Meet the Teacher Linky Party!

I've joined in the fun over at Falling into First!  She is hosting a linky party!  So, here it goes!

Hi, my name is Julie and I've been teaching for 22 years!  I have taught almost everything in elementary-1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and Science Lab, which included a period a day with Kinders!  This year I am back in 1st grade and, currently, should be working on getting things ready instead of distracting myself.  I tend to be easily distracted!  I am a mom of two wonderful boys and a wife to my wonderful husband!  In my "spare" time I have taken up triathlon and will be competing in my 3rd event on August 30th!  It is a great way to keep in shape (and loose the shape I currently have!)  

I have also rediscovered the joy of sewing!  I'm happy to say that my first two weeks (except Friday's) fashions will be things I have made-either to go with something or, the whole outfit!  

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...

Joann's Fabrics, swimming-as in, laps!, scrap booking, CAMPING, spending time in and with nature, barred owls!, Eagle Watch, Adopt-a-Block, photography, Church, lasagna 

 IF YOU WEREN'T A TEACHER, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO BE?

A few years ago I was actually faced with thinking about this. Florida went to that crazy idea that teachers should give up tenure. I actually planned my new career.  Para Legal.  It was something I could sink my teeth into and I love to do research on things.  Thank goodness, the law doesn't require a mandator removal of tenure!

THREE LITTLE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU.

Creative (This one was an actual graduate award!), committed, caring

FINISH THE SENTENCE, "________,  SAID NO TEACHER EVER!!"

I LOVE all the paperwork....

Q: IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY AND YOU CAN INVITE ANYONE {DEAD OR ALIVE} TO THE PARTY. WHO ARE YOU INVITING?

I don't know why, but every time I hear a question like this, I respond with Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.  It is always those two, in that order.  I think I have a lot of questions for them!

Q: IF SOMEONE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD BE THE TITLE?

The Search for the "Just Right" Everything

Q:YOU GET TO PICK ONE SUPERPOWER. WHAT IS IT?

I actually took a Facebook test and got invisibility!  I said that it was "just right" for me!  I would love to use it and be the fly on the wall idea!

Q: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE OR SAYING?

Golden Rule:  Never assume a task is too hard-let them try!  

University of Cambridge Web Site

It's my email tag and I don't know if it is even on the website anymore.  

Q: IF YOU HAD TO SING ONE SONG ON AMERICAN IDOL, WHAT WOULD IT BE? 

Fearless by Group 1 Crew (Just love this song!)

 Q: ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT OWL?

Morning! And I cold caffeinate!

Q: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE RESOURCE THAT YOU'VE CREATED IN YOUR TPT SHOP?

It's a TIE!

My favorite one that the kids complete is my Native American Mall (for upper grades).

My favorite one I created is:

Q: SHARE SOMETHING WE MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU! 

As you can see, I am a redhead.  However, as I've aged, I've had to color my hair BACK to some close shade of red (it fades hard and fast! What you may not know is that I think this is God's joke (because we all know he has a sense of humor and knows us enough to know we will get it!)  My WHOLE life I would cry and complain about my carrot top curls!  I wanted to dye it as soon as I got old enough-period!  When I got old enough, I realized that even though I wasn't thrilled with it, people paid A LOT of money for my color, so why change it.  Now that I'm TOO OLD, I have to color the hair I hated most of my life back to a decent red and I long for my true red color.  It simply proves that God knows what he is doing!  (Plus, I'd look totally ridiculous with black hair!)

Thanks for following along!  Now, go check out some other bloggers or join in yourself!  I'll be checking out others along the way too!

Professional Printing Success

This is the WHOLE order! (Including my classroom rules found here)

       This year I decided to do something I’ve never done before-Professional Printing!  Yep, I took everything to a real printer. Why you ask?  Cost effectiveness and quality control.  But I also learned some things along the way.  Here’s a rundown of things to know.

1.     Call around for pricing.  My prices ranged from $.98 to the low of $.39 a copy, on cardstock.  Be sure you specify that you want cardstock or regular paper.  That matters in the cost of everything.  One store that I called said that their price was based on the lowest quality cardstock, so you may even want to decide on what type of cardstock you want.  No matter how you look at it, shop around for price!

2.     Look at the local, small printers.  That’s who I went with.  Two things came into play:  they were fast and I knew the manager.  They offered me the $.39 price.  Use who you know and use that you are a teacher.   I actually wish that I had shopped around some more with the smaller printers.  I was at my school yesterday and one of the teachers mentioned the shop that prints our newsletters.  I had never thought of them!  They are our business partners too!  I bet I could have negotiated a lower price than $.39!   So, look for every avenue to get the best price!

3.      Know about how many pieces you will have done.  This can affect your price in two ways.  First, the more you print, the lower the prices can go at some locations.  Over 100 copies can change the price (I had 167ish copies!)  Second, you can then estimate the cost for yourself, so you have a ball park figure in mind.  This will run high, but it was still cheaper than if I went to a teacher store and bought everything myself!  And, remember this is all tax deductible because it is for your classroom!  Keep your receipts for everything you spend on your class!!!

4.      Know your FONTS!  Yes, all those cute fonts are great, but you will run into a problem.  I realized this later in the night, after the shop was closed.  I had used a cute font and it struck me that that font would NOT be on the printer.  That means it defaults to a font, whatever the font on the printer is. Then there is the size issue.  All of the editable products you buy are sized according the maker.  If it goes to default, this can mess up your product.  (See Below)

Now, I realize this is my fault, and luckily it only happened on one of the many things that I had printed.  It is a very easy fix for me to remake these and print on my own printer.  That is one thing to know-errors like this are the fault of the customer, not the print shop.  Here is how you fix that!  Save the editable document as a .pdf again.  This is easy on a Mac.  When you go to print, there is a button on the bottom that asks what you would like it saved as. Choose .pdf and this will lock the fonts into place.  One simple step, and you have your fun fonts in place.  I think this was the first big lesson I learned.

5.     Know the SIZE OF THE PRINTED DOCUMENT!  I just assumed that all documents would fill the page, just like it does on my computer.  This is not true.  I had pulled a bunch of cute items from the internet that I couldn’t find the original on to download.  Well, those items printed the size of the pic online.  Here is an example. 

This looks like it is the correct size, but I trimmed off a large amount of white.  Same with the picture next to it.  The March is half a sheet of card stock turned landscape.

Again, this is my fault, not the fault of the printer.  Before you decide to print something, go into your printer and check the actual size, as this is how the printer will print it.  There wasn’t anything that I sent that I can’t print again on my own.  That’s the nice thing. The mess-ups were on single page items in general.  Nothing that I printed from a TpT product were the wrong sizes.  They were the correct size. 

6.     Put everything on a Flash Drive/Jump Drive.  This is how they will transfer the documents to the printer.  Make sure you have everything ready to go and all of your documents are there.

7.     That leads to the next one-write it down too.  The copy girl was able to highlight as she went to be sure that she had everything. Because I didn’t follow #6 at home, I actually missed two documents in my flash drive folder.  She caught this, and now I know what I still need to print.

8.     Expect the best! Wow!  That’s all I can say, over and over. What I printed looks just like what I would get from a teacher store!   The same teacher at school who mentioned the business partner also mentioned the great quality of the materials.  No smudges, vibrant color, and no icky printer lines like you get on your at home printer. She was so impressed, she was trying to figure out what she could go get printed! I am so impressed that when I change my theme again, this is what I will do.

9.     Prepare to cut!  This is the one downfall.  Not only do I have to cut it apart once, I have to cut twice.  Yes, once for the product and once for laminating. No pop-out products like you get at the teacher store.  Now, what I should have done is gone earlier in the summer when I knew what I was doing as a theme, then I could have done a lot of the cutting.  But, isn’t that what this is all about, lessons learned!  

Anyways, I can honestly say that I am very happy with this decision.  I would totally do it again, and probably will before I know it.  It saved me time simply because I didn’t have to stand there and do all the work myself.  And, it saved me from having to purchase multiple ink cartridges at $26.00 a piece and, then, the cardstock at around $4.  That alone was totally worth the $.39 a copy I paid!

Back-To-School SALE!

TPT is throwing it's annual Back-To-School Sale!  My store is an additional 20% off!  Rocket over there and get some great stuff for your classroom!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Best-Days

I'm headed back today to move my classroom!  I'll be having a new theme this year, so I will post pics when it is finished!

I'm Back

            Today I decided to pick up my pen and write a blog post.  Oh, I’ve written about ten this summer-all in my head!  You know how summer is, run around, do things, relax, try not to think of school, think of school CONSTANTLY, and avoid it like the plague, all at once!  I have thought and thought about what to write, have dozens of ideas, and get side tracked by family and fun.  This summer fun included something I’ve haven’t done in year, and something simply for me-sewing.  I have currently created 4 skirts, 1 shirt, 1pair of pants, and one dress.  Up on deck-1 jacket, 1 skirt, and 4 dresses!  Will I be finished before August 12^th-yes!  That’s my goal!  My first official day back is August 12^th, so I better get going on some blogging!  As you can see though, there is now some fun and beneficial competition for my time!  (And my wardrobe is going to be awesome!)

            First, I’d like to share that I am going to be moving to first grade.  Wow, there it is.  There has been a part of me who doesn’t want to share that yet, or make it official.  I didn’t ask for the move, but part of me is very grateful.  I have taught it for one year and I don’t feel like I’ve completed that cycle in my career.  I don’t think I’ve finished my fourth grade cycle either.  To be honest, I was just getting my grove on!  I have figured things out and had gotten a game plan together.  My test scores came in in a BIG positive, and I’m grateful for that.  And, at the same time, I’m very grateful not to have to have that pressure again this year.  It is a LOT of pressure.  I also wasn’t thrilled about teaching to the test. Yes, let’s just put that out there.  We, as a society, are definitely teaching children simply to take the test.  I swore I wouldn’t do it, that it mattered more for kids to learn simply to know and have knowledge.  To push them further than what was needed to pass a test.  I can now tell you that is an impossible feat in todays education game.  What matters to everyone is how they score, what that means for the school and the district and the state.  That is a sad reality of today.  So, to be honest, I’m not sad about stepping out of that.  What I am sad about is that I don’t get to test run great products that I have developed for next year.  I’ll share more on that in a moment.  What it does mean is that I get more opportunity to create great things that I’ll leave up to my now Book Buddy teaching partner, Lisa!  I’ll just get her to do the hard stuff, take some pics for me to post, and go from there!  Thanks Lisa!

            Now, let’s talk reality!  This year Florida will be getting on the bandwagon with Common Core writing activities and testing.  They recently released their Test Specification.  If you are from Florida and haven’t viewed them yet, you MUST!  You want to know the secret to knowing what to teach, you have to go there, get them, and study them!  Here’s the bad news-there is no rubric yet!  That’s right!  They have no idea how they are going to grade these.  I would suggest looking at Utah-click here-because we bought $5million dollars worth of their test data bank!  Anyways, back to Common Core and the writing tests that goes with them.  Here is what I noticed when I checked each one-Smart Balance, PARCC, and AIR (FL consortium).  They ALL have 3 reading parts to them.  Now this can vary.  What this means is that it can be two readings and a video or three straight out reading pieces.  This means that you can have informational pieces or narrative pieces that kids have to read.  They ALL require kids to take notes.  While they are reading, they have to gather information.  From what I’ve seen, this is done in the computer-based activity.  Read and type at the same time. (Holy Cow right!)  They ALL have write for information or opinion writing.  Notice there wasn’t any narrative.  I haven’t seen a testing sample of a narrative prompt yet.  This, I believe, is expected to be mastered and perfected before 4^th grade (GULP for me!) and they want the students from 4^th grade and up to be growing and mastering opinion and informational writing.  When we look at what is expected in the higher grades, this makes sense.   But, again, WOW!  They ALL are timed, yet not!  That seems weird, I know, but that’s what I’ve discovered.  The time expected on these seems to be around 70 minutes, but some say that kids can take more time than that.  This seems open ended.  (There is no indication on FL time amount yet.)  They ALL focus on content, organization, and grammar/spelling.  This is an all-encompassing assessment.  The rubrics I’ve looked at are heavier on the first two, but the convention piece is still a key component to the work! 

            So, where am I going with this?  Creating opportunities to practice this form of writing is key to generating successful writers!  And, how do we do that-by creating products that can help.  That’s the other part of my summer!  I’ve been busy writing in a different format, and I LOVE it!  I mean the writing is fun and informative to me as the writer.  Plus, I get to make them available to you as a buyer too!  Here is what I have currently available in my TPT store to help you out. 

Back-To-School Pretest:  This product is created to help you get a good handle on how the students perform in the area of writing to inform.  The reading is super easy-they range from a 2^nd grade reading level to the beginning of 4^th grade.  The idea is to see if they can take notes, synthesis the information, and create a writing piece-and it’s FREE!!! 

My Super Hero is Super:  This product is designed to practice the skills necessary to be successful in the area of opinion writing.  Plus, there is a fun craftivity to go with it!  They read a piece called What Makes a Hero, watch a video on the Hero’s Journey Myth, and hear a super hero story.  They are responsible for taking notes and then, here comes the fun part, make that super hero AND a comic to go with it!  They then write an opinion piece proving their super hero IS super!  (I will be doing a blog post to share the process with pics too!)

What is a Prairie?:  This product correlates to the Florida Standards Assessment and is a companion piece to A Land Remembered.  (If you don’t use this book to teach Florida History, you are missing out!)  Students need to understand the prairie that Tobias and Zec are traveling on.  This three-piece reading and writing activity will build background and allow for students to practice the important steps needed for the writing FSA in the spring! 

So, you can see, I’ve been busy!  I am working on two more right now-Interesting Animals-an opinion writing activity and Pioneer Women of Florida-a write to inform piece that goes with A Land Remembered as well.  Tons of ideas are floating around in my head, and I’d love to hear what you might need too!  So, leave a comment if you are interested in have a product created that might fit your, and other’s, needs!