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  :)