Interesting Article

My CT sent me this link about student teacher training in Michigan... I thought it was interesting enough to share!!

http://spinalcolumnonline.com/student-teaching-in-the-area/

Happy almost Friday! :)

Quick Quotes

I do not have time for a long post today as I am preparing my portfolio and resume for a job fair on friday (yikes! nervous!) but I wanted to post three cute as a button and funny things some of the kiddo's in the classroom I'm in said:

1. (To my CT after doing a running record, being asked comprehension questions) 

Kiddo " You know what I do to help me remember the story? I take pictures in my head of it"

CT " Oh thats a great tool!"

Kiddo " Yeah... but I forgot to take them this time.."

2.( Question of the Day was, What color is your hair.. yellow, brown, or black-- Kiddo brings his work up for me to look over)

Me "Kiddo, why did you write My hair is apricot..? and how did you know how to spell apricot!?"

Kiddo " well it was on my crayon, its the only blonde crayon I had"

3. (We have an estimation jar the kids get to take turns bringing home and filling with things such as crayons, starbursts, blocks, etc. and the class has to estimate )

Kiddo "I brought the estimation jar back!" 

( My CT calls me over to show me its filled with PEARL ONIONS.... no joke)

CT "Why did you bring onions?!"

Kiddo "The onions are cute!"

Well.. hope these made you smile, maybe you had to be there... but I'm sure they remind you of things your kids say daily!

Conferences, Celebration, Cheap, and Craziness!

Such a busy week! I haven't been able to take the time and blog for a few days because I have been doing so much work preparing for our "Celebration of Learning." At the school I'm interning, in the spring they have "Celebration of Learning" instead of two days of conferences. This past Monday, for kindergarten we had individual parent conferences with only those we really felt it was necessary to meet. This was my first time sitting in on conferences since the last ones were in the fall. It was an experience to say the least! All parents want to only hear the best about their child and some seem to share wayyy too much of their personal life! None the less, this was a great opportunity to be able to add my input on the student and their work/progress/behavior and see a glimpse of how conferences are run.

"Celebration of Learning" will be happening tomorrow. This is a chance to parents to come with their child to the classroom after school and see all the work they've done. Every family is invited and each classroom does things a little differently. I created Kindergarten Portfolios for each student (which took 5 hours!!) of their work through out the year so far and pictures from fun days at school. They are pretty cute and colorful. Some of the other teachers went as far as making binders for each child with dividers and all sorts of things, but my CT and I decided against all that work this year. When the students come to "COL" tomorrow with their families, they will pick up "I can___" strips of paper and fill in three things they are able to do in school (ex. count by 2's, 5's, 10's, read a calendar, use the smartboard, answer Question of the Day, read a book, etc) and place them in their "I Can" can's they decorated at home and brought in this week. At the end of "COL" each child will fill out three "My goal is___" strips and set goals for themselves for the rest of kindergarten. We will keep these in the room so we can help each child work toward their goals and change them into "I Can" strips once they've met the goal! I have also created a cute hallways display with leprechauns, leprechaun math, some fish book reviews (our school is "Riding the reading wave" for March and reading month), and a hand print rainbow.

I ventured to the dollar store this past weekend and bought 15 great finds! PAPER! Cute cute cute paper for sending home parent notes or to use for pages in my portfolio! 40 sheets in a pack, normally around $4-5 at other stores, but $1 at the fabulous dollar store :)

Student Teacher Tools

Over the past few years, I have been collecting things I find in the Target dollar section, at dollar stores, and other places for when I have my own classroom. I found things such as stickey notes, hall passes, stickey tack, decorative paper, fun pencils, stickers, lesson plan books, records books, etc. I just made a box to hold it all in (cheap target find, the college stuff was all on sale!) It's a good idea to keep all of your finds in one place so when you need any of it for ST or your own room you don't have to hunt!

Also... I have to admit to my slight obesssion with Vera Bradley (lucky for me, being a Kappa Delta (like the founder) I get a tiny discount!) So in the beginning of my ST I had to purchase all of this matching stuff. Lap top cover, bag, lunch box, and pen case... just had to share the cuteness!

100th Day Pictures!

                                  Wearing our 100th day crowns!

        Making fruit loop necklaces; the kids sorted colors in groups of 10.

100th Day cookies, suagr cookie- gummy life savers, and licorace.

 I would eat/ not eat 100... and I would want/ not want 100...

 What I will look like when I'm 100 years old! (so cute)

 I put all of our 100th day sheets into a class book for student to read during center time.

 The room nextdoor to ours got a pizza with 100 pepperoni's!

Pizza with 100 toppings, and gum ball machine with 100 gumballs! (Ideas from Mrs.Jump's blog!)

SmartBoard Pages

Still working on gathering all of my pictures from 100th's day (they will come as promised). Today was a records day at my school. I worked on creating portfolio's for each of the kinder kids in our class. This takes a while! (ours are not even close to as extensive as some of the other K teachers in the building, I don't know where they find the time!) Instead of having spring conferences, my school does "Celebration of Learning." The students come with their parents and show them what they have learned so far this year. We will be having centers and filling up "I CAN cans;" strips of paper that students complete at each station saying " I CAN_________ (count to 100, count coins, read a calendar, etc)." I also worked on creating a hallway for this event. We will have some very cute March and spring themed things up for parents to see (pictures will be posted as well). 

ST's, records day is a good chance to learn about report cards, how they work, how each teacher marks different things depending on their own room, and get a lot of catch up work done... so make sure you attend! On a side note, attend all Professional Staff Development days, and staff meetings. This helps you learn a lot outside the classroom, as well as shows the principal you're committed and makes you look good!

Smartboard pages take a while to create one by one! There are a lot of good sites out there to download pre-made pages; such as exchange.smarttech.com and smartlessonstop.com . I created one on vowels tonight and it took a good 30 minutes to get everything just right! On this page the students will drag the correct vowel into place with the corresponding picture and letters. I am going to create multiple pages like this; we are just beginning vowels in our room.