Tuesday Tried It- Pinterest Product

It's Tuesday, time for  Tuesday Tried It with Holly over at The Fourth Grade Flipper.

This is one of my favorite linky parties, but I will admit, I have a love/hate relationship with it.

First, it keeps me trying new things, which is fabulous!

Second, it lengthens my to do list each week! I see such amazing things from some really amazing teachers. I love that, but I hate adding to my to do list. (sort of)

It's kind of like Pinterest for me. I spend a LOT of time on Pinterest. I pin a lot of stuff. I attempt to make a lot of stuff. I have made a gazillion recipes from there. I haven't liked a gazillion though.

I attempted to make a no sew workout shirt. I cannot wear it out of the house. My husband thinks I should not wear it inside the house.

My products rarely look like what I have pinned. Some times its an epic fail. But, I am addicted and I just keep pinning!

Saw this on Pinterest and loved it.

http://bulletinboardideas.org/4269/when-you-enter-this-classroom-back-to-school-door-display/

This was easy. I made it, laminated it and hung it up for my summer school classroom.

This was a Pinterest Success Story!

Can I count Summer School as a Tried It? I just finished my first day of summer school. I say, SUCCESS!
I am teaching 5th grade Math. I have three sections, less than ten kids in each. IT IS AWESOME! Today was definitely the honeymoon stage. They were perfect!

I am really enjoying the staff as well. Most our from the three elementary schools in our town. They are so nice and fun to be around. Plus, it is cool to work in a different school. I am in a super old building, which is also kind of different for me. I am really glad I signed up. Ask me in one month if I feel the same though.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Monday Made It & Must Have Monday

It's Monday!!!! 

I am  not yet in vacation mode because I am teaching summer school. I am still in school making mode. 

So, my Monday Made Its are all school related. 

First, I saw something on Pinterest and it sparked me to make these: 

They are available here. 

I am teaching 5th graders during summer school. I am specifically teaching fifth graders who failed our state test twice and have to take it a third time in two weeks. I will have three sections, each with ten kids. 

I want to keep it interesting for them and for me. I have been searching through our summer school curriculum and creating small group and station type work. But, also since it is summer, I am not reinventing the wheel. I am printing and laminating activity masters. 

If you follow me, you may know I bought a Scotch laminator. If it moves, I am laminating it!!!! I LOVE this thing and am getting the most use of it possible. Best school purchase ever!!! 

And since it is summer.... 

My Must Have Monday will not be school related. It will be baseball related. 

Our life revolves around my 7 year olds baseball. We spent 5 hours on Saturday at baseball. It was H-O-T! 

These three things are essential: 

Happy Monday all! 

Weekend Link Ups

I have just spent the last 5 hours outside at baseball games. I am so glad to be in where the air conditioner is nice and cool. I love baseball, but I hate being hot.

Time to spark some motivation with Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching.

Not being very clever this week though. I will blame it on the sun.
My middle schoolers respond to candy! Seriously, they will do anything for Smarties. I tell them, they make them smarter!

I don't do it often, which is probably why the love when I pull this trick out. I will try to be more creative for the next link up.

I am also linking up with All Things Upper Elementary. It's time for Fun For All. You will find a lot of great products made by amazing teachers and bloggers.

5 for Friday

I haven't posted 5 for Friday in a while, but joining Doodlebugs Teaching, even while she is on vacation on the beach!

My 5 this week:

1) I have never done this before, but I went to a workshop during the last week of school. It seemed odd, but it was a really great workshop! It was about using manipulatives in the math class. That was always easy to me in elementary grades. But, in middle school it has been more of a challenge. I am thrilled for all the ideas I got. Practical and really doable!!!! I will be posting about that soon!

2) My son had field day, but because of the workshop, I wasn't able to attend. His sweet teacher sent me this picture. He obviously didn't miss me!

3) I just returned from our end of the year awards for our district. We are small enough that we have an end of the year breakfast for all the staff. Each school gives awards and we acknowledge our retirees. I was so proud that two teachers from my department received big awards. It was also great to be a part of the longevity awards. Our district gives 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35 year awards. This year they gave a lot. It was really awesome. I have only been the district 2 years, but it feels good to know teachers are committed to  this community!

Go WILDCATS!!

4) Non school related: One of my husbands hobbies is cake making. This week he made THREE!!! I am totally bragging and seriously bias. He is so talented and his cake taste so yummy. The diet has been on hold while he has done this as well. It's just impossible not to indulge!!!

End of Year Baseball cake 

End of 1st Grade 

 

 This one was one he sold. A first birthday!

5) And now, my summer begins. I chose to teach summer school. We start on Monday. I also start curriculum writing next week. So, today instead of being at the pool, I am writing lesson plans. I am not complaining, because I did make this choice and it means extra income.

Happy First Friday in June!!! 

A bit of an OCD Moment

Today is the last day of school.

I started packing up my room this week. It became an obsession.

I haven't made one of these cute things. I may or may not this summer. My "to-do" list is pretty long.

But, I have a gazillion pencil boxes and I put them to use.

I am not sure if I will leave things this way when school starts, but for now, MY DESK IS ORGANIZED!!!

I am completing my 19th year teaching and I can honestly say, it has NEVER been this organized. So, I guess I am going to start year 20 with a bang!!!!

Tried It Tuesday- Interactive Notebooks

It's Tuesday, I still have 2 days!!! But, I am at a workshop today. YEA!!!!!

Time for Tried It Tuesday with Holly over at The Fourth Grade Flipper.

I am also linking up with Jennifer at 4mula for Fun. I am late, but she is holding a monthly link party on the 28th of each month for Interactive Notebooks. I missed that date this time, but since I was sharing on mine today, I linked to it as well. 

This year I tried Interactive Math Notebooks from day one and I mean we used them everyday!!! It was very rare for my students NOT to have their journals.

I will warn you though, this is along post. Math Notebooking is a HUGE passion of mine. I have a lot to say about it.

I always heard statements like, "We use our journals the most in your class, Mrs. Hodges." Their science teacher used them a lot too, but not as much.

I absolutely LOVE them. We did foldables, kept notes, worksheets, homework, warm ups, test, and test corrections in them. They were our "textbook" if you will.

This year I used the ever sturdy composition notebook.

This is example of what they looked like in the end.

This is what most covers look like now. I know the solution could have been tape, but I have a lot of kids. I also know their name could have been on the inside. Lesson learned. This wasn't a huge issue for me, except kids doodling all over the cover while they should be paying attention.

The inside is what is important to me. And I can say I am happy with 90% of the inside.

At the beginning of the year we created all our resource pages. These were awesome and we used them daily.
We started with the contract.

 I loved the table of contents. I tried hard to do left side/right side, but it didn't always work out. I plan to work on this during the summer. Megan Hayes-Golding talks a lot about this and it is very insightful. Get a copy of the table of contents here on her site. 

We never did these pages. Just too busy. I may try again next year though. I love the concept.

We made pockets for every unit. Love this. But, if there were a lot of papers, it was a nightmare. Hence, the pockets need to be deeper. I tried two ways. They both gave me fits.

 Students loved creating foldables. I could always refer to those pages when they were working. I wanted them to use it as a resource. They had all the info they needed, they just needed to use it. For this reason, I was pretty anal about page numbering. I wanted to be able to say, "What page will you find types of angles?"


I made example in every class. I would do the students who were absent. I would also do my own. This worked for the most part.

I did vocabulary in the back. Why? Because I saw it somewhere else and thought it was neat. It was, and it worked.

Notice the side pocket. This way the cards did not fall out. 

Love the idea of flashcards for vocabulary practice, by they always fell out! 

So, what am I changing?
My biggest change is that I am going away from the composition notebook. My students will have binders with dividers and pocket envelopes.

I am investing in these as well. I know, papers are going to tear out.

I am going to give it a shot and see which I like better.

I started out planning pages really well, but slacked off. Sarah at Math=Love has this great planner.

And 4mula Fun has these planning pages free at her store.

If you don't do interactive notebooks for any subject, I highly recommend you give it a try. They are awesome. Kids love them and it really gives kids a place to keep all the information they are learning.

Not sure where to start? Check out these great bloggers!

Runde's Room
Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes 
Meagan Hayes-Golding
Middle School Is Awesome

I know there are so many more. Trust me, if you want to try it, you can find resources and helpful tools to get them started.

Happy Notebooking! 

Monday Made it & Must Have Mondays

Two linkies on this Monday morning.
                         


It's my last Monday to work this school year. YAHOOEY!

My Must Have Monday with Sabra.

As I clean my room for the summer, this is my MUST HAVE!

When I started teaching, this was all we had and it was better than nothing. But, it just didn't work as well.

. 

And now Monday Made it with Tara.

I wanted something for the end of the year gifts.  Saw this idea on Pinterest.

http://makingmemorieswithyourkids.com/2012/06/orange-you-glad-its-summer-gift-idea/

I have been searching for whatever I can that is orange. These are the things I collected. I had 11 gifts to buy so I had to be thrifty. The food was easy. But, I wanted more than just food items.

fingernail polish, nail file, bath sponge, peach tea, Kit-Kat, orange cream gun, cheese crackers,
 Reeses cup, and an orange Popsicle

I made these tags.

Then filled plastic jars I bought in December at Target. We found these after Christmas when they were 70% off. I knew instantly I wanted a bunch. I knew we would eat the goodies and I would reuse the jars. They are perfect. I gave my son's teacher one stuffed for teacher appreciation in May. The rest, I am giving to my department this week as an end of the year gift. (there are 8 of them)

Imagine the tag tied around with orange ribbon. Still have a few days.... 

I found orange pails for my son's teacher and the day care teachers for my youngest.

Pinterest was a lifesaver for me. I learned how to start with this:

and go to this: 

• Soak the plastic jar in hot water. (the longer the better) 
• Then wipe peanut butter over the sticky part.

•  Let sit for 10 minutes and wipe. 

Yes, peanut butter! It was mind blowing to me!!!! But, it works and that's what matters to me! I keep every jar we use. This makes reusing them so much easier.