Deck the Halls with TpT ~ Linky Party

I love to shop!  How about you?  I'm not much of a "go to the store" kinda shopper.  More like an online shopper.  I don't like lines.  I don't like squeezing through packed aisles.  Truth be told, I just really like my couch, my comfies and my dog nestled just so with me in "my spot".  Just call me Sheldon. {Big Bang Theory reference}

So, if you're like me, and you're in the shopping spirit {Am I the only one that ends up buying myself stuff when I should be shopping for others?!?!} the Cyber Monday {and Tuesday} sale at TpT will hit the spot!

I'm linking up with Christina over at Bunting, Books and Bainbridge along with lots of other blogger friends to give you that one stop shopping experience.  Click away at the linky party to find something for everyone! Now that's MUSIC to my ears!!!!

So, let's see what's playing...

What's rockin' at my store right now!

We're also jammin' to...

And you can't forget this oldie but goody...

Here's a closer look at my newest product...we're smack dab in the middle of our how-to writing unit and this makes it soooooo much easier to teach and for my kiddos to learn this sometimes tricky genre of writing!!!

Click the picture to find it at my store!

Have fun shopping...I know I will! I had to take the day off tomorrow because my boys don't have school.  Oh the horror, right?  HA!  I'll be working on report cards and of course SHOPPING!

Toodles!

Third Annual Pay it Forward Giveaway

Hi All!

It's so hard to believe the holidays are upon us.  How did that happen?  No, really - HOW did that happen? I feel like we were just setting up our classrooms.

I have so many blessings in my life.  I bet you do too.  I try to remember them as often as I can.  Sometimes life just gets the best of me and I forget to really be thankful for what I have.

For the past two years I've hosted the "Pay it Forward Giveaway" {$50 dollars to one charity of your choice}.  One of the entries is to leave a blog comment telling what organization you'd like for the donation to be made.  I love having you do this because, in the spirit of giving, someone might have their interest piqued and choose to give an additional donation.  I remember this organization from last year...

And this one from two years ago...

I'm so moved and inspired by those wanting to honor others or make the world a sweeter place to be.

So please, go enter.  Each entry to "win" is in the spirit of paying it forward.  I hope this giveaway makes your heart smile as much as it does mine.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Five for Friday {on Sunday}...Freebie too!

Thank goodness Miss Doodle Bugs isn't a stickler for rules...because I can't get this post up on a Friday!!!  For the record, I did start this on Saturday but a little thing called "family" happily got in the way.

I was a picture taking fool this week. I'm hit or miss with that.  Sometimes I get so caught up in my teaching, I forget to stop for a picture {or even go to lunch for that matter}.  I can't tell you how many times we get to specials or lunch late.  Who heard of such a thing?  Are you with me here?  Or am I the only oddball that can't seem to fit it all in?

Here's our week in a nutshell...

Thanks Third Grade Doodles for the freebie!

Are you wondering what that thing is below the poster?  That's a baseball bat {what did you think it was?!?}.  I love to give my first graders time to relax, chat with a friend, just eat and chill for 10 minutes each day.  Lately, you'd think it has been a full moon EVERY day.  They've just been hitting that level 4 way too much!  So we started playing baseball.  Three strikes and the volume goes to a level 2 and if coach has reached her limit - a level 1.  It works well...for the time being.  Does that make me a grouchy teacher?

My principal is such a nice guy. In his travels he picks things up for our staff and then picks sticks for winners at our staff meetings.  I'm pretty sure my name isn't on one of those sticks, because I never win ANYTHING. ever.  So, I took matters into my own hands and stole my dearest teacher friend's winnings. Another teacher pal ratted me out.  As you can see, I didn't feel too guilty about it - I sent them this early morning text of me getting ready to enjoy a scrumptious cup of pumpkin pie coffee. Does that make me a bad person?

Somebody in our family has the Christmas Spirit...

Loving our Heidi Songs!  I tell you, there is something to learning phonics rules put to music.  Another song that my kids LOVED singing...and stuck in our heads all day long...

I don't know how things roll in your district - but I sometimes feel like we're being the Stepford Wives.  We have these great resources at our fingertips.  Our district/county has done a great job suiting us up for the Common Core.  With that, I feel like some of my creative mojo has been taken away.

I knew what lesson I was going to teach - it was straight out of our writing units and it was a good one.  In the middle of the lesson, for some reason I uttered the words "Remember boys and girls - punctuation saves lives".  My 18 boys looked up at me with wide eyes, smirks and a few giggles.  I leaned down for effect and said it again - a little more emphatically and breathy.

I went on to say "Really, my friends - it does. Wanna see?"

I proceeded to read one of my stories that didn't have a lick of punctuation in it.  Of course, I couldn't take one breath...got to the end and was ready to collapse.  Thankfully, my class was more than willing to save a life and help add some much needed punctuation.

After that, we went on with the lesson as planned...my kiddos did a nice job of peer editing and helped save more lives by adding forgotten punctuation.

It was a hit!

On a totally different topic.  Something I noticed last week was that my kids are forgetting to use those magic words "please" and "thank you" way too often.  And can you believe, after I gave a little one some of my snack - they didn't know what I meant when I said "What are the magic words".  I think I might be old...well, I know I am - but don't people still refer to those words as "magic words"?

Click the picture to pick one up for your classroom!

Have a super week!!!!!!

Currently November

Happy November!!!!! Made it through conferences, Halloween and now we're moving on to the busy-ness of the holidays.  I love it though!  I'm DETERMINED to focus on being in the moment and really enjoying the holidays instead of getting caught up in the whirlwind of it all.  Let's keep each other grounded, okay? Deal? 

Thanks, Farley, for being the hostess with the mostess!

I love listening to my boys play with their friends.  Especially when they are getting along! HA!

I swear, you guys, I thought I had fallen off the wagon...I blame it on the Milk Duds!

We're celebrating our 13th wedding anniversary when the kids go to Granny Camp. Ahhhh....

I'm always late to the party - but seriously...

I'm having a hard time finishing this post - I just want to go watch Damon!!

SWOON!

Now that I have a middle schooler - I have to wait for him to catch the bus in the morning before I head off to work.  I cut getting to school on time pretty close - so my Friday chai tea lattes are a thing of the past.  TOMORROW for sure!!!!

I'm notorious for pinning and not doing.  I haven't actually tried these but don't they look scrumpdilicious!?!?! Healthy too!! 

Zucchini Chips {Pin Here}

Alrighty - you know where I'm headed...

toodles!

Conferences, etc. {and some freebies!}

We made it through the first round of conferences.  It was a long, long week - but we made it!  We had conferences two nights this week and then again on Friday afternoon.  Yes, Friday afternoon!  I don't know who thought up that nonsense - but I was one sad, sad teacher who didn't get to wake up a wee bit later {because of course Fridays aren't hair washin' days}and sport her jeans and tennies.

Aside from that, conferences went really, really well!  I have such a nice group of kiddos this year and their parents are just as nice. I don't mind one bit that the apples didn't fall far from those trees.  It was nice to have a number of conferences where I could say "Yup, your kiddo is awesome...and I could end this conference here and now".  

I always open up my conferences with asking the parents if they have any burning questions or something they'd like me to address before I go into my spiel.  Sometimes they do and sometimes their questions require me to do a little "research". I don't want to forget - so I jot them down {because Lord knows, I can forget something mere seconds after you've asked}.  

I also have my parents write a love note to their kiddos and then I do a "special delivery" the next day.  

You can pick these up {here}...

Feels good to have those under my belt...

I'm tired, though.  All that smilin', thinkin' and talkin' just plain tires me out.  My laundry is ALL out of control and my house...let's just say it's Halloween Ready with all the dang cobwebs.  Who wants to spend their weekend taking care of that business?  Not me!  It's times like this that I REALLY wish I had a cleaning lady.  

I am so happy for bloggy friends who have my back...I already know what I'm going to do next week thanks to Leigh over at The Applicious Teacher...have you seen her new "Not So Spooky" Halloween pack?  

I am just in love with the how-to's and the adorable pumpkin craft!!!!  If you are looking for some fun learning next week...you should go check it out!

Alrighty...time to watch some Vampire Diaries...my guilty pleasure!

Happy weekend!!!!

PLC, ABC, PLT, XYZ...

...oh the acronyms abound these days, don't they?

Our school district is using the Marzano Teacher Evaluation Model. Luckily, we are not evaluated on all 41 indicators.  My understanding is that it was never the intent that any teacher would be evaluated on all 41. I'm still new to all of this - so I'm curious what your school district is doing.

I will say, my district has done an AWESOME job helping teachers navigate through this new evaluation process and have really put an emphasis on GROWTH, not "gotcha".  

Here are the 14 indicators that our district is focusing on:

I'll be honest, when I first heard about this model I freaked. I might have even shed a tear or two.  But when it all came out in the wash; I realized what I'm being evaluated on - I already do, it's who I am as a professional.  It's probably who you are too.

What I'm still a little nervous about is the amount of growth expected by my students and how my evaluation is growing increasingly more dependent on that.  I'm sure you've seen the parody essay No Dentist Left Behind.  When I read it, it just makes me go "yup, and that's MY reality".  This is what keeps me up at night. I do the absolute best job that I can do, but there are factors out of my control that impact the growth {and lack of} of my students.  

It seems that kids these days {Did I just say that?  Does that mean I'm officially "old"?} come to us with video game trauma {i.e. teachers don't move as fast as a video game, so students can't focus on what they are saying], over-booked and over-cooked {football, soccer, travel ball, piano lessons...busy five nights a week}, hungry, unloved, angry, or tired. Not to mention that teaching children using the words subitizing, schema, viscous liquids and composing and decomposing numbers is WELL over their heads causing them to tune out....and if they don't show the expected growth...it's ALL on me.  

What happened to "it takes a village"?

But I digress...

I've put my faith in God on this one. I work my butt off and I'm always trying to do more and do better. That's all I can do. That's all any of us can do, right?

My to-do list today and every day....I hope it's yours too!

It seems that "data" is the new "developmentally appropriate" {Remember that concept? Yeah, I hardly do either} and we spend a good deal of our time talking about it.  I'm not saying data is all bad.  I just think it can be dangerous.  Dangerous to the point that we might forget that we're actually teaching little, sweet, kind and THINKING human beings.

I hope I never forget.

Anyhoo...what got me pondering this on a Friday night was the form I made for my team to keep track of our PLT's  {formerly known as PLC's}  Here it is if you want it!

Happy weekend friends!

My Week in {lots of} Pictures {Five or More for Friday}...

Hey Everybody!

How's your school year going?  Hanging in there?  Feeling on top of the world, or ready for a break?  If you remember, Michigan doesn't start until after Labor Day, so we're just finding our groove around these parts. And our groove we have found!

My 18 boys and 5 girls are really getting the hang of this first grade gig.  We've been taking a lot of brain breaks {which is good for everyone - myself included!!!!!  I've been known to cut a rug!}.  When I give my students a 5 minute brain break it buys me about 20 more minutes of learning time.  What a bargain!  I found this website that is FULL of great ones.

Here's our current fave:

Daily 5 is going very well!!!! We're up to 15 minutes Read to Self, 12 minutes Work on Writing and 10 minutes Word Work...can't wait to start our guided reading groups!  Almost!!!!

 Great Tower Challenge:  Using what we know about properties of solids to build towers!

Daily 5 book shopping

This was last year - remember how proud I was of those shelves?

This is today...I'm sad, sad, sad to say...

A student is bringing me one fruit each week - she even included a peppermint stick to help make the lemon sweeter...how cute is that!?!?

My little pumpkins weren't wanting to clean up after snack time - this snail race timer did the trick!

We go a little wild at our house....

If you make a "mummy line" he'll sing and dance for you!!!

Look what I came home to yesterday!!!!!

CraftProjectIdeas.com has been so good to me!!!!  The letter they sent said that "Christmas has come early this year" and that they "hope the package of goodies will tide you over for your 2013 holiday crafting season".  My first graders are going to be SO excited to use the fun stuff they sent....FREE!!!!  The quality of their products is awesome. I've purchased some craft materials in the past that were so flimsy and hard to create with that my kiddos would get so frustrated.  Their stuff rocks!!!!!  Go check them out on Facebook for some fun ideas!!!!

I hope you had a great week...what went well for you?  What do wish might have gone differently? Share your Stars and Wishes...

Happy weekend!!!!

Go check out Doodle Bugs for more classroom snapshots at her classroom Five For Friday {or in my case - a little more than that} linky party...

Toodles!!!!