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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Classroom Reveal Preview and first week

Sorry, my whole 4 followers, that I've been MIA.  Pre-planning week was INSANE and then this first week has been crazy too.  I love my class though.  I've got some tough kids...but I've got some great kids.  18 third graders all learning our procedures and working together without arguing (most of the time).

Our school is an Extended Day School, which means we have an extra hour for reading instruction.  I love it.  For real.  An extra hour in my day means an extra hour to help my kiddos who are at a first grade reading level with their catch up growth.  (It also means an extra hour of pay...but who's counting?)  But what this also means is that I have to be at school by 6:50 am (the kiddos get there at 6:55).  Our tardy bell rings at 7:25, which is when I start teaching reading immediately.  And the kiddos start dismissal at 2:40.  Teachers aren't allowed to leave until 3:30.  But because I teach at an inner-city school, the latest we can stay is 5:00.  Which is not a lot of time after school to fit in meetings and clean the room and grade papers and and and...yeah.  So I've been staying until 5, driving my 30 minute drive home, and working on school stuff every day this week.  So that's why the no update.  And I haven't taken any pictures of my room except for this one:


It is my room from my small group table (my little corner because I don't have a desk).  This was our room at Orientation.  But our classroom has changed a little.  I've got one special friend who needs to be by himself...so now his desk is at the front of my room.  And one group I need to split into two smaller duos.  Our kiddos just aren't used to sitting and working in groups of 4.  We'll learn.  We'll learn.

I promise to have a real classroom reveal this week.  Promise.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Monday Made It

I think I have a problem updating this unless it's to join a linky party.  I'm going to get better...I promise.

Anyway, I love linking up to this linky party and seeing what everyone has made for his/her classroom.  So of course, I'm going to link up for


And I have TWO Monday Made It's!  I'm so excited.  The first one is one of those melted crayon art pieces.  My wife and I tried these when the buzz was first building about melted crayon art.  I loved it.  And right now, my Wal-Mart is selling these packs of 8 crayons that all fall in the same color scheme.  Once I saw them, I knew I needed to do this type of project for my room.  So I did.


I painted the Mickey head and let it dry completely first.  Then I used painter's tape to completely cover the Mickey head.  I hot glued those crayons on, and then started blow-drying them. 

If you're going to do this project, be forewarned that sometimes the melted wax goes in every which direction.  I had paper spread out all around this beast just in case.  But I'm really excited about how this turned out.

The second Monday Made It is my new treasure box.


This box was a yard sale find years ago.  It has been at my house, holding all of my extra treasure box goodies.  I have been using a shoe box for my treasure box in my classroom.  So tonight, literally 3ish hours ago, I decided it was time to use this in my room instead.  It was painted with Noah's Ark on it.  Because I'm at a public school, and there are some issues going on in my county and the neighboring county about religion and school, I decided to just paint over it and then I don't have to stress.

I just painted the whole thing black and then painted Mickey's pants, glove and shoe on it.  I'm really excited about this one too!

I might definitely have an addiction to all things Disney.  It keeps me young though, right?

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Monday Made It...but late

I know...I know...I'm late.  I was trying to finish up some papers and presentations for my grad courses.  Sorry!

But I'm here...and ready to link up to


So this Monday Made It is a combination of made by me and made by wifey.  Like I said last time, my wife generally makes anything that uses technology.  My first 3 years of teaching, I had this great bulletin board set for birthdays.  You set it up like a bar graph.  Each child had his/her own cupcake.  I know you've seen one.  Well, it was great.

Last year, I finally got to have a real theme in my room...behavior unit for the 2 years before that...no theme's in a behavior unit :-(  Anyway.  I decided to have a Disney room....so my cupcakes didn't really work.  I went digging through my Disney brain and instead decided to use my front bulletin boards (really long, but really short) to hold my birthday stuff.  And I would go with Cars as my theme.  The Dollar Tree had Lightning McQueen and Mater giant coloring pieces.  So I colored them, printed traffic cones, and had my birthday chart.

Well...with all of the changes in my school (district/state coming in, new instructional coaches who want certain things on the walls, etc) I knew I needed that space for something else.  So I had to shrink my birthday chart.  So my wife suggested Alice in Wonderland.  So we put our brains together and came up with this:
 

I've laminated it...and now I can just write names and birthdays directly onto the tea cups.  It is the size of a regular poster though, so hopefully I don't end up with a class of nothing but November birthdays or something.  :-P

Made It #2

Here in Pensacola we have a place called Painting With a Twist.  They offer classes that walk you through how to paint a pre-determined painting.  The "twist" is that it is not kid friendly (unless noted) because alcohol is highly encouraged.  PwaT encourages its patrons to bring a bottle (or 2) of wine to sip while they paint.  It's a great experience.

Anyway, PwaT partnered with one of our teacher stores (which happens to be owned by some friends of ours) so we decided to go this past Sunday.  The wifey painted this for my class:


Notice the Mickey ears on the worm?!  Isn't it great?  I think so.

My aunt is a pre-k aide in central Florida.  So instead of having two of the (almost) exact same painting, I decide to paint one for her.  But since she is my Facebook friend, and I was posting pictures while we were painting...I didn't take any pictures of my painting.  Oh well.

Whew.  I think that's it.  Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

Friday, August 2, 2013

August Currently

It's my FIRST Currently!  I'm so excited!

Anyway, here goes:


Listening: My wife was on the phone with her mom...I really have no idea what about...I could just hear my wife talking.

Loving: Even though I live in the Sunshine State (Florida), it has done nothing but rain all summer.  You can tell exactly when the sun comes out, because people flock to the outside.  I can see the sun from my dining room table...and I love it.

Thinking: This semester ends like...any day now.  And I haven't started a big research paper for my class this semester.  I work well under pressure but...ahh!  I need to get busy...I just don't have any motivation.

Wanting: This week our school had our summer institute.  Next week I'm teaching my 3rd summer camp...this time a tech camp (which I'm excited about).  But then it's back to pre-planning.  I would just love an extra week in between camp and pre-planning so I could get in my room and work.

Needing: I need to sit down with my curriculum...we got a new reading series, and our math has now been aligned to Common Core.  And I'm not using the textbooks to teach science or social studies this year...and the summer is almost over.  Which is why I want more time.

B2s Must Haves: 1. Pilot G pens...this is all I use to grade papers.  While student teaching, I wasn't allowed to use red pens, so I found these pens...they come in a multitude of colors.  Now I'm not concerned with what color (I even use red), but I like the way the pens write, and the colors.
2. I need a haircut.  Curly-headed people should be able to feel my pain...I got my hair cut before school got out...it grew back to that perfect length...now it's past that.  I love getting my hair cut...but it's a pain...and expensive.
3. So, we're an F school this year...which means my school district and/or the state will be coming in to my school on a regular basis.  I just need to make sure my teacher clothes still fit (I may, or may not, have gained like 12 pounds over the summer...sheesh).  And if they don't...I guess I need to shopping.

Thanks for reading/listening!