Slim Down Saturdays are coming back!

I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays and break! I know we have been very busy and I can't pry my 3 year old away from all her new toys. But it is that time where people start thinking about getting healthier. Last year, I started Slim Down Saturdays, but then life got in the way and the link up got away from me. I have been thinking about bringing it back because I know a few people really enjoyed the accountability (myself included), and after receiving an email about it, decided I should just bring it back. Since moving, I have joined a gym and have one of my very best friends as a gym buddy, but life sometimes gets the better of us too and we don't make it as often as we would like. I am hoping that by bringing back this blog series (well, I guess it isn't a series... I am not sure what to call it) I will hold myself a little more accountable. I want to get back to what I weighed before I got pregnant... ideally I would like to look like I did at our wedding. That has always been my goal.

So here is how this is going to work. It is going to be pretty much identical to how it was done last year.

If you want to join, I am including a template that you can copy and paste to your post, or you can post whatever you want to share about your fitness/weight loss/healthy lifestyle journey. I am being very transparent and open about this. You, of course, can share as much or as little as you want. I just need to hold myself accountable.

Anyone that wants to join in on this fun, can copy the button above and the image below and insert their own information. I would appreciate you linking back to my blog but it is not mandatory. (To add your information to the template, copy the image, paste it into powerpoint, and add text boxes in the blank spaces to add your information. Save the entire image with your text boxes as a picture (I do a screen shot of mine but you could group all the text and the image and right click to save as a picture). Put the image into your own blog post and share as much or as little as you want. (I put the date underneath the title on the image below when I do my weekly posts as well.)

Explanation: I didn't include starting weight because I am guessing many of us don't want to share that number. If you feel inclined, you can add it to your blog post.
Ultimate goal: Here is where you can put your final goal. Do you want to lose x amount of lbs? Be a certain weight? Have more energy? Like the way you look? Wear size 'z'? Put that here.
Gain/Loss for the week: +/- and a number (easy enough right?)
Total since starting: here is where you will put your total loss (hopefully, though a pound of muscle IS different than a pound of fat!) since starting
Positives from the week: Share at least one thing that you are proud of yourself for from this week. (You can share if you met your goal from the last week-see below- here.)
Something to do better: Share one thing that you want to improve on- maybe cut out x, y, or z. Drink more water. Workout extra 10 min a day. Etc.
Goal for next week: This could be a weight loss goal or an eating goal. For example: eat fruit every day. Or- lose 2 lbs. Or- drink 8 glasses of water a day. Etc.
One word, song, or quote: Choose one word, song, or quote that is motivating you to keep going. Or maybe your workout song of the week (ya know, that one that really gets you pumped up). Or a quote you heard that made you keep going. Anything. No rules.

Other things you  might want to share: how you worked out, recipes that were good (or even bad), tricks and tips, things that worked for you. There are no rules about what you share, as long as it is about your new (or continuing) healthy lifestyle, I say go for it! The only thing I ask is that you leave some love on the 2 blogs linked up before you and the 1 that links up after you (Farley's rule of 3). People are putting a lot out there by sharing all of this and we could ALL use the encouragement every now and again!

If you plan on joining in, add your blog info to the linkup below so we can all make sure we are following each other in our journeys to a healthier 2015! The linkup will officially begin next week!

The Marshmallow Challenge

From September...

I know this is old. But, I don't want to not share it just because it is from the beginning of the year. These activities are things that can be done at any time throughout the year. My students loved the Fred activity, and this one that I am about to share so much, that I have instituted STEM Fridays in our classroom.

While looking for fun back to school ideas, I came across the marshmallow challenge. But everything I was finding had pictures but not an actual description. So I took to google to find the details and finally found the details. And this one is super easy...

Materials: (per group)
20 pieces of uncooked spaghetti
1 yard of masking tape
1 yard of string (I used yarn)
1 marshmallow

I passed out the supplies, and gave the students 18 minutes to build the tallest free standing tower that could support a marshmallow. That was all I told them. Well that and "don't eat the materials!"

It was really fun to see the different strategies that the groups came up with. Some students focused on being the tallest, which resulted in them failing to succeed because their structure couldn't hold the marshmallow without falling over. Other groups took out paper and pencil and sketched an idea. While others built, took apart, then built a new structure.

This next picture, I did NOT think their group was going to make it. I didn't expect their structure to hold the marshmallow. But it worked.

In the end, I think only one group's tower fell and one group didn't finish (though after the time was up I let them keep working and their tower DID eventually hold the marshmallow). The group that did not finish learned a valuable lesson in team work and listening. The reason they didn't finish is because they all had their own ideas and wouldn't listen to each other and come to an agreement.

This is the group that went for height first, before realizing that was not going to work. You can see based on the yarn they really had no method and were just hoping for the best. Their tower barely held on!

And this is the group that did not listen to each other. You can see in the left picture, those two students threw something together in the first 4 minutes. They realized, after looking around, that other groups were doing much better and making taller towers. The group finally decided to listen to each other and combine their ideas.

Find me at the Grapevine!

I am over at Elementary Grapevine sharing about our October book reports today. Stop on by, read about them, and grab the freebie by clicking the image below!

The current "curse word" in education... Common Core..

Fair warning- this is a long one... but I promise you it is worth the read.

It seems that way doesn't it? That common core is the worst word someone can say these days? It is quite a hot topic, and you will notice I hardly, if ever, write about hot topics on this blog. But this past week a debate that came from an acquaintance's Facebook post triggered feelings in me that, honestly, I didn't even know I had. Now, let me start by saying that I am not for or against the common core. There are parts of it that I agree with and parts of it that I don't agree with. But this post is NOT about whether the common core is "right" or "wrong".

What really worked my nerve, was that in trying to defend the question students were asked to do (which was one of those "gone viral" things, not even belonging to the person who started the thread on Facebook), seen here,

Because this is not my picture, I linked the picture to the article. 

someone told me that I must be making money off the common core to have such strong feelings. I can assure you that I am not, nor have I EVER made money off the common core. I teach, like the rest of us. And quite frankly, am just sick of parents passing the blame for everything onto us. We didn't choose the common core. We are professionals, and whether we like it or not, this is what we are teaching. And in the grand scheme of things, it isn't so awful. And even more so grand, (especially with all the debate relating to the common core and teachers being "bad"), if we don't defend ourselves, who will?

Back to that image that went viral. The first problem that parents have is that 8+5 does not, and never will, equal 10. And of course, we all know that is correct. But what many people don't see is that the question is not asking the child to miraculously make 8 and 5 equal 10. They are asking the child to explain how to make a 10 when adding those two numbers. The child is expected to know how to decompose numbers to make the math easier. An example is shown below.

Now, I have never taught the younger grades, so this may not be exactly how it is written at that age. But this is what the children need to be able to do. They need to know all the sums to 10. (4+6, 3+7, 8+2, etc). Then they use those sums to find larger sums. And here's the thing. At some point in our lives, we all figured that strategy out if we ever did mental math. It was never taught to me. I distinctly remember as a child realizing that adding things to 9 was easy because I could easily make a 10. 9+7 in my head was the same as 10+6. Making a 10  makes math easier. Not harder.

So, I tried to explain this to the naysayers on this thread. They didn't believe me that students would be able to do harder math if they had the background knowledge of making a 10 and place value. They asked me to give an example. Ask and you shall receive...

Now, your child is required to add 28+15. (No mental math here, stack it up.) In elementary school, we were taught that 8+5 is 13 and you "carry the one"... NEVER was I EVER taught why. The teacher said so, and so we did it. End of story. We never questioned why. We just did what we were told to do. I never learned why we did that until I started teaching and had to explain it to children myself. The first time I, as an educated professional, had to explain the WHY, even I stumbled. But now I can easily tell you why. Just like our children will stumble the first time or two (or even three) that they are learning something new. But they will master it. Have faith! And, for the record, to this day, I have to be careful to call it regrouping instead of carrying the one. And do you know why? Because we aren't just carrying a one. We are literally regrouping a 10! That same 10 that parents are so adamant that their child doesn't need to know how to make. Why should our children just sit and accept that it is what it is because the teacher said so? If we want children to justify themselves then we better be able to do the same. And teachers, be prepared for your students to challenge you. Because with this new way of thinking that we are developing in our children, they WILL challenge us. Accept it! It means you are doing an amazing job making your children think deeper.

Another tidbit that I pointed out on this never ending thread, is that if anything, the standards have decreased in quantity and increased in quality. Don't we always say quality over quantity? Most of the standards we teach did not change. The wording changed. We got rid of some standards in certain grades. The reason for moving some standards out of one grade and into another? So that we can really dig deeper into the standards that are age appropriate. So that we can have our students truly gain some depth of understanding. We increased the rigor, not the content. Rigor is not scary. It is new. We don't run away from a new type of technology... let's not run away from a new type of thinking. A new type of thinking that is making our children think deeper, become self starters, and guide their own learning! Amazing if you ask me...

Here is an example from reading this year. And full disclosure, the first time I thought about teaching it, I was nervous. "How am I going to get the kids to do this? Will they ever fully get it? Will they be able to justify themselves in words at the age of 9?" Guess what- they can... AND MORE!

In reading, students are expected to cite evidence from the text to support their answer. Even on questions where they infer, students should have evidence stating just how they came to that conclusion. A coworker of mine taught me the acronym RAP to get students to do this every single time. And so, we RAP in reading.

R- restate the question- this eliminates the incomplete sentences and overusing of pronouns
A- answer the question- usually the answer will be right in the same sentence as restating the question.
P- provide evidence (or prove it!)- students use a sentence starter in order to prove they found their answer in the text. Some examples they use are: On page ___, The author states____, I know this because _____, For example _____, and so on.

The first time I gave the expectations, those students GROANED. I mean you would have thought I was pulling their hair out. It was pure torture to them. Until we did a couple together and they saw just how easy it was. Sure it is a little more writing. Sure it takes an extra minute or two. BUT- look at the difference in answers-

This is what their answers looked like just 3 weeks ago. Correct answer, but NOT quality.

And this is how we are writing now. This one is from last week. 

Wouldn't you rather your child write the second way? And guess what? If they are answering short answer questions in this way, it improves their writing abilities, causing them to naturally become better writers!

My students' response to this went from "What is RAP?" to "Do we have to RAP?" to "Don't forget to RAP!" and "You didn't restate the question!" and "No pronouns! We don't know who you are talking about!"

And for good measure, here is an image from today's reading questions. All done independently, without groaning, and it did not take them long at all. Students who used to HATE anything that involved writing. Students who would just give me short, quick, garbage answers. LOOK at this quality!

No, it isn't perfect... but you have to admit it is WAY better than that first "attempt" shown from before we learned to RAP.

Whether you are a parent or educator, common core is here for now. Here to stay? I don't know. But for now it is what we have. You can embrace it and be open to learning new things yourself and make the best of it. Or you can resist it and push it away. Option one will lead to you seeing your children soar. Option two- if your child sees your resistance, they will pick up on it, act in the same way, and you may just see them shut down. Because whether you or they like it or not, they have to learn it. Resisting it isn't helping anyone. A lot of parents argue that they can't help their children with homework anymore. And their kids don't get it. First of all, teachers don't just send homework on something they haven't taught. It has been taught, most likely a few times. If your child still doesn't get it, let the teacher know they are struggling. He/she may know, but if your child is the shy, quiet type, it may take a little longer for the teacher to see that the child doesn't "get it". Second- if you don't get it and you want to help your child... instead of taking to Facebook or other social media to gripe... put out a call for help! Don't be ashamed. We are all in the same boat. It is new to all of us. Post the question on Facebook and see if anyone can help you out! Chances are everyone knows someone who is or knows a teacher that can help you. And we all will... because that is our nature. Or, if you don't want to post it on social media... we are fortunate enough to live in an age where we can google just about anything. Google it. In under 2 minutes you will find an explanation, a tutorial, or even a video. And I am sure there are parents that will say "but I shouldn't HAVE to" and that is fine- as an adult, that is your right to feel that way. But please don't hate the teacher for sending home the homework on a strategy/skill that she taught and for doing her job.

For what it is worth- I commented a lot of this on the thread, and another parent replied thanking me. Saying she loved it. And that looking at it from this perspective changes things. It changes how she thought. She is excited for her son to be able to learn in a different way than we did. She also said it is great that students are given the opportunity to learn and engage in their education in a more critical thinking way because it opens so many more doors for them. I love that even just one person is willing to look at it from a different perspective and realize it really WILL benefit our children.

So thank you, to the person who started this debate on their Facebook page. As some of you may or may not know, the past few years in my teaching career were very rough. And I was losing some of my passion for teaching. This person's post (along with being in an amazing school) made me realize that I do still have that passion and I will keep on doing what I know is best for my students.

Please note- this blog post is not a place for you to let out your hatred comments for the common core. For that reason, I will be monitoring comments. I welcome opinions, however I do not welcome bashing of myself, my opinions, or other educators. 

Have you ever saved Fred before?

Oh my goodness.... look out the window! Are pigs flying?! Because I thought for sure I wouldn't be blogging until pigs were flying. I have just been so busy this year. BUT I finally am caught up kinda sorta... enough that I can sit down to blog for a few minutes. And I wanted to start back at the beginning of the school year. If you remember, I got a new job very last minute and am teaching 4th grade now. Let's first acknowledge the fact that I LOVE my job again. FINALLY. I have waited a LONG time to be happy where I work and I am so glad to have ended up where I am. And as an added perk I only have 12 students, all of which are super sweet.

Now, back to the beginning of the year. The other 4th grade teacher and I decided to team teach... she teaches all the math and I teach the science and social studies (alternating units). So we started the year off with some fun STEM activities. And the first one was saving Fred. I saw a few people post about this and/or pin the idea. I knew I had to do it. And I am so glad I did. Not only did the students LOVE it but it gave me an idea of how they work together in groups. I found that some of them are very weak "group workers"... they had to learn HOW to work in groups. I am proud to say we are finally getting there.

If you have no idea what this Fred activity is, the picture collage below has a description of it. I recreated a lab sheet for my students that I will share down below if you would like to use it.

My students really enjoyed it... just look at their faces when they FINALLY got Fred in the life preserver...

A couple things we found:
~At first, every group killed Fred. I obviously wasn't going to have them just sitting there doing nothing.... so we invented Fred's cousin, Fredina... just so they would keep trying.
~At first the students thought Fred's head just had to be "in" the preserver... so they got him placed on the ring and thought they were done. I quickly grabbed an extra gummy worm and life saver and showed them what the end result should look like (I obviously did it with my hands).
~I made my students analyze their materials and try to come up with a plan before jumping in to solve the problem. All but one group's plan failed at first.
~Have fun and let them be loud! Just close the door and enjoy!

Here is a copy of the lab sheet I used. This is not my original creation, it is just formatted better for my students and in better fonts for me. If it is something you want to use, feel free to download and enjoy. Even though it is not the beginning of the year this is still something you can do!

Semi Wordless Wednesday- very overdue post

And by overdue, I mean it is a classroom reveal...

Whew, looking back at these pictures reminds me I REALLY need to straighten up my room some. My desk does not look that good anymore and that back shelf has gained a lot more "stuff".

A little bit of a big change...

Did you notice that I have a new design... and a new blog name?! Ever since I made my blog I was a little unsure of the title because I knew I wouldn't be in third grade forever. Since I got a new job I decided to change it up and make it less grade specific and a lot more "me". And since we all know I love Disney, I went with pixie dust. And the FABULOUS Megan from A Bird in a Hand Designs got me all set up and ready to go. Let me just say, this girl is AMAZING. Seriously, I don't even know if I filled out the forms right, added too  much detail, too little detail, but she took exactly what I had imagined in my head and came up with this beautiful design.

I promise you I have a whole list of blog posts planned. It is just a matter of having the time to sit down and write them and add pictures. I just wanted to make sure all of my awesome readers know that "Third Grade Tidbits" is now "Teaching With a Touch of Pixie Dust". Same person... new super cute (if I do say so myself) blog design and name!

It's September!!

September means my extra long summer vacation is over. (I got an extra hmm 6 weeks because I moved from the south where they end in May to the north where they don't start until Sept.) And I know I am crazy late to the party here, but I want to join in the fun with Farley anyways! So...here it is!

So most of this is pretty self explanatory...

Big Brother! I love this show. What's even better is that my husband loves it too. And the reason why that makes it even better is because 9 years ago when we started dating, his mom and I were talking about the show and he was saying how stupid it was and he would never watch. Now.... now he loves it and reads up on things that happen.

Loving- my new school! Seriously the amount of stress I had been feeling the past couple years made me really feel awful. I was not a happy person in general. Being back home and now getting a job in my new school has been amazing! Seriously the stress levels are way down (of course there is still typical daily stress but NOTHING near as major as the past couple years) and I work with some amazing people.

Thinking- oh my goodness friends. My little girl is growing up. She is starting pre-k3 next week and tonight we converted her toddler bed into a full bed. FULL bed folks. I can't believe it. She was so excited to have her big big bed (the toddler bed was her big bed) and her new sheets and comforter. She even brought her baby doll and monkey to bed with her.

Wanting- I want to lose some pounds. Well more than some...

And in order for that to happen I NEED to get back into a routine and get back to the gym!

3 trips I would love to take... this one was tough because I want to go a lot of places. I would love to go to Hawaii (my dad's been trying to convince me for years to go). I want to go to a LOT of places in Europe but especially Italy. And finally, I never thought I would want to visit Alaska but I have seen so many amazing pictures. Except I would prefer to take a cruise there.

If you want to join in the fun and are late to the party like me, click below!

A Few of My Favorite Things

Imagine it: May rolls around and I know I am moving. And not teaching (so I thought). With limited space to store all my prized possessions (6 years worth of classroom "stuff") I had to make some cuts. I gave a ton of stuff to my friends thinking I wouldn't be needing it for a few years. Well here I am, needing just those things...and more.

Not many people understand that amount of time and money teachers spend in their classrooms making things go smoothly for their students (unless of course you are a teacher or know one). Office Depot gets it. They launched a program called Teachers Change Lives to highlight classroom successes of educators. As teachers, we know that we don't just have what we need when we need it. And a lot of times it is up to us to get it or we don't have it at all.

Now being that I left a ton of stuff (or lost it in the move... I am convinced there is still a bin of "stuff" missing) I was ecstatic when Office Depot contacted me to see if I would be interested in sharing how I use these materials in my classroom. Now, I don't know one teacher who doesn't love some school supplies. And the ones I received are high up there on my list of favorites!

The first thing I took out was the Sharpie markers. I had a lot of labeling to do once I got my class list and I LOVE the vibrant colors and how easily they write. 

I also labeled some paper bags for extra supplies. Each student will put all their extra pencils, erasers, crayons, etc in a lunch bag. This way when they need something, they can walk over to the shelf and get it out of the bag. Hopefully 4th graders can handle this!

The next thing I HAD to try was the Sharpie Clear View Highlighters. How many times have you been highlighting and this happens...

You highlighted too far. It happens to me ALL. THE. TIME. Seriously. And almost always when I am trying to highlight which standards or parts of a standard I have covered. And then I have to get out a pencil and circle the part I haven't covered yet so that I can remember that I have no done it yet. These highlighters are not only fun... but they solved that problem for me!

You can see THROUGH the tip of the marker to see where to stop highlighting. Genius idea!

The last thing I want to show you is the inkjoy pens. 

Now, I am sure most of you know about these pens. And if not, I highly suggest them. They are very affordable, write nice, and are such pretty colors. I am a sucker for a good pen and this one is on my list of favorites for sure. I don't ever grade papers in the same color. What I mean by that is, I don't ALWAYS use pink, or purple, or red. I don't want to associate one color with "bad" marks (in college we were told kids associate red as bad because teachers always marked up papers with red... even if the markings weren't always bad.) So I use different colors. And I love these pens for grading. But I also love to use them in my gradebook. I write the grades that are a C or better in purple and anything below a C in red. This helps me to see at a quick glance who is having a hard time. 

So what does one do with ALL of these supplies? Well, put them in a teacher toolbox of course! I just made a new one for my new classroom (so I could keep my old one at home) and was so excited to fill it with brand new supplies! 

I didn't feature a couple things but want to make sure you know how amazing they are too. Expo dry erase markers I am sure every teacher with a white board knows about. I LOVE using colors on my board and am always buying these markers. I love being able to draw attention to certain things I am writing and will often grab a color to circle or underline on the board... I have been known to draw a thing or two on the board for my lesson too... even with my awful art skills. I also use the Paper Mate Flairs for grading papers but I left those at school and forgot to take pictures. 

Thank you so much Office Depot for supplying me with these AMAZING products.  Make sure you check out the special offers on the deals I received in the mail. You can click the image below to be taken to the offer. 

*I received these items from Office Depot to help facilitate this review. For more information about these products, please visit Office Depot.* 

Monday Made It- and a BIG announcement

So all summer I wasn't doing Monday Made It. And I was sad, because linking up with Tara is so much fun! But I had nothing to make. I wasn't going back into the classroom and I was doing so much organizing in our new house that I sure wasn't making anything for my house. But that all changed on Friday....

Because I GOT A JOB!!!! I will be teaching 4th grade this year! And since I got rid of a lot of stuff before we moved (remember, I didn't think I would be teaching for a while so I got rid of it) I had to get to remaking. I also had one home project I was planning on doing (before I even interviewed for this job) so I will share that too.

My first project was to make new dry erase boards. Mine were 6 years old and I was limited on space so I gave them to my students. (Cue excitement from every single one of them!) I needed new ones so I went to Lowes (I needed something else there but Home Depot carries the same material) and got some of their white panel board (also called Thrifty White Panel Board or Shower Board). I think it was around $12 for a sheet. I had them cut it into rectangles (I was going to do 12x12 squares but I wanted a little extra room this year) and got 24 boards out of the $12.

I also bought some duct tape to put around the edges for around $3 a roll. After cutting the tape by hand for a couple boards I decided to use my cutter instead (warning- the blade WILL get gunky from the tape, but nothing a little elbow grease won't take care of). 

And I ended up with some pretty nice boards for under $20. (Please excuse the few boards with different tape, I ran out of the pink and didn't want to go back out, so I just used what I had at home.)

The second thing I needed to make was a new teacher toolbox. I didn't leave mine in Memphis but I got so used to having it on my desk in my office that I had to make a new one for my class. Plus, I wanted one that would match my colors anyways. So I got the 22 compartment storage container from Lowes (my home depot didn't have them so check before you go) and some black spray paint (for plastic). I made my new labels (which you can find under my freebies tab here- the first thing I am loading on my freebies tab!) and got to working. I decided to arrange the labels on my computer before deciding on colors so I knew I liked the way it would look in the drawers. Once I got that done, I printed and cut them out. I used double sided tape to tape the labels to the inside of the drawers (rookie mistake on my first set a couple years ago- I have the labels on the outside and they are a mess now). I just stuck a strip down each side of the label and stuck it to the drawer. You can't even see the tape!

My final craft was a home craft. I have wanted a white desk for my office but I couldn't justify buying a new one when the one we had is in perfect condition (despite being really old- it was my parents'). So I finally got the courage to paint it white. Here is what I needed for this project...

Zinnser Primer 

Paint Samples (I used Valspar white) and paint brushes

and some Polycrilic

I started with the primer. After that dried I painted the desk white. Once paint was dry I added the polycrilic finish. No sanding needed. Super easy (minus the fact that I kept stepping in paint splatters and had paint all over me).

Here is the before and after...

(disclaimer- the desk before is a picture from our old house when we first moved in)

With the new job, and being a different grade, I have decided to change my blog name. Be on the lookout for a new look and name with the same great content later this year (once I make a final decision on the design anyways.) Now, if you will excuse me, I have a LOT to do to get ready for a new grade in a new school!!!