Bulletin Board Updates

I got to school for 2 hours yesterday and managed to get all by boards covered and trimmed.  I even played with the layout of my Focus Wall and my Bloom's Flag.  Here are some pictures of the works in progress!
(Please pay no attention to the purple and greenish-yellow on the focus wall.  That will get swapped with patriotic scrapbook papers that my mother got me - needed a place holder!)

Version 1 of my Focus Wall

Version 2 - Squeezed in CAFE

The whole board - Focus and a section for the reading groups on the right

Beginning stages of the Bloom's Flag BB.

Beaching It!

I'm enjoying my time at the beach.  I popped into McDonald's to sponge off their free wi-fi and great sweet iced tea. It is SO HOT and we're loving every minute.  I'm proud to say I've not really done any school related thinking while on vacation.  But I can't wait to get back home and get into my new classroom - there is still so much to do!  See you again with regular posts on Monday!

Toes in the water, ____ in the sand, not a worry in the world....

Home Office Organization Part 2!

So I've moved into my new classroom (a separate post!) and have brought home 3 tubs and a box of stuff.  Here's a visual aid:

The night before, I cleaned off shelves and this is what I had...

I was pleased that it only took me about 25 minutes to get the stuff put away.  I credit that with the fact that I didn't actually "pack" stuff - I just set it into the tub. That meant I could just set it on the new shelf.  There wasn't a whole lot of loose stuff either - it was mostly in bins, bags, or book boxes.  Here's the full shelves:

Can you hear them creaking and groaning? My concern now is that I'll come in one morning (or be awakened one night) to stuff all over the floor.  We're talking about buying some bricks and making some brick-and-board bookcases under one window.  We'll see about that after the BEACH!!!

So this isn't the beautiful office from a magazine that I'd love to have - but it is what I've got. It didn't cost me a dime so I'm happy with it. (Although if this is a decorator and you'd like to give my office a makeover, I wouldn't say no!)

What does your home office/workspace look like?

End of NaBloPoMo - Reflection

Well, I've done it! I completed the month of by blogging every day!  (And I'm celebrating this by being at the beach at this moment!)  I've really developed a blogging habit (I've been posting here and on my personal blog) and I've learned a lot about how to manage Blogger.

I've gone from a 4th grade teacher of everything to a 6th grade teacher of reading.
I've moved my classroom.
I've begun building a Twitter-based PLN where I'm following almost 60 awesome folks - and I've actually got 30-something people following me!
I've been able to get feedback on ideas through comments on my blog and Twitter.
I've experienced delight in watching site statistics - I'm such a goof-ball that way. (I'm not blogging for the numbers but it sure is a thrill to see that people actually come to the site! Wow!)
I've figured out that blogging helps me stay accountable. I'll have to use this more often in the future, as I have a bad habit of starting things and not following through.

So, I'll end July by saying thanks for coming on this journey with me.  It's been a great way to spend time this summer!

NC Teacher Evaluation Process - Sharing Artifacts

As a Discovery Star Educator, I was given the opportunity to try out a program from Tech4Learning called Share.  Think of it as PowerPoint gone wild.  You can do a simple slide show - or take it to the next level.  You can save as images, webpages, PDF docs, or even flash content!  There are all sorts of gadgets included to make your content look interesting and organized.  This is the presentation I used at the end of the 2010-2011 school year. I saved it as images since I haven't got a clue how to put Flash content onto this blog!  Enjoy!  (If you know how to embed flash content on Blogger, please leave a comment!)