Halloween 2016

   Last Halloween was just crazy, insane, and stressful. I did not want a repeat of that this year, so I made some major changes on what I was going to do. We of course do a halloween parade and afterwards is when you can have a party. I don't call it a party because to me it really isn't a party and the parents just show up no matter what. And so many parents came which was great, but always makes me nervous. Though I felt comfortable and good this year about everything.

Though we first read the story There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed at Bat and afterwards we discussed what the old lady swallowed and sequenced them. Then the students had to sequence it on their own completing the worksheet. Next they had to write about one thing the old lady swallowed and draw a picture. 

For this halloween I decide to keep it simpler and less messy the better for me, so I decided to make a witch's brew instead of bringing in  tons of sweets and having to deal with that. So  next we read the story the Sweetest Witch Around and afterwards me made the witch's brew. The kids thought all of the items were funny and gross. 
List of items used for witch's brew:

• marshmallows - ghost poop
• bugles - wizard fingers
• fritos - bat wings
• pretzels - bat bones
• raisins - witch's warts
• chocolate morsels - dracula's buttons
• gummy worms - earth worms
• goldfish - dead fish
• skittles - monster eyes
• candy corn - jack o' lantern teeth
• cinnamon toast crunch - monster scabs

   
   After making the witch's brew we still had a little time before going to lunch, so we began our next story called The Monster's Monster. After coming back from lunch we then created our own monster which was so much fun to see the student's creativity. You can make this same monster craft from First and Blue Kinder Skies. I absolutely love this craft because it is very easy to make and looks so cool.

  

     Then it was time to get ready for the parade. Once the parents were allowed back from the parade is when we began to play our games; pin the hat on the witch, roll a jack o' lantern, and halloween bingo. This worked perfectly because I had three parent volunteers to play out at each game and I got to just wonder around and take pictures. 

   Overall I really enjoyed how the day went. It wasn't a lot of work for me, basically no mess to clean up, and most importantly the students had a great time. 

School is Back in Session (2016-2017)

   Today was my first day back to school. I was excited and sad to be back for a few reasons:

1. Summer is over!
2. SLOs and KRAs (ugh)
3. Don't know what the students will be like
4. Feeling more prepared. 

   Last school year I began the year after it began and so I didn't get to really experience this, but I really enjoy setting my classroom back up. At the end of the year I shove everything in cabinets or on top on the cabinets. There was a summer school program going on during the summer and I didn't want anything to break. I was so worried I even zip tied the cabinets shut (all the teachers did).

   I spent all day setting my classroom back up. Pulling everything back out of the cabinets. I also had to bring all my books back and bring in my new rocking chair. It was also great to see everybody and to just feel the excitement for the new school year to begin. 

   Also I am determined to write more on my blog. I already have some ideas for the next few weeks to post. So be on the look out for how I organize things in my classroom. I love to read about how teachers organize and thought I would share what I do. 

End of First School Year and Reflection

   Today was officially the last school day for teachers and yesterday was the last day with the students. I seriously can not believe how fast the school year went by. I feel like it was only yesterday that I first found out that I got the position. It felt really weird walking around my bare and semi empty classroom. 

   I will always have a special place in my heart for my first class (don't all teachers), though at the same time most of them are ready to go to first grade. It may be weird,but I am excited for next school year because I have all these new ideas that I want to use. I know that I will also be busy creating things this summer for next school year too. 

   When I think back over the course of the whole school year I am proud of my first year and thing that overall things went very smoothly. I didn't have issues with any of the other teachers and most importantly the parents. My principal evened mentioned how she was kind of surprise that she didn't get any complaints about me which she thought she would since I was late coming in, new to the school, and a first year teacher. It felt really good to hear that from her. 

Goals for next School Year:

- Planning - There was a brand new curriculum and not just for me, but for the whole county. I went through it once, so I know second time will be slightly easier. I want to be able to plan ahead and not just try making it day by day sometimes.

- Guided Math - I feel really comfortable with guided reading, but I don't feel that at all with guided math. I am going to be reading up about it from other teachers and see what will work best for me. 

- Games, Activities, and Centers - I plan for next school year to get rid of seatwork/independent work during guided reading. It was just a lot of work trying to find/create work for all my students and I don't want to do that next year. My students like doing it and I didn't like grading it. So next year they will get to choose two center options during that time. That means I need to find lots of fun game and activities for that to do. Luckily we have an amazing place called TPT with lots of wonderful creations. 

Only One Week Left

   I kept believe there is only one week left of my first year as a teacher. These last few months have just flew by. You can tell that because I didn't post anything on here during the months of March and April. 

   I am both sad and glad that the end of the year is almost here. For the past month the students have been making me a little stir crazy. They have not been listening as well and I think that is mostly from having indoor recess for almost three weeks in a row. 

   I also worry about if I taught my students all that I possibly could before they go to First grade. I don't want their teachers next year wondering why they don't know something when they should. 

   Teachers last day is on the 17th It is going to be strange not having the students walk through the door that day like they have been since September.

5 Must Know Websites for New Teachers

   As it is coming towards the end of my first year as a teacher and new teachers will be graduating from college soon, I decided that I would share some websites that I have been very grateful that I found. 

   One thing as a new teacher that I was finding difficult was spending time trying to find worksheets and activities that I could use in my classroom. Now Pinterest is a great site and very resourceful for teachers, there is just sooo much that it can get overwhelming or I get distracted. I will be searching for one thing and stumble across others things that leads to all sort of things. I could be on there for hours. 

Below is a list of websites that you can download lots of worksheets and activities for FREE! Thats right, for FREE!

The Measured Mom- I have downloaded lots of the games from here. They were simple and easy to teach the students to play independently during reading groups. 

From Playdough to Plato- Again, another place where I gets lots of my education games that students play independently. 

This Reading Mama- I have gotten both great games and worksheets from here. One of my students favorite is the sight word guess who. 

The Kindergarten Connection- I have gotten most of my math games here that my students enjoy playing and learning. 

My Teaching Station- I have been using this website recently for my seatwork worksheets for my students. They have a good variety of worksheets that make it easy for me differentiate the work for my students too. 

Side Note: For some of the websites you have to look around for the link to download or you have to give them or email. 

My First 100th Day of School!

   Now, I have celebrated the 100th day twice before at my internships, but this is different because it is with my students. I came prepared for this day because I knew it was coming and wanted to get things done beforehand instead of last minute like I have been doing with all of the holidays. 

   I had my parent volunteers help me make my 100 counting mat for the snack and the 100 crowns way in advance. I am just so pleased at how to crowns turned out. I had a moment of doubt that I wouldn't be able to make them, but I did and was very proud of myself. They took so work on making them, so I think next year I will do things differently. 

We made crowns just like these that can be found at A Spoonful of Learning.

  I was going to make a banner of the students entering the classroom, but then decided I wasn't going to and then on the day of I changed my mind. I was crazy running ll over the school trying to get it done in time and the students really ended up liking it. I of course kept it, so it can be used next year. 

Overall the students really seemed to have fun and enjoy themselves that day and it made me feel really proud. Also I hate to admit this, but I felt the others teachers were a little jealous of the crowns. 

Easy, Simple, and Cheap Literacy Centers

 

   I don't know about other teachers, but as a first year teacher I am trying not to spend a lot of money, though this can be difficult. While doing reading groups it's important to keep the other students engaged and learning independently. 

   Since becoming a teacher, I am constantly searching for new activities and ways to do this while not becoming bankrupt at the same time. I only keep a game or activity out for two weeks at a time or else students become bored with it. 

   I have found some really great and cheap games that I wanted to share with teachers, especially new teachers. 

Typing

For this activity you will need some computer keyboards. I had some extras lying around in my house, but you can always go to the thrift store and get them cheap. All students do is practice typing their sight words. 

Play doh

There are so many things you can use play doh for, so spending a little bit of money will go a long way. Students can use it to make letters and words, but can also be used for math. You can find free mats for making sight words and letters(click on the links for the ones I use). 

Game Boards

There are a ton of game boards for students that you can find for free to build students skills. Here are some ones that I have; magic e, cvc words, sight words, and beginning sounds. 

Clip Cards

Again just like game boards, there are lots of clip cards and all you need is clothes pins that you can get a big bag of them at Walmart for a low price. I have rhyming, vowels  and beginning sounds. 

Sensory Bottles/Shakers

For this you need empty bottles, some type of sensory, and printed words. Students search for words in the bottles/shakers, read and write them. I made a recording sheet that you can get for free here.  

Write/Read Room

Reading and writing the room. Students walk around the classroom looking for words that start with a certain letter or they can look for words they know how to read. You can make this more fun by giving students pointers, wands, or even fly swatters to help them search. 

Popcorn Words

You can get popcorn containers from the dollar store and I just took construction paper to write the words on. Then just crumple up the words and place in the container. Students then take one out, read the word, and write it down. Click here for free recording sheet. 

Go Fish

I found this fish cut outs at the dollar store and knew right away what I would do with them; sight word go fish. Though they can also be used for other skills too like word families and the alphabet. 

Telephone

I found this idea from Kidscount1234. Students pretend to call their partner and give them a sight word to write down. There is a free recording sheet from the website. 

Winter Sensory Table Activity

   I don't just want the sensory to be something to play in, but also a learning tool for my students. I actually use it as one of my centers that the students go to through out the week. During this month of January in my sensory table I have placed snowballs. My students absolutely loved them. 

   I was searching on Pinterest different and fun activities that I can do with word families when I stumbled across this great idea. Though I don't have the students toss them. Instead they have to just search for one, read the word, and then place it into the correct bucket. I did 11 words for each word family. I did some four letters words for my more advanced students.     It was so simple and cheap and something I could use until the end of the month and just add the different word family when I taught it with the others. I bought the same ping pong balls that the website suggested and there was a lot, so I didn't use them all. I am sure down the road I will think of different activities that I can use them for. 

   I got the buckets really cheap at Walmart from the after Christmas sales, but even so they were only 97 cents to begin with. Also on the buckets I wrote on duct tape and placed on the bucket so I can reuse the buckets for other things and activities. 

Goodbye 2015, Hello 2016!

   Well another new year is here and another one has finished. I keep saying this and others do to but time is just going by so fast. 

   I was thinking last night how nervous I am because for January to be here. And this is because I have my formal observation and I have a parent coming in that is not happy with me during this month and possibly into the next month. both of those things make me very anxious. Though of course the observation more so and I think that is just because I have to type up a long lesson plan for it. 

   Usually I am not one to make resolutions because it just never made sense to me. I always thought if you are going to begin again it should be at the beginning of the school year though because thats just what I thought. 

   Anyways I am not going to make any resolutions, but I do want to make list of things that I want to happen this year and if they don't happen then thats ok. On to the list:

- Now this is not going to happen until later in the year depending on what happens with my job and stuff, but I want to get my own place. 

- I have been doing this for a few months now and I want to continue doing it and that is drinking water and drink no/very few sodas. 

- Now I don't know if this will ever really happen, but I want to get ahead with my planning or at least to try and stay on top of it.

- I always make a reading goal and this year I want to try and read 100 books by the end of it. I completed my last goal 80 (just barely) and I have always wanted to read 100 and came close one year. 

- I also want to blog more about what I am doing in my classroom with my students. I want to share more of my activities and lessons.

My plan for my blog is to upload every week on Wednesdays. Sometimes it will be a short post about my thoughts or feelings, but I at least want to post every week about something that is happening in my classroom. 

Christmas Fail and Winter Break

So I was a complete failure with my 17 days of Christmas and which turned into only 12 days. For starters I was late uploading things and fell behind schedule. I just could not keep up. Next year I need to start making things ahead of time like starting in October or earlier. 

Also I was so so so busy planning for the last three days of school before winter break. As a team we decided to do fun Christmas themed activities. So spent spent many of those days searching on Pinterest and then trying to get all of the materials ready. 

Sorry for anybody who was following along with that. I am thinking (no promises) that I might do another one sometime before the school year is over. Maybe. Will see. 

Anyways so far I have been planning and creating things to use in my classroom. We are getting ready to start word families, so be expecting that to be showing up in my store. I have been trying to get things ready like to center activities and worksheets. I have a new parent volunteer coming in to "help" and want to make sure that I keep her busy. In the copy room.

I feel very productive and relaxed at the same time because knowing that I am planning ahead makes me feel good. January is going to be a very busy month. I have to start checking students reading levels and then I have to do another assessment. Also sometime during the month I have my formal observation. The only I am not looking forward to is the lengthy doesn't seem very important lesson plan I have to type up. 

I hope everyone is enjoying their break while it lasts!

My Very First Conferences

The Night Before:
I can't even begin to express how nervous I am about having my first conferences. This will really be the first time that I meet the parents expect for my one parent helper. I am mostly nervous because I don't really know what to expect or what the parents will ask. I have talked by email or phone with some parents about students already and those went well. 

For the most part I am just worried about two parents based on the emails I have had with them so far. Those students are about behavior and no parent wants to worry about behavior. 

Most of my students are either on grade level or above, so I don't have to have those awkward conversations about the student not progressing. I have been told by my team that some of the parents won't even show, though I did get all my conference papers back saying they could all make it. 

The Day After:
Well I did it. My first conferences are over and they didn't go to bad. I only had two parents that didn't show up. Though I did have a few parents that were late. 

Most of my parents were fine and happy to hear what I had to and show them. I only had one helicopter parent, but I think I calmed her and told there was nothing to worry. Her child is one of my high students. 

I only had one problem with one parent and I just really felt at a lost for words because I didn't know what to tell her. On the report I basically put on that he needs to develop his language skills. This child barely talks to me or participates in class. He really only shakes or nods his head at me. She apparently has been told by people that he is very articulate, has really good grammar, and vocabulary. So now she is going to be "volunteering" in the classroom. What bothers me that she is so caught up on that when he still doesn't know his letters, letter sounds, and can't identify numbers. 

I am not going to let her bother me and my holiday. Besides another teacher was telling me the mom is strange when she had the older child and told me not to worry about her. 

Planning, TPT, and Other Teachery Things

I have just been so busy, which I am sure many of you know how busy being a teacher can be let alone a first year teacher starting after the school year. I feel like no matter how much I try to plan ahead for the upcoming week over the weekend, that I always fall behind, though my team feels the same way since we have a new curriculum this year. 

Overall things have been slightly overwhelming with things at work. Like keeping up with county assessments, planning, meetings, emails, and events going on at school. It's all just a lot and I never know who to talk to about all of this. I kind of have a mentor, who has been really great, but there are just some things that she doesn't know or I find out that she told me wrong. I just worry about missing deadlines for all of the county assessments and getting in trouble. 

I have one assessment that needs to be done by the beginning of November and all I have been doing for the past two weeks is assessing students. I feel like I am not teaching them anything, especially during math because that is the time that I spend the most assessing students. It has gotten so bad that I don't even know exactly where I am even at in math. After school this Monday, we are going to plan for math and I am just so thankful because I feel just lost at this point. 

Then I have started my own store on TPT which has been an interesting and new process, so far I have only free items, but plan to add paid items soon. I know that it will take time for my store to grow and when I add my paid items that it could take time for it to sell. I post twice a week and thankfully I spent my summer creating items, so I just had to add it to my store and I do not have to worry about creating activities. 

I know my store comes second compared to my students, but I do want to take my store seriously and hopefully it will become a little something. I plan to move sometime the beginning of next year. My commute is about 50 mins to 1 hr. drive and it is starting to take it's toll on me. I will soon be driving in the dark to work and then back home in the dark. 

Anyways I better get back to planning for this week. Luckily we have a half day on Thursday and then no work on Friday. I could really use a three day weekend. Also I am not sure about a schedule for my blog, but hopefully I get everything settled with work soon and can atleast post once a week. 

Kindergarten Teacher!!

I know just last week I said that I was working as a long term sub for a teacher's assistant, but know I officially have my own classroom starting on Friday!!!

This went really fast because the new school year has already begun and they needed a teacher fast. I get an email asking about doing the interview on Monday. Then Tuesday I had my interview and then today I was offered the position! 

I just still can't believe this. I am just SOOO excited. I know this next week is going to be crazy and I am ready for it. 

Future Classroom Supplies

I can't help but to look up possible items that I want to buy in my non existent classroom at the moment. I tell myself, this way I will already have an idea what I want to purchase when I get a job, so that is why I looking at supplies. 

I ended up creating a board on Pinterest to keep items that I found all in one spot. Also didn't want to forget about anything when the time comes to purchase. I know I will have a lot of things going on with everything being new to me and I want to get organized now. 

These list could change when I really do shop for my classroom based on what the school supplies and how my classroom is set up. 

Anyways lets move onto the items/supplies:

Magnetic Letters and Numbers

What elementary teacher doesn't use magnetic letters for reading groups, centers, and activities. I also got numbers now from my mentor teacher, so I don't need those anymore. 

Dry Erase Boards

Both of my mentor teachers had dry erase boards at the students seats and it made for a quick and easy assessment to check what the students know or learned. I already have lots of dry erase markers. 

Dotters

I have found lots of activities and center games that uses dotters. I think students will love to use them. 


Counters

Again, counters are something I feel that almost every teacher uses for math. 


Colored Paper and Sandwich Bags

These two items would be great to use differentiate activities and centers in the classroom and to keep them organized.

Caddies

I want to use these as a cutting station. I would have the students get them out when they cutting something. I also want to find something small to place paper scraps in inside the caddie too.  


Mailboxes 

I want to use this for the students mailboxes instead of the big piece of furniture since this takes up much less room. 


Book Boxes

I want to put the book covers on the back of student's chairs as their book boxes. I saw on a blog of someone doing this. And this would take up less space too.



Leveled Books

These mini crates are the prefect size to store the books inside and to keep by the reading table. 

ALRIGHT! That is everything as of right now. There are some other items on my board, but I am not sure about them. I may make a part 2 if I think of other things, though hopefully at that point I will be doing teacher supply hauls instead of what I am really buying for my classroom. 

Books, Books, and More Books

Last week my one of my mentors sent me a text asking if I still wanted books that she didn't want anymore and of course I said yes! Any little bit will help me and save me money in the process. Back when I was interning she had asked me and I was really happy to hear from her with the offer still.

So later that week I stopped by the school and got to see the students from both classes and it was great. All the students were really happy to see me and had so much they wanted to share that I ended up being there later then I planned. 

While I was there my mentor said that she still hadn't gone through all of her books and said that I can come back next week to get more. I couldn't believe it, the first time I went there she was getting rid of a little over a 100 books. 

Then I went again the next week and she had said this other teacher had somethings that she was going to give me too. I had no idea that I would end of up leaving with my car looking like this:

I also had stuff in the passenger seat. 

I can't even begin to tell you what everything is because there is just so much and I have not even gone through all the stuff myself. Some of the items are posters, magnetic numbers, an easel, foam things, lots of books, baskets, activity books, stickers, and pocket charts. 

I was up late at night going through almost everything. I just wanted to weave out anything that I knew for sure that I didn't want. 

I don't know have many books should be in a beginning teacher's classroom library, but I feel like I am pretty much set. I have a little over 300 books, though I do plan to stop by the thrift store from time to time maybe after I get a job and grab a few other books, but not many. 

To keep myself organized about what books I have when I go shopping I download this app Booksapp to help me and that's how I know how many books i have. I will admit that the app is not the best and maybe I can't figure this out, but not all books have a bar code, so I wish I could type in the code to look it up instead of putting it in manually. 

I am just so thankful for everything they gave me and really hope that I get a job.