Ms. K
I Met My New Favorite Math Hero!!!
I just came back from the SDE conference in Chicago this week and I got to see some famous teachers on my trip. I met three famous TPT bloggers and one author. I found it so fun to see what the bloggers’ personalities are like behind their pictures. I saw Cara Carroll from the First Grade Parade who had a very good session about fun math activities you can do in your classroom and how to organize math centers. She is very high energy, bouncy, witty, and fun. Her loud personality transforms an entire room.
Then I saw Abby Mullins from the The Inspired Apple. Her personality is sweet and precious. I was so impressed with her attention to detail as she gave all of us in her session a pack of sticky notes, an adorable business card, and the most precious apple cookies that her mother made! So cute! Her presentation was adorable as well with beautiful backgrounds. Everything she touches seems to be as cute and creative as she is. I really enjoyed her ideas about how to preview a book and label ideas with different colored sticky notes before you write a lesson plan. For example, use blue stickies to write numeracy ideas down or green to write hands on learning ideas to help incorporate math or science etc. into your lessons.
It crumbled a little in my bag, but the cookie was still yummy.
I love this adorable business card!
And who could leave out Erin Klein from Kleinspiration. I actually was on the elevator twice with her all alone. I did say, ” Oh! I recognize you from your blog.” That is as far as I got. I was too shy to tell her I blogged too. She seems so smart and has like eleventy billion followers, and I guess I was thinking I’m like a small gnat in the blogosphere? Erin seems just like her picture too…sweet and smart! Anyway Erin’s session was so inspiring! I learned about flipped learning where you video yourself teaching the lesson and have an extra self to help kids stay on task. I love the idea of having a cloned self!! She also demonstrated all kinds of cool tech gadgets like the Live Scribe Pen that records whatever you say when you write and Sifteo Cubes like digital legos.
Now for MY NEW MATH HERO…(long pause with bated breath)…so exciting…I must say it one more time….SO EXCITING! Here’s a clue…
You guessed it! I met Greg Tang, got my picture made with him, and he even autographed my Grapes of Math book! See!
I’ve always admired his books…remember my door decorated with the Grapes of Math?
Greg (yes, we’re on a first name basis *wink*) challenged my thinking for sure! Greg doesn’t come from the school system educational world and is not a “teacher” although he has worked with kids at schools on many occasions. He is SO smart…a Harvard graduate with a common sense education perspective and hilarious dry humor. He takes VERY few rabbit trails in his presentations and is a very no nonsense kind of guy. Greg says that if a task is daunting, break it apart into chunks to make the task smaller. With everything in life this principal works. He says that we make math too difficult (agreed). Again he says that kids learn math when they learn patterns…so true! We as teachers don’t show them enough patterns so that students see all the connections among different math concepts. My favorite part of Greg’s presentation is when he showed us how regrouping relates to all the measurement concepts…not just adding/subtracting.
If you have the opportunity to hear him, make sure you take it! You will learn mountains and your thinking will be changed!
Oh, in case you don’t know, all of his books are animated on his website, AND all of his worksheets and games are free on there too!
Like I said…my new math hero!
Use This Amazing Cleaner When You’re Cleaning Your Room!
I recently had a sticky mess all over my front door’s glass which I admittedly created. See, my front door’s glass has these pretty damask rose cut outs in it, but if I were to walk by in say a towel or less after just getting out of the shower, you can see right through the door’s glass where it isn’t frosted. Eeeeek! So, I spent $17.49 with a coupon to purchase this sticky frosted film to add some privacy to the door. About two hours later, I had stickiness on every finger, on the door, and my hair even got stuck to the stuff. My dog was just laying there looking at me like, “When are you going to give up?” Disgusted with myself, I went to the grocery store to find some Goo Gone which my mom swears by…listen to your momma! The Goo Gone got every bit of the sticky mess off of the door. I couldn’t stop saying “Wow” while I was cleaning with it because it worked so well. When you rub it on with a paper towel, it takes the stickiness out of the residue. Then you go back over the residue with a wet soapy paper towel and the sticky stuff balls right up and comes off. Ta-Da!
While I was cleaning with it I was thinking how great Goo Gone would be great for cleaning off all kinds of sticky messes that are made from things you put up all around your classroom…especially the sticky residue left by attaching name tags to student desks.
Happy back to school cleaning when the time comes!
4 Teacher Discounts You Don’t Want to Miss for Back to School 2013…
- Office Depot will be hosting their annual teacher breakfast and teacher tote bag with goodies giveaway in my area August 3rd. You will also receive 10% off your purchases. To find out when this event will be held at your local Office Depot, click here.
- Staples will also be hosting their back to school teacher appreciation event on August 3rd in my area (Arkansas). Their event isn’t quite as compelling as Office Depot’s in my opinion. They are offering a free tote bag and 20% in Staples Rewards off the items that you can fit in the bag to the first 100 teachers. Also, you have a chance to win a $25 gift card. The teacher event is only for a few hours so make sure you check the hours. To find out when their event is held in your area, check Staples’ site here. Don’t worry I won’t knock you down at the door for a tote bag! I will likely be enjoying a donut at Office Depot!
- Mardel Christian and Education Supply will be hosting a 20% off event on July 18th 8a.m.-10 p.m on all education, home school, and kid supplies as I was told when I called. The man said that this should be at all locations, but I cannot find this on their website. Here is a link to their locations page if you want to call to be sure this is the same in your area.
- Office Max- I wish I had one of these in my area. Their website is designed for ease of finding discounts for teachers. They will be giving away a tote bag and having a 25% off sale for teachers. They will also be giving out coupons. It appears that their event will be for a 3 day weekend. In a couple of the southern regions, their sale will be on July 20th-22nd. Check the website here to find out when the event will be held in your area. Be sure to check out their teacher’s corner deals too.
Congratulations to the Winner!
Congratulations to Dawn Thompson of Florida! You won the Magster Magnetic Ceiling Hooks! These will come in very handy as you start your first year of teaching! Best wishes to you in your first year!
Is Your State Having a Sales Tax Holiday?
To see if your state is having a sales tax holiday, check this list. The list will give you the link to your state’s tax free holidays if your state participates! Many states are having a back to school tax free holiday the weekend of August 3rd. Save yourself a few bucks!
How Can Short (or tall) Teachers Hang Items with Ease in Their Classrooms?
I have done everything in the past to hang items from the ceiling at school. I’ve climbed on tables and chairs, borrowed tall people, and sweet talked the custodian with a candy bar. Hanging items from the ceiling is something that I always dread doing since it takes so much effort. Now I don’t have to borrow my custodian or climb like a monkey because of these new hooks I ‘ve found–Magster ceiling hooks. Magster ceiling hooks have a convenient pole that I can use to attach magnetic hooks to the metal part of the ceiling. I just lift the pole to the ceiling until the magnet attaches. They are easily moveable and can be taken down with the same pole. Now I am just thinking of things to hang up for next year.
Here is what came in my starter package:
Above the wood sticks join with the black pieces to make a long pole. The U-shaped black piece holds the hook. The other white plastic items are the hooks.
Above you can see how the wood pieces join to make the pole to hang the hooks.
Here is me standing on the floor (not on a chair, not on a table) with my 5 ‘ 3″ self and hanging a hook.
Ta Da! That was easy and quick!
I can even use this to hold my posters…See!
The pole makes it super easy even to hang posters above! (I hate that my ceiling is cracked right there. They won’t fix it though 🙁 )
Surprise! I’m hosting a give away of one package of these wonderful hooks which you will absolutely LOVE! All you have to do is make a meaningful comment on any post on my blog, and leave another comment below about what you would hang if you won the new hooks. The contest will close on July 10th. I will select two winners at random and announce them on July 12th!
One More Fabulous Free Common Core Resource!!!
I will start out with my most favorite state’s common core resources that I have seen so far. This one ranks up there with the depth of the Georgia State Units. Not to keep you in suspense, but North Carolina has done a superb amount of work on these units. Each one has lessons and student tasks ready made to go with each lesson. These units are not ALL conclusive though. There are some holes or standards left out, but what is there is excellent quality work! Thank you North Carolina!
First you will come to this page. Click on the grade level of your choice.
Then you will be taken to this screen below. There are many resources here including the unpacked CCSS. To find the unit lessons click where the yellow arrow is, but the other resources are definitely worth exploring as they will give you an overview of the unit, parent/school connections etc.
When you click on the unit link, you will be taken to the cover page of the unit that looks like the following.
Then when you look inside the unit, you will see complete lessons….
…with tasks and or recording sheets included…
I hope these save you time from recreating the wheel :).
How Can You Fit Estimation in All the Time?
Before the walls are completely cleaned off for the end of school, I snapped a few pictures of the things I hung up around school to help students estimate and measure all the time. Maybe these will give you some ideas that you can incorporate in your school or classroom.
I placed a scale near the restrooms so that students could weigh themselves in kilograms. Students needed extra experience weighing themselves with kilograms since that unit isn’t common for us in the U.S. Most digital scales you can buy now have a switch on the back that will convert weight to pounds or kilograms. Just check the box before you buy one.
I also had multiple rulers and yardsticks hot glued to the wall so that students could estimate the length of walls as they stood in line waiting. Here is one of the walls that I had a yardstick glued to. Unfortunately I waited till the end of the year to snap a picture and the sign is a bit tattered , but you get the idea.
Losing My Dignity as a Mathemagician…
You know how you try things out at the end of the year preparing for the next year? Well, I tried out something and DID lose my dignity, but the kids loved it! I dressed up as a mathemagician …more specifically The Masked Mathemagician! I told the kids that Ms. K had sent the magician to tell the special news. I did this to announce our Math Wars awards. I had one big contest at the end of the year where I awarded students in the top three places for Reflex Math AND the top three classes in K-2 and 3-5. I bought a cape and mask at Wal-Mart in the toy section for $6.97 and borrowed a glittery black hat from a teacher down the hall. At the last minute, I thought to use a ruler for my magic wand. I just used a plain one, but I think I will glitz it up for next year. I’m also thinking of adding white gloves. Anyhow, I ran into our morning meeting (that we have every day) dressed up, and children’s gasps could be heard as I ran in. One of the teachers told me later that the students stopped eating when they saw me. (Our morning meeting is in the cafeteria.) After I announced the winners, I took off my little costume in the side room, so that the kids wouldn’t see me change. The kids told me all day that they saw me dressed up. I kept telling them that it wasn’t me dressed up, but my friend. Most kids knew it was me of course. One kindergartener said, “Really it looked just like you!” 🙂
I dressed up like this on a whim because of a presentation called “Math Math, Better Than a Bath” that I saw at the NCTM conference this year. The presenter described wearing a silly hat etc. to do math contests like creating silly math poems and math jokes. I think in the myriad of test prep and accountability we forget that kids live in a world of make believe, imagination, and fun. To really reach them, sometimes it is necessary to speak their language of imagination…and this coming from someone who likes to remain behind the scenes and not make a spectacle of themselves…me!
Below is pictured my $6.97 cape and mask, borrowed glitter hat, and magic ruler wand (which I will be improving in the future).
Cute, Cheap, and Easy Trophies
This year for the final Math Wars contest, I decided to use Reflex Math instead of a paper pencil timed test like I had been doing. A little plug for Reflex Math here…I LOVE it as do the kids (more about Reflex here). In case your school or district is thinking of purchasing this program, get it! It has definitely made a difference in our students’ math fact fluency. Since I wanted to give out awards for the Math Wars with NO budget, I made some. I had some large gold stars left over from another project, but I needed something to stabilize them on so I found four cones in a package for $3 at Wal-Mart. Since hot glue is the answer to just about everything that needs to be stuck somewhere at school, I hot glued the stars to the cones. Then I got some scrapbooking stickers at Hobby Lobby to label the stars. The stickers were 40% off the week I got them. Then I found some little medals for the kids on clearance for 75 cents for a package of about 8 (yay!) I bought extra packages because I can always use these for something. The medals are plastic but look almost as good as metal ones. Since the ribbon in the package was kind of short, I used some nicer ribbon that I happened to have on hand from another project. Pictured below are my trophies and medals.
