Teacher Week, Let's Talk About Me!

It's teacher week, and there's a party going on over at Blog Hoppin' each day this week. Today is let's talk about me. I'm going to try my best to find 10 random (and hope you find them fun) things about me to share. 

1. I'll start with the basics. I'm a 6th grade ELA and social studies teacher. This is my first year teaching 6th grade social studies and I'm a bit nervous about it. I've been teaching 14 years. I started in 3rd, then 4th, then 5th and now 6th. Every year I have students ask if I'm going to 7th. I believe 6th is my stopping point. 

2. When I was a 6th grader the district I went to school in switched to magnet schools, moving all 6th graders into  middle schools. I was devastated! I had looked forward to being a 6th grader and having a 6th grade celebration at the elementary school I had attended since Kindergarten. So when I was moved  to 6th grade as a teacher, I was excited! I had my 6th grade  celebration I so longed for! 

3. Digital Addiction was the front  page article of our local newspaper yesterday. I  hate to admit it, but I might have a small addiction. I teach in a 1:1 iPad school, so I blame it on my job! I wonder if digital detoxing falls under workman's comp:)? 

4. I visit two states each day. I live in Missouri and work in Kansas. 

5. I have a 20 year old daughter that just started nursing school last week, and a 22 month old son. He is my miracle baby. He was born at 25 weeks weighing just 1lb 7oz.  He is doing great now! 

6. I love all things chocolate, but who doesn't...oh yeah my daughter.  

7. I am not a morning person! If we could move the start time of the school day to say 10:00-11:00 I'd be a much happier person in the mornings! I'd also save some lots of money because I could bypass Starbucks.  

8. Word games are my favorite. I might have another slight addiction.  Ummm...I wonder, do I actually have a digital addiction or a word game addiction?  I will have 20+ games going at one time.  

9. I do not like shopping! Growing up I was OK with my mom picking out my clothes for me. If I could hire a personal shopper I would. 

10. I am terribly  afraid of dogs. Why? I have no idea. 

Well that's me! I hope you found those 10 facts fun or at least interesting. Be sure to stop by Blog Hoppin' sometime this week and join the party. 

Saturday Snapshots

It's Saturday and time for my favorite weekly linky, Saturday Snapshot with Miss Nelson, over at Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera. This was my first week back to work, and  it was pretty relaxed since students haven't started yet. The week was spent setting up classrooms,  reviewing policies and procedures, some team building and motivating.  

Here are the lovely people I will be working with this year. We are a small staff. Our building only houses 6th grade. 

We all had on our I teach what's your superpower? t-shirts. The district office provided each school with shirts in their school colors. Above I am with our social worker whom we share with another building, so she is sporting the red version of the same shirt. 

We spent a little bit of time decorating capes with our superpower. 

Just before the start of convocation we put on our capes. 

Group photo with our capes.  We are all powered up and ready for the class of 2020! 

I did not take the group photos. One of my colleagues is the photographer behind those. She is a great photographer!

Tuesday is the first day of school. I hope to reveal my classroom photos Monday. Where are you in the back to school journey? Have you returned to work? Have your students returned?

Five for Friday...Powering Up for 2013-2014

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a great week. Tuesday was my first day back at work, and it has been a "Super" power packed week preparing for the new school year!  I'm linking up with Doodles Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday to share.

1. "I Teach What's Your Superpower" is the district theme this year. Everyone received a t-shirt.  

2. We discussed what our superpowers were and created superpower capes to wear on the back of our shirts at convocation. Here is mine 

3. Our principal shared this video about millennials; this generation of facebookers, instagramers, tweeters, bloggers and YouTubers. The video is definitely worth watching. It talks about who the millennials are and why they are misunderstood. It really puts a lot into perspective about this generation. 

4. Having some fun with one of my teaching buddies and a little bit of augmented reality. You can find this poster and others like it at Walmart. I can't wait to take photos of my students and Superman on the first day. 

5. "With great power, comes great responsibility!!!" A fitting quote for teachers everywhere. We all have a lot of power and responsibility. 

Have a super powered school year, and don't forget to link up. 

Monday Made It - Teacher Toolbox

I did it! I made my very own teacher's toolbox. Year after year, I've struggled with how to organize supplies in/on my desk. Nothing has seemed to work. So, after seeing all of the different teacher tool boxes I decided to make one. Take a look. 

It was meant for me because I purchased the last on the shelf. Not very expensive like I originally thought. 

I used some book cover paper I had to cover the drawers, added  Dr. Seuss stickers to match my theme. I don't really care for the stickers, and I might take them off of  the larger drawers. What do you think? See next photo. 

Using clear labels I labeled each drawer. They are hard to read when placed over the hats, but it will work.

I couldn't leave the back the way it was, it bothered me. I saw the idea of covering the back asking students not to touch anything on the desk, sorry I can't remember the exact blog. If it was you  please let me know, so I can give you credit. I decided to do something similar. I think it came out OK. 

My favorite part is that I decided to spray paint it with chalkboard paint. 

Now I can jot down quick notes or in this case my Todo list. 

And there it is my teacher toolbox. Stop by 4th Grade Frolics and see what others have made. 

Saturday Snapshots: Last Days of Summer 2013

It's Saturday! Time to link up with Miss Nelson for her Saturday Snapshots, but first let me tell you about my new addiction; Instagram. Yes, I've been bitten by the Instagram bug. I've tried to stay away all summer, but I just couldn't resist. I should have seen it coming.  I downloaded the app in May. In June I created an account. In July I added my first pictures, and the rest is history. I don't know why I waited so long. You can follow me @rolandteach or click the icon below. 

Follow me @rolandteach

Now for my snapshots, these snapshots represent my last days of summer 2013. 

We made a visit to the Crayola Store. He loved writing on this giant chalkboard with the giant chalk. 

Tip made an appearance. 

Lunchtime at Crayola Cafe

My nephew turned 11 on August 1st. We headed to the bowling alley for some birthday fun. These pictures were taking with my new photo app called Fast Camera. This app takes tons of photos a minute. Making it great for taking action shots on your phone. The app is regularly $1.99, but thanks to my best teaching buddy Sarah, over at iTeach with iPads, I was able to use Starbucks free download. You can stop by Starbucks and see if they still have this download available. I forget how often they change them. 

Sorry, back to my snapshots....always have throw in an app. It's what my blog is all about. 

At the bowling alley was this AWESOME Connect 4 game!

Look at this deal I found at an Office Depot store that is down sizing. I had to stock up. For my latest project.

No last week of summer vacation would be complete without a trip to school. We were finally able  to get into our classroom. Here is the project I need duct tape for (don't judge a book by its cover). I'll tell you all about when I'm done, or you can follow me on Instagram (@rolandteach) for a sneak peek. 

Do you think I have enough duct tape?

 Here's what my son and I are working on. Look for the reveal on Monday.

That's how I spent my last week of summer vacation 2013! What pictures have you snapped this week? Don't forget to link up or stop by and see what others are up to. Have a great weekend! 

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Currently August

It is currently August! And, I'm feeling the stress that comes with it.   This is the last weekend of my summer vacation:( and I'm linking up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the monthly edition of Currently. This is the most popular linky I've taken part this summer. It is definitely one that I will continue to participate in during the school year. 

1. It's currently raining outside, and what a wonderful sound. Very relaxing moment as my son naps. 

2. I went to work in my classroom yesterday, and guess what?  I have new carpet!  A very unexpected surprise. My room flooded this summer, so they had to redo the carpet. I like it a lot better than the old carpet. 

3.  I still have several personal things to do before Tuesday (official report to workday). Will they all get done? I hope so, but probably not. 

4. I only have one bookshelf in my classroom:( and lots of books:) Last year,  I thought I worked around this, but it really bothered me the way my classroom library was set up. I spent yesterday redoing my classroom library and realized, I need another bookshelf! I'm on the hunt for a CHEAP bookshelf.

5. Staying up late and sleeping in has been my routine all summer long. I need to get back to my regular routine. Week one is going to be tough. 

6. I love all the teacher toolboxes I've been seeing. I'm currently working on completing mine in time for Monday Made It. 

Just found out there's a currently for the classroom; I must get it. 

Tax free weekend starts today, and I'm in need of some new school work clothes. Back to school work shopping time:) 

What are you currently up to? Visit Oh' Boy 4th Grade to link up or see what other teacher bloggers are up to. 

Thursday Throwdown (Apps A-Z: NoteLedge)

The countdown is on, 5 days until I officially must return to work! Today, is the first day we can go work in our classroom...YAY! You know where I'll be in a couple of hours. You can follow me on Instagram @rolandteach to see pictures of my classroom as I work to get it ready. 

Today, I am linking up with "I'm Lovin Lit" for her monthly Throw Down Thursday Linky. It's all about ways to make learning interactive. I'm going to share how I made this biography poster iPad friendly. 

Have you used this poster? You can order the poster size from scholastic or download it here, and enlarge it for your students. Last year, I wanted my students to complete this poster, but I knew they wouldn't want to do it unless it was on the iPad. So, I created this poster...

I assigned an app to each section, except the read all about...it includes a website. Students were assigned a famous historical figure. They had to research the person and complete each section above. Here are the apps that I had them use and the link to them in my A-Z app series: 

Pic Collage: Students used this to create a collage of pictures of their person. They had to include the person birth and death date along with why the person was famous. I have not written up this app in my App A-Z series yet, but you can download it here.

iMovie: Students used this app to create a movie about the person's life. They could create a project or a movie trailer. 

Morfo: Using a photo of the person students recorded a quote they were famous for saying. 

NoteLedge: This app allows students to add an audio recording (I talk more about this app below), to tell a life lesson they learned from their famous person. 

Kids Doodle: Students created a movie of 5 words that describe the person. 

RedLaser: Students created a QR code that list all of the resources they used. 

In the Final Fact section I allowed students to present it however the wished. I'm always amazed at the new things I learn when their free to choose. 

Newspaper Generator is not an app. It is a website that allows you to create your own newspaper article. Students used it to write a newspaper article about their person. 

After all projects were complete, students saved them to their camera roll, and placed them in an app called NoteLedge. It is a note taking/ presentation app. I like this app because several projects can be inserted onto one page. Once students had all of their project inserted into NoteLedge they were ready for sharing. In NoteLedge there is a presentation mode. This was used as students shared each part of their project with the class.  

I was very pleased with how well the students' projects turned out. If you are interested in the worksheet with the apps on it just let me know, and I will email you a copy. I'm looking forward to making more of my worksheets iPad interactive. How are you making learning more interactive for your students? Visit "I'm Lovin Lit" to link up or find other ideas. Have a great school year. I'm headed to school to work in my room:)!