Peep Into Easter Savings
Peep into Easter Savings and join in our annual Easter Eggstravaganza Sale! I've teamed up with several other Teacher Pay Teacher authors to bring this amazing sale to you. You will receive 20% off savings off my entire store which includes bundles. You can search #eastersale to find terrific savings throughout Teachers Pay Teachers. I have some GREAT NEWS to share. After three years of very hard work and dedication, I am overjoyed and bubbling over with excitement to let you know that I finally hit my first milestone on TPT. I could not have done this alone and I want to thank all the wonderful support that I received through mostly the forums and video clips of some amazing teacher authors. As I just begin to celebrate, you can also make a good choice and grab my special FLASH FREEBIE for this week only. Enjoy this product as you get your students thinking about making good choices. Students will sort good choices and poor choices on a cut and pasted activity and color code activity. They will also have the opportunity to write about making good choices on a variety of worksheets. I know from years of teaching experience that student's start to feel the "Spring Fever" during this time of year and start acting up. This is the perfect chance to assist students with reminding them about making good choices.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Good-Choices-vs-Poor-ChoicesThumbs-Up-Thumbs-Down-1680217
Be on the lookout as I make plans to celebrate this special milestone. It will be AMAZING! Tell all your friends to hop in and follow this blog so they can join in on the fun. Stay tuned! You will not want to miss out on this.
Happy Easter! Happy Spring! Enjoy spending time with family and friends.
Teacher Evaluation Portfolio / Evidence Based Binder
It is the first full day of spring and believe it or not it is a snow day. The weather here in New England can be so unpredictable. This morning I saw snow plows and later on in the afternoon most of the snow had already melted and I see daffodils popping out of the ground. Luckily, we got a lot less snow than what was predicted. I tried to take advantage of this day while being home from school and worked on my own teacher portfolio. As you already know this can be a huge undertaking and it can be quite overwhelming. I created these binders to help organize all the evidence collected which include pictures, data, meetings, conferences, grades, personal reflections and so much more. If you are you looking for a way to organize all of your evidence to put together in your Teacher Binder, you may want to check out this product. Since I am a teacher from Massachusetts, we use the Massachusetts Model System for Educator Evaluation. Today I worked extremely hard at organizing and putting together my binder for these past couple of years. Although I have been gathering evidence for quite awhile, I was blessed with this day to spend more time in organizing this.https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Teacher-Evaluation-Evidence-Portfolio-Binder-EDITABLE-1312076
Please check out this preview by clicking on the link above before purchasing to ensure that your standards are the same or very close. We all work very hard at what we do. Show off your talents and prove to your administrators that you are Proficient or better yet, Exceeding the standards.
I made this editable binder to include pages to separate the four major standards along with your student and professional goals. You will also receive three pages of color coded indicator tabs and expectation elements for each of the indicators for the four standards.
Standard 1-Curriculum Planning and Assessment
Standard 2-Teaching All Students
Standard 3-Family and Community Engagement
Standard 4-Professional Culture
This product also includes a binder spine for a 2", 3" or 5" binder and back cover in a navy blue or coral chevron pattern. I chose the navy while developing this product so male or female teachers could easily use this to put together a professional looking binder. In fact, my husband who is also an educator used this system for his binder and he loved it. Simply insert the covers into a clear view binder and your ready to go. Here is what the coral chevron binder looks like.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Teacher-Evaluation-Evidence-Portfolio-Binder-EDITABLE-Pink-Chevron-1363990
This is a huge time saver and I think you will like the way you can put your accomplishments in an organized way. Since I work with kindergarten, my evidence may be quite different than other grade levels. Please keep in mind the following:
****This product does not give you suggestions as to what to put in the binder. It is just created to help you organize. ****
Now that it is spring and it is getting closer to the end of the year, this is the perfect time to get your binder finalized and ready to go. Best of luck with your teacher evaluations.
#superleap Sale! Amazing Savings!
Leap into Savings with the Super Leap Sale for February 29(Leap Day) and March 1st (Super Tuesday with 12 presidential primaries or caucuses) I am teaming up with many sellers who will be hosting special discounts on either selected products or their entire store. Be sure to search using #superleap to find some amazing savings.
Freebie Linkup!
Today I'm sharing a Freebie as I am linking up with LiteracyMath Ideas!
Before you shop for more FREEBIES, you can have your students also go Shopping for Syllables. Check out my Freebie here. Also be on the lookout for some FABULOUS things happening on my blog and store COMING SOON! I am glad you stopped by and I hope you will check out my previous post to enter an Amazing Giveaway! You will not want to miss out on this opportunity.
Thanks for stopping by my blog! You can link your FRIDAY freebies at LiteracyMath Ideas!
I've teamed up with some blogger friends and donated one of my products to one of the fantastic prize packages! You can enter to win a huge selection of creative and unique classroom Spring resources for Elementary teachers and or enter to win the newest Thirty-One Utility Tote Bag Plus and an Amazon $30 gift card!
Here is the product I donated to inspire your students to write what they know about spring.
Spring Writing Fun
You can check out this SuperLeap Blog giveaway by visiting the Tidy Teacher's blog. (Giveaways are open now through 11:00pm EST on Monday, February 29, 2016 (LEAP DAY!) Winners will be announced March 1, 2016. Good Luck!
Here is the product I donated to inspire your students to write what they know about spring.
You can check out this SuperLeap Blog giveaway by visiting the Tidy Teacher's blog. (Giveaways are open now through 11:00pm EST on Monday, February 29, 2016 (LEAP DAY!) Winners will be announced March 1, 2016. Good Luck!
100th Day, Valentine's Day and Last Day Before Winter Break~ OH BOY!
Tomorrow is sure to be an exciting, fun-filled yet exhausting day as our class will be celebrating the 100th day of school, Valentine's Day and getting ready for our week long winter break. I know for certain the kids will be bubbling over with enthusiasm for this exciting day! Since we had a couple of snow days recently, our 100th day just kept being pushed back and sure enough it will be taking place tomorrow. Before leaving for school I did my best to prepare myself for this big event. Here are just a few pictures of the centers they will be doing tomorrow.
Students will cut out the busses as they count by tens and paste in the correct order as the busses lead to the school house.
Students will write and draw to answer the following: I would love to have 100... and I would hate to have 100...
This year I decided to make 100th Day necklaces with this great looking badge to decorate rather than 100th day crowns. With all the excitement happening this week, I just can't imagine going around and measuring heads with constructions paper and stapling 22 crowns on top of each student's head. I just need to save some time and my sanity.
In the afternoon we will be sorting all of our 100th day collections that the students will be bringing in from home into ten groups of ten.
I did not forget about Valentine's Day! We have been working on Valentine projects throughout the week. Student valentine bags are hanging from our white board ledge. Students have been bringing in their cards throughout the week and sorting them on their own into their classmate's Valentine bag. Hopefully, this will safe some time and it will be less chaotic at the last minute.
Here are just a few pictures of some of the centers students were busy at this week.
My students just love playing any type of word bingo. Here is one of the Valentine Bingo games they played with a focus on short a, short i and short o. I also have the students work on a recording sheet to match their bingo card. I just love this idea. Since the bingo cards are all different, students can't copy each other's work as they complete the sheet. You can check out my store for some word bingo games that students will enjoy. I also have one for St. Patrick's Day.
At the art table students had fun creating animal creatures using hearts. I just put out a bunch of heart stencils in different sizes and cut up construction paper from a variety of colors and I let the students use their imaginations to create these fantastic animal creatures.
I did explain to the students how all families are different but they do love and care for each and every one of them. I had them think about all the special things their families do for them and explained how appreciative they should be. On Valentine's Day they can show their love and appreciation. We also discussed how it is important to be loving, helpful and caring throughout the year and not just on holidays.
My students did an awesome with their writing and I think their families will love it!
I am looking forward to the winter break for much needed rest and relaxation. They are predicting some really frigid cold temperatures. I will be so happy to be at home cuddling under my blankets and being able to stay in my soft cuddly pajamas.
Hook and Engage Your Students: Teach Like A Pirate
Does this picture spark your curiosity and interest? Are you wondering what the #1 top secret is? Did I hook you in to wanting to read this post and know more? Teachers can use their message board or have an enticing picture up on the screen as students walk in the door that will create a buzz and hook them into the lesson that is about to be presented. Today I went to the most amazing presentation and it was by far the best professional development teacher workshop I've attended. Dave Burgess who is the author of "Teach Like A Pirate" came in his full pirate costume and had us all hooked into to his awe inspiring presentation that had the audience of teachers throughout our district fully engaged throughout his presentation.
| David was willing to sign a copy of his book after the presentation. |
David's passion and energetic style was fabulous as he presented techniques to engage all students and even these most hard to reach students. The teachers in our district were so lucky to have seen him in live person in order to get the full impact of his enthusiasm, intensity and strong passionate drive as he shared his own personal stories along with ways he made content come alive in his classroom. David spoke about how an engaged student is rarely a behavioral problem. During his presentation he fully engaged the audience as he addressed what the acronym PIRATE stands for and explained in further detail some awesome techniques used in this system.
P-Passion
I-Immersion
R-Rapport
A-Ask and Analyze
T-Transfomation
E-Enthusiasm
Here are just some of a few quotes and personal notes that I took away from the presentation. I just can't wait to get started on reading the books.
* Safe lessons are mediocrity, be willing to take risks
*Be more concerned about the learning that takes place than the actual performance of your students.
*"Preheat the grill," Add mystery, buzz, and anticipation in order to hook students in.
*Deliver the key core of your instruction during the peak moment of instruction.
* Use props, imagery and music.
* Use storytelling and dramatic buildup that is emotional, powerful and memorable.
*It is not what you do;it is how you do it.
*You can know a lot about your content, but if you do not provide the energy and richness to your lessons, students will not be hooked in.
*Don't just teach a lesson; make and create an experience.
*Make it memorable and come alive!
*We can't just be good teachers; we need to be remarkable!
Here are the two books I purchased. You can find them on Amazon. I can't wait to read more and learn ways to "Take my content and turn it into pirate treasure."
Teach Like a Pirate P is for Pirate
If you have seen David Burgess do a live presentation or have read his books, please comment below and let me know how it has impacted you and your teaching style. I'd love to hear from you.






