Monday Made It

Monday Made It actually makes me get to work and finish some projects that go into the deep dark chaotic cave I refer as my craft room. (My boyfriends calls it my CRAP room and he describes as a Micheals that has gone through a very large earthquake.)

At the Goodwill, I found this awesome TossAcross game. Without hesitation, I put it in my cart. My mind starting thinking of all the possibilities I could do with this. I peeled off all the stickers and used my Circut to cut numbers out of vinyl.  I am going to use it to strengthen my kids addition skills at the beginning of the year and multiplication skills mid year. Total money spent on project was just over $5.

I have been thinking of back to school and I always take pictures of my students the first day of school.  They are always wearing their new shoes, newest outfit and usually a new haircut. I made these first and last day of school signs. The hardest part was trying to decide what frame to put it in. (By the way, look at these cuties!!!)

I made a welcome banner for my door. Download it for FREE for being just fabulous!

Teaching POV

 

I have had these pictures on my phone and the blog idea in my head for awhile now... okay since the end of April.  I figured summer is the best time to get caught up on all the things we don't do during school time... Right?   

My students were having the hardest time "getting" Point of View.  I paid my  local public library a visit and found as many variations as I could.  A sample of  what ended up in my very heavy tote is above. 

 We started off the week with watching a short video clip rendition of The Three Little Pigs and I read The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs.  We determined the POV and compared and contrasted the clip and the story.  

By the end of the week, my students became POV experts and I broke them into smaller groups to test their new POV skills.  I provided each group with two variations of a well-known fairytale and they got to work.  

They created Venn Diagrams to show the POV of each story and compared and contrasted the two texts. 

It was a total success and all the prep was making a stop at my local library.  (The truth is... I thought of the idea on Sunday afternoon and was very lucky that the public library was open!)

 

Monday Made It

This is the first time I have participated in Made it Monday. I have been working like crazy in my classroom to get things organized.

 Last year, I made all these really cute clothes pins with tacks for my jobs bulletin boards and they continually broke throughout the year. I knew I had to do something different. So I created a Jillian Starr inspired iHelp jobs poster.  It was fun trying to find apps that corresponded with my classroom jobs. I found a 30% off promo code and had it made into a 2' by 3' poster.  My kids are just going to love it!

 The second thing I made this week was number pebbles/stones/ circles magnets. (Whatever you call them!) I wanted an easy way to change jobs and have something that was super easy to use with my iHelp poster.  I download these amazing numbers on TPT from Fourth Grade Frolics for FREE. I reduced the numbers by 50% and the size was perfect.

I didn't actually make it but I finally put my IKEA cart together. Check out the before pictures from small group area... at TOTAL MESS! I found solo cups in my favorite color to help organize all the supplies I need at my U-shaped table!

Jillian Starr from Starr Spangled Planner did an awesome blog post about using Kaboom! as a center game.  I was at my parent's house a month or so back and saw all these Crystal Light containers and I got super excited to make a set of Kaboom! center games.  I told my mom to continue her Crystal Light addiction and to save all the containers for me! 

Makeover Madness: TPT facelift

I have a really bad confession... I normally work really hard on a TPT product and then just put together a "blah" cover. I have teamed up with some inspiring TPT/ bloggers to complete weekly TPT challenges.

Week One challenge consists of choosing one TPT product and giving it a facelift.  I designed these sentence starters because I realized it was something that was needed to help my third graders develop their academic discourse.

I really like how bold the new cover is.  I know when I am looking at TPT products, I like to see examples of the product on the cover.

Comment below about what you look at when buying a TPT product and I will choose a lucky winner!

Tell All Tuesday: Two Truths and One Lie

Tell All Tuesday has started today!!! A bunch of wonderful bloggers are linking up to tell two truths and one lie to introduce ourselves.  Here I go...

1) While an arm robbery was happening, I drove between the cops, with drawn weapons and the robber in a small rural town in Northern California. ***Truth
2) I have completed a full marathon (26.2 miles), a century (100 miles) on my bike and a triathlon.*** Truth
3) I have traveled to every European country. ***Semi-Truth (okay... it was a little white lie!) : All European countries except Portugal

The first one who comments which one is the lie will win something from my TPT store.
Go check out the other truths and lies!

Update: Year One with Whiteboard Tables

I have gotten tons of emails asking for an update on my tables, that I painted at the beginning of the school year. Check out my original post here!

I was out on medical leave (due to a broken leg) from November to April and when I returned my tables looked horrible. I literally bought all different cleaning products to try and clean the tables. I even tried the Expo spray and NOTHING worked!!

So I decided to try one last thing.... Magic Erasers! Yes... Mr. Clean came to my recuse. On the last day of school, my students used a little Dawn soap, a splash of water, a magic eraser, and some elbow grease. My kids really enjoyed cleaning.  Here are the tables later in the day, as we were playing Minute-It-To-Win-It.  THEY ARE BEAUTIFULLY WHITE!!!

We Love Teachers Blog Hop.... Multiplication

Wow! I have been missing in action for the last 5 months!! (You read that right... 5 MONTHS!) This has been my third week back in my class since I broke my leg in November. I felt very overwhelmed when I returned.  There is so much to do and only a month left of school.  I spoke to my wonderful fourth grade colleagues and they requested that I really focus on multiplication.

I knew I wanted to put a spin on timed multiplication test and I stumbled upon Upper Elementary Snapshots.  After reading the post, I realized that kids that struggle to finish a 1-minute timed test will always struggle.  Being inspired by Melissa, I put a spin on her idea to fit the needs of my kiddos.

First off, next year I would start this around December and not 5 weeks before the end of the school year.  (But I didn't have that choice this year!) Because we are on a time crunch, I eliminated the 2s, 5s, and 10s.  Next year, I will do 2s, 5s, 10s, 3s-9s as the order to build fluency.

So on Monday, I handed a fine tip Expo marker, a sheet protector, a calendar of April, and a multiplication page of 3s to each student.  On Monday, I project a timer and each student races to finish the whole page.  After they finish, they record on the calendar how long it took them.  Their goal for the next day is to beat their time.  My students practice Monday-Thursday and Friday is the day to try to beat the clock and I actually check their multiplication fluency.  They take out the paper from the sheet protector, use a pencil and I give them a 1:30 to complete 36 problems.  I try to be very paper light in my class, so this is a perfect way to reduce the amount of paper waste in my class.

I also thought it was going to be difficult to manage all the of the papers and scoring of the tests. What I do to stream line the process, only the kiddos that have 100% filled out their test hand me their test.  The students that need more time to practice that specific fact are handed out what paper they need and they automatically put in their sheet protector.  I have my students AR read as I correct their tests.  I use Class Dojo in my class and I made these fun trackers for my bulletin board. (Get them FREE below)  When a student receives 100% on their test, I hand back their test with their "new" level and tell them they get to level up.  They get to move the clothespin up to the next fact they will be working on. They think it is so cool to "level up"!

THIS HAS BEEN SO SUCCESSFUL IN MY CLASS!!!!!!

I am doing a Blog Hop with some amazing teachers and I am sharing my letter that I send out to parents and my Class Dojo set that I made!

And go check out an awesome FREEBIE from The Whole Wheat Class! And all the other Bloggers!

Currently

I thought I would join in on the fun and do the latest Currently....

Listening: My windows are all open and enjoying the sound of the whole house fan bring in nice cool air!

Loving: I have now been back in my classroom for three weeks since November after I broke my leg and ankle. I love that I am able to get around, drive and walk with an epic pimp limp.

Thinking: I had extreme cabin fever when I wasn't able to get out of my house... so I want to feel my summer days with fun adventures!

Wanting: I have way too many cute shoes to wear but I have to wear these orthotics and tennis shoes for support... one day soon!

Needing: It's hard to find a good gym with a nice pool to swim laps in!

SUMMER: Oh...yes! I have tons of plans to fill my summer days!

Go link up with Farley and tell the blogging world what you are CURRENTLY doing... :) 

Guest Blogger

Good day to you!  I am Sarah from Kovescence of the Mind.  

I feel so honored to be a guest blogger on Tales of Teaching with Tech. Sarah and I were  paired up as SLANT partners  a few months back.   Being paired up again allowed us to bypass the introductory part of being a SLANT partner and gave us the chance to dive into something new.  With that being said, we decided to collaborate on a giveaway and guest post for each other's readers.

I am one of the assistant tech directors in my district in addition to teaching high school full time.  I currently teach AP Psychology, AP Literature and Composition, English 11, and Civics.  It keeps me pretty busy, which is why I am always looking for easy and free things to do with my students.

Do you know about Learn 2 Earn?

This is a free website for teachers to manage student reading.  Now you can pay for a subscription, but it has LOTS of basic features in the free version.  Also, if you want to pay and use it as a fundraiser, you, your PTO, or your school can do that to.  I am just going to talk about the the teacher side of things.

The first thing you have to do is create an account.  They give you a demo class, so you can play with the features before putting your own students into the program.  When you input students, you can put parent emails in as well, so they can check on their students.  It also creates a student log in and password, which is what your students use to log in and update their information.  Parents can get a weekly update in their email or log in to check the status of their student's reading.

Once student have their accounts, they can log in, search for the book they are reading, and log their minutes.  This is all done right on the computer with no paper for the teacher to handle.

After a student submits his or her minutes of reading, the program asks them to answer a reading question about the text that they have read.  There is a bank of questions, so students have different option every time.  They can also choose the category, which is a great differentiation technique.

Students earn coins for submitting minutes and answers...who doesn't adore virtual money???

Responses are published to the class, so others can join in the conversation and like what each other has written on the book they are currently reading.  I am infatuated with anything that builds a community of readers.

I, as the teacher, get to see the student responses in my news feed and grade them on the 1-2-3-4 Rubric.  With the paid version, or by referring other teachers and organizations, you can customize and add your own prompts to the response bank.

One of my favorite parts about this site is that it gives me reading data on my class as whole and on student individually.  Now I can talk with the students and parents about the reading the students are doing.

What are you waiting for?  Go create an account NOW at Learn 2 Earn.

Also, in honor of our double SLANT box match, Sarah and I are doing a great giveaway, so be sure to enter today.  Also, swing by my blog Kovescence of the Mind to see Sarah's post.

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March Blogger Match-Up

I will be the first to say... that I do not watch organized sports.  So when I signed up for the March Blogger Match-Up, I literally had to Google the college that I am paired with. I now can say (proudly) that Wofford College is in South Carolina. Please cross your fingers because they play tonight against Arkansas.  Go check out all the awesome teacher bloggers that are participating in the Blogger Match-Up at The Creative Classroom.

Enter to win my newest TPT product!!! 

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