What's New?

It's the start of a new year, new laws, and new ideas.  A lot of schools are struggling with aligning their curriculum with the common core.  This is the first official year where the schools in North Carolina have to adopt the common core, and boy is it confusing!  I am so worried that when I start teaching and student teaching next semester (HOLY COW!) that I do not have the appropriate knowledge to successfully use the common core.  So, this tool I found gives you a checklist that you can orint out, it allows you to write the date you addressed that particular standard on the common core.  



You can buy the 1st grade checklist on Teachers pay teachers, but honestly you can make this table on your own and modify it for whatever grade/content are you teach.  A vital factor of this checklist is that it has multiply dates you taught the standard and what percent of your class mastered the concept.  This way you can see what you need to hit heavy on at the end of the year.

The teacher I am working with this semester has showed me a website that she uses in her classroom now that works wonders for her.  
www.teachersweb.com

This website allows you to make your teacher page with information for your students and the parents.  One of the main points that she loves is that the parents can register to receive email and text message updates when she writes updates.  


I am so excited about the different tools and techniques that I will share with y'all and that I will learn this year.  

~Happy teaching!

What I Want In My Classroom

So so sorry I haven't posted in a while, but it's been a hectic week.  I've been thinking a lot about how in less than a year I will be student teaching, then graduation, and then finding a job; it's just too crazy to think about!  In that in mind I have been thinking about the things that I want in my classroom:

• A "mailbox" for every student I teach

This will save so much time with handing out papers and even worksheets.  As teachers, you have so many papers that need to be passed out for the parents to read, putting them in this mailbox will ensure that every student gets one and you don't forget to pass them out.  You just have to teach your students to check their mailbox at certain times in the day.  Also, for each class period, you can have the worksheets they will need for the day there.  This minimizes the time teachers spend passing out papers that they can spend teaching.  Good thing I have a daddy who is good with wood and can make this for me!

• Dry erase boards for every student

I love the idea of using these in the classroom, especially for math class.  As a teacher, it is very hard to monitor all of your student's progress at one time, using these will help.  Have your students work out a problem on their boards and raise it up when they are done; you can automatically see which students have mastered the topic and those who haven't.  

• Reading corner

Although it may not look like this (though I hope it would) I want a fun reading corner for my kids.  I would recommend randomly picking 1-2 students who can read in the corner every day, so there will be fairness.  This will excite kids to read, because if they are not reading then they lose the privilege.  With so many vulnerable students in between loving and hating reading, we need to make it as fun as possible.

These are only a few of the things I want for my future classroom, there is so much more and I will probably share them all.  No crafts today, my mind is solely on education!

~Laura

My flower is missing, oh wait that's not right...

I've got a couple of things I wanted to share today.  First off imagine that you are the teacher of the most rowdy class that you have ever seen.  Not hard to imagine huh?  Probably had some of these yourself.  One of my favorite children's books discusses exactly that: a teacher who is having trouble managing her class.  The book is titled Mrs. Nelson is Missing.  To sum it all up, Mrs. Nelson can't handle her classroom so one day an evil teacher comes in in place of Mrs. Nelson, and the kids hate her.  She assigns tons of homework, punishes quickly, and much more.  Not to go too much in detail, in the end Mrs. Nelson comes back and the students make a complete change in their behavior.  This book is good to read to class who is rowdy and tell them that one day an evil teacher may come if they don't straighten, or just an every day read.  I have seen this book used in an problem-solution activity as well.  You can find the book here: http://www.amazon.com/Miss-Nelson-Missing-Harry-Allard/dp/0395401461

Another thing I wanted to share with you guys is something I made not too long ago, flower balls!  I know I know I'm obsessed with flowers, we all have something right?  

Materials:

1. Styrofoam ball (Size up to you!)
2. Construction paper
3. Pins (ball color of your choice, I chose white)

Cut out a medium and a small flower of different colors.  Place the smaller flower in the middle of the larger one.  Put them on the Styrofoam ball and secure with the pin.  Put as many flowers on as you may wish.  

I haven't quite finished, I want to make some sort of mobile, or something else so I will be able to hang it around my room.  I have no clue what I will end up doing.  

Happy crafting and teaching! 

Blog what's that? Oh wait a flower!

So I'm new at this blogging gig, so we'll see where this takes me...  I want to put my favorite crafts, diy projects, and good teaching ideas up here; mostly so I won't forget :).  I truly believe that I have ADD, the most random thoughts come to me, but I just get inspired from it:).  I have been crazy busy with end of the year projects and exams all week: PBIS plans, IEPs, clinical teaching reports, exams, you name it I've done it.  So of course, all thats on my mind at the present is education education education.  I have fallen in love with with clock that I found for the classroom:

This clock incorporates so many of my favorite things, one of the main ones being flowers!  It shows the students the number on the clock and what it means (i.e. 1=:05).  Students, especially low performing  students, need constant review and reminders about the topics they have learned.  So having this in the classroom is a perfect idea.  It also has stems, showing the students that minute hand is longer and the hour hand is shorter.  I just had to share this great find!


Off for now to complete more educational and stressful tasks.  We'll see how this goes :S