Happy World Teacher Day!

 

Long post ahead...

 

 

On this day that is meant to celebrate amazing teachers all over the world, I find myself reflecting on my {short} career so far, why I became and teacher, and my hopes for my future.  At a time when teaching morale is at an all time low and teachers are pouring their hearts and souls into their jobs with higher stakes, more testing, and little thanks, it is now; more than ever, that we need to remember exactly why we decided to become teachers.  Being a teacher is not a job, it's a calling. And despite what many people say, not everyone can do it.  It takes a special kind of person to touch a childs heart and help them learn about the world around them while simultaneously supporting 19, 20, 25, maybe even 30 other little learners.  And while you may be feeling downing, thinking "Why am I doing this?" or maybe even thinking about leaving.. I want to remind you that you are appreciated, because we all need to know that what we are doing is changing lives for the better!

 

So what's my story? Why did I become a teacher?  Well, unlike most teachers.. I didn't always know I wanted to be a teacher.  Growing up I had my heart set on saving animals {don't most kids?}  Even through highschool, while I wasn't totally sure, I stuck with my "dream".  I had been accepted {early admission} to the veterinarian program at SUNY Oneonta.  Throughout my senior year; however, my heart just wasn't in it.  I hate needles {I practically pass out when I get a shot}, how was I going to poke animal will them?  Surgery? Forget it.  Dreams need to change.   So they did {to another dream I always had- a girl can have more than one, right?}.  Something else I was always very fond of was music.  I was in my highschool symphonic band, jazz ensemble, and chorus all 4 years of highschool.  I took music theory and spent almost my entire senior year in the music room.  It's what made me happy.  I am a HUGE fan of country music and had dreamed of going to Nashville, finding the next big country star, and being their manager.  Well- I went off to school and ended up HATING my music business classes. Plus, it was a really hard career to get into.  What were my chances?  Ok- why don't I be a music TEACHER?  Great- it's settled.  Music teacher.  Well- guess what? That didn't make me happy either.  Luckily I found this all out within my first year when I was taking mostly core classes, so no lost time.  Then, there were some things that helped me realize that teaching elementary school kids was my calling.

 

 

Clue #1- I've always loved kids.  I was my neighborhood babysitter, coached baseball with my dad and cheerleading with my mom.  I was born to be a mom (So why no kids yet? Well that's another story). 

 

Clue #2- One night while I was sitting in my dorm room flipping channels, I ended up turning to a movie called The Ron Clark Story.  I'm sure you've heard of it and if you haven't seen it, it's a must see!  I was instantaneously pulled it and didn't take my eyes off the T.V.  I got this feeling inside that I could not describe.  I was excited and energetic.  That's what I wanted to do, I wanted to be Ron Clark.  Change kids lives.  Teach them.  Help them believe that they CAN do whatever they want and they ARE worth it.  Ron Clark helped me realize that, even though I didn't ever think about being a teacher, the desire was always inside of me.. It just took a little encouragement to come out.  He is an amazing educator who I look up to and where my desire to be amazing comes from.

 

 

Clue #3 and the icing on the cake- The Teacher Store:  My boyfriend was going to school to become a teacher.  We had made a trip down to the local teacher store with his mom to pick up some things for him and I was in heaven.  Looking at all of the books, supplies, signs, rewards, stamps, flash cards, games.. Oh.My.Word.  I already could not wait to use them in my own classroom and my head was filling with ideas.

 

And so it began.  My journey to becoming a teacher.  And here I am today, my 2nd year as a classroom teacher .  Sometimes questioning if I made the right decision, but then I think about all the reasons I decided to take this path and how important my job is.  Even if I do struggle to save money, fix my broken washing machine, or am took broke to have kids, I know I have my 20 little babies in my room that need me [And who I get to send home at the end of the day ;) ].

 

 

Happy World Teachers Day! Keep Changing Lives!

 

 

Hip Hip Hooray, Today is your day!

Who loves comfy chairs?  If you are anything like me, you LOVE them and love to have lots of these around your classroom for student seating.  Like most teachers who have chairs in their room, I had a rotation chart.  20 kids names on a list, with a clip that indicated who got the special chairs that day.  It was one students job to move the clips each afternoon.  It worked well...for a little bit.  Until that student got sick or they forgot to do their job or we ran out of time and were packing up in turbo time. 



Then I heard lots of, "She sat their YESTERDAY, its MY turn... So and so didn't switch the chart, can I?... He SKIPPED me!!"  Can you hear those little voices in your head right now? 

I finally decided to try to come up with a new way that would be easier on everyone and I'm here to share it with you today!...

In my classroom, I have 5 tables that seat 4 students a piece.  I have 4 comfy chairs, and 4 crates.. hmmmm...  1 table a day on the chairs, 1 on the crates, rotate each day.... they each get 1 day a week on the chair and 1 day a week on the crate!  WINNING! Perfect Plan.  Oh wait, I could even use it as an incentive.  The table with the most points at the end of the day gets the chairs the next day.  Double Winning!  Hooray to starting new routines 9 weeks in #teacherprobs (Yes I just hashtagged ... I know, it's getting annoying)

I decided I would start by giving each table 2 chair days per week.  Once on the chairs, Once on the crates.  The chair is theirs ALL DAY!  Here are the little tents I made to put on their tables when their day has arrived!  They will be so excited!   (Click on the picture to download! It has lots of different versions and even a version where you can add your own reward or special activity after "You get to"

What ways do you make life in the classroom easier on yourself?

Currently October

Wait, WHAT? October, already!  This year is flying by, that's for sure! Taking some time today to link up with the always amazing and fabulous, Farley, for Currently October!

 

Who doesn't love Judge Judy?  She just tells it like it is. 

 

Speaking of "who doesn't".... Who doesn't absolutely love this fall weather?  I seriously wish it was like this ALL YEAR LONG.  55-60 degrees, some sun, a nice fall breeze, and the holidays lurking around the corner.  Best of year, hands down.

 

I'm getting hungry.. Any suggestions for a good dinner?

 

The fiancee and I recently bought our first house.  Love it! Buuuut... with a dog and a cat, the carpets are constantly covered in fur!  Even when I vacuum every darn day.  Wood floors would be so much easier to clean!

 

I've been on intersession for the past 3 weeks.  For those of you that don't know, I teach at a year round school.  We started mid July so now we are on Fall Break.  It's OK, you can be jealous ;).  Anyway- I want to try to get a really great 2nd quarter plan done so I have less planning to do throughout the week.  I've got the first half of the quarter's Science & Reading skeleton done.  Hopefully I can get some more done before Monday.  Also, first week back... Field trip on Friday! Woot Woot.

 

Trick or Treat: Totally TRICK!! On Monday I'm going to get my kids good.  We're going to start reading The Witches and I will be really exaggerating my actions and having a little different wardrobe to trick my kids into thinking I'm a witch.  I love that look when they hear "Maybe even your teacher.." muahahhahaha. I'm evil.

What are you up to this month?

A slight duct tape addiction

Hello.  My name is Ashley and I am a Duct tape addict.  Phew that felt good to say.  I blame is all on my mentor.  She reminded me of all the fun things you can do with decorative duct tape like:

-Use it as bulletin boarder
-Hang up pictures from kids around your room creating a "frame"
-Fix broken kids shoes (Yes- this actually happened)
-Fix books who have sadly been sent to the book hospital
-Fix book bins that are breaking because they are full of so many books (What a tragedy, right?)
-Fix kids binders that are falling apart
-Mark Notebooks (Get out your Science notebook- the one with the GREEN tape!)

AND my students most favorite thing of all....

Binding their writing! Check out that binding!

 

I'm guessing Greg over at Kindergarten Smorgasbord would LOVE that mustache tape!

 

Seriously, how fun does that look? My kids {el-oh-vee-ee} to see their writing materpieces hanging in the hallway and they are so proud of them.  Not to mention, it helps bring out even more of their huge personalities.

 

 

Even better than the fact that it makes their writing look even more fabulous? They can do it by themselves! Yes people, by themselves!! They look forward to putting on their binding and sharing it with a friend!

 

 

 

They sell tons of fun patterns at almost any store.  The possibilities are endless!

 

What are your {maybe-not-so-strange-as-I-think-mine-is} addictions?





Love me some extreme weather! {Come grab a Freebie!}

Thank the good Lord upstairs for intersession.  The perks of year round! Once everyone starts getting really tired, it's time for a break. 

Right before intersession we finished up our unit on Weather.  I have a weather FANATIC in my room this year.  I mean, serious weather fanatic.  He could not wait until we got into extreme weather because he had sooo many questions about tornados.  I knew he would love our mini research!  I especially love little projects like this because it helps me see who is a leader, who is a follower, who is bossy, who does all the work and who just does the bare minimum.  I do have to say that each and every one of my 20 little second graders put in a tremendous amount of effort into this project!  Check out the work they did!

 

For this project, I split them into 5 groups and gave each group 1 type of extreme weather to become experts on.  They would research and find information about this weather and present their research to the rest of the class.  Here are the graphic organizers we used to take notes.  Students did the research in pairs and came back together as a group to decide what information was the most important and what they needed to teach the rest of the class.

You can click on either picture to head to my TPT store to download a free copy of these posters!

Check out my little babies at work!

They were so proud of their work and looking forward to more of this throughout the year!

ane-WHAT?

This week has been all about wind, wind, wind!  Yesterday, we talked about what we know about wind and did a little investigation with bubbles.

Today was all about how meteorologists use tools to measure wind.  We looked at a Beaufort scale and then I showed them an Anemometer!  (As I was showing them this and having them repeat ANEMOMETER, I just kept thinking about this...)

Love me some Nemo!

Each student build their very own Anemometer & we took it outside to test! Here's a good site with directions on how to make one if you'd like to try this with your students.  We did a little different to make it easier on me.  I stapled the 2 straws together making an "X" (I did this ahead of time).  Then each student taped the 4 cups at the edge of the straws, I put a push pin through the straws and then pushed it into a pencil eraser.  Worked great!  

It wasn't a very windy day but we still got them to rotate a few times when we found the windy spots around the school!  It was so much fun and students got to take their anemometer home to show to their family.  Nothing better than some engaging, hands-on learning!  

Math Fact Fluency (A Freebie!)

I'm coming to you today with a little idea I came up with last year to help my kids build fact fluency & get use out of some serious wasted time- You know... the time when kids are filtering in from Specials, or when they are using the bathroom after recess.. That time!!

I started this last year and I really liked it so I thought I'd share it with y'all.  I have NO idea why I didn't before.  Basically it is flash cards on PowerPoint and involves you just clicking "View Slideshow" and listening to your kids {quietly} shout out the answers!  Turn it on during that "wasted" time to turn it into some serious fact practice time! Click on the picture to head over to my TPT store to pick up this FREE resource!!