An Apple for The Teacher Giveaway!

Are you interested in winning!  Check out this great giveaway!  

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, The Best Days, Jackie Crews, LIVIN' IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER, Cathy's Cool Creations, and Mrs Wyatts Wise Owl Teacher Creations.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 6/5/17 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!

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Site Wide Sale Fun!

YES!  It is that time of year when TpT appreciates us!  The site wide sale is here!  In honor of this awesome sale, I'm posting a chance for you to win a $100 TpT gift certificate!  Just follow the links below to enter! The more you enter, the more chances you have to WIN!  

Then, head on over to The Best Days and check out all of my great products for you to use in your classroom!  Some of my new goodies are:

And many more!  Thanks for dropping by and be sure to enter! (Type in The Best Days for the first answer!) 

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Five For Friday: May the 4th Be With You and a Contest!

This week is a week of appreciation for teachers everywhere! Gifts, flowers, cool drinks,  and special lunches abound!  But it is also the week that I look forward to all year-because of International Star Wars Day on May 4th!  Here's the quick lowdown on how to have a GREAT May the 4th Be With You!    

Wear an awesome Star Wars shirt!  This is a must because it signals to all the Star Wars fans in the building that you know exactly what day it is!  Before I hit the front door I was told, twice, May the 4th Be With You!  While walking around the halls in the morning I was greeted with this same phrase over and over!  Whenever and wherever I went, we were one with The Force because of my shirt (we are a uniform school).  

Get some really great music going!  I found this gem on YouTube! One hour of musical greatness!  And, honestly, the kids really enjoyed listening to it-for real!  

Get some great curriculum activities.  There is no reason you can't jazz your curriculum up with real activities tied to a Star Wars theme.  I made the paper on the left as their math warm-up.  They still worked on their math projects for area and perimeter.  The picture on the right is a Webquest I found on TpT by Mrs. Tech.  It was simple and easy, but best of all, I could use it as a close read.  This activity actually gave me a good idea of how to start using my Kindles in a variety of ways!  

Play a great game!  This is one I thought up last year and just adjusted for this year.  It is a Jeopardy style game.  However, the idea is based on subtracting points instead of gaining points so that the Wookie can win!  They LOVED it!  (Due to copyright, I cannot post this online. )

Make some great Star Wars themed treats!  The first one is a tie fighter.  Super simple-Chocolate Graham Crackers, a marshmallow, and some frosting.  Simply put frosting on the end of the marshmallow and put the Graham Crackers on!  Super simple!  For the light sabers you buy rod pretzels and food coloring.  There is enough frosting left to then color it. Frost the pretzel rods and enjoy!  YUM!  

So, as you can see, this is an easy and fun way to celebrate International Star Wars Day!  Now, onto how we will appreciate you!  Teacher's Appreciation was or will be celebrated over the course of these two weeks!  I've joined with 9 other Teacher-Authors to celebrate YOU!  

Teachers truly do light the way!  So, click on the Rafflecopter and follow all 10 Teacher-Authors on their TpT store to have a chance to win a $50 TpT Gift Card!  It's that easy!  The contest is open from May 5th - May 7th, with the winner announced on Monday, May 8th!  Thanks for all you do!  

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1000 Follower Thanks: Make Your Own Holiday Giveaway!

I am SUPER excited to be teaming up with The Pinning Librarian's Beth to be celebrating our 1,000 follower giveaway called Make Your Own Holiday Giveaway!  March 26th is Make Your Own Holiday Day!  We want to celebrate YOU on that day!  

First, I'm giving away a FREEBIE at my TpT store!  It is called Make Your Own Holiday Writing Project!  This super fun writing prompt can be used to explore ideas students have about their very own holiday!  It is FREE for a limited time, so grab it quickly! 

So, what about the GIVEAWAY!  Our giveaway will be going on from March 23rd-March 25th!  Your day to celebrate will be on March 26th!  We will be announcing our FOUR winners on that day!  You could win one of the following prizes:  

$300 Amazon Gift Card
$100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card
$60 Barnes and Nobel Gift Card
$50 LuLaRoe Emily Goodyear VIP Gift Card 

How AWESOME is that!  All you have to do is enter the Rafflecopter below!  


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I'd like to send out special thanks to all the Teacher Author's that helped to make this contest possible:

Luv My Kinders, Teaching Second Grade, Debbie Wood, Alina V. Design, Real Life in First Grade,  The Brighter Rewriter,  KinderMyWay,  Nastaran,  The Memorable Teacher,  The Teaching Files,  Bethany McClure,  Oink4PIGTALES,  Classroom Cuties,  Monica Parsons, Teaching With A Touch of Honey, Cassidy's Creation, Kinder Teamwork,  Rakovic Speech and Language Chat,  Dreams Teach,  Enriching Young Minds,  Sunshines and Lollipops, and Tanya Villacis.  Take a few minutes and check out their awesome stores!

The 5 Stages of the Teacher Observation Cycle: Or I Did Survived!

Woot!  I'm done!  The torture of this year's Teacher Observation Cycle is FINISHED for me!  Well, um, at least the formal one!  I've got one more walk-through to go, but the tough stuff is finished!  So, let's take a moment to reflect on the stages one goes through while enjoying the fine process of exposing our every moment of teaching to what feels like the WHOLE WORLD!  So, I'm joining up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for 5 For Friday!! Here are the 5 Stages of the Teacher Observation System

Get-er-Done!  

You know the feeling.  They put out the email, you rush to reply and sign-up!  This stage is kinda like child birth!  You can't remember what it is like the second time around. You have forgotten labor and delivery.  Well, you know you forget the pain of this thing too!  You think about how it won't be that bad!  You think about how it will be better this time: less time on paperwork, less time to stress, it will totally be fine!  AND, this is a whole different "baby".  You will get to experience something that will be "totally different"!  Who are we kidding!  We are totally tricking ourselves into the whole "labor and delivery will be fine the second time around" trick!  Yep-the Get-er-Done stage!  

Mind Changer

This begins to happen as you complete the paper work.  Will my lesson work-you know, the one I spent the last 50 million hours thinking about!  Should I even do that subject???  Maybe I should reschedule???  It happens EVERY SINGLE TIME!  You could be 24 hours out of the administration walking in your door and you will still be thinking about ditching everything you just wrote and do something totally different!  Mind Changer!

The Mad Dash

This is what happens in the last 24 hours before your observation.  In most cases, this includes your pre-observation.  The first of many tortures to come!  You sit in the room with your administrators feeling like a piece of meat at the supermarket!  Did I wrap what I just said with the right plastic wrap!  Does this have too much fat?  Is this lesson a prime cut or a cheap piece of beef?!  Am I rotting away without anyone purchasing me!  Yep!   You feel like that rotten piece of meat when you leave.  But, it doesn't stop there!  

You head back to your classroom and start gathering EVERY. LITTLE. THING. you need for this crazy display of your talents.  Chart paper is flying!  Every colored marker is placed in just the right spot.  The copy machine is spitting out endless pages for students to use just in case they finish the activity in five seconds and you don't have a single thing to do because the administration will be in there for what feels like an eternity.  About 3 hours AFTER you should go home, you finally do.  Only to then write out EVERY.  LITTLE.  DETAIL.  of that lesson so that you remember what to do, how to do it, and how to say it!  Only to discover you also did this while sleeping-so you've had none!  And now to only discover they are here...and it's time....and, well....it happens!

Desperately Waiting 

Now you have to wait... and wait...and wait!  For what seems like an eternity, you start to go back to Stage 2.  You start to question every part of the lesson.  Should I have done something different? Should I go in and beg for forgiveness and ask them to ditch the whole thing and do it again!  Can we PLEASE JUST MEET THIS SECOND AND CAN YOU JUST GET IT OVER WITH  NOW!  You see the administrator in the hall and just hope, for once, they will give you just a hint of how you did! All the while, that pit in your stomach is screaming, "RUN NOW!  As fast as you can-RUN!"  To finally arrive at the day of...

RELIEF!  

Of course, relief doesn't arrive till you have to sit through hearing Domain 1, Domain 3, Domain 2 and Domain 4's information.  You are just wait waiTING, WAITING for the ball to drop, the ship to sink moment.  "It's coming next, I know it is" is the constant thought in your head as they go over each area like they have all the time in the world!  All the while you are just thinking, "Tell me I'm great first!! Then tell me my scores and all the gory details!"  When you finally walk out that door, relief overwhelms you and you are numb.  I've started to call this Observation-Hangover!  But, gradually, it all lifts and you discover that all is right with the world, you can smile again, and you really are a great teacher!  

And that's the whole point isn't it.  We need to remember we are GREAT teachers.  One moment, 45 minutes or so,  of time is not who you are.  As we see these changes in our system, we must fight for who we are and that our quality is still quality, our passion is still passion, and our students still come first!  We can do this thing and still deliver quality instruction every day!  

Let me know how you manage your thoughts and feelings for the Observation System!  We can all use some great tips!  

Happy Birthday Teaching Autism! And a Contest too!

I'd like to wish a HUGE Happy Birthday to Nikki over at Teaching Autism!  And to do it I've joined her in celebrating with a chance to win a $100 gift card!  Jump on over to the Raffle Copters (there are 4) and follow along to win!  

a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway Have fun everyone!

For the Love of Teachers Giveaway!

Talk about teacher envy!  I've joined a number of Teacher Authors to give you an exciting prize-a pair of Tieks!  I would TOTALLY want to win this contest!  I am dying to try out Tieks, especially now that I've seen them in person on two teacher friends at my school. Both teachers confirmed that they are the absolute BEST shoe they have ever worn and that, yes, they could wear them to Disney World and have happy feet all day long! (That's the true Florida test for shoes!) Anyway, you have a chance to win a $200 GIFT CARD to Tieks to purchase the shoes of your dream!  Just enter the Rafflecopter below and cross your fingers and toes that you win!  The contest will run from February 11th to February 16th-so don't delay-enter NOW!  The winner finds out on February 17th!

a Rafflecopter giveaway




Co-Hosts: A special thank you to Primary-On-The-Prowl, TeachMagically,  XClass to the Rescue, Exceptional Thinkers, Big Ideas for Little Hands, Zippadeezazz, Real Life in First Grade, Socrates Lantern, Spivey Sparks, Sweet for Kindergarten, Mickey's Place, A Spot of Curriculum, Draz's Class, The Watermelon Teacher, Teaching in the Heart of Florida, Mrs. Byrd's Learning Tree, Linda's Learning Loot, 2 Scoops of Kindergarten, Smith's Safari Adventures, Hookster's Ideas, The Best Days, Creative Nerd, M&M Bilingual, A Library and Garden, and Conversations from the Classroom for participating in this fabulous teacher giveaway! Be sure to check out their TPT stores!