Five for Friday: 7-24-15

Happy Friday! I hope everyone has had a great week! It's been a good week for me!!! I'm linking up with Doodles Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky...here we go: 

Nineteen days until I return to work! Such a bittersweet thought. I'm slowly but surely getting into the back to school mood. I'm slowing down my summer... I've had a busy summer and have been on the go a lot. So I'm gong to use these next couple of weeks to slow down... I've started thinking about my classroom and ideas galore! Below are some of my thoughts. 

#I❤️hashtags: I love exploring hashtags, I've come across some really great people and ideas by simply clicking on a hashtag. This week I found a new hashtag on Twitter that I think will go over well in my classroom. I just need to work out a plan on how the use it,  #emojigrading. Using emojis in grading. Has anyone done this? I actually think my students would love the emojis more than letter or percentages. I don't have a plan on what assignments or the best use for them yet, but I'm working on it. 

Ryan Reed (@Ryan7Reed) on Twitter has posted several resources for #emojigrading. He also tweeted the emoji grading translation below. If you're interested in finding out more about #emojigrading I suggest following Ryan and Jon Smith, he began #emojigrading, on Twitter @Ryan7Reed  @theipodteacher  

Movies, I've seen a ton of them this summer! Knowing that movies are a great way to connect with students, I've been thinking about ways to incorporate some of this summer's blockbusters into my classroom. Pixels is one of the movies I anticipate my sixth graders to select as their favorites of the summer. I attended a prescreening earlier this week with my 12 year old nephew and he thought the movie was funny and AWESOME!!! If you're familiar with this age group there isn't a lot they find awesome!  I asked him what made it awesome and his response was the video games were life like and the actors were playing the games. I would have to agree! I also like the use of "old school" games. I was a pretty good gamer back in the 80s:) I just don't get these video games the kids play today, including my nephew. However, I do know it's a great way to connect with students, so I picked up some Pixel posters and plan to use them in my classrom...possibly having a gaming reading section. 

Another movie that I plan on bringing into my classroom this year is the Minions! I personally did not like this movie, but it's appealing to kids especially with all of the merchandise available. While cleaning out some files this summer I found 5 sheets of these stickers...

I'm going to use them to motivate students to read. I plan on selecting a variety of books, from my classroom library, and  placing one of these stickers inside the book. Students will then be encouraged to read the books, write a review and they will earn a minion reward...I've already started collecting the rewards thanks to Target's dollar spot.

This year I'm planning on using paperslide videos. If you aren't familiar with a paperslide videos take a look at this video created by Lodge McCammon. He was our convocation speaker last year and introduced us to paperslide videos. I didn't use them last year, honestly I'd forgotten about them until I saw another presentation on them last week at Podstock, an edtech conference. On the first day of school students will create an "All About Me" paperslide video. Take a look at my example: 

There you have it my Five for Friday! Have a great weekend and an even better week! See you next Friday. 

Five for Friday: July 3, 2015

Happy Fourth of July Weekend!!!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Is it me or did this week zip by quickly!? Check out my randomness from the week: 

I did it! I've finally signed up to sell products on TPT...Yay me! Now I just need some help getting started. What TPT tips do you have for this newbie? Anyone willing to mentor me in this new adventure? How did you get started? What as your first product? HELP!!! I have so many questions...I hope to have 1 or 2 freebies up before I return to work.

Wednesday we had some VERY severe weather in our area! In Fact, a tornado touched down minutes from my house! Luckily, I was not home and had just moved out of the path of the tornado as I arrived at the movie theater! Unfortunately, we were too late to the movie screening of The Gallows and had to hang out at the theater until all was clear. We did receive passes to attend another prescreening on Tuesday of next week. When all was clear we headed home and I saw a lovely  rainbow! It has been a long time since I've seen an actual rainbow in the sky, I was pretty excited. 

Summer just wouldn't be summer without a visit to a zoo. My son and I headed out early Thursday morning to the zoo, and I must say being there early in the day was a nice treat. I was able to have some one-on-one conversation with some of the zookeepers. My favorite was at the penguin exhibit. We've visited this exhibit several times, but have never visited with the zookeepers about these lovely animals! Some interesting facts I learned about penguins is that they molt about every ten months, and they're fed 3 different types of fish a day. 

My son and I also had a bit of a (map) scavenger hunt. He had a zoo map and I asked him what animal he saw on the map then we set out to find it. This lasted for about 5 animals and was a fun beginning map skills activity for a toddler.  This was an impromptu activity, but one that we could/ should repeat again. 

A penguin molting

The ISTE conference was held this week!  I was at home and not at the conference but thanks to a new app, Periscope, I felt as though I was there. Periscope is a live streaming app. Several people I follow on twitter were at ISTE and lived streamed their experiences several times throughout the conference.  I was able to take notes and actually learned a few new things even though I was not at the conference. I'm hoping I can find a few people that will be live streaming their TPT Vegas experience next week. So sad I can't be there. I am going to a conference in a couple of weeks...more about that later. 

Periscope app icon 

It's my Blogoversary tomorrow, July 4th! Three years ago I decided to start this blog and it's been slow going ever since, but I've meet some wonderful bloggers, and have built my PLN tremendously which is what I set out to do. To celebrate I'm having my very first give away! Enter for a chance to win a $15 gift card. Don't forget to stop by and check out other Five for Fridays! 

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Five for Friday: Birthday Week 2015

Hello! I'm taking some time today to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching, for her Five for Friday linky. Trying to get my blogging groove back.

Our summer theme this year is "Summer of the Parks!" I've taken a step back from the traditional 'Summer Bucket List ' and we're visiting a new (different) park in the city each week. This week we found a park with a rocking school bus and all he wanted to do was drive the bus.

Tuesday was my birthday! I had a painting party...these places are popping up all around town. It was everyone's first time and we had a GREAT time!!! Our paintings turned out pretty cute as well, and I'm no artist. It was a real "Royal" celebration!!!

Also on my birthday I visited a new vintage arcade in our area and recevied some free tokens, sixty  tokens to be exact. All games are just 1 token...I'm telling you I felt like a kid at Chuck E. Cheese! Super Mario Brothers, Dig Dug, Donkey Kong, Ms. Pac Man were just a few of the games I played before heading to my painting party. Since I didn't use very many of the tokens, I'm going back tomorrow night to wrap up my birthday week. What's your favorite video game? 

I LOVE summer because you get to do absolutely nothing and don't have to feel guilty about it. Wednesday we just hung out on the couch and watched Netflix. My little one didn't even want to go any where, and I was totally OK with that! 

As I continue to celebrate my birthday week,  I had a chance to attend a prescreening of Magic Mike XXL. It was AWESOME!!! I loved watching Channing Tatum! Great girls night out movie! 

Check out more "Five for Friday" post here or link up your own. 

Future Me

With a new year comes resolutions. One of my resolutions this year is to blog at least once a week...and let's just say that new year's resolutions usually start of strong in the beginning (this is my second post of the new year). With that being said, I want to share a website that I like to use in my classroom with students when we set goals. It just might help with my new year's resolutions. 

The website is called futureme.org (there is also an app). The way it works is you write a letter to your future self, set a date (at least 30 days out) in which you want to receive the letter. It's as simple as that. Today, I received the letters my students wrote at the beginning of the second quarter! 

A few tips: 

1. Always have students use your email address. You have to verify the email address, and I found that students don't always do this when it is sent to them. It's not much work just click on the link they send you. Once I receive the letter I will print them or forward them to the students. 

2. Have students include their name in the subject line. That way as you verify the email address you can check off students that have sent their letter to the future. It took me a couple of times of having students not receive a letter to learn this little trick. Such a simple thing. 

3. MOST IMPORTANT make sure they change the year to 2015! It automatically defaults a year out. I can't wait to see what letters I receive in August of 2015:) 

4. Last, we always use private. 

It's always exciting seeing all of the emails show up in my inbox! Reflecting on one quarter and setting new goals, a great way to begin each quarter.  

I'm glad I received these today, because I was looking for a way to keep track of my 2015 resolutions, and tada it hit me Futureme.org!  I'm going to write my goals and have them sent to me every 3 months to see how I'm doing. What's your plan for sticking to those new year's resolutions you created? 

January Currently

Happy New Year! I'm starting the year off by linking up with Farley for her January Currently.

Listening: I'm currently listening to the local news. It's part of my evening routine (even on winter break). If I miss the news I just feel like something is missing. Weird, I know, but I like to stay caught up with what's going on in the city (good and bad). 

Loving: I'm LOVING every minute of winter break! We haven't gotten out much, trying to avoid catching the flu, but we've had a BLAST hanging out in the house; camped out in the living room.  

Thinking: I'm thinking about going back to work on Monday. BOO!!! I love my job, but this break has been so peaceful and relaxing! I hadn't realized until this year how relaxing winter break could be.  Mainly because I didn't let the stress of the holidays get to me. Yea me!!! 

Wanting: I'm wanting some really good chocolate right about now! I have some M & Ms and Kit-Kats, but I'm wanting a nice gourmet cupcake, or a slice of chocolate cheese cake from the Cheesecake Factory. I might just have to treat myself tomorrow. 

Needing: I'm needing to get the majority of my grades complete before going back to work. I would like to spend my work day organizing and planning. You know getting ahead, wouldn't that be nice?! 

Yes, I will run/walk six 5k races this year! The first one will be the Diva Dash in March, I have to wait for the weather to warm up a bit. 

Maybe, I'll start taking master's classes this year. I've started and stopped, maybe this will be the year I  get it done! 

I wish I could end the year debt free! That is truly wishful thinking, I still have some years on my student loans. 

There you have it my currently January 2015! What are you currently up to this New Year? You can link up here. Enjoy the first weekend of 2015! 

Random Messages!

Hello blog world! It's been a little over 3 months since my last blog post, so I'm not even sure there's anyone still visiting my little blog; I hope so! I'm planning to blog daily over winter break. I find it hard to blog during the school year. How do you all do it? I usually start a post, but never get around to finishing it. Does anyone have any advice on how to get into a quick and easy routine?

Even though I haven't blogged in a few months doesn't mean I haven't kept up with the blogging world. A couple of ways I stay in touch is Instagram and Twitter. I've gotten so many ideas just by following fellow teachers and bloggers. 

One of my favorites on Twitter is Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent). You may have heard of his app Stick Around! I've just recently downloaded it, but have yet to figure it all out...something I have on my winter break to-do list. I first came across Tony on Pinterest. I saw his "Roll and Reflect" QR codes, and fell in LOVE with them. Each time you scan the code a different question comes up (I believe there are 20 different questions.) I'd never seen a qr code that had a different message each time you scanned it, so I was intrigued, and started following Tony on Twitter, hoping I could figure out how he did it. Well this past November my hoping paid off, Tony posted the directions on how to create your own HTML's to create a random message here. I was so excited! Following the directions in his post I was able to make my first random msg. HTML. It was so awesome! I created questions for the book Island of the Blue Dolphins. I then had my small group of students scan the code, hold up the question on their iPad, and we went around the circle and answered each one. It worked out GREAT! Here is the qr code I created:

If you're not following @tonyvincent on Twitter you should. Also check out his roll and reflect qr codes; along with his blog post on how to create your own random messages. 

Sunday Scoop (9-14)

I'm back with another Sunday Scoop! I'm linking up with the ladies over at Teaching Trio for this fun linky. 

I've put off my lesson planning since we have PD tomorrow. I'll have to get them done tonight. 

Students have finished their first book project and I'm hoping to get them all graded and returned to students this week. My goal is to grade 5 from each class everyday this week. I also need to make a Walmart run soon and pick up some necessities we are running low on a lot of items. 

Last week, I was hoping to get out and run/walk 4 times and only made it out twice. This week I'm hoping to get out 3 times. Girls on the Run begins this week, so that will help motivate me a bit more. We are two weeks away from my son's 3rd birthday, and I'm hoping to get all the shopping done this week for party supplies, and order the cake, and balloons.

As soon as I post this we are going to head out to the circus. I'm so excited! The ringmaster is a guy I went to school with, and I'm looking forward to seeing him do his thang!!!  It is my son's first circus! Did you know your child can get a free ticket to their first circus if you sign up before their first birthday? We're using his free ticket voucher today.

Have a great week, and I'm of to the Greatest Show on Earth!