Win 12 more prizes for my 400 Follower Giveaway

So, I finally am back for the last part of my 400 Follower Giveaway.  The last two nights I was just really tired. I have been reseaching Common Core math resources.  I am still trying to figure out how best to teach 4 grade levels of Math at the same time in one class.  Last night I took my own advice though and got a Tea Latte from Starbucks and some Pumpkin Cheesecake.



It was yummy.  I also got up this morning and went to an 8am hot yoga class, too. Oh my goodness...I needed that.  I did not realize just how tense every single muscle in my back was.

The weather here has cooled off.  It feels amazing.  It really is fall.  It makes me want to curl up back in bed. I can't though.  I need to share with you the last part of my amazing giveaway.  Then, I need to shower and get ready.  I get to go meet the new baby of my former work-spouse.  I can't wait to meet her little man. Not seeing her everyday this year has been a little tough.  I am glad for my new job, but I miss her.

Lots of bloggers have again contributed some great stuff.

1) I am going to giveaway 3 items from my TpT store.

2) Kate is offering her iStudentall about me book file.




3)  Latoya is giving her Write the Room Centers.

4)  Deborah is giving away all 6 of her Consonant Blends packets.


5)  Heidi is giving her Fire Safety Pack.

6)  Kristin is giving her Olympics Literacy Pack (which I am currently using in my class).

7)  Lori is contributing her Happy Halloween Scrambled Sentences.


8)  Michelle is giving her CandyCorn Clip Art Set.


9)  Christi is giving her Pumpkin Unit for Big Kids.

10) Tania is contributing her CVC Snap cards and Alphabet Go Fish cards.

11) Ginger is donating an item of the winner's choice from her store. (Can I just say I love all of her products?)

12) Megan is donating a blog design from A Bird in Hand Blog Designs. How cool is that?

That's right!  One more winner will get 12 prizes.  Thank you to all my amazing followers for reading my blog, and thank you so much to those who have contributed this week to my Fabulous Fall 400 Follower Giveaway.

Don't forget about entering to win part 1 where one winner will get 10 prizes.  Don't forget to enter to win Starbucks and Cheesecake.  Last but not least, don't forget to enter to win an Erin Condren giftcard.

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Currently and win an Erin Condren gift card

I love October.  I love Fall.  Like all of you, I always look forward to Currently.  I only had four hours of sleep last night, so I am glad I stayed up long enough to watch the Debate and write my Currently.

 

 

I watched the Debate and find it interesting to hear the commentations afterwards.  I definitely need to spend more time researching the specifics of each of their plans.

 

I love clean sheets.  I have 3 cats and a dog.  So clean sheets on the day I vacuumed is my favorite day of the week.  Tumblefurweeds, be gone!

 

Today was a good day.  It felt like we accomplished a lot, and I got a lot of organizing done. I spent a lot of time last night creating some charts for my students and organizing lots of TpT math resources I have purchased.  I feel like I am slowly but surely getting the paperwork, structure, and organization of my classroom figured out.  I have a grade 4/5 split class.  I only have about 10 students, but they span about 4 grade levels of math.  So the logistics are a learning process.  I also have a lot of gifted, but emotionally less mature students.  It is creating some interesting dynamics we are working through.  I purchased the 7 Habits of Happy Kids last night, and we are studying the Olympics right now. Discussing the Olympics will gives lots of opportunities to discuss handling disappointment, perseverance, a good attitude, and working hard.

 

To help with the independent math practice with so many levels of math, I am thinking a class membership to IXL might be the way to go.  Anyone tried it?



I need sleep. Enough said.

I haven't read too many Fall books with my students, but I have covered Poetry before.  I think this time of year is a great time to think about the senses.  I look forward to reading everyone's Fall book recommendations.


Don't forget Day 1 of my giveaway with credit to TpT stores of 10 bloggers.

Don't forget Day 2 for Starbucks and Cheesecake. 

For Day 3, I have decided to do another easy giveaway.  I will be back tomorrow to share more contributions from bloggers.  As I am trying to get organized, I am loving my Erin Condren Life Planner.  It is helping me keep up with my home and school to-do-lists.  I like that it is broken into the times of day.  My goal is to start more consistently logging my work-outs and food choices.  My exercise has not been up to my goal, but I have lost 3 pounds.  I need to keep the momentum.  I have about 9 pounds to go to be back to my normal weight.




Enter below for a $25 gift certificate to Erin Condren.

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Because it's Fall, it's a Cheesecake Giveaway

Make sure you enter Day 1 of my Fabulous Fall 400 Follower Giveaway.  I will be back tomorrow for Day 3 to share some awesome contriubutions from some other bloggers.

My question for you on Day 1 of the giveaway was to give me your favorite Fall food.  My favorite Fall foods are candy corn, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin cheesecake.  This put me in the mood for Pumpkin Cheesecake and a hot chocolate.  Thus, for Day 2 of my giveaway, the prize is:

$15 giftcard to the Cheesecake Factory

$10 Starbucks giftcard

 

I will choose the winner on Saturday. Follow the below steps to enter this giveaway:

1) Leave me a comment that you follow my blog and my TpT store.
2) Leave me a comment with your favorite cheesecake and favorite drink at Starbucks.

It's a 400 Follower Giveaway!

This week starts the month of October and my Fabulous Fall 400 Follower Giveaway.

Fall is my favorite season, so it seems like the perfect time to finally get around to my 400 Follower Giveaway.  I just saw my first hint of fall colors here in North Texas this weekend.  It was very exciting.

 I reached out to some of my favorite bloggers to put together some fabulous prizes in this giveaway.  19 bloggers have agreed to contribute, so I have decided to break up this giveaway over several days to allow for several winners.  Keep checking back every day this week to enter in a different giveaway.

Giveaway Part 1 -

The following fabulous bloggers have agreed to contribute items from their TpT stores. The winner of giveaway part 1 will win 10 prizes.

I will be giving away $15 credit to my TpT store.


Jessica at Mrs. Stanford's Class is donating 1 item from her TpT store.

Ari at The Science Penguin is donating 2 items from her TpT store.



Michele at Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera is donating 2 items from her TpT store. 


Shanyn at Coffee, Kids, and Compulsive Lists is donating 1 item from her TpT store.

Brandi at Success in Second Grade is donating $10 credit to her TpT store.


Krista at Stellar Students is donating 2 items from her TpT store.

Lisa at Learning is Something to Treasure is donating 1 item from her TpT store.

Michelle at Making it as a Middle School Teacher is donating $10 to her TpT store.

 

Beth Ann at Taming My Flock of Firsties is donating 2 items from her TpT store.

 

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Online Lesson Planning and Grading Software

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.

A Review of the World's Most Fabulous Pencil Sharpener

So this is like over a week overdue as a post.  I, like many others, decided to jump on the bandwagon and try out the Quietest Classroom Pencil Sharpener. 

Troy was kind enough to send me one to try out.  It is fabulous!

I always loved the hand cranked pencil sharpeners in the classroom as a kid.  They always worked so much better than handheld ones or electric.  This one is even better than the old ones that were attached to the classroom wall.  This pencil gets even sharper.  I sharpened all of my pencils today, and it was awesome.  It did not even take that long.  It even worked great on colored pencils, too. My students were making posters of the landforms, natural resources, and biomes of the U.S today, and the colored pencils got quite the use. One of my students was drawing the desert and the yellow had to be sharpened twice.

Here are some pictures of the sharpener:

You should definitely check it out.

A Failed Experiment and a chance to win custom CRAFT and VOICES bulletin baord headers

When I get stressed, I neglect my efforts to express gratitude.  Shame on me.  Today was better than yesterday.  I feel like I got a lot accomplished, and I actually walked away from work feeling like I am making strides towards feeling organized. So today I am thankful for:

1) This post that that told me about the Photbucket app.  OMG...Uploading photos to my blog from my phone doesn't have to be painful.

2) I got the printer setup in my room. I can now print and copy double sided from my classroom.  We had one printer for the whole building, and it is always in use by teachers and high school students.  It was getting to be a big part of the overwhelming need to get organized.

3) I got some of my signs I made for my classroom put up last night.

4) I have decided I no longer will do experiments for Science...for awhile anyway.  I will send home experiment ideas for students to do at home, and they can bring back the results and photos. We will do other fun interactive projects or stations.

Now, you might want to know why I have decided not to do experiments.  Last week we did all of our Pirate activities, so I thought Ginger's Boat Afloat experiment would be a great ending to the unit.  We made our boats yesterday.  Some of them came out really cute and creative whether they actually worked well or not.




I have a small class and a lot of my students are gifted.  This translated to lots of frustration and tears because some people's boats did not hold as many pennies as others and accusations of boat design copying. I never set up the experiment as a competition, but they interpreted it this way. I know I could model experiments for them and just have them watch.  I may decide to do some things this way.  Honestly though, the point of experiments to me seems that it would be fun to do something more hands on.  I feel like we need to work on maturity and handling disappointment appropriately before we revisit the idea of experiments.

So, I would love some suggestions on books or ideas for working on helping students learn appropriate times to express tears and how to handle disappointment. I am thinking I want to get the 7 Habits for Happy Kids book and read it and consider covering it with my students.

Now, some of my successes.  This weekend I really thought a lot about Reading and Writing instruction.  I decided I am in love with Kristin's CRAFT and VOICES boards.  I think they are a fabulous visual way to track strategies we have learned. I did not have enough room in my room to display hers because they are pretty big, so I made my own smaller version to match the paisley in my classroom. I think they turned out super cute.  The CRAFT board is a 3 foot bulletin board so each strategy is about 6 inches across.



The VOICES board I decided to use the front of my supply cabinet because I did not have another big bulletin board.


I did put Kristin's Scientific Method signs on the side of the supply cabinet 2 weeks ago when we started talking about the Scientific Method.


I made new schedule signs to put on my white board to show our schedule every day.  I think it came out very cute.



Finally, I felt my students are both really struggling with Math vocabulary.  Thus, I purchased Ginger's Math Common Core word wall cards.  I purchased 4th and 5th grade even though I knew there was overlap.  I made the Math Word Wall on the back of my door.  I will put up one strand at a time.  This is Operations and Algebraic Thinking.



I would like to do a giveaway for custom CRAFT and VOICES board headers.  They can be in colors and a theme of your choice. Enter below and let me know your successes with using CRAFT and VOICES to track your Reading and Writing Strategies.

And yes, the Photobucket app made sharing these pictures ten times faster than usual.

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