New TPT resource posted

My Equivalent Fractions Poke Cards are up and ready for purchase!  Discount price available for a limited time only!  :)

Prepare the cards by circling the answer on the back lightly in pencil. I've marked the correct answer for you, but it will disappear when you use your hole punch.  Punch out all 3 holes.  Students solve the problem and poke the tip of a pencil (or other object) through the hole and then flip it over to check.  My students love these!  

Whew! That was quite the year!

After several years as an ESL teacher, I went back to the classroom this fall.  I taught 5th grade at a school where I went through 2 new principals and 3 vice principals.  I'm sure you can all understand that keeping up with my blog and my TeachersPayTeachers store was more than I could manage with all that change.

But the school year ended and I'm ready to do LOTS more this summer to be ready for next fall.  I've got a huge list of products I wished I had made for this year.  I've got tons of great resources I want to pass along to you.  I've figured out some of the "tricks" to managing a blog during the school year that I hope will help this time.

To celebrate the start of my summer, I'm putting everything in my store on sale for a week.  Hopefully I'll also be adding several items, but I've been selected for the jury pool as well.  Here's hoping that for once in my life I don't get chosen.  This is my 6th summons in 16 years. I've served on 3 juries.  I'm really lucky that way.

To kick off the summer, I also have a NEW product in my TPT store!



Check out my Identifying Fractions Poke Cards.  On sale at TeachersPayTeachers for $1 for the next two weeks!  :)  After that, it goes to the regular price of $4.  Enjoy!

Common Core? There's an app for that...

Seems like there's an app for everything these days.  I heard about these apps at a recent conference I attended.  It's common core on your mobile device.  My first thought was, "Why would I ever need that on my smart phone?"  I don't have a tablet.  In fact, when it comes to writing lesson plans, I'm a bit "old school" and prefer a printed version of the CCSS.

So, while I could see some people who use tablets or iPads in their classrooms may find this app helpful, I was a bit skeptical.  And then the network went down at school.  And I had left my printed copy of the standards at home.  I couldn't even access my documents on our school server where I had saved a copy of the standards.  Just as I was about to growl in frustration over not being able to plan during my planning period, I realized I had one more option:  the APP!  I downloaded it quickly for free and was able to easily continue my planning session, no problem.

If you're like me, though, you're thinking that it's hardly worth the bother to download this app for the rare occurrence of a total network shutdown.  You may be thinking that you'd never need this on your phone.  I get it.  I was with you.  And then I was in Hobby Lobby buying some crafting stuff and saw a pile of cool educational games and activities.  Since CCSS is new to our state this year, plus I'm back in the classroom after several years in the ESL room, I haven't yet memorized all the CCSS for each grade level.  I wanted to buy a math game that my students could play, but didn't know which ones would hit the standards for my grade level.  Out came the phone and that handy little app.

I'm sure there are other great reasons to have this app.  I'll maybe encounter them this year.  If you have any experiences where this app has been helpful, I'd love to hear about it here!

(I don't work for either app company, but just wanted to share how helpful they could be.  Please go to your usual app store and search for Common Core.  The Mastery Connect app and the Education Electric app are the two pictured above.  These are the only two I am aware of that are free apps fir CCSS.  You'll need to read their details and requirements in order to determine whether these are right for you.)

Classroom Library Organization? There's an app for that...

One of the things I needed to do this year was update my classroom library to include Lexile levels.  The school I where I'm teaching uses a reading test three times each year which gives us each student's Lexile range.  I'm used to the Guided Reading levels.  No matter what you may find about how those two systems work, they don't actually align well.  They use totally different features to determine reading level.

So anyway, I needed to make labels for my books that had Lexile levels included.  (I also included Guided Reading and Accelerated Reader if I could find them.)  I'm so glad I found two AMAZING resources to find these levels.

First, I used "Classroom Organizer."  Check it out here:  http://classroom.booksource.com/ 

I was able to quickly scan the barcode on the back of each book with the smartphone app.  The site then provided me with an Excel spreadsheet of every piece of information they had about the book (title, author, levels, genre, list price, etc.).  Some books had tons of information.  Other books had very little information.  Since it was all in a spreadsheet, though, I could easily sort the books and use other resources to find the missing pieces.

Scholastic has their "Book Wizard."  This is the resource I went to when I needed more information.  Check it out here:  http://www.scholastic.com/bookwizard/ 

Next, I took the spreadsheet and created a "mail merge" document in MS Word.  I used the address labels feature and placed Title, Lexile level, GR level, AR level and AR points all on a small label and printed them.

Now, you can purchase labels and try to get everything to line up just right, or you can print on paper and then run it through a sticker machine.  What?  You don't have one?  You've got to check out the Xyron machines.  I use them for everything!!

Xyron

http://www.xyron.com/enUS/Categories/Creative_Station/9__Creative_Station.html

You can find these in many of the big box craft stores, online, or sometimes at your local scrapbooking stores.  They will do not only sticker-making, but also laminate and make magnets.  If it's flat, it can become a sticker!   No electricity needed -- you crank the handle by hand and out slides  your project.  The machines come in many sizes.  This 9 inch version is my favorite machine at home, but I also have the 5 inch version in my classroom and the 1.5 inch version at home.

So, with just a few minutes of scanning with a phone, an hour of searching for missing book levels, a few minutes to mail merge a document and print,  and seconds to crank them into stickers, I have labels ready for several hundred books.  Now, if I could just remember to bring them to school, I could start attaching them to my library.  :)

Hope this Helps!
Heather Q

I Scream for Ice Cream! (Homophone match up activity)

I finally got the graphics worked out on this one.  (Strange black spots were appearing on the printer, but not on the screen.)

Ready for classroom use, it's the Ice Cream Match Up for Homophones!

Print on cardstock, cut out, and fold the cones around behind.
Instant center for practicing homophone definitions!

Check it out at my TPT store!  (Click here)  

Exit Tickets on Sticky Notes!!

Need a quick Exit Ticket for your students?   Wouldn't it be great to have a sticky note version that students could stick on your door or wall as they exit your room?  Well, I thought so, too!

I created a file of 8 different Exit Tickets (shown in the picture above) for all kinds of different situations.

To create them, simply print the file one time, place a 3x3 inch sticky note on top of the page, put it back in the printer the same way, and print again!  

Each page holds 6 of the same exit ticket.  If you don't want them on sticky notes, you can print on paper and cut apart.  Either way, you'll have a great informal assessment or closure activity for your students to complete at the end of a lesson.

Check them out at my TPT Store! (click here)

September was a very busy month!

Whew!  The first month of school is over and I made it through. Wow!  I'd forgotten what that first month in the classroom can be like.  The last three years as an ESL teacher, the first month was all about assessing new students and completing paperwork.  That's all important, but not quite as exhausting as teaching routines and procedures as well as content to students you hardly know yet.  I was doing 12 hour days plus going in on the weekend, not to mention coming home with papers to grade and projects to complete.

I think I've found that groove, though.  The one where you know that there's a lot to do, but it's not so overwhelming.  You know what's coming, you know your students well enough to know how they're going to react to things, you've had time to prepare some of the basics.  Basically, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel and know that it is NOT a train!

I've got some more posts coming for you this week.  I presented a few of my new products at the Michigan Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (MITESOL) conference on Saturday, so I will blog about those latest endeavors.  I've also got some great apps I've learned to use recently that you may want for your smart phones/ipads/tablets/etc.  I may even manage to get some photos of things I've got going in my classroom right now. Stay tuned!!!