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Hello all!
I'm going to try to keep up with my new blog with a little more fidelity...so come on over and check it out!!
http://technologicalteachings.blogspot.com/

Back from Vacation

Hey all! I'm back from an amazing vacation!! My wonderful parents treated us to Disney World for our Christmas gift, and it was awesome!! This was the first time my husband has ever done any "Disney" stuff, and he had so much fun!! I'll admit, I'm thoroughly exhausted...I just wanted to take a nap in my classroom today...but it was SO MUCH FUN!!
However, I just went over to Clutter Free Classroom, and it made me feel totally behind. I know I can "catch up" easily...I just have to put my mind to it and get some rest to feel better and give me the energy to catch up.
Well, I've gone through one week doing my "Daily 4," and I loved it! Granted, I obviously wasn't there the entire week, but it seemed to go so much smoother! I even had a coworker come in and do a peer observation, and she said it looked so much better than when she had come in earlier. She said the kids were all on task and doing pretty quality work. That makes me excited!! It also is helping me hold the kids accountable for the work they're doing while I'm doing guided reading because they staple it all together at the end of the week and turn it in. It's still going to take a little while to really get the kids to hold themselves accountable and hold themselves to high standards on the activities they complete while I'm teaching. However, I know they can do it! I've got a really good group of kids!
Well as that "program" gets under way and we work out the kinks, I'm trying to create a better and easier way for me to keep track of the kids' homework so parents can be more aware of their student's assignments. If anyone has any tips, let me know. I've tried a few different ways, but no matter what I do, it just seems like a lot of work sometimes. But, maybe that's just the way it is! I hope y'all are having a great week so far!! Tomorrow's Humpday!! Halfway through the week!!

Back from Winter Break

Well today was my first day back from 5 weeks of winter break. I had such a nice break, but I was super excited to get back to my kiddos today!! We had a great day today! We started our "Daily 4" rotation today...they did pretty well! I was excited! Tomorrow I have a friend coming in to do a peer observation and I asked her to watch for any suggestions she might have to make things smoother, etc.
For Clutter Free Classroom this week, we're supposed to work on our desk areas. Considering this is my main focus I want to put my energy towards, I want to make sure I can put a lot of attention to it. However, on Thursday, my husband and I are headed to Disneyworld (our amazing Christmas present from my parents), and I'm tutoring every day after school. So, I'm going to hang on to this task until next week and I'll plan on doing this week and next week's tasks then.
I hope y'all had a great Monday! Now I've got to go work on my Prezis for social studies!

Quarter 3 Bulletin Board

So like I said earlier, my social studies content this quarter is focused around Civil War in North Carolina. Because of this, I created a "Civil War Battles in North Carolina" bulletin board, and I'm super proud of it!

The background is a combination of a United States flag circa 1861, and the Confederate "Stars and Bars" circa 1863. I thought about doing both flags about the same time, but I figured the "Stars and Bars" from 1861 wouldn't be as familiar to the kids as this one. I created this map of North Carolina for my quarter 1 bulletin board which focused on the regions and symbols. I put it back up onto this background to showcase the battles of North Carolina.

This is a close up of my bulletin board. I created miniature "Union" or "Confederate" flags to signify who won each battle. If it was an "inconclusive" result, the marker was a combination of the flags. I also put the name of the battle and the date under each flag.

One last picture of it. Honestly, my quarterly bulletin boards are one of my very favorite things to do on my workdays each quarter. I love trying to come up with a new theme each year and then create bulletin boards related to that theme!

Clutter Free Classroom: Week #3 Review

Clutter Free Classroom!!

I know, I know...I've been out of it this week with my posting. I've just been busy busy and tired! But, I'm super excited to share what I've been up to this week!! So our task this week was to begin decluttering...and boy, did I have fun! Our prompt this week: How much were you able to escort out of the door this week? Tell us what you purged and how you felt doing so.

So I didn't get to escort as much as I wanted this week since I had 3 workdays and one of those got cut a little short...but...

Only one trash bag this week, but it was full!!

I was able to get a super big garbage bag and dump a ton of junk into it! I felt wonderful seeing that bag full!! And I only got to a little corner of my room!! Can't wait to see how much I can get rid of from the entire room!! :)

My "give away" box was overflowing! I was surprised!

I couldn't believe that I actually had stuff to give to other teachers just out of my track out cart and back cabinets! Ugh...another bunch of weight off my shoulders!
I didn't take a picture of my recycling bin because I forgot...but there was certainly a lot in there!!
So, here are my little section's "after" pictures...

My track out cart! You can actually see the shelves!!

My "Party Supplies" closet...cups, plates, etc. on the bottom shelf. Winter Experience and Pirate Day stuff on the middle shelf. Extra napkins and plastic bins on top.

My "Teacher's Snacks" cabinet with paper scraps for art projects on the top shelf.

Wow! Look at all that room I cleared out!! I have my coffee supplies (which are essential) on the bottom and extra party supplies on top...plenty of room for more organization!

My track out cart again...I can see all of my supplies and stuff!! Woo hoo!!

Ugh...clearing out just this little corner of my "home away from home" feels amazing!!! You can ask any of my coworkers...I was having a fantastic time!!

Beginning of Clutter Free Classroom Week 3

This week is about starting to purge in your classroom. I'm so excited!! I can't wait to jump in! However, she encourages you to take it section by section and not trying to tackle too much at once. She even made a cool checklist for us to separate out each little section to help keep things organized. Of course, this feeds into my love of checklists. I always feel so much better when I have a checklist. I feel like I accomplish so much more!
I'll need to remember to take pictures as I go this week and post them on Friday for the linky party!

I've been working really hard this track out on creating things to use during my literacy time this quarter. I've also been working on social studies. Our social studies curriculum is really vague, and social studies is one of my favorite things to teach, so I'm bummed it's so vague. However, I've worked throughout the years on creating curriculum for each quarter. This quarter, we're going to be learning about the role North Carolina played during the Civil War, along with Native Americans of North Carolina.
To teach my kids about the Native Americans, I broke the tribes up into the 6 main tribes of the state. I then made 3 basic PowerPoint presentations to give my kids for them to take basic notes. They get a blank map of North Carolina and fill it in with tribe information as we go along. I have the presentations, but am unable to attach PowerPoint presentations. If you'd like them, just let me know and I'll email them to you. The other thing I'm going to do for Native Americans today is a project I developed, entitled Native Americans of North Carolina. This could be adopted to your state's tribes if you like. I love having at least one take-home project per quarter, and this is the first time I'm going to try this one. One of my coworkers did this project last quarter, and the products I saw were great!
To teach my kids about North Carolina in the Civil War, I read a book called North Carolina as a Civil War Battleground. It was a little dry (it is a history book), but I love history books, so it wasn't bad for me. I've then taken all of the information from that book and am putting it into Prezis to use for my kids. If you're not familiar with Prezi, go ahead and try it...it's very easy to learn and fun to use. It's a more "exciting" presentation form than PowerPoint. I can't attach it here, but I believe you should be able to find it if you search for "Preparations for War" or "North Carolina Leaves the Union." I haven't finished the rest yet. I'll be sure to post the name of those presentations as I finish them.

Linky Party 2

Clutter Free Classroom

The linky party this week is a reflection on all of the things she's been asking us to do this week.

Q: What do you plan to do with your "stuff" that you no longer want?
A: Most of it I'm expecting it to throw away. Not having taught for too long, I'm really not thinking that I have many things (if any) that any other teacher wants. However, anything that I think MIGHT be of use to someone, I will definitely put in our teacher's lounge to share with others.

Q: What are your rules for purging?
A: 1. If it's broken, toss it. As much as I tell myself I'll fix it, I never do.
2. If I haven't used it in over a year, toss it.
3. If I have it saved on my computer or if it's available online, toss it.
4. If it's not for 4th grade, donate it!

Q: What have you gathered to make your decluttering task easier?
A: I haven't gathered much as of yet. I have my four big clear bins with the labels clipped to them, and four small clear bins. I plan on getting some of the other things suggested this week since I have workdays this week and that's when I'll be really beginning my decluttering.

I haven't even done any official "decluttering" and I'm so psyched!! I have a few other teacher friends who are encouraging me and waiting to see how this all turns out for me before possibly jumping in. My awesome sister is (as always) looking for amazing resources to be helpful to me. (She's really an amazing sister!)

On a topic other than the linky party, I haven't really posted much else right now because I'm working on typing up writing prompts for my writing station during literacy, and it's taking quite a while. I'm planning on doing a modified "Daily 5" for my classroom to see if that'll help during literacy to hold the kids accountable and make it easier for me to observe them doing the objectives. I'll post some more of that when I get a little further!