School and the City

Recently I posted this photo to my Instagram : It's a close up of my data wall that I'm trying for the first time this year, and many of my followers wanted to know more, so here you go! My administration is really pushing for data meetings, data-driven instruction, and data tracking by students and teachers. (I'm sure your is, too.) Although I know data is extremely important, it can be a lot to manage. The data poster that I'm trying this year was simple to make, and will hopefully be beneficial to both me and my kiddos. I got this idea from my team leader. I take no credit for her brilliance! First, I printed reports (STAR scores) that ranked my students based on state standards. STAR provides like a million types of reports, but standards are the easiest to organize. There are 9 big math standards for 2nd grade, and then we chose the 9 ELA standards that we spend the most time on throughout the year. (This is because 23 standards is too much to chart,...

Work smarter, not harder. That's the goal this year. I have to admit, job charts are just too much for me. I used to have a chart where each student had a clothespin with his/her name on it. Every two weeks I had to rotate the clothespins to new places. Sounds simple right? Well, some jobs needed 1 person while others needed 3. Bathroom monitors required one boy and one girl. Some jobs were only for trustworthy and responsible students, while others were for efficient students that wouldn't forget. I would spend at least 15 minutes every other week trying to reassign jobs fairly. It was just TOO MUCH. I didn't want to deal with it on top of everything else a teacher has to deal with. This summer I knew I needed a solution to my problem. I did some research, where I found the idea of collaborative or team jobs in the classroom. I liked the idea of students working together and collaboratively towards a goal. It would mean that all jobs would get done every...

Hey, friends! Back to school has gotten the best of me, as usual, but I'm glad to finally share this year's classroom with you. Life would be so grand if we all worked on the same hallway, but I am happy to virtually share with you my classroom reveal along with Theresa ( True Life I'm a Teacher ), Chandra ( Teaching With Crayons and Curls ), and Erin ( The Elementary Darling ). This year, I had more time to set up my room. Also, I had alllll year last year to think of ways to tweak my space! I'm much happier in my room already this year. I fully believe that I need to be happy in my space - my second home - to be the best teacher I can be. CHEVRON LETTERS I was totally inspired by Theresa to add some giant lettering to my wall. I don't have a Cricut { yet } so I printed these and cut them out by hand! I love how they look with my tassels from Target. Want this "Work Hard. Be Kind. Have Fun." printable?! This resource is now avai...

I DID IT! I survived the first week of second grade, again! It was actually probably my best first week yet! I spent lots of time at the end of the year preparing for back to school. Opening my Back to School box was such a relief, because so much work was already done! Of course, those are the perks of staying at the same school and teaching the same grade level in the same room. Life doesn't always work out that nicely. But as for this year, it was wonderful! We started off the year with First Year Jitters and "jitter juice." I know this is a popular first day activity, but I had never done with before. After researching "jitter juice" recipes, I ended up going with knock-off Sprite and rainbow sprinkles. Although I loved the sprinkles, next year I plan to add some color somehow, probably by mixing in a little punch. I continued to use First Day Jitters as a mentor text all week, because I am trying Jivey's mentor sentences this year Ano...

It's about that time. My Sneak Peek (or Meet the Teacher, whatever you want to call it) is on THURSDAY MORNING. Eeeek! I truly cannot believe that it is already time to meet my next batch of babies. I can't wait, but I'm also on edge! What a crazy time of year this is, filled with so many emotions! At my school, we are encouraged to have treats at Sneak Peek for students to take home with them. I prefer to do treats that are practical and not annoying, that was parents don't immediately hate me, and affordable for me! The past few years I have done Goldfish with a cute tag glued onto them. This year I decided to be a little more exciting and I bought the RAINBOW goldfish instead of the original orange Goldfish. Crazy, I know! You can download the printable card f or FREE! They are available for grades K - 6. Print the ones you need, and sign your name on the bottom. Buy some boxes of Goldfish, and ta-da! Join my list & I'll send the...

**This post contains Amazon affiliate links .** My team is AWESOME, y'all. I am so unbelievably lucky to work with them, honestly! So like so many of us do, I wanted to give each of my teammates a small back-to-school gift. Well, this idea stemmed from necessity. Our doors are HEAVY, the cheap plastic door stops don't work, and apparently decent door stops disappear in the night. We are all running out of wooden triangular prisms to steal from our geometry kits. So I decided to give my sweet coworkers a gift that is cute AND practical. I took to Amazon and chose  these door stops because they are white and the sides are smooth - perfect for decorating! They come in packs of two and the price is reasonable, I think! But you can also buy door stops at the Dollar Tree and hardware stores.   Next I bought some  Sharpie paint markers . I bought the pack with basic colors because I wanted to match our school's colors, but I love the neon pack , too! ...