AVID Tool Box

In case you haven't picked up on it, I worked this last year for a program called AVID. AVID stands for:

A= Advancement

V= Via

I= Individual

D= Determination

Its a program designed to help those students "caught in the middle" and bring them up. It is also designed to help students who might not otherwise consider or have the means go to college. If you want more information, check out their website http://www.avid.org/ or contact me. 

Last year, I served the roll of tutor for several grade levels in the local big school district. Seeing the direct benefit for students by partaking in AVID really touched my heart. When I got hired at my new school, I knew that my principal also had a soft spot for AVID. After mentioning that I was interested in trying an AVID strategy called interactive notebooks (INBs) that had a unique twist, my principal offered to send me to an AVID pathway training in my old district. Two days. 12 clock hours. AVID notebooks. You bet I hoped on that metaphorical train.

At the end of the training, in addition to all the other cool tips and tricks, it became abundantly clear to me that I needed some sort of way to organize the additional tools and resources my students were going to need if notebooks were to be successful.

You see, INBs require not just your usual note taking strategy of sit, listen to a lecture or read a book, and take notes on the major touch points. INBs require glue sticks, scissors, tape, markers, white out (for those whoops). I know that my students may not have access to those items due to monetary constraints. So I hit up the "Back to School" sales and went to work. 

I found the school supply/pencil box for $0.57 each; purchased five of them. Then the scissors were $1.50 each, found the glue sticks at a steal of 8 for $6.00, and correction tape and scotch tape for about $0.50 each. Essentially I got enough for six students to share one box, times five boxes and then some extra supplies for back stock. Each box is located in the back of the room, on the windowsill and the oversize "B"s from Ikea that make great book ends. Additionally, I printed up an inventory list so that students should know what is suppose to be in the box at the end of each class period.

As a final touch, I put up a list in the back of the room on my supply closet. Each box is numbered (one through five) and then students can report missing supplies or damaged items. 

For roughly $67 I have stocked my classroom with what I will hope an organized method while also supplying my students with the tools they need to be successful. 

How do you organize your room at the beginning of the year?

Baby Peanut

My friend Danyel and her husband Joe are expecting this October. They already have two dogs, named Woody (a golden lab) and Charlie (a giant Chocolate lab). So it made for a good laugh when they announced their daughter is going to be named Lucy. Anyone else catch the Peanuts theme?

Instead of making the cliche even more plain, they decided on a different theme for their nursery. There is a victorian, fleur de lief etc theme for their daughter's room. Dusty rose, milk chocolate brown and eggshell white for a color scheme. It seems like they have been planning this for more than a few months and knowing Danyel, she probably has.

I know that new mom's always enjoy getting their bigger items from their family and friends at the baby shower. Unfortunately, Danyel's shower is in the final month of my summer paycheck (or non-existent) season. So my creative and thrifty crafty brain had to come online and do some serious thinking.

My usual go to for new mom (and dad) friends is to make a baby blanket. And two out of three times, it has become the blanket for the child. The third one? The baby hasn't been born yet and I won't know until January. :) The other reason my go-to item is a baby blanket is because they can usually be done for about $15. So, off I went to the fabric store to find baby appropriate fleece and in the dusty rose, chocolate and white colors.

While on the way, I recalled that I hate trying to wrap the blanket when its finished. So I figured I would just find a creative way to gift wrap the package. My brain also went into the mode of, "what can I use to wrap the gift that can have a dual purpose?" Ah-ha! Perhaps baby Lucy could use a toy box of sorts.

So in the craft store I found an unfinished wooden crate, paints in the right colors, some Victorian, fleur de leif style stencils, wooden letters that spelled Lucy and for $15 I had custom gift wrap container.

Lastly, I went to Target and found a set of baby onesies, pants and diapers. Roughly $20 there....

So you can tell already that this project got a little out of hand on the expense side..

Originally, I was going to wrap the baby clothing items like the little cupcakes on Pinterest. Hence the box on the top of the wooden crate. However, that was an epic fail. I couldn't get them to fit correctly at all.

Anyway, I went to town and started painting. White for the main part of the crate, brown for the wooden letters and then pink for the victorian stencil work. 

My afternoon was thoroughly booked up with this painting. In between paint coats, I was working on the baby blanket.

I usually do a tie blanket for little kids because of the ability for the child to pull on something. Additionally the fabric for a tie blanket tends to be fleece. I found some ultra-soft cuddle fleece in the correct color scheme. However, the brown side I chose my of the bird look. I thought it might be nice to spice things up but tried to get as close to the Victorian style theme as I could.

By the end of the day, the box looked something like this:

As a final touch, I was going to hot glue the wooden letters to the outside of the crate but my hot glue gun has gone missing since the wedding. So I think Danyel will have to find a good use for the letters in Lucy's nursery.

How do you prepare gifts for a baby shower? Anything more or less elaborate? Have you found a way to do things cheaper?

Out of Class Passes

As you may have noticed a great deal of my blog posts have been teaching and classroom related lately.

I love seeing creative hall passes. My senior government teacher had two full sized wooden shoes that could be seen all the way down the hallway. Every teacher in the building knew whose class you were from with those shoes. No, we wouldn't actually wear them. Though as I recall one of our football studs did try once and he actually cracked the shoe. 

Before I found out that my school had a regulated hall pass system, I saw an amazing idea on Michael's webpage advertisement. I knew it seemed a little kiddish but I figure my high school students might still by into it. And even if my passes do disappear or get damaged, they cost me roughly $2 total.

Items needed for this project:
-Plastic paint can ($3.99)
-Scrapbook paper
-Pens
-unfinished wooden paint brushes ($0.99/each)
-Paint
-Stencils ($1)

I took three of the major colors in my classroom and used them to base my paper design. Forest green, ruby red and marigold yellow. From there I just stenciled "Out of Class" on the yellow paper, which was then mounted on the red, in turn mounted on the green. There was some measuring involved to make sure the paper fit inside the paint can but that's pretty self explanatory. I added a few embellishments courtesy of the scrapbook paper sticker section.

For the paint brushes, I painted the handles yellow and red. Then in a second color I wrote "Pass #1" and "Pass #2" respectively. I did this rather than, "Boys" and "Girls" because sometimes the students aren't headed to the restroom. Additionally, I only allow two students out of the room at a time. This helps me manage that - and a substitute teacher for when they come into the room.

Pretty easy project and it really only took me about forty minutes to assemble it (plus an hour for paint to dry) and for roughly $7 I have two hall passes and storage spot for them. I plan on hanging the paint bucket on a command hook right by the door.

How do you manage bathroom/hall passes at your school?

Painting update

,So at this point, I called in my paint expert to see my classroom. Who is my paint expert? My best friend and maid of honor, Liz. You may recall her help on the wedding invitation assembly.

She drove up to my school today to help paint the tip tips of the room and offer some advice regarding my native decals.

Me: so what do you think? We would need primer if we were going to paint over them...

Liz: Well..... We could pull the trick you did at your wedding?

Me: What trick?

Liz: Covering them up with fabric of course! Then you could make them into poster areas or bulletin boards or something.

Liz has the best ideas sometimes, I swear. She remembered my curtain assembly I did to cover up some paintings in the reception hall at my wedding. See, our vendor wouldn't allow us to take the paintings off the walls, nor tape or hang with nails things over them. Instead, I sewed curtains to cover them up and we rested the curtain rods/crown molding from then home repair store and placed those over the paintings. When I get my wedding pictures back, I will post one of what I mean.

Anyway, Liz and I set off to the craft store where we found some great patterned fabric, white fabric and batting on sale. We purchased enough to cover three of my four native decals and went back to school. We realized upon our return we lacked things like: measuring tape, scissors, staple gun, etc. So covering up my new frenemies will have to wait another day.

Instead, we went back in and did some touch up painting, more trim and getting into the hard to reach places. I have to say, it's shaping up quite nicely.

 

Tomorrow I should finish the wall with the fish on it. Then next week I will take on the wall with the windows (where i stood to take pictures) and then finally the fabric. Oh and finish resurfacing the main desk I plan on using.

So does my room look like a disaster zone or something from HGTV gone amuck? 

~*~ Delayed post due to technological difficulties 

DIY Canvas classroom sign

I saw several weeks ago one Etsy one of those great subway signs that puts a spin on the "family rules" sign. It laid out the rules for a classroom. Being creative and knowing how I like to make it my own if I can, I made a plan. Rather than pay the $40 something dollars for one of the premade signs, I went out and made my own.

I copied down some of the basic text, tweaked a few to suit my secondary students and put them into a word document. Then, I simply changed the text around to a few that I liked and made sure the text filled the page. Oh, make sure your text is bold before you print. You will see why later.

At the craft store, I found one of the canvas sizes I liked and waited for it to be on sale and/or a coupon to emerge. If you watch the papers or check your email, this wasn't a long wait. :) For my choice, I bought an 18x24 inch. If you notice, printer paper is 8.5x11 which fits almost perfectly inside the back part of the canvas frame. 

Again, I tweak and try to make things better. Thus I adapted my idea from the Love Map I made for Mr. Husband back in November and put the papers behind the canvas. Rather than try and tape the paper behind the canvas again, I tried something different. 

I used a stapler! Shocking, I know. 

Place the paper on the backside of your canvas with the text facing towards the canvas. Staple the paper to the canvas so the legs are sticking out the other side. Then simply place your canvas in front of a light or in front of a set of glass doors. If doing the latter, preferably do it on a sunny day so the light shines behind and illuminates your text. *note, if you did not bold your text, it will be hard to see the text through the canvas.

Once the paper was attached, I got out my Painters' Pens from the Love Map project and went to work.

About two thirds of the way through, you can see I switched pens. My red paint pen was running low and needed to recharge after writing up right for so long. By doing the different fonts, I got some variance. 

My plan now is to add a border or doodles around the edges in order to make the piece brighter. Also when my red pen has recharged, I will fill in some more of the bubble style letters.

What pieces do you hang in your class to make it your own? Or do you let students direct the pieces in the classroom?

Classroom painting and debates

My creative nature doesn't just exist within the confines of my home. It extends to my classroom now too. The admin team at my school gave the okay to paint my classroom for several reasons

1) I am a new teacher, so my room should be my own 

2) Others in my department have their rooms painted so there should be some continuity

3) I teach US History, not state history so some of the items on my walls don't exactly make some sense..

 

There are several of these around the room...

So it's been a debate for me as to whether not no to paint over them. Some of my friends say to start fresh and paint it all. Others say it looks cool, so keep it. And other remind me that Native Americans are a huge part of US History. 

While I decide, I did so some general work on the remaining wall space. 

The earth tones were not chosen by me! The school provides the paint so that there is consistency throughout the school. As you can see, I taped off the Native American artwork. Of all the ones in the room, my administrator has said he would prefer I keep the large one pictured above. My plan for that one at least is to buy some crown molding, cut it to size and hang it like a frame. That way the face seems like a hanging painting instead of an actual painting on the wall.

What thoughts are there about the rest of the room? Paint over the tribal artwork or keep it? Side note: the reds and blues in the two sets of art work don't go together. As in different shades entirely...

Planning!

If you can't tell based on all my entries about my wedding, I am a bit of a planner. Organization was a coping mechanism that I developed during middle school and high school... it has served me well ever since. I have always had a planner and usually did the August-to-August Planner that you see at the bookstore. As a student and then as a coordinator it worked beautifully. By having the time spaces, I could schedule meetings and what not.

HOWEVER as teacher, I don't think I will be needing to schedule 10am meetings every other Thursday of the month. Additionally, I know my organization habits like having a place to keep notes and jot things down at a moments notice. Somehow, I would end up with my notebook and then my planner as two separate items that were rather full by the end of the year. Since this is my first year teaching with my own classroom, I thought I would find a new planner for myself...

Where to start? With other teachers! My teaching friends had all sorts of methods but none really suited mine until I remembered a high school friend of mine who just finished her first year teaching. She posted on her pages all the time about different teaching tactics she was trying, including OCD-like organization like mine! Thus, I stumbled across her new planner from Erin Condren and had one of those, "OH MY GOODNESS DO I NEED THIS PLANNER!!!" moments.

If you managed your way to Erin's site, you might have a bit of sticker shock over the price. Yes, $59.00 plus shipping is a bit steep. This was a hit to my bank account which is use to the normal $19.99 for the August-to-August planner and then my $7 spiral notebook. After watching the video though on what was included in the planner, I realized there price might be worth it.

So I ordered mine along with a pad of notepaper customized with my name, school and room number on them. I figured the notepaper might be good for when I send students to another classroom or to see a teacher and won't have to sign my name as much. After waiting about a week and half, my planner showed up on the front porch yesterday. Super excited to open it and see a planner suited for a teacher, not a student, and customized for me!

First off, its about 3/4" thick. Which is about the same at my old planner. Given that its 8.5x11 inch pages though gives it a distinct advantage in size!.

 Having served as a substitute this last year, this was an important and AWESOME page to see in here! The ruler (included in the back and serves as a bookmark) covers up information I wrote in about which teachers, administrators or secretaries to see in the building. You can bet by the end of September it will be filled with helpful information for them. I plan on making a copy to keep on my desk at school in case I get sick unexpectedly.

This area was one of the reasons I ultimately bought the planner - the year at a glance. It was big enough to write the information in about when things were happening for my two different class sections. As you can see, I am already putting that to use too. 

Again, another aspect I loved were the quotes and the stickers in the back of the planner. There are several pages of stickers about IEPs, assemblies, holidays, etc. and then sheets for me to make up my own. Also, throughout the planner are quotes about education, teaching, and helping students grow. Should be nice for little reminders about why I picked this career.

 I knew that the pocket fold (which is double sided) was in here along with a laminated calendar for the 2013-2014 school year. What I was forgot about when I ordered was the pocket full of gift tag labels that are included in planner. Should be nice for those days when I am running late to a social event after work and need to bring a gift with me!

 Yet another major reason this works better for me as a teacher, than as a student, is that I can keep track based on class areas and periods what is going on each day. This believe it or not is pretty dang helpful with my two different class levels. My three sections of students learning US History maybe in fact be at different places (which does happen) and the same with my two sections of students learning US History and Civics. There should be enough pages to get me through the school year... :)



These are the last two pages I really want to show off to you all. I love having quotes throughout the planner. The one on the left being right up front is one of the first teacher quotes I remember learning and really understanding on a deeper level. The picture on the right is the front of my notebook. But due to the personalization, I did want to keep some of that covered up.






Maybe you aren't a teacher though? Maybe you are an individual who is simply looking to organize their life? Erin has plenty of planners and options for that too. Additionally, there are some customization lunch boxes and gift type stuff on there. I am pretty creative but not creative enough to make some of the stuff she and her wonderful team do.

I will end my gushing about my awesome planner and let you go to work on it yourself. Happy planning bloggers and readers!

Post 4th Celebration

All of the how to's and, "where did she find that?" entry is just before this one. Here's the quick link though, Celebrating and decorating for the 4th of July

Well our 4th of July party was a hit! Our friends thought that out decorations both in the front and back of the house made it more than just a BBQ and actually felt like a holiday. :) They even thought the frames and the banner in the backyard made a great photo booth. Sadly, no one took me up on that offer.

Oh and my worry about the jello shots not being consumed? Not an issue. People actually liked having the sweetened milk jello on top because it made it such a sweet treat. Pretty sure two of my gal pals just ate those for dessert instead of the ice cream cake.

I wish I had gotten some pictures of the fireworks display in our neighborhood. Our friends thought out neighbors were insane for starting fireworks at 5pm but it was just a warm-up until about 9:30. By then, we moved to our front yard, got out the firepit, and set up shop. At around 9:30 our neighborhood went just NUTS. My close friend asked, "which way should we face to see the display?"

"WHICH EVER WAY YOU WANT.." because it truly was a going on all around us, and right in front of us too. We lit off about 80 artillery shells alone. People down the street probably went to the reservations and purchased theirs... the booms certainly reflected that. At one point, one of their fireworks set off a car alarm about six blocks down.

By the time our celebration wrapped up, our friends were asking already about next year. Looks like the new fireworks spot is our neighborhood.