Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Erin Condren teacher planner

Somehow I got sucked into the world of all things Erin Condren
(thanks to all the teacher blogs I follow, instragram etc)
How can you not fall in love with all the patterns, colors, ridiculous organizational goodness?
So I splurged and ordered myself the teacher planner. Why not? New grade level...new adventures. Totally fitting right?
Here's a little sneak peek into the contents inside the teacher planners for those who are debating whether to order or not.
I had a really hard time choosing the style/design I wanted but decided to go with the Paisley 

First page- all about me section and then Tabs, tabs, tabs. Apparently the previous teacher planners didn't have tabs so this was an upgraded feature.

 next page: substitute information 

 Dates to remember section for each month
 absentee log 
 Monthly calendars

 checklists...boom
 stickers galore-
folder for keeping papers, clear holder and those are cute sticker labels

and then they send you all these 10.00 dollars off your next purchase which is a given that you WILL shop again.....
Life planner anyone?

How much do you love your Erin Condren planner and why?

Monday, July 15, 2013

Monday Made it 7/15/13 and BIG change.

I've been a special educator for the past 7 years. Those 7 years have been spent in a self contained classroom setting teaching students who have behavior and emotional disabilities. This year I had 13 students ranging from K to 4th grade. During the school year I took my Praxis so that I could teach regular education which brings me to my big transition......(drum role please......)
I'm going to be a 1st grade teacher!!!! 
Woop Woop! 

As I have been preparing for this new journey I stumbled upon a $20.00 laminator at Costco and began laminating my life away (wasn't much of a laminator in EC) 
found some cute FREE visual directions from TPT

Then after endless searching of Behavior Clip charts to use for classroom management with a large group of students I found a super cute FREE one from TPT 

Then I busted out my Mr. Sketch markers to give my clothespins a 'watercolor" feel
Going to put their numbers on them and I think I am going to tie pretty ribbons for their "hall of fame" recognition.

I also made myself a wreath for my new classroom.



Be sure to link up at 
and check out all the other awesome teacher creations posted every Monday


Friday, July 5, 2013

Classroom Management/Organization from this past school year

My past year was one of the most difficult years I have endured as a teacher thus far. This left me NO time for blog writing nor blog reading.  There are some changes/transitions coming up for me as a teacher and I will post about them as soon as I can.  In the meantime I thought I would share some things from my class this past year.

Mini Trashcans:
I found these at Dollar General when they were on clearance and ended getting them for .30 cents a piece. I bought enough for each "pod" or grouping of desks so that students wouldn't have to constantly get up and throw trash away. At the end of the day our "neat and tidy" helper would empty the smaller trash cans into the big trashcans as part of their class job.



Classroom Finger Signals:
These are taught at the beginning of the year as we cover our Survival Guides (all the expectations and procedures for the year). Works wonders and eliminates all the blurt outs and constant questions. 

Line Expectations/Reminders:
I found the 4-S line on Pinterest last year. The Line expectations poster is a reminder of how we are to line up (which is covered in our Survival Guides). Super great reference to have for lining up. We don't exit the classroom until the expectations are being met. 
It includes visuals for our emergent readers as I had K-4 this past year.

Class rules tied into PBIS.
Our school mascot is the Eagle so at our school we SOAR which is the acronym for our core values (show respect, outstanding conduct, achievement, and responsibility). Each of our classroom rules got plugged into which part of SOARing they reflected. When students are asked how they were SOARing during various activities, they knew which one of our rules they followed (or did not follow). 


More posting coming soon. Trying to get back into the swing of making my presence known in blog land.  
PS. I am on BlogLovin so please don't forget to come follow me!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Follow Me on BlogLovin!

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4059323/?claim=fn34e643bmm">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Jumping on the bandwagon and following all my favorite teacher blogs! Be sure you follow my blog as well:)