Show Us Some Bloglovin' (Giveaway)

Hi fabulous followers!!

You have probably heard by now that Google Reader is going away on July 1st.  Well, Google Reader may be going away, but we(many, many bloggers) don't want YOU to go away, so we hope that you will consider following our blog through bloglovin!  We know that change is hard...so we thought we might sweeten it up for you a little bit!

We are doing a giveaway for all of our fabulous followers that take the leap and switch over to bloglovin.  You may have already switched over!  In that case, this will be an easy entry!

If you have not yet switched or are not following our blog through bloglovin, then there are a few easy steps to follow.  You can go to our sidebar (that's the column on the right over there that shows our followers) and you can click the button that says Follow this Blog with bloglovin.  Or, you can go into the Rafflecopter below and click the link in the first entry, and that will take you to our blog on bloglovin.

You will need to set up an account with bloglovin so that you can follow us.  Please be sure to leave your bloglovin username in the Rafflecopter entry. Since I can't see the list of all of my followers (yet), I am asking that you "like" this post on Bloglovin' after you become a follower. I can see who has liked the post, so that will be a way for me to verify the winners!

If you want to go ahead and move all of the blogs you follow from Google over, you can go to this link and it will take you through the super easy steps.  BUT, please go to our bloglovin link and make sure that you are following us through bloglovin.  To be sure, make sure that the blue button at the top of our bloglovin page has been clicked (it should be gray with the word following- if it's blue, please click it to follow!)

So, if you follow by bloglovin, please enter this giveaway!!  I will be picking 2 WINNERS and each winner will get their choice of 2 UNITS FROM MY TpT STORE!  :O)
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Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 7- The Third Circle

Dave says in chapter 7 "When you have crafted an engaging lesson for your material it is like coasting downhill on a perfectly tuned bicycle with two fully inflated tires."  

It is so much easier to go down the hill than up it, and even easier when the tires are the way they are supposed to be (though at this point, I would be lucky to stay ON the bike- it has been so long since I rode one). In order to coast downhill, following the ideas in chapter 1-6 are key. Those chapters are like the foundation. But putting it all together- you need to know HOW to create the engaging lessons. 

Sometimes I have some a-ha moments. Where I think, "HEY I could teach this like that and bam we have a winner". Those are the downhill rides. I don't have to work hard to get the kids engaged or wanting to learn. 

Important tips from Dave:

- sell it! You can't do it just at the beginning of the lesson. It has to be maintained the entire time.- Layer your hooks so engagement doesn't wane. After 30 minutes of a lesson, you can't get their attention again by saying "hey remember earlier when I said/did this."

- Nothing is more important that nurturing and building a love of learning.

- Key content (the most important info of the lesson) needs to be delivered at the moment of peak engagement.

- Lose the delays between hooks and delivery. 

- Worry more about lost engagement than lost minutes. 

I could really go on and on about this chapter. If you could see all my highlighting you would be shocked. But I will let you head over to Kim (another sweetheart) and see what she has to say.

Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 6- Enthusiasm

I have appropriately nicked named myself Slackers R Us...because I just can't keep caught up. This post is rather late (since it was supposed to post on Sunday), but better late than never right?

Anyways- today's chapter is all about enthusiasm. And here is my favorite line in the entire chapter...

"I will not allow that which is outside my control to affect my effort and enthusiasm." 

THIS...this is something I need to repeat to myself every single day. It is hard to be enthusiastic when you let all the OTHER stuff affect you. It can really bring you down. I can't count how many times I have had an amazing lesson planned, come out of grade level meeting (which is NEVER good times and happy endings),and bam- lesson enthusiasm is shot. I mean sometimes it is so shot, I shut down for the day. I know it isn't the best thing but I know everyone has been there. You feel so beat down that how can anything you do be worthwhile? Using this book is HOW I am going to make sure that my lessons are worthwhile regardless of all the other stuff. Even if I have to act...

Acting enough can eventually become real, especailly in the classroom. Act like you love teaching something, the lesson eventually gets more exciting for you, and all of a sudden you can't wait to teach it again!

One more thing that stood out to me...

"As a teacher, your days comprise enough positive and negative experiences to either make you feel energized and amazing or beat down and depressed. What you choose to attend to creates your reality." 

I should probably frame this one and hang it on my desk for those grade level meeting misery days.

Read more and join the discussion here on Carmen's blog (really hop over there because she is so sweet!)

And I swear, once I get caught up on some things, I will be hopping to all the posts I have missed. I haven't even read my blogs I follow in a few days. Things have just been a little chaotic here.  

Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 5- Transformation

I'm back for chapter 5! A litle later than I would have liked today, but we have some serious running around and things to do before taking our first FAMILY vacation to Disney. Yep- Payton is going to meet the mouse up close and personal. And I may be just a tad more excited than she is. Ok...a  lot more since she really has no idea what it means when I say we are going to Disney... she just sings Ninneee doooo (which is her way of singing Disney Junior- where the magic begins). But I digress... Back to Chapter 5. 

Transformation- woo this chapter got me. It was a real wake up call for me. First of all, one thing we all know as teachers but sometimes don't put into perspective- to stand out in a child's mind, you must be remarkable. I want to be remarkable so that my students remember me. Now- I must say you can be remarkably good or remarkably bad. I sure don't want to be remembered for being the remarkably bad teacher (my third grade teacher was one of those... I will never forget her, but NOT for good reasons.)

In this chapter Dave asks 2 questions- 1. If your students didn't have to be there, would you be teaching an empty room? I can honestly say no to this one. I have kids tell me they don't want to go home, kids that ask me if they can come back to my class in following years to "visit and help". And kids that ask me to move onto 4th grade with them. I ALMOST considered it for next year but more than half of my class isn't returning so I decided against it. 

2. Do you have any lessons you could sell tickets for? Yikes- I don't know about this one. Possibly one or two, maybe more. I have gotten better but want to improve in this area. I mean, there is a reason that kids love the Frizz!

One last point- are you guilty of using the medicine approach? I am sad to say I am! The approach where you say something along the lines of "I know this isn't fun but it is on the test, we just have to do it." Yep I have done that. It isn't intentional but sometimes that dumb test is the only BIG thing that gets them to understand the importance of certain things. My goal for next year is to steer clear of the medicine approach. 

To read more, visit our Chapter 5 host- Lisa from

And of course... >I promise I am planning to visit each and every one of the people that have linked up. I was doing pretty good staying on top of it, so if I haven't visited a specific post yet, don't worry. I am coming your way soon!!
PS Jenn and I MAY have a VERY SPECIAL announcement coming to you in about a week or so! Be on the lookout! I may even let Jenn hijack my blog for me while I am in Disney- she doesn't know that yet though. :)

The Backlot Tour of Graded Papers

Today I want to share with you what I do with all my graded papers. To see how I collect papers, stop over to Pamela's blog where I guest blogged about this very thing (I forgot to post about it because it was chaotic last week).

Tara over at Fourth Grade Frolics posted about her paper organization and it got me thinking, I think (in my world) I have a pretty good method so why not share it? So, with that,  I am linking up with Elizabeth and Kristen for their Organization linky.

Ok so now that you have left and read Pamela's blog and probably a bunch of organizational tips, here is what happens AFTER the papers all get turned in. Let's call it the "Backlot Tour of Graded Papers" (you got my Disney reference there right??)

Once the papers are turned in, I do NOT touch them until I am ready to grade them. I do not need to overfill my teaching bag with papers that I might not touch for days. I try to do a stack or two during the work day and MAYBE one at night, depending on how far behind I am. (Tip: If you have to take classroom restroom breaks, bring papers to grade with you. Amazing how many you can get done while waiting at the bathroom. I only bring easy to grade papers though- spelling tests, multiple choice, matching- nothing that really needs an answer key... too much to hold.)

Once a stack of papers is graded and put in number order (you will see the importance of this in a minute) I take them over to my super snazzy "mailboxes"

Yep you are looking at that right. I use a shoe organizer for my mailboxes. I am cheap frugal and refuse to spend tons of money on class mailboxes. This was $20 and has been holding up just fine. 5 years and no issues other than it being dusty. Each box has a number and I simply take my stack of papers and stick them in the slots. By the 2nd week of school I know every child's number so I can easily tell if someone hasn't turned a paper in and I just skip their box. 

On Wednesdays we send home "Wednesday Folders" (original right?) which include graded papers for the week, important papers from the office, etc. Depending on my support schedule, either Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday during a break or lunch, I go over to the mailboxes, grab the stack of papers from each child's box and staple them together, then put them in their Wednesday folder. 

Where are their Wednesday folders until this point? In their mailboxes of course! On Thursday, when students return their folders (with signed papers- more on that in a minute), I empty them out and put their folders right in their box. This way I can easily see who has not returned their folder. 

Ok back to my routine- then throughout the day we will get things that need to be sent home. Depending on how much there is and how much time I do or don't have, sometimes I simply pass out the folders to the kids and then one sheet at a time and tell them which pocket to put the papers in (return to school or keep at home). 

Because I want to cover myself in any possible grade discrepancies, the parents must sign a form and send all graded papers back to me. I know I know- that is a lot of paper to save. Yes it is. But it is better to have it and be covered should you need it than to be at a loss (or even to have it if you have an IEP meeting on a child). 

So kids get this form signed 

and bring it and their papers back. It is very simple for me to check now. Kids throw their folders on my table in the morning on Thursday and during announcements I put them in number order and start emptying them. Papers for the office in one pile, graded papers in another. (This slip just stays in their folder at all times). (Notice is says # of pages- yes I have had kids pull out the bad grades and hide them- this helps prevent that.) I put the folders back in the mailboxes and then file away their graded papers. 

Last year I used hanging file folders in a filing cabinet, but I have to admit, I really like Tara's crate a lot better. I may have to do that this year. If I run out of time (I really try to get this all done by the time breakfast, announcements, and morning work are over) and can't file papers, I stack them in a pile and try to get to it later. Sometimes, I don't. And when the pile gets too large for me to handle, I let some of my helpers take the papers and organize them by student. They simply make a pile for each student and put them in number order for me. Then I just file them quickly. At the end of the semester, once report cards are home, signed, and returned (yes those have to be returned too) I send home ALL graded papers, making room for the next semester's work. The ONLY time I don't is if I think I will need to refer a child. I keep all of their work.

The key to all of this is keeping everything in number order. Graded papers so that you can quickly throw them in the mail boxes. Wednesday folders on collection day so that 1. you can quickly throw them in mailboxes and 2. Graded papers are in order for you to quickly file. 

If you have any questions, let me know! This system has been working great for the past 5 years (well really 4 I suppose...my first year I would bring home tons of papers to organize). 

Teach Like a Pirate Chapter 4- Ask and Analyze

Have you failed recently?

In chapter 4 Dave mentions that if you haven't failed in your classroom, you aren't pushing the envelope enough. Safe lessons may get the job done, but you are settling for mediocrity at best. i have taken this one to heart and am going to go out of my comfort zone to try new things in my class next year. Remember in college, when you were student teaching, you would come up with some amazingly creative lessons, and sometimes you failed (I know this can't only be me). But every time a lesson failed, you still left feeling good because the kids were engaged. I remember one of my very first lessons I ever taught- sequencing and how to carve a pumpkin-2nd grade. I thought the lesson was a hugh flop. I even cried. When I met with my professor he could not stop ranting and raving about it. It was a good lesson, and things going wrong doesn't make it a failure. And even if it is, don't we learn from them?

The first thing that stuck with me in this chapter was what Dave calls the myth of the bliding flash of light. Which is basically that there are two types of people in the world- creative and not creative, where the not creative people think the creative people are walking around and are suddenly struck with creative ideas like a blinding flash of light. Confession- I say all the time "I am just not creative" I have been waiting for the flash of light more often than not. Clearly it isn't coming. 

I want to highlight some of the sentences that stuck out with me...

"If you consistently ask questions that lead to creative and outside the box thinking, your mind will provide you with creative and outside the box answers."

"What could I write on my board for this lesson that would spark a conversation or create a buzz even before the bell rings?" (I have to remember to do this because it is really great to see the kidsinvolved in their learning BEFORE you actually teach anything.)

"We will never see {creative inspiration} unless we actively and consistently attempt to create."

"Ideas are great but implementation is the key to results." (THIS is so big for me... when I DO have a good idea, I often don't FULLY implement it because I am worried about time constraints.)

"Create a vision of what you want and define the goals you want to achieve- and then you must start working for them."

Here is my BIG tip- carry a notebook or notepad with you EVERYWHERE. You never know when a good idea will come to you. I have ideas weitten down everywhere- slips of paper, post its, notebooks, in my phone. If you don't write it, you will forget it.

And Dave ended this chapter with the best tip of all... "Don't fall into the trap of thinking time spent developing yourself into a well-rounded person, above and beyond your role as an educator, is wasted or something to feel guilty about. It is essential and will pay dividends in not only your life, but also in your classrom."

As teachers, we could spend 24/7/365 working for our classroom and students and STILL not feel like we are done. We have to remember that it is ok to have fun, relax, and do some things for ourselves. 

To read more and join in the discussion, head over to Kate's blog

And as always

Monday Made It #3

I am LOVING how much I am getting done this summer. And I have Tara to thank for this because I know I just NEED to post and link up with her for

I got a TON done since my last MMI post. So much so, that I actually took a break and, GASP, stopped working. Admittedly I would have stopped anyways because we had company in from out of town and our daughter's 2nd birthday party. BUT I didn't feel stressed about not getting anything done because I was so productive earlier in the week. So without further ado... here is what I made in the past week...

I originally saw this pinned from here but I didn't want my kids to have the "outside voice" option. And I wanted these colors. So I just made my own. I don't see any reason my kids would need an "outside voice" while in my classroom, so I just didn't include it.
To go along with this, I made

These letters to hang on my whiteboard. Every time we work in groups or partners, I find myself telling the students "If I have to stop you one more time, we will be on silent". This willmake it so I don't have to say that. I will have these hanging on the board. If it gets too loud, I will simply remove one letter. If we get down to only having NO left, we immediately go on silent. Now I haven't decided if this will be for the remainder of the day or just that given activity. I am thinking just that activity, because I do A LOT of group work and can't have that messed up. I KNOW I won't have to say I am removing a letter because kids are observant and they will see it and quickly warn their friends to quiet down. (I remember seeing this on someone's blog or maybe a pin from a blog but I can't remember who now.)

The next thing was

Now I didn't MAKE this but I did cut and laminate so that counts right? I got this freebie right here and knew I had to have it. My kids have the hardest time telling time and knowing the "adult words" for telling time (as we call them). I am hoping this will help.

Then I made this

It isn't anything fancy BUT it is a good place for kids to drop notes from home, money they owe, etc instead of on my desk. I always lose things in the mess that my desk becomes and find them a couple days later (luckily it has never been anything insanely time sensitive). I am hoping this will help with some of that chaos. I found this idea on pinterest but it is an image only so I have no idea who the original idea came from.

The last thing I made that I LOVE is

My desk name tags. I made some last year to match the color scheme I went with but I needed some to match my pirate theme. Last year I had a couple problems with them. 1. Kids peeled them off their desk even though I had them taped on there completely covered with packaging tape. 2. When we wanted to rearrange (which was often) the tags had to be peeled up and moved (I had all different sized furniture so moving the desk didn't always work), meaning they eventually lost stickiness and got ruined and ripped. This year I am trying something different. I laminated them with no names. I will write the names with sharpie marker once I have a class list. And I have already prepared velcro. I am going to velcro them to desks this year so that when we rearrange I can just lift the tags and move them.

I already have about 5 more things I want to get making, but I am taking a break so that I can read the Daily 5. We will see what I get done.