Trugging Along

I know every week I say "this week is jam-packed"

BUT really, this week has been totally full! 

Monday I taught division concepts to my second graders. That's right, division concepts. We are getting pretty good at identifying the (divided by) and (times) symbols. Most days I take for granted that they know the symbols for addition/subtraction, and then I have to teach them these new symbols and I'm like WOAH! How'd they learn the other ones?!? 

We've been using the concept of groups and objects to help with multiplication and division, these are BIG concepts.
I will get a picture of my anchor chart, because it's awesome! 

Tuesday we had 5th and 6th grade teachers come and observe in our math classrooms. They all said they were really impressed with how much our kiddos knew and were able to do! It's always nice to feel validated and like you're on the right track with your instruction from time to time! 

After school Tuesday, I had a Superintendent's Advisory Committee meeting. It was my first time going, and I really enjoyed it; it was nice to sit and chat with our Superintendent about upcoming events, concerns and questions from around the district. 

Today I started teaching about word problems using multiplication and division. I was really proud with how well they were all able to discern if a word problem was multiplication or if it was division. And I was observed today by my principal which went well, she was impressed with how well they were doing.. I'm really proud of them! 

Tomorrow we are continuing our word problem work. We are also using task cards with our work that my district math coach gave to me to use!
After school, I have class for five hours in the city. A friend of mine is coming to stay at my house until her meeting in Warrensburg for student teaching.

Friday we have a field trip to our local college to watch a play. It is always exciting! That will take our whole morning; and then I have a sub in the afternoon because I have to go to the same student teaching meeting in Warrensburg to learn about co-teaching. In the spring semester I am getting a student teacher! I'm excited and nervous all at the same time! 

Friday night I have a big dinner with my friends to say good bye to one of our friends: She's moving to ALASKA!
And then Saturday I'm hosting my friends at my house for the same reason: saying goodbye to my dear friend as her and her new fiance' make the move to the Alaskan tundra. eeeek! (and brrrr!)

It's just a b.u.s.y week!

Endless Bundle!

I haven't posted in about a month, and after reading my last two posts I realize that my life hasn't much changed since softball ended. I still have meetings and/or classes every night, something is always going on! 

I have fallen behind in the area of assessment in my classroom

 *GASP* 

So this weekend, my main goal was to create my data point assessments for common core/standards based grading that we are doing this year. 

I got all that done, for quarter one and quarter two.
This way I can assess my students as needed on the standards I need to still.
AND I can share them with you!

It is an "ENDLESS" bundle, which I have come to learn means that I will put up what I have done now, and you all can buy it as it, then any updates or better-ings I do, you get too!

I am excited about this, too because they are half-sheet assessments that the kids can do quickly and that I can grade quickly. Our standards-based grading is based on a 3-2-1 scale, so I tried to keep it simple with that in mind. 

Along with that this weekend, I worked on my Reflection paper on ELCC Standard 3 for my Internship (which I got finished!) and I worked on my Professional Code of Ethics (which is 1/3 of the way done!). 

I feel like I'm FINALLY on the down-hill slope of Grad-School and I'm ALMOST there. However I know I still have a TON of work left in my internship, but I also think a few solid weekends of work will get a lot of it done.
As long as I stay focused. 

This weekend my school also had its school Carnival. It is always fun and a great fundraiser for our PTA. I, of course, was pied in the face by kids. Kids throwing pie = tons of fun (and mess)! 

One of my softball girls was in charge of the pie-throwing booth with me and she sent this picture out of me to all the softball team for them to come out to the carnival! haha! 

After the carnival, I got to go see one of my very best friends from when we were little. She had her brand-new little baby boy here! I got to hold him and feed him... and her nephews were there. It was a very nice chat with some of my oldest family friends!

I hope you all have a very awesome school week!
Do you get out early for Veteran's Day? Do you have school? What do you have planned that is special? 

Homecoming

This week is Homecoming Week for me. Both homecoming for my high school AND homecoming for my college! WOAH! That's a lot of Homecomings! 

For school, we don't do anything as the elementary school for homecoming -- we just get get out of school early on Friday for the parade (which I get to be in with softball)... the girls make cute posters for the float...

For my college Homecoming: my friends and I will be getting together Friday-Saturday and hanging out at our old haunts. (I love my college friends. We are family.) 

I have so many great memories of my high school and college homecomings: football games, cheering on the tigers and mules, going to/being in the parades (drinking hot cocoa in college, because the parade started at 9am), organizing a campus-wide homecoming "Spirit Week" program my junior year, but most of all being with my friends. Because what are the memories, if there weren't awesome people there to share them with?

OH! And It just so happens that this Friday (high school homecoming) is My Birthday!!

WOO HOO! 

Be checking back for something special this week: Like a Homecoming/Birthday Party Sale! 

15 days

Do you ever stop and think "we've only been in school how long?!" 

Yep.
That's how I feel. 

I always forget how long it takes to teach routines and expectations. And once we have something some-what established, the schedule is changed again. So we do our best to adapt. 

So for the last 15 days that's what I've been working on in my room.
Routines, procedures, expectations, and math. 

I had a request to make third grade versions of the Math in Focus: Singapore Math vocabulary mini posters that I had made for second grade, so I did not disappoint -- here they are! 

Click the picture to go to my store and purchase :) 

This week, we are working on more place value things. Chapter One in our math book goes into Comparing and Ordering numbers using a place-value mat and number line. That's what we will be tackling this week! Along with taking our first test!

I'm also beginning to teach Road to Reading during our intervention time (our IE time is purely reading) ... which I'm excited about! With my crazy schedule, I need something more "scripted."

For example, here's my week this week:
Monday: Internship meeting/Out of town softball game
Tuesday: NOTHING EXTRA!! (Just practice)
Wednesday: Home softball game
Thursday: Home softball game/Math Parent Night
Friday: released from school to go to a two-day softball tournament (*Mid-terms are due*)
Saturday: Softball Tournament 

PHEW! Deep breath! I will make it through this week!
(and the next, and the next, and the next...) 

Almost ready!

Well my classroom is almost done being waxed; so I can ALMOST get in there and finish working, and when I'm done, I'll be sure to post some pictures. For now, know that it's pretty basic. 

One of my main goals has been to be "ahead of the game"
Since I ... teach, coach, work the fair, go to grad school -- which I'm working on my internship hours this semester, am the school's webmaster, oh where I work at the fair has asked me to manage the building ... and all of that is aside from actually living... I need to be as well prepared and be able to manage my time the best as I can.

SOOOOO

I have made up a bunch of things that will HOPEFULLY carry me through the entire year:

These are the YEAR's worth of fluency games that are totally made up, just have to print, cut, laminate, cut, then organize and play! ... that's going to save tons of time and they're aligned to Common Core, Everyday Counts Calendar Math AND Math in Focus-Singapore Math... doesn't get much better than that!

I also made up a whole year's worth of Calendar Math pages to use ... ya know, with calendar math.




Keeping with the Math Theme ... I wanted to make these last year, but never got around to it. These are for the WHOLE year. Vocabulary mini-posters that go with each chapter for Math in Focus-- Singapore Math!

Finally, one of my fellow teachers asked me to make her a clip-chart for writing ... She's the writing teacher in our four-woman-team and she had some specific things she wanted included, so I was happy to oblige her. Here's what we came up with, she was happy with it, I hope you all are too: 

Click on any of the pictures above to go to them in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Right now there's an awesome sale going on, everything in my store is 15% off and if you use the code BTS14 you get an extra percentage off! 

GOALS!

This summer, I can probably go back and count the days that I've slept in. 

I know, I know .... I'm doing it wrong. 

And now, I'm paying for it because I am sooooooooooo tired.
(Because also in the summer, I stay up WAY too late, and get up early. It's a vicious cycle.) 

Anyway. I am on a mission to have EVERYTHING done before I have to officially back. And though I know that this is an unrealistic goal, I know that come the fall I will be coaching softball, juggling an internship AND a class that starts in mid-October. 

So ... really, this goal is simple to me:
1. Have my back-to-school stuff printed
2. Have my room decorated (almost done!) 

3. Print my first unit of math
4. Have math fluency games organized (done!)
5. Have a way to have the kids focused during my morning (see below)

6. Get some kind of meal-plan plan going ....
7. Find a way to formative-ly assess kids and keep it organized! 

Having things printed will help me stay organized. And planning meals will help me stay on track, and be able to save some time, which I'm always about! 

This weekend I worked on putting together a calendar booklet.
I want to use this during our morning. The kids come in at 7:45am and eat breakfast in my room. They hand me notes, tell me stories, ask me to open their milk, are supposed to be signing up for lunch, run around the room, read books, tell each other stories (there's a lot of story telling going on).. but you get the picture. I am supposed to have breakfast/lunch count and attendance done and class started by 8:00am.

HA!

So I wanted to have something that would keep them (busy) focused.
This booklet is aligned to our Calendar Math program (Everyday Counts) and has just as many days as we need, but you could copy more if needed ;) 

It's 131 pages of review and those "morning routines" that I was missing out on by running around like a chicken with my head cut off.
They are very repetitive "Number of the Day" sorts of pages, with each month going a different direction with the number, as Calendar Math does.

My plan is to print it off monthly, and when the month is over we can have a little celebration and send it home!

I'm one step closer to finishing up my list of must-dos!
(I'll keep you updated on the meal planning) 

Time to get back into it...

For most, July 4th is a big celebration day. 

To me, it means we are on the downward slope toward school being here. 

I have been working hard (or hardly working) on some things to help me make this upcoming school year a bit easier, so I thought I would pass them along to YOU so you can benefit as well!

I know we are always learning new things, picking up a little tid-bit at a conference here, reading something from a book there, pinning something on Pinterest... and one of my big goals this summer was to collect games so we could use them during our "math fluency" block.

We are a departmentalized second grade, which I LOVE!
And I teach the math portion.
However, EVERY teacher teaches a section of Intervention (reading) and their own "Everyday Counts Calendar Math" and fifteen minutes of math fact fluency with their homeroom.

So I took it upon myself (being the "math person") to pull together and collect math fluency games to use during that time so we all have direction and consistency. It can be hard when you are asked to facilitate something, but don't really have a map. 

So since I did that for us ... I thought I'd give y'all a little sneak peek.
 

Inside my store, there is a FREEBIE of Part-Part-Whole Cards! 

They are just ONE piece of these games that will last you the whole year :)
Click on the picture below to grab yours: 

 

The rest of the year is in my store for just $10. You get 22 games that are aligned to the Every Day Counts Calendar Math "Computations and Connections" section. All the parts and pieces are there, so you just have to copy, laminate, and organize them! (You will need to add some dice here and there!) 

Click on the picture below to go to my store and see it for yourself:

 

Alright, That's all I have for now.
What have you been working on to get ready for the upcoming school year??