2014 Classroom Sneak Peek

I've been steadily working in my room every day this week and I feel like it's slowly coming together. I'm not ready for the full reveal yet, but I do want to show you some "snapshots" of things I've been working on. 

As you may know, I've doing a Bold and Bright theme in my room this year. Think of the Crayola Bold Markers...that's kinda what I'm going for. =)

 My new room isn't as big as my old room, but I like the space. There is tons more storage space so I can keep the clutter contained to the cabinets! {This could be a bad thing for my inner hoarder...}

I'm going to have to do something about that horribly chipped paint. I just didn't think I would have time to repaint the whole thing this year. It's pretty big.

You can snag yourself a copy of those adorable iRead Labels from The Brown Bag Teacher HERE!

My room didn't have a teacher desk, but honestly...I prefer having a table. I have found there is more space on top for my "things." I just use plastic drawers underneath for my personal supplies. I also used the cabinets behind me for all of my teacher books since there wasn't a spare bookshelf for them.

You can purchase Amy Lemons numbers HERE. Hers are more customizable for your own classroom since they come in chevron and in black and white outline so you can print on whatever color paper you want. 

My numbers are already set in the bright and bold colors.

If you like the look of these word wall labels and numbers and think to yourself you need them for own classroom, you can download them for FREE from my TPT shop by clicking the image below!

I have also been working on a black and white classroom decor set which I hope to be sharing with you sometime this weekend! 

Happy Wednesday!

Here is What I Bought!

I'm one of those people who has to wait til the last day of the sale so I can see what everyone else buys! I can't miss the goodies! And friends, I spent A LOT. Not as much as last year, but I still almost broke the bank!

So, now that I've done my shopping, I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' to share all the fun stuff I got during the big sale!

Links to each product are listed below!

iExcel Bulletin Board Display from The Brown Bag Teacher

Back to School Night Teacher Must Haves from Gina Peluso

ipad Essentials: Book Reviews from Reagan Tunstall

Interactive Reading Literature Notebooks from Lovin Lit

Editable Substitute Handbook from Amy Groesbeck

Guided Reading for the Upper Grades from Valerie Steinhardt

Editable Daily Schedule Cards from Amy Groesbeck

Guided Reading Leveled Lesson Plans A-M from Angeline Stewart

For your InFORMation: Back to School Forms + More from Kelley Dolling

Library Checkout Binder Kit from Amy Groesbeck

Guided Reading Planning & Recording Forms from The Hazel Owl

The Hamburger Paragraph from Hope King

Be a Reading Expert from A Year of Many Firsts

I think it's safe to say I'm set for this year guys...

I would love to see what you all bought as well because I'm sure I missed lots of great things! 

Just click on the button below to go link up your own purchases!

I'll be back tomorrow to share some progress in my new classroom and a freebie! =)

The verdict is in...No Prep Center Ideas Freebie

Well, my interview went great. I pretty much knew I had it in the bag when the principal took one look at my my test scores and his eyes got all big and said, "I think that's all we need to see." HAHA

The positions were orginally for a 0.6 third grade teaching only reading and a full time fourth grade teaching reading and writing. I was scared about that part time thing, not gonna lie. I told him I just didn't think that was an option with a baby on the way, but that I felt more comfortable teaching third because that's where I've been for the last four years. 

So, he walked me out and said, "I didn't tell any other candidate this, but I could probably make that part time position 0.8." That made me feel confident.

I went home and within hours my principal called me and said that she just spoke with the principal that I had interviewed with and said that he was trying to make me a full time third grade position! She told me that if they offered it to me, I should take it. 

So, the next morning the principal called me and offered me a third grade full time position teaching only Math and Reading! My heart skipped a beat! He even moved a teacher out of the grade level just to accomodate my new position.

I am seriously still in shock that he went through all that just to hire me. I have to say it felt so good and reassuring to hear how they couldn't believe I hadn't already been snagged up by some other school! I'm on cloud nine right now. 

My position doesn't become official with the new district until the 11th, but in the meantime I'm able to begin moving into my new room Monday and I couldn't be more ecstatic for this exciting new change. 

Yes, it kind of sucks that I have to move classrooms for the second time in a year and I probably won't have access the amount of technology that I'm used to being in Title I, but I think I will love this new school. 

I am considering writing a Donor's Choose grant to purchase some tablets for my classroom. Does anyone recommend ones that work great and run around 100 dollars?

With all of that being said, I feel like there will be so many changes in the way I organize and do things in my classroom since I'll have two classes that switch. 

If anyone departmentalizes and has any words of wisdom or suggestions for organizing supplies and materials, I would love to hear them! =)

In other news, I have been working on a little something when I thought I was going to be teaching 2nd grade. They do centers during their guided reading time and so I came up with a little document compiling some ideas for little to no prep center ideas in each subject area. Just click the picture below to head on over to my TPT shop to download it for FREE! 

I am sure these are all ideas that everyone has thought of or used before, but sometimes my brain doesn't work right and I just need a list to choose from! So I hope this is helpful!

And, don't forget that TPT will be having their big back to school sale and you don't want to miss out!

Classroom Progress and Teacher Bag Linky

I was able to go into my clasroom today! I was soooooo glad to get out of the house and do something useful. 

Being that my interview is tomorrow, I tried to limit myself to things that could be used in whichever classroom I end up in, even though I decided to rearrange the room anyway. I figure whoever is there if I leave will appreciate it. =) 

Here is what my room looked like when I walked in this morning! YIKES!

The teacher who was in here before me didn't take anything off the walls....ugh. 

But here is some more of the madness!

 Those computers are so heinous and ancient and so is that table....I tried to see our computer guy had any other options, but it's not looking great! He did say that I will get more Dell Tablets this year to hopefully compensate for those worthless computers! haha

One big project I wanted to tackle was to reorganize my library books into the new bins I purchased at Target! They were only 79 cents! I'm getting rid of all of my neon baskets so that my bold color classroom theme is more prevalent. 

  I also plan on covering that awful looking chair...

I got a lot of them organized, but there are SOOOO many left to do! 

I have to go purchase more of those bins, but I think I'll wait until after my interview tomorrow and see how that goes first. 

And my friend Jen Ross over at Teacher By the Beach is hosting a fun little linky to show off your teacher bag!

I am a Thirty One girl. I love all of the compartments they offer. I love the prints. And I love that they are monogrammed. It makes my heart happy!

Here are a couple of the teacher bags I used last year!

I'm also loving this bag from Elizabethsplace on Etsy! 

Go link up your cute teacher bag with Jen! Cause I wanna see it. =)

More updates to come on my classroom and my interview tomorrow! =)

Classroom Job Buttons

I told you I would be working on classroom job buttons in addition to my motivational pack and so I am here today to share them with you!

I did not include full pages of the same button in this file like I did in the last one because most people don't have their entire class do the same job. Rather, I chose to include pages of individual buttons. If you happen to need duplicates, you can just print multiple pages. =)

I also tried to rack my brain and think of TONS of different jobs you might have in your classroom. Some of the ones included in here are similar but with different names. There should be plenty here to choose from so I won't be adding more! Thank you to those of you who helped give me ideas for jobs to include as well! You guys are the best!

You can head over and purchase them for $2.50 by clicking the image above!

You'll notice that I decided to take a bit of a different approach with these buttons. 

I wanted to think of a way that would be the most convenient for students to take them on and off as I'm sure helping 20 different students pin a button to their shirts everyday isn't exactly practical, especially those little bitties! So, I came up with the idea of attaching a ribbon to the back of the buttons instead. It's cuter, it's quicker to take on and off, and easier to display. I think I will hang them near the door so when students come in in the morning, they can just grab theirs and go.

I used to do EVERYONE has their own job each week in my classroom and found that I was just horrible about moving clips on the chart. Who's with me??

Then I discovered the best idea ever over at Sarah Cooley's blog post on helpers in the classroom. You can read that post HERE! Seriously, this revolutionized the way I did helpers. All I have to do now is have one boy helper and one girl helper each week! It's a life saver and a time saver. No moving a million clips around the chart. {Kudos to those of you that do and it works for you, but it just didn't for me!} 

Here's how it works each week. I put all of the boy names on a ring and all the girls names on a ring. Like this...

{This example is from Sarah's classroom because I couldn't find mine any where!}

Each week, I just flip to the next boy or girl helper. They are responsible for doing ALL of the important jobs for the week. We go over these at the beginning of the year a long with expectations. 

With my new buttons, I plan on displaying them underneath the name rings so the kids can just grab them on their way in each morning. 

I finally get to go into my classroom tomorrow and get started! I've decided I'm going to go despite my interview being Thursday. I plan on working on stuff I can use in either room just so I can get my lazy self out of the house and doing something useful! 

I'll be posting pictures of my room as it comes a long and pictures of projects that I'm working on as well so you want to stay tuned this coming week! I'll keep you updated about the interview as well!