The Beginning is Upon Us!

Hello Blog World!
     Sorry for my long absence...it has been busy with room set up and meetings (as you know well).  This year I went with the theme of social media for my room.  I think it turned out well and hope that it will be of great use this year.

 Pinterest has been a great inspiration source for me.  The dark blue bulletin board has a "facebook" theme.  I made a getting to know you facebook profile template that I will have the students fill out and put in that space.  The Twitter board I plan to use as a form of exit slips. Although it is not in the picture, I also made an iHelp chart that has room for 9 jobs.  I am trying to decide if it would be best to create the jobs, have the students create the jobs, or I do some and they do others.  I am also trying to decide if they should apply for the positions and what that would look like.  Has anyone had their students apply for the positions before?

I have spent a good part of last week filling up those book shelves but still have some empty space so I decided I am going to bring in my books.  I learned that at Staples you can customize stamps so I got one with my name on it and plan on stamping the inside of my books.

I am excited and nervous for Tuesday!! I met most of my students and they seem so sweet (but a little shy right now).  I am hoping it will be a great year :)

The Liebster Award

Thank you so much Julie (The Pencil Monkey) for nominating me for the Liebster Award! It really made my day and I am so grateful you thought of my blog! This seems like a great opportunity to network and connect with other bloggers so I will accept :)

To accept this award, I must:
1. Link back to the blog that nominated me (Check out Julie's Blog!)
2. Nominate 5 - 11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers

• Miss Zee at Lessons from a First Year Teacher
• Ariel at A Frolic Through First
• Erin at Shenanigans in 6th- Math
• Shayna at Science Teaching Junkie
• Alicia at Fourth Grade Blatherings

3. Answer the questions posted by my nominator (Julie)

1. What is your guilty pleasure when you are not teaching?
     I spend a good amount of time playing games on my ipad when I'm not teaching (like Minion Rush) ;)

2. Who is your hero or role model?
     My role models are easily my parents.  I know, that's a pretty common answer but it's true! :)

3. Where do you see yourself in five years?
     I see myself teaching in the upper elementary-middle school grades and hopefully mentoring new teachers and/or student teachers.

4. What is your favorite part of your day as a teacher?
     During my student teaching my favorite part of the day was during our science time.  The students really got excited to do all the labs and worked super well together! I loved seeing all the ideas they came up with. I am not too sure when my favorite part of day will be for this coming year but we'll see :)

5. What would your students say about you?
    They would say I'm a fair, caring teacher that comes up with fun lessons ;) 

6. If you could buy one resource for your class what would it be? Why?
    That's a tough one!  I think that I would get more ipads for the classroom.  There are so many apps that can support learning nowadays and it is an increasingly more common form of technology we use as a society.  The more exposure the students have with it the better they will be using it when they become adults.  There's also an app called Splashtop Whiteboard that allows you to interact with and write on your interactive whiteboard (Smartboard/Promethean Board) from around the room!  Nifty tool to be able to monitor the room while continuing to teach with some flexibility :)

7. What is your biggest strength?
     I think one of my greatest strengths is being able to learn and apply new technology with ease in the classroom.  I enjoy using technology in my lessons and feel it is very engaging for students (as long as it used appropriately).  I am also big on doing interactive, hands-on activities to foster learning as well!

8. What is your favorite pen or pencil?
     My favorite type of pens are the sharpies' brand. They do not dry out very fast and write well!

9. If you could take your class anywhere on a field trip where would it be?
    I think it was be AMAZINGLY fun to take the students to New York City! The American Museum of Natural History...I have spent over six hours in that museum before and never get bored of it...the way they display and talk about Earth Science and Astronomy is wonderful!  New York City also has MoMath: Museum of Mathematics that looks like a fascinating place! Other places (if money was unlimited) would be Yellowstone National Park or Stonehenge. 

10. What is your favorite book?
      I enjoyed Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy :)

11. One random item that you can't live without as a teacher.
       My dry-erase markers!

4. Share 11 random facts about myself

1. I enjoy visiting caves.  My favorite one is Carlsbad Caverns!     
2. I did a pre-service teacher program with NASA last year in Houston, TX and it was an amazing experience!
3. I love writing stories.
4. I have two cats that have big personalities.
5. I have been in 43 states (7 more to go!)
6. Scattergories is one of my favorite games.
7. I can bake well and enjoy cooking...but I really need to cook more than I have lately.
8. I have lived in three different regions of the United States.
9. I buy a lot of science and math children's books and the Green Valley Book Fair is a weakness of mine to attend!
10. Canada Dry Diet Ginger Ale is one of my favorite sodas.
11. I love hiking, camping, and visiting the beach! (In other words...along with number 1, I love nature!)

5. Create 11 questions for my nominees

1. What is something you are looking forward to this coming school year?
2. What is your favorite topic/unit to teach and why?
3. What is your teaching motto?
4. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you visit?
5. Do you have any pets?
6. What is your favorite dessert?
7. If you were not a teacher, what would you be?
8. If money were not an issue, how would your classroom look? (How would you decorate, what type of technology would you have, etc.)
9. What is your favorite vacation spot?
10. What website do you like to go to for education resources/ideas?
11. If you could take your class on a field trip anywhere, where would you take them?

6. Contact my nominees to let them know I nominated them - Will do now! :)

Responsive Classroom

       This week I have had the opportunity to participate in a professional development class on Responsive Classroom.  I have some familiarity with the model already having student taught in a school that followed it so I was excited to learn more about how to implement it. The week is almost completed and I am left with a lot of things I liked and some things that I am sort of confused about.  I'll mention a couple things below...

What I liked:

• Teacher Language: A lot of the conversation we had surrounded on the language we use to remind,
  reinforce, and redirect students.  Specifically, trying to keep from the "pitfalls"such as redirecting in the form of a question or saying "please/thank you" for following a direction.  Our instructor suggested that we try to practice using this language while driving.  It's amazing how hard it can be to do that, especially during the high traffic periods...but I think it is a good time to practice because it is a high stress time and if that language can be used then, it can be done anywhere ;)

• Rules: I really like the idea of having the students being part of the rule creating process.  I think with sixth grade they have the independence and capability to take an active role in developing the
  rules to create a strong learning community.  This model suggests to start first with the student's hopes and dreams.  Once the student's goals have been established, the rules can be used to help the students achieve their goals/hopes/dreams (and, in turn, this will give a great reason for why we have these rules!).  

What confused me:

• Time-Out: I completely understand that there are times when we need to remove ourselves from the situation and calm down (or regain self-control). What I am concerned about is, with sixth graders, I know that not being singled out or called out is important to them.  I could see "Time-Out" being a negative/embarrassing experience for them when it should be used as a way to take a break and re-group before joining back with the rest of the learning community.  I am not sure how "time-out" looks in a sixth grade classroom or how you go about approaching it.
  
  Do you use time-out in your classroom or do you do something else?  Upper elementary teachers: How did you go about approaching it with your students? How did they respond to it? 

Tomorrow I get to see my classroom for the first time!! I am excited and nervous at the same time.  I am looking forward to seeing the room and get a feel for the place but I also presume it will be overwhelming how empty it will likely be.  Hope all my classroom organizing pins will come to use! Has anyone found a system or an organization idea that works very well?

Until next time! Hope everyone is enjoying the last moments of summer and getting ready for a new, fantastic year!

Thinking Ahead

We are a little over a month away from my district starting its school year and the question "how should I start?" has frequently visited my consciousness. There have been a few things I have come across that I think may be good to try out to introduce lessons, rules, or just a welcome activity perhaps.

1. Powtoon 4 EDU - This website looks like a really fun way to engage students during an introduction.
   Here is the one I made:


I found it really easy to use and it comes with a variety of templates you can choose from to start out.


2. RAFTS - This summer I was lucky enough to be able to attend a class about RAFTs (which stands for Role/Audience/Format/Topic) and how to use it in the classroom setting. I have been thinking that it might be a good approach to go about reinforcing rules and routines in the classroom.  Students could take on the role of a teacher, a mentor, a television celebrity (basically anything) to teach an audience about the rules/routines using a format that they choose (such as a public service announcement video or a poster). I thought this could be a fun way to review the rules after they have been taught and practiced for a while. Click on the "Rafts" to see some other examples.  I love this website- it has a lot of good ideas about differentiation!

That's what I have so far besides the books that I have been reading/ plan on reading.  One book I really am excited for is:

When I observed a 6th grade math class last fall I observed a teacher who used interactive notebooks very successfully in her classroom.  Watching the students so engaged with their notebooks made me very interested in learning how I could use them myself.  I am hoping that I can get some good ideas from this book (and if you have any good resources or advice about how to go about doing interactive notebooks in the classroom PLEASE do share! =) ). 

What about you? What things have you done that you have found to be successful at the beginning of the year? 

To begin...

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog!

A little about myself...

I am a sixth grade math and science teacher at an elementary school in Virginia! This is my first year as a teacher and I am very excited to get into the classroom and meet my students this fall.  I have spent a lot of time reading and looking at other blogs and have felt inspired by so many talented and creative teachers out there! I hope to add my own experiences and ideas to the mix :) 

Please excuse the current look of the blog! I'm still fixing it up but hopefully I'll get it in tip-top shape in no time! I'm excited to share my adventure with everyone and continue to learn from others!