Calendar notebooks are changing :)

I have been using calendar notebooks in my room for several years and it usually works very well. This year for some reason is a little different. It’s less than half way through the year and many of my students’ calendar notebooks are well…lets just say ruined (I will take a picture after I return to school so you can see what I mean). Many are scribbled all over and have lots of pages ripped out and all over the place. So I decided that after we get back from vacation I will not be doing calendar notebook as we had done it before. I really like the skills that we learn and practice during calendar notebook so I had to come up with something that was a little less messy that still had the same skill practice. So I decided that if they had one calendar page per day that they would bring home the same day that it might be more manageable. The only thing is I HATE wasting paper so using one page per day was troubling me. Then I remembered that our math program has a Daily Common Core review paper that we had been doing in the morning anyway so I decided that I would create a calendar page and would put the Common Core review page on the backside so I would be using the same amount of paper. Crossing my fingers that this will work, as I hate to give up calendar “notebook” time all together.

I have uploaded the calendar pages that I created to my TPT so check them out. I appreciate any feedback you have on them.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Daily-Calendar-pages-1032056

Hope your vacation is going well. May 2014 be happy and healthy for you. 

~Erica

Christmas Questionnaire

http://fabulousinfirst.blogspot.com/

I am linking up with Fabulous in First for this Christmas Questionnaire.

Hot Chocolate or Egg Nog?

Hot chocolate!!! I like it with marshmallows, whipped cream, and some chocolate sprinkles on top.

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

As a kid Santa usually left one unwrapped and the rest wrapped. My son’s gifts from Santa have always been wrapped.

Colored Lights or White?

I love white lights and that is what is on my tree and my house. This year however I have added some multi colored lights inside my house. I do kind of like the multi colored lights maybe they are growing on me.

When do you decorate?

I usually decorate the day after Thanksgiving and take my decorations down the day after Christmas. This year however I was too tired from black Friday shopping so it had to wait until Saturday.

Real or Fake Tree?

As a kid we always had a real tree. As an adult my husband and I have always had a fake tree. I HATE straightening out all of the branches, but I don’t have to worry about watering it so I guess it’s equal.

What tops your tree?

A silver wire star.

Favorite Christmas Memories or Traditions?

As a kid one of the things I remember most is when my grandparents use to come over on Christmas eve to drop off our gifts. Now we make a point to go visit them before Christmas. Here is one of my favorite pics from about5 years ago. My son Josh and our dog Katy. 

Do you remember your favorite gift as a child?
My memory is terrible so I only vaguely remembering my gifts. I do remember I loved my Cabbage Patch doll, big wheel, and a beautiful blue dress (a teacher gave this to me during a particularly difficult Christmas for my family). 

Do you prefer giving or receiving?

Don’t get me wrong I think receiving gifts is nice, but I LOVE giving gifts to others. I love finding the just right gift for my family or friends. I love watching others open gift (but hate to have people watch me).

What is your favorite Christmas Song?
I would have to say....It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. 

Candy Canes. Yuk or Yum?

As a kid I use to get the thick straight candy canes in my stocking and I loved them. Now I could take or leave candy canes.

Favorite Christmas Movie?

I basically like most of the cheesy Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel. They are very predictable, but are romantic and funny. I also love the fact that my husband who doesn’t love these movies still let’s me watch tons of them this time of year. 

Do you shop online or at stores?

I am kind of an immediate gratification person so I like to shop in stores and get my items in my hands as soon as possible. I am not against shopping online and do it if the item someone wants can’t be bought in stores or if the store doesn’t have what I want, but I would rather just go to the store and by what I need.

Photo Card, Letter, or Store Bought Card?

I have always just used store bought cards….until this year.  

 May you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year. ~Erica

EnVision Math, RTI, and Ruby Red Shoes....OH MY!!!

Well first the most important part of my post.....I finally got some ruby red shoes just like Dorothy's. My awesome sister-in-law, brother, niece, and nephew gave me these shoes for my birthday. I LOVE THEM!!!! Here are a few pictures: (yes I had a little photo shoot with my new shoes)

Now on to the other stuff. This year we started using the Envisions math program. I am looking for other teachers who use this program to give me some insight into how they make it work for all students. First of all, I should admit that I did not want this program as I have only ever heard negative things about "boxed" programs like this in the past. My district has not used any boxed programs since I have been there and I have felt pretty lucky about that. The reality is that it doesn't matter that I didn't want to use it, it was voted on by the district so now I have to use it.

Here are my concerns with the program: It doesn't allow for much of any acceleration for students who might already know most of a topic or all of a particular topic. Also for struggling students the format (Daily CC review, Colorful paper lesson, Video, Color paper guided practice, quick check, centers (I use a math buffet format), and reteach), is just too much too fast. I am hoping that some other teachers out there are successfully using it and can give me some insight into how I can do what I have been told to do which is use this program (without any supplemental materials at this point) and have it work for all of my students.  I am really hoping there are teachers out there using it and loving it who can help me go from not loving it (that's putting it nicely) to at least feeling like it can meet the needs of all my students. Oh one more thing.....time. I think this is one of the biggest issues with the program is the time that it takes (I use to do one 30 min block for math mini lesson and centers last year, plus math during calendar time etc) and now I am doing this format which takes 60 mins.

RTI: We just had our first RTI meetings of the year so it has me thinking about RTI and wondering what other schools do for RTI. What do you do? When? What support do you have?

FREEBIE!!! Okay so I know I like freebies so I included on in this post. Hopefully you will find it useful. Click the link below for a letter word sort
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3LbAg2wnY4YWWpGSXdXRGNBTVE/edit?usp=sharing

~Erica

Long Overdue

So about a month ago I joined a blog linky party and was supposed to post pics of my classroom. I tried two cameras and they both took terrible pics so I had to wait until I got my new camera. Last night I got my new baby (otherwise known as a Nikon Coolpix L820. Let's just say I think I am in love. Below are pics of my classroom. Better late than never. 

Here is my whole group instructional area. 

Calendar and center work boards. 

Library area. 

Word wall and bucket filling area. 

Centers and supply area

This is the view from the back of the door looking towards the door. 

My small group area on the left and whole group rug area on right. 

Panoramic of my room. 

Panoramic of my room continued. 

So that's my room. Hope you enjoyed the tour. 

~Erica

Best laid plans!

So I started this week thinking that I was going to follow the Teacher Week linky that I started on Monday, but since my classroom is not done I couldn’t post pictures on Tuesday and couldn’t post about my organization yesterday. I will post both of these as soon as my room is done. So my room, well yesterday my son and I went to work in my classroom, and I think it looks worse now than when I arrived yesterday morning. I started to try to organize stuff and when I organize I make a mess first. My son was very helpful.

It doesn’t look like I will get back to my classroom this week as I am at an ipad training today and tomorrow am spending one of my last few days of summer with my family.

Oh so this is kind of random, but this week I bought a very inexpensive laminator (at WalMart, my least favorite store, but I knew they had them in stock and cheap). I bought the kind that you have to buy the sleeves for. Since I moved to a new room I decided to redo some things in my room (word wall etc) and had several things to laminate. I have owned this laminator for 2 days now and I LOVE IT!!!. It only does things 9” wide or less, but it’s perfect for what I have needed so far. It’s small enough that I can bring it back and forth to school and home as I need. Here is the link to the one I bought just in case you want to look into it.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Scotch-Thermal-Laminator/27018071

Take Care

~Erica

Teacher week 2013-10 things about me.

I have linked up with lots of great blogs for Teacher week. Each day there will be a different topic to write about.
Today's topic is 10 things about me. So here it goes.

1.     I am married to a teacher. My husband Shane teaches high school social studies. We are on complete opposite ends of a student’s school journey. We also know that neither of us would want to teach what the other one does.

2.   My household consists of Mr. Gower, my wonderful son Josh, my mother-in-law Judy, and our golden retriever Katy. Josh is entering 6^th grade, which makes me feel old. He loves soccer and technology. My mother-in-law moved in with us last year and we bought a house together last fall. Katy keeps Judy company during the day and vice versa. Katy is almost 7 years old and is a super sweet girl.

3.   Last week my husband and I did something wild and crazy for our 15^th anniversary, we both got tattoos. Mine is a heart and infinity symbol, which I got because I tell my son Josh that I love him to infinity and beyond. It hurt a lot, but I am super happy I did it.

4.   My favorite color is purple (if you know me that will not be a surprise).

5.   One of my favorite places to go on vacation is Isla Mujeres Mexico. I have been there twice and I love it there.

6.   I love my MacBook Pro!!! I would be lost without my MacBook and I could never go back to a PC. I am officially and proudly an Apple girl.

7.   I sell real estate part time. I love helping people find the house that’s right for them or sell their current house so they can move onto the next chapter in their life.

8.   I really, really want a pair of ruby red sparkly shoes like Dorothy had in the Wizard of Oz.

9.   One of the reasons I love being a teacher is because when students see me outside of school they act like I am a movie star. Makes me feel loved!!!

10.  I am envious of many of the teacher blogs that I follow. I hope one day to have a larger blog following, but for now I am just happy that you are reading this, so thank you!!

~Erica

Okay so I am a little excited and nervous.

I just uploaded my first item for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers. I love technology (I know I have said that before) and I decided to make a writing around the room packet that uses QR codes. I think it’s kind of cool. Now we will see if other people think the same thing and buy it. Here is the link in case you are interested: 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Writing-around-the-room-with-QR-codes-813591

~Erica

I Love Technology!!!

One of the things I love to use in my classroom is technology. I have a projector and ipad that I use everyday in my classroom for things like calendar notebook, using Harry Kindergarten videos on YouTube to teach everything from counting to days of the week, using a time timer for work time, and using the ipad as a document camera to introduce work. I can honestly say that if my projector or ipad broke I might cry. I also have the use of ipads for my students which I often use as part of my literacy centers.

I think it's very important that students have the opportunity to be introduced to technology as early as possible. The technological world my kindergarters are growing up in is not the same world that I grew up in and I want to make them as prepared as I can. There are some people who think we have too much technology and that we rely on it too much. I will not argue about that whether it's good or not, but the fact is it's my job to prepare my students for the future and like it or not technology is the future.


So getting back to the reason that I decided to write this post. Mr. Gower (my husband) is a high school social studies teacher and this week he went to an Apple training on both the ipad and the MacBook. He shared with me many things, but the one I want to share with you today is an ipad app called popplet. There is a lite free version and the regular version that costs $4.99. I downloaded the free version for now. :) At first I didn't get it, but then last night I created these:

Both of these I could and now will do in my classroom using this app. The first one as an introduction to dinosaurs and the second one after we have learned some things about them. I am sure most people have seen these kind of maps, but I love the fact that I can create this (very easily I might add) on my ipad while having the students help me fill it in. I can then print it out to display in our classroom. LOVE IT!!!!

I am sure there are lots of other ways to use this app and I would love to hear from you if you find a creative way to use it. I am sure I will be posting more in the future about cool apps and other technology related stuff. Have a great day!

-Erica

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

If you use to use Google reader, you can now use Bloglovin to follow my blog!!

Summer time!!

So I have now been on summer break for a little more than 3 weeks now. I must confess that I have a lot of mixed emotions about this. On one hand I have been thinking so much about my classroom. I am moving to a new classroom that is in great disarray at the moment as I have moved everything (well almost anything) in it, but since I am waiting for the room to get painted I can't actually put the room together. I want to organize and decorate it so badly!!!! I have been pinning things on Pinterest and downloading new word wall letters etc for a new look for my new room. All this work and I can't actually put anything together yet. It kind of makes me want to scream, but then I remember that the summer is when teachers are not supposed to be in their rooms so that they can be cleaned and painted. 

I will say that even though I want to be in my room I am very happy to have some time to rest, relax and do fun things. My last two summers were filled with things that left little time to enjoy the summer so I am feeling good about enjoying every second that I can this summer. 

Last year at this time I was at the National I teach K conference and I learned so much, so kind of wishing that I was there right now as well. What is nice is that I follow the blogs of several people who are there right now so I am still seeing some of what great learning is going on. Take care and have a great summer!
~Erica

Haven't posted in awhile. What are we doing and survey

It seems like forever since I have blogged. My classroom has finished up dinosaurs and has started our explorations of space. We created our space schema chart which I was pretty impressed with. 

I have been thinking a lot lately about the role and expectations of a teacher. I have created a survey to gather some information about why we do the job, what stresses us, and what would make us happier. Please take a minute to fill out this survey if you are a teacher, have been a teacher, or work in some other capacity within the school. Click the link below to take the survey. It's only 9 questions! Thanks. 

Click here to take survey

What's inside the egg?

Can you tell what’s inside the egg?

On Thursday, we started our unit on dinosaurs. We used Deanna Jump’s dinosaur unit to get started. One of my colleagues (and her son) made the eggs. I loved listening to all the things my students guessed. The first guesses were not so close (some guesses were wood, bouncy balls, penguin, bird) The guesses got a lot better as the clues were given. 

Did you guess a dinosaur?? My kids were excited and then skeptical. They said, “it’s not real,” “you did it.” They were excited to learn that we would be studying about dinosaurs. This activity was VERY fun!!

Because sometimes we all need a little reminder of why we do what we do.

So here are two youtube videos that I like a lot. They both remind me of why I teach. I love the Taylor Mali one and I watch it when I am having a stressful day or need a pick me up. 

 The second video is one I just saw tonight. I don't teach teenagers, but I think it applies to all teachers and grades. I hope you all enjoy and are reminded about the great work that teachers do everyday.

Take Care -Erica

How fun it is to create stuff.

So when I started this blog I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with all the other great blogs out there today. I had resigned myself to the fact that I wouldn't be creating things to share with the blogging world. I figured that I would share things from my classroom and my ideas, but that was it. Then yesterday I was reading a post from DeeDee Wills Blog Mrs.Wills Kindergarten about starting a blog and how she did it. By the way, if you do not follow her blog you should. She is amazing! So after reading that I decided to create something of my own. 

I had mentioned to a colleague earlier in the day that I have a few students who struggle with letter formation. Many of the things that we do during literacy centers require the students to look at models and the write, sight words or sentences. I have several versions of roll a word where the student rolls a dice and then writes down the sight word that goes with that number. My students who struggle have a hard time with this and often their papers look very messy as result of not being able to form letters in the empty boxes provided. So I decided to try and create a roll a word that would be modified for students to struggle with letter formation. 

I have used the most recent sight words that we have been practicing. I included one form with the sight words but blank boxes, like I have generally been using, one dotted form, one dotted in yellow (this doesn't seem to print out well, but is another option),and one yellow letter (like a highlighter) form. Click the following words to go to the pdf file.  Roll A Word (no, and, can, we, my, up)  Rollaword version2 (no,and,can,we,my,up) 

Please give me your feedback about my roll a word and also about how easy or difficult it was to get the pdf as I just had to learn how to embed it here. 
Hope you are having a great day.