to do on Sundays... Ha!  I love long term planning, data collection and reflection, curriculum mapping, planning to scaffold learning and planning using the RTI model to improve instruction and support student learning. 

I have two goldendoodles who are pushing my hands away from the keyboard for some attention.  

Hope you had a great week!

Goal for New Technology (Reflective Teaching Day 2)

If you read my post from yesterday, you know that I am starting a new adventure.  You can read about it here.

Even though the first week of school is crazy... I'm going to try really hard to complete the 30 Day Challenge for Teachers hosted by Teach Thought.  Reflecting on my own work is important to me.

Day 2 - Write about one piece of technology that you'd like to use this year.

Since I'll be working in the role of an instructional coach, one of my tech goals is to use a variety of presentation sites/apps.  The first ones that I'm going to focus on using more are Pear Deck (which was recently modeled by our Instructional Technology Coach and Prezi.  I like the features that each has to offer and using them more will hopefully enhance any presentations I need to share with staff.

Today is the first day of school for public school students in Michigan. I love the first day of school!  I have big plans to enjoy the day with my students (even though they'll get a new teacher in a couple weeks). I want them to have a happy first week of 2nd grade!

Happy first day!

Classroom Photos and Big Fat Change of Plans

My school has open house (kind of like meet the teacher night) before school starts.  The Michigan public schools don't officially start until September 2.  Our open house was last week on Wednesday.

Twas the day before open house and my room was unpacked (I moved to a new room this summer), set up for 2nd grade (to loop with my class from last year) and finally finished.   

All the book bins were labeled and put on the shelves.

I was ready for open house.  I'll leave you in suspense until the end 

about the big fat change of plans.

Welcome to my new 2nd grade classroom!

This is my family photo board.  

Since I had these students last year, I kept their family photos and hung them up for open house.

I use this board for anchor charts related to writer's workshop.

(My alphabet cards are from Marsha McGuire - A Differeniated Kindergarten.)

The bins on the top are for chapter book series. The bins on the shelves below are for single copies at each level.  This shelf has a "twin" with different level bins on it.

You can find my book bin labels here. I also use them on my word wall.

You can find my schedule cards here.

This is just a piece of fabric that I found that has a map on it. 

I hang it on the wall, so kids can refer to it and touch it throughout the year.

This is what my room looked like the day before open house. 

Then I received a phone call from one of the administrators in my district 

offering me a position as an Instructional Coach.

A

Big

Fat

Change

of 

Plans

Luckily, I am flexible and good at packing.

Seriously... 

As you can imagine, this kind of change of plans

 is a sensitive issue when you were planning to loop with a class. 

I'm not going to go into the details of how that went down.

Tears were shed by me, by many of the parents and again by me.

Parents talked to their children at home, 

but I will talk to them again on the first day of school next week.

I'll be teaching the class for two weeks until they hire another teacher.

I will be brave and keep things positive.

I am confident that the children will take the news just how I present it...in a positive way.

Children cope better than an adults in so many ways.

And, I'll cry on the way home because I absolutely love these kids and all of their parents. 

As for the new job...

I truly am excited for this new adventure!

It is an incredible opportunity to learn and grow as an educator.

I couldn't pass it up...even though the timing is not great.

In my new job, I'll be partnering up with teachers to help them reflect on their teaching.

I'll be doing lots of reflecting on my own work as a coach as well.

In the spirit of reflecting, 

I'm going to start by trying really hard to participate in the 

30 Day Blogging Challenge for Teachers hosted by Teach Thought.

Day 1 - My Goals for the School Year

(and a few of the most important things for me to focus on in my new role)

I'll still be blogging here...since something has to stay the same in my life. Ha!

Funky First Grade Fun almost turned into Funky 2nd grade Fun at the beginning of the summer.

Thank goodness I didn't change the name then.

Funky Instructional Coaching just doesn't sound quite right. Funny though...

All this moving, setting up, packing up and moving again (to an office in our high school) business caused me to order another Stitch Fix. Ha! I seriously love Stitch Fix.  You can read about it here.

 Oh...and it caused me to return to my Dt. Dew habit

 after completing 3 weeks with no Dt. Dew cheats.  

Don't judge...it's my coffee.

Holy longest post ever... Happy Labor Day!

Michigan Teachers - Happy Back to School Eve!

Favorite Back to School Purchases Linky Party

Even when I was a student, back to school purchases were extremely exciting!  I remember packing and unpacking my school backpack over and over and over during the weeks before school started. I still love buying things for school!  Just wish I had a larger budget. Ha!

I'd like to invite you to linky up with your favorite back to school  purchases!  

Please grab the linky images from my post and add them to your post.

Here are some of my favorite back to school purchases this year.

My Erin Condren Life Planner...

Oh, how I love my Erin Condren Life Planner!

It's my 2nd year with one of her planners.  

This year, I chose to add family pictures.

The front...

The back...

And because I am a tiny bit of a freak about wanting the pages of my planner to look nice, even when my schedule is BONKERS.  I searched the whole first half of the summer for a way to write in my planner with something colorful, but erasable.  I hate whiteout.  It's bumpy.

Thanks to Jennifer, from First Grade Blue Skies, I discovered a solution.

Frixion Erasable Markers 

The colors are beautiful.

They write just the way I wanted them to.

They really do erase - perfectly.

They also have erasable highlighters.

I seriously love these markers!  

I assigned a color to each family member 

+ red for the whole family activities 

+ blue for school/work events

I use the  purple highlighter for planning/recording my exercise.

I originally planned to use another one of the highlighters for meal planning, 

but since I barely know how to cook anything I decided to junk that plan.

I also purchased new book bins for my classroom.

This summer, I've been on a mission to reorganize my classroom library for 2nd grade. 

I bought these amazing chapter book bins from Really Good Stuff.

Each bin has dividers to make 3 sections.

I'm going to keep a different series in each section.  

The 3 different series in each bin will be the same level.

My Ticonderoga pencil jar was the best deal of the summer.

I bought this adorable straw pencil jar for 50¢ at a thrift store.

I made the label with my Silhouette.
It might earn a bow before school starts.

I hope you'll link up with your favorite back to school purchases!
I can't wait to see what you bought for your classroom this summer!

An InLinkz Link-up

Meet the Teacher!

Linking up with Stephanie from Falling Into First for a Meet the Teacher linky today!

My name is Kimberly.  I'm a mom to two kids who we think are amazing!  Marissa is 11 and is a dancer, a singer and a lover of books. She will go to the middle school where her dad teaches this year. Donavon is 8 and plays travel baseball and soccer.  He also swims on a swim team.  My handy husband, who is a technology education teacher, keeps me laughing and reminds me how important it is to be flexible.  He also cooks.  I know - lucky girl.  We pinky swore before we got engaged that I would clean the dishes and he would cook.  Deal of the century!  Oh, how I love him!

Our family goes on a camping trip in northern Michigan each year.  During the trip, we visit Mackinac Island for at least one day.  We have a family tradition of riding our bikes around the island each year and taking a photo in the exact same spot.  You can read about it and see the collection here on this guest post that I did on Maria Dismondy's blog last summer.  This is the photo from this year in "our" spot.  We rode our bikes around the island twice that morning (which is a total of 16 miles), so excuse my hair.

My teaching experience includes working as a Speech-Language Patholgist, teaching Young 5's, kindergarten, 1st grade and a K-2 Literacy Intervention Specialist.  This year, I'll be looping with my class to 2nd grade for the first time.  I'm super excited to keep this group and begin our 2nd grade adventure together.

 THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...
Windex (for real - I LOVE Windex. Yep, just like the guy in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.)
Sharpies
Mr. Sketch Markers
spoon rings and bracelets
fresh flowers
Dt. Dew...but I am currently on day 7 of my 3 Weeks No Cheats (no Dt. Dew) TORTURE session

CHEER FOR ME FOLKS!!!! This is TORTURE!

 IF YOU WEREN'T A TEACHER, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO BE?
something in educational leadership
or
the owner of a vintage/antique boutique (I already have a name chosen for my shop...but it's a secret.)
or
a fruit stand worker (who wears overalls and pigtails)
or 
a stay at home mom!

THREE LITTLE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU.

dedicated, organized, goal-oriented

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

"Finished my to do list!"

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

Sister Mary Victor - my aunt who was a nun.  She died years ago, but I have so many questions I want to ask her when we meet again.

And Oprah, and Mother Theresa and my grandma.

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

So, I'm Not Cosmetology Material After All

(My high school guidance counselor told me that I could not go to college, because I was "more like cosmetology material".  I honestly have no hair or makeup talents...but I sure do love to teach.  I wrote to her (and to the school board when I graduated with my master's degree, which was a double major in elementary education and speech-language  pathology.)

YOU GET TO PICK ONE SUPERPOWER. WHAT IS IT?

keep my kids little

 WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE OR SAYING?

Carpe Diem!

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

Puff the Magic Dragon (my dad used to sing that song when he was in a band)...

but I would never make it to the stage without having a cardiac arrest.

  ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT OWL?

I'm a morning person 

who stays up almost all night at least a couple nights a week. 

(sleep issues are a big fat bummer)

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE RESOURCE THAT YOU'VE CREATED IN YOUR TPT SHOP?

I really love using my Writing My Opinion unit with my students! 
 My students love using the graphic organizers and their parents love the rubrics. 

 SHARE SOMETHING WE MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU! 

I am 4 feet 11 inches short.

I once danced in a local production of Michael Jackson's Thriller.

I hate hot drinks.

I'm a terrible cook.

I love to hunt for treasures at thrift stores and antique shops.

I really want to visit Italy (my mom was born there).

You can "meet" other teachers by visiting Stephanie's blog.

And if you have time starting on Thursday (August 14),
I'd love for you to link up with my Favorite Back to School Purchases linky party!
I'll have the post up on Thursday morning so we can get the party started.
Write your own post, invite a friend or just stop by to peek at everyone's favorite purchases!

Every Teacher Loves a Sale!

It's time for the annual back to school sale on Tpt!  This adorable button was made by More Than Math by Mo.  You can download it free from her Tpt store here.

All of my products will be 20% of during the sale, but you can use the code BTS14 for extra savings on everything in your Tpt shopping cart.

The most recent additions to my store...

Super Spelling Forms 

 forms to use with any spelling words + easy Super Spelling Power Stations

Autograph Bookmarks

bookmarks + autographs = increased accountability 

Turquoise and Lime Green Book Bin Labels

Fact Power Folder Set

Some of my other products...

Writing My Opinion 

opinion writing prompts, graphic organizers, book covers, rubrics, anchor chart pieces 

Fall Math Journal Prompts

(winter and spring prompts are also available)

Personal Reader Sight Word Stories

(Short Vowel Personal Readers Stories, Long Vowel Personal Reader Stories 

and a BUNDLE are also available)

Activity Pack for Back to School

Sharing My Writing Through the Year

No time for show and tell?  

Let students share their writing with these fun prompts and turn it into a keepsake book to send home at the end of the year.

Digraph Activities

Funky Fun Vowel Games

Funky Football Fan Fun

Daily Classroom Schedule Words

Camp Read A Lot  Classroom Campout Fun

Information Highway 

Informational Text Unit for March is Reading Month or anytime of the year.

 (passport registration for the Information Highway)

Here are a few of my favorite products from some of my teaching blogger friends.

Sight Word Poems by Jodi from Fun in First.

You can buy this set as part of a bundle as well.

Shark Close Read by Jennifer  from First Grade Blue Skies.

Jennifer has several different close reading sets that are amazing!

September No Prep Math and Literacy Centers by Annie from The Moffatt Girls.

Spring Is In the Air Digital Papers by Corinna from Surfin' Through Second.

She has several sets that I love!

Time to fill up your cart with great deals!

Happy shopping!

Don't forget to use the code BTS14!