2014-2015 Classroom Reveal and $25 TpT Gift Card Giveaway!

We started school last Monday and it really knocked me out! I am finally *almost* back to feeling human again!  In all the mad rush of back to school I almost completely forgot this month's TpT giveaway!  Luckily I remembered and you can enter below.  Thank you for not throwing stones at me for being late!

I also wanted to share my room for the year - I was trying to match the blog a bit - do you think it comes close?

This is the view from the door.  Yes those are tables - adult sized tables.  I have had them for the past three years and I have grown used to them.  Not sure that I love them completely, but they work.  The best part is that they don't have messy desks to clean out.  Everything gets cleaned off each day before they leave.  They keep their things in buckets from Really Good Stuff.  (I just realized I didn't take a picture of those, so I will update the post when I do). The students sit on both sides of the tables, and we have a large whole group meeting area for mini-lessons.

I also don't have a desk, but instead work from my kidney table.  I have two drawers underneath where I keep my supplies.  You can see them along with my mess of bags and junk.  Don't judge - it's the first week of school craziness! 

A close-up shot of the shelves behind my desks (And another bag!  I swear I was a bag lady in a past life!)

Our very well loved library - along with reading buddies!

A close up of the READ sign - I painted the pics last year and couldn't take them down.  

The Whiteboard.

Whole Brain Teaching Rules.

Student computers.  I plan on using the hula hoops for giant venn diagrams - hubby thought that would be a good place to store them.  The fabric backgrounds are brown sheets from Wal-Mart.  I think they might look black in the picture, but they are brown.

Close- up of storage containers.  The OCD in me is irked that they aren't straight and not in alphabetical order - but at least they are ready to go!

I really love this color scheme!

I am linking this post up with:

and
Blog Hoppin'

And now, to the part you are waiting for!  The giveaway!

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The Together Teacher Chapter 3 - Create an Upcoming To Do List

We are already at Chapter 3 in our Book Study of Maia Heyck-Merlin's The Together Teacher.  It is phenomenal if you are looking at ways to become more organized!

If you missed our previous chapters, you can find them here:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Today our guest host is Laura from Luv My Kinders!

Head on over to read her take on chapter 3 and to enter to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!

My take on chapter 3:

Do you ever feel like your to do list is scattered everywhere with scattered post-its, random lists, and stacks of papers to go through?  Yeah, me too, which is why I love that Maia has suggestions for us to corral our to-dos!

She says the first thing you need to do is create an Upcoming To-Do List which is a long-term, sorted list of all of your to-dos.  Throughout the chapter she gives various suggestions and ideas for how to create this to-do list from a list organized by month in Word to a more traditional to-do list in Excel. Once you have determined the best method for you, she gives you different ways to use your upcoming to-do list with examples for:

* Stuff we need to do eventually, but don't have the mind space to deal with now (PD book suggestions from your principal)
* Stuff we need to do that needs a longer lead time (think big projects)
* Stuff you may want to do someday but you can't assign it a month right now  (reorganizing your classroom library - as long as its not a hot mess on the floor).

Just like previous chapters, I love how she shares real world examples from other teachers at all levels.

So time to get started, slog through those post-its and get everything out of your head, and down on paper!  If you are following along with us, please link up or comment below.  If you don't have the book yet, you can order it on Amazon, or win a gift certificate to purchase it!  Enter below!

Don't forget to visit next week's host, Jenny from Owl Things First.

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The Together Teacher Chapter 2- No More Missed Deadlines & Arc System Giveaway

Today is all about Chapter 2 of our book study of The Together Teacher by Maia Heyck-Merlin.  If you missed chapter one, you can find it here.  Every Wednesday, we will be reviewing each chapter on our quest to be more organized "Together Teachers".  I also have a giveaway for you this week!  Read on to find out more!

Chapter 2

This chapter is all about making sure you don't miss any deadlines by using what Maia calls a Comprehensive Calendar.  In this chapter we learn how to determine what type of calendar to keep (you will have a chance later in the post to win MY calendar of choice), how to put the calendar together using the Ideal Week Template we created after reading chapter 1, and finally how to maintain that calendar so that it can sufficiently guide us from month to week to day!

The Multiple-Calendar Dilemma
How many of us are guilty of this one?  Having a calendar for school, a calendar for your kids' activities, a calendar for your non-school related issues, a calendar of deadlines for classes you are taking, calendars in your cell phone, calendars on your computer, calendars, calendars, everywhere?  When you have multiple calendars it is so easy to lose track of everything you have going on.  Maia says that this can lead to collisions (such as report cards being due on the same day as your Master's thesis - not that I've ever been guilty of that!).  She says that this is the result of the fact that most of us do not take the time to put all our our time commitments and deadlines into one place.

The best way to deal with this is a Comprehensive Calendar, which is a place that lays out all of your time commitments and deadlines in one easy-to access location. It can be paper or tech based. Whatever works better for you.  At minimum, it needs a monthly view where you can keep the following:

• Deadlines (one time and recurring)
• Special events
• Standard meetings (grade level collaborations, PD, etc.)
• Personal events (doctor appointments, kids' practices, birthdays, etc.  

You can take it a step further by scheduling time blocks from your ideal week into you calendar.

 Ideally, this calendar should be set up for at least academic year ahead of time in order to see what events or deadlines lay ahead on which you must make early progress.  Now is the time to put in all of those grade deadlines so that you can plan mini-sessions to work on them rather than panicking at the last minute as you stay at school until midnight the night before they are due getting them ready.

Maia gives detailed examples from real teachers' calendars to show you what this might look like using both paper and tech based methods.  She also gives pros and cons of each ones so you can choose the option that is right for you.

I personally use both.  I ALWAYS have my phone with me, so I will make notes or plan appointments using it.  But.. and this is the big but, I will ALWAYS match it up with my paper calendar as soon as I can so that I don't miss anything.

The Up-Front Investment: Creating Your Comprehensive Calendar

Setting up your calendar really is an up-front investment.  Just like putting money away for a rainy day, taking the time out of your day to plan your calendar will save you from those embarrassing moments of missing a work deadline, or disappointing your child when you miss a big game.

The Steps are:

1. Rounding up your calendars (all of them - school, sports's schedules, unit plans, pacing guides, syllabus, etc.)

2. Put in the hard deadlines (tax day, lesson plan due dates, grade due dates, etc.)

3. Add your soft deadlines (things you want to accomplish but don't have fixed dates - organizing classroom library, bulletin boards, etc.)/

4. Events

5. Meetings

6. Don't Forget Your Personal Stuff!

Once this is complete (celebrate!  Buy yourself a Starbuck's and marvel at how much more prepared you will be this year!)


Then you need to think about what this preparation is going to look like through the year!  Maia gives tips for adding to your calendar throughout the year as you:

• Process incoming emails and memos with deadlines and events
• Process regular or routine communication
• Deal with "day of" deadlines
• Deal with deadlines that require work prior to the due date (those darn grades again!).
• Deadlines that you receive via phone
• Deadlines that come up in meetings

So, now that your calendar is set up, you are good to go and no deadlines will be missed, right?  Not so fast, Maia says, once you set up your calendar, you must review it regularly (she explains how in a later chapter).

1. Get a copy of the book if you haven't already.
2. Choose a calendar ( you can win the one I use in the giveaway below)
3. Take an hour or two to plan out your comprehensive calendar for the upcoming school year. (If you are posting along with us, link up below, or just add a comment when you have finished this step to let us know you are working along with us!).

Don't forget to visit next week with our guest host - Laura from Luv My Kinders.  She will be hosting a giveaway for a $20 Amazon gift card (so you can order the book or other organizing supplies!)  

I have chosen to use the Staples Arc System for my Comprehensive Calendar.  I love it because I can completely customize it to fit all of my needs.  Using the special hole punch (which the winner will receive) I can add any paper that I need to so I don't lose it.  I keep not only my calendar, but also my lesson plans, my pacing guide, and my standards inside.  Along with this, there is a place for me to keep notes from meetings or thoughts that pop into my head.  No more lost sticky notes!







The winner of this giveaway will win a flexi-arc notebook along with the special arc punch (approx $60 value)  Good luck!

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The Together Teacher Giveaway and Book Study Announcement

When people meet me and find out that not only am I a teacher, but I am a mom of 6 boys, a city council member, a blogger, a Teachers Pay Teachers product creator, and a drama teacher, they always ask me the same question.  Where do you find the time?

The ugly truth is that I didn't always "find the time" and more often than I would like to admit, I dropped a ball or two as I tried to juggle this crazy thing we call life!  

Luckily, I found this amazing book, The Together Teacher that really helped me to get my life in order (and feel like I still have one despite my hectic schedule).  And although I have read the book several times (my book is embarrassing to look at!), I am going to go through it again this summer.  As I do, I want to host an informal, yet structured Together Teacher Book Club on the blog, and I would love for you to join me!

Interested, if so, here is my proposal:

Using the book, we will focus together on organizing the following areas of our teacher lives:

o Weekly Worksheets
o Email Management
o Paper Management
o Daily and Weekly Routines
o Meeting Notes

There will be some suggested pre-reading questions to think about as you read. We will focus on one chapter per week and will have several giveaways of products to help you get and stay organized!  If you have a blog, you can post on each chapter and link up, or you can just read and learn.  You can learn more about the author and the book here.

I’m also looking for co-hosts for the duration of the book study.  Being a co-host is simple… you sign up to host a chapter, post your thoughts, provide a linky for the giveaway and for others to add their posts. You don’t have to donate a prize, but you are more than welcome to if you would like.

The book study starts on July 23rd.. so you've got plenty of time to grab a copy of the book and get reading!  Even better, you can win a copy of the book by entering the Rafflecoptor below.  I'm also offereing a choice of any product from my TpT store to the winner as well.

“The Together Teacher” Series 

Make you you are following me on Bloglovin' to follow all the updates!  This series will help you get organized (enough) to be a more effective teacher.  You will find clear advice, and step-by-step actions for building habits, finding tools that work for you, and creating space to become a "Together Teacher". We will explore the key routines of Together Teachers - how they plan ahead, organize both work and their classrooms, and how they spend their free time.  We'll explore real teacher to-do lists, calendars, classroom photos, and more!

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100 Minutes Book Study - Chapter 3 Reading Around the Literacy Block Win a $25 Amazon Gift Card

I am late for my chapter post - I am so sorry!  But last night was Palmer's graduation.

I obviously knew this ahead of time and planned on pre-scheduling my post but this happened...

and we had to have an unexpected surgery and follow up appointment.  He fell off some playground equipment during one of Tyler's baseball games :(

He is handling it well, but needless to say, I have been running around like a chicken with my head cut off since this was our last week of school!

I hope you forgive me, but I have a giveaway to make it up to you!

Now, onto my chapter of 100 Minutes -Making Every Minute Count in the Literacy Block.

 If you haven't bought the book yet, you still can - it will be a great summer read! Keep reading to see how you can win a $25 Amazon gift card to help you purchase the book : D


 You can read my previous posts below:

Chapter 1
Chapter 2



My thoughts on Chapter 3:

Lisa Donohue opened this chapter with a blog post she had written about the magic of the read aloud.  I also have fond memories of read alouds with my own teachers during my childhood.  Like Lisa, there are STILL days when I say that I want to move to Australia when I have a bad day because of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  Read alouds are also a sacred time in my classroom today.  If we have to let go of anything during the day due to special occurrences (assemblies, fire drills, etc.) I will NOT give up my read aloud.

This year I experimented with using whole group novels for some of our read alouds.  I still was the one reading, but each student had a copy of the text to follow along with as I read and to look back through when answering questions to refer to text references.  Many teachers I talked to disagreed with the use of a whole class novel, especially because of differentiation needs.  I love that Lisa Donohue addressed that you could still use whole group instruction, but still provide for varying needs.

Whole group lessons are a time to model reading strategies.  She notes that the purpose of reading strategies is not to give students a checklist of activities to accomplish, but rather is to provide them with a tool kit of strategies to use as they work to comprehend a given text.

It is also important for students to have an opportunity to talk through texts.  I have often heard it said that we do not allow students enough opportunity to talk in class, but instead as teachers do most of the talking.  I always try to keep in mind, that the person doing the work is the one who is learning.  If I am talking, i am learning - if the students are talking - they are learning.  Donohue recommends several ways to develop a talk-centered classroom with sample talk partner success criteria, and sample questions to ask students to encourage deep thought.

I also love that she provided web site resources and sample questions to use with these resources.  Our students are growing up in a digital world, and they need to be able to navigate these resources  as well.

I think one of the most valuable portions of this chapter are the suggested questions.  I love how just a small modification can result in such deeper thinking.  For example, she says:

"instead of asking... How did the main character feel at the end of the book?"
"try asking: How do you know that the main character learned an important lesson through the book?"

I am going to really think about the questions I will ask during read alouds next year.  

If you are reading along with this book, feel free to join in the discussion by linking up below.  I am looking forward to reading everyone else's thoughts and reflections!  

Next up- Chapter 4: Reading Around the Literacy Block

Be sure to visit Jen from teaching, life, and everything in between on June 4th to continue this learning journey with us. She is hosting chapter 4.

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Cinco De Mayo Festivities, Monthly $25 TpT Gift Card Giveaway, and BIG TpT sale!

Today was an amazing day of learning as we celebrated learning - Cinco de Mayo style!   I had already shared a few things we had done last week including measurement poke cards and sombreros. Here are a few more things we did today to honor Mexican culture:

We made pinata bags to hold some goodies from our afternoon fiesta. Many of the students brought some yummy Mexican foods and candies to share with the class.  (Of course I forgot to take pics as I was dishing up the goodies)!  Our overwhelming favorite thing was the homemade horchata made by one of the moms - yummy!

Before the party we did a fun little Reader's Theater from Deb Hanson.

We learned lots of interesting facts - Did you know that Mexico City is sinking?  Or that the biggest Cinco de Mayo celebration is in Los Angeles? Or that they have a chihuahua contest in Arizona on Cinco de Mayo?

We also used some of the activities in Teach from the HeART's Cinco de Mayo Crafts and Printables Pack



And this Cinco de Mayo Math Scoot from Teacher's Desk 6 which was a great review!

And unless you live under a rock, you know that today and tomorrow is the big Teacher Appreciation sale at Teachers Pay Teachers!  I am participating and all items in my store have been marked down.  Combine that with the site discount and you can save 28% on any items.  Remember to use Code TPTXO. Time to clear out your wish list - I know I will be!

And now that you've made it through this epic post, it is time to enter my once a month $25 TpT gift card giveaway that I have as a special thank you for following!  Maybe you can pick up anything extra you missed during the big sale!

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