Busy Beginning

The school year is in full swing! We have officially completed three weeks of school, and I survived picture day (I'm in charge of picture day - it goes with yearbook territory). These weeks have been a HUGE success! I am unbelievably proud of my students and their hard work. 

We started off the first week with the general 'getting to know you' activities, but by the end of the week, we had jumped straight into the deep end!

My students deconstructed their standards. We worked through the Common Core/College and Career Readiness Standards to make them understandable for everyone. Now we are all on the same page about what needs to be accomplished this school year!

By the end of the first week, we began Close Reading. I was VERY hesitant about attempting this with my eighth graders, but I was also VERY wrong. They rocked it! Completely took over and ran with their thoughts! We barely scratched the surface on day one, and day two was even more incredible. I teach a regular ed class and an inclusion class. Both classes were remarkable. They really took the texts and made relevant, interesting connections. Many that never occurred to me!

During the second week of school, we began our first PBL unit: "How can we use history to solve a current issue?" Students will end the unit by creating a proposal to solve a current issue in society. 

We kicked it off with QFT (Question Formulation Technique)). My students ran with this activity too! They got so much out of it. Their ideas and creativity were more than I could have ever hoped for. 
They worked in groups to narrow down their questions to their best open ended questions. Then they worked as a class using "Keep it, Junk it, or Cloud it" to narrow down their final questions. 
Their final questions go into the "Want to Know" column of our unit K-W-L. (They were so enthralled and ON TASK with the QFT, we never made it to the K-W-L that day - and our class period is one hour forty-five minutes long.)

This year has so much to hold! It's fantastic!

As a part of our first unit, we are reading The Diary of Anne Frank. Prior to reading the story, my students used a virtual tour of Anne Frank's Secret Annex to complete a virtual quest. They enjoyed seeing everything first hand and hearing how everyone lived. It was eye-opening for my students to see, travel through, and hear the living situation and conditions that surrounded the Holocaust. It was a great opening activity!

We are only three weeks into this school year, and it is already incredible. It will be a fantastic experience to see my students grow this year. I look forward to continuing our student-center classroom using project based learning!

Social Butterly

I have a thing for social media. The connections, network, and education it provides are incredible! Don't get me wrong - I am ALL for face to face communication, but social media is a great tool!

I am the PR Pro for my school, so with school sites, personal sites, and educator sites - I run:

2 Twitter Accounts

1 Facebook Account

2 Facebook Pages

1 Yammer Account

2 Blogs

3 Instagram Accounts

1 Pinterest Account

1 Remind Account (with 3 classes)

+ Youtube, Teachertube, ETC!

It's a lot of work keeping those up! Thankfully with an iPhone, iPad, and MacBoook it's easy and typically does not take up that much time (except for pinterest - I'm pretty sure I've lost entire days in there!). I use Instagram to update students on a lot of announcements. Apparently, "Facebook is for old people." 

I'd love to share my Educator Social Medias with you! Please feel free to like/follow/share them all! Of course, this blog is the first one!

Click here for my Teacher Twitter!

Click here for my Teacher Instagram!

Please comment and let me know what you use for your classroom! Keeping students and parents involved and informed is very important in our current technology age.

Setting the Mood

I love to decorate, but decorating for a middle school bunch is hard!

My first year of teaching I had five different preps, and I wasn't hired until two weeks before school started. I spent my time cleaning up and out the last teacher's belongings. There wasn't any time to make the room mine! The second year of teaching I moved classrooms. The new classroom had a bigger room, better view, and tables! (I am NOT a desk fan.) I spent my time moving tons of stuff back and forth across the school. Again - no time to make the room my own!

This year is different! I'm teaching in the same room at the same school, and I am excited! I have more mature posters (not little fishes with bubbles in bright colors talking about parts of speech), colors, bean bag reading area, and chevron washi tap!

The classroom came with the giant red curtains and blue cabinets. I can't get rid of the blue cabinets and living in the south - heavy curtains to keep out heat is a God send! So my classroom colors are red and blue. No choice. Theme: mature Cat in the Hat (without letting my students know!).

I have very strong beliefs in being responsible for oneself and taking charge of your own future. If you can not stand up for yourself, you can not rely on others to do it for you. My door poster sums up my feels in one place. I love my students, but I want to make sure they are ready for life! I can only protect them for one year. We are the dolphins, so naturally - the door hanger just fits!

Last year I had a Mark Twain floor runner - this year is Shakespeare. The students seem to love a poster stuck to the floor. (No lie - I do too!) It just makes coming in more fun. 

My classroom has two white boards, a Promethean board, and a bulletin board. My bulletin board contains all the class information (schedule, lunch menu, rules/requirements, flyers, and overdue library book list). My front white board is split into two sections by the Promethean board. The right side (smaller) holds our daily agenda with objectives. The left side I use during class time. Above my Promethean board I keep our Essential Question(s) posted throughout each PBL. The white boards are outlined with red washi tape. Due to my blue cabinets and large red curtains, my room colors are red and blue.

My second white board is the central location for all Yearbook and Newspaper information. Both staffs have a large calendar to keep track of events and who is responsible for what - as well as deadlines and goals. The yearbook calendar is outlined with camera designed washi tape!

Right inside my door is the main station for students. I use a photo frame as my Weekly Agenda. Here students can see the entire week and anything they may have missed. I have two purple tubs for lost/found. This is where I keep pencils/paper I find too. Students check here for supplies they forgot to bring! This 10 colored drawer organizer rolling cart is my in/out box. Each period is assigned a color. The top box is where they turn work in, and the second box is where I put graded work that needs to be handed out. It's easy to roll over to my desk for grading too! On top of the cart is my tardy and detention binder. Students sign in if they are tardy then leave any notes in the binder pocket - easy entry - no disruption!

I'm so happy! I painted my bookcase, and the black looks so much better! I try to have new, trendy books in class for students to read and borrow. Even though I teach middle school, these kiddos love a good reading corner. I refilled the beanbags with fresh beans and made a tree. I hope they enjoy it!

This is MY area! When I say 'My' area - I mean it! It is set up so students have no reason to be behind my desk. There are too many horror stories and important things missing from a teacher's desk, so I put myself in the corner and made my teacher area. I also painted the filing cabinet with chalkboard spray paint - now it matches the desk and bookcase.

{Picture Coming Soon}

No matter how many times you say "don't forget your name," someone will - always - forget their name. This is my "No Name" board. I pin all no names here. Whenever I do not receive an assignment (absent, no name, no effort), I automatically put a zero into our online grade book. Students know to always check the no name board if they received a zero but did the assignment. These papers are throw away at the end of each quarter.

{Picture Coming Soon}

Thankfully, last year I was able to order posters that did not have an elementary feel to them. My students genuinely seemed to enjoy being in a classroom that felt 'older.' I preach all the time about preparing for high school, so it's high time I started making them feel like high schoolers!


{Picture Coming Soon}

I am beyond excited to start the 2014-2015 school year. I feel organized and ready for my students. Three cheers to a rocking' new year!  

Educator on the Loose

    I have finished my second year teaching and what a two years it has been! I have learned so much. I have had so much to learn. I have so many wonderful memories. I have so many memories to look forward to enjoying! I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in the fourth grade, and every day in my classroom I am reminded that I am where I want to be, need to be, and am suppose to be!

     Teaching is a calling. It has to be something you really want to do, everyday will be torture. I can gratefully say - I wouldn't want to be doing anything else. 

    I started this blog well over a year ago. My plan was to use it to track my progress, share projects and ideas, and build - but I'm the new gal. The one who doesn't say no and (apparently) can do everything. Between teaching two Language Arts blocks, advising yearbook, advising newspaper, being in charge of school websites and social media and being the school STC (school technology coach) plus providing after school tutoring and teacher training - this blog never even crossed my mind. (I'm also a single mom of an active soon to be third grader who plays soccer, is active in our church, and involved in scouts (I'm also assistant den leader).) It's a mouthful! But I enjoy all of it, and I'm not willing to give anything up! 

    Enough about me! What is this blog for? Why are you reading it? What will I do here? What's the point?!

     Goals. Goals are important. If you don't have goals, what are you doing?! Where are you going?! How are you going to achieve those goals? Goals = Progress. I want progress in my career - for me and for my students. 

I have 3 goals for this blog:

1. Archive my class going ons at least once a week. 

2. Use the blog to reflect on PBLs. 

3. After six months of good blogging, share it! (What's the point of a blog if others can't use it?)

  

Teacher's go back on Monday. I'm excited to see what year three holds!


I teach 8th grade Language Arts in South Alabama. We are a 1:1 county - each student is provided a MacBook to take home with them each day. Each student is also provided with a Rosetta Stone account for a language of their choosing. I also teach yearbook and newspaper. I run both of these electives as student centered/student ran rooms. I over see operations and grading, but everything they produce and publish is done by the staff. My ELA classroom is a PBL centered classroom. This will be my first year with a true PBL, student centered classroom.