Back To School - Table Organizers!

This past week was my preplanning week.  It was EXHAUSTING!  I can tell when I have worked hard by how well I sleep, and I slept WELL this week.  :-)

Every year I change my table baskets for organization.  I have used every tub, can, jar, basket, etc. that you can think of and I am never happy.  It seems as if I always walk into another teachers room and feel jealous of their bins for student supplies - but even when I "copy" their idea, I am not content.

This year, I was at Hobby Lobby and I saw these awesome long wooden boxes with about ten different compartments.  DONE.  I loved them for many reasons - none of which were the price!  They were 24.99 each - not a deal - and I needed six of them.  I waited until they were 50% off and purchased them at 12.49 each.  Still expensive, but my thought is that they are so decorative that I can use them in other ways at home or for a graduation party or whatever.  It was a splurge, but I do love the results.

They have nine compartments and I have filled each with a different resource for my students.  These are almost everything they will need in math for lessons and their ISN.  They have:
- dry erase markers and highlighters
- dry erase erasers
- fat markers
- fine tip markers
- glue sticks (oh how I love them!)
- colored pencils
- calculators
- scratch paper and protractors
- scissors and rulers

I love how thin they are.  They fit down the center of my tables easily with plenty of room for kids to work, and everything is RIGHT there.  I love it!

I also love that the compartments are "built in".  No jars or cups or cans stuck in a basket to separate items. I think this is the solution I have been looking for and they make me very happy.  Teachers are so great - we get excited about the simplest things don't we?

By the way, I did go to Home Depot and price out 1/4 inch wood to have cut and then used to make these, but by the time I bought all the wood, paid for the cuts, and put them together, It was about the same as what I spent at Hobby Lobby and all the work was already done.  Here is one last close up!

First Day of Pre Planning for Me!

Wow! It is that time, and today was my FIRST day of planning.  I am tired, excited, overwhelmed, and more tired!!!  Last night, I tried to go to bed at 10:30, but I was still awake at 1 a.m. because I was thinking of everything I needed to do, and I was .... nervous!  I am not sure why!  This is not new for me, but I truly felt nervous about going to work today.  My school has a new Middle School Head, so there are changes coming.  I am excited about that and looking forward to the new life and breath that change brings - but still nervous!

I teach at a Christian School and we begin each new semester with worship.  It is the most wonderful part of the year....all of us as staff singing and hearing God's word as inspiration to do the job He has called us to do.  I love it!  Below is a link to a clip of our service today.  This man singing is one of our custodians and he walks the halls every day singing as he cleans.....what a blessing.  I actually sat in tears at my desk one day this summer.  I was working in my calm and quiet room and this sweet servant hearted man was sweeping and singing praise.  It is a beautiful thing!

Happy start to your year - I hope and pray it is AWESOME!

Click here for a blessing!  Scroll down to the video!

BACK TO SCHOOL EDITABLE RESOURCES!

Well, I am really working hard to get organized and I have created a couple of new items that are editable and I am REALLY excited about them!

Here is a little history on my computer skills when I went back to teaching 7 years ago.  I had taught from 1991 until 1998 and then became pregnant with my first child.  My husband was transferred and that meant we were moving from Grand Rapids to Atlanta right around the start of a new school year. We decided that I would stay home with our baby and not go back to teaching that year.  Well, that year turned into 11 wonderful years of being a stay at home mom to my three sons!  I loved it and while it was hard and I struggled internally with not using my calling as a teacher, I would never go back and do anything differently.  I WAS teaching!  Being a stay at home mom is one of the most rewarding teaching jobs you could ever have, and I took it seriously.  :-)

Once my third son was of age to start kindergarten, God provided a perfect job for me in a middle school with my old administrator!  It was such a blessing and I am thankful every day for the connection I had with him in the nineties that led to a wonderful opportunity so many years later!  (don't ever burn a bridge....)

My FIRST day at pre planning was exciting for me, but I quickly realized that teaching had changed over the 11 years that I was at home.  I had never used a computer with teaching.  We hand wrote notes to other teachers and sent students with them if we needed something.  There was no learning management system, never used a power point much less a prezi, and ONLY wrote lesson plans in the good old green lesson plan book!  Can anyone relate?????

We were told to open our laptops and turn them on ------- first problem.  I had NO IDEA how to do that!  Truly!!!!!  I did not have a clue.  I tried to sneak peaks at everyone else and figure it out, but my young male teammate sitting next to me was onto me.  He leaned over and told me, "Its the little silver button at the top of your keyboard."  OH MY GOODNESS!  I was embarrassed, overwhelmed, and completely out of place.  That first year back was one of great stress, anxiety, and also excitement!  I learned SO MUCH.

I am a learner by nature, so I delved in and soaked up everything I could in the arena of technology, and here I am today - with a TpT store - and creating EDITABLE DOCUMENTS for others!  I am also blogging!  WOW! I am amazed myself!  Yesterday, I sent the product I am about to share to our IT person for a test run, and she called me so excited because it works!!!!  She remembers me from the days of running to her frantically yelling that I can't figure out how to do something with my computer.  She felt like a proud momma!  (and she should!)

So, nowadays, my back to school presentations are digital.  I love "cute" so I thought I would create a couple of things that teachers could use to introduce themselves and their policies to students and parents at the beginning of the year.  PLEASE go to my TpT store, Connie Jennings, and check out more, but for now, here are two versions of an editable power point!  I am using the chalkboard one for my class and my teammate will use the bright polka dot one.  We are really excited!  All we have to do is click to insert our info.  We can save it as a PDF and attach it to email for parents, or add it to our LMS. LOVE IT!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Back-to-School-EDITABLE-POWER-POINT-Chalkboard-Design-2643614

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Back-to-School-EDITABLE-POWER-POINT-2643400

BACK TO SCHOOL - Course Guide!

I cannot believe there is less than a month before we actually START school WITH KIDS!  Is this true?  Surely I am dreaming....summer is almost over?  I honestly feel as if it has been a blink this year, and my family hasn't even been overscheduled - we've moved as slowly as possible.  Still, ready or not, its almost time, so I am going to start getting prepared little by little.

Today, I revamped my course guide.  My middle school head of school requires each academic teacher to provide a syllabus for our students.  Now, I think syllabi are great, but sixth graders do NOT read all the fine print in a formal syllabus - and actually, I don't believe many parents do either.  ;-)  So, I recreated mine in a format that seems more casual and is visually appealing.  The information is chunked into little segments, but everything I really want the parents and kids to know is there: text info, grading percentages, class expectations, what they need every day and my contact info.  I used to include a timeline of what I would teach and when, but I don't do that anymore.  Anytime I changed things up or eliminated something until later, I felt this little guilt that my syllabus said I was doing something else.   I bet I am not alone.  Teachers are rule followers even if it is their own rules!

Here is an image of the new course guide I created.  Is it too busy?  Probably - but I would bet that more information gets read on this one than the "college course wannabe" one I have used in the past!

MY COURSE GUIDE...

I will give it to my kids on the second day of school.  We will go over it with some little game where I ask a question and they race to see who can find the answer first (which should be quick because there is limited info in this little guy!).  Then, I will have the kids sign it and we will glue it into the front cover of our ISN.  As their first homework assignment, I have them show it to their parents, along with their set up ISN and get their signature.

I have signed A L O T of syllabi.  I have two high schoolers.  I admit that I rarely look at them.  Just sign where I am supposed to and move on and just pray that anything I really need to know will get emailed to me.  :-)  I am a visual learner, and I do feel that I would look at a syllabus like this more than the other kind.  Some probably wouldn't, but I think most would.  I like it!

If you like this, I invite you to click on it and pay the $1 fee and download yourself an editable copy! I include mine in the product, so that you can see how I filled in the sections.  Here is the one you will edit if you get it.....

BACK TO SCHOOL EDITABLE COURSE GUIDE

Have fun getting started on your back to school prep!  It really is around the corner.......

Kaboom!

Each day this summer I am trying to do something to prepare for next year.  I actually enjoy doing things for work.  I love the slow pace of summer where I can think and just enjoy the process with nothing like grading or learning management systems or returning lots of parent emails to work on. It is really fun to create and plan and get organized, but to be able to stop whenever I want!

Most of my time this summer has been spent with TpT and getting things loaded onto my store.  It is truly rewarding but very labor intensive!  I have to stop and do something more hands on every day or so and just leave the computer alone.  One of the recent hands on activities I am working on is redoing my KABOOM game pieces.

If you do not know what KABOOM is, you should!  It is a great review or practice game that the kids love.  Mine right now consists of Pringle's cans covered in contact paper and filled with slips of colored card stock with numbers on them for the problem numbers.  The idea is that kids have a set of problems to work.  They pull out a number and everyone at the table completes the problem.  If whoever's turn it is gets it right, they keep the slip.  If they don't, the slip goes back in the can and becomes a freebie for anyone else who pulls it during the game.  The KABOOM comes in when they draw a slip that says KABOOM on it.  That means, for the person who drew the KABOOM, that ALL their slips go back into the can and they all become freebies for anyone who draws them throughout the remainder of the game. Yikes!  The winner has the most slips at the end.

Kids LOVE it, and it gets very heated during play.  I use it for every major quiz, and then I use a different review game called TPT  (Teaching, Practice and Tournaments) for tests.  I am working on a product for TpT called "TPT" (wow - that is confusing) and will post about it once it is done.  For me, having a tool box of review ideas is truly comforting.  I can pull these out and use them any time with any review we are doing.  I love it!

So, what was wrong with my cans and slips?  Well, the slips get all bent up and crushed in the can, and the kids actually can "tell" which ones are KABOOMS by how they are bent or not bent.  (Those stinkers!)  I thought about it and decided to use tongue depressors instead of slips and place them in washed out soup cans instead of Pringle's cans.  I am painting the tips of each set so that they are easy to organize if they get mixed up.  I love it!  Here is a picture of the first set I have done....

Here is another of just some of the sticks.  I put a K on the KABOOM sticks.  My sets have 35 sticks each.  Thirty are numbered and 5 are KABOOMS.

Now, here is the idea I implemented this year, and it was hugely successful!  I put a little sticker on ONE Kaboom slip in each set. My sticker was a little apple. At the start of class, we decided what that KABOOM would mean.  Here are some of our "KABOOM STICKER" rules:

1.  Instead of putting all slips back - TAKE a slip from each other player at the table!

2.  Trade slips with any other player!

3.  Choose one other player to put their slips back in the can!

4.  Get a piece of candy!

5.  Give each of the other players at the table one of your slips.

You can imagine that this was a lot of fun!  The KABOOM with the sticker became one that every one wanted instead of one they feared.  It was really great, and I will definitely do it again this year - but with my new KABOOM sticks instead of slips.  Love it!

Have a great day - one set down and five more to paint!

Order of Operations Posters

Hey, everyone!  Which is really no one because I don't think anyone knows I have this blog!  Ha!  Maybe I should create an imaginary friend and write my blog posts to her......Bahahahahaha!

I think it is a little scary how much fun I have in my own mind - and I don't even drink!  :-)

Anyway, I made some little posters today.  I wanted to revamp my PEMDAS posters in my classroom, so I made some to coordinate with the STUDY SKILLS posters I have already written about.  They turned out pretty cute!  I am going to laminate them and mount them on some black canvasses that my son splatter painted for me.  I will post pics once that is all done, but couldn't finish it all up because our laminator was not working today (of course.).

Here are the posters - simple but bright.  I have added them to my TpT store as a freebie, so if anyone ever checks this blog...bonus!

Slowly but surely, my classroom is coming along and I feel as if I am going to be so much calmer once school starts because of the prep I am doing this summer.  It doesn't seem like work now - and my boys are at a youth group event close to school, so everyone is happy right now.  All good!

WOOHOO!!!!!!!!

I have now sold 12 products on TpT!!!!!!!!! I am so excited!  (OK - one of them I sold to myself just because I wanted to make sure it was "downloadable" - HA!!!!)

Phew - this is the encouragement I needed.  What a good day!  :-)

INTEGERS!

You know, I have been told by my students that every time I introduce a new topic, I say, "Y'all, if there is anything I want you to really get this year, its..... It is the most important thing you need to know!"  I think they are probably right - I tend to exaggerate quite a bit in most areas of my life.  :-)

But....INTEGERS really are the most important thing I want my students to get!  I absolutely LOVE the light that snaps on in kids eyes when integers just click - and for some it happens right away, but for others, it is a process.  For that reason, I teach integers in multiple ways all year long.

I am working on a few integer products for my TpT store, and thought I would post links to two of them today...they are both really good, and I think anyone would love them.  As the school year gets going I will post pictures of some of the integer lessons and activities I do, and include pics of these two products in action.

First, integer ISN notes - a must.  I teach integers with two color counters and with a number line, and even by acting out a basketball game involving the "positives" verses the "negatives".  I play integer war and we use task cards and anything else I can come up with to learn the concepts - but notes are necessary and important for kids to internalize the concepts with a resource they can repeatedly go back to.  Here are my INTEGER ISN SKETCH NOTES:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Integer-Sketch-Notes-2603488

They include notes and practice for concepts - all ready to print and use - along with answers for teachers.  Here are a couple of  pics, but there is much more in the product!

Then, last night, I added the product "The Value of Words".  I often write the alphabet under my number line at school so that each letter is assigned one integer.  Then, I give the kids words to find the total of if they combine the integer values for each letter.  I finally put it all together in a neat and fun product that includes cards with integer values, word lists for each season, and word cards with suggestions for games to play using this idea!  It is awesome and I cannot wait to use it with my kiddos!  Here it is!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Integer-Operations-Combining-Integers-Centers-and-Games-2612770

Hope you check these out!  They are really great!  Once school starts, I will post about how I implement them in my classroom along with pictures.  It makes me excited for school to start!

Study Skills Posters!

Ok - it is June 23rd, and I am already getting my room ready for fall.  I have a problem.  I know I do! I honestly do not understand myself sometimes, but the truth is that it is so peaceful in my classroom today, and I have cleaned and organized and it just feels so GOOD!  I am not neglecting my family to be here, so I don't feel too badly.  I have three sons and one is working right now at Chick-Fil-A, one is in driver's ed class, and one is at camp!  What else would I do???? (only teachers would understand this, right?)

So, today, I thought I would post a couple of things I did and through that, practice uploading pics on this two day old blog.

First, I love bright colors and have found some AWESOME classroom posters at Erin Condren that I bought for my room.  There are 12 of them and they actually reverse to a monthly calendar, so I can display all twelve and just flip around 1 or 2 months at a time for the calendar.  I LOVE THEM! (sorry about the glare in this pic.)

Click on picture to go directly to website where I bought these!

I also have an item in my TpT store, Connie Jennings, called STUDY SKILLS posters.  I printed them in color today at Office Max (cost 5.84 for all 8) and then laminated them and hung them in my room.  I think they look great and they match my Erin Condren posters.  Happy Day!  Here is a picture of them on my wall.....

Click here to see these in my TpT store!

It was a pretty good day.  I feel good about where my classroom is, and I was able to take the time to do things like THINK without stress.  Isn't it funny how we go from day to day working so hard, and we rarely take time to just sit and think about what we are doing and why? I enjoyed today - good for my soul - and I feel very satisfied, even though it is summer and I am sitting in my classroom at school.  :-)  Oh well!!!!

Teachers Pay Teachers

I want to learn how to create links within my blog posts so that I can refer readers to my items on TpT and to other's items that I use.  I also want my blog to serve as a way for me to categorize all of my resources so that I, too, can go back to things I have used.  So, I am going to try by posting a link to my TpT store - which is almost as new as this blog - I opened on June 1.  Wish me luck!

I am a Blogger!

Hello, teacher friends!  I am very excited, but very nervous about starting this blog - which I felt very compelled to do since starting my TpT store.  I feel as if I have been drinking from a fire hydrant this summer with everything I am learning about Teachers Pay Teachers and social media and selling products and now blogging!  It is overwhelming and I think I must be crazy because I am already a teacher stretched as far as I can go........

Regardless, I am all in, and I am going to do my best to learn and hopefully I will find this blog and my TpT store to be a creative outlet that helps me process what I do every day.  So far, today I have set up this blog, added a free background and am typing this post - all in about 30 minutes.  I am looking forward to learning more and getting better and better at this new world of teaching which involved more technology than I ever imagined I would ever need or use!!!!

Here's to being a lifelong learner!
See you soon,
Connie