May Currently

Is it seriously already May 6th? I cannot believe that I only have 22 more school days with my first grade friends! This year has had its ups and downs, but overall it has been my most favorite year of teaching yet. There is just something about teaching 1st grade and their sincerity in the fact that they truly love their teacher. There is not many things that are better then a big smile and a warm hug from my friends each morning. :)

Being that it is May I am linking up with Farley for her monthly fun. 

Wordless Wednesday

What is your favorite bulletin board that you have put up this year?

Currently- April Edition

I seriously cannot believe that it is April! I know I say this every month, but where the heck is the school year going? Since it is the 1st of the month I am linking up with one of my favorite blog buddies, Farley, for her Currently Party!

Let It Go- STAAR

It is that time of year that state testing begins again in Texas. As many of you know I spent my first two years teaching 6th grade language arts and testing was a big stress of mine. I know there are different things that stress me out now in 1st grade, but I know there are so many teachers who are worried about  the upcoming tests. This video was sent to me by one of my readers that volunteer in my classroom from the church right down the road. Don't stress…just let it go! 

Bright Ideas Hop: Storing iPads and iPods in the Classroom

If you are coming here from 2 Peas and a Dog, Welcome!

I am so excited to be participating in the Bright Ideas Blog Hop! You are going to find so many new tips and tricks that I know you will be able to implement in your classroom. 

One thing that I am very passionate about is technology and making it accessible to my students. I am lucky enough to have three iPads and two iPod Nanos in my first grade classroom right now. I am even more excited though because I have another iPad Mini on its way thanks to a Donor's Choose Project! 

One of the toughest things about having this technology in my classroom is how to store it and make sure it gets charged daily. I am so glad that I have finally found the perfect solution for my classroom and I am so happy to share it with you all! 

To most this looks like a normal set of plastic drawers, but it is my technology hub! This has made my life so much easier and we do not have the problem of devices that are dead. In the top two drawers you will find our regular iPads. 

They fit in the drawers perfectly and are accessible to my firstie friends. All of the power cords are run through the back of the drawers so they are not in the way. It is nice not having to find outlets all of the time to plug them into. The key though is to find a surge protector that can fit multiple chargers because sometimes they are to close to each other and you cannot use all of the plugs. 

We had a quick training on how to plug the devices in when we are finished with them and the kids have done a great job of making sure they stay charged. 

In the third drawer you find our iPad Mini as well as our two iPod Nanos and our Bluetooth iHome. We use the two Nanos for our Listen to Reading station and it has made life ten thousand times easier. Before we had a CD player that would not take headphones so I was constantly asking them to turn the player down while I was meeting with small groups. My first two students who choose Listen to Reading get to be in charge and they know to take the iPods to the Listening Tubs. 

The only real hangup that we have had is finding the best headphones for our devices. I think that we have finally found a good fit for us. We store them in a tub at the front of our classroom and students know to go and grab a set when they are using an iPad or the iPods. 

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and seeing how I store technology in my classroom! I hope that this gave you an idea or two that you can use in your own classroom and I know you will find many more throughout the Bright Ideas Blog Hop! 

Be sure to head on over to Angela's blog to see how she breaks the Nagging Cycle! I know you will not regret reading it!

Do you want to hop by grade level? Just click below!

An InLinkz Link-up

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

I cannot believe that February is almost halfway over. It seems that it was just yesterday that I was retraining reminding my firsties of the expectations in our classroom when they returned from Christmas break. 

For the 100th Day of School we decided as a team that we would ask the students to dress up as if they were 100 years old! OH MY WORD!!! They were too precious! I of course also had to join in on the fun and my kids thought it was the coolest thing ever. I have to admit that I enjoyed it too! 

We also had to have some fun door decorations to celebrate the feat of being in 1st grade for 100 days!

We also had a blast learning about the Moon! Thanks to Kristen Smith it was even more fun for my students. If you have not seen her moon packet on Teachers Pay Teachers, it is a must have! We learned about the moon phases and then completed a fun project using Oreos. It has been activities like these that are making me so excited to be teaching Math, Science, and Social Studies next year!

What sort of things have you been up to in your classroom? 

Currently February

Is it really February? That means it is time to link up with the amazing Farley for her monthly party where we can share what is going on in our life. 

Listening: I am obsessed with anything Olympics related so of course I had to catch the new Lifetime Gabby Douglas movie. It has been really good. Plus, who doesn't love a good Lifetime movie?

Loving: Let me rub it in your face…I got to wear shorts today. Did I mention that we have a cold front coming again tomorrow afternoon/evening to cool things back down? I guess this Texas girl will have to keep dreaming about the 70 degree temperatures. Spring better hurry up because I am not a fan of this cold weather. I am beyond over having indoor recess!

Thinking: I am beyond excited to be Team Teaching next year with an amazing co-teacher! She will be teaching all of the Language Arts components (Guided Reading, Spelling, Phonics, Grammar,  Reader's Workshop, and Writer's Workshop) and I will teach Math, Science and Social Studies. I will be doing 3 weeks each of Science and Social Studies. I have been wanting to do Daily 5 Math and cannot wait to incorporate that next year. The only downfall to all of this is that I will be moving classrooms, but that is nothing new to me. I have had to set up a new classroom during all three years of teaching I have thus far.

Wanting: Don't we all want a Laundry Fairy to come to our rescue? I am pretty sure that Laundry is my least favorite chore ever!!! If you find one near you, please send them my way. :)

Needing: Relief for this a nasty cough. It all started with a sore throat back when I went to the 1st Grade Teacher's Conference. It has been yuck since. I have had two rounds of antibiotics in me, but it is still there. I have an appointment on Thursday and am really hoping I do not have to go in before. I don't want to pay for two visits. The issue though is that I have already had Pneumonia twice in my life and am fearful this may be the 3rd time. Fingers crossed it is not!

2 Truths and a Fib: So which one do you think is the fib?
1. It took me 6 years to graduate with my Bachelors Degree.
2. I work as a camp director in the summer.
3. I coach club volleyball.

The fib is #1. I actually graduated with my Bachelors and Masters Degrees in 5 and a 1/2 years.  I also managed to never took summer school. However, I usually took at least 18 hours and at times 21 hours.