EOG Fun!!!!

My Favorite People

Teacher Feature Tuesday

Spring Break is OVER (for me at least) and we have begun the count down to testing!!! I hate testing...but it is a requirement so we go through all the motions of test prep and review. Well I am here to say that this year our countdown and test prep are SOOOOOO Relaxed!!!! This group is ready! We are going over some basics just to practice but we are pretty much normal in our routine since we were so far ahead. It's such a nice change!!

Ok enough about me and mine!!! Tuesday is a chance for me to feature some of the amazing teachers I have met online! They are not only colleagues but they have become friends!!! We support each other when we are down, encourage each other, and even let each other know when we have lost our marbles!!! It's FABULOUS!! So here are this weeks AMAZING LADIES!!!

Stacy Reece DiNello

1.  How long have youbeen teaching and what grades (background).

This is my 11^th year.  I started out teaching 2^nd grade myfirst year, but have also taught 1^st, 5^th, and 4^th.  This year I am back in 1^st gradeand LOVING it! 

2.  Name of Blog andaddress. 

My bloggy home is Funky Fresh Firsties and you can find me here

 

3.  Favorite thing tocreate and share with fellow teachers!

My favorite thing to make is math and literacy centers…  my brain loves the colorful clipart andmaking meaningful activities for little hands. I also like to “create” dipped pretzels with sprinkles and share themwith my fellow teachers!

4.  Biggestinspiration?

My students are usually my biggest inspiration… I lovecreating things that meet their needs.  Ialso make my own kiddos guinea pigs and try out the products I make.  I get SUPER inspired by ideas and craftinessthat people come up with on Pinterest… it makes me get really excited to findsomeone’s idea, read their blog post, and then use it in my classroom or myhome. 

5.  FeaturedProduct:  Free or Paid

My favorite product that I’ve made so far is probably my 8Famous African Americans Unit.  This wascertainly a labor of love and took a while to create.  It was really helpful in my classroom inFebruary and I have loved reading everyone’s feedback…  talk about a pick me up!  

6.  Link to TpT Storeor TN Store

TeachersPay Teachers

TeachersNotebook

 

7.  Tell us about yourOUT OF THE CLASSROOM life!

At home I am a mom to 2 boys (5 and 6) and they keep me onmy toes… you can usually find me in flip flops with my Starbucks iced mocha… yearround! I have a clipart and font obsession. I love going to Fripp Island every summer.  It is my favorite place on this entireplanet!!! 

 

8.  Most embarrassingteaching moment!!! Come on girls we all have one!

It involves coke coming through my nose... in front of my students... I'm still not over it... and considering seeking therapy for it! :)

Lisa Richling

1.  How long have you been teaching and what grades (background).



I have been teaching now for 8 years in a wonderful school in central Florida. It has been all in 1st grade. I love teaching 1st grade because of the enormous amount of growth I witness year after year in reading, writing, and math!!



2.  Name of Blog and address.



Blog: Learning Is Something To Treasure (http://learningissomethingtotreasure.blogspot.com)


3.  Favorite thing to create and share with fellow teachers!

I love sharing anything with fellow teachers, but my favorite thing to share has been my "How To" Seasonal Writing Packs. It is a fun way to help students build those specific writing skills!



4.  Biggest inspiration?



Wow! So many people have been inspirational to me, but if I have to choose, my students are my biggest inspiration. They are the reason that I love my profession. Their success is why I'm an advocate and fight for them. To some students, I am the only smiling face they see throughout the day. Watching my students grow, especially the ones with the odds against them, makes all the difference in the world to me. I couldn't imagine doing anything else ever!!



5.  Featured Product:  Free or Paid



Here's a freebie from my TPT store. It's called "Racing Through the Facts". It's a whole system to work on addition fact fluency from 0-10 using a race car theme. My students love it!!



http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Racing-Through-The-Facts-0-10-Addition-Facts-Fluency



6.  Link to TpT Store or TN Store



TPT store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Lisa-Richling



7.  Tell us about your OUT OF THE CLASSROOM life!



Funny you should ask...my out of the classroom life is anything short of dull right now. I am married to a wonderful man who supports me every step of the way. I have a very bright and energetic 3 year old named Summer. She knows how to light up a room! I am also 11 weeks pregnant with my second child, which we are beyond excited about. (I haven't shared this with my bloggers just yet, so surprise! =) ) It has been very exhausting, but worth every bit of it! I am due in early October. I am very actively involved with school outside of the classroom, serving on the PTA board and being involved in other events around school. I love all things blogging and TPT. Blogging has changed my teaching career in so many positive ways. I am so thankful for all of the wonderful bloggers who freely share their ideas with other educators.



8.  Most embarrassing teaching moment!!! Come on girls we all have one!

LOL, well I will always remember this moment at the beginning of my teaching career. It was my first full year teaching. My group was sitting on the carpet as I was teaching a lesson. Some of my students were raising their hands noisily sitting up on their knees. I was trying to tell them to "Sit down"...well, I accidentally inserted a "h" after the "s" in sit and it came out as **** down. I became flustered and tried to correct myself. However, I had some very street-wise kids who caught on to it right away. I knew one of the parents whose son I had in my class (I used to work with her) and I ran into her one day. She was laughing and poking fun at me for it, because her son ran home to tell her. Needless to say, I thought I would never live that down!

What a pleasure it is each Tuesday to feature amazing teacher authors I have met online! I hope you have found this little blog post each week as informative as me...I have definitely found new blogs to post!

Well its that time...time to sign off! Until next time peeps!!


Blessings,

Sunday Stations and Visual Lesson Plans

Hey there blog world. Well Spring Break has come to an end and it's time again for classroom planning. I must be honest, I did not get nearly as much accomplished this week as I wanted or planned but I did have a great time relaxing and resting and mentally preparing for the rest of the year. Let's face it teachers, sometimes a break is needed to just get our minds straight..not to do MORE work in our classrooms. I will be visiting my classroom tomorrow (for the first time in a week) and will be setting things up for the remainder of the year.

This week is always a stressful week for us at school as it begins the count down to EOG testing. 1st grade usually takes our EOG test around the middle of April so we only have a few short weeks to get them back in gear and review. It also happens to be when we see the most maturation of most of our students. I don't know what they do over spring break...perhaps they are placed in a BORG maturation chamber and grow up rapidly...who knows (that was my ode to Star Trek..yes I am a Trekkie).

WBT is going strong and it looks like a video is in the making...under the production and direction of Coach B. I am awaiting instruction as to the nature of the next WBT Video so watch for it Wibbitteers! If you plan on attending our NATIONAL WBT CONFERENCE this year please don't wait until the last minute. It is at Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana as always and each year it grows bigger and bigger. Come see me at the conference where I will be leading the breakout session for 1st grade. It is sure to be a blast and I know you will learn so much!!!

Ok...now what you have really come to see...VISUAL LESSON PLANS!!!

Be sure to click on the pictures above and download the lesson plans. There are links to the specific stores of the material created by so many of my amazing online friends and teachers.


This week we will be focusing on the skills we have already learned and just reviewing, reviewing, reviewing. We will start each morning with amazing morning work from Kelly Dolling. Then we will continue our trek through AWESOME ANINMALS by Tracy Tegeler. My 1st graders are LOVING our novel study on How to Eat Fried Worms.  The Unit study by A Series of Third Grade Events  is helping us to dive deeper into vocabulary, comprehension, and characters. In our stations this week we will be joining a cast of characters from HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED and working on synonyms, antonyms, main idea and details, editing sentences, homophones and ABC order. One of my favorite little book characters is going to round off our stations. Flat Stanley and the crew are going to help us review a bit more for ELA.

Math has taken a bit of turn this week. We finished up the Saxon 2 Math program before Spring Break. We will be turning to Motivation math for the next few weeks to review skills that will be on their EOG. I am certain that the kids are going to be sooooooo bored with this material but I will try to make it as fun as possible. I figure our daily review and test prep will take us about 40 min and that will leave us about 20 minutes to play some more challenging games with their multiplication facts! They love multiplication.

Spelling is going to focus on the spelling sounds for /j/ and /s/. Specifically the odd spellings like ge, gi, gy and ce, ci, cy. This should be fun!

Language is where I am soooooo excited! This wonderful unit was shared with me by my dear friend Gina from 3rd Grade Tidbits! Having a more advanced and gifted class this year, Gina has been my LIFESAVER!!!! She has helped me build lessons to engage my 1st graders and keep them on their toes. So if you have a group of gifted 1st or 2nd graders...you have to check out her stuff. We will be using her latest unit on Comparative Adjectives to review before the test!!!

Writing...well we are going to have some fun in writing this week. Yavonne Crawford and her husband have put together just about every holiday into packs for math and ELA and writing! I am looking foward to reading the kids letters to the Leprechauns about why they should be given a pot of gold...too cute!!!

Well...I hope you find some amazing units to use in your own classrooms! I know these teacher authors put their hearts into every unit and it shows!

Do you have Visual Plans? Link up with Mrs. Wills! Follow the button below to link up your plans!!!!

Oh...and a little behind the scenes announcement....My little blog is getting a makeover!!!! Can't wait...watch mid-April for the new look!

Love and Blessings Everyone!!!

Teacher Feature Tuesday!!!! And a Bonus Techy Tip!!!

Oh how I love Tuesdays!!!!  Here is this weeks Teacher Feature Tuesday!  After you get to know the ladies below...check out how I am using my IPad and my Apple TV in my classroom!

Up first.....the one...the only....

Jana Wilson

1.  How long have you been teaching and what grades (background).

I am in the middle of my eleventh year of teaching.  I started teaching 7^th and 8^th grade social studies.  When I was finally feeling like I was getting a handle on things (six years later), I was asked to teach 7^th and 8^th grade reading.  I taught reading/English for two years and was asked to take the Reading Coach position for grades 6^th-8^th.  The next year one of the other reading coaches retired, so I added 4^th and 5^th grades to my coaching responsibilities.  Then my district implemented a new program, TAP, and I applied to be a master teacher.  These last two years, I have been a master teacher (think instructional coach with evaluation responsibilities) for PK-3^rd grade.  My heart will always be with seventh and eighth grade, but it has been so much fun to work with the little ones.  Honestly, preschool and kindergarten still scare me a little. 

2.  Name of Blog and address.

Thinking Out Loud

http://readingandthinkingoutloud.blogspot.com

3.  Favorite thing to create and share with fellow teachers!

Even though reading is my passion, I have had a blast creating math centers/games for the little ones.  It is so much fun and very rewarding to see the excitement in their eyes as they play a math game and practice what they have been learning in math.  My whole inspiration to create is to make a teacher’s job a little bit easier by providing engaging lessons and activities to supplement the fabulousness that already happens in classrooms on a daily basis.

4.  Biggest inspiration?

My third graders are my biggest inspiration.  In my current position, I am only able to teach for 30 minutes each day and I chose to teach 3^rd grade science.  They are always so excited to see me and are disappointed when my other school responsibilities don’t allow me to teach them that day.  They inspire me to create engaging lessons because they are excited to learn science every day.  I am smiling just thinking about them right now.

5.  Featured Product:  Free or Paid

My favorite free product is my Crafting Sentences packet.  I created this packet last year as one of the strategies I introduced to my teachers to help our students write complete sentences.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Crafting-Sentences

My current favorite paid product is my Vertebrate and Invertebrate Classification unit.  The reason I love it so much is because after this unit, my third graders owned the vocabulary words we studied in the unit. They were able to use the words in other subjects and couldn’t wait to tell me when they read a book about the topic.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vertebrate-and-Invertebrate-Classification-Unit

6.  Link to TpT Store or TN Store

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Thinking-Out-Loud

7.  Tell us about your OUT OF THE CLASSROOM life!

Sometimes I wonder if there is an out of the classroom life.  I have been married for twelve years (just had an anniversary in December).  We have one furry child, Kitty, who is at least seventeen years old.  When we adopted her ten years ago, they weren’t sure how old she was.  In my free time, my husband and I love to go to the movies and try new restaurants.  I love reading science fiction, fantasy, and young adult books.  I want to be crafty, am not very good at it, but that doesn’t stop me from trying.  I am not a very good cook.  I need detailed directions to follow for it to turn out edible.  I have perfected two and only two recipes:  a Paula Deen lasagna and a chili recipe from my sister-in-law.

8.  Most embarrassing teaching moment!!! Come on girls we all have one!

The most embarrassing moment I had actually happened while I was student teaching.  My host teacher always ate lunch in her room with one of the other social studies teachers and the Spanish teacher.  Every day we would go to the lunchroom and get our lunch to go.  One day I was wearing some slippery-soled shoes.  After we got our lunch, I walked out of the cafeteria doors, which are always open, and slipped.  I feel on my bottom and my lunch went flying.  It landed all over the floor and the wall.  I was mortified.  A good chunk of the high school students had a front row seat to me falling and flinging my lunch everywhere.  Luckily, my host teacher was amazing.  She helped me up and let me sit in her classroom, so I could clean myself up.  She cleaned the wall and the floor.  Then she bought me another lunch, so I could still eat.

WOW!!!!  Such a great teacher Pal!!!!  Well here is our next teacher tonight!  She has been such a hoot to get to know online!!!  She is always willing to share her knowledge and always up for giving encouragement when you need it!  Is it a bird?  A plane?  NO IT'S.............

Heather Whetham

How long have you been teaching and what grades (background).

I am currently in my 6^th year of teaching. Everything I’ve done has been PreK-6^th grade. Teaching multiple grades at a Hutterite colony, summer school, Reading Recovery, regular classroom teacher, special education, and Title I are all of the positions I’ve held. (Not sure how I’ve done all of that in six years, but I have…)

Name of Blog and address.

HoJo’s Teaching Adventures

http://hojosteacherstore.blogspot.com/

Favorite thing to create and share with fellow teachers!

I absolutely love creating Magic Squares! http://hojosteacherstore.blogspot.com/2012/11/how-to-use-magic-square-puzzles.html I’ve also got some free K-6^th grade Common Core resources for Reading Literature, Informational Text, and Math on my blog. It’s just such a wonderful feeling to know that I’m helping other teachers (and homeschoolers) out!

Biggest inspiration?

My classroom is my biggest inspiration. I see what my own kiddos need, and base ideas off of that. I also get ideas from colleagues on what to create.

When looking for fresh ideas to use in my classroom for certain holidays or topics, I’ve found a ton of great blog ideas through Pinterest.

Featured Product:  Free or Paid                                

One of the products I’m most proud of is my Alphabet Letter Sort. While teaching Kindergarten, I wanted to take my Reading Recovery training and put it to good use. So I created a cut and paste sort that would assess students’ knowledge of letters in various fonts. Students do one sheet a week, so it lasts an entire year!  The free version is available here - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Alphabet-Letter-Sort-FREEBIE

Link to TpT Store

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Hojo

Tell us about your OUT OF THE CLASSROOM life!

I love to travel! I’ve been to five foreign countries and nearly 30 states. My goal is to reach 50 by 50. J I’m also an avid reader, scrapbooker, TpT junkie (both as a buyer and seller), and enjoy a good movie or television show. 

Most embarrassing teaching moment!!! Come on girls we all have one!

Oh my! Is it bad that I don’t have one that immediately comes to mind? I feel like that jinxes me for tomorrow at school… I say a lot of weird/random things, and I know my face has gotten a little red on a couple occasions, but I think I must block them from my memory!

Oh...how awesome both these ladies are!  Please stop by their blogs and check out their TPT stores!!!!

NOW....it.....is TIME!!!!!

Tech Tuesday IPAD Tip

So about a year ago I got my IPad but I can tell you I never thought I would be using this bad baby in my classroom as much as have started.  I am so excited I have finally gone TOTALLY MOBILE in my classroom.  I have everything I could possibly need on my IPad and now don't have to even turn my classroom computer on during the day.  I take attendance through our school website, enter grades, use the WBT scoreboard app for my scoreboard along with CLASS DOJO for additional individual goals, and even TEACH totally from my IPAD.  Everything is projected through my APPLE TV and the projector! 

One of my very favorite apps is Doceri!  This sweet little app can turn your IPad into a white board and with a bit of prep you can take pictures of worksheets, screenshots of PDF documents and more and enter them right onto the whiteboard so you can mark on them and write the answers using a stylus!  

The best part....I SAVE ON PAPER AND NO MORE SILLY TRANSPARANCIES!!!!

Now...here is an example of just what an amazing tool the IPAD can be in the classroom!  The following video was shot on the fly in the middle of a math lesson.  We are reviewing and playing a simple game using Task Cards from Rachel Lynette!  Check out her store HERE!!!  With Doceri you can hit record and record a lesson so you can post it for future reference or for absent students!  What a great idea it would be to post these on a class site for parents to access to "refresh" their skills when helping with homework!  The sky is the limit!

With Doceri I am able to project the task card with the candy prices up on the board...and then hand the IPad to a student to solve their task card.  Student never leaves their desk...there is no lag time finding a marker...and the students who are "observing" can see the board UN-obstructed.   TOO COOL!!!  

NOTE:  The OH YEAH you hear during the lesson is me giving the class a SMILIE on the scoreboard because they are all being so attentive!!!!

Well thanks for visiting this week!  I hope your Spring Break next week is a  blessed one!  Get some rest!!!  I will be back with Teacher Feature after the break!

 

Blessings!!!

 

 

Teacher Feature Tuesday

Hey there my faithful followers!!! I am so sorry I have been MIA for a week! I have been under the weather and well life just got in the way! But here I am with this weeks Teacher Feature! This week it's all about Ari! She's a super sweet teacher friend that I met online and instantly loved because we share part of our name...which part? Um...that's between us! So here she is! Check out her blog...check out her store...and show her some love...I am off to do some report cards!!! Blessings!!!

ARI

1.  How long have you been teaching and what grades (background).

I have been teaching for 5 years.  I spent 4 years in 5^th grade and now I teach 4^th.

2.  Name of Blog and address.

The Science Penguin http://thesciencepenguin.com

The Math Penguin http://themathpenguin.blogspot.com

3.  Favorite thing to create and share with fellow teachers!

I loved creating science stations, but right now I really love making math intervention materials.  Both are things I wantedbut had trouble finding.  So, I made them myself!

4.  Biggest inspiration?

My biggest inspiration is definitely my class.  Without my students, I would have no real purpose in creating activities.  I absolutely love teaching and I can’t imagine not working with students on a regular basis.  I am also inspired by some amazing bloggers out there:  

5.  Featured Product:  Free or Paid

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Ultimate-Science-Interactive-Notebook-Kit

I put a lot of work into my Interactive Science Notebook Kits and absolutely love them!  There are many ways for students to expand on their learning in Life, Physical, and Earth Science.

 

6.  Link to TpT Store or TN Store 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Science-Penguin

7.  Tell us about your OUT OF THE CLASSROOM life!

I live in Austin, Texas and absolutely love the city.  I love to travel and go new places.  It can be across the country or just a new place in town.  One day, I just walked around taking pictures of wall art and graffiti to make a collage to decorate my apartment.  I love going out and exploring, but I also enjoy taking it easy and just watching Netflix or doing a crossword.  

8.  Most embarrassing teaching moment!!! Come on girls we all have one!

Ever read something incorrectly when doing a read aloud?  Well, I do from time to time, but one particular time, I was supposed to read, “The crowd clapped.”  Instead, I said, “The cloud crapped.”  Some of my kids LOST IT and I had to stop right there and call it a day!