School and the City

Inspired by Bethany, from  Teaching and So Fourth , and Hope King ,  I decided to write a song for my students to get them pumped up about one of the hardest second grade math standards: REGROUPING! Click here to download the lyrics. Click here for the music I use (on YouTube).  Enjoy!

I mean, just look at how beautiful that thing is. It reminds me of school and lesson planning and grading and organizing data, yet I STILL think it's gorgeous.  This is my first year using an Erin Condren planner. I contemplated it for a few years, and I am so glad I finally took the plunge. When our teacher planners came in, some teacher friends and I had a planner party during which we stuck all of our stickers and filled in our schedules, dates, etc. It was SO colorful and so much fun!  Now that I've been using my first Erin Condren teacher planner for four months, I am prepared to share with you  8 reasons why I love my teacher planner. 1. DATES TO REMEMBER Honestly, I used to Google "Veterans Day 2016" and the like all the time... How nice it is to have all of this information in one place at the front of my planner.  It even includes other dates that teachers might want to know, like Friendship Day and Johnny Appleseed's bir...

INTRODUCING.... I wanted to share these puzzles with you because I use them in my classroom DAILY and my students love them! Whenever I introduce a new grammar concept, the corresponding puzzle is added to the puzzle box. I love using grammar puzzles because... it's a hands-on way for students to practice grammar. students can self-monitor . Each puzzle piece only has one match! students can work independently or with a partner. differentiation is easy. they'll last for years! Make the puzzles easier for your students by printing each page on a different color. For example, students will know an orange piece will need an orange match. Make it more rigorous by printing all pages on the same color. The opportunities are endless! Here are just some of the grammar puzzles I offer in my TPT store : I also have synonyms , antonyms , homographs , homophones , collective nouns , and possessive nouns . More are to come! *        ...

Yesterday I posted an Instagram story about how I recorded myself reading one of our social studies readers to turn it into an option for my "Listen to Reading" Daily 5 center. I wanted to give my students more options during that station time, and I am always trying to integrate social studies and science into our literacy block!  I received so many questions about how I did it, so here's a detailed post to show you just how EASY it is!  I plan to make these for all of my social studies and science readers, but the options are truly endless. You can do this with any books or book sets that you have on hand in your classroom.  I used the Voice Memos app on my iPhone to record the book. It was very easy to trim and alter if needed, and the quality is good! Best of all, it's an app that's already on your iPhone so it's totally free! I recorded the entire book, then I recorded individual chapters, just to give my students options.  ...

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...