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