It's Currently October

Linking Up with Farley!



Listening to Hawaii Five-O. I began watching because I totally have a crush on Alex O'Loughlin, he's so pretty :) But I stayed for the fun & excitement. Scott Caan is hysterical, and I have found new love for Daniel Dae Kim, so handsome.

Loving my class this year. I've been able to a lot of fun stuff with my kids this year and they are doing great! I partnered with a 5th grade class and made ice cream, so cool!

Thinking I need to get serious about my centers/stations this week so I can begin testing. So while I have an amazing class this year, they are also high maintenance. I keep forgetting how much they are still 1st graders when they come to me at the beginning of the year, it happens every year. This group while seemingly more mature and independent than last year's group, are still very much seeking that teacher approval. So I need to get them more comfortable with their independence and assure them that they're doing they're best. That way I can get some testing done whilst my kiddos independently work.

Wanting more time. I don't know any teacher that doesn't want or need more time in a day, week or month. 'Nuff said.

Needing another massage. Last week I had a bad headache and it had just been a rough day/week so I called the place I go for massages and thankfully they had an opening. My back and neck are sensitive, but the girl was awesome, she had just the right pressure. It's always been my favorite when therapists work on my legs & feet. It totally puts me to sleep :) I just need to schedule an hour & a half next time, an hours nice, but it just never seems enough.

Trick: Whilst making a pocket in our math journals this week I got out some report card manila envelopes like they suggested in a workshop I went to this past summer. They told us to cut the envelope in half & Viola! two pockets to glue inside the journal. The instructors just told us to take the top part & tape it together so you could still use it for a pocket. I was so excited about doing ths too. One of my TAG kiddos piped up:

S: Ms. Wambsgans you can just close the envelope & turn it upside down.
Me: (Smacking my forehead) You're right! (Duh!)

Kids - 1, Ms. W -0

Grad School, 4 Weeks In of School & We Tried Saving Fred!

So I totally have been MIA these last few weeks. My graduate school assignment due date schedule didn't expand even though the class time line did, ugh. Instead of weekly assignments and 2 projects due in 7 weeks, they were all completed and done in 5 weeks. Now I like the idea of having like 3 weeks off, but dang-it I was supposed to have 7 weeks to devote to churning out good work!

I had intended to post this about 2 weeks ago (see previous paragraph :-/) But the first week of school one of my sweeties mentioned something about not wanting to work with a classmate at his table. I thought this was a perfect time to remind them how much we're going to need each other these next 9 months, and how much time we're going to spend together (more than they will with their families). I pulled out the Save Fred activity a day early so we could talk about teamwork.

Here's a few shots of my sweeties trying their darndest to Save Fred there. I had them start in pairs first and they were struggling. One pair said they did it without using their fingers, but were promptly called out :-O

Once they realized that they couldn't really truly do it with only 2 people, I mentioned that maybe they could help the other pair at their tables and save one Fred at a time. Oh yeah! One group was able to Save Fred when using all their table mates help.

We then journaled in our Science Notebooks about how important it is not to give up, like Edison, to keep trying, work hard and work together as a team.

So I'll definitely use Fred again next year :)

~Darnee~

September Currently

I was totally stalking Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade & hoping to get in on the Currently all this holiday weekend, but alas, no such luck :( But then I read she's running the linky backwards, so the last to sign up will show up first, whoot whoot!

Here's my currently for September:

Listening - It's one of those underrated flicks when Rosie O'Donnell was still the Queen of Nice before Ellen was crowned. I love the battle of the sexes banter throughout the entire movie. But my absolute favorite is when Rosie is going off on Timothy Hutton & Matt Dillon (who both btw look small town gorgeous, swoon) in the drugstore. I can't repeat or quote the speech here, but trust me, it's funny.

Loving - My students this year are great. I'm already in love with them all. What a great group of kiddos. I made a few phone calls this evening to give parents some updates and everyone I talked to said their kids come home and say what a great day they've had in class, sigh....warms my heart ya'll.

Thinking - Yeah, I should totally need to get back on a better sleep schedule, but let's face it, I'm a night owl at heart. Between 11 & 1 is my magic go to sleep window, haven't been able to get it any earlier, plus add in graduate work & whew! Not gonna happen anytime soon, thank goodness for a great group of kids, otherwise I'd be struggling.

Wanting - B2S isn't the same without umpteen meetings on top of B2S responsibilities, ugh!

Needing - So I have crazy amounts of lesson planning to complete, not to mention a pretty intense graduate class with 2 projects due around the same time, eek! Any volunteers, anyone....anyone....?

Love Yourself Spot  - 1. I began reading The Happiness Project last year and then through some internet surfing I found this website called Happify, where you complete Happiness tracks to help you cope with life's little stresses and incorporate more happiness into our lives.
2. I spent the holiday weekend with an old college friend, not that we're old by any means, but in the sense we've only seen each other 2 in the last 12 years, OMG! As we were catching up we realized how much we haven't talked about over those 12 years, so I want to try and make it a point to connect with my girlfriends beyond facebook and really talk and catch up more often, like at least once a month.
3. My dogs were so happy during the summer and all the time I was home with them. I'd play with 'em and roll around on the floor. They loved all the extra attention and were so sweet & affectionate. I need to make sure they're not gonna lose too much time since school's started back up.

I Survived The First Week, Yay!

I got super excited about my class after Meet The Teacher on the 22nd. I was really looking forward to this year. I always get excited, nervous about a new school year, but this one for some reason has me all twitterpated. I'm crazy about my kiddos this year and can't wait for all the cool things we're going to do.

So I took a few pictures of just a couple things I did this week, I kept forgetting to break out the camera.

I began using Reagan Tunstill's Rise & Shine Binder with my class this year and we started on the 2nd day so I could give the kids their number of the day the rest of the week. Okay, the kids love it. I only started with a few of the pages I'll add more as we go through the year. I also bought the Rev Up Your Gray Matter that has some higher level activities for my kids when they reach that level.

Then later that same day we read Do Unto Otters, one of my absolute favorite 1st Week books to read to my kiddos because of the golden rule and it has OTTERS! I lurve otters ;)

After we read the book I introduced the class to Oswald the Otter, he watches over our class to make sure we're Doing Unto Otters as we'd like them to do unto us! I sent the kids back to their desks & we proceeded to talk about toothpaste. I know some of you already know where I'm headed with this, but for those who don't don't spoil the surprise.

They squeezed out the toothpaste onto a plate & tried to get it all back into the tube with toothpicks. On the plus side my room smelled minty fresh :-) After we cleaned up we talked about how while we can probably forgive someone for saying something mean, the words can never be taken back, there's always a little reminder in the person's mind, ie leftover toothpaste on the plate.

On Thursday I got my SLANT box (see button on the side over there ---->) from Jessica over at Covered in Glitter & Glue in California. She got me ya'll.

The hand made card was precious. Not to mention the photos of my childhood & current obsessions New Kids on the Block and Bruno Mars. The yummy Skittles are a nice little pick me up in the afternoon. Another childhood reminder from the 80's Care Bear stickers, how cute are those, love. And some brand spanking new Ticonderoga pencils ready to be sharpened in my new sharpener. There was also a Starbucks card, but I er um...used it to feed my pumpkin spice latte indulgences ;)

Meet The Teacher: I'm Excited & Oh Yeah, We're Having A Giveaway!!!

Last year for some reason I wasn't feeling beginning of the year, dunno why, hmmm? This year:

1. I wasn't able to get into my classroom for some time (cleaning & waxing of all the floors).
2. I moved across the building into another classroom.
3. A lot of furniture got moved out of the room, so I had to hunt stuff down.
4. It wasn't until last Thursday that the furniture I finally got was able to be moved into their new homes (newly waxed tile floors, custodians get picky when you scratch it up :-/)
5. Still had a cabinet's worth of stuff in my old classroom, meaning I still had to move it to my new room and find homes for that stuff too. (Teachers are such hoarders!)
6. Then to organize and arrange desks and tuck things away until after Meet the Teacher night.
7. I did a lot of my copies for MTT at home, so at least that was taken care of, but oh the sorting into packets to put into folders was ****!
8. I finished said packets, and last minute frou frou-ing of my classroom & myself right in the nick of time.

Enough venting about it. Despite it all, I was actually able to pull off a pretty successful MTT night. The 12/20 kiddos & parents that showed up were so nice and supportive of their kids. I even have some pretty funny parental units that like to er hem give their kids/teachers/spouses a hard time. 

It really warmed my heart that a couple of staff members wanted me for their child's teacher, that says a lot and I'm completely humbled by it. While I was only assigned one of the kids, the other wound up in another awesome teacher's room, cuz our grade level is all crazy amazing!

My feet are killing me, a sign of things to come next week when I'm on my feet 8 hrs everyday instead of just 2-6. I'm really looking forward to these kiddos and all the learning adventures I have in my brain!

Since I'm feeling all warm & fuzzy right now, I'd like to remind everyone of a pretty cool little giveaway we're having. August 17th this year was the blog's one year anniversary. To celebrate, 2 lucky peeps will win either a Thirty One Gifts' Wristlet or a Classroom Friendly Supplies pencil sharpener, you know the one EVERYONE has been praising all summer long! Click here to enter!!!!

Here's to an awesome year! Good luck everyone & I'll be seeing you around during the year :)

~Darnee~

One Year Bloggerversary!!!

It's our Anniversary ya'll! In honor of blogging for a whole year, whoohoo we're hosting a giveaway of 2 fabulous items!

The first is Classroom Friendly Supplies' Pencil Sharpener** in Firehouse Red:

We've been reading about this sharpener all summer long. I, Darnee, bought the 3 package deal back in July and have been a sharpening fool :) I have pencils ready to go for my kiddos. Since Amanda is starting at a new school I happily gave her one of the extras since she's a "Pencil Nazi," as so deigned by her family members.

I thought what am I gonna do with the last sharpener....hmmmmmm? Then I thought, duh, giveaway for our 1 Year Bloggerversary!

The other item is so fun(ctional)! I went to a coworker's 31 Bag** party this summer & bought something that I thought was very cute. I know someone out there is in need of a 31 Bags' Wristlet:

I mean, how cute & fun is that?!?! It holds your cell phone, IDs, credit/debit cards, and a little bit 'o' change, perfect for taking to school since we're already loaded down with teacher bags & files who needs a huge purse too?! Don't tell my 31 peeps that, hehe.

So follow the directions & we can't wait to see who the lucky winners are!

Thanks for sharing in our blogging adventures :)

~ Darnee & Amanda ~


a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Note: I personally bought these products, the companies did not donate these items & are in no way affiliated with our blog and we are not affiliated with their companies. We just love their products :)** 

Teacher Week '13 Thursday

It's Darnee here for classroom management. I blogged about this back in January so I'll defer to the post here. I really just need to tweak a couple things, like the tangibles, what color were they on at the end of the day, points for treasure box, etc. Here's just some things I love about Class Dojo.

I used to use a clipboard with a class list attached where I could give kids points, but Class Dojo saved my life. My kids last year lived to hear that "ding" sound when someone got a point. They've just updated a lot fo their professional materials to coerce your teacher friends & teammates to use this amazing app. It has the capability to work on an iPhone, iPad and from I can see android devices too!!

Now one thing I relinquish to my kiddos after a few weeks in school is monitoring the line in the hallway. The good thing is, they have the class iPad, I have my iPhone, just in case. What's also great is that if a kiddo gets a little carried away & tries to seek revenge out on a classmate whom they thought unfairly took away points, I can always go in through the website & adjust as necessary.

I love that you don't have to wait for Friday to send a report to parents. You can send one anytime during the week. I don't just have negative behaviors I take points away for, I incorporate good citizen traits, or being a good student/friend points, not to mention homework points :) So I can send those great positive notes home too!! Keeping up with parent communication is key ;)

Anywhos, I'd highly recommend using this awesome app. Oh and I forgot, they are great about customer service. Anytime I had a question or user error :-| they responded quickly and helped me out. Good luck with Dojo, once you've tried it you'll never go back!