Friday FREEBIE- 1st of 2014

To follow through with  my New Year's Blogging Resolution, I have a FREEBIE for you! I haven't linked up for a while at TBA, but I am today. Starting out the right way for the first Friday of 2014.

Do you celebrate the 100th day of school? 17 years in elementary school, I did! It was one of my favorite days. 

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Middle School is so different. Last year though, I had to do something. I tried a project. It was an at home project. Students were given 100 problems to solve. They were given an entire six weeks to complete it. 

There were a lot of positive to it. The students had seen all the problems before. They were from previous tests they had taken. I even had a section of vocabulary. 

It was a lot and the projects weren't very nice when they were returned. Then, they really needed to be graded. I was not going to grade 100 problems for all 100+ students I had. 

I made a key, copied it and students graded each others projects. That worked. I will do that again. 

This year, my team does not want to do it, I do.  We are required to do the same if we teach the same prep. I am the only advanced teacher for 6th grade though. I teach only one section of regular 6th grade math. So, I adapted it for my advanced classes only. Parents of advanced students want this kind of thing!  

So, here's a new version:

100th Day Project 

I am excited because its ready early! They are getting it when they return on Tuesday. I made one huge change to manage the procrastinators. They have a mid way checkpoint where 50 problems have to be completed. I am giving a grade for it as well. Yes, my students will still have regular homework this six weeks. This project is a test grade. I know my kids, they can do this! 

There are a ton of skills included. We taught a lot of skills the first semester. The project includes, fractions, GCF, LCM, prime factorization, ratios, measurement conversions, percents, decimals, computation, and many word problems. 

I also created a new activity for our upcoming Algebraic Expressions unit. I am excited about this as well because it gives several options to how you use it in your class. You can choose task cards, a game board, matching cards, go fish, and even a worksheet. It's my first product of 2014. 

Algebraic Expressions Match 

and.... don't forget about Holly and Joanne's great giveaway going on. It's Day 2, new day, new prize and another opportunity to enter for their grand prizes! 

Happy Friday!

Five for Friday- GIFTS and a FREEBIE!

Friday!!! A 3 day weekend for our students! 

We have staff development on Monday. I LOVE staff development!!! I know, some think I am weird, but I do love it. 

I started my week this week attending a staff development in downtown Austin. I live two miles from my school. I drive about six miles a day including day care for my three year old. Needless to say driving Monday sucked!!! There was so much construction and traffic. I needed a drink before 9am!! 

I attended the Texas Association of Secondary Principals Conference. It was all about The Fundamental 5 by Sean Cain and Mike Laird. 

Have you heard of it? It's based on 5 principles and how doing all five improve schools. We read the book last year as a campus. Easy read, and I believe easy to implement in your classroom. I highly recommend it. 

I loved it! It was geared toward administrators, which I am not. But, I still found it very useful. I am a teacher leader, that is why I was selected to go. I can't wait to share with my department. 

They ended the day with motivation speaker Arik Bostick. He was ca-raaaaaaa-zeee! It was great though. 

Check him out. Seriously, if you need some motivation, he will inspire you! 

Back to work on Tuesday where I learned I had a pitiful sub!!! I was so disheartened. I spent so much time preparing. I had to reteach and pretty much clean up the wasted day my students had. They were troopers though. (I love these kids) They begged me never to leave again. See, they learned, things could be worse. 

I actually ended up making a complaint and this particular sub is not welcome back at our school. I will be out three days next week so I am a bit freaked, but I have already gone to principal and asked for a good sub or one of our co-teachers, since its an extended time. 

I received a box of goodies from Reddigifts. It was like Christmas. It was so nice to get these donated by a person I have no affiliation with. I have a serious thank you note to write this weekend. I had some students who brought pitiful binders to school, now they have brand new ones! Their faces lit up when I gave them the new one. So thankful for people who give so willingly. 

Yesterday, I finally checked my mailbox at home and my SLANT box came. I was thrilled. I branched out and switched internationally. I love my sweet gifts and her cool note! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! 

I will be honest though, as much as I love the SLANT exchange, my crazy, busy life doesn't work for it. I am forgetful. I don't even have a Wal-Mart in my town so I forget to go get things. I suck as a giver. I don't want to though, I just know, I have to get a handle on the important things in my life before I can venture out and sign up for "extra stuff". 

I shared about my order of operations project on Tuesday. I had a great response and people were interested in the project. Well, it's Freebie Friday, so here you go! 

WARNING: I posted that as a Word document so you could change it up. The dates and directions are for my class. Be sure to read through it and adjust as necessary. I think the most important part of it is the rubric.  Click here to get the freebie. 

I have more to share, but no more time. So, wrapping it up and getting to work! Ha! I am such a procrastinator!!! 

Happy Friday all!