Friday Link Party Parade

It's Friday, Day 5 of The Teacher's Chair Linky. Today is Teacher's Choice. 

Because its Friday, I choose to give you a freebie !.

 I made an Exit poster for when I use post it notes as exit slips. 

An example of this might be, to tell me one thing you learned, one thing you still have questions about, etc... 

I allow students to choose if they want to write their name or not. This would not be an assessment per student, but maybe an assessment of how the lesson went overall. Its just one form of an exit ticket I have used. Now, I have a cute poster for them. 

And 5 for Friday is back at Doodle Bugs Teaching, so here I go: 

If you go to Office Max, right now you can get 2 posters, 50 copies, 50 business cards, and 3 feet of lamination for $29.99. It's an amazing deal. I am also thrilled with the quality of what I get there. 

Task Card Holders: I have been organizing my task card holders. I love how wonderful they all look.The boxes are currently on sale for $1. I bought 40 and let me say, I am going back for more. I have two sizes because some cards are larger than others. 

I have been a printing and laminating fool, I tell you! I love the feeling that I printed and laminated and completed a project. Seriously, how did I ever live without this gem! 

Not everything was school related. (gasp!) 

I did take my kids for their sixth month dental check ups. This was three year olds first big boy check up. Last time he sat on my lap. He even had x-rays for the first time and did great! He loved seeing the pictures of his teeth. And my 7 year old was a trooper as well. He could do this in his sleep. Just glad to have it checked off the "to-do" list. 

And our baseball season started up again. My life outside of school revolves around baseball. My 3 year old officially started T-ball. he has done nothing but beg for this for a year. He eats, breathes, and sleeps baseball. He even woke up one Saturday, put his brother's entire uniform on by himself, including the cup! he stayed in it all day and even took a nap with that cup on! He got new shoes for T-Ball as well. His very own, he had been wearing hand me downs so far. 

We got to practice and he cried. He wouldn't do anything. It was so embarrassing. He eventually warmed up, but seriously, there's no crying in baseball! Now my week looks like this: Mondays: Coed Softball with Hubby, Tuesday/Thursday: T-ball practice Wednesday/Friday: Coach Pitch practice.

Honestly though, I wouldn't have it any other way! 

Tech Tips- The Teacher's Chair Linky

I have been participating in The Teacher's Chair Link all week. Today is Tech Tips: 

This is not my forte at all. I use technology in the classroom, but I am not a guru on this. We use Activinspire on my campus with our Promethean Boards. I have shared this link before, Promethean Planet is amazing! Tons of flipcharts to use already made by teachers. 

I use flipcharts everyday in my classroom. Students learn really fast that everything they need to know for the day is on that board as they walk in. 

It tells them what to do, where to get it and when to get it done. This way, while I am greeting students at the door and being "present" in the hallway, they aren't running around in the classroom. 

here's an example: 

The other piece of technology I use daily in my room is online timers. It is FREE also from online-timers.com  My students love when I assign something and use the timers. This keeps them for talking and slacking off because they can visual see how much time they have to complete something. 

School Week Linky- Day 3 Best Games

I have blogged about Remind101 before. Click here to read about it. 

This FREE texting service for teachers is an awesome way to communicate with parents and students. 

And now they are having a giveaway. Check it out here! 

And now, for Day 3 with The Teacher's Chair

Today we are sharing our Best Games 

I love using games to teach Math. Anything with cards and dice make sense. They are just really easy manipulatives that I have ready to use at a moments notice. Students can add, subtract, multiply, divide, create numbers, fractions, etc... with these simple manipulatives. 

Last year I was awarded a Donor's Choose grant that was specifically for games in the middle school classroom. It was great. These were the games I was able to purchase. I can't say they are my favorite, but they were great to have in class and for tutoring purposes too. 

The downside to these type of games is pieces go missing. But they are still worth having. I am definitely NOT complaining. 

Last year I found this awesome resource of Laura Candler and honestly, if you teach middle school math, you should get this!!! Its just a GREAT resource and easy to use for teachers. I like everything that makes my job easier. 

I promise, I don't get anything from sharing this. I just think its a wonderful resource and want you to have access to it. Plus, Laura has tons of free resources for teachers too!

And another giveaway to share with you. 

Teaching with a Mountain View is having a QUADRUPLE Giveaway. Check it out! 

School Week Linky- Day 2

Day 2 with The Teacher's Chair for a School Week Linky 

Today we are sharing Read Alouds 

What I miss most about elementary is Read Aloud times. Every year when I taught Kinder and First, I would read chapter books to my students. I always started with Charlotte's Web. I absolutely love that story. 

But, now I am a middle school MATH teacher. 

Thankfully, there are so many amazing authors out there who get that literature is still key no matter the age or subject. 

Last year, when I taught circles, I read these books to my kids and they absolutely LOVED it. It was the quietest they had ever been. I will definitely be including these again this year along with others. 

There are many books like this and when I just looked on Amazon, I found even more! Looks like I need t o make a list for my librarian. She is always asking us for titles we want. Now I know! 

One of my all time favorite read aloud's is Stephanie's Ponytail by Robert Munsch. I loved reading it in first because the students had never heard of it before and listened so intently. It is absolutely hysterical and great for teaching a lesson on being yourself, no matter what! 

Seriously, a MUST read for everyone!

Have you heard about this? 

Check this out. Here is a creative and fun way to meet other teachers and receive a box full of goodies once a month! I think this could be sooo fun! 

Click the picture above of this link to Lessons with Coffee. This is going to be GREAT!!!

Monday Made It!

My Monday Made it is showing off my new planner! 

It works for Monday Made it and A new link party starting today over at The Teacher's Chair. 

Each day of this blog you will share something different. Today is lesson planners! Perfect timing for me! 

I know there are so many out there for sale, but I am a glutton for punishment and had to make my own. My school requires certain documents be kept for each class period/student. They give us a binder, but it is HUGE and I hate lugging it around 

I also know there s a debate going on about whether a planner is even necessary. For some it is, for some its not. I use my calendar on my phone, but I am still old school and have to write everything down. I am hoping to have everything in one place. 

It turned out so pretty. I am super pleased with it! 

I chose to use a binder because I will need to add pages throughout the year. 

 We are required to have this document for each class period. It has accommodations for students in each class period. We call it a "one sheeter". It is wonderful to have handy when co-teachers (aides) come in our rooms.

 Since I am the ESL teacher, I am also required to have the student proficiency levels. I made one for each class period as well.

 I made notes pages for my leadership meetings, PLC (Professional Learning Community) also know as department mtgs and our faculty mtgs. Last year all my notes were in a spiral.

I did include a Gradebook divider. I do grades online, but sometimes need a checklist. I will print these from my online gradebook and include them behind that tab. They will have the students' names already. 

I did not include lesson plans because we are required to do them online. I already double up on so much, lesson plans, no way! 

I made dividers as well. I thought about having them made, but it was a little more expensive and I had my two youngest with me at the time. They were driving me nuts. So, I did the easiest thing for me. 

I am pleased with how it turned out and think I am officially ready to write in it. As you can see I haven't even labeled the divider yet. 

I should probably stop this post here, but since I have missed several Monday Made Its, I have more that I made this week! 

I  printed and made some class math posters, a vertical number line from Susan over at Middle School OCD and a horizontal number line from here. 

This is why I love blogging so much. I would never have known about these two resources if I hadn't seen it on Math = Love blog's. Love the community. 

I have random posters around my room with positive messages on them I printed last year. I plan to do the same with these Math posters. I hate plain walls and once we are in full swing I have a bunch of anchor charts, but these posters just make the room more inviting in my opinion. 

HAPPY CRAFTING!!! Its crunch time for me, I am off to make more.