I'm Hallo-worn out

Happy Halloween!  

Photo compliments of my 4th grade photographers.

Moment of Truth:  This is one of my least favorite holidays to be a teacher, closely followed by April Fool's Day.  Hopefully I was hiding it well as Batman.  My kids have been asking all week what I was going to dress up as.  I just had my hair dyed darker last week (my hair girl got a little carried away...), so they all thought I dyed my hair black for Halloween.  Their guesses were: 

A witch.  "Because your hair is black now!"

Katy Perry.  "Because your hair is black and looks like hers!"

But my favorite comment came the first morning I came in with black hair- "Bad hair day?"  Sigh.  You're killing me, children.  I laughed so hard.  "Nope, just a hair day!"

So, Halloween.  I'm exhausted.  My students were really great in the morning, and were good sports since I made them do actual work ("But it's Halloween!"  "Too bad, there are only 33 days in this quarter and Miss B is feeling the pressure.")  Tough cookies, kiddos.  We paraded around the school in our costumes and did manage to do a few Halloween themed activities.  Then we partied, and Miss B got to clean up!

The one part of this holiday that I do like is our Annual 4th Grade "Great Pumpkin" Pumpkin Decorating Contest.  It's a mouthful.  This was our 7th annual event.  At least I think it was.  The thing about annual events is that you have to remember how many you've done before.  

The kids get a small pumpkin to take home and decorate.  The whole 4th grade votes on their favorite in each class and we had two winners per room.  After school, the pumpkins are taken to the retirement home in the neighborhood and set up as a display for Halloween morning.  Each resident picks their favorite to take back and decorate their room.  I love this project.  

Here are a few of our creations this year:

Our winners this year were SpongeBob and the snowman.  

I hope you all survived your Halloween festivities!

Happy Teaching! 

You know you're a teacher when...

... you dump out your purse (pockets, teacher bag, whatever) and say "Oh, there's my comma!"

That's exactly what I did this week.  I can't tell you how long I've been looking for my other comma.  Seriously.

It's time to dust off my little corner of the internet.  Life has been busy and I've neglected this space.  I've thought about it a lot, but in some cases, the thought doesn't really count, regardless of what people say.  But I've had many really great blog posts written in my head, and many blog-worthy things happening, but sometimes being in the moment is just as fabulous as sharing that moment on the internet!

Unfortunately, my computer is not agreeing with me on the whole I-need-to-update thing, and blogger is refusing to read the pictures I've taken in the past few weeks, so my update will have to wait until I can figure it out. 

But real quick- I want to give a shout out to Music Wands, because I have a music wand in my classroom that I love.  I got it as a gift a few years ago and use it all the time.  It is unique (have you seen them before?!?) and gets the student's attention.  I ordered one for Miss M because she liked using mine, and I went ahead and got myself another one.  I signed up for the 10% off email promo and my email never came through for some reason, but I went ahead and ordered two anyway (they are only $4.95).  Then Music Wands sent me an email and said they realized I didn't get my 10% off email and couldn't use the code so they sent me ANOTHER music wand for free!  Yippee!  Now I have a cross, star, and parallelogram.  I love them!!!  Just thought I'd send some love their way since they were so sweet to follow up!  You can check them out {here} and get some birthday or holiday gifts knocked out for your teacher friends!!

I'll be back as soon as I can figure out this machine!  Hopefully sooner rather than later!

Happy teaching!

Being Boo-ed

Once I was boo-ed in the classroom.  It went something like this:

"Open your books to page 67."

"BOOOOO!"

Um, excuse me?  Did you just boo me like you boo a referee at a football game?  Not that I would do that.  Basketball, maybe.  But not football.

It didn't go over very well with me.  It happened once.  It never happened again.  One point for Miss B.


...But that's not the boo-ing I'm talking about.

We got Boo-ed today.  Here's the proof.

Our school does this every year.  I'm not sure who starts it, but I think we were one of the first classes to be boo-ed this year!  It was so exciting (for my students, I mean.  Getting suckers isn't all that exhilarating for me personally.) 

Immediately, we tore the front paper off and read our directions.  Then we ripped open the bag and grabbed for suckers.  It was all very organized and civilized. 

It led us to this great website called {Been Boo-ed} where you can print off your page to pass on to the next class.  I had never heard of a been boo-ed website before so I learned something new.  We watched the video on the webpage from the Utah pumpkin drop and holy cow did the kids get a kick out of it.  

In case you've never been boo-ed or boo-ed someone, here's how it goes.  Someone (or some class) secretly delivers a bag of treats to the classroom with the "been boo-ed" sign and directions attached.   It's like May baskets for October.  You hang up the ghost on your door so that everyone gets a turn being boo-ed.  Then your class boos another class (or two!) the next day.

You can print your little ghost friend at the {Been Boo-ed website}  or click below.  They also have a {Been Visited} site for other holiday boo-like activities, but there isn't anything posted there now since it's October and all.  

So this evening I dragged myself out to the store to pick up some ghostly treats to pass on to unsuspecting co-workers and students tomorrow.  I also picked up a bunch of fruit for a little writing treat tomorrow.  That's right.  I went to the store and filled a basket with fruit and candy.  People must really wonder about me sometimes.  

Go BOO someone!  

(but be kind)

            

Happy Teaching! 

Do you keep your lesson plans year after year?

...is it weird that I don't?

I hear a lot of teachers make comments about referring to last year's plans to see where they were at this point in the year.

I totally trash last year's plans at the end of the year.  I don't even think twice about it.

That totally means that this pricey sucker will end up in the garbage at the end of May.
But I will say, I absolutely adore it and all of the organization it provides.

If it was an important idea, or project, or anything, then I have it on my jump drive or binder and I'm set to pull it next year if I need to.

I really don't want to know where I was last year or what I was doing.  Then I might feel behind and rushed.  Or like I should slow down.  What I really want to do is meet the needs of my students.  This year's students.  Not last year's.  Or next year's.  Not every lesson is going to meet the needs of every student every year.

We might go slower.  We might skip something we already know.  We might do a brand new project I found.  Or we might do something I do every year because it's awesome.  I'll probably revamp it a little to make it better, though.

I think this keeps me fresh and excited about teaching.  It keeps me searching for new ideas and looking for the next best thing.  Don't get me wrong, if something works and it's a great activity, then I will keep doing it.  But sometimes I need different approaches and new ideas and the latest research to see what will make a concept click with my students.

I also have each subject mapped out for the year, which is organized by units and standards.  I tweak it at the beginning of every year to be sure I have everything where I want it.  That way I can be sure to get through everything that I'm supposed to without looking back at exact plans.

I encourage every new teacher (or experienced teacher as well!) to toss their old plans and start over each year.  Keep a map of your year, but get rid of the plan book.  Start fresh.  Design your plans to match your current students.  Keep your teaching innovative and fun.  Challenge yourself to try something new.

I love this article from {Education Rethink} entitled "throw away your lesson plans".  That's exactly how I feel!

Do you keep your plans from past years?  Do you refer back to them each year?

Happy October!!

October Currently.  Let's do this.

I'm feeling so on top of things since it's actually October 1st and I didn't forget to link up with {Farley}...

I love any televised music event, so loving The Voice is a given.  But tonight I'm torn because I Heart Radio Night 2 is on and Justin Timberlake has me temporarily distracted.  Perfect grading-papers-television, except I don't have any papers to grade.    

Luckily, I got my new iPhone yesterday and I can't stop playing with it.  

So really I should be doing something productive but I'm overstimulated and can't focus.  

I want nothing.  Things are good.  

But I NEED to get grades in the gradebook.  My one responsibility since Miss M has taken over the classroom, and I keep dragging my feet.  

Trick or Treat?!?!  No question.  Always go for the treat.  Ok I'm not going to give any great advice here, but here's a fun story.  I grew up in Iowa, specifically in Des Moines, and apparently it is the only city in the country that requires you to tell a joke as the "trick" during trick or treating, and let's just say I never loved trick or treating.  I hated being forced to talk to strangers tell jokes.  Then in COLLEGE I realized that NO ONE ELSE DOES THAT and that kids everywhere just walk up to houses and are handed candy without doing anything to earn it!!!  

Now that I think about that last one, maybe I should have put "trick" since I was clearly fooled for years.  Now I find it odd to just hand kids candy when they knock on my door.