The Countdown is on......

For many us we are less than 30 days away from the end of another school year and we are so excited and ready for a much needed Summer Break Vacation.

Below are a few tips to make your end of the year a smooth one!

1.    Get Caught Up On Paperwork

Closing out a school year is full of paperwork that teachers must fill out in order to end a school year. Whether it is filling out paperwork about student academic progress, comments for reports cards or just routine end of the year paperwork make sure you go ahead now and get a head start on it.

2. Start Purging NOW!

Now is the time to start throwing away or giving away unwanted supplies or materials that you may not want to keep. A good spot for these materials are usually placing them in the teacher’s lounge for anyone to grab or donating them to a first year teacher! If you start now then you may not have to do so much at the end.

3. Plan Engaging Lessons

With the end of school, your students are also bored and tired and need to be engaged constantly. Think about having your students do a research project of some kind. Here is a link to my latest product which is a Country Research Project. This project can be used to keep students engaged while still learning and doing important research skills.

4.                Take Field Trips!

Another fun way to get students engaged is to take them on a field trip. One last field trip before the end of the school year can you give your students something to look forward to as well as you a fun day of learning outside of the school building.

5.  Pack it on UP!

At this point it’s nothing wrong with you starting to put away some supplies and materials away that you may not be needing until next year. Often times with testing teachers have to cover or take down instructional materials any way. Therefore this could be the perfect time to start putting away and packing up your materials.

Teachers Take FRENCHLICK!!!

Last weekend I attended an amazing Frenchlick Teacher Blogger Retreat in Frenchlick, Indiana. It was truly a blast! It was a much well needed retreat to reenergize and keep me focused and on track with some of my goals. The school year has flown by in a whirlwind and this retreat has allowed me to reset some of my priorities.

The trip started out on Friday after work and my road mates were Allie  (Classroom Action with Ms.Jackson), Latoya (Flying into First Grade) and Angela (The Daily Alphabet). We arrived at about 11:30pm and checked in and went out to explore the resort!

On Saturday was the big meet up day. First, we did a fun icebreaker activity that spelled out the theme for the weekend “Take Your Passion and Make it Happen”. Next, we did a fun teacher tool swap activity. We were broken into clusters by grade level/specialty and passed our bags around until the music stopped. We then each opened up the gift and the person who gave it to you explained their gift. I received some materials to make a cool probability station. My gift to the other person was a mini glue gun, a battery operated pencil sharpener, baskets, poster markers and sharpies.

The next activity was one of my favorite activities and that was the roundtable discussions. I learned a ton on ideas on how to increase my followers, branding myself, TpT ideas and utilizing Pinterest.  After that it was time for all the goodies and giveaways! I won a very cute 30.00 store credit to Twinkle Twinkle Lil Jar. Next we received our t-shirts and swag bag full of goodies.

That night we ended with an epic 80’s party. There was fun, food, games and even a surprise flash mob dance. The photo booth was a nice touch as well. The next morning (early next morning, because of Daylight Savings Time) we met for a farewell group pic with our t-shirts on and had breakfast at the resort’s famous breakfast buffet.

We then bid our farewells and headed back to our respective homes. Overall I had a blast connecting faces with names and getting to know more teacher blogger friends. I can’t wait for next year! Check out some of the pics that I took from this weekend!



Ready for the retreat to begin!

Our theme for the weekend!

I won a 30.00 credit to this vendor Twink Twinkle Lil Jar! Can't wait to use it!

Ready for the 80's party!

Some of me and my new blogger friends!

What can I say I'm an 80's baby!!!!

What an EPIC 80s party this was!

Our last group pic of the Retreat!

Saying our Goodbyes! Until next time Frenchlick!

St. Patrick's Day Writing Tasks FREEBIE

St. Patrick’s Day is just days away and I have created a FREEBIE to help celebrate! The FREEBIE consist of 2 writing tasks for grades 2-4 about some of the myths of St. Patrick’s Day. The first task students are asked to write about their lucky day if they were to find a 4-leaf clover. The second task asks students to write about what would they do if they found a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. These writing tasks are great resources to get your students ready for St. Patrick’s Day. Check out a preview below….. To download the full product click on the link in my store. Be sure to leave feedback! More great products coming soon!

Pumpkin Fun!

It's almost Halloween and my school had some pumpkin fun! Last week was Book Fair week and our school librarian held a pumpkin decorating contest. Teachers and students were to decorate pumpkins in their favorite book character! Our school had a blast looking at all the decorated pumpkins! Look at the pumpkins and see if you can guess what they are!

Happy Halloween!!!!

My First Paid Product Listed! Yay for Me!

Now I am really excited! I just completed my first full Unit Packet for the book Muggie Maggie by Beverly Clearly. I am really proud of this accomplishment! This packet can accompany any teacher who is reading this book as a read aloud, shared reading or literature circle group. The full product is about 10 pages and has many great graphic organizers, vocabulary worksheets and a comprehension test. The product is up and posted in my TpT store. I think I have also figured out the kinks of power point! I am now ready to move full speed ahead in creating lots more products. My goal is to create 2 products a week! Wish me LUCK!

 

 

 

This is my cover page and just one of my sample pages.

 

To see and view more check out the product by clicking on my store!

My First Product!

I am SUPER EXCITED!!!!! I finally posted my first TpT Product! Since my first product has to be a freebie, I did a simple following directions activity sheet that I have used in the past with my students for Back to School. I use it to show the importance of following directions. I am still getting the hang of power point, so right now it is taking me forever to finish one page. But a few more products under my belt then I would have mastered Power Point! Please feel free to check out this product and leave comments and feedback! Click on my store for the freebie and access to my other products as I create them!

 

 

 

Books and Bagels Oh My!

School is in full swing here in Tennessee. This is my second year being an Instructional Coach at my school and I love it! As soon as I got back from Vegas it was full swing ahead and my first task was cleaning and organizing the teacher book room! This year I am so fortunate to get to work with Alexandria of Classroom Action with Ms. Jackson. She is also the second instructional coach at my school! We are super excited to be working together again!

It took us about 2 weeks to get everything we wanted and we couldn’t be more excited with the result. Check out the before and after photos of our awesome book room. We launched the book with a Books and Bagels event for the teachers. We got this great idea from Latoya of Flying into First.

  The bookroom was such a mess and disorganized. We had so much stuff in the room. It definitely was not teacher friendly! The new space has easy walk ways and everything is very clean! On the tables are some of the give always that we gave to the teachers during our Books and Bagels Event.

 

Yummy bagels from Panera for our Books and Bagels Event. It was a hit with the teachers! They were so appreciative of everything and especially the food!