Back to School Wednesday Organization

Hey guys, this has got to be a seriously quick post. My second day with little first graders and I have not been this tired since 6th grade when I stayed up for like 27 hours straight or something ridiculous like that. 

Okay, so today's Back to School topic is organization. I just want to touch on one thing that I'm trying new this year: BINDERS!

Changing classrooms and grades was a perfect reason to purge the ol' filing cabinet and switch to using binders for my teaching resources. 

So far I love it. Like really love it. There is something about neat little binders all in a row that just melts my heart. aaah. 

Honestly, most of my binders are empty...I'm still in the process of gathering materials for my new little ones, but I'm sure they'll fill up quickly. 

I'll go into the process in more detail in another post because I'm wiped. Like really, really wiped. 

Check out Blog Hoppin' for more organizational tips and tricks.

Total side note: just watched God's Not Dead with the hubs. Great movie!! In the spirit of the flick I'll leave you with this:

God's not dead.

Five for Friday

It cannot really be Friday already. Seriously. Where did summer go? Last Friday before our teacher in-services start on Tuesday...waaah! 

I guess the best part of it being Friday is that it's time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday...woot, woot!

I know, I know...I've already mentioned at least fifty times that I got my wisdom teeth pulled on Tuesday. I swear, last time...well, maybe. It was a really big deal for me though. I was TERRIFIED to have it done and have been putting it off for at least a decade! But in all seriousness....

...no really...I don't have time for this!  

Finally got these darling babies in the mail. 

They're beautiful and I love them. The little blue one has adorable little cups in the middle to store your goodies. They're both from Copernicus Educational Products. 

I wrote out cards to my new students. I included a folded up a page from an activity book, 2 strips of stickers and this adorable card from Sarah's First Grade Snippets. Thanks Sarah for the freebie!!

Hung up these cutie patooties today. Another fabulous purchase from the lovely Cara Carroll. 

Sneak peak at a Monday Made It...if I ever actually get it linked up. I swear I've been making things folks...the linking up is another story. 

So it begins...

Making a very quick stop to say hey to all you lovely ladies (and maybe gentlemen)...

Monday morning I drove 2 hours meet my mom so she could take my kiddos for the week. First time they've been away this long and I MISS THEM!!

But...I've been in my classroom every day which is fabulous. Teachers go back on the 12th and students on the 19th, but I'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled on the 5th. Yah, who does that right before school?!? Oh right....I do. What a dummy. 

Since I'm changing grades that means I'm changing rooms and for some reason teachers at our school love to leave behind all their crud lovely teaching resources that they no longer want. This means emptying all the cabinets and sorting through everything before putting all my stuff into the cabinets. 

This is what I'm working with folks...

Not pretty. Not pretty at all. 

I'm determined to make a dent in all this junk tomorrow because once the husband gets home we're on the road to pick up the littles.

I'm crossing my fingers for a Five for Friday with pictures of a neat and tidy (although incomplete) classroom. Say a prayer people!

Five For Friday!

Hey y'all...

{can I say that as a California girl?? Oh, sure, what the heck. If spending 3 years on the Mississippi gulf coast, being baptized in that murky water, and living through the experience of Hurricane Katrina doesn't earn me some southern stripes, then I don't know what will!} 

...I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a Five for Friday Linky Par-tay!

Here we go...

Okay, this Ipsy Glam Bag was the highlight of my week! You can read more about Ipsy here. Loving the bronzer and the cherry lip and cheek stain is not as scary as I thought. 

I'm so excited to be going to first grade this year. I'm currently a little overwhelmed, but I know it's going to be a blast! I was so excited to order this book to read on the first day of school. 

Moving to first grade led to this lovely project. Going through all my files and separating out stuff that I can't use with lil firsties. I did a TON of purging...a few things are coming to first...and I'm left with one, 1, uno, yes I said ONE bankers box of 3rd grade files. I don't know how I did that people, but I did it. There was lots of squishing and smooshing involved. 

Before, during, and after the file purging and organizing my dining room has been accumulating school projects. One of those being transitioning some things into binders instead of a file cabinet. 

This is a tiny picture of the chaos going on in that room. I'm pretty sure the weeks prior to school starting is my husbands least favorite time of year. He's super, like really, really super OCD so this mess drives him bonkers. It's safe to say that we haven't had dinner at the dining table in quite some time. 

Just finished this book and it was ah-mazing!! Like total amazeballs! Blew my mind. Loved it so much I read the whole stinkin' thing in a day and a half...that's 297 pages folks!! Okay so I skimmed a few of them, but still, I was completely hooked. I'm still wrapping my mind around the whole instructional aspect of teaching writing with the traits. I'm sure some future posts will emerge from this current love affair.

Well that's all I've got. 

Enjoy the weekend you beautiful people you!

The Big Picture- Writing Long Range Plans

I don't know how on earth I didn't mention this in yesterday's post...

I'm going to first grade!!

After three years in 3rd grade, I am SO ready. I picked up my curriculum books and, woah, this is going to be a bit of an adjustment. But certainly a welcome one.

My first year teaching at my current school was quite a whirlwind. I was hired about 5 days before school started and had A LOT to do to prep. I touched on this in my first blog post you can read here. 

Needless to say I didn't do any long range lesson planning. Then, two summers ago as I was preparing to enter my second year I sat down and mapped out what my year would look like. 

I started by looking back over my old lesson plans so I could have somewhat of a "realistic" idea as to how the year might go. Then I started plugging away.

I kept my planning pretty simple. I only included months down the side and subjects across the top. The only info I plugged into each box was a chapter number and title or topic. This was put into a plastic sleeve and kept in my teacher binder that you can see more about here.  

As the year progressed I tried to refer back to this sheet and make myself little notes. As you can see in the pic below, anything I checked in blue was finished before Christmas break. 

I circled things in green that I wanted to remember to rethink. For some reason those items didn't work as planned. As I began my long range planning for this upcoming year I was able to look back at these plans and make changes accordingly.

The most difficult thing for me to plug in is history and science. We don't overlap so I try to do my best to split each 9 weeks evenly between the two, but it's hard to show on this particular type of planning sheet. But for the purpose I use it for---to give me a "big picture" idea of the year it words great! 

Now that I'm moving to first grade, I'll have to go through this process again with my new curriculum. I've got some work ahead of me! 

What's your best planning tool/idea/system for looking towards this new school year? 

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Currently....WHAT!!

I'd like to ignore the fact that it's August, but I couldn't possibly do that with my whole blog feed full of Currentlys.

And Farley's little self plug at the bottom of her post totally worked because I'm getting her classroom edition. Yay!

Click the image to get yourself a set too!

 Less fun is what I'm currently up to, but hey, what can I say....

Listening...ok, so I waited until the last minute to do my laundry before camping. This will make sense when we get to "thinking".

Side Note: I'm actually typing this the night before it posts so hopefully my laundry will be done and we'll be on the road shortly after you see this!

Loving...I've been in my class all week and it's almost ready. Next week my baby girl turns 5 and my Mom and Grandma are coming to visit so I don't want to have to go in to school a bunch. Then the following week it's back to work for me. Yikes!

Thinking...okay, you know you're a bad procrastinator when you're procrastinating by idly thinking about how you procrastinate. I actually went to a school conference and attended a seminar about procrastinating. Don't ask....

Wanting...this is totally irrelevant to anything, but gals I'm really hungry. It's past 11 and all I had was about 5 Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets...eew...And you all know about Maslow's hierarchy so I don't wanna hear anything about it...hmmm, I think my hubby has a Kit Kat chilling in the freezer and he's not home...hmmmm.....

Needing...I already bought about 4 storage/cart/container type items for the class, not including the 24 shoebox size containers I bought for the students extra supplies but I.NEED.MORE...it's a sick addiction. I really can't help it. 

Back to school must haves. The fun part.

1. New pens- this should really say new writing tools because I LOVE buying anything I can write with. Here are my current faves:

I love these Sharpie pens. They're not quite like the original black fine tip ones, which in my opinion have a little thicker stroke which I like, but these are fun too!

I'm a pencil snob and only like the Ticonderoga ones as far as pencils that you have to sharpen, but I do like a cheapie mechanical one every once in a while. Got these the other day...

Ok, I'll be totally honest. I bought them because they match my class colors. I know you won't judge me because if you're a teacher reading this you've probably done it too.

And I'm also very particular about highlighters. For the longest time I would only use these by Sharpie. It's because they're a normal yellow, not neon.

For some reason I get irritated by neon yellow highlighters. I'm getting better though and can use some other colors like blue, purple, or orange...but the real neon types bug me.

2. Laminating pouches for my Scotch Laminator. I got a pack of 200 pouches so it's pretty safe to say I'm set for quite a while.   

3. And of course with all that laminating I must have cardstock. I hoard it everywhere possible.

Now that you all think I'm weird, I hope you enjoy your weekend. 

I'm off camping so I'll see y'all Monday!

Mega Management: Turning in Homework

Welcome back for more Mega Management.

If you missed the first two posts in this series you can check them out here:

Post 1: Series Kickoff. Why Classroom Management

Post 2: Entering the Classroom

Today we're looking at turning in homework. Keep in mind that what you actually assign for homework is a whole post in itself. This is just the procedure part for collecting it. 

There is one bin for homework. Any kind of bin will do. Fancy ones, plain ones, wire ones, plastic ones, stacking ones, see through ones...well, you get the point. 

Last year I had a bin for every subject so kids could turn in papers as they finish their work, but now looking back it seems a little unnecessary. Here's why I like one bin over one bin for every subject. First, it takes up less counter space and second, it is just overwhelming to me to look at all those trays full of paper! Call me crazy, but it does...

Once homework is turned in, students cross their name off the list.  I haven't decided the fine details of how the list will look yet, but it will either be a laminated class list that is always on top of the stack of homework or it will be a cutie-patootie frame that they can Expo marker their name out with, OR {last "or" I promise} it will be some sort of clip type system. Stay tuned for that. 

I keep a clipboard with a check in sheet on it to keep track of homework and other assignments that I use to account for a Work and Study Habits grade. Here's a version of what that looks like. I always seem to tweak it a little bit here and there each year. 

 

So what do I do with all those papers kids have to turn in? Stay tuned for more Mega Management ;0) How's that for a cliffhanger...say what!!! {Wow, I don't think I've ever said that in real life, but it's pretty safe to say that your imaginary version of me saying it is probably way cooler than the real me saying it...}

For more on homework, check out Christina from Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge. She has some cute ideas for a homework club that you can see here. 

When it comes to what to assign for homework, I like Stephanie's post at 3rd Grade Thoughts on a Universal Homework Model. 

Mega Management: Entering the Classroom

Oh yah! Time to get to the nitty gritty of...

Am I serious you ask? Do I really need a plan for how students are to enter the classroom? Umm, yes! If little Johnny doesn't know what you expect him to do here's what he's going to do: speed through the door pushing everyone out of his way, forget to mark his lunch choice, throw his backpack in the closet, he'll probably leave his homework in there, and if he remembered to grab out his lunch box he'll throw it in the general direction of the lunch cart and proceed to bother everyone else while they're trying to enter and get unpacked. Don't you just love sweet little Johnny...

This little darling is not Johnny, nor I have I ever taught a mischievous little Johnny before....I HAVE taught a mischievous little ....well, I better not say ;o)

At the beginning of the year we practice doing this routing quietly, quickly, and safely. 

When students enter the class they'll move their number to the “Hot Lunch” or “Cold Lunch” column on the pocket chart. Last year I used these as magnets just to track attendance, but they kept getting flung off the file cabinet and that mischievous "Johnny" was always hiding his under the headers. Maybe the pocket chart will work better this year. We'll see. 

Backpacks are unpacked and put into the appropriate shelves in the closet.We have tiny rooms at our school so it's worth saving the cabinet space to have these things out of the way. Kids put them in cubbies last year, but the ones I have are gigantic and take up so much space!

Snacks are put in the snack bin and water bottles will go in the hydration station according to their class number. Kids have snack at morning recess, not in the class. It makes recess line up time easier if snacks are out of backpacks and ready to go. I cannot stand water bottles at desks, but I know it's important for students to stay hydrated throughout the day.

I got this idea from Multiage Moments last summer. Honestly I still haven't decided if I want to take up the counter space next to the sink, but it's not like I really use it for anything else. Once I put a stack of papers there and by the end of the day they were all splattered with water from kids washing their hands.

I saw this "image only" on Pinterest and that seems like a clever idea. Yep, that's a water bottle holder for bicycles! They're at least 4 bucks each on Amazon...maybe cheaper at Walmart or something. I don't know if I'd do $4 each for those.

Lunches go on the lunch cart. Only 3 people are allowed in the lunch cart area at a time. Others must wait behind the duct-taped line. Seems a little neurotic, but the lunch cart is in a small corner of the room blocked in my those gigantic cubbies, and it's a major traffic jam if the cold lunchers storm the cart all at once.

Two pencils should be sharpened for the day. Ugh! I hate the pencil sharpener. The last two years our school requested that students bring mechanical pencils in 3rd grade and I hate that even worse. They need to sharpen first thing so I can get that nightmare out of the way. Throughout the day they can get a pencil from the "sharp" cup. Dull and broken pencils are put in another cup. 

All of these things should happen in the first few minutes or so that students are in the class. Whew!

Mega Management: Series Kickoff

I'm kicking off a series of posts focused on classroom management...an area where MEGA planning is required. Since school is fast approaching, this series will post frequently so I have time to cover it all. Fasten your seat belts and hold on folks, it's time for....

So why all the focus on classroom management? Well, I remember being in college and having to type up a 1-2 page classroom management plan. The directions were vague and included things like how you would arrange desks, how you would collect and return papers, where would you store materials and how would students access those materials, etc. The paper was hard to write when I was considering an imaginary classroom with an imaginary group of students. 

Photograph: Tara Moore/Getty Images

It was during my student teaching that I realized that my 1-2 page little paper wasn't even scratching the surface of what I had to plan for to make my class run smoothly.
 
As I was thrown into my first year of teaching under really extreme circumstances mid year, I realized I was more disillusioned than I thought. I didn't have time to put a lot of thought into classroom management. Sounds crazy right? And like horrible teaching right? Well, consider this: I got my curriculum books on a Sunday night and I started in the class at 8:30 the next morning! I just had to make a quick decision and get things going.

The next year wasn't a ton better as far as time to plan. I was at a new school in a new state and was hired with only 5 days to prepare! Again, I had to just get a plan together and go with it, and as the year progressed I knew a lot of things were falling through the cracks. 

This last year was a bit better, but again, some things were just not running as smoothly as I knew they could. And even worse, there were some things that I hadn't really thought about at all. I had no plan for certain circumstances that would occur in class and that led to confusion and disorder. 

See that lady drowning in papers? Yah, that is how I felt at the end of oh so many days!

When it comes to classroom management we all know that what works really well for one group might not work so great for the next. On the other hand there are some parts of a classroom management plan that stick around from year to year. 

So this summer I have spent a lot of time thinking about all those things that I've done successfully, things that I would like to implement, and things that I'm going to keep in my arsenal of tools to implement for those "special" students, parents, and circumstances. 

See you next time with my first topic: