#TeacherTalkTuesday

Do you love instagram? I absolutely love it...I mean I am obsessed with it!! Originally, I just had a personal account, but I thought that starting a teacher account would allow me to share some snapshots from my teaching world.

Introducing @confessionsteachanista...I would love for you to become a follower (of course, I will return the favor)!!!

I love connecting with so many teacher friends through instagram and I have been so inspired by all of the cool shots I have seen so far!

What the Teacher Wants! and Apples and Abcs are starting a linky party for Instagram Teachers....

I love this idea and I am eager to start the sharing on Teacher Talk Tuesdays!!! 

To start the party our hostesses have asked us to share some of our favorite instagram pictures. While I don't have too many yet, these are a few of my favorite things...

#teachertableasadesk

#compareandcontrastfolkandfairytales

#organizinglogincards

If you don't have a teacher instagram account, please, pretty please, sign-up for one and if you do have an account, please join the party using the #teachertalktuesday

Pass the Torch Linky!!!

Get Ready for Bloggy Olympics!!!

Join The 3AM Teacher, the Reading Olympians, and over 80 SUPREME education bloggers as we take you through a tour of the Reading Olympians Root Study Program!!

Do you love the Olympics ! Most people who know me and my future hubster knows that we LOVE all thing sports and always look forward to the Olympics  So when Michelle at The 3AM Teacher and The Reading Olympians offered me the opportunity to participate. in the Reading Olympics, I immediately shouted "YES!" 

The Reading Olympians have developed a comprehensive vocabulary program and when I say comprehensive, I mean COMPREHENSIVE! Each pack is chock full of all the necessary materials needed to support your students as they learn more about roots and participate in your classroom Reading Olympics!! Yay!

So as I said to my students on Monday, as we began our very own Reading Olympics, let the games begin....

I began by organizing all of my materials and preparing for the week's lessons. 

Here are some of the materials included in the pack. The flash cards, raps/chants (students LOVE these), a graphic organizer journal, and a small poster chart with the Nike Root List. 

I met with my students at our whole-group meeting area to introduce the Reading Olympics and the Nike Roots that we would be working with that week. The students were so engaged in learning the word parts and students were constantly sharing words that they knew included those word parts. I LOVED their enthusiasm and it was so exciting for the students that it was difficult to move the lesson through! 

After introducing the Nike Roots that we would be interacting with that week, I gave students a basket of supplies. Students then began to make their own set of flash cards. One side of the card listed the Root Name and Root Definition. The other side of the card listed the Root Rap. 

Here you can see a completed set of flash cards. The students took these home in their Homework Folders and used these to complete an assignment that night. The students were required to study the roots with their parents and go searching for at least one word that contained the root. The students mentioned that they enjoyed doing the homework and that their parents were also engaged in the assignment. 

I absolutely love this shot. Students are working in their journals and I took this photo as they were having a deep discussion about the root fill-in-the-blank. Don't you love hearing your students argue their points?

Overall, I found The Reading Olympians pack amazing!! They included everything I needed in order to implement the program successfully and I saw positive results when I gave them their quiz yesterday -- let me just say that every student will be moving on to Poseidon Roots!

Discover the program IN ACTION in more K-6th grade classrooms as you Pass the Torch!! Get ideas, discover the progression of the program, and enter the Raffle for a chance to win ONE of the three prizes listed below!!

First Place Winner : Gold Medal

  Prizes: Complete Reading Olympians Program
            $50.00 Amazon Gift Card
            50% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Second Place Winner: Silver Medal

   Prizes: $25.00 Amazon Gift Card
              40% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Third Place Winner: Bronze Medal

    Prizes: 30% off Discount Code for a 1-Day shopping spree at The 3AM Teacher's Etsy store!

Pass the Torch!!!
Click the image below to visit the next blog

Kindergarten:



Grade 1 & 2






Grade 3 & 4






Grade 5 & 6


    a Rafflecopter giveaway

Let the games begin!!

Latoya Reed from Flying into First Grade is hosting her weekly "Let's Get Aquainted Linky Party" -- I love learning more about all the amazing bloggers I follow!!

This week, the theme is A Noun Game. I'm always up for a good game, so let the games begin!!

Favorite Person:

I absolutely adore my Future Mister!!! If you have been following me for a little while, you know that the wedding bells will be ringing this summer!! Based on all the exclamation points, I bet you can imagine how excited I am!!

I have been with this amazing man for 5 years and I feel soo lucky!!  I must admit I am extremely spoiled by him and I can't wait to become his Mrs. <3

And seeing that I can never just narrow it down to one -- I had to include this beautiful little girl. This is one of my nieces and she is just darling!! She has such a personality and I always look forward to our days together!

Favorite Place:

Colorado!! I was born and raised in CO!! My sister, nieces and dad still live out there, which always gives me an excuse to go back to the place that holds my heart!! There was something about those beautiful mountains and bright sunshine I can't resist


Favorite Thing:

Anyone who knows me or my future husband (love the sound of that) knows that they can find us watching football on Sundays!! We are beyond obsessed with football! He is diehard Cowboys fan and I admittedly am a diehard Denver Broncos fan!!  However, I must admit, our house may not always  be the best place to be on a Sunday, especially if our teams have lost! :) Football is in my blood and there is nothing like a soup cooking in the Crockpot with a good game on T.V.

Favorite Animal:

I have LOVED dogs since my beautiful brownie girl joined my household as a little girl. My girl has since passed, but I have a wonderful, crazy, infuriating, heart-warming companion to keep me company!! Introducing Elvis...one thing you must know about Elvis is that he loves to be comfortable and preferably would like a pillow!! Ahh, I just love this guy!




 And there you have it, I hope you have enjoyed learning a little more about me!!

What are your favorites?

Five for Friday!!!

 

Phew!! What a week?! I have been totally absent from the blogging world this week. I'm always wedding planning (this is never ending), I have begun my LAST (yay!!!) 2 courses so I can graduate with my Masters in Special Education, and I have been juggling report cards, staff meetings, contract negotiations, etc. So needless to say, my poor blog was cast to the side. 

Enough ranting, on to my week, I am so excited to share 5 random tidbits and to be linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

1. My cuties have been learning about the Southeast Region of the United States. This week they have been working on their Southeast Region centers (part of my Southeast Region Unit). They travel from the memory game station, to the computer station where they play States and Capitals game (the link will take you to my website with the game links), and the map station.

2. After school (as my fellow teacher bloggers know, school doesn't end at 3), on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have been tutoring this little cutie. She is having difficulty with learning her phonics and sight words, so I have been using a great program to support her needs. The program is quick, mapped out, comes with some of the materials, and its FREE, what more can I say! Since I have begun using this program with her, I have seen a tremendous turn around in her spelling and DIBELS scores. It may not be for everyone, but my cutie and I both love it! 

3. I love being a teacher, but I have NEVER loved giving spelling tests. It can be difficult to give spelling tests when you are trying to balance 3-5 differentiated spelling lists. So this year, I have started using Spelling City to give my students their spelling tests. I love that every child can work at their own pace, listen to the words as many times as they need, and that I get a print-out immediately following their completion with their scores and mistakes. I will NEVER go back to doing spelling tests the old way!

4. This week, I finished my newest font Teachanista Chalk. I love it! If you love it too, feel free to download it for FREE! As always, I give you permission to use it for personal or commercial use, but please link back to my blog with credit.

5. While I currently live in VT, my heart is always in Colorado. Its where I was born and raised. Luckily, I get to make many trips out, since my Dad, Sister, and nieces live out there still. This week, my mom and gram traveled to visit with my sister and nieces. As many of you know, I'm getting married this summer and my mom and gram decided to use their trip to take my youngest niece flower girl dress shopping. This was the picture they sent to me!! She is absolutely adorable and I admittedly teared up when I saw this. Can't wait to celebrate with such a beautiful sweet little girl...I'm soo lucky!!

Freebie Font Frenzy

Okay, Okay, its not really a Frenzy, but it's the beginning of one. A few days ago, I finally ordered some stylus pens for my iPad and they arrived in the mail (during yesterday's snow day), just in time for me to begin creating my own fonts.

They are FREE...I only ask that you comment below with your thoughts!! I'm in LOVE with them and I hope you love them, too!

Paperless Planning

This year, I have worked to reduce the amount of paper I consume, as well as maintain. This especially changed when I continued to see mounds and mounds of paperwork. Also, I hated lugging giant binders between school and home. After the first month or two, I decided to find more ways to go paperless...introducing PLANBOOK APP.

My amazing (seriously amazing) fiance gifted me an iPad after supporting him through his Lineman Apprenticeship. I CAN'T live without my iPad now! When I grew tired of the paperwork, I decided to find an app for planning. The Planbook App is fantastic. One of the best features is that once you purchase the app and software, you have the planbook forever. I like that I do not have to continue to renew a subscription. Another fantastic feature is that you can purchase the app, as well as the computer software, so that you can use your home computer to plan and then access it through your iPad at school. This is a bonus for those of you, who are like me, and prefer to use a laptop or desktop for planning.

Are you looking for a way to go paperless? This app might just be for you. 

Here are some iPad screen shots and iMac screen shots (Yes, I am part of a MAC household):

iPad Screen Shots

These 3 shots show the week view and each lesson's contents. 

 These shots show the day view.

 In the settings, you can change your schedule and times.

This screen shot is what you see when you open the iPad app and you can link the file to your DropBox so you can sync your Planbook between devices.

 iMac Screen Shots

 These shots show the week and day view. The left side allows you display all of the classes or just some of them. The right side allows you to add your plans, homework, materials, assignments, stations, centers, links, files, etc.

 This is the month view (I rarely use it)

 If you need to share your plans with your principal, you can print your lesson plans and the components that need to be displayed.

 Sorry for the long post, but when I find something that may be useful for my teacher friends, I just have to share!! Stay tuned for a Planbook tutorial.

What technology tools do you use for planning?