My 100th Post

This is my 100th post on this blog, a minor milestone. Aside from those 100 posts, I also have created 32 static pages, which now span two different blogs (I had to creatively work around the 25 static page limit per blog and create a second, nearly identical blog to continue these pages).

Over the first 100 posts, I am proud to say that I've had many teachers who have taken the materials posted and used them in their classrooms. My goal as a teacher is to reach my students and give them opportunities to love learning and take control of their own education. By sharing my ideas, and the great ideas of others, on these pages, it is my hope that other teachers can reach their students and see them learn independently, and challenge themselves.

My philosophy behind this blog is to offer free items to teachers in the upper elementary grades. All too often, these grades get ignored. Much of what comes into elementary schools is meant for the primary grades, and the intermediate (3-5 grades) teachers are asked to adapt  resources to their students. I don't accept that, it's a cop out and a reason not to go the extra mile. I work to hunt down (or make) resources that are intended for this age group.

And finally, it's all about free. Teachers Pay Teachers is a great site because it allows teachers to make a little extra money for their ideas, but I'm not about that. I believe that my ideas should be freely shared, education isn't about profit, it's about learning, and I'm glad to see that there are so many out there who agree with this. So, thanks for coming, thanks for reading, and here's to another 100 posts!

My Donors Choose Request Got Funded

Last night, as my summer break was coming to a close, I prepared to shut down the computer after a last bit of web browsing (checking scores on the baseball games, stats on the blog, etc.). At about the exact same time that I closed the web browser, my phone buzzed. I had an email. That's no big deal, because 90% of the emails I get are garbage.

This one had the subject line: A new donation to your project: Donors Choose

Cool, I thought to myself, and reopened the browser, heading to my Donors Choose account. Much to my surprise, my first donation request had just been fully funded. And this was no minor request, all in all, it came out to $502. Two donors had completed my project.

I posted this donation grant request on July 23rd. A 14 day turn around on this blew me away. I had heard good things about Donor Choose, but wow, even this next morning, the first work morning of the year for me, I'm still pretty excited about it.

My project included math activities that I can keep set up for students in need of an enrichment challenge at any time. This isn't everything I need for the entire year, but it's a start. I asked for (and will now receive):

• Amazon Kindle Fire 8 GB Tablet
• 20 Write and Wipe Lapboards
• 1 Set of Fraction Circles
• 1 Set of Colored Dominoes
• A Large Assortment of Various Dice
• Gobblet, Math Strategy Game

I'm still pretty amazed that this project was funded in short time. I don't have expectations that this will happen every time, but it shows that Donors Choose does in fact work. Now that I have another point (you need points to post projects, you start with 3 I believe), I'll start working on another project once I receive this one. You really have nothing to lose here, sign up for a free account, and go for it.

That Time is Here

So here we are, at the final evening of what was a very restful, sometimes lazy summer vacation. That was my seventh summer vacation, and tomorrow I officially begin my eighth year of teaching with six days of professional development / classroom setup time.

I'm excited, this group of kids is already special to me, because it's my oldest son's grade. I remember when this group of kids started kindergarten, and I said then that I would stay at my current school until this group came along (although now I believe I'll be at my current school for many more years than that). I'm ready to get started, I have a lot in mind for this group, and I think they'll be one of my best classes ever (hopefully I don't end up eating those words in a few months).

So as I sit here watching the Olympics, and soon getting ready for bed, I just want to look back on the summer, and say that it was a productive one. I got this blog up off the ground, and it has become everything I wanted it to be by this point. I have many units and resources up, with more being posted every day. My goal was to have 50 posts and a good amount of page views by now, and I have over 60 page views and am averaging way over 100 views per day. I just hope this keeps growing, and I can keep the momentum as the year goes on. I have a vision for this blog, I want to post pictures of the activities my kids do, and discuss the daily classroom on here.

Thanks for reading, I hope you'll come back!

Goodreads.com: One of the Best Classroom Appropriate Social Media Sites Out There

Goodreads.com is essentially a social media website that is all about books. What makes this site so great is that you can create private groups, have discussions, quizzes, groups, polls, etc. I've used it for the last four years with different degrees of success. Last year, I didn't really get it off the ground due to prior technology commitments in my reading class. In the previous two years, I had great success with Goodreads. Students used it to keep an online log of the books they had read, full with a rating of each book and a review. I had expectations laid out that everyone in my reading class would log in at least once every two weeks (I called these Goodreads windows), then update their account with newest books, and comment on the progress of their classmates.

I have included Goodreads in various teacher trainings, and it always seems quite popular with the other teachers. I get many questions about getting a Goodreads account off the ground. So a few years ago, I made some how to videos on Youtube. There are two videos, and if you're interested in starting up on Goodreads, go ahead and follow those instructions and you'll be going in no time.

If your district has a block on Goodreads, it's probably something you could successfully get over turned. I had to get the block taken off of it in my district. It's classified as social media in a lot of blocking software.

If you decide to sign up on Goodreads, look me up and add me as a friend so I can help you out.

Here are the two how to videos on setting up a Goodreads account and starting a classroom group.

Part 1

Part 2

Some Simple Advice For New Teachers

You've finally made it, you finished college, and (the vast majority of you) student teaching, and now you have your first teaching job. There's really nothing quite like the first time you walk into a classroom and know that it is yours, you can do what you want with it. The excitement and wide-eyed wonder that comes with those initial meetings, either district meetings or hopefully a first year teacher program if your district does one. The excitement quickly gives way to fear and anxiety as you begin to realize that you no longer have a safety net, you are responsible for the educations of your students, and you will be held accountable and expected to step up from day one.

The first year of teaching is very eye opening, and unforgiving in many ways. It's the year of "things they don't teach you in college," including dealing with difficult (or completely uncaring) parents, helpful and supportive staff friends, or the opposite, and challenges to implementing the curriculum within the constraints set forth by the many stake holders that influence the classroom.

But fear not, it'll be fine. Just accept that your first year will be challenging, difficult, and humbling. Many new teachers walk in thinking that their education is cutting edge, and they'll show those old washed up, dinosaur teachers a thing or two. The quicker you lose that attitude, the better. Those dinosaur teachers can be the best thing that ever happened to you, they've been around and seen it all. Seek them out, make them your friends, and things will get much better.

Hopefully you have a supportive principal, but who knows if you do or not. If you do, seek them out for advice, but don't become needy, seeking them out daily.

Become friends with the custodians and secretaries. In fact, have a positive attitude and a smile on your face, and make friends with as many people as you can.You'd be surprised how much easier your job can be on a daily basis if you're in good with the custodians, secretaries, the art teachers, librarian, PE coach, etc etc etc. Nobody likes a complainer, or a gossip, so stay away from it. I've had a few years in my career when it's been easy to get sucked into those negative behaviors, and it's toxic. My best advice is to go in to work every day with a smile on your face, even if you don't mean it. Tell yourself that you're going to have a good day, and stay positive. The second you get negative, everyone around you, especially your students, know that you have.

During that first year, you'll have ups and downs. The euphoria over having your own classroom will carry you for awhile. Don't fret when you hit the grind and start getting down on yourself, saying that you can't do it, because you can. Make friends in your building, and have a support system you can call on.

Once that first year comes to a close, you've just finished the hardest year of your career, IT WILL GET EASIER. The field of education needs its professionals to stay around for a long time. Consistency is key. You don't have to change jobs or buildings every two years, I've been in the same school for eight years now (some who have been in one place longer would laugh at a mere eight years), and I hope to stay at least eight more. Don't be afraid to stay, you'll become part of a community.

Have fun, teaching is the greatest job in the world. We don't deal with boredom sitting behind a desk. We don't deal with a lot of monotonous tasks, and every day is something new and challenging. Anybody who makes fun of you for only working 180-185 days a year is an idiot, remember that. They probably work at one of those boring desk jobs where they do less work in a month than you do in an hour. Even if they get paid more, it doesn't matter. You didn't go in to teaching to make big bucks, you went into it to make a difference, and you are making a difference.

Congratulations on joining the field. We need more people like you out there doing this work.

Two Weeks and Counting: Schools is Right Around the Corner: An Awesome Desk Name Tag Idea

I put my own children on notice today, they have exactly two weeks of summer vacation left. For many of us teachers out here in the American Southwest, we go back to school in mid to late August. I'm not sure why we go back earlier than most of the East and West coasts, but we do.

Two weeks, that's not a very long time. And since I have many many inservice days before that time, I go back to work in only six days. I can't believe it, I've squandered another summer!

So what now? For me, that means I continue trying to get my resources up on my blog, and try to get into my classroom a little bit here and there. Registration in the Las Cruces School District for elementary school students is Friday, August 10th from 9:00-11:00. I'd like to have my class presentable at that time since it will be playing host to parents and students alike. That first impression is a strong one, so I've been spending mornings in the classroom organizing and basically just sprucing things up.

For my students name tags, I'll be changing things up this year. I ran across a great idea at 24-7 Teacher called Desk Name Tags: Never Distracting and Always Clean. I'll be velcroing (or hot gluing, or taping) the plastic badge holders to the corner of the desk, and than I'll make each student a business card sized name tag using Logotype Maker. This will save money and I think will keep the desks looking cleaner. Name tags have a tendency to either get torn off within a few weeks, or drawn on.

Blogger Static Pages: I Used Up My Limit, Now What?

Anybody else out there who blogs in Blogger, you've surely come upon the greatest thing ever, the static pages. I use these static pages to post my subject specific unit pages of resources and lessons (they are linked to in the right side bar). They're great because each page acts as a stand alone web page, separate from the daily postings of the blog.

When I started my blog, I was blissfully unaware that there was a limit on the amount of pages a blog could have. I just figured I'd make the 100 or so pages I need to finish my vision all right here in this blog. I found out yesterday that there is a limit, and that limit is 20 (counting the home page).

So what now? I had a few options at this point. I could just start posting these unit and lessons pages as posts, because there's no limit on those (well there is, but it's something like 10,000, so I'm not concerned). The only problem there is I like having them separate from the blog itself.

I'm sure there are many work around, but the most simple I found is this: Make another blog.

One Google account can have up to 100 blogs. Do the math, that's up to 2,000 static pages. I made a second blog, and am working to make it identical in appearance to this blog (same back ground, header images, ad placements, etc.), and do 20 more pages there. This is the most simple work around I have found, and I should be publishing my first static page from there sometime tomorrow, and I'm confident it will have the same look as the static pages here, minus a few things. First, I won't have the same ability to move viewers through to the rest of my blog, so I'll need to make sure they have a way to reach "home" (the main page of this blog). Once I have that going, I'm sure it will work out fine.

If anybody has found something else that works better, I would love to hear about it!

Make A Voki

The website Voki offers students the chance to make a talking card of sorts. I have students use this website numerous times during the school year to analyze literary characters, major historical figures, etc. Making a Voki is simple, just head on over to the website, and click the "create" button, and you're on your way.

Once the creation page comes up, click the buttons to change your character, customize the background, voice, even the dimensions of their features. Watch your spelling when typing in the text they'll read aloud.

Just remember, you need to embed the code into your blog, website, or even a document to ensure it's saved before you close the web browser when you're finished, or you'll lose your work! If you have a user account, your Vokis will save there. Check out my Voki. It took me about two minutes to make this. 

Create Your Own Logo

If we're going to be using personal blogs in this classroom, everyone needs the opportunity to personalize their blog. This post gives you a very simple task. Follow the link to go to Logotype Maker, where you can make your very own free logo for your blog. Remember, only use the options marked "free," and you'll have your great logo in no time. Check out mine!