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!
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
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!
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!
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.....
Have fun getting started on your back to school prep! It really is around the corner.......
Friday, July 1, 2016
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....
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!
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