Owls and Such

     I have been working on getting together supplies for decorating my new room.  I could not resist the cute owls that are everywhere.  So it will be "Look Whoo's in Our Class" this year using bright pinks, minty greens, orange with touches of yellow and canary blue along the way.  I went with a good friend to pick up enough paint chips to pick colors for my new office space I will be decorating once I have taken ALL my boxes of school stuff to my new campus with a few leftover to make a six-week calendar in a poster frame (idea #1 from pininterest completed).  Then I used my scrap booking supplies to create motivational signs and behavioral charts.  I am putting them in 12 x 12 page protectors so that I can either us dry erase markers on them or move clothespins as needed on the Champs posters. 

      I am planning on using many of the Champs expectations for behaviors.  I like that it sets up the expectations for activities so that I can easily let students know what are the guidelines before they start an activity.  I think using it with the Boys Town Expectations for behaviors and Class Dojo program will be a great combination.  I will have to see how this blends with any campus expectations of course.

    Two of my favorite things that I found on www.pininterest.com are the free program www.remind101.com that allows teachers to set up a homework reminder system.  Students and/or parent call the number that you are assigned, keeping the teacher's cell phone number private, and sent a text message to join their assigned class.  The program will send them a text asking them to give their name, keeping the student's and parent's phone numbers are kept private too.  Teachers can then send out reminders for upcoming homework or assignments.  Love it.  I plan on sending them a text for the  basic outline for the week on Sundays and using it to help student/parent remember when test are planned or projects are due.

    The second new "fave" is a combination of an idea from Heather, and her fellow teachers, at her blog Working 4 the Classroom (@blogspot.com) to have students make mini-anchor charts to review before testing.  I decided to flip the idea and found an android app that would allow me to use my phone to photograph our anchor charts that we made throughout the year converting them to pdf files immediately that I can upload using an app like www.dropbox.com .  Once I have the pdf files I can print them in an 8 x 10 format to create an on-going math anchor wall that students can use all year.  Students who are absent or move in later in the year could use them to complete make-up work in their math journals.  I will also have a record of what we used for the next year too.  This evening I made a "trial" anchor chart (see below), scanned it and had it on my laptop in less than 15 minutes. 

     Tomorrow, or later today will be about dying clothespins and labeling them for each poster.

                                                                                                        Until then,  Debby