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Hello all!  I am sharing an idea that I have been using in my classroom this year that I love!   Shout Outs! A few years ago our school implemented a school wide Positive Behavior Plan.  We are trying to catch the kiddos doing good stuff.  When I read about this product on Teacher to the Core, I knew it would be perfect in my classroom!  (You can find her original post here). This has become part of our classroom routine.  The very last thing that we do at the end of our school day is gather together as a class

Hello!  I wanted to share how I celebrate birthdays in my classroom.   This year in our building we have made a “No edible treats” policy because of all the kiddos with food allergies.  So, not a whole lot of the kiddos are bringing in class treats anymore.  But, I still want to make their day as special as I can! The birthday kiddo gets a birthday pencil and a birthday sticker,  but they also get to keep a paper copy of the morning message written on their birthday!  They LOVE this!  I have the rest of the class sign

When I saw that Teaching with Grace was doing a linky about what our classrooms look like when they are not perfect I HAD to join the fun. I LOVE blog hopping and looking at all of you all’s classrooms, but sometimes I get a bit discouraged because “my room doesn’t look like that!”  Of course, when I post about my classroom I always try to post “perfect” pictures, but most of them time my classroom is much less than perfect!  So, here is some pics of what my classroom typically looks like at the end of the day. This is

This is one of those, “Duh, why didn’t I think of that moments!”   Thank goodness I work with brilliant people! I have my kiddos work with “Thinking Partners” in class.  A LOT!   I used to have them just “Turn and talk to someone sitting close to you”.  Of course then Johnny, Susie, and Tommy don’t have partners  and they have to cross the whole room to talk to each other!   So, my wonderful colleague and friend Kelley came up with a simple yet amazing idea!   Every morning as part of our “Morning Business” the kiddos choose a partner for

I am linking up this week at The Teacher’s Chair to share my lesson plan book.  I change the way that I plan lessons a lot!  I never print out too many pages because I like to tweak things!  I have a lesson plan template that I print that has all of the important and repeating times: specials, lunch, recess, switching for different subjects… Of course, each month the theme and color scheme changes…I still like to handwrite my actual lessons though.  I keep all of my plans (for now) in a binder.  I plan to streamline it a bit by

This book is really making me THINK!   Chapter 8 is all about Synthesizing Information.  This is one of those strategies that I have always had a tough time explaining to the kiddos.   According to Keene and Zimmerman (1997) compare synthesis, the process of sifting through a multitude of details, focusing on the most relevant and then organizing those ideas, to the meticulous creation of a “mosaic of meaning, a beauty, greater than the sum of each shiny piece.”  The author states: “The process of synthesizing information may be the most complex of the comprehension strategies.” (I’ll say!) So!  How does this

Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire! I am officially on Summer Vaca!  Hurrah!That being said, our last week was a lot of fun!   My wonderful teach colleague had done “Teacher for A Day” a couple of years ago, so I thought that I would try it this year!  It mostly went really well.  There is a few things I would tweak, but the kiddos came up with some great ideas!  They had a great time learning: How to play Chinese Checkers. About Rocks and Minerals. How to draw a bird. How to make a pet rock. No cook s’mores! We

Okay, I have been up to my ears in grading papers, doing school projects with my boys and coming down with a cold! I had a really great day at school today, but did nothing miraculous or picture worthy!  Now wait a minute…I guess if I stop to reflect (which as a teacher I have little time to do) today was wonderful!  The kiddos did what they were supposed to do, I had a teachable moment and the resources to carry it out, we had fun playing WORDO,and  I got wear p.j.’s and have lunch with a great group of kiddos.

I want to start by saying I LOVE TECHNOLOGY (until it doesn’t work, then I don’t).  I have and ipod (which I listen to audio books on), a laptop (where I incessantly read blogs), a tablet computer (with the Kindle app), not to mention an iPad (provided by my school to do MCLASS assessments).  I love the idea of being able to carry around a whole library on a device!  (Maybe I would feel differently if I had a smartphone…)But….There is something wonderful about sitting down with a book (or laying down, I am a librocubicularist: one who loves to read in bed).

My badge with the list inside! Wow!  My last several blog posts have been un-teachery!  I need to get back to the teacher stuff!  🙂As with all teachers I am always looking for new ways to make my life easier! Funny, but there are some aspects to teaching that I never really took to much time to think about.  I just did them like everyone else!  Then, Pinterest came along and changed all of that.  I have learned so many great ideas through Pinterest and teacher blogs that I can’t keep up with it all!  Anyway, one of the things that

Get yours here! So, back to thinking about poetry. Every year about this time, our poem of the week is called: If a Giant Monster… It is adorable! I did not write this poem, nor do I know who did, but we use it every year and the kiddos love it! We then talk about what kinds of things we think that monsters would like to eat, such as ketchup soup and mustard stew. The boys especially like this one. Then, we make a Monster Menu with all sorts of nasty items we think that Monsters would like to eat