Freebies for Back to School Night or Meet the Teacher Night

Thursday night we had a great turnout for our back to school/parent night.  I made my brochure with my classroom policies.  I copied it on blue paper, too.  It turned out really cute!  You can read about the template for the brochure at this post.

I also wanted to have a parent contact information for parents to fill out to make sure that all of the information I had on file was up-to-date.  You can get a copy of the Parent Contact Information form HERE.

Lastly, I wanted to have something interactive for the parents to do for their student.  I decided I wanted the parents to be able to write their student a note of their wishes for their child for the school year.  We will give the notes to the students on the first day of school.  Some parents wrote a note together for their child, and a couple Mom and Dad both wrote a note. You can get a copy of the Parent Wish handout HERE.

For both of these files the fonts and clipart came from:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DigitalBakeShop
http://imlovinlit.blogspot.com/
http://helloliteracy.blogspot.com/

How did your back to school night go?

Back to School Night Brochure Template (Freebie)

I know lots of people have already gone back to school.  We start on September 2nd.  Our Back to School Night is this Thursday, the 21st.  Last night I was at Staples having quotes for my classroom walls printed as posters at 8:30pm.  The only other people there getting last minute things printed were also teachers. Anybody else do last minute printing runs?

I have been working all day with my summer school students and then trying to squeeze in getting my classroom ready for back to school. My evenings and weekend have been full too running errands and doing projects.

I was looking over Pinterest tonight trying to decide what I wanted to do for Back to School night. I saw some cute templates for Powerpoint presentations, parent and student gift ideas, and ideas for how to present the information to parents.  I saw some cute ideas on making flipbooks with all your classroom information.  They look super cute, but it seemed like a lot of paper.  I also saw some ideas to make brochures, so I decided to make a brochure for my parent handout instead of the traditional packet. You can see my Back To School Pinterest Board HERE for lots of cute inspiration.

You can get a copy of the brochure template HERE.  I made it in PowerPoint.  You just need to edit the text boxes.  I used Hello Literacy's fonts.

How do you like to organize your handout for back to school night?

Suggestions for Communicating with Parents

Now that my summer class is over, I should be able to get back in my blogging routine.  On our very last night of class, we had a really interesting discussion. As many of those in class were teachers, the topic of helicopter parents came up.  Some were expressing frustration about dealing with parents that do not hold their kids accountable and don't allow them to experience failure. I think a lot of teachers have experienced situations like the cartoon below where you feel attacked by a parent because a student got a less than perfect grade.

Source: Pinterest

After the class conversation continued a bit, my professor stopped the conversation and made some really great points. She got us to stop and think about what we know about parents and our education system today.

• Parents really are powerless in many ways over their student's public education.  They do not have control over what is taught, the testing, etc.  

• As an education system, we have taught parents that numbers matter.  Grades, test scores, and class rankings are what determine college entrance most of the time.  Parents just know those numbers matter in the long run, so seeing bad scores scares them.

• Parents love their children and do not want to see them fail.  Sometimes you have to find a way to remind them that failure is part of the learning process. 

It is very easy to get frustrated with parents and feel defensive when angry parents confront you, but as professionals we have to step back and find the best way to communicate with parents. 

Here are some suggestions we discussed that night about dealing with parents, which are perfect to keep in mind as we get ready for back to school.

Suggestions for Communicating with Parents

1. Always remember that everyone wants what is best for the student and remind parents of that.
2. Whenever possible, involve the student in the conversation.  If parents are concerned about a grade or missing assignment, have the student explain their thinking to both you and the parent. Sometimes the parents have not really taken the time to listen to the child.
3. If parents are upset over one grade, put things in perspective by explaining that it is one grade of many in a lifetime of grades. 
4. Try to be empathetic and express understanding for their point of view, while still holding to your classroom policies.
5. Have clearly outlined policies for late work, missing work, absences, etc.  Make sure those policies are clear to students and parents. 
6. Try to give students rubrics when possible and clear directions.
7. When creating assignments, ask yourself what the real purpose and value of the assignment is. This seems simple, but sometimes we get so busy trying to cover all the material that we include more busy work than we mean to. If something feels meaningless and unimportant, students are less likely to do it.
8. Sometimes it is important to remind parents that often grades reflect a student's effort and not their ability or even understanding.  Often students have learned the concepts and material, but have chosen not to show everything they learned.  As a teacher, you can't see in the student's head.  You can only see what they show you.
9. Turn the conversation from the past to the future.  Instead of focusing on one grade, try to work together to discover the real root of why the student made a bad grade and make a plan to improve it in the future.
10. Help students and parents both understand that failure is part of the learning process.  It is okay to fail and make mistakes. You just have to keep trying.

What are your favorite strategies for dealing with parents?

Throwback Thursday: Review of Online Lesson Planners and Grade books

For today's post, I am going to do a Throwback Thursday.  Two years ago, I got started ay my current school.  I was teaching in a self-contained classroom for the first time to a multi-age classroom.  I was also going to really be using technology in the classroom on a regular basis for the first time.

Two of the things I knew I needed was a good grade book and a good lesson planner.  I had never been very successful at using paper versions, so I decided to review all of the free online lesson planners and grade books out there.  You can view my original post here.

Today I still use Engrade for recording my grades and planbook for lesson planning.  I really love both!

Don't forget about my Back to School Savings Giveaway.  You can win a $20 gift card to Walmart or Target plus $20 to my TpT store. The giveaway ends on Sunday. 

Review of Online Lesson Planners and Grade books

I have across some fabulous online resources for being organized. I have tried several of them out and am going to give you my opinion on the positives of each. 

Online Lesson Planning Software

All of these software programs will make working on your lesson plans from home and school or on multiple computers easier.  They also all allow you to tie specific standards to your lessons easily. I will be using these to select the Common Core Standards when I put lessons in.

Planbook - Planbook is an inexpensive resource that allows you to create lesson plans online. It is $12 a year, and you can try it out for free. You can set up your classes and have different schedules for different days. You can add lessons for each subject for each day and even check off the standards that you used (I haven't gotten quite that detailed yet, but I'm getting there.)  I have traditionally done my lessons in Excel, but I like that I can access from both home and work without having to worry about printing it out unless I want to.  I like the way you can set your weekly schedule in Planbook. The schedule shows up each week and you just select the class and day you want to update your plans.  I like the Schedule part of Planbook the best of the three software programs. 

PlanbookEdu - I checked out PlanbookEdu after seeing Randi's post today. Some features are free and the premium features are $25 a year.  It seems fairly user friendly. It seems pretty similar to Planbook.  You create a "planbook" and then set up lessons that can recur.  You just tag the lessons the name of each period.  Then you click on the specific lessons and days you want to edit them individually.  PlanbookEdu does seem to have some nice printing and exporting options for the lessons.  It does also seem you can attach files and links to the lessons. 

Learnboost - I also checked out Learnboost after I saw it via Teacher Playground via Technology Tailgate. Learnboost is free, which automatically gives it a thumbs up to begin with. I like that Learnboost has built in lesson planning and gradebook capability.  This was my first choice, but Planbook ended up seeming more user friendly to me for what I needed.  Learnboost does have it built in to create more detailed lesson plans.  

 

If you are looking for something to replace a basic lesson planner where you write short descriptions and have a quick reference, I would go with Planbook or PlanbookEdu. (You also can just opt to type more detailed lessons in the boxes).  If you want to create more detailed lesson plans and attach links and videos, I would go with Learnboost. However, Learnboost does not make it easy to view your lessons at a glance for the day or the week. My first choice for me is probably Planbook, but I am going to try out PlanbookEdu for this week so I can decide between the two. 

Grading Software

The Learnboost grading software seems easy to use, so if you went with Learnboost for planning, I would use the grading software, too. 

Engrade - Engrade is a free grading software that, so far, I have found very easy to use.  You can create your different classes and select how you want to weight assignments.  It's very user friendly and more convenenient than dragging a physical gradebook back and forth from school. It also has additional features where you can create online flashcards, presentations, and quizzes for your students.  For grading, I have decided to use Engrade. 

Here is a video about it:

 

Have you found any other great online resources for planning?  I want to start using LiveBinders as well. I need to organize my bookmarks a lot better.  I am debating what is the best method to share links with students...just via my class website or should I start using Edmodo or Kidblog?  I think my students are feeling a little overwhelmed with websites right now.  Or would it better to use a resource like Symbaloo where I might be able to use thumbnail images to organize the links? I want to make it easy for my students to go to one page to keep getting clickable links for thinks we use often. 

Back to School Savings at Walmart and a Giveaway

Summer is winding down way too fast.  Many of us are getting ready for Back to School.  We all know a big part of that is back to school shopping.

July 25-31 is a Teacher Appreciation week.  Earlier today I came across this article that Walmart is giving teachers an extra 10% off that week.  If you register your receipt from that week, they will give you 10% off on school supplies. Who doesn't want to save more money?

Did you know though that you can save at Walmart every week (besides just normal savings)?  I will be honest...Walmart is not my favorite shopping experience.  So, I really do not go that often.  However, we all know we can save money shopping there.

My husband and I are really watching our budget because we want to take a trip to Hawaii at Christmas. We would have gone for our tenth anniversary, but it's looking like we will go for our eleventh wedding anniversary.  I don't want to go to Walmart every week because we already go to three grocery stores regularly.  I decided I am going to start going to Walmart once a month during the second half of the month (when we have more money.)  Then on that monthly trip I can buy things like cat litter, water, Powerade, toilet paper, toiletries, school supplies, etc.

A fellow teacher told me about Walmart Savings Catcher and how it had saved her so much money.  I decided to try it. Earlier this week I spent $102 at Walmart.  I came home and entered my receipt at Walmart Savings Catcher.  I got an email yesterday that I am getting $9.27 back to spend at Walmart.com. That is about a 9% savings on top of Walmart prices already.

Walmart Savings Catcher checks your receipt and checks local sales at other stores in your area. Anyone in your area who had a better price they give that discount in the form of an e-giftcard.

In honor of back to school savings (and part of Christmas in July here at my blog), I am doing a Back to School Savings Giveaway.  You can win a $20 gift card to Walmart or Target and $20 to spend at my TpT shore.

Enter below.  Have fun shopping and saving!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday Made It: Back to School Essay Writing and Overnight Oats

Today I am going to link with 4th Grade Frolics for "Monday Made It."

I have not linked up in a very long time.  I am not the most crafty person.  I prefer to make things on the computer.

I do like to try new recipes though.  I have a love/hate relationship with food.  I love to eat.  I try to eat healthy. I like variety, but I do not always enjoy cooking.  I do pretty well with dinners and lunches.  For dinner, I usually cook several things on Sunday and we eat leftovers throughout the week.  That is how I manage cooking with my crazy schedule of work and graduate school. Lunches I usually pack bento lunches for myself during the school year.  This helps me get in some variety and makes me be intentional with what I eat. Breakfast I really struggle.  So like any good teacher in the summer I have been looking through Pinterest for breakfast ideas.  I try to avoid gluten and dairy when I can, so I have been looking for some gluten free and dairy free breakfast ideas. I came across several recipes for Overnight Oats.

I tried this recipe first from SugerGlueMom for Strawberries Overnight Oats.  They look great, but personally I found the steelcut oats bitter without being cooked.  (The steel cut oats are delicious if you cook them overnight in the crockpot.)

I found some other recipes with rolled oats, so I decided to try that instead of the steelcut oats.  Here is an example of a recipe I found.

They look pretty in mason jars, so now I want to get some mason jars.  I made my overnight oats with 1/2 cup rolled oats and 1/2 cup almond milk.  In the morning I added some stevia and fresh peaches.  I thought it was good and had a cold cereal taste.  You could add more milk if you wanted it creamier.

I had this idea last year with my students to make sure they wrote at least one essay every month.  I wanted them to have choices.  Within a three month time span, I wanted them to have done at least one narrative essay, one persuasive essay, and one informational essay.  We did this routine in December and January.  The kids really liked the menu I made and having choices.  Like many of my ideas now that I am working and going to grad school both I never finished making all of the months, so that is one of my goals this summer. I finished making a Back to School Essay Writing  this week for the months of August and September. It has an essay menu, graphic organizers, rubrics, scaffolded practice for drafting and revising, and publishing paper.  I am going to be working on finishing the other months.  Now, that I am moving to middle school I need to work on making a middle school version.

This last one is more of a tried it than a made it.  For the last couple months, I have been getting familiar with essential oils.  I am trying to learn as much as I can about their uses.  Well, being that it is summer and Texas I managed last week to get sunburned and eaten alive by bugs.  I have about 17 bug bites between both of my legs.  Bites swell up to about the size of a quarter on me.   I put Lavender Oil on my bug bites and within 30 minutes they had gone back down to just little red dots.  The Lavender helped with the itching, too.  I also used the Lavender Oil on my sunburn.

I had one stubborn bug bite behind my knee that was completely red and inflamed because of its location.  I tried the Purify oil blend on it as well.  It helped some.  I finally had to give in and use Hydrocortisone once just to get the inflammation down. Since then though if any of the bites itch, I just put a little Lavender oil and they are good. 

Have you made or tried anything new this week?