Life Principles

Each morning while I am getting ready at The W, the KWWL news is on.  They always have some sort of guest speaker.  It is normally some sort of financial or political expert that talks about our debt crisis, taxes, split political parties, and things that are somewhat scary, over my head, and stressful.  Occasionally they will have health experts but today they had a life coach.  She hit some great points and reminded me of my New Years Resolution that I have done a pretty good job at living up to ( or so I think).  I have been reminded of this several times in the past couple of days so decided to share!

First off, I have to give credit to our speaker at church this past weekend.  Not only did he hit some great points, he linked them directly to real life situations and explained everything in ways that we were able to relate to.  One of the many reasons I enjoy Sunday mornings.

Secondly, my New Years resolution was to make a difference.  Not only in my own life but really try hard to relay this into my kiddos' lives.  I want to be someone that people in my life see as a motivated person doing the right things.  And I especially want my class to look up to me and remember for years to come!

I decided a while back that I needed to set a couple of simple goals to follow and was so excited when I heard the life coach this morning repeat them almost exactly as I had written them down.  So here they are...

#1: You either get it or you don't!  
Simple as that although it may sound kind of blunt.   Life comes at you at full speed.  You either understand what is going on or you are confused.  If you are confused, do something about it!  By golly, don't sit on the sidelines and watch life pass you by!  This surely is only going to confuse you even more.  It has been my goal to not get passed by.  If there are things that I don't get, I have made it a point to take the time to figure them out and be responsible for moving in the right direction.  I have tried to get this across to my munchkins as well.  If another teacher or myself gives directions or a task that they don't understand, they need to ask or try to figure it out on their own!  They have to do something to get it figured out and be responsible for their own success....quitting, giving up, and not  trying hard are not options!

#2: Be willing to make the change!
This feeds well into goal number one.  As the old saying goes, don't expect change by doing the same things.  It pains me to see people complain about the same things time and time again without trying to make a change or fix the problem.  In the end, we are responsible for our own happiness.  It may require hard work, discipline, and/or both but it is normally worth it in the end!

Hopefully some of you can relate to these things and maybe take something away from it.  I felt like after being reminded of it several times, it was my time to help make a difference and pass it along as well.  More importantly, I hope I am making a positive impact on my class as I help them become well rounded 7 year olds.

I'll step off my soap box for the day though and as Rick Coleman says every morning, go out there and make this day count! :-)

~Toodles

One Proud Teacher!

Thank you to my cooperating teacher during student teaching, I was introduced to individualized spelling tests.  I am a firm believer in them and they are researched based! Everyone in the education world knows how important it is to use research based techniques....although I find it hard to be a believer in some of them. 

You ask what they are?!  Well, I would love to fill you in. :-) 

Each Friday, I give my kiddos a spelling pre-test.  These 10 words come from our reading curriculum and are words that follow the phonics pattern that we are working on the coming week.  They write their words on the left side of their spelling sheet.  I am fortunate enough to have some help during this lovely endeavor so my sidekick and I walk around and check each one of their tests.  From here, they move the words that they got wrong to the right side of their paper.  For example, if they got 6 words wrong, they rewrite those six words again with the correct spelling.  The words that they spelled correctly the first time, they don't have to worry about!  This is where it becomes research based.  If they already know how to spell them, why do they need to study them for a week and be tested on them again?  Note: some kids don't miss any and others miss all 10.  This is also where it becomes so differntiated (another research based strategy).  Each student takes home a completely different list for the week.

Once the incorrect words are rewritten correctly, they all receive their journal card.  On their journal card, I have written words that I found spelled incorrectly in their journal that they write in each morning.  These are words that they are interested in using and ones that they will find easier to learn.  This where they get the words to fill the individual list of 10 words.  These 10 words get checked to make sure all are spelled correctly and then they must rewrite them again on their weekly newsletter.

I know this sounds like a lot of work, which it is.  At the beginning of the year it took us quite a while to get it done and there were weeks where I was ready to throw in the towel.  They are pros now and know the routine.  I can't explain how worth while it is though.  Each student takes home a list that is at their level and meets their needs.  Some of the students are spelling words that even I have to look up.  Others are using the initial 10 words and the words are at their level.  Each student is challenged to the right degree and hopefully doesn't become too frustrated.  On Thursdays, I call each one of them individually to my desk to take their test and one of my aids pulls them to the hall to check their fluency.  They read or write while they aren't testing.

I ran into some issues though!  Some students were not spending enough time with the words and were not doing very well when it came time to take their post test. I tried to make it the point, which is true, that by learning these words reading and writing would become much easier.  I was giving time to study during our Daily 5 rounds but even that wasn't enough.  After several chats about being responsible 7 year olds, I knew I had to change something.  Just this past week, I made it homework.  Each night, they took home a spelling practice sheet.  I had found several off of teacherspayteachers.com so they weren't doing the same one each night.  Attached to this sheet was a slip that a parent had to sign saying they had practiced.  Although I was a little worried about requiring this, I wish I could have taken pictures of their faces when they came to my desk to take their post test and they KNEW they were going to get all 10 correct instead of knowing they hadn't looked at them since they wrote them on their newsletter.  Each kid was to bring back that parent slip each morning.  If they didn't, they had to stay in and do it before they went out for recess (we have a 25 minutes recess before we start our day).

Now, their goal from the beginning of the year was to get 9/10 or 10/10 to make the door.  If you make the door, you get a Laffy Taffy taped to it as well!  Our class goal from day one, as well, was to get everyone on the door!



Well folks!!!!  WE DID IT!!!!!!  This Thursday all 14 of my students that do spelling in my room made the door!  We actually got 137/140 words correct!  I couldn't have been more excited and proud of my munchkins and I let them know it.  They knew if they got this as well, they got a popcorn party!  We will be celebrating tomorrow (since we had a late start on Friday) and I couldn't be more proud and excited to do this with them!

Take a look at that beauty!  14 spelling sheets!  ***I do let them pick the color of their Laffy Taffy and hang it on the door so they seem to get cluttered.  It takes about everything I have to not spread them out a little! :-)***

Hopefully this continues!!

I hope you all had a great weekend and are excited for your week to come! I have two nights of conferences and Friday off!  Whoop whoop!!

~Toodles!

Pictures as promised!

Here is our class Polar Express!  This is prior to the train earning it's official letters.  The only pictures I have of it finished has my kiddos sitting in their seats.

We worked on the skill of retelling during December!  It is a Mexican holiday tradition to decorate with poinsettias so we read a poinsettia related book and retold the story on the leaves of our flower!

Meet Jack!  He was a hit and these are some of his daily poses after he came back from the North Pole! Remember that his one rule was that he couldn't be touched without losing his magic!  It was difficult to leave him alone!

We spent a January learning all about penguins!  Here is what we thought we knew about them before we even started!  The stars mark things learned after reading the book.

The flowers Mr. Wonderful sent me! :-)

Each student made one of these to hold their Valentine's goodies!  They worked really well and I only have to pay 5 cents for the bags from HyVee!  My monster wasn't feeling very well after being shoved full with sugary treats!

Take a look at those Valentine's!  It will be the first and last time I make them and they took FOREVER and a half but they did turn out pretty well if I do say so myself.

Meet my monsters!!

I don't even think I blogged about President's Day but here is a little craftivity that we did for it!  Evidently, many of them would get rid of schools if they were the President.

Blogging Hiatus....I'm back with LOTS of new updates!

Wowza!! It has been forever.  But I'm going to give a quick  month-by-month recap of what you have missed and let you all into my classroom/life a little bit the best I can.  To say the least, it's been super  CRAZY busy!

**December
We spent the whole month acting like we were riding the Polar Express around the world.  I had our desks set up like a train, added a little crate paper to the outside, taped on some letters that officially made it the Polar Express, and required a valid Ms. Rottink issued golden ticket to enter the train.  My kiddos loved every minute of this, ate it up, asked for more, and cried (literally) when we derailed our train for Christmas break.  We visited 13 different countries and learned all about their holiday traditions.  This included eating their holiday food, creating their decorations, learning lots of facts, and comparing and contrasting their traditions with ours.  This by far has been one of my favorite units and will for sure be one that I continue in the years to come.

Jack, our elf on the shelf, spent each day of December watching us for Santa.  He gained his magic as soon as we gave him his name and would fly back to the North Pole each night to let Santa know how good or bad we had been.  Each morning he came back, he would hide in a different spot.  Jack came with rules though!  We couldn't touch him or he would lose his magic and not be able to fly back from the North Pole again (this happened and Santa said he would give us another chance).  We also couldn't "spill the beans" about his hiding spot until everyone got the chance to find him.  They totally LOVED Jack and would correct each other's behavior knowing that Jack was watching!

**Christmas Break
Mother Nature decided that we needed to start break two days early and laid 8 beautiful inches of snow on the ground that quickly blew away and left icy, 4 foot drifts in font of my garage door.  Gross!  I love the snow, don't get me wrong, but this wasn't a fun snow!  Luckily we knew this storm was coming and I sent home EVERYTHING on that Wednesday (our last day of school).  I can't say I was overly sad as my kids were crazy due to the holidays and the weather changes.  For anyone that doesn't think kids change with the weather, please come visit my classroom tomorrow!  It will be chaotic!  The name of my blog with shine true and I will be ready to come home at the end of the day!  The upcoming snow storm will potentially make us miss another day of school, meaning we will be seeing each other in the lovely month of June.....

**January
As a student, I adored Christmas break but I was definitely ready to go back when break was over.  Well, us teachers at Sumner went back on the 2nd!  I know I shouldn't complain and no one in the non-education world understands because they think we get the whole summer off, lots of breaks, yada yada yada----the list goes on.  Seriously, go to any elementary classroom tomorrow in rural northeast Iowa and you will understand why teachers enjoy need these breaks.  Back to my story, January 2nd just came a little early for me!  I had all of these plans to spend a couple of days in my classroom over break and I finally accepted the fact that I needed a little time away--a brain break as my students and I like to call it.  Luckily, the first three days that we were back were professional development and it lessened the shock of reality.  I was ready and mentally prepared for Monday to come and was honestly excited to see each and everyone of my kiddos and give them a tight squeeze!  We spent a lot of that Monday sharing and writing about all of the awesome things they got for Christmas!  As for the rest of the month, we enjoyed an exciting penguin unit.  I did my best to integrate it into every part of my day. Thanks to teacherspayteachers.com this is pretty easy because others have done this and I can purchase their hard work for a couple of bucks!  This site has seriously been a life saver and I feel as if my kids are learning a lot with the hands-on activities I am able to pull off.

**Late January-Early February
These past two months have flown by, as I'm sure the next three will as well.  Somewhere in there we had two more snow days that are causing this school year to creep into my pool time in June with two of my favorite kiddos.  There was a week that we didn't have one complete day of school....two snow days and three late starts.  Mother Nature was and still is having some serious mood swings.  She can't make up her mind if we should be experiencing thunderstorms and torrential down pours, freezing rain, flurries, sunshine, or blizzards--so why not just throw them all into one week.  I think there was some fog in there as well.  To say the least, I was ready to throw in the towel that week and just start fresh the next Monday.  If I remember right, we didn't get to go outside for recess either so we spent lots way too much time locked in Room 164.  Thankfully, my kiddos truly love me and we spent some time organizing and cleaning and they didn't blink an eye at it.

We also celebrated our 100th day during the chaos!  Such a fun day!  These are the days that kids look forward to for forever and remember for a life time!  (I still remember the 100th day of my kindergarten year with Mrs. Brunsma.  I took 100 pennies to share!)  It was a late start so our schedule was messed up but still rotated through enough stations to wow ourselves--we can easily write 100 words, have NOOO idea what $100 will spend, wore some rockin' headbands, make necklaces with 100 cheerios, and enjoyed a snack with exactly 100 pieces!  One of the stations was a writing probe with the sentence starter of--"If I had $100, I would buy..."  I only wish I could buy some of their ideas with that amount of money!  I would have a brand new limo, a mansion, the school, ... you get the point!!  We are now into our money unit and hope some of this starts to click!

Valentine's Day was chaotic!  I was a mean teacher and didn't allow my kids to eat any of their candy!  They got to enjoy the chocolate covered rice crispy treat that I brought them.  I slaved away for like 5 hours the day before on them (seriously) and knew none of my kiddos were allergic to anything in them.


**My life!
I'd be lying if I said school didn't consume a large portion of it but I'm happy to share that I still absolutely positively LOVE my job!  I feel so extremely blessed to work with the people that I do, in a place that I look forward to going to each morning.  I haven't felt extremely overwhelmed like we were prepared for in college.  For those of you that know me well enough, you know I'm a planner, organizer, and love to be on the go!  I credit my sanity to this!  While there are days that I feel like I run around like a chicken with my head cut off, this is brought on by my overachieving self.  I always have activities planned and plenty for my little ones to do.

I have become completely addicted to Next Level Extreme Fitness.  I also talked Gavin into doing this class with me and couldn't be more excited that he has fallen in love with it with me.  We leave the house at 4:40AM and endure an hour of crazy, awesome workouts every day of the week.  There are days that we are stupid enough to even go back for the pain a second time.  Anyone that knows Gavin, getting him up in the morning at 4:15 is not a pleasant process and I hide safely in the closet while I shout call his name to wake him up! :-) I can't thank the trainers enough for the encouragement that they give me on a daily basis! Although, I often want to kill both of them for thinking things like 4 minutes of straight squats is a good idea.

Valentine's Day marked the first time I have ever gotten flowers for Gavin (other than the one time he left for Wyoming to snowmobile while I was on bathroom floor with the flu).  Whoop whoop!  We also celebrated being together for 4 years!! Crazy! We did it up big by going to Jamison's basketball game....romantic, I know!  It seems like yesterday I was texting and working out with this old guy that I was WAY to busy to hang out with!  Without getting to cheesy, I'm not sure what I would do without him and can't wait to spend the years to come with him.  Now if he only got the hint that he was supposed to buy a ring...... :-)


I hope that clues you in on a little bit!! Sorry if there is typos and errors!  I was just spitting thoughts onto my keyboard as fast as they came to my mind.  It is my goal to post at least once a week from now on!  I have exciting things planned for the rest of the school year so will have plenty to post about.  As for next week, we have conferences on Monday and Thursday so I'm sure it will be a long one!

I'll add some pictures tomorrow!  Mr. Wonderful got me an iPad for Christmas so they are all on that and of course it is dead!

Stay tuned for more happenings in the life of this first year teacher!

~Toodles!