Keeping It Together

See that little picture down there???

Yeah, that's me during the school year...Drowning in a sea of papers to grade, progress monitoring to record, test scores to keep up with, and parent conferences to plan. 

Now let me just admit it, I am probably the most disorganized teacher in the world when it comes to paper! Most of the important stuff gets buried on my desk, or (gasp) chucked into the trash by accident. I am always losing data or hunting for it in between parent-teacher conferences. This year, I've decided to do something about it. I am going to put all of my data in ONE place--which includes meeting notes, progress monitoring, class grades. and appointments. I made myself a little planner to get me through the year and I thought I would share!

This is the cover! I'm a bit of a cheapskate so I went with something with lots of black and white, along with a pop of color just so I'll be able to find it when it gets buried on my desk.

 Inside this one little book you will find every data sheet that I need for the year and I'll be whipping this notebook out at every meeting to keep myself on track. The interior pages are completely black and white...why? Because I could print it for free at school. Here are a few of the pages that I included. 

Gotta Have a Calendar! Hand written dates so that I can reuse from year to year.

Meeting Notes Pages- About 15 of these for all that wonderful meeting time.

Writing Exam Scores and Progress Monitoring Table, Also included pages for MAPS scores, fluency scores, and other important assessment scores. These I definitely plan on using! Progress monitoring is a huge pet peeve of mine because it's hard to keep track of, but not anymore!

Gradebook Pages--LOTS of these!

I also added in several blank checksheets, a list of my school computer login information (I always forget my passwords for stuff!. I think that this year is going to run a little smoother now that I have a place to keep everything. No more hunting for me!

The best part...it only cost me four bucks. I printed it at school and had it bound into a notebook at Office Depot and now it's all ready to go Back to School! (Say it isn't so!)

So I have a question...How do you keep all of your data organized? Please leave a comment letting me know how you do it all and keep it together!

My Teacher Stash! Well...The Part my Husband Knows about...

Hey ya'll..as I've said before.. I love ALL things school supply related. I could spend hours trekking around to all the different supply stores scooping up all of that fabulousness. I've been that way since I was a kid tagging along behind my daddy picking out Lisa Frank folders, fancy pencils, and sparkly notebooks. Now that I'm a teacher, I bypass all that stuff and head straight for what's useful! And that's where this post comes in...what do I buy for my classroom? Here you go...

First off, composition books! I have a deep seated hatred for spiral notebooks. They fall apart, pages come out, the wire coil comes loose and stabs you every time you pick it up. Last year, I switched to marble composition books and never looked back. Our reading journals lasted the ENTIRE year. If you want to see how I use them, check out this post.

I label them first as to what they are going to be used for. Then on the first day of school, I break out my sticker collection and let my kids decorate them. These will also get a red label on the spine that has each kid's name and number on it. 

Next up, something I buy every single year when they go on sale. Yeah, the kids bring them in, but they are never the same colors, or you end up with Lisa Frank or Spiderman. FOLDERS! We use these for morning work. I'll stuff them with some looseleaf paper and my kids will use them every single day. To see what I use for morning work (that I don't have to copy), click here. I always buy at least 25 of a couple of different colors, that way I can make extras at the beginning for those newbies that filter in throughout the year.

A couple more common necessities you will currently find in my stockpile are below. I teach in a low income district and many of my kids do not arrive with school supplies. I pre-stock four supply bins (one for each table group) with everything you see below, plus scissors and glue bottles.

The index cards we use for practicing multiplication facts. I cut them in half and the kids use them to make their own flash cards for the fact set they are working on. TONS of gluesticks, markers, and crayons also inhabit my one solitary cabinet. Oh, and by the way, that big pack of gluesticks---$2.00 at Big Lots. Score! I promise I didn't buy them all.

Some other things, I purchased especially for this year. I'm redoing my classroom theme. My previous themes were Clutter, More Clutter, and Clutter with a Dash of Crazy. So I switched over to some zebra print with a pop of red for all of my trim and I'm waiting on a couple of fun things to come in the mail. I did get one package today that I have to share!

It's my new behavior clip chart! I created the individual sections in PowerPoint, saved them as images, and then uploaded them to this website's Custom Banner Builder and Voila! I have a 1 foot by 4 foot Canvas clip chart/banner that matches! The price was reasonable--$21.25, but it's great because it is so durable!  Now I just have to paint my clothespins! 

It's almost time folks! Those school bells will be ringing in no time!

And a quick reminder about our current event! 

I am a contributor to a fantastic new blog called The Teaching Tribune. Right now, we have a MASSIVE Blog hop and giveaway running. If you hop through, you'll download 20 fantastic teaching resources and then have the opportunity to enter to win one of ten FANTASTIC prizes! Want to know more? Click on the image below to stop in! Feel free to share the love with your friends and coworkers as well.

As always, thanks for stopping in! Best of luck getting ready for back to school!

The Sun will come out...Maybe next week...

If the sun doesn't come out soon I am going to go completely insane! It has rained every day for the past week and I am sick and tired of being cooped up at home. My six year old is too. We have tried it all to keep ourselves sane and I thought I would share a little of what we've been doing. 

Summer is a great time to work on all of those fun little crafty things that you've been meaning to get around to. I've done a few new things to my home office, made a couple of things for my school desk, and painted my ears off with my daughter. She loves to paint, despite my avid dislike for the medium. Here are just a few of our little projects.

This is a little gumball machine-ish paper clip holder that I made for my desk at school. It doesn't match my home office, but it will match my red and black at school. It was really easy to make and pretty cheap...Only $3.00! I grabbed my coupons and headed to Joann's (in the rain) and picked up the smallest clay pot and lid that they had ($1.49) and the smallest glass fishbowl they had ($1.49). The rest of the stuff I had on hand--Acrylic paint, large wooden bead, and E6000 heavy duty glue. I brought it all home, and despite my husband's strange looks at my creation, it turned out kind of cute! I've got to get a black paint pen and add a few decorative accents to it to really tie it in to my classroom theme.. GO DAWGS!

 My home office is still under redecoration. If this weather would cooperate, I could finish it up by painting my existing bookshelves. But alas, Mother Nature has plotted against me and that won't be happening any time soon. So I resorted to doing the little things. I wanted some bulletin board space on the walls for photos and such, but I didn't want to spend the money on cork tiles, scrapbook paper, and such. But I went to the Dollar Tree on a whim and found a roll of contact paper and some thick foam sheets and put them to work in my office. All I had to do was cover the foam in the contact paper and hang! I used Sticky Tack to hang them because they are so lightweight.

I actually found a bulletin board in my office, while I was cleaning out my office. I had no idea it was even there, and it was brand new--never even unwrapped the thing. So I used the same contact paper to cover the cork and added some ribbon and fabric. I'm not really happy with the blue ribbon but it's all I had at the time. I may change it out after my next trip to the store. I may also paint the frame black one of these days.

The cabin fever has gotten so bad that I actually emailed my administrator asking when I could get into the building to work. Yeah..it was bad. But, my daughter and I decided to brave the rain today and headed out with a teacher-friend and her son to visit an awesome museum in our area. If you live in North Georgia and have never visited the Tellus Science Museum, you must go! And if you are a third grade teacher in Georgia, this place will teach EVERY science standard you have. It was fantastic! My daughter is six and was completely enthralled the entire time. Dinosaur bones, fossils, magnets, light and sound displays, it had it all. We had a blast and it couldn't have come at a better time. And to top it off, the sun decided to shine for about five minutes as we were leaving. Then the bottom fell out and it POURED rain the whole way home. 

I've also been burning the midnight oil working on some new products for my classroom and  TPT store. There's something really relaxing about sitting in a quiet house, listening to the hum of the refrigerator, and thinking about nothing but what I can do for my kids next year. My most recent products have all been sets of task cards! I love using them...Scoot Games, Workstations, Independent math practice, they're so versatile. I've also sent them home with parents asking for additional practice. Here are my newest sets in case you'd like to take a peek. 

      

As always, thanks for visiting and following my wee little blog. I hope you continue to stop in from time to time and see what's happening in my neck of the North Georgia woods. And keep your eyes peeled, something big is coming!

Have a great week!

Randi

Snap It Up Saturday! Happy Birthday Bundle!

Hello Friends!

I'm sorry to say that I missed last week's Snap it Up Saturday Post. We have been so busy around here that I just didn't have the time to get it together. We spent the weekend traveling and running all over the place and this week has been much of the same. But now we are back to normal, and this week's bundle is a biggie!

Last Wednesday, my daughter and I made our pilgrimage to the great state of Louisiana. I am originally from New Orleans and my brother still lives in North Louisiana (Rayville)  where my grandparents previously lived. I hadn't seen him or my nieces and nephews in two years. How could I have stayed away any longer? After a great visit, and a fiasco with a bad tire, we finally made our way out to the saddest place in the state. The cemetery where my dad is buried. It has been ten years but it still just tears me up inside knowing he's not here anymore. My little one grabbed the iPad as we were leaving and snapped a few shots of the landscape. It's such a beautiful and peaceful area out there, I just can't bear to stay more than a few minutes at a time. I just sat down and took a look at a few of them and I thought I would share one.

Yep, that's corn as far as the eye can see and not a mountain in sight. A stark contrast to the landscape here in North Georgia.

Saturday, we made a speedy trip back home...on a spare tire and made it back late that evening. Then I had to prepare for another trip...this one being a whole lot more fun! My husband and I headed south to Atlanta for a concert--Brad Paisley to be exact! We bought each other tickets for Mother's/Father's Day. We had decent seats but boy did we get a surprise. Right when Brad Paisley hit the stage, a security guard approached us and handed us TWO PIT PASSES!! Free of Charge! They found out my birthday was this week...I wonder how? So we ended up FRONT ROW and it was fantastic! Oh yes...this girl touched Brad Paisley's boot!  Here's a snappy of just how close we got.

And then even more fun..My birthday landed today and I turned 30. Ugh...the decade that was my 20s is now past. But I have to say, I did accomplish a lot. College, marriage, teaching, a new baby, and so many more events have decorated the past ten years, so I can't wait to see what the next ten bring.

And now that you have gotten to hear me ramble a bit, it is time for your Birthday gift! Yep, I'm giving you one too! A larger set than normal, I'm trying to make up for missing last week. This is a set of 10 fun borders for use in your commercial documents, all bright and cheery, and waiting for your cover pages. I hope you like them!

Click on the image above to Snap Them Up!

As always, thank you for following and showing your support both here and in my TPT store. 

Have a great weekend!

Randi

Snap It Up Saturday! Fun Font Freebie!

Hello everyone!
Week Two of summer vacation is here and I am LOVING it! I have gotten so much done here at home that I think I might actually get caught up! I've been cleaning out and decluttering the house, working on some TPT projects, and feeding my newest addiction! FONT-MAKING! You can tell from this week's freebie that I have gone a little overboard.

I love fonts! I just hate having to credit for every single thing, but I still do.. I downloaded an awesome app for my iPad called iFontmaker. It is super easy to use and well worth the couple of bucks that I spent on it. Starting right after breakfast the other day, I went to work! And you'll notice my font titles are all breakfast related. It was the only thing on my mind at the time.  This week's Snap it Up Saturday post is a set of 19 (YES 19) fonts that I created. They are commercial use and only require a linkback to my TPT store.

Click image above for download.

I really hope you like them. There might be one or two in there that you'll be able to use. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Randi

A Perfectly Personalized Planner for TPT Sellers

Well friends...Summer has hit and sometimes I find myself a bit bored..So I work on a TPT product or two, then pop over to Pinterest, and then I jump on Facebook and prowl the posts for a bit. A couple of days ago, I ran across a post that nearly knocked me out of my chair. A brilliant lady, whom I will call MissMathDork had posted a picture of a planner that she had created specifically for those folks who sell materials on TeachersPayTeachers. I'm not usually a materials buyer..I make most of them myself, but I HAD to have this planner. She even customizes them specifically for each buyer.  Well, needless to say, I snapped that baby up in a heartbeat and she went to work. And holy smokes, she is fast! I bought it one night and had it emailed to me the next. Then a quick sendoff to the office supply store and BAM! I had my planner. It is absolutely the best product I have EVER purchased on TPT. I thought I would share some of her fabulous work with you all!

I love, love, love lime green and black together. In a perfect world, my classroom would be those colors, my home office would be those colors, maybe even my car. I sent her my color choices and a graphic that I had whipped up on the computer and she came up with these little pieces  of fabulousity right here! They are the front and back covers for my planner.

LOVE! This planner is also designed to use as a year-long calendar. So right after the cover came all of my wonderful calendar pages. Notice that they are two page spreads--I cannot imagine the amount of formatting that it took for all of this.. Look at all of that room to write! No more desktop cluttering calendar for me!

Next in line comes my most favorite part! The Stats Pages! I am most definitely a number geek and like tracking my TPT sales, graphing the highs and lows, and all that jazz. I love that she included pages for both the weekly stats (for a full year) and the monthly stats as well! I will most definitely be loving these pages!

The rest of the book is just for me to write down my ramblings. There are pages for Notes (staff meetings probably for me), Product ideas, and pages to write down my ideas for bloggy posts like this one. 

As we say here in the south, "Ain't it purty?" I love the colors, the design, and everything about it. The custom download is only $10.00 in her store right now, but I think the regular price may be around $12.99. It is very simple to get your own and the communication between buyer and seller is fantastic! You can print it out yourself, or do like I did and send it off to Office Depot for printing and binding. I did splurge and went full color on the pages, and I had a clear front and back put on for durability, but I do not regret it whatsoever. This planner is awesome!

If you are considering purchase one of those store bought planners to use for tracking and organizing your next year, I would have to tell you to STOP! Don't Do It! Pop over to her store ASAP and order one of these. There's nothing like having something made especially to your own liking. You will not be disappointed! 

Click the image below to visit her store, and get YOURS today!

Make sure you check out her other products as well! Her store is fantastic!

Have a great week!

Randi