New Year, New Goals

Looking back on the year that has just passed is always an interesting activity. Quite a lot has changed in my life during 2014.

First of all, I had a second daughter at the end of 2013 and so our entire year was filled with baby things, milestones and learning to be a family of 4.

I participated in two great book studies this year that have really helped me redefine the type of classroom I want. Leading the book study for 100 Minutes and posting about Guided Math for the second time have made me into a workshop teacher and centred my instruction around the needs of my students. 

One of the most amazing, and unexpected things that came out of the 100 Minutes book study was that I "met" Erin from A Piece of the Apple and we became instant BFF's. After the book study ended Erin invited me to be a part of a FB Challenge Group for health and fitness. I've been eating clean(er) for a few years now and and working towards getting fit but a few things like getting pregnant and being on mat leave with a demanding baby seemed to be getting in the way! I lost all of the baby weight (and more) after I gave birth to my first daughter so I knew I could do it again. Erin's challenge group was just going to be an extra little push. 

Here we are 6 months later and the ladies in that challenge group are some of my closest friends…even though we have never met!

Getting into fitness and clean eating has changed my life, so much so that I became a Beachbody Coach in the summer. One of my resolutions for 2015 is to re-dedicate myself to my own fitness and nutrition as well as work hard to help others reach their goals too.

I am excited about this coming year. Very excited.

Here are the goals I have set for myself.

 Hoping you have a wonderful New Years!
See you in 2015.

Balancing Teaching and Being a Mom

The end of October marks two full months that I have been back to work full time since having my second child one year ago. My baby girl will be one year old in a few weeks and it's hard to remember life without her.

There have been a lot of challenges in going back to work with two kids and I can honestly say it's been stressful at times.

My house is always a mess.

I don't always cook the way I want to.

My pile of marking grows daily…and I rarely make it a priority.

There are days when I am planning my lessons period to period.

Workouts have dropped from 7 days a week to maybe 4 days a week…if I am lucky.

I can't remember the last time I got my hair cut.

Thank god for coffee. 

But…

I wouldn't change a thing. I know I am a better mom when I am back to work. I love teaching. I love my class. I love constantly learning about teaching.

I am also a better teacher because I am a mom. I have more patience. I think more about how I would want my child to be treated. I am more fun and less focused on just the curriculum

It'll get easier. 

This I know. 

But right now?

Wow, finding balance is tricky. 

Day of Pink- Let's Unite Against Bullying

April 9th is International Day of Pink. As educators we deal with bullying everyday. We see it. We discuss it. We know it's happening. And yet, it's not stopping.

What is the Day of Pink?

April 9th marks the International Day of Pink. It is a day where communities across the country, and across the world, can unite in celebrating diversity and raising awareness to stop homophobic, transphobic & all forms of bullying. 

The International Day of Pink was started in Nova Scotia when 2 straight high school students saw a gay student wearing a pink shirt being bullied. The 2 students intervened, but wanted to do more to prevent homophobic & transphobic bulling. They decided to purchase pink shirts, and a few days later got everyone at school to arrive  wearing pink, standing in solidarity. The result was that an entire school stopped homophobic & transphobic bullying. 

The message was clear: anyone can bully, any can be victimized by bullying, but together we can stop it.

Each year on the second Wednesday of April, millions of people wear pink to remember that positive actions make a difference. And that the change starts with each one of us. 

~ from DayofPink.org

This April 9th my school board will be participating in the Day of Pink as a day to promote awareness of bullying and to raise awareness against homophobic and transphobic bullying specifically. We have participated in the past years but again this year we are specifically talking about homophobic and transphobic bullying. 

I am so proud.

Regardless of your beliefs and faith, I hope that you too believe that no child deserves to be bullied for who they are. The Day of Pink is a way we can all come together to keep our children safe. 

Take some time on April 9th to talk to your students, your children, your co-workers, everyone you know about bullying and how it hurts. Let's keep our children safe. Talk about this!! It's scary and unfamiliar, yes....but losing even one child to bullying is scarier.

My school has pledged to wear PINK on April 9th.  Anything to show that you care for the children who deal with bullying everyday.

Last year I talked about this with my class and we had an open and serious discussion about how bullying hurts, specifically homophobic and transphobic   Together we are going to pledge to stop bullying and accept everyone for who they are.

If you would like to take a pledge along with us then click on the image below to pick up the pledge/reflection form I created for my class.

The font used is Mr. and Mrs. Popsicle from Kevin and Amanda fonts. 

Five for Friday

This is my first time linking up with Five for Friday over at Doodle Bugs Teaching! I know, where have I been? But I thought this would be a good way to continue to share my teaching thoughts while I am on mat leave (6 weeks till my due date!) and don't really have a classroom. 

So here we go!

I love this idea for Science vocabulary words I found over at the Science Penguin. How cute would this be? And a great way to integrate literacy with your science program.

Photo via The Science Penguin

I LOVE this idea!! 100 bead strings..think of the possibilities. I also love DIY math manipulatives. I found this amazing idea over at The Elementary Math Maniac. The post explains how to make the bead strings and how they can be used in the class. Genius. 

Photo via The Elementary Math Maniac

This next find is from Pinterest and it links back to a twitpic not a blog. If you've seen it before and know where it came from, please let me know.

As I've posted before I started using The Power of Retelling to format by large group reading instruction. This retelling rope would be an excellent addition to small group activities based on our larger lessons. 

Photo via http://twitpic.com/8hemtm

I am excited to find a use for these in my math centres next year. They are from 3rd Grade Thoughts and are available in her TPT store.

Photo via 3rd Grade Thoughts

Lastly, is this great Writer's Workshop anchor chart...but the pin also doesn't lead to the actual site! 

Again, if you know who it belongs to please let me know.

Photo via Pinterest.

And that's it for my first Five for Friday! Have a great weekend. 

Class Messenger- Using Your Smart Phone to Keep in Touch With Parents/Students

First things first...I'm on mat leave!! 8 weeks till the baby comes...hopefully, right. No early surprises. I do have some ultrasounds to check in on the baby's growth over the next few weeks but I am feeling good and looking forward to some time to rest and get ready before our whole world turns upside down.

Button clipart from Scrappin Doodles

Have you seen this new app/website? I heard about it from a colleague in the staff room last week. I must preface this post with the fact that I have not personally used this app but I think it looks great!

Here is an article I found about the app/website:
www.edudemic.com

This site looks great in itself and I think I will be back often to see what else they are writing about. 

Now, the app/website itself. I downloaded the app from the app store on to my iPhone and I don't really know much about other types of phones...so you'll have to investigate if you don't have an iPhone. The best part is that the app is FREE!! FREE!! All teachers love something free, right?

The website for this app is www.classmessenger.com and it is powered by Scholastic. Apparently the app used to be called What Did We Do Today? and has now changed to Class Messenger. Perhaps you have heard of the first but not the name change?

Here's the home screen-

I first created my account on my iPhone, because I downloaded the app first but I don't think it matters if you go to the website first. 

Once you are registered and logged in the app provides two different demos to help you see how it all works.

As I played around with the site, I found a great FAQ's section- for Teachers, Parents and Students. It seems like they've thought of everything!

There is also a great DEMO section that walks your through each step of setting up your classes and has demos for parents and students as well. 

Since I am off on leave, I don't actually have a class to try this out with...this year! But I am hoping that one of you all will jump on board and tell me all about it?! Yes??

I did start to attempt to build a class just to see how easy it was and  here's what you will see on the screen as you start to build your class. 

I like that Class Messenger has the option to build multiple classes, so if you teach rotary or want to organize your students by groups/classes that can be done as well.

There is a section where you can add contact details for your students/parents and I have highlighted some of the sections using arrows on the picture below. 

I think a form will need to be created in order to gather the email addresses needed to contact parents so they can sign up with the app. I haven't found a form provided on the site, so this may need to be done at your own school site. 

From here, there's not much more I can do...not actually having a class to sign up...boo. 

But...

I think this app/website has a lot of possibilities and I am very interested in hearing from anyone that uses it with their class this year.

Next Year I'm Definitely Going To.... (and a FREEBIE)

I am a huge planner for next year. I start taking notes as early as February each year when I start to think about how I want to "fix" things in my classroom. That's why I was so excited to see this great linky party from Finding Joy In 6th Grade!

 

On a separate note, we started our province wide testing for Grade 3 today. The students were pretty pumped about it, I think. Not too nervous and they did well (from what I could see!). Most took their time, checked their work and filled out every question. One section down, six more to go.

I created a spin-off of the "Recipe for Success" that I've seen al over the place for the start of school and made one for the test- "Recipe for Test Success"! I put together some small goodie bags for the kids and surprised them with it when they came in this morning. 

If you'd like a copy for yourself, click on the image above to grab one.

Don't forget about our upcoming book study! 

Get your copy soon.

The End is Near....

But not near enough!

I know for some of you the end is now, or at least imminent. However, here in Ontario we go until June 28th. Yes, you read that correctly...JUNE. 28. th. 

Aaaaaargh.

(Which also happens to be the day my old house and new house are closing AND we are moving....le sigh)

Between now and then I have a tonne to do, both at home and at work, but I find that my thoughts have already turned to next year. This happens every year about this time. The problem this year is that I will only be working for 2 months, at the most, by the time the baby comes....

I'm a little sad because I feel like I have learned so much this year and really want to implement and change all sorts of stuff for next year...but of course, I'm also super excited about having a baby!

I have started recording everything I want to change, modify, adapt, overhaul about my classroom for next year/the year after that. I have all these great ideas that I won't even be able to implement for at least 2 years...grrr. But I have them, and that must mean I am reflecting right? Plus, I'll have a cute little cuddly baby at home to keep me occupied.

How do you keep track of your ideas? Do you have a summer to-do list? What's your must do for this summer??

Our Day of Pink

Here are some the activities my class participated in for Day of Pink!

Brainstorming how we can stand up to bullying!

Creating a class mural.

We also read a number of books:

The Sissy Duckling by Harvey Fierstein

Pink by Lynne Rickards

The Great Big Book of Families by Mary Hoffman

I also showed this clip of a flashmob that was put together for Day of Pink.

Finally, this video by Artists Against Bullying- True Colours.

I hope you had a chance to share, talk, create, and read about this important day.

A Peek Into My Day Book

Sometimes I like to go back and look through my day plan/ day book. I noticed one thing....I make a lot of changes! So many arrows, post-it notes and cross outs! LOL

Here's the past 5 weeks. Oh dear. 

Wow, that's a lot of post it notes! 

This is my first time using a "pre-made" day book, I've always made my own in the past. I must admit...I kinda love it!

What kind of day book do you use?

Bonus...here's my two-year-old daughter joining in on my yoga session today! (Don't be fooled...this is the only pose she did!)

Happy Sunday. 

Yep, I'm still here!

Sorry for the long absence but I think I got into the groove of the winter break and couldn't seem to shake it off. My husband and I travelled to Mexico for the 2nd week of the holidays for a fellow teacher's wedding and had a great holiday. It was our first time away together since our honeymoon (5 years ago!) and it was the first time we have been away since our daughter was born. Greatly needed!

Speaking of my daughter it was also her 2nd birthday this week...such a big girl now so party plans and presents dominated the week. She is such a darling and we had a wonderful week of dinners with family members. Next week is my husband's birthday so the fun will just continue!

At school we have jumped full into the swing of things...busy, busy, busy. My sample report cards for Term 1 are due on Monday and then I will be writing the full class set of reports over the next few weeks. In order to be able to do all this I still need to finish teaching some things too. We have lots of stuff on the go and I am really hoping (fingers crossed) to be able to post about it soon. 

To give you a little preview, here's whats happening in Grade 3...

- We are full into our 40 Book Challenge with a lot of my students reading a tonne of books over the holidays. We are starting a media/drama project next week where my students will be creating "movie trailers" for various genres using iMovie on the iPad! They are over the moon with excitement.

- Our last Math strand for this term is patterning, just as soon as we finish up with Geometry. Cramming in all the math we can these days.

- In Science we will be starting to build marble mazes as the culminating task for our dual unit on forces and structures/stability.

There is so much on the go these days it's easy to get a little overwhelmed but I will try my best to be posting as often as possible.

I hope you all had a great holiday, a wonderful New Year and a fabulous start to 2013!

Follow The Road to Freebies

I have been seeing so many great examples of teacher organization/planning binders around the blog-o-sphere that I decided I wanted to make one for myself this year! Plus, it is was International Blog Hopping Day!

I've started with just the cover pages for each of the sections I think I might use...and I made a couple extra just for you all that I know won't apply to me. Each file is a separate download so you can pick the ones that you want, or get them all!

I use a single assessment page for each of my students so that I can see all of their progress in one place. 

I love being able to see ahead to where I am going with my instruction.

Blank!! Totally customizable...BUT, if you have an idea for a cover page that you don't see here but would really like, please leave me a comment below and I can whip one up for you. 

For my American friends!

 (we don't have Common Core here in Canada)

To go along with our fun book studies...anyone else's mind totally reeling with ideas? Mine is whirling and smoking all the time.

I don't keep my lesson plans in my organization binder but I know that a lot of people do...so this one's for you.

Now everything can be stored in one place...PLUS, I am working on some super cute note sheets to go into this section so make sure you check back soon. 

Super necessary!

All of the clip art used is from Scrappin Doodles, and the frames are from From the Pond. 

Well, I hope you enjoyed your trip down the road for some freebies! I'm glad that you came by. Don't forget to leave me a message if you would like any additional cover pages created.  Once I have my teacher binder all up and running I'll be sure to post pictures for everyone to see.