Isn't Life Just Crazy Sometimes?

I tell ya...my life has been a whirlwind lately!  I think I will just list a few things that have been going on in my neck of the woods...

1.  We have looked at a couple houses within the last week.  We love both of them.  So the realtor is coming to look at our house on Wednesday and we're going to meet with him Friday to list it!  Our family started to grow 9 months ago when we had our precious son, Rowan.  So now we're running out of space and the last thing I want to do is get pregnant again and be house hunting!   :P  Now tell me, is this little dude not the sweetest?  Of course, I'm biased.  ;)

2.  I ran my 2nd 5K yesterday!  I only did one other one when I was a sophomore in college.  I have NOT been training, whatsoever, so I was just wanting to finish around 45 minutes.  I was PRAYING I wouldn't take longer than that, but that was my goal.  As it turns out, I finished in 37:21!  I was pretty pumped.  Of course my teacher brain started thinking, "Ok, now I have a baseline and I will work to improve so that the next time I run one, I will have a better time!  I just want to see growth!" :P

3.  The biggest news of all...which is what has made my last week INSANE...it's official that I will be teaching 1st GRADE next year!!!!! :D  With enrollment numbers being kinda crazy and our school having a low budget (we have GOT to get a levy to pass!), they had to do a little bit of shuffling.  Well, lucky me, I get to move AGAIN.  :P  I taught 1st grade my very first year, so I already have a little experience.  But honestly, after I got over the initial shock I became VERY pumped.  And of course, I already have the first 8 weeks of guided reading plans done and made a book to correlate the Phonics Dance with Reading Street (so I know what hunks and chunks to teach when).  I've already started creating spelling homework.  :P  I'm ***HOPING*** this move will get me into a more secure spot so I can stop moving around.  But I truly am thankful for teaching 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades (and being in a kindergarten room my first year in the district), because it has made me the teacher I am today.  So get ready folks..the tables are about to turn to FIRST GRADE!  :P  And if there happen to be any of you out there who are PANICKING about my 2nd grade Reading Street packets...don't you worry!  I want to continue to help you out, so I will be finishing ALL the 2nd grade stories.  :)  Whew...what a crazy time I have ahead of me!

4.  Leprechaun traps.  Enough said.  I love seeing students get creative!

I hope y'all have a wonderful and BLESSED week!

Winner of Biography Study and Some Pics

Would you believe I fell asleep last night at 5:30?!?!?!?!  I'm NOT even joking.  I laid down with my 8.5 month old son to try to get him to take a nap before our Small Group Bible study and I fell asleep, too.  Slept right through the thing.  I didn't wake up until 8:45 p.m.  I grabbed a quick bowl of fettucini alfredo that my husband had made and then climbed right back into bed.  It was a LONG day creating famous Americans...

Here's the 2nd grade hallway...and here are many of the kids working hard in the hallways to trace, cut, and dress their Famous Americans!

It's always so fun (and funny) to see how creative they get.  I will try to snap some photos tomorrow of the finished products.  They are AMAZING!

So now that you know how I fell asleep yesterday, I hope you understand why I didn't get to choose a winner and blog last night...SO...here we go!

The winner is...DELLA!  She found me via Pinterest, which is awesome.  That is SUCH an addicting site!  :P  So CONGRATS, Della!  You'll be receiving the unit momentarily!

Don't forget, if you didn't win you can pick it up at my TpT store.  I'll also be doing another giveaway of my next unit in the works.  It's called "Measurin' Up!" and it is a until on length.  It's gonna be a piece of work, but I'm pumped about it!

Stay warm everybody...spring is almost here!

Famous American Biography Unit

It's finished!  FINALLY!  Oh my word...it has taken FOREVER because of my millions of chiropractor visits and tournament games this week.  But it's done!

And I will tell y'all a little secret...not so secret anymore...anytime I create a new unit (except for Reading Street resource packs), I will post about it and ALWAYS give one away for FREE!  Exciting, right?

I consider this one a pretty big giveaway.  It's 42 pages of biography goodness!  It guides you along with how to run it and gives you plenty of resources, activities, craftivities, reports, forms, and more!  This is one you TRULY don't want to miss!  It's all about writing a biography, plus it gives the students some great info about Famous Americans!  The kids LOVE this because they can be independent and research someone that interests them.  It's simply a favorite in second grade!

So to enter, please leave a comment below WITH YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS.  And if you'd please, pretty please, pass along my blog site to others.  I'd appreciate it!  :)  I will pick a winner on Wednesday, March 7th!  It's March, March is considered "lucky", 7 is considered a "lucky" number, and it's Hump Day!  I can't think of a better day to give this baby away!  :P

I'd like to give a HUGE shoutout and THANK YOU to Latricia from Wild About Second Grade for nominating me for a Top 10 Blog Award!  Wow!  You are too sweet!  How encouraging!  You seriously made my night!!!! :D

Ok, here it is!  A Biography Study of Famous Americans!  You can pick it up at my TpT store!  :)  Enjoy!

WINNER(S)!!!!!!

My oh my...what a week!  And it's FINALLY starting to feel like spring!  For that I'm very happy and grateful.  It makes it so much more bearable to have the sun shining, windows open, and flip flops on (after school of course).  :P  And to think, it's only March 1st.  And we're getting this type of weather in OHIO!?!?!?!  Everyone is just waiting for our surprise blizzard that comes out of nowhere.  I honestly think we're not going to get any significant snow (not even an inch) the rest of this winter season.  YES!!!!  :D

So apparently I'm still not that popular yet...fair enough.  ;)  So that means that all FOUR of you who commented will be getting my Bag O' Tricks pack!  Yay!  Since I forgot to mention it on the last post, please leave your e-mail below if you were one of the ones who entered and I will send it to you!  :)

Ok, I was REALLY hoping to get up my Biography Unit tonight, but I needed some more borders from KPM Doodles and I haven't gotten them sent to me yet.  Darn.  It should be up tomorrow!  Saturday at the LATEST!  I'm so pumped about this.  SO PUMPED.  Seriously...I've never been so excited about something I've created!  And of course, when it's finally done I will be giving one away for free (or more, haha!)!  But spread the news, y'all!  Here's the cover to give you a little taste of what's to come!  :)

HAVE A HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

St. Patty's Day Craftivity Giveaway!

So I finished my St. Patty's Day writing craftivity!  It's a leprechaun with a Bag O' Tricks! I thought this would be the perfect thing for my kiddos.  This year I have a group that is so silly!  They will eat this thing up.  I'm pumped to see what they come up with as their leprechaun tricks!

You can snag it at my TpT store OR you can enter for the giveaway!  I'm giving away the Bag O' Tricks craftivity to one lucky winner!  All you have to do is follow my blog and leave a comment below.  I will pick a winner on the evening of March 1st (this Thursday)!  :)

Stay tuned for a new Biography Unit!  It's in the works!  It should be up this week because I will need to USE IT this week!  Ha! :P

Teacher Binder and a FREEBIE!

Ok, for real I'm back.  You see, my computer kind of bit the dust.  Sooooo....we got our tax return money on Friday and went out and bought a Mac on Saturday.  :D  This is one happy girl right here.  That means so much more time for blogging!  Yahoo!!!!

Real quick...I posted a 5-W worksheet in my TpT store.  I was glancing through the Common Core Standards and noticed how it mentioned the 5 W's a couple times, so I whipped something up real quick.  It's nothing special, but it's a resource!  The best part?  It's FREE!  Man, what a good day... You can get it here!

I don't know about you, but I'm so Type A it isn't even funny.  No really, it's pretty annoying.  Everything has a place, everything has a label, everything is color-coordinated, everything is straight, everything is written down, everything is...perfect...well, you know that's not true.  It can't be.  But boy do I do everything to try to make it happen, therefore driving myself CRAZY in the process.

So I got this nifty idea to create "Mrs. Kirby's Teacher Binder" where I keep absolutely everything in one place, all spelled out.  If I ever have a sub, she/he needs to look no further than this thing.

In the front left pocket I keep my checklist of things to do each week.  Things to create, things to copy, things to update...it helps keep my brain in order.  :P  Then the first section is "General Procedures".  I have a sheet for every possible thing they may need to know about during the course of a typical day.  There is a sheet for Basic Classroom Information, Homeroom Seating Chart, Math Seating Chart, Morning Procedures, Reading Intervention Procedures, Math Procedures, Centers Procedures, Specials Procedures, End of Day Procedures, and a 2-Hour Delay Lunch Schedule.  Yep, that about covers everything!

Next is the Technology Information section.  I put together "A Sub's Guide to the Promethean Board" with basic info on how to run the thing.  That's first.  Then I also have usernames and passwords for Study Island and AR, iPad info, AIMSweb directions, and a PowerTeacher Quick Entry Tips section.  Remember, this binder is also for me!  Anything I would need to know on any given day is included in this binder.

Then we have the Lesson Plan section!  You guessed it...lesson plans.  I use a template created by Beth Newingham.  You can find it here.  You have to go down the "Miscellaneous" section and you can find it under "Lesson Plan Template."

The Calendar section is next!  At the front of the section is our district calendar.  Then I have monthly calendars.  Busy Teacher's Cafe has the cutest printable calendars to fill in and print for FREE!  Check it out!

Student Information is next.  In this section, I have a copy of AIMSweb scores for my class, writing scores for each unit for each student, a reading fluency progress chart for each unit, and weekly fluency scores.

Next is a section simply for notes from Staff/Student Meetings.

Finally we have the PLC Notes!  Whenever we meet together as a grade level, I jot down some notes and then can find them easily.  :)

There we have it!  My daily life in one spot!  Hopefully I've inspired some of you to get a little more organized and be a blessing to your sub!  Being organized makes you FEEL good!  :)  And who doesn't want that?

Blessings...

Student-Led Conferences (and we have a WINNER!!!)

First of all, I know you're all excited to see who our winner is!  Nobody can see it, but you all have "invisible numbers"...I have to copy your comments, paste them into Word, and THEN I can see the numbers!  :P  Something to do with the new "nesting" of comments...

Ok, moving on!  Drumroll.......the winner is....

Which means our winner is Ms. Chrissy B!!!!!  Congratulations!!!!

If you'd still like to snag a copy, head on over to my TpT store! :)

Now on to Student-Led Conferences...

We had them tonight and will have them again on Thursday.  Here's how I run them in my room.

We send home time request slips about a month in advance.  Being student-led, I schedule 3-4 students at the same time.  I circulate around the room as they go through their list of things to do.  They show their parents everything!  I am there to answer questions, address concerns, and just mingle with the families.  It's very laid back for me and very informative for the parents!

I post a schedule outside my door so that the parents can see a reminder of when their time slot happens to be.  They can also see if there are others scheduled before or after them...it helps them keep to the time limit a little bit better.

When they come in, everything is ready.  We practice during  the school day so that they know what to do when they come in.  Data binders, books, and conference sheets are on their desk waiting.

On our Promethean Board, I displayed a PowerPoint image to show what the agenda is for the evening.  The students can reference it to make sure they complete all the tasks that they are supposed to do with their parents.

The first thing up is a conference sheet.  I fill out things to show their current grades and what their successes and struggles are in certain areas of reading and writing.  They go through this with their parents and identify what they need to work on.

Next, the students share their data binders with their parents.  They have a class mission statement and a personal mission statement that they go over with their parents.  The students also have graphs with baseline data from the beginning of the year.  We track  extended response (writing), sight words read in 1 minute, and fluency.  They love looking at their growth (or think really hard about why they might NOT be making any growth...I love hearing them come up with solutions with their parents)!

Next, they read a portion of a book to their parents.  I use the leveled readers that come with Reading Street.  I choose one that they've already read so that they're familiar with it.  They read just a couple pages so their parents can hear them read.  Sadly, some parents never listen to their child read and I feel like it's SO important.

Then they show their Study Island graphs to their parents.  Our school participates in the Study Island program on the computers to prepare them for testing.  If the kids (any of them in the whole building) get all blue ribbons, they are rewarded with a skating party at our local skate place at the end of the year.  I graph how many blue ribbons they have and then the parents get to see how far along their child is coming with completing it.

Finally, I have them do their "Hunks and Chunks" for their parents!  Ohmygoodness y'all (sorry...Southern excitement coming out here!), the parents LOVE THIS!  It's SO entertaining!  If you're unfamiliar with The Phonics Dance, you HAVE to check it out!  I went to the workshop this past summer and it has CHANGED the way I teach phonics!  It's such a fabulous and fun way that really sticks with my students.  It will be SO worth your time and money!  Guaranteed!  The parents get a kick out of the little chants and motions that go with each hunk and chunk.

So there ya have it!  In a nutshell.  Our Student-Led Conferences.  :)  Ok, I'm tired and out...it's been a LOOOOONG DAY!!!! :)

(Now I get to come back to school in 10 hours to present my blog and TpT store at our staff meeting!  Ay, ay, ay...my stomach is in knots, but I'm PUMPED!  :P)