Teaching Teens in the 21st

Ok, so this might not be my best or most crafty post, but I had to take Bella to the vet so my time was cut short today :) Today my Monday Made It is my classroom! Before, boring, bland, ugh. Hauling everything in was...fun. Let's just say I'm glad no one was watching as my bookcases fell over at least 3 times, including on me. There was one casualty, my clothespin no name thing snapped in half. So much for a free find! :( You can see my layout from last year with my classroom library nook on the left. Love my large whiteboards, and notice our newly installed projectors in the ceilings!  Floors are clean! A friend's little boy snuck in this pic :) You can see all my bookcases on my pathetic excuse for a rolling cart! After...again, I couldn't get a ton done because I had to take Bella to the vet. Just a sprain, phew!! I moved my bookcase from my reading nook down, and the other side will be my Nancie Atwell inspired writin

I'm heading in to work tomorrow to set up my classroom (we don't go back till the 13th) and I'm so excited!! I have so much stuff to bring in thanks to all you crafty bloggers and Monday Made Its that I don't know how I am going to fit it all into the boot of my MINI!! In other news, I had to put my Monday Made It #3 on hold for a bit to take care of the sicky in our house... This is Bella, my little buddy, and the sweetest Cavalier King Charles in the world!! (at least to me) She must have pulled a muscle or something in her shoulder because she hasn't been her usually jumpy and lovey self, so I heated up my bed buddy for 30 seconds to try and help her out :( If she isn't doing better tomorrow my classroom may be on hold to take her to the vet. Here's what she usually looks like, our lazy puppy :) Want to see more Bella? Check out this YouTube video I made of her :) Look for LOTS of pictures tomorrow of my classroom!!

Huge thank you to Corinna from Teaching Fabulous Firsties  for awarding me the Versatile Blogger Award! I am slowly but surely gaining more followers, and I really hope you are enjoying reading what I'm posting as much as I enjoy sharing it with you! For the Versatile Blogger Award, here are the rules: 1: Thank the blogger who nominated you. 2: Include the link to their blog. 3: Include the image in your blog. 4: Give 7 Random facts about yourself. 5: Nominate 15 other Bloggers for the Award! 6: When nominating, include the links to their site. 7: Let other bloggers know they have been nominated!!! Here are 7 Random Facts about me...  I originally went to law school before deciding to become a teacher, yikes! So not my calling in life and glad I figured it out quickly! I was in show choir and varsity choir in high school, and I briefly did singing gigs for Catholic conferences. I even have a recorded album (not through a label, but it was profes

I am SO excited to share this with everyone! Sorry I've been gone for a few days, I was in fabulous Galena, IL with my BFF where we shopped and hung out and enjoyed the scenery :) We stayed at the Irish Cottage Boutique Hotel  and it was AMAZING! So amazing that I have been searching for the bedding they use since I got back. If you have the opportunity to go to Galena definitely stay here :) This was the view from our room, GORGEOUS! The BFF and I standing at the top of the town View behind us! Hanging out in Ireland :) Pointing the way to Kildare! We had to get this shot of me in my Mini Cooper because I will no longer have it come September. I'm getting the new Mini Cooper Countryman, but I will be sad to leave my tiny Mini behind :( While we were shopping we went to a local used bookstore and I found this and freaked out! Sorry it's blurry! I am teaching The Little Prince with my 7th grade this year, and this 1943 copy has full c

Everyone. Stop what you are doing right now and go to  Create  to enter for a chance to win a Silhouette Cameo! If you don't know what it is, let's just say it would have saved me from seven hours of wax paper cutting insanity. Would this not make our teaching lives so much easier? Best of all, NO CARTRIDGES! You can print YOUR OWN designs and fonts, and purchase individual designs instead of a whole pack of stuff you may or may not use. Go now or regret it always! :)

I have been feverishly working on migrating my portfolios from PLT's (Priority Learning Targets) to Common Core (CCSS) and it has been a lot of WORK! I grade via portfolio which means that my students get their work graded as usual, on a scale of 1-5 (Does Not Meet, Meets, Exceeds) with the option to resubmit if necessary, and then they choose one of their assignments that they feel best meets the CCSS. The only problem with Common Core is that there are A LOT of standards, which means I had to figure out which ones I use every  quarter and which ones were specific to a quarter. Students also reflect on their assignment and tell me why they feel it best meets the CCSS and what grade they would give themselves and why. This helps show me that they are reflecting and using metacognition, and helps them to be more introspective. I plan to show how this all works in the next couple of weeks once I have it completely down. I have used portfolios for the past two years with success, bu

Maybe I'm getting old...or I'm commenting too much on blogs, but I HATE the word verification things! Sometimes I can barely even read them! I'm not a robot, why would a robot be commenting on a Monday Made It?? Argh. Does this annoy anyone else? :)

I am so excited for today's Monday Made It from 4th Grade Frolics! ! So after I saw this on Pinterest I thought, why would I spend $48 when it isn't in the colors or fonts I want and is missing some crucial things (for my classroom)? So I headed over to Michaels with a coupon (of course) and picked up a canvas and some paint! So I just used acrylic paint, only about $1.50 for each bottle, to cover my canvas. This took forever, seriously about two days work plus a sliced finger. I printed out all of my headings in with my new cute  Kevin and Amanda  fonts, and went to cutting. I bought a special tracing wax paper at hobby lobby.  ***Update: Jen asked me what kind it was and I thought I should probably post it!*** You can get it here  if it isn't available in your area! Usually I just use overhead sheets, but when I went out to my school it was closed :( After an exhausting time cutting these out, along with a few mistakes alon