a Linky & a Freebie!

Today I'm linking up with Flying into First Grade to Get Acquainted!  This week we are sharing advice for new teachers.  I did one of these types of posts last summer, too, but this one seems different this year.  Probably because, while I'm not a new teacher, I am going to a new building with new people.  I feel a lot of the same anxieties I felt back when i was a new teacher!

So here's my advice:

Buy:  Blue sticky tack is the best!  I use it on everything, and I have found that the white and yellow sticky tack doesn't work at all. 

Always: This one probably seems like common sense, but every year, I watch a few people limp out of the building at the end of the day.  Not.Worth.It.

Never:  Little kids have little ears.  But those ears hear EVERYTHING!  Or worse, they'll hear part of something and add in their own little details.  Or worse yet, they'll take something they heard completely out of context and repeat it - probably to their parent!  I try really hard not to talk about anything around kids; it's not always easy, though!

Find: I think it's important to find one or two people in the building that you can go to and vent, whine, or worry who you know you can absolutely trust not to say anything.  Follow up: Until you find that person - only vent to the dog!  (This is the one thing I'm most anxious about.  I don't make friends easily, and I'm nervous about fitting in at my new school!  And I don't have a dog.)

Make:  If no one has told you this before - and if you only follow one bit of advice - this is it.  The secretary knows everybody and everything that goes on... she is a great ally!  The custodian and/or cleaning people are vital to getting your room cleaned when someone pukes in your room or if you need something heavy moved!  You want to stay on their good side - trust me!

Be:  Selfish:

• Take time for yourself.  
• Say no sometimes.  You do not have to join every committee, or help with every afterschool activity, or help decorate the gym for every music program or dance.  
• Read for pleasure: a well rounded teacher has interests outside of education.  
• Get a massage once in a while, take a yoga class, watch a little lot of Bravo, just veg out sometimes.  
• Schedule how much time you will work on school stuff on the weekends and stick with it!

(Hear that?  That laughter?  That's my friends who are reading this part - they are laughing hysterically!  I have never said no when asked to serve on a committee, have often stayed late to help out setting up for something, and have never had a massage in my life!  Maybe I'll learn to take my own advice (but probably not..))

And now for a freebie!  I recently took a class and as part of my project, I created this cute little math center using QR codes.   Students solve questions about Mean, Median, and Mode then check their answers using their iPads to scan the QR code.  I only included six word problems because a) these type of questions take longer to solve and they only get a short amount of time to work in centers in my classroom, and b) kids don't love these - again because they take too long; if they see too many, they shut down before they start!

  

Click the picture to go to my TpT store and download this freebie.  Please leave feedback if you love it!

 

Time T'angles'

Do you know about TeacherTipster.com?  I follow Mr. Smith on Facebook and have spent the summer watching all his videos.  Most of the ideas are too young for my kids, but sometimes they lead me to great activities.

Today is one of those days!

First, watch this:




This is a FABULOUS idea!  In the age of digital everything, kids can always use a refresher on time!  I am totally setting this up.  I have found clocks at the Dollar Tree in the past; I just hope they have them again! 


To up the challenge and keep my students engaged, I'm going change up the recording sheet as the year goes on.  Adding in angle identification is a no-brainer.

I am also thinking through how I can make a scavenger hunt out of it that would include elapsed time.  If each clock was the answer to a word problem (The party started at 8:00 and lasted for three hours and 10 minutes.  What time did the party end?), the kids would solve the problem, them go find the right clock and write it's letter on the recording sheet. 

Watch this space for my newest TpT creations related to this post!

Yay, it's Monday Made It!!

I have been waiting all week to share what I've been up to, and now's the time!

First up, I finally completed my Math Stations that I got from Becky at dots-n-spots.com and my favorite math guru, Scipi over at Go Figure!  Check out their sites for amazing resources!

 

Nothing too taxing here; just cut, laminate and trim.  But I wanted to share a trick that I used to make my pockets.  Let me preface that I bought the manila envelopes from your favorite dollar store and mine, and some of  them didn't have the little claspy thing on them.  After I rolled my eyes thinking, "You get what you pay for," I had an 'A-HA' moment!  Without the claspy things, I can safely run these envelopes through my laminator!  (OK, if you already knew that, just remember how cool you felt when you figured it out!)  I'm pretty sure you can't see it in the pictures, but the laminating sleeves I had didn't fully cover the envelopes.  I just left the top open.

For the envelopes to hold the number tiles, I laminated regular envelopes with matching squares on the front.  The pouches I used were again too small, and I just cut the short end of the envelope off to make a pocket that should last a good long time. 

September down.  Only 8 months to go...  Thank God for TpT and creative people!

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Next up, the BIG project for the week.  Earlier this month I was inspired by The Meek Moose to create storage seating of my own.  I enlisted the help of my dad, and voila!  The hardest part of this whole thing was making decisions in Joanne Fabrics.  Many, many thanks to the ladies who helped indecisive me!

 

{Please note: I did actually help more than just snapping pictures!}

I love this and am thrilled with how it turned out.  I have the perfect spot for it under the windows, and can't wait to get to school this week and start setting up!

Up soon ~ pictures of my room.  I think most people will be shocked to see how small it is!  

What great things have you been up to this week?  Can't wait to see what you've made!

Math Book Blog Hop

Boy, I wish I was more creative with my post titles!

Anyway.  I am joining in on this really cool blog hop started by Donna over at the Math Coach's Corner.  Two of my favorite things: reading and teaching math; how could I resist?

Here's my favorite math book {series} to share (well, favorite after Math Curse, which I already blogged about here and didn't want to be redundant):

Have you met Sir Cumference and his wife, the Lady Di of Ameter?  They have a young son named Radius who's exactly half the height of his mother. This is a very clever series of books!  There are about eight books in the series now, but these are the first three and my favorites.  Bonus: they do double duty in our annual fairy tale unit.  My favorite to share with my 5th graders is The Great Knight of Angleland.  In this book, Radius goes on a quest using his knowledge of the Mountains of Obtuse and 'a cute' little village.

Check out this great series, and then hop into the hop!