TpT Cyber Monday (and Tuesday!) Sale

Sunday TpT Featured Product

Hello again, fellow bloggers! I am just finishing up a 4-day weekend and I honestly don't know where the days went!  I am looking forward to another busy week of teaching and coaching though.

My TpT featured product of the week this time is my Social Studies PowerPoint Project.  This 2-page PDF document offers specific directions and a rubric for students to create their own PowerPoint presentations on special topics that they want to learn more about. This project was originally used in a 6th grade social studies classroom, but can be adapted to fit the needs of any subject area or age group.  To be linked directly to this useful product in my TpT store, click on the image below.

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you all have a wonderful week in your classrooms!  Until next time.....

~Mandy   :)

Sunday TpT Featured Product

Hello again, fellow bloggers!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I am looking forward to this week because our district has a 4-day weekend coming up.  Our town is in the middle of celebrating its annual 10-day fall festival, Neewollah (or Halloween spelled backwards), which, as you can probably imagine, gets the kids stirred up.  There is a musical production, Queen Neelah talent and coronation nights, three different parades, bandstand acts all week downtown, a carnival/amusement park set up, and the downtown is lined with food vendors, along with various other activities throughout the week.  Learning is definitely not a priority for our students during Neewollah and our district has finally figured that out.  We are getting our comp day from last month's conferences on Thursday and then another day off on Friday....nobody really knows why, but we are not going to complain about it.  :)

My weekly featured TpT product is one of my freebies - my Flashcard Template. This one-page, reproducible PDF document is a flash card template that can be used in any classroom at any grade level.  If you want to download this useful (free!) tool, click on the image below to be linked directly to the product in my TpT store.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week!  Until next time....

~Mandy   :)

Whew...it's been a while!!!

Good Sunday afternoon, fellow bloggers!  I am gearing up for another busy middle school week.  I am an assistant coach for our middle school girls' basketball team and we begin practices tomorrow.  We have 39 girls signed up to play (total 7th and 8th graders), which is actually a manageable number compared to previous years.  Usually we start out with 55 or 60 girls and end up with around 40 who stick it out through conditioning.  For the next 9 weeks, my life will be a bit more hectic with practices and games, but it's fun to spend time with the kids outside of the classroom.

Today is Sunday, so that means it is time for my weekly TpT featured product of the week.  This week, my featured product is a fairly new addition to TpT - my Social Studies Life Application Chart.  This one-page PDF document is a chart activity to use in your social studies classroom to help make the five areas of social studies relevant to your student. Students can work individually or in small groups to answer the question, “How Does Social Studies Apply to My Life?”, for each of the five areas of social studies – geography, history, government, economics, and culture. Students are engaged in higher order thinking during this activity and it can lead to excellent classroom discussions.  We just used this in my 6th grade classroom a few weeks ago and it is a great tool to get kids making real-life application and making what I teach in social studies relevant to them.  To be linked directly to this product in my TpT store, click on the image below.

This weekend, I finally decided to jump on board the Pinterest bandwagon.  I have been reading about it on the TpT forums, as well as seeing many of my Facebook friends "pinning" items, so I thought that I would give it a try.  If you would like to check out my Pinterest, please click on my link along the left side of my blog or view it by visiting this site - https://pinterest.com/AmandaAllen82/.

Before I sign off for now, I would like to share my creative project from this week.  After seeing several of my Facebook friends' creative pumpkin carvings, paintings, etc., I was inspired to paint my own pumpkin.  So I took my college alma mater's mascot (Pittsburg State Gorillas) and painted it on a pumpkin.  Here it is!

Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time....
~Mandy   :)

Sunday's TpT Feature Product

Good Sunday evening, fellow bloggers!  I am gearing up for another busy week of school.  It seems like after this weekend, I need to go back to school to get some rest!  My husband celebrated his 20-year class reunion this weekend, so we spent most of the weekend in his hometown for the festivities.  It was fun, but man, I'm tired from trying to keep up with the Class of '92.  It also didn't help that we had two nights of parent-teacher conferences last week, which made for looooooong days at school.  On the bright side, my 6th grade team of teachers had almost 75% of our students' parents show up for conferences.  That is probably the best attendance we've had since I have been teaching.

Enough rambling and on to my Sunday featured TpT product, my Current Events Assignment.  This 2-page (or piggybacked printed) PDF document is a current events assignment that can be used in any social studies class. Students may use newspaper articles or online articles to complete this assignment, basically answering the who, what, where, when, and how of the article. Students also love to present their articles and findings with the class, which can lead to some really fascinating class discussions.  To learn more about this great project, click on the graphic below to be linked directly to the product in my TpT store.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week!  Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time.....

~Mandy   :)

Sunday TpT Featured Product

Hello again, bloggers!  Do any of you feel like the beginning of the school year is just a whirlwind of activities and you meet yourself coming and going?  Hopefully I'm not alone in this!  In our district, we are already halfway through the first quarter of school.  Usually by this point in the year, I feel like I have settled into a routine, but this year still has that crazy and hectic beginning of the year feel.  I'm still trying to figure out why!  Another busy week is ahead for me....we have parent-teacher conferences on two nights this week and I'm scheduled to run the scoreboard for middle school volleyball another day afterschool.  Anyway, on to more important things....

This week my TpT store's Sunday featured product is one of my newly added items - State Capital Flash Cards.  This four-page, reproducible PDF document is a set of flash cards that can be used to help your students learn their states and capitals. The flash cards are designed to be printed with the states on one side of the card and the corresponding capital on the back.  To get more details about this helpful study tool, click on the graphic below to be linked directly to the item in my TpT store.

Before I sign off for tonight, I would like to give a shout-out to my college alma mater's football team - the Pittsburg State University Gorillas.  The Gorillas are the defending Division II national champions and are currently ranked #1 in the nation.  I finally attended my first PSU game of the season last night and witnessed an exciting romp over the Lincoln University Blue Tigers, 59-17.  Also another reason to be a proud Gorilla, PSU had a complete sell-out of the game early last week, the first time in school history.  Go 'Rillas!

Have a super week, everyone! Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time....

~Mandy   :)

Happy Sunday, fellow bloggers!  I hope everyone's school year is off to a superb start!  It's hard to believe that we've been in school almost a month now.  Time flies when you're having fun.  :)

This week for my TpT featured product of the week, I would like to share another of my best sellers - "U.S. Geography Notes by Region".  This 7-page PDF document is an outline of important notes pertaining to the geography and landforms of the 4 regions of the United States - the Northeast, the South, the Midwest, and the West. Information includes climate, landforms, industry, history, and vocabulary. This document was originally used as an overhead transparency in a 7th grade world geography class.  If this excellent product is one that you are interested in purchasing, click the graphic below to be linked directly to the item in my TpT store.

Before I sign off for today, I want to send out a quick reminder to all teachers who teach social studies.  Tomorrow is Constitution Day!  Each year, on our around September 17, social studies teachers are required to teach about the U.S. Constitution in some capacity.  Be sure to have fun teaching what can be a very interesting topic tomorrow!  :)

Have an excellent week in your classrooms!  Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time.....

~Mandy   :)

Sunday TpT Product Feature

Happy Sunday, fellow bloggers!  My TpT featured product of the week is another one of my best sellers - U.S. States by Region Review Game.  This 5-page Promethean flipchart helps students learn the location of the 50 U.S. states by region through a container game. Students can drag and drop states to their proper locations, with incorrect states being "kicked" back. This flipchart can easily be used as a whole-group or small-group activity.  It is a huge hit when we are review the states in my 6th grade social studies class.  If you are interested in this useful flipchart, click on the image below to be linked directly to the product in my TpT store.

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a super week with your classes!  Until next time....

~Mandy   :)

Mrs. Allen, the master chef :)

Wow....it's hard to believe that we are in our 3rd week of school in my district.  It has just flown by....and of course, adding in meetings, sporting events to attend or work, and just the busy life at home helps with that.  I'm going to take a different direction with this post and share a quick and easy recipe for a busy school night.  I love to cook (and my husband loves for me to cook), but it seems when school starts back up and things get so hectic, I tend to go for the easiest dinner options.  I'm proud to say, however, that we have not eaten a meal out (lunch or dinner) during the week since school started.  That is thanks to yummy, quick and easy recipes, like my Pizza Bake.

Pizza Bake

Ingredients - 1 lb. ground beef (browned and drained), 2 cans of refrigerated crescent rolls, 1 jar of pizza sauce, and 2 cups of pizza-blend cheese

In a greased 9x13 pan, roll out 1 can of crescent rolls, making sure to pinch the seams to make a crust.  Sprinkle on the ground beef.  Evenly pour the pizza sauce over the meat.  Cover with cheese, then roll out the 2nd can of crescent rolls and pinching the seams together to make a top crust.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes (or until top crust is golden brown).

Enjoy!  Until next time....

~Mandy   :)

Sunday TpT Feature Product

Good evening, fellow bloggers!  I hope everyone has had a great week at school and is having a wonderful Labor Day weekend.  This week for my TpT Feature Product, I would like to showcase one of my best-sellers - my World Map (Continents and Oceans) Review Game-Promethean Flipchart.  This 1-page Promethean flipchart helps students learn the location of the continents and oceans through a container game. Students can drag and drop continent and ocean names to their proper locations, with incorrect answers being "kicked" back. This flipchart can easily be used as a whole-group or small-group activity.  To be linked directly to this product in my TpT store, click on the graphic below.

Feel free to check out this product or any of my many others on TpT.  Have a restful and enjoyable 3-day weekend!  As always, thanks for stopping by!  Until next time....

~Mandy   :)

Sunday TpT Feature

Hello fellow bloggers!  It has been an extremely busy (but pretty good!) first week of school for me.  Nothing totally out of the ordinary happened, so I won't bore y'all with the details.  :)

Something that I thought that I would try on my blog is a Sunday TpT feature of one of my store's products.  This week, I would like to feature a product that can be used in any subject area or grade level - my Football Student Selection System Promethean flipchart.  Does it seem like the same students are answering every question in class or the same students are volunteering to read all the time? Here is a solution to that problem! This one-page Promethean Flipchart can be used as a new way to call on random students in the classroom. Each football is formatted with a button that can switch between making the student's name visible or hiding it. Directions are included in the notes browser on the flipchart to help you change the names to your students' names, add footballs, delete footballs, and change location of the footballs.  Students love the theme and the system!  To check out this fantastic flipchart, click on the graphic below to be linked directly to the product in my TpT store.  I also have a similar basketball version available in my store.

Hope everyone has a super week!  Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time....

~Mandy   :)

1st Day of School

Oh my goodness....I am exhausted after our first day of school!  I'm a little worried about some of my homeroom students (which I have 3 times a day - social studies, DEAR, and homeroom).  There is a small group of boys in my homeroom that are quite disrespectful (and this was on Day 1...the one day when you would think they would behave!).  Other than that, my homeroom kiddos seem like sweeties.  I'm hoping a seating chart to separate some of those disruptive students will fix the problem.  Those same students did not come to our 6th grade orientation yesterday and let everyone know "that they weren't there and didn't need to come".  A big portion of our orientation yesterday was working on learning locker combinations (which 6th graders typically struggle with), so of course those students didn't even know where their lockers were this morning, let alone know how to open them.  Not only do I worry about those students for this year, it makes me wonder what kind of parental support I will have this year with those students.  I am trying not to judge already, but it hasn't been the best start so far.
As far as other classes, it seems like I have 2 classes of upper level learners, a class of in-betweeners, and a class of special ed/low learners.  This is the first time that my classes in 6th grade have been basically leveled, so I'm interested to see how this works out this year.  My sped/low class has 23 students (5 of those actually labeled sped and several that didn't qualify for services)....my para and I may have our work cut out for us with that group.
I'm just ready to get into our routines with the kids and start the learning!  Hope everyone else's school year is off to a great start!  Until next time....
~Mandy   :)

Oh my...Common Core!

Howdy, fellow bloggers!  Today we had our 3rd day of inservice....an entire day devoted to the Common Core for the entire district.  As a social studies teacher, I have been sort of wondering all along how these new standards were going to apply to me and my content area.  After today, I have a little better idea, but I'm still learning.  We spent the morning "practicing" how to deconstruct standards and create learning targets.  We also had a presenter introduce a new curriculum building program to us and we got to explore it a little bit on laptops.  After lunch, we broke into building and subject area groups to begin "deconstructing" standards, my group being the grades 6-8 Literacy Standards for Social Studies/History.  Each group had an author/leader to enter our newly-created learning targets into the new curriculum building program....I was the "lucky" district-appointed leader of my group.  It really wasn't too bad because I was working with some great colleagues, but after working with this stuff all day, my brain feels a little fried.  Thank goodness it's Friday!  We didn't have time to deconstruct all of our standards, but we will be working on this more during our weekly collaboration sessions and future inservice days.

Like I mentioned yesterday, our district is now using Google mail and other applications.  One of those applications that excited me was Google Sites, where you can create your own websites.  Since learning about this Wednesday, I've been working on setting up my own classroom website.  I am so pumped because I progressed with it enough last night that I was finally comfortable making it public.  It's still a work in progress, but I'm proud of myself for creating it....and not launching my computer out the window in a frustrated rage in the process.  If y'all want to check it out, you can find it at - https://sites.google.com/a/indyschools.com/aallen6/.

Have a great (and restful!) weekend!  Until next time.....

~Mandy   :)

Yay....inservices!

Hello again, fellow bloggers!  The past couple days have been soooooo busy!  Our district started back with inservices/workdays yesterday.  It seems like my time has either been spent in meetings or trying to get my classroom technology up and going again.  Makes me super glad that I sent my beginning of the year copies to the print shop at the end of last year and spent a few days last week getting my room ready to go!  Yesterday, we had our district back-to-school breakfast and "welcome back" meeting.  Like everyone else, our district is still in the learning phase of Common Core and a good chunk of our morning was spent on that.  Our whole district will be spending all day tomorrow working with more Common Core.  Like it or not, it's here!  Our afternoon was supposed to be a workday in our rooms, but most of it was spent waiting in line to sign up for our Section 125 (insurance, 403B, etc.).

We also have a new district technology coordinator this year and he has made some MAJOR changes.  This morning, he visited our building for an hour-long meeting to fill us in on all the changes.  Most teachers in our building (and a couple other schools in the district) received new teacher computers over the summer, myself included.  Our new computers are still waiting on the technology department to transfer all of our files from our old computers.  Our new tech guy has also changed servers, changed our school email to web-based, changed our gradebook system, and implemented printing stations on each floor of our building (no more printers in individual classrooms  :'(  ).  This all has gotten our more "seasoned" teachers in an uproar....how dare they make changes!  I think once we are used to the changes, we will all like them (except the printer issue).  We are now able to use Google Drive to share files, can create websites through Google, and can access YouTube for classroom use, so I'm excited about the changes.  By the time I left school today, all of my minor technology issues were resolved, which makes me feel tons better about starting the new year.  :)

After the tech meeting, all of us 6th grade teachers gathered for our annual meeting.  We all try to be consistent with our rules and expectations and we try to do activities together as a grade level.  Also our 6th graders come for orientation Monday morning, so we all needed to finalize plans for that.  By the time all the meetings were done this morning, I had about an hour and a half to actually work in my room.  This afternoon, we met as a building on (you guessed it) Common Core.  We also spent part of that meeting discussing our district's new crisis plan.  As part of the plan, each teacher was given a crisis kit....a bag with all kinds of goodies in it.  Flashlight, glow sticks, rubber gloves, whistles, neon vests, rubber blankets, pens, pads of paper, bandages, hand sanitizer, you name it, we've got it!  Because of the increase in school violence and disasters like the Joplin tornado (which happened about an hour and a half away from our town), it's better to be prepared.  Although our joke was that if we didn't use the kit during the school year, we could probably have a fun time on the last day of school with everything in the kit.  I can definitely see our choral teacher using the glow sticks for light sabers.  :)

Our kids come on Tuesday, so I think I'm ready for them....or at least mostly ready.  I think I will go work on my classroom website. :)  Until next time!

~Mandy   :)

What's new in Mrs. Allen's Room?

Hello again!  This looks like a busy week as our district starts back with in-services on Wednesday (our 1^st day with kids is Tuesday the 21^st).  Today, I got to meet our new middle school art teacher that I am mentoring this year.  My building principal asked me earlier in the summer if I would be willing to be a mentor teacher for our new art teacher.  Since I have never mentored another teacher before (let alone a teacher in another content area!), I was a little skeptical, but agreed to do it.  I mean, what do I know about art?  Anyway, I was invited to the “new teacher” luncheon today, where the new teachers in the district get to meet their mentors.  It was great!  My mentee (if that is even a word) is super nice and we clicked right away.  Afterward, I showed her around the school and answered questions that she had about policies and procedures in our building.  I also had a little time to put the finishing touches on my classroom.  Below are some pictures of my classroom and bulletin boards.

 This a new dry-erase/bulletin board that I installed this summer for little things that stay up all year.  I included a "tweet" section for daily announcements for students to see as they come and go each day.

 My new invention!  My office/emergency button is located right by the pencil sharpener and I had kids leaning against it and calling the office all last year.  A couple Command hooks and a basket from the Dollar Tree and the problem is fixed.  :)  Oh, by the way, Command hooks and poster tabs are amazing and THE best way to hang anything in the classroom.

 A new twist on my "Homeroom Spotlight" bulletin board for this year.  Every couple weeks, I "spotlight" a different homeroom student.  I use the information from a student info. sheet that the kids fill out at the beginning of the year (which can be downloaded as a freebie from my TpT store) and then ask the kids to bring some photos to share.  I always start out the year with my info to introduce myself to the kids.

 My "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" question of the day.  Students write their guesses on a scrap a paper and enter it in the question of the day jar.  At the end of the day, I randomly draw a winner who receives a piece of candy the next day and recognition on the board.  The kids love it!

 My classroom curtains make my classroom look "homey"....thanks to my crafty mom.  :)

My students' goal bulletin board.  The first week of school, we have a class discussion on goals (what they are, why they are important, etc.) and then the students choose 2 goals for themselves to accomplish that semester.  They choose one personal goal and one school-related goal.  The kids write their goals on little paper footballs that I provide then I hang them up on the board to remind them of their goals.

Well, that's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by....until next time!

Mandy   :)

1st Post! Woohoo!

Greetings and welcome to my new blog!  I haven't kept a blog since my student teaching days, so I'm relearning as I go.  I will work on this more later, but I just wanted to make a quick post to share information about the TeacherPayTeachers back-to-school sale going on today and tomorrow.  There are lots of great resources out there....many teachers (myself included) are offering sales on their products and I would like to encourage you to check it out.  Be sure to use the promotional code, BTS12, to receive savings of up to 28% off.  If you are interested in viewing my offerings, here is a link to my store - http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Amanda-Allen-4449.

Thanks for checking out my blog!  Have a great evening!
Mandy  :)