10 Things I've Learned From Teaching (Linky Party)

10 Things I've Learned from Teaching {Linky Party}

 

Miss Kindergarten is hosting a Linky Party about the 10 things I've learned from teaching.  I have been teaching now for 13 years this fall, I've learned many things good and bad but here are my Top 10 things I have learned in the past 13 years.  And I will continue to learn every year about myself and my teaching.

1. www.donorschoose.org This site became my new best friend about 3 years ago.  I learned about it from a workshop I was attending and heard the key words FREE and they had my attention.  This site will walk you through step by step in creating a project of a need for your students.  Businesses, individuals, and cooperation donate to your project.  When it gets funded, your students receive the materials you were asking for for FREE, in return your students will need to write thank you notes and you will have to photograph your students using the materials.  I have received many projects funded to help my students.

2.  Data:  Last year our school was really focusing on student data as well as our school data to drive our instruction.  I have always documented their progress but never really "looked" at my data from assessments.  Each month I tracked their progress and BINGO!! The students and I both got to see their growth.  I got to see how excited they were to see how much they knew.  (Now keep in mind I teach Pre-K)  I was really excited to see who had the largest growth, who still needed work, and the best of all who was most improved.

3.  HUGS!!!!!! Yes I said hugs.  The greatest thing about working with Pre-K four year olds.......they love to give hugs to you every day, every hour, and to everyone else in your school.  You can be having the worst day in your life but that cute snot nose kid gives you the biggest hug and tells you, "I love you Ms. Beavers."  AHHHHH.  I love that and my day gets better.  They can sense your bad day a mile away.

4.  Race:  Four year olds don't see color or the hate that sometimes goes with a person's race.  They see the person.  Yes sometimes they see that I am white and they are black but they never judge each other but only love each other and yes hug each other and be the best friends.  I just wish the world would see each other through the eyes of a four year old.

5.  Organization:  Be organized!  Have all your materials ready and at hand or your students will eat you alive when there is dead time from you trying to find what u need.  Also being organize has many benefits.  You know where things are and so when you have a meeting or your principal asks you for a certain documentation you will know where it is out.  I am a little OCD about my paper works, data, and other things. 

6.  Field Trips:  At some point you will take a field trip, those can be fun or chaos.  My first year teaching I took my 20 head start kids with my co-teacher to the zoo by ourselves in May(when all the other schools go keep in mind lol).  Never will do that again.  I had a hard time keeping track of all of them and was afraid to lose someone.  So now I have parent volunteers meet us there and I break my students into groups of 2-4 students per parent.  This is so much easier and less stress on you. And always count your students many times during a trip.  Trust me on this one.

7. Have fun:  You students don't care how bad you sing, draw, or dance but they love seeing you do those things.  I have different hats I wear throughout the school year on different holidays or occasions.  I sing crazy silly songs every day.  I dance and I am a big girl and can't dance.  I add voices to my stories and use puppets.  Where in the world can I act like a kid and change a child's life but through teaching.  I love my job.

8. Let them see you are human.  Teachers make mistakes and let them know it is okay to make mistakes.  My favorite thing I say "If you can't make a mistake, you can't make any."  It lets the kids know teachers even make mistakes.  It is how we learn from them that matters.  I make lots of them and not afraid to let them know I did or that I don't know the answer but we will sure learn it.

9.  Professional Development:  Teaching is a job where you will always be learning.  Each year I take a look back at my year and look at what I need to do to improve myself as a teacher to help my students.  I attend lots of professional developments through out the school year and especially the summers.  I read books after books from books for fun to ones who teach me something new for my profession.  I love to read about other teachers.  My favorite is Ron Clark.  I just finished his third book The End of Molasses Classes in less than 3 days.  I do most of reading in the summer but I read all year long too.

10.  Take time for yourself.  This one is hard for me.  I am a single mother of two teenagers and bring my work home everyday with me.  I am always looking for new ideas, making something I need for a lesson, and much more.  In the past few years, I have had to learn to take time for myself and not to feel about about me doing so.  I always feel guilty that I am not doing my best as a mother or a teacher and I forget about myself.  So take a hot bath, go out with the girls (and don't talk about work lol), see a movie, take small road trips, whatever you decide take care of yourself so you can be at your BEST

Hot of the Presses...check it out really cool blog

The Teaching Tribune

I came across a interesting new blog that will be connecting with blogs from all over the world to give teaching advise etc. So check it out.  I sure did and looking forward to learning and connecting to others.

Favorite Pins Friday

 Here are some really cute ideas for bulletin boards to highlight your students' reading or meeting the teachers. Did you know? bulletin board

This board is super cute and the kids would love it.  iRead

The dress I want to wear at my 40th Birthday party. Little black dress

I will be doing Chicka Chicka Boom Boom the first week of school and this is a good idea I am going to try hand trees

Another idea I will be trying. chicka letter sort

TGIF Linky PArty Cute Crafts/Ideas

This cute idea I did during Dr Seuss Week.  I painted the one of their hands blue and the other red to make these cute thing one and thing two to go with a writing project.  The students wrote "if Thing One and Thing Two came to my house...."  I had the child then tell me what they wrote.  

This was a family project I asked my parents and students to work on at home.  They had to turn their pumpkin into their favorite story book character.  The children then had to bring that book and their pumpkin to share with the class.  This was the first time I did this project and it turned out very well I thought.  Over half the class created a pumpkin character.

This cute craft idea I did during election time.  The children made a flag with their self portrait then had to tell me what they would vote for.  Also they had to paint a flag. This was another new craft idea I tired out with my students.


Below my students made reindeer with their finger prints.  I added the details and they got to give to their parents as a gift.

My donors choose projects

I have two projects up on Donorschoose.org.  please check them out and share with your friends or make a small donation to help out my students to receive the needed materials.

 My first project I am wanting to get portable CD players for my students to use either in centers or for parents to check out to use at home.  The link is below.
Listening leads to Learning

 My second project I am wanting materials for students to use to be creative with.  I attended an art workshop and want to incorporate what I learned with my students but will need the materials for my students to use.  Many of their parents won't be able to help donate materials for they are more worried about food for their children than things for the classroom.  The link is below.
creative children

The End of Molasses Classes

I got my new Ron Clark book The End of Molasses Classes in the mail yesterday and I started reading it last night.  I love reading his books. And I so would love to visit his school The Ron Clark Academy in Georgia.  While I was reading I couldn't stop underlining quotes that I wanted to remember or to share with my friends.

On  section #2 called "Not every child deserves a cookie" I wanted to share the part where he stated" There is a misconception in our country that teachers whose students make good grades are providing them with a good education.  Parents, administrators, and the general community shouldn't assume good grades equal high academic mastery."  This is so true.  I have a friend and fellow teacher who taught third grade where she had to deal with this daily.  Parents complained daily that the work was too hard for their child or "why did my child get a bad grade when they made all As last year?" 

We need to stop spoon feeding our children.  This section in his book talks about just that. I agree with him stating "that society isn't going to make excuses for their home situations, and we can't either.  If we make excuses and allowances, it will sent the child the message that it's okay to make excuses for his or her performance based on circumstances, too.  We just can't do it.  We must hold every child accountable for high standard and do all we can to push the child to that level."  And this is what my friend does daily with her students and I do as well.  We can't baby these children cause of their home lives.  We need to make sure we are pulling the best out of each student.  I have high expectations for my Pre-k students and my friend has the same high expectations of her students.  It is really hard at times when the parents hold their child back by basically letting their child float through life without learning how to be the best or to solve things on their own. 

I am looking forward to learning more about him and his school through this book and hopefully grow more myself as the great teacher I want to be and not have that Molasses Class.

Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party!!!

Flying into First Grade is hosting a "getting to Know your fellow bloggers" linky party.  I have been blogging about my classroom and students for a couple of years and thought this would be great for me to connect with my fellow teachers and them connect with me.  I love getting new ideas from other teachers and trying them out in my classroom.

Topic- Tic Tac Toe

How it Works:  Look at the graphic below.  It is a Tic Tac Toe board filled with different categories.  You will post about three of these categories but they have to make Tic Tac Toe.  For example, you can choose to write about 3 topics that go vertical, or 3 topics that go horizontal, or three topics that go diagonal. 

I am choosing to do the first left vertical  line to introduce myself, so here goes.


                                             I went to ____ College and favorite Memory
I went to college at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.  I graduated in 2000 with a BS in Elementary education with the hopes to teach fourth grade.  My favorite memory was my graduation.  I was the first one in my family to graduate from college.  I was excited and proud.  I also was glad my boys were there to see me graduate as well.  I wanted them to know no matter what obstacles life puts in your way that you can do it with hard work and dedication.
                                                         
                                                             My first year of teaching
My first year of teaching was the fall of 2000.  My oldest son was in Cookson Hills Headstart and the co-teacher mentioned to me that they needed a teacher in his class and that I should apply.  So I did and got the job the next day.  So that is how I got my start with teaching Pre-K.  They sent me back to school to take 2 classes to get my Early Childhood degree and to take the certification test in Early Childhood.  I was excited about my first job but wasn't prepared like I thought I was.  I had a co-teacher, a one-on-one aide, and a helper in the afternoon.  I had 20 students.  Headstarts have A LOT and I MEAN A LOT of paperwork.  So I had to do lessons on top of daily logs, weekly reports and monthly reports on each student.  I am really glad I got my teaching start here, it has made me the teacher I am today where I teach the whole child as well as the parents. 13 years later I still love what I do.

                                                       My favorite grade to teach and why 

I have taught a year of kindergarten but my favorite grade to teach is Pre-K.  I love teaching this grade because the children come to me like a clean slate.  I am their first teacher, besides their parents, and I get to build a foundation for them to become successful students.  I love seeing them discover new things for the first time.  For 9 months, these children are my babies and I get to help grow them, mold them, and shape them into future leaders of America.  I also get to build relationships with the families that carry on to future siblings.  I get to help these parents learn to become their child's voice in their education.  My most proudest but saddest day is when I have to hand them back over to their parents at the end of the school year.  But since I have built a loving caring environment in my classroom those students still come to me as well as their parents for help or the best of all the hugs.  Every single year, I get to see my students extend their love and innocence to my peers or older students with a daily hug.  Those hugs are why I teach cause I feel I have touched a life FOREVER!!!!


 

Manic Monday Freebies

Teachers love free things.  I just grabbed a few freebies this morning for myself to use in my classroom this coming school year.

#1 Freebie is from 123 Homeschool 4 Me .  This blog has monthly reading logs.  I send a reading log home every month for my parents to write down the books they read to their child.  I love to see what they read and plus the child then gets a free mini pizza from Pizza Hut's Book It reading program.

#2 Freebie is so freakin cute from Royalbaloo . This cute summer time freebie I think I will use to check for assessment of the child's letter sounds or recognition in either small group or in literacy centers.

Displaying Standards in class

I display my objectives or standards on one bulletin board with my agenda.  I also display my standards or objects one the same sentence strips on their work when I display it in class or in the hall.

I saw some great ideas on the organized classroom blog. Check it out and see if you find one you like

Class Creed

You can check out my TpT product on class creeds, pledges, and constitutions using Great Expectations at the following link:

Class creed

Free and Cute

OH MY GOSH!!! I love free stuff.  I wanted to share a few things that I thought were cool and were free.

If you doing writing with your students and want to organize them and their work then you should check out

Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives for writing labels they are sooo cute.  I will be so doing this with my little ones.

The next item is a super Cute Craft from Early Childhood Educators ROCK Facebook page 

I'm an OK Blogger!

Check this out! I can connect with other bloggers near to me by declaring the state I teach in/blog from! Yay!   I am an Oklahoma blogger! Hope over here: Fifth in the Middle, Blog by State.

TpT( Teacher Pay Teacher)

I have always been wondering how can I create those great ideas from Teacher Pay Teacher (TpT) and earn myself some extra money, well thanks to my BFF Christina Cowan for sharing her blog post about creating your own from Jessica Stanford.

So I created my first TpT product for our TLE (teacher evaluation system) by creating the cover sheets for a TLE portfolio for teachers.  Many of us (teachers) have started creating portfolios to share with our principals to show and document that we deserve the higher points on our evaluations. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/TLE-Cover-Sheets-758570

so here is the link to check out my cover sheets.  And hopefully for many more great ideas to come and start the road to extra cash.

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