Linking Up: May Currently PLUS Sale Announcement, Product Promotion, & Giveaway

It’s time for Currently again with Farley. Plus there’s a huge sale going on soon and I have a little giveaway for my updated product. This girl is on fire! Lets go…

Listening: I have watched more of the Disney Junior channel than regular “grown up” channels. It’s so bad that I find myself turning to Disney Junior even when the baby is not around. Seriously?!

Loving: It’s such a true statement that teachers are more excited about holidays and summer than the students. It’s not that we don’t love our job, it’s just that we put our hearts and souls into it for 9 months and at the end we are exhausted. All of the mom’s know how it gets when you were in the 9th month of pregnancy…it’s like get this baby out of me! For teacher’s it’s like get ME and these students out of here!

Thinking: This week I will DIBELS testing students in our school for two days. The next day, I have a day-long professional development event. I hate being out of the class that long because the kids get a little wild. And at this time, with the school year winding down, I need a couple of more grades. I can’t do that if I’m not in the room…sigh.

Wanting: Don’t we all need some extra cash?

Needing: My car is so dirty, and it’s white. Enough said.

Surprise: I have two wonderful blogging friends that I’d like for you to check out. The first is Sarah Mackey at Mackey’s Classroom. Sarah was like the first person that I really connected with when I started blogging and we’ve been talking ever since. The second person is Misty at Krazy About Teaching. Misty is a wonderful teacher and blogger from my area. We’ve met only once, but I feel like we’re good friends already. She has so many awesome ideas especially involving technology.

Don’t forget to stop by my TpT store May 6th and 7th because I will be participating in the sitewide Teacher’s Appreciation Sale. Look for my updated products like my Telling Time Mega Pack! This is a product that has been in my store for a very long time and it was in need of a facelift. I updated the cover pages and activities and even added some new things. I finished it just in time for our unit on time this week.

Speaking of my Telling Time Mega Pack, I’m going to give two of them away for free. All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what skill you are teaching in math right now along with your email and enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below. I’ll announce the winners tomorrow afternoon!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Pin Up Thursdays Linky Party (May 1)

Pin Up Thursdays is a weekly linky party where you share four interesting educational finds from Pinterest. If you need help getting your party on, click HERE! Now, party animals…find your pins, blog about it, grab my buttons, and link back up here on my blog. Here are my pins from the week…

 

I love this idea because I recently received a few iPads through a grant and I have been searching for some QR code ideas. These are QR keys. The pin description mentions that this is good if your classroom only has one iPad, but I can see it being used even if you have more than one. Students scan the QR code to gain access to apps or websites.

I like this pin simply for the organization and the awesome display idea. Right now, I have my CC standards and my objective listed on my whiteboard, but I’d like to have something fancy like this to display all of the standards we are learning for the week. Saving this idea for next school year!

 

Can you tell what going on here? These are bottle caps. The teacher writes or attaches a problem on the outside of the cap and an answer on the inside of a bottle cap (ketchup cap, mustard cap). Students can then grab one, work the problem, and then they can self check. What a great idea! I can see this being used for other subjects as well.

These are stamina strips. Teachers can use these to help students track their silent reading. Think Daily 5 stamina, but for each individual students. As they build their stamina they get another link added to their chain. This would be a great way to motivate all students, especially the ones who may struggle with reading and/or reading for a long time.
What pins have you found this week? Share your thoughts about my Pin Up Thursdays pins in the comments and make sure to link up with your blog post below!

An InLinkz Link-up

No More Common Core?

This morning, I watched the morning news like I always do, and I saw a news story where local teachers were protesting Louisiana’s decision to implement Common Core. As a Louisiana teacher, I’ll put in my two cents about this issue.

When Common Core was introduced in my state and parish during the 2012-2013, I only knew about because there were so many TpT Common Core products. Other than that, I had no clue what it was. During my first year doing CC, it was rather difficult. I honestly do not feel like we had adequate training before we were asked to implement it in our instruction. Like many of the protestors in the news story I mentioned above, I felt like CC was just thrown at us. Fast forward to this current school year, and I felt much more confident in implementing CC. We had many professional development days before and during the school year where we unpacked the standards to get a better understanding of what our students were supposed learn. So, I felt more comfortable about CC, but unfortunately my kids were not really grasping the concepts. Parents were not too happy either. I found myself telling parents, “Well, as you know, the Common Core standards are very rigorous…” and I received some blank stares and some head nods. Needless to say, many parents were not happy, many kids were confused, and this teacher was/has been/is scratching her head.

I will say that I believe that CC is great way to make sure students in one state are learning the same things students in another state are. And let’s just put it out there, Louisiana does not rate too highly when it comes to education. I think our governor had good intentions, but the methods were all wrong. I do believe that CC was pushed too quickly. Teachers were not given enough time to understand the new standards before they were asked to begin using them. When teachers and parents began getting angry, “people” started back peddling and tried to give us training. It was just very backwards. Again, I am just stating my opinions about it.

I am not sure what the future holds for Louisiana and CC, but I do know that a lot of teachers and parents are very unhappy. It will be interesting to see. I’d like to know your views on Common Core. How is it working in your state/county/parish? Were you adequately prepared to teach Common Core standards? How did your students grasp the Common Core standards? Share your thoughts below.

Pin Up Thursdays Linky Party (April 24)

Pin Up Thursdays is a weekly linky party where you share four interesting educational finds from Pinterest. If you need help getting your party on, click HERE! Now, party animals…find your pins, blog about it, grab my buttons, and link back up here on my blog. Here are my pins from the week…

I’ve been trying to think of a creative Mother’s Day craft for my first graders to do, and I’ve found it. I think that I can easily get all of these materials ready for my students to complete this craft. Am I the only one who analyzes a student craft to see how much work the TEACHER actually has to do? haha!

I love this Strech A Sentence poster because I am finding that my first graders don’t naturally add details. This poster can not only serve as a reminder when they are writing, but I can totally see myself teaching a lesson from just this poster. Hmm…TpT product in the making…

I wish that I would have found this before my students did their state testing. I am definitely going to prepare these testing goodies for my students next year. I’ve seen on IG that some teachers are just now starting their state testing, so maybe they can use these this year!

The end of the school year is quickly approaching (oh yes, I have a countdown app on my phone) and this idea would be a lot of fun. You buy a beachball for each student, and your students can sign their names and write messages to their classmates. This is a great keepsake.
Share your thoughts about my Pin Up Thursdays pins in the comments and make sure to link up your blog post below! I’m off to enjoy the rest of my Spring Break.

An InLinkz Link-up

Pin Up Thursdays Linky Party (April 17)

Pin Up Thursdays is a weekly linky party where you share four interesting educational finds from Pinterest. If you need help getting your party on, click HERE! Now, party animals…find your pins, blog about it, grab my buttons, and link back up here on my blog. Here are my pins from the week…

 

This is an ingenious idea for displaying anchor charts…towel rods! Now, I’m not sure how the rod is secured to the board, but it is a great idea.

 

 

I must admit that I am very unorganized! Right now, my teacher desk is a MESS. The above picture is part of the problem. When I get ideas throughout the day, I tend to write them on a sticky note and put them on my cluttered desk. Well, needless to say, I forget where I put my notes and it all goes down hill after that! This idea could at least give me a designated spot to store my post-it notes ideas.

 

 

The homework club is reserved for students who do their homework each day. Every day that they complete their homework, they get to keep their number on the board. If they forget to do their homework, they must take their name off of the homework club. At the end of the month, the students who are still left will get a party. In my classroom, I use a different system, but I would like to integrate this idea with my current one.

 

I have been looking around Pinterest for a few end of the year activities lately, and I found this one. Basically, the teacher fills up a certain number of balloons based on the number of days left of school. Each day, a student pops a balloon. Inside of the balloon is something the students have to do. You and your class keep popping a balloon per day until the last balloon is gone.

An InLinkz Link-up

Today, In My Classroom: Egg-Cellent Graphing

Each day this week, I plan to do an Easter-themed activity with my first graders since we are approaching our Easter and Spring Break. (Sidenote: I am SOOO excited for Spring break…even more than my students!) Today, we did an activity that I just added to my TpT store called Egg-Cellent Graphing.

We practice graphing all year long so even though we haven’t reached the Go Math! unit on graphing, I knew my first graders could still complete this activity. First they colored their eggs.

Then, they cut their eggs out and sorted them by color.

Finally, the students colored in their graphs depending on how many eggs they had of each color. My kiddos really enjoyed this activity, and your students can too!

Egg-Cellent Graphing is only ONE BUCK in my store, so go grab your copy now! Also, don’t forget to join me this Thursday for Pin Up Thursdays!

Do You GoNoodle? & Product Promotion

Before last Friday, apparently I had been living under a rock because I had never heard of GoNoodle (www.gonoodle.com). Do you GoNoodle? GoNoodle has a large collection of brain breaks that you can do in the classroom. It is free for teachers to sign up too which makes it even better!

In the picture above, my class was doing Zumba to the song “I Like to Move It” and they LOVED IT! They also love Boogie Down with the dancing chicken.

Once you sign in, you’ll get to choose an avatar for your classroom and you will be brought to this screen. I started GoNoodle on Friday so I’m still trying to figure out what the indicator on the right means. When my students completed one of the brain breaks, they received points so I assume that is what it’s for.

This is where you will go to find all of the great brain breaks. You’ll soon find out which ones your students love. I can’t wait to explore all of them! If you use GoNoodle in your classroom, share in the comments which brain breaks are your favorite. I’d like to show my class some of the ones that are tried and true in others’ classrooms.

Now for a little product promotion…I have two new Easter items in my TpT store. The first is a freebie named I Am Egg-straordinary It is a glyph activity that your students can use to tell about themselves—something they ALL love to do. I plan on using this item this week before our Easter/Spring Break. Go grab this freebie now!

I love a good Bingo game, don’t you? Easter Bingo is another game in my collection of Bingo games in my TpT store. The first TWO people who leave a comment and their email address will get this game for free.

Two more things…I am finally on Bloglovin’! I invite you to follow me HERE. I would also like to invite you to my weekly Pin Up Thursdays linky parties. Every Thursday, other bloggers and myself will share 4 interesting, educational pins from Pinterest. I would love for you to link up!

Enjoy your Sunday!