Friday, May 24, 2013

Helping Moore, Oklahoma!


I am very excited to announce a joint project of many TPT teachers from around the world.  A large amount of teachers have joined forces and resources to raise funds for the teachers of Moore, Oklahoma.  There are 4 bundles which are on sale for a limited amount of time.  There are two K-2 packets and two 3-6 packets.  Each packet is priced at $25 and contains around $100 in product.

Check out these great packets on teacherspayteachers:

K-2 Packet 1
K-2 Packet 2
3-6 and Clipart Packet 1
3-6 and Clipart Packet 2

For a complete listing of what is in each packet, go to the pages above.

Also, there were many tpt sellers who wanted to help, but weren't able to get in on the bundles.  So there is now a linky and sale.  I have joined this linky hosted by Math Coach's Corner and I will be donating 100% of all profits on Monday, May 27th to the Red Cross: Moore, Oklahoma funds.  Everything in my store will be 10% off that day.  You can find the linky list of all the sites involved below my signature.

Go forth and purchase great stuff while helping those in need!
Joell


Monday, May 20, 2013

Here we go again

It seems like we keep getting hit by tragedy after tragedy lately.

As a teacher, one of the biggest fears I have is being in charge of my little first graders in the event of a major catastrophe.  Here in Utah it would most likely be an earthquake.

My thoughts and prayers are with all the people devastated by the tornado in Oklahoma today, but especially with the students, teachers and parents of the schools that were affected.

Be watching this space for information about a fund raiser to specifically help the schools and teachers.

Image from http://tweetwood.com/RepFitzpatrick/tweet/336658548207525888

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Pollination Fun

Hello all,

We've had a busy couple of weeks in the classroom.  We did contraction surgery which was a total blast!

We had our end of year Dibels assessment.  My students did awesome!  Every one of them showed improvement and some went from below to on grade level!

We also pollinated our plants.  It's always great to see how much fun the kids have with this, and they really end up understanding the life cycle of a plant so much better because they've taken part in it.

We have 3 weeks left here.  I sure hope we can make it a positive and fun end of the year.

A student pollinates her plant.

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Why I Do What I Do

There are days, and yes, sometimes weeks, months and years, that I wonder why I put myself through my job.  I put so much of my heart and soul into what I do, and it often seems like no one really cares.

Last week a note went home informing families about this week being Teacher Appreciation Week.  To me, I thought it felt kind of contrived.  I thought, well, if they have to be told to show appreciation, is it really sincere?

My answer today was a resounding yes.  My students brought me notes, flowers, and in one case bubble gum (hehehe).  The most touching were the notes.  One was a card that the little girl made at home.  I could tell she spent quite some time on it.  Just the fact that she took the time and did her very best on a card for me meant so much.  Here it is:
Front of the card
The picture in the frame says "I love school"  There's a cat that says "meow, meow" and the green thing on the right is the Statue of Liberty.
Then during my reading group time, my early finishers hit the writing materials and I got this wonderful sweet note:
As much as I love this note, my favorite thing is really how great this little boy did with his writing!  He even remembered the apostrophe in won't!  When school started he could only write a few words.  Yes, today was a day that I loved teaching.

Plant Progress

Our Brassica Rapa plants are doing great!  They're 6-8 inches tall and have been flowering.  We pollinated them last Friday and this Monday.  Now, they will get fairly ugly as they grow seed pods, and then finally we let them dry out and die so we can collect the seeds.  All the pictures I took have kids in them, so I don't have a current picture to post here.  

World Cultures

A couple of weeks ago, our school did a multicultural fair.  Each grade level took a continent and did a project on it, and shared.  It was an awesome night especially since it gave us a chance to celebrate the many different cultures in my school.  First grade got the continent of Australia.  Our students did animal reports and made coral reef aquariums.  They turned out really great.  Here are a few pictures.

Our passport station.  Students would get their passports stamped for visiting.

Our activity was matching Australian phrases and words with American English.

This is how some of my students' reports looked.

The first page of one of the reports.

Coral Reef Aquariums.  I made this one big because it's hard to see.  The inside has fish and coral and there's sand, too.

So this long post will hopefully make up for my recent lack of updates.  Happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all my teacher friends.  

Joell