Managing Attendance and Lunch Choices

Happy Friday!  To celebrate the upcoming weekend I wanted to share an easy management tip.  Here is an efficient and CUTE way, if I do say so myself, to keep track of daily attendance and student lunch choices.

At the beginning of the year, my students colored superhero avatars and labeled them with their names.  Then, I laminated each avatar and attached magnets to the back. The avatars can be found in my TPT store HERE.   

How It Works

At the end of each school day, I place avatars on one of the student's chair legs and in the morning students place them on the lunch count board under their chosen lunch choice!  This helps me know what each student is having for lunch that day and counts as an attendance freebie too!  

This has become apart of our morning routine and it makes taking attendance and lunch count easy peasy (as my students would say)!  I hope you enjoyed this little management tip and if you haven't incorporated it....DO IT!  

Have a  great weekend :).  

Student Generated Alphabet

Happy Friday y'all!  We just finished our 5th week of school and I am LOVING my class this year.  So first, I have 15 students....YES, 15 students in my class and I got the cream of the crop, no joke! They are such curious little learners and have been eating up all that I am teaching. One of their most favorite things that we have done so far this year is our student generated alphabet.  

Over the summer as I was reading my favorite blog (stepintosecondgrade), or should I say STALKING it, I came across the idea of a student generated alphabet.  HELLO, can I just say GENIUS!  For the past 7 years I have used the same store bought alphabet that hangs on one of my walls for students to refer to, and it has been fine, but I was ready for something new!  #FRESH 

Amy Lemons (cue the angelic music) has had her students create their own alphabet for years, YEARS people!  Her alphabet and information on how she does it can be found by clicking HERE.  So, this was the year I decided to change and MAN am I glad I did.  

Here are the steps we took to create our alphabet:

Here are some pictures of my favorite letters:

#theclassic: APPLE

#starwars: Lightsaber

#current: Minecraft 

#creative: Pixels Movie

#myfavorite: Quail

#aquatic: Octopus 

#ownership: Student Generated Alphabet 

At the unveiling, my students LOVED seeing their ideas up on the wall.  Doing this student generated alphabet created ownership, helped build our classroom community, and brightened up our walls!  Thank you Amy Lemons for your amazing ideas (that I steal often).  

I will be doing this again next year!  

Lesson Planning

Oh the dreaded lesson plans!  We all have to do them but we DON'T have to like them, do we?  Lesson planning has become a part of my teaching routine over the last eight years.  Every Sunday, I sit down to write out all of my plans, even though I pretty much know what I am going to do each week.  I'll admit it does help me stay organized throughout the week...just don't tell my principal that! 

Over the last few years I have tried different lesson plan methods.  I've tried writing them out using a fancy lesson plan book, creating visual plans, or typing them out on a word or excel spreadsheet.  Each of those ways worked, but I didn't find my TRUE lesson plan groove until I found.... PLANBOOK.COM. Cue the music and the heavens opening up, ahhhhhhh!  

Planbook.com forever changed the way I planned my weekly lessons.  From its color-coded classes to the learning standards drop down menu, I was SOLD!  I started out using the free, yes free, month trial plan and I was hooked after the first week.  It was easy to navigate and it helped that there were a ton (still are) youtube tutorials on how to set-up your plans and get started.    

Here is a picture of my weekly lesson plans from last week, (morning work and Literacy) looks like a ton, right?  Organized? Neat? Well-planed?  Yup!  

Trust me, once you start you won't go back to anything else!  After your free trial it is just $12.00 a year.  The coolest part....it saves your lesson plans year after year.  You can print them, store them digitally, and share them with others.  With all that is expected of us on a daily basis, lesson planning should be painless and easy!  Give it a try....you know you want to :). 

Meet the Teacher

Nailed it!  My Meet the Teacher morning was a success and I survived the first two days of school, thankfully!  Here is a peek at my room for Meet the Teacher:

As parents and students walked in I welcomed them and introduced myself.  Then, I directed them to my WELCOME table!  This year, I decided to create stations for parents and students to follow.  It was one of the BEST decisions ever!  Each family grabbed a checklist and were told to visit each station.  My new kiddos were excited to check things off their list :). #checklist  

All of the station headers can be found in my TPT store here and they are editable too!  

My parents LOOOOOVED this!  I had my laptop out with a google docs page where parents could add their emails and contact information.  Parents thought this was a FAB idea :) #parentpoints

Station #2 was all about CLASS DOJO!  At this station I had folders with students names and inside were the sign-up instructions for Class Dojo.  My parents were really impressed with this and some of them signed up that morning :).  #parentcommunication

Station #3 was all about parent volunteers! Some of my parents sat and filled out forms, while others picked up the papers and took it home with them :).  Both ways worked out great!  I had 9 parents (out of 16) sign up to volunteer in my class...that's a RECORD!! #parentvolunteers

My students thought this station was pretty AWESOME!  They giggled as they read some of my favorites and some of them couldn't believe that my favorite hobby was reading!  This little sheet opened up a lot of conversation with my students and parents :).  #Allaboutme

This station was a HIT!  I got the idea after attending my teacher bestie's wedding this summer :).  I got these AMAZING Photo Booth props from Hope Kings superhero pack which can be found here! This was super simple to set-up.  Here are the steps:

*Create a background.  I did this with wrapping paper.  I hung up some red wrapping paper that I bought from Walmart.  

*Print out photo booth props that match your theme!  

*Set-up some sort of camera area.  I used my iPad and I propped it up on some boxes that are covered with superhero fabric.  

*Use a selfie clicker that allows parents/students to manage the photo booth themselves.  I used a device called TheSelfie that can be found on Amazon here.  #selfietime

On student desks I left a little postcard and treat!  These are also apart of the Hope King superhero unit :).  My kiddos thought these were pretty cool.  I think I earned some street cred with them :).  #superheroswag

My families LOVED our Meet the Teacher and I did too!  Stations saved me and really kept parents/students moving!  I hope you all have a great Meet the Teacher or Open House too!  Stay tuned for my classroom reveal in a couple of days!!

iTunes U Course

Man, this summer is just flying by!  So many teachers, including myself, have so many projects or PD that they are doing over the summer, which means we never truly go on "vacation".  I have been super busy this summer working with my school district on publishing PD courses for teachers in iTunes U.  The whole process has been challenging, eye-opening, fun, and rewarding.

The goal for the iTunes U courses are to give teachers in our district different examples on how to incorporate technology into their classrooms.  Each course is filled with lesson plans, student exemplars, testimonials, and more!  So far, our district has published a handful of courses, but the plan is to have around 70 before the start of the new school year.  This, to me, is such an AMAZING thing because teachers are sharing and collaborating with one another at a district level.

My course is pretty fabulous and it focuses on assessment.  Have you heard of the online assessment tool called Kahoot?  Well, if you haven't it is pretty amazing!  Teachers are constantly assessing their students.  In this "data driven" day and age, teachers are looking for instant feedback to drive there instruction and make their lessons more meaningful.  However, we all know that assessments can be daunting and overwhelming to students.  Kahoot makes assessing students more fun!  It is a student response system for creating and administering game-like quizzes.

Kahoot has a ton to offer and because of this my course focuses on a few smaller components.  The components that are covered in my course are: ways to access resources available through the Kahoot website, using Kahoot to assess sight words in a kindergarten classroom, and incorporating Kahoot in a collaborative assessment setting.

Here is a SNEAK PEEK of my class playing a collaborative Kahoot with another class in our district!

Check out my course and share with friends!!  Here is the link:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/course/online-assessment-tool-kahoot/id1017904773

Also, visit the Kahoot website for more information @ getkahoot.com

The Periscope Craze

There is a PERISCOPE craze going on!  Periscope is an online LIVE broadcasting system that a ton of teachers have hopped onto!  What are teachers talking about?  Some teachers are talking about the following:

• Lesson ideas
• Classroom themes
• Get to know you sessions
• Periscope tips
• Blog and teaching tips
• Store Hauls--like Target, Walmart, and more!
• Q & A Sessions

The list of ideas goes on and on!  I am LOVIN' Periscope!  If you are a teacher and aren't on yet, you need to be.  I jumped on the bandwagon and started 'scoping' too.  At first, I was a little nervous and the camera was even shaking, but, as time went on, I started to become more comfortable in front of the camera and even started to get some followers.  I appreciate those of you who are following me and who are consistently coming to my chat sessions!  

In the spirit of Sheila Jane Teaching's link up I am going to share with you three people that I follow on Periscope.  These people are some of my favorite ones to follow because they post things that I can relate to.  Here they are:

Second Grade Sizzle is part of the #secondgradetribe and she is doing AMAZING things on Periscope!  She has started something called Tech Tips Tuesday and will be sharing different techie tips with all of you.  Today, she did a broadcast on APP smashing.  I loved it!  

Blog: http://sellingthesizzle42.blogspot.com

TCHR888 is a kindergarten teacher in my home state of NM!  #NMblogger  She has been doing some really cool broadcasts on kinder reading strategies and website finds.  If you haven't checked her out, especially if you teach kinder, you need to do it now!

Blog: http://tchr888mrsbryant.blogspot.com

Suzy was one of the first to hop onto Periscope!  She was doing some broadcasts live from the TPT conference in Vegas just last week.  She has a FABULOUS TPT store and I know that her broadcasts will be great!  

Blog: http://onthegoteachermama.blogspot.com

So, there you have it!  Periscope is THE BOMB!  I am slightly addicted and it is starting to take over my life.  If you haven't checked out some of my broadcasts please do.  I usually do one each day.  

Periscope tip for new watchers: Broadcasts are only LIVE for 24 hours, which means you need to watch the broadcast within 24 hours from when it was completed in order to view it.  

Five for Friday

Man, this week has flown by!  To end the week, I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly link up called Five for Friday.  I'm kind of excited about this because I always see my favorite bloggers participating, so I'm happy to join in on the fun.  

 

#1--This week has been all about swim lessons!  Both of my kiddos are getting in some extra swim time at our local high school this summer.  My son is learning a lot about swim technique and the different types of strokes, where my daughter is learning how to swim through the water without floaties :).  They are both doing a great job and I am lucky that they love the water! The picture below is of them swimming in my grandfather's pool!  

#2--My kiddos have been dying to see the new Minion movie, and even though I'm not a huge minion fan, I gave in and took them to see it!  What is summer for, right?  To my surprise, it was really cute and my kiddos enjoyed watching it.  My daughter was so excited she kept randomly blurting out, "BAAAANNNNAA," in her best minion voice.  Four year-olds are entertaining!  

 

#3--One of my sweet cousins got married on Wednesday and we were so happy to be invited to join in on their special day.  It is always so much fun when my family can get together and celebrate special occasions such as this.  I can remember when I used to watch my cousin when he was little, and now he is married!  Geez, time sure does fly by doesn't it?  The picture below is of my daughter and my niece searching for Rollie Pollies during the "first dance".  They had a blast.  

  

#4--I am super jazzed because I participated in my first ever TWITTER educational chat yesterday.  The chat was #whatisschool and we talked a lot about innovative teaching.  A lot of the questions asked us to define innovation, describe our challenges, and discuss our rewards when being innovative.  One of my favorite photos from the chat session is posted below.  This is how I feel about teaching :).  I'm a risk-taker, I embrace the messy parts of teaching, and I'm not afraid to be different.  

 

#5--I am starting to have teacher nightmares!  Do you ever get those before you have to go back to school?  You know the ones where you have no idea what you are doing or all of your students cry on the first day?  Well...I've been having them!  I still have four weeks left of summer and I am having back to school nightmares!  What is going on?  What are some of you back to school or teacher nightmares?  

Well, that's my Five for Friday randomness!  Be on the lookout for a new blog post about my new iTunes U course :).  Also, if you are new to my blog stop by my Facebook page too by clicking my button on the top right corner of my page!  Have a  great weekend!