Staying In Touch...

I'm curious... How do you stay in touch with parents on a regular basis? I've tried newsletters, and they are starting to get boring. I feel like I'm telling them the same thing every week. In spelling, we're.... In reading, we're.... Spelling test on Friday.... Same old, same old. I utilized the blog component of my school website a few years ago. Parents seemed to like it, but again, it seemed like I was just posting reminders and such.

SO. What do YOU do?

I've seen some teachers that have created a Twitter for their classroom, but Twitter and I don't get along. I just don't understand it. But what I DO love, is Instagram. So, it struck me!

Why not create an, obviously private, Instagram account just for parents. I can snap pictures throughout the day on my iPad, then plop them right onto Instagram. Parents can literally know what we're doing in real time. I'm seriously geeking out, I'm so excited. I really hope it works and doesn't just flop on its face.

Do you utilize any type of social media in your classroom? Do tell!! I'm anxiously awaiting the alternative to the newsletter!

Five For Friday!

This week has been absurd. We had in-service on Monday. Tuesday was a snow day. Wednesday was a 2-hour delay. Report cards are due next week. There were about 5 assessments that needed finished. I'm officially tired of snow. Like, for real. Without further ado, here's some of what happened in my life today...

1 - I revamped my math bulletin board today... It was due for a change. I always forget to update don't update the board as often as I'd like. To help counteract that, I went through the EnVision curriculum and typed up Essential Questions for the whole first grade curriculum. Yeah, it took awhile, but I'm really hoping that it'll keep me ahead of the game with updating my board! If you use EnVision, the EQ's are FREEEEE in my TPT shop.

2 - CUPID SHUFFLE! So, we were doing a brain break this morning during our sight word test. I'm obsessed with finding Just Dance videos on youtube - they make the perfect brain break! Today, I found Cupid Shuffle and we had a blast... THEN, today's math lesson was finding 1 more, 1 less, 10 more, and 10 less on a hundreds chart... I immediately started singing the Cupid Shuffle to help them understand! For 1 more, go TO THE RIGHT, TO THE RIGHT, TO THE RIGHT! For 1 less, go TO THE LEFT, TO THE LEFT, TO THE LEFT! Priceless. They totally got it. I totally made it up on the spot planned it ahead of time. #win

3 - Favorite quotes of the day...
Student: "Did you know that Justin Bieber got arrested?"
Me: "Yes... Moving on."

Student: "Did you know that the farm show smells like... animals?"
*DUH*

Same Student: "I love Skippyjon Jones. I love when he goes into his closet to imaginate."

4 - The heat was broken in our faculty room today... Womp womp. I had to eat at my desk (with a space heater underneath) just so I could feel my toes. Crazy talk. In other news, my spaghetti squash with homemade lamb meatballs was INCREDIBLE. That yogurt you see? Not so incredible. Hated it.

5 - Bus dismissal. Walkers had already left. Secretary calls. It's so-and-so's last day. He's moving tomorrow.... I had NO clue. Didn't get to say goodbye, and he's one of my favorite kiddos... Very bummed.

Have a good weekend, ya'll... I'm off to happy hour with some friends for some much needed relaxing after a long week!

Power of Positive Praise!

Earlier this marking period, I set out on a mission to be in contact with families more often. As teachers, we all find ourselves contacting parents when things go WRONG, but it's so easy to forget about letting parents know about how wonderful their kids really are! There are many ways to do this, but here's what I came up with...

I was looking for something that:
-was not overly time consuming
-included all students
-motivated my students

I designed a few little positive praise cards, which are FREE ON TPT! Here's a few of the ones I came up with... I'll probably make loads more, I just wanted to get the file up there so you guys could snag it!

Each day, I set a goal of around 4 or 5 students, and throughout the day, I look for those select students doing something exceptionally awesome. For some students, this was easy. We all have those "is an eager learner" students. I wanted to design something that wasn't strictly behavior based and wasn't strictly academic based. The cards I came up with are very universal... For instance, I've got a little kiddo who is really struggling in math. One day, his card simply said that he "worked so hard to understand the concept in math." You can literally use these any way you want. My FAVORITE part, by far, is hearing from parents about how excited their children are to rush off the bus and show them the little slip of paper, that seems so simple to me. They are proud, the know that they made their teacher proud, and their parents are proud, too. I love love love it, and highly recommend trying this in your classroom. Like I said, if you set a personal goal of 4 or 5 kids a day, you'll get through all your students in a week, and it will create a warm relationship with parents so that when you DO have to call for not so positive things, they already know that you love and care for their child.

Nonsense Word Freebie

Hi all! I don't know about you, but last week was CRAY CRAY. We had 2 days off and a 2 hour delay another day... I swear, weeks like that seem WAY longer than normal weeks. This guy and his batch of 6 year olds need routines!! Here's hoping for a normal week (although I just saw snow predicted for Wednesday and Friday this week... ugh!)

ANYWHO - we're gearing up for our winter DIBELS this week. I played a quick nonsense word game with my kids today and was blown away... not in a good way! I'm convinced that when we started learning long vowels, my firsties forgot all about those precious little short vowels we worked so hard on at the beginning of the year. SO. I got to working. I made a PDF of 50 nonsense words to project on the board... We're going to hammer those suckers tomorrow!! It's totally free on TPT if you want to snag it here!

Have a good night, ya'll!

January Currently

WOW! It's been a while since I've linked up for Farley's Currently! Without further ado, here's what's going on in my life today...

LISTENING - I upgraded to Pandora One a couple of months ago. Best decision. I play music literally all day long in my classroom, and now I don't have to listen to commercials, and I don't have to get up to say "Yes, I'm still listening" as often. The Lumineers station is one of my favorites while getting work done... Very chill.

LOVING - I told myself that 2014 is going to be a good year for running.  I need to go more often, and I need to force myself to go for longer distances.  Today, I did a 5K around the neighborhood in 24:51. Not GREAT, but it's the best I've done.

THINKING - Seriously, I go back to school tomorrow and I have no clue what I'm doing. I should get on that. But here I sit.

WANTING - My wife has been gluten free for quite some time now, so I also told myself that 2014 would be the year of no gluten. I don't know if I'll make it a year or not, but lord almighty all I want right now is a grilled cheese sandwich........

NEEDING - I have been searching TPT and Pinterest all morning looking for some New Years activities to do with my firsties the next 2 days, and I'm coming up empty handed. Guess I'll be getting creative!

MEMORY - My great grandfather worked at Wendell August Forge a gazillion years ago. My parents grew up in western PA and moved back a few years ago. The original factory burned down a few years ago, but the new one is up and running with tours so we decided to check it out. Not only did we find a picture of my great grandfather (whom I'm named after) outside the factory in 1932, but I also got to pound my own little design in aluminum... It was a little surreal, but a great memory for sure.