Meet the Teacher

I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' for as much as I can of Teacher Week!

I feel like if you've been following my blog for a while, you might be sick of hearing about me. 

 But, since it is Meet the Teacher day... 

 My family is the most important thing in the world to me.

My husband and I have been married for 14 years.  In many ways, we are opposites.  

He is spontaneous and the "life of the party" (even when we are at home).

He is a middle school teacher.

I prefer routines, patterns and controlled predictability.  

I'm not sure how, but...we are on the same page in terms of our values, beliefs and family goals. 

We make a pretty strong team and I wouldn't want it any other way.

We have 2 amazing children! 

Do we feel challenged as parents at times?  Yes.

But, I can't tell you how many times each week we thank God 

and high five each other

 to celebrate  

our amazing kids.

Marissa is 10 and will be starting 5th grade!

Marissa is a kind, creative, compassionate, sensitive, animal lover.

She writes the best poems and stories!

She dances (ballet, jazz, hip hop, contemporary) and plays the piano.

For the past two years, she has also been part of her studio's performing company.

Donavon is 7 and will be starting 2nd grade.

He is an energetic, happy, kind, curious, snuggly boy.

Donavon likes to know how everything works 

and he has beautiful handwriting.

Donavon plays travel soccer and travel baseball.

We have two goldendoodles.  They fill our lives with sloppy kisses, long walks and lots of laughs.

I really do not have a good picture of both of them together 

(although we have an unsuccessful photo session about every 3 days).

This is Daisy.  She will be 5 in October.

This is Kalli.  She will be 3 in October.

I've been teaching for 15 years.  My heart is really attached to first grade, but I've had quite a few different titles over the years.  My history includes a lot of boxes and room changes (see below).

I think each of my experiences has been helpful...although I do love first grade.

I'm looking forward to another year of 1st grade.  

Soon, I will stock up on my Dt. Dew and dig right in for another year!

Checking it Off the List

I've worked in my room for a couple days so far. We don't actually start school until the Tuesday after Labor Day. But, we have open house the week before school starts.

 My progress in pictures...

Round 1 of shopping

Math journals for my Math Journal Prompts
my favorite pencils (Ticonderoga)
bins to reorganize (pictures of the finished area coming soon)
writer's workshop folders
reusable lunch bags for my Funky Fun Vowel Games
assorted post it notes sharpies (because you can never have too many)
erasers
 double sided tape (for my anchor charts)
printer ink for school things I print at home
a new rug for my reading loft
assessment binders and dividers
chapstick (I'm a junkie)

A close-up of my fancy post-it notes and notepads...

I was super excited to find these speech bubble and iphone sticky notes at Walmart.  

I also bought the ipad notepad, but it is not sticky.  

I'm sure I can think of something fun for my kids to do with all of these.

Birthday Balloons...ready!

You can read an old post about how I celebrate birthdays in my room here.

Cupcake Liners added to the Birthday Snack Paper Jar

Memory Jar - emptied and ready for new memories

You can read a post about how I use the memory jar here.

Betty and Bernard - the Binders

My assessment binders.  Ughh.  Last year was the first year that I used an assessment "binder".  

Before then, I kept my assessment information for each child 

in separate file folders neatly organized in an assessment crate. 

 I liked my system. 

 EVERYONE else used these giant binders.  I folded.  I caved. 

 I decided to try "the" binder.  

I didn't like it much.  I preferred my folder system.

Then...my principal (Mr. Principal of the Year) 

wrote some very nice things in my evaluation about my assessment binders.

So, I guess I'll use this system again.

Why do I have two assessment binders?  

I refuse to be the victim of an assessment binder volcano incident.

You know, when the whole thing gets so full that it explodes 

and all of your hard work gets mixed together and results in a two hour resorting project.

One for boys.

One for girls.

They are labeled on the side.

Teacher Only Pencils

I do not like to share my pencils with students. 

 I am happy to give them a pencil to use/chew on/lick...but I like my pencils clean.

So, I have a teacher only pencil jar on my desk (my pencils are decorated with washi tape).

Math Tool Kits

We are starting a new math program this year (the Common Core version of Everyday Math).  I will have math tool kits at each table for my students to use this year. The math tool kits will start mostly empty, and we will add tools as they are introduced/needed for different lessons/activities. 

In addition to all of that, I reorganized my word work games (picture coming soon), worked on my year long planning, reorganized the poem and updated my choices for the poetry books my students make throughout the year and poured over the first two years of our new math program (hooray!).

Next on my list is to prepare all the open house stuff and refile the pile of stuff from last year that I keep avoiding.

Back to School Giveaway Winners!

Thank you to all those who entered my back to school giveaway!

And the winners are...

Congratulations, Lori!  You won the Erin Condren gift card!

Congratulations, Lisa!  You won the Target gift card!

I sent each of you an email about how to claim your prize.  

You'll need to contact me before the end of the day on Thursday, August 8.

(not the 6th like I accidentally wrote in the email - oops)

 

Opinion Writing (Common Core)

I finally finished my opinion writing unit.  It's called Writing My Opinion.  It was created to use with Kindergarten, first grade and second grade students. 

Writing My Opinion is aligned with the common core, but can be used no matter which standards your school uses.  The different strands of the common core standards were designed to allow students practice specific skills (like opinion writing) multiple times each year so they are ready to add more sophisticated skills (within that same strand) in the next grade level.  The prompts in this pack allow me to give my students multiple opportunities to practice opinion writing throughout the year.  I use rubrics and self reflections (which are included for each grade level) to track progress and plan writing goals for individual students.  I use some of the Kindergarten and 2nd grade pages with students when I need to differentiate throughout the year.  

Writing My Opinion includes:

a detailed description of how I teach opinion writing
pieces to make your own anchor chart
photos of my reusable anchor chart
graphic organizers for K, 1st and 2nd grade students
lined writing paper
covers for 10 different opinion writing prompts
a mentor text list of books to use for modeling opinion writing
rubrics for K, 1st and 2nd grade students
opinion writing reflection pages for K, 1st and 2nd grade students

I made a reusable anchor chart to help me model the parts of opinion writing pieces for my students.  I will be doing a post about my reusable anchor charts soon. For, now...here are a couple pictures of the chart.  The pieces to make your own chart are included in the Writing My Opinion pack.

My Opinion Writing Chart 

We add post-it notes as I use this chart to help me model opinion writing for my students.

Have You Entered My Back to School Giveaway?

There is still time to enter my Back to School Giveaway!

 Click on the image below to read the details and find out about the 2 prizes.

Hope you'll stop by!

 

Family Traditions

I'm doing a guest post today for the award winning author, Maria Dismondy, on her blog Be The Difference. Maria is doing a summer series about family traditions. I hope you'll stop by and read my post about one of our favorite family traditions. You can click on the image below to read it.

Don't forget to enter my Back to School Giveaway for a chance to win an Erin Condren gift card or a Target gift card! The giveaway ends on August 6!

Back to School Giveaway!

Thank you for visiting today!
It's time for a Back to School Giveaway! 

 2 Prizes = 2 Lucky Winners! 

I hope you'll join me and enter to win!

There are 2 prizes and there will be one winner for each prize!

The first prize will be a $25 to Erin Condren.com!

Erin Condren has ALL kinds of adorable products that would surely make any teacher jump up and down!  You can read about my Erin Condren Life Planner here.  I LOVE my new planner!

The second prize will be a $20 Target gift card!

Who doesn't love Target? (Well, probably my husband...)

The giveaway starts today and will end on August 6.

The winners will be announced on my blog on August 7.

Winners will need to email me before August 9 to claim their prize.

Let the giveaway begin!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway