A Teacher Gift

Tomorrow I begin my "August Experience" and I am so thrilled about it. I have to be there at 8am and then will be spending all day with a wonderful 5th grade teacher helping her to get ready for the first day of school. I thought that I would take her a small gift as a thanks for letting me have this awesome opportunity that not many student teachers get to have. Basically what I did was take a craft case and I made a cute cover for the top and then filled it with lots of things that I thought she might need throughout the year. Let me know what you think.

I put things like binder clips, paper clips, magnets, small Post-its, white out, Flair pens because they are my favorite, some Dove Dark Chocolates, and mints. I will be sure to share all about this experience and I cannot wait to meet her 5th graders!

I have also spent the past 2 days in Mrs. Roemer's 2nd grade classroom helping her get things ready for the upcoming school year and Meet the Teacher night which they had tonight. This was my 3rd year to help her get ready and it is such a great experience because there are so many things that I have learned that will help make my first year a lot easier. She already told me that she has so many things that she will be emailing me when I know what grade I will be teaching! I am so thankful for wonderful mentors in the education field that I have had the opportunity to work with.

Favorite Math Websites

I have been spending today looking for websites and ideas that I can use while I am Student Teaching as well as for when I am subbing. Today I wanted to share some of my favorite math websites that I have come across. I would love for you to share some of your favorites too and I will be sure and add them to my list. 

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

Math Playground

Stop the Clock

Animated Math Dictionary

Math for grade 3-6

Multiplication Practice

4th and 5th Grade Math Resources

Number Baseball

"August Experience"

Next year at this time I will be enjoying my last weekend before going back to school full time and attending teacher inservice. I was efficient and purchased my textbooks for my classes this semester yesterday, but I did not like the number that the cash register said...$450 and I am only taking 14 hours this semester. I also received an e-mail yesterday from one of the two professors that will be my student teaching advisers explaining an opportunity that is available to us called "August Experience".

We have not yet been assigned mentor teachers yet for Student Teaching, but basically what we do is spend one day with a teacher the week before school starts and also the first day of school with them. I have been lucky enough to spend time helping a teacher before the first day of school, but I think it will be an amazing opportunity to get to spend the first day of school in the classroom with the teacher as well. I will be going to visit the elementary to talk to the principal to see if this is something that he will allow me to do. The best part is that this will also count for 2 days towards our observations in the spring. 

Right now I know that I would like to either student teach in 3rd or 5th grade, but am leaning more towards 5th grade. The only issue though is that in 5th grade where I will student teach, the teachers only teach either Science and Math or LA and Social Studies, not all 4 subjects like a traditional classroom. Do you think that it will be harmful for me to only teach 2 subjects?

Teacher Week- Creative Ideas

Today for Teacher Week over at Babbling Abby we are sharing creative ideas. Since I do not have my own classroom I figured I would share some things that I have seen that I love and also some things I do while subbing.

1. Have students keep a spelling spiral. Those weekly spelling tests are somewhat pointless because we all know that there are children in our class who get no help with homework at home. Instead of having students do spelling homework each night, have them spend 15 minutes in their Spelling Journal when they first get to school. Each morning have students complete a different task such as ABC order, use 5 words in a sentence, rainbow writing (trace the word in several different colors), etc. This also guarantees that students are at least practicing the words a couple of times before the spelling test on Friday. 

2. Vista Print! This is a teacher's best friend...at least I think so! I am getting ready to place my first order with them and they just have so many wonderful things to choose from. I always remember being confused as to what I needed to complete when I was absent, so I just created a notepad that I can use to write down students missed assignments from an absence. If you put those things aside for missing students each day and have a place to put them it will make your life so much easier. 

3. Have a sub binder that is easy for a sub to follow. I cannot even begin to tell you the number of classrooms that I have been in while subbing and I have such a hard time finding their plans. My favorite was when the teacher taped the plans to the computer screen which is nowhere near her desk, that took me quite some time to find them that time. I came across the Littlest Learners blog and she has been going through how to put a great sub binder together. Be sure and check it out! I know I am putting one together that I will be able to just add to when I have my first classroom.

4. Microwave TV dinner trays are great for the classroom. the ones with the 2 compartments are even better. They are great to use for the ART center as well as with math manipulatives. Think twice before you throw it away next time.

I am really looking forward to reading everyone's ideas because I know that there will be some that I will want to use in my first classroom!

Teacher Week- Must Haves!

I am linking up with Babbling Abby again for Teacher Week. Today we are sharing Teacher Must Haves for the classroom. Even though I do not have my own classroom yet, there are so many things that I know I have to have in my first classroom.

1. Lots and lots of books! 

While subbing, it has amazed me how many classrooms I have walked into that do not have books easily accessible to the students. That is why I have books...so they can have that same interest in books that I do! 

2. A personal refrigerator 

This is essential in housing your much needed caffeine fix as well as that sandwich or salad that you have 5 minutes to eat for lunch. I know that mine will have a nice stock of Diet Coke in it as well as a few pieces of chocolate at all times. 

3. Jump Drive

You do not want to lose all of those documents that you have saved on your school computer and it makes life so much easier when taking projects back and forth to home. 

4. A Comfy Reading Chair

I know I linked up to this chair in my last post too, but I cannot wait to order it and use it in my classroom! 

5. Flair Pens

I love these things and they are so great for grading.

Since I am not quite a teacher yet there are still a lot of Must Haves that I know I will discover. Hopefully I will find some things from your wonderful posts too!

Teacher Week- Open House

I have seen several of my other blogger friends link up with Babbling Abby for her teacher week and I thought that I would play along even though I do not quite have my own classroom yet.

10 Things About Miss Klohn

1. I am currently a senior elementary education major and I will graduate in May with a certification to teach Preschool-6th grade in Texas. I absolutely cannot wait for my student teaching experience in the spring but I am still undecided on what grade level I would live to do it in. At my university, we spend all 12 weeks with the same teacher instead of splitting it up into 2 6 week blocks. 

2. I have known since I was a very small girl that I wanted to be a teacher. I remember playing school with my sister and grading her papers and everything when we were little. I also remember begging my mom to go school supply shopping but she would always make me wait until August 1st before we could do it. You can only imagine how much nagging I did once August 1st rolled around. To this day, anytime I am at Wal-Mart, Target, or HEB, I make a trip down the school aisle matter what time of year it is. You never know when there might be a good deal going on.

3. I am beginning my 3rd year as a sub within the local school district where I went. I have been able to sub in many different classrooms and it has allowed me to see a lot of good things as well as some not so good things. There are several ideas that I have written down to use in my own classroom one day. 

4. I am obsessed with Scholastic book orders already...I cannot imagine how much worse it is going to become when I start earning bonus points with my own classroom. I have been lucky enough to have connections and the teacher that I helped with for 2 years in a class in high school, and I still volunteer in her room when I do not have a sub job gives me her book orders all of the time. Besides the wonderful prices, I love the listening packs and they have helped me to build my listening library already. 

5. I have not chosen to become a teacher because of the wonderful pay that we receive, but because the children that will enter my classroom are the future leaders of this world. I am responsible for helping to make sure that the children who are a part of my classroom are ready to be that. 

6. I know that I have already spent way too much money on my future classroom. I have been collecting things such as pocket charts, borders, letters, math games and manipulatives, and storage pieces. My theory is that if I start spending a little bit here and there it will make the initial blow during my first year a little less. If I could only convince my Dad of the same thing. :)

7. I am on the lookout for an amazing reading chair for me to sit in when I am doing story time with my students. I really like this one.

8. I am afraid of not finding a job. A lot of the people who graduated this past year have still not found one yet. I am hoping my volunteering and subbing will help get my foot in the door here in Fredericksburg as well as my student teaching. I do not want to stay here for a very long time but I would like to start here at least. 

9. I am planning on beginning my Masters degree right after graduation. At my university they offer an amazing hybrid program where you only have to visit the campus every Saturday in June and then one Saturday a month in the fall and spring. Everything else is completed online. I have a feeling that before too long they will require all teachers to have a Master's degree so I am thinking it is better to do it now than later. 

10. I absolutely cannot wait to have my own classroom, can August 2011 be here already? 

I am so looking forward to getting to know everyone else and share some wonderful ideas with you all!

Classroom Library

My classroom library is one of the things that I have been working on for quite some time now. I have been collecting books for quite some time now and have a collection of over 300 books already. I have found my books at various places such as bookstores, garage sales, and my favorite of them all...Scholastic Book Orders! Luckily I have several contacts at the local elementary school and they are wonderful about sharing the book orders with me and I am guilty of spending $50 at a time on them. Hopefully when I have my first classroom I will have some wonderful parents who love to order from the book orders and help to earn me some bonus points that I can use to continue to add to the classroom library. 

As I have been putting the books away, I have also made sure to label them with my name as well as an AR label. I found this great website called AR Bookfinder and I have used it to label all of my books for Accelerated Reader tests and book levels.  I created a label to put on the front of all of my books that includes the test number, AR level, and point value and then I just look it up and write the information on the label. If you are interested in seeing the labels just shoot me an email to k.e.klohn@gmail.com and I would be more than happy to share them with you. 

What sort of things do you do to help keep your classroom library organized? Any tips for a future teacher?