Surviving Parent-Teacher Conferences

We all know that hustle and bustle when a grading period is ending, report cards are due, and parent-teacher conferences are right around the corner. Well I have survived all of this madness these last couple of week.

Our first quarter ended October 10th, Report card grade and comments were due the next week, and we had our Parent-teacher conferences this last week! So yes, I have been busy busy juggling this, and of course still moving on with our second grade curriculum.

After finishing up conferences, it got me to thinking with my experiences with them so far, and I thought it would be fun to write about:

Most conferences are pretty routine, parents know the drill, they come in and talk and are pretty much very agreeable and appreciative. But of course, we all have those conferences that have us feeling some sort of way when they're done. Either we are relieved that they're over or confused on what even happened, we know it won't be the first, or last time that we experience it. So I have picked my Top 4 Parent-Teacher experiences to write about that I am sure many of you could relate to!

#4:

It is sad to say, we do have those parents who simply come in because they know it is the responsible thing to do. However, they really just want it to be over with. Whether it is just nodding as you talk, some occasional "oks" to get you along, or the parents who literally have nothing to say at all. These of course can sometimes be uncomfortable, but just appreciate them making the effort to be there, and do your best to relay the message you are there to do!

#3:

Do you ever have those students that you just haven't quite figured out yet. The ones who are unique and definitely make each day interesting. Well it is one of my favorites when I meet these student's parents... and I have that "ah haa" moment... these are what I call the ah-ha parents. The parents that once you meet them, it makes perfect sense why their child is the way they are! I am not saying this is a bad thing! But sometimes as a teacher, it is nice to know that you are losing it, but this child just comes from a family that has led to who he or she is!

#2:

These are one of my favorites, and can definitely be one of the most difficult conferences to get through. To try to address parents with serious concerns and ideas to improve their child's education, and they don't seem to understand the concern or the suggestions because they feel they're child is a genius, the cream or the crop, the brightest crayon in the box. You of course don't want to totally ruin these parent's idea of their child, however, you do want to make a point that there are some aspects that need to be addressed, and what more we can do to help the child.

#1:

However these parents.... these are the parents that we need more of. This year's conferences reminded me how important these parents are and how it's nice to experience them. This year I had a mother sit down, and when I began with my usual, "How is everything on your end, is there any questions and concerns before we get started...." is when she laid it all out. She expressed how grateful she was for the work myself and my co-teacher have done this year. She explained how last year and at the very beginning of this year, her son did NOT like school, he never wanted to come, and he just didn't want anything to do with it. Someway, somehow, we were able to change this child's opinion to the point that he is very excited to come to school, he is excited about everything he is learning, he shows enjoyment for reading now, and looks forward to getting his homework done. But the kind words this mother used to express how thankful she was, and how appreciative she is for all we do. She relates that she knows her son can be difficult, how he can be very stubborn, but she can't thank us enough for still getting through to him and helping change his view on school.

  These are the conferences that remind me why I am doing what I do. I can only hope that all of you out there have a chance to experience these parents to remind us of the power we really have over these children. To remind us that these parents do understand what we are dealing with because these are their children at home and they know them best!



But finally P/T conferences are done! Don't have to worry about them again until March!

Now just getting ready for a chaotic Red Ribbon week leading up to a Halloween celebration on Friday!

Hope you are all hanging in there! Have a fantastic week!

Illinois Reading Conference!

So, I have been VERY fortunate and my district sent me to the Illinois Reading Conference (IRC)!

It was a pretty awesome experience! To see so many big names in the world of literacy for teachers.. all in one spot, it was a blast!

I was able to compare Timothy Shanahan and Richard Allington on their views of reading in the classroom with student learning, as well as complex texts! It's interesting to see their points of view, as well as compare it to my setting and what we are doing at our school. Shanahan is completely against teaching children at their instructional level, that all students need to be taught at grade level and must be challenged. Allington things that students should receive instruction at their grade level by a very well trained teacher! Wouldn't I love to see these two in a room together and watch them go at it!

I was also able to see Linda Dorn and her views on Text complexity as well as Vocabulary!
Maria Walthers great such great advice and motivation for transforming literacy instruction for the common core! The examples and ideas she brought to the table were wonderful!

These were just a few among MANY!

However, I would have to say that one of my favorites was watching and meeting the author and illustrator Steven Kellogg! His presentation was AMAZING! To sit and watch him work through his story telling thoughts, plus illustrating it right before our eyes, it was magical and inspirational. The passion you could tell he had was great too! He really enjoys what he does. He even read student letters that were written to him, HILARIOUS! This really wrapped up the whole conference and made my week!

So in honor of him! I am sharing my Jimmy's Boa activity pack too!!!!

Come back soon because I have some wonderful events coming up! (cough cough, BLOG HOP! yay)

Come back and check this event out!!! See you soon!

September Already?

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday weekend! So sad that it is considered the last official weekend of summer... even though here in Chicago the 80+ degree weather is telling us otherwise. But now it seems everyone is back in school and back to routine!

With that being said, as every school year begins, come an open house of some sort! So I am sharing with you today the All about me puzzle that I created for Open House! My open house was Thursday August 28th, and let me tell you, it was one heck of a day! I had about 70% of my class show up which isn't too bad! It is always fun to meet the parents and actually get to talk to them face to face rather then through notes or those sometimes stressful conferences. Plus it's a great way to get parents in to see where their children are spending most of the day and meet the person their spending most of the time with!

So of course you always have student work up, an all about me for the students of some sort. I know that in second grade, the students love to do ones where the parents have to guess which one is theres. they always find it so funny when they're parents try to figure it out. There are plenty of these out there, but I wanted something a little different so I am up with this all about me puzzle!

The students write on the puzzle pieces different facts that make them unique! We then take a picture and put it behind the puzzle pieces. The parent then have to "put the pieces together" meaning try to figure out which puzzle pieces add up to their student. The enjoyed it. My whole second grade team actually used this activity and it went really well. Here are some pictures from my teacher example!

You can get this in my store here!

All in all, as the year progresses and I get to know my students more and more, I am really excited for what this year has in store! I am lucky to have such a great group of kids!

Hope this sparks some ideas for your open house!

Enjoy the Short week! Be Back Soon!

Classroom Part 2!

Gosh, I didn't mean for so much time to fall between posts! But again, we teachers know what the beginning of the school year is like!

I started week 3 today! (I know where did time go!) I would say that I am off to a good start though! Figuring out the students and what will and will not work. Starting at the beginning of the year, I often forget how taskful it can be reteaching them simple routines and getting them back into the swing of things! PLUS they're still little first graders at first until we break them in! But all in all, it is going well! I feel I am finally getting "ahead" (not that it stays for long!) but I definitely am back into a routine and plan to blog at least once a week! I feel I have so many fun things to share!

Speaking of sharing, Let me show you some more of my classroom! PLUS some freebies are hidden inside of these pictures! So keeeeeeep reading!

Let's start with my lockers and the above boards! Yes... these lockers are actually IN my classroom. But it is fun to add some decoration on them and use them to display things! Above I have my "I Can Write...." board which is a visual reminder of things students can write when they are stuck! In the middle I have my reading genre board! Then my Daily 5 board of the anchor charts!

Here is my writing board! This  is where I house my work on writing for daily 5! As well as my things for my writing workshop!

On the right are my 6 trait pencils! These are a hot seller in my store! There are two different versions... this chalk version as well as a polka dot version. You can get them here!

On the left are my Writing Aids.. to help students get started on their writing. Then of course the usual pencils, crayons, markers, glue, and scissors. On the right side at the bottom, I have my old mail boxes that I use to put writing paper in! Students can choose what they want to write during their free write time!

Then we have my guided reading board! My guided reading table sits right in front this board!

I like to make this board very interactive using post-it notes! The top posters are ones that I have bought from TPT! They are so cute! I got them from A Year of Many Firsts! Check them out if you like them!

The informational text 3-2-1! 3 interesting facts, 2 questions, and 1 opinion! Helps get the students writing about informational text!

Then here are some more freebies!

Good Readers can retell the story  (the purple)

Good Readers can ask questions (the green)

Good readers can sequence the story (the pink)

While the students are reading, I ask them to write a question about what they are reading, or to answer a certain story element on a post-it, then I stick it to the board! I use a different color for each group so I know who has done what! Great to get interactive and get the students talking and writing!

The beginning of the school year is definitely exhausting! Plus so many changes in curriculum and new things added! Then of course trying to manage your schedule and student pull-outs for services! This is what my life has consisted of! By like I said, I am finally falling into a sound routine and will be writing again very soon!

Please enjoy the freebies! Hope it inspires or sparks something new! Come back soon!

HUGE THANK YOU!

It really has been way to long since my last post! I cannot apologize enough for my absence. However, I am sure you all understand how crazy life gets! Especially for teachers during the summer when not only are you trying to enjoy your time off, but you are trying to get things ready for the upcoming year!

So what have I been up to do you ask? Well where to start is the question!

Of course like I said before, I taught the Extended School Year summer school program! It was definitely an amazing experience and I enjoyed! I had a great group of students ages 5-7! Plus 2 wonderful aides! It was something I would definitely do again!

After summer school ended, I went on our annual camping trips with my dad, sisters, and niece! This trip was especially great because for the first time in a while, me and my 3 sisters were all able to be there! It was such a wonderful weekend with them, and I am really happy that we were able to do it! The collage below shows a lil snip pick of it!!

So after that fun weekend, I got sick... great I know. The week after was my only week this summer of "down time" because summer school was over and I had no official obligation, however, I was sick! PLUS I was getting ready for my first vacation in a very very long time! So my only week of down time was spent trying to feel better, cleaning the apartment, doing laundry, packing, and trying to get last minute stuff done for my classroom because I returned to my classroom right after vacation.

So this is where my BIG THANK YOU comes into place!

I cannot thank all of my supporters from TPT enough. I really enjoying making things and selling, it really is a hobby of mine. I love being able to help other teachers out and help create the classroom they really want. Plus, it is like I am helping out so many more students than those who enter my classroom with the products I create for others. So why am I so thankful, because with all the earnings I have earned from all of my WONDERFUL and AMAZING supporters, I was able to send myself on my first vacation in a VERY long time, thanks to all of YOU! As a young teacher I am still establishing myself, learning to save and plan for my future, plus I use a lot of my own pocket money for my classroom because teaching is really my passion and I want my students to have the best. Thanks to all those you have checked my products out and purchased from my store, it is because of YOU guys that I was able to take an amazing vacation!  I traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for 7 whole days. It was the best way to end my summer! So relaxing and rejuvenating. So as I sound like a broken record, Thank you thank you thank you all my TPT supporters! Not only do you help me supply my classroom with extra goodies, you gave me the getaway I needed to end the summer.

Here are some pictures! They cannot even capture the fun I had!

So as you can see, I have been one busy bee! I got back from vacation on Saturday August 2nd, then I was back in my classroom trying to get ready! Setting it all up and getting it ready for the kiddos coming in on August 12th!  Pictures of the new and improved classroom will be coming soon!

I promise I am back on track and will be posting much more often! It gets easier once I am on an actual routine and schedule to post and be on top of this! So come back and check out classroom tips and ideas, plus new products and wonderful updates!!

If you teach ins grade and need a product to get your started, check out my new and improved WELCOME BACK TO SECOND GRADE packet! Great to have the students engaged while you take care of all that house cleaning those first couple of days!

Again thank you thank you and please come back soon!

In the single Digits!

Man oh man, and to think, I would have been done with the school year THIS Thursday if  it wasn't for the polar vortex! But, I am still hanging in there. 7 school days to go, and so much to get done!

All of my data for my students is entered.. Check!
Students are sorted for next years classes… Check!
Got a estimate of my expected class size next year (13.. holy moly)… Check!
Finally found out who I am/ am not teaching with next year for co-teaching… CHECK!

On top of all of that, I am still slowly re-doing my room for next year.. and I am in LOVE with it so far! I will definitely be sharing on here once I get all the pictures taken and all that fun stuff to help inspire anyone looking for a fresh start next year! I am lucky enough to be able to leave my stuff up this summer, just have to cover it!

As for the goodie of the week…. I want to share my iPad rules posters! Next year my classroom will be 1:1 with iPads and I am stoked! The possibilities are endless and I already have a list of activities to make this summer to use with iPads! So even more goodies coming your way.

Being that this will be my first time with 1:1 iPads, there is a lot to think about! Routines being the first one. Routines have to be established and put into place to help it all run smoothly and efficiently. Classroom iPad rules is the first place I started, and here they are!

They are half sheets, perfect to fit in smaller areas but include graphics to help younger students remember.

These are NOT on my TPT yet… however… this hasn't worked yet.. BUT if I get people who follow, and Comment with their email address, I will gladly send this file as a freebie! Lets see what happens!

I wish you all good luck this week! I will be back soon.

Happy Monday! <3

Crazy May-ness!

As many of you teachers out there know.. MAY is such a crazy month. The students start to get antsy, the teachers start to get antsy.. and Summer fever hits hard. ESPECIALLY when next thursday was SUPPOSE to be your last day…. until the polar vortex decided otherwise this winter. But we are toughing through it!

The last week of school, I always try to make to make it fun, hands on, but still keep as much content as possible! So I do a travel unit with the students. Our mornings are our literacy block, so we will read a read aloud about it, some informational text, fill out some story maps, and even work with vocabulary. In the afternoons for math, I introduce a little multiplication work, then of course review review review from the school year! And of course writing is included! Writing about their trip, about where they visited, and even making their own stories. Since our last week is usually 3-4 days with field day and assemblies, I plan 3 days of travel.

So of course they get their own "passports"

And we load a "plane". 

After we get off the plane we go through "customs" and they get their stamp from the country.

Then we start the day with fun activities from that country!

In Egypt, we read about Egypt and the pyramids. In guided reading groups I will pull non-fiction books about Egypt and work with the students on them. Then we will read the informational text provided and solve the mystery words using the facts we learned to find out even more!

There are even fun hieroglyphic writing activities.

For math we work with Egyptian "multiplication" where students work with arrays and writing both multiplication problems and repeated addition problems.

In Australia there is a lot of fun to be had as well! Learn about kangaroos with Marsupial Sue! (can be found on Tumble books! With great comprehension activities included. Also read informational text and answer questions. For math there is a year in review with place value, addition/subtraction problem, basic 2nd grade fractions, telling time, and more! The of course a post card to write home with!

Then for my last day we finish it off with Big Anthony in Italy! Read Big Anthony, His Story by Tomie DePaola! (not included) work on comprehension as well as work on new Italian Vocabulary from the book! Read informational text about Italy! And for math, play BINGO with place value and addition/subtraction facts!

Then of course, end each day with some journal writing and reflecting!

These great items can be bought separately if you would like to make it a one day adventure!

Egypt

Australia

Italy

Passport

(travel journal is included in each individual pack)

Or you can get them ALL in a bundle HERE!

Thanks for stopping in! Remember if you like what you see, Follow me!!!

I am almost to me 100 Likes! wooooo!

Happy May-ness! Hang in there we're almost done!

BlogLovin!

Trying something new!

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More More Measurement!

We have wrapped up teaching measurement! (thank goodness!!) It still is not my favorite unit to teach, however, after we got past the part of the standard that required students to compare the difference between units of measurement, it got a lot easier!

So as we reviewed measuring, and worked more with measurement, I decided I wanted to do more hands on measuring and comparing, but in a fun way!! So I created the following math centers for students to work on!

There is an inch and a centimeter pack!
Both packs have 3 different centers within them. Each center is a different theme. The students measure the objects in each theme to the nearest unit of measurement, record it on the recording sheet, then answer comparing questions about their measurements!

It is a great way to have kids working hands on and being engaged!

Here is some samples below:

Click here to find this one on my TPT store!!

Click here to find this centimeter center on my TPT store!

Each center has it's own recording sheet..

and question sheet that allows students to make comparison and then answer it in a complete sentence..

 Please let me know what you think! I love making changes or adding things based off of what people find is helpful or useful!! Learning new things everyday!

Happy Spring! Hope all are doing well!!

Happy 100th Day of SCHOOL!!!

WE MADE IT!!

After all of the crazy weather and "snow days".... We have finally made it to the 100th day of school! So today we are celebrating! We survived 100 days of school and are 100 days smarter!!

So for the special occasion I thought I would share some FREEBIES for the occasion!

This packet has a bunch of fun activities that kids can do as time fillers, or when they finish early they can work on it too! It includes activities such as:

Writing: "If I had $100.." "I wish I had 100..." "When I am 100 years old..."

Puzzle to color and create

bookmarks

color the numbers to reveal a secret picture

How many ways can you make 100!

and then 5 different hat templates!

These are some examples from my room!!

So go ahead and visit my TPT store and enjoy these great freebies!! 

100 Days of School FREEEEEBIE!

Have a FANTASTIC weekend!