Bittersweet, Awkward, and Gratitude!

Well, the year is over and we all finally have a chance to breathe, relax, and reflect on our students and our teaching.  With my new position in a new district next year, it was definitely a bittersweet week.

 I have had a student all year who randomly says "awkward" during the middle of a lesson.  Nearly every time it doesn't fit the situation, but it is kind of funny.  Anyway, on the last day of school I started to tell them how great they were, how lucky I was, and that I would never forget them.  As I am talking, I start crying and the kids get all weird.  Right in the middle of me crying, this boy says "awkward".  It was perfect!  At that moment I knew I had taught at least one kid something.  He finally mastered what was truly "awkward".  **Proud teaching moment!** Haha.

At the start of this week, my classroom was still intact and looked similar to these two pictures.  Knowing I was leaving, I had a lot TREMENDOUS amount of work to do to clean out my room, cabinets, classroom library, and all of the other crap I had accumulated for "someday" activities and time.  I knew I was just putting off the inevitable...

So after spending Memorial Day in the room, dragging my mom in all day on Wednesday, and loading up her van, and my car, twice, my room finally looks like this.  I must say walking out this evening was  sad.  The teaching profession is all about creating a safe, learning environment that encourages collaboration, critical thinking, and well rounded students.  To be honest, all I could do was cry when I looked back and this was all I could see of my last 5 years in this school.  

 I walked out, said good bye to The Riley Ranch (or what once was), and looked on to the great new beginning that will be!

And for the gratitude.  The teachers and staff I work with are the most amazing individuals I have ever met.  They have pushed me professionally, allowed me to pick their brains constantly, let me make crazy mistakes, made me laugh, made me cry, and most of all made me a better person.  I have the utmost gratitude for all of them, and would not be the teacher I am today without all of them.

And to top it off, they nominated me for Teacher of the Year this year!  Crazy, right?  Right!  Do they even know how much I have learned from them!? Boy I hope so!  

Blogging Recess, Indy 500, Mickey Mouse Countdown, Wax Museum

Okay, so I haven't posted in over 2 weeks and I'm calling it my long term blogging recess.  Yes, you can yell at me now!  Here are my excuses...interviewed for and accepted a new position in a new district (Yippee!!!), went to Florida for a wedding, interviewing 18 candidates for positions for next year, meeting the staff at my new building for next year, having a new puppy, new puppy having a parasite and worms, old pup getting the parasite and an eye infection, a field trip, and acting like a first year teacher just trying to keep my head above water! Whew!  I'm worn out just rehashing all of that.

I do have some exciting things to share with you all though!  First, the month of May is a racing craze in Indianapolis with the Indy 500.  We started our celebration with our racing Mickey Mouse who introduced our "Racing to the End" countdown!  Each day this little Mickey delivers a note to a student desk or cubby to introduce the next day's activity.  The activities range from relay races to pajama day to an all grade level read where they get to go read in another 2nd grade classroom of their choice.

Here is Mickey waving the checkered flag for our relay races!  He was our turn around point on the hill!

Did I tell you we had an Indy 500 Princess come visit us!  She shared a book about racing and gave all of us racing flags!  We loved her, and thought it was really cool that she used to go to school at the same place we do!  Here is copy of the letter they received after the princess came.  You can click on the letter to link to the PDF with all of my letters so you can create your own ideas from those!

Release of the Butterflies!

So our adventure with our butterflies had to come to a close as we let them out by our nature center.  I thought this picture was hilarious because they were so distraught about releasing them!  This pretty much summed up their thoughts of this activity...haha.  

Finally, we had our Wax Museum!  Here we have Tony Hawk and Helen Keller.  Helen decided that since she was deaf, blind, and mute she would have her friend record her speech on an iPod and present her speech that way!  I love the creativity they come up with.  Although I didn't make them memorize their speeches, it was a great experience for them to research about a person, practice point of view, and work on their presentation skills.  The day we shared with the other 2nd graders, it was beautiful outside, so we set up our locations and shared about our lives.  It was a really fun activity for the end of the school year.

Cheers to only have 5 more school days left, and to not waiting 2 weeks to post again!  For all of you on the homestretch, enjoy the last days with your students and remind them how great they will be!

Giveaway Winner, Weather Unit, and a Confessional!

Congratulations to Krista on winning the grand giveaway!  I will contact you with further information about obtaining all of the goods!  

Weather Madness

We wrapped up our weather unit last week, and it was a great week for it!  The temperatures were warm and there were various weather related alerts.  To record the highs and lows we watched the video on our local tv station's webpage.  They LOVED watching this, and it brought up a lot of other things about the weather too. We have been filling out our Weather Super Files for the past few weeks, and we wrapped it up by finishing our graphs on Friday. 

With our Weather Test on Wednesday, the students used their Super Files to quiz each other today before taking them home as their study guides.  As teachers we always say, "Don't forget to study," but we often forget to teach them how to study.  The kids had so much fun quizzing each other, and they learned a lot along the way.  We'll see if it pays off on Wednesday (fingers crossed)!

If you want to snag a copy of my Weather Super File Unit, it's on sale right now!  Grab a copy for yourself, and join in on the fun!

Confessional

Okay, I am now in my 5th year of teaching and I have never done a life cycle unit with my students!  I know, I know, some of you are saying where do you teach?  How do you still have a job? What were you thinking?  Shame on me...I'm aware now!

Teaching 3rd grade, we didn't really cover the life cycle of animals, but I feel like I have let my students down!  I can't believe I never made this a priority!  I'm sure many of you have done butterflies, frogs, or chicks, but I have had a BLAST watching the changes.  The best part, though, happened today.  The butterflies started emerging from their chrysalis and they were in awe!  I even had kids donating their oranges from their lunches to feed them.  I guess this is the best part of teaching...you never know what a change in your curriculum/grade can offer!  It was a great day on the Riley Ranch! 

 A little extra tidbit. This weekend we headed to Nashville, TN for my sorority sister's wedding and it was Gorgeous!!  I mean I couldn't get over it, and unfortunately pictures don't do it justice.  It was all outdoors on an old plantation with a big red barn, chandeliers, and these hanging Ball Jars with tea lights on all of the trees.  The ambience was beautiful, so I had to share a snip it!

4 Teacher Appreciation Specials!

The best part of Teacher Appreciation Week is celebrating those we work with, AND it comes near the end of the school year!  The end is in sight!  To celebrate, I have several things for you!

1. My TpT Store is 20% off through Tuesday to go along with TpT's 10% off sale when you enter the code: TAD12.  When combined, that's 28% off!  Merry Christmas in May!

Thanks Erica for the image!

2. Last day for my GIVEAWAY!!  3 easy ways to enter for 3 things worth a total of $82!  A 12-month subscription to Sumdog, 12-month subscription to Runner's World Magazine, and $10 at my TpT store that will go even further with the sale!  Click here for your chance to win!!  Start your Teacher Appreciation Week off by being the big winner!  

3. Lastly is the Freebie I shared last week to celebrate the teachers you work with!  Easy labels to put on candy, drinks, or flowers for the people you appreciate the most in your building! Find them at my TpT store by clicking on the picture below.

4. My Teacher's Notebook store is 40% off right now, and they are having a HUGE $100 giveaway each day to spend on items! Can you believe that!?  Click on the image below to get my items 40% off and check out all of the other great sales!

I hope you all have a wonderful week full of surprises from your students, colleagues, and families!!  YOU ALL DESERVE IT! 

May Currently, Giveaway Reminder, and New Puppy!

Good evening!  It's a crazy night here, but I thought I drop in with a few quick things!

First, it's Farley's May Currently Linky Party!  I love the pageant title at the bottom.  It's a great way to dream at the end of the school year.  Link up to see what our other genius teacher friends are up to!

Giveaway Reminder!!!!

Next up is my reminder about the giveaway that ends on Sunday!  A 12 month subscription to the math website and data analysis amazingness at Sumdog.com, a 12 month subscription to Runner's World Magazine, and $10 to spend at my TpT Store!  Yes, $85.00 in giveaways!!!  Click here for the post and to enter for all of the GREATNESS!

New Running Buddy! Meet: Addie!

The Mr. called me at school the other day and said he had found a white german shepard and he really, absolutely had to have the cutest little thing on the planet!  I went home, met her, and now we're a family of 4!  

She is so playful, and then wipes out cold!  Love her to pieces, and can't wait for her to build her stamina for a good run! 

I hope you all have a LOVELY Friday, and a wonderful weekend!  We'll be in puppy world!

Sumdog and My First Giveaway!

Our 2nd graders have been OBSESSED with a website over the last few weeks, and I have to share it with you!  Our principal first sent out an email about a math website having a contest for Indiana students and it was free.  We decided it would be a great way to practice our skills and have fun, so we hopped on board...and boy are we glad we did!

The website is called Sumdog, and the games are all FREE!!  There are 20 different games for the kids to pick from and there are 10 levels of skills.  As the teacher, you can pick specific skills or levels or just have them pick what they want.

The kids have taken off and are playing at home, and beg to play at school!  Did I mention the games are FREE!?!?!  There is a teacher fee only if you want reports based on your students' progress and responses to questions.  Below are some of the reports you can see once you are registered.

This is the report for this child's Strongest Skills. This one only shows what they have done this week (It's only Monday...cut the girl some slack! Haha)

This chart shows their weakest skills based on accuracy.   

You can disaggregate the data based on what you need on this drop down menu too!

Here is what you see once they have completed some games!  I love that it shows you the table of what is mastered, fast and accurate, accurate, etc.  What a terrific resource for helping parents see their child's progress!!

Motivation for the students is that it is game oriented, they get points for each game, and they also earn coins to upgrade their profile and add clothes to their avatar. As they earn points they are also able to earn "animal" status that depends on their point balance.  There are so many ways to keep them motivated!  

Motivation for the teachers is that they kids LOVE it!!  Also, they are able to do it at home and continue practicing their math skills beyond their classroom.  I also love that I can change the skills based on my students.  It is extremely easy to differentiate their skills on the program and add/subtract skills as needed.  The reports are also AMAZING for creating math groups.  I know many people are going toward the math workshop model, and this helps identify student strengths and weaknesses as you go through the classroom.  That data is great to see what they are capable of on the independent level!  I love it!

Okay....I know, I know!  I made you read A TON before The Giveway, but it is soooo worth it! 

3 Items for the Giveaway:

1. A FREE 1 year class subscription to Sumdog!

Yes, you heard me!  This is worth $60.  The wonderful people at Sumdog are giving this away.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!  I'm secretly jealous I can't win this now!

2. One Year Free Subscription to Runner's World Magazine!

This magazine has given me so many great pointers and motivation and has wonderful articles about working out and healthy lifestyles, that I had to share my love with others!

3. $10 at my TpT store!

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, come on over and shop for a bit!  Also, there will be up to 28% off next week to celebrate, so you can get 28% more!

Total Value: $82.00!!!!

3 Ways to Enter:

1. Follow my blog!

2. Click on the Sumdog link.  Check out the 20 games, and write a comment about which one you think your students would love the most!

3. Follow my TpT store.

Leave a comment for each entry with your email address included!  Giveaway ends on Sunday, May 6th!  Just in time for Teacher Appreciation Week!

Engineering is Elementary and Grant Writing!!

Good morning!  I have been wanting to share about our engineering units for quite some time, but was waiting to hear back on some news from a grant/scholarship that I wrote.  Now I get to share something you can use, and possibly GOOD NEWS with everyone!

First of all, a few years back 3 teachers in my building went to training for these engineering units.  They received a couple and while teaching 3rd grade, I joined in on the fun.  Let me just tell you, I LOVE these units.  They are all problem-based projects where students have to work together to determine the best way to design or create an object to solve the problem.

Below are some pictures from our Sailboats and Windmills projects where my students had to inquire about building blades that would rotate with the wind energy.   The wind comes from a box fan for consistency of test runs, and so that you aren't relying on your own weather, but they put their blades into a styrofoam ball, and then onto the juice carton (last picture).

There are tons of different units that you can check out at their website here that range from civil engineering to green engineering to aquatic engineering!

My students have always loved doing these units, but we only had one or two and they were for 3rd and 4th grade.  Here is the good news for all of you!!  

I wrote 2 grants to help my school so that we could get more resources for each grade level, and allow more classrooms to get involved!  

1. My district foundation offers fall and spring grants for up to $2,000.  That was my first place to go.  I wrote a grant to ask for two different units for each grade level, for a total of 8 units.  Each teacher will get the manual and picture book to accompany it!  This was only about $1200!  I found out a few weeks ago that I got this grant, and my school is pumped about the abounding critical thinking, problem-based projects our school will be investigating!  It's also going to help with our transition from content-based science standards to process-based standards that focus on the Design Process (which is central to these units)!

Want to write your own grant? Check out mine here for free!

2. After writing this grant, I knew that my building would implement these units better if someone was officially trained.  After looking through their website, I came across a Scholarship from Raytheon that was worth $3,000 and would cover two days of training, sub costs, and travel expenses to the Museum of Science in BOSTON!!! Needless to say, when I got my letter in the mail saying I was a lucky girl, I was WAAAAAAYYY excited about going to Boston!  

In part of this application, you need to respond to 4 questions, so I added that to TpT too!  You will see some of my research is the same for both, but they went to two different organizations.  Why create more work?  

I hope you think that Engineering is Elementary is worth checking out!  My students absolutely LOVE the units, and I can't wait to unveil more units next year and get all of our students involved in "Engineering talk".  Just think what a parent would say if their child went home and said, "I want to be an agricultural engineer!"  Awesome!  

Okay, I'm getting wordy, but visit back later this week for my first GIVEAWAY!  I can't wait, and I think you'll want to be a part of it! 

Over and out...