Meet the Teacher Free Goodies

I can't believe Meet the Teacher is next week!

I am transferring schools this year, and due to our districts outsourced and incredibly slow cleaning service, I have not even seen my new classroom yet. I'm kind of freaking out about that since pre-planning starts next Tues. and Meet the Teacher is next Fri.!

Since I cannot work on my room yet, I have been scouring the internet for ideas. I found a link to Erica's cute water tags for Meet the Teacher on her blog and loved them! Even though her tags are free, I really wanted them to match my colors, so I created my own version. You can download my bright color version HERE or you can check out Erica's version HERE.

The school I am transferring to has a school wide theme every year. This school year the theme is superheros. I have not done anything with superheros before, so again, I began searching the net. I saw this cute idea for Superhero Valentine's Lollipops and knew I wanted to create some for Meet the Teacher! You can download my bright capes/masks and tags HERE.

I have not put the finished products together yet, but I will be sure to share pictures when I have!

Parent Communication - Too Many Choices!

As I'm trying to plan my parent communication for the year, I have discovered some great tools. In fact, I have discovered too many great tools!

The past two years I have relied mostly on paper based communication. Yes, parents could e-mail me, check grades online, and I had a class website (that was neglected last year), but I was not as diligent in involving parents in the class as I should have been.

This year I want parents to be informed about all aspects of the class and the best way to do that is through technology. Plus, it saves on printing and papers to keep track of and it's faster. However, I don't want parents to have to sign-up for a bunch of sites/apps. Unfortunately, to cover all my bases, it looks like I will be asking parents to join three sites.

Here are the sites I have looked into:

ClassDojo is great! It provides a student behavior tracker with parent communication. They have added some great features since the site first started that allow teachers to message parents and see if parents have read the message. I love the fun and colorful graphics, too!

ClassMessenger is a site I just learned about this year, and I am very excited about it! It not only allows you to message parents, it also allows you to send out surveys and sign-up forms! Everything is private, so only the teacher can see responses. And the best part is they have released some awesome new features such as a donations section and the ability to schedule a group meeting. My favorite part is the newest addition coming out on the 21st - the ability to schedule parent conferences! It will allow the teacher to set available dates and times that parents can sign-up for, and once the slot is filled, it is blocked out. Students can also join ClassMessenger, but I think that would work better for a middle or high school level.

My district uses Edmodo and I really like using it with students in class. Edmodo allows parents to see what their child is working on in Edmodo. I think this is a nice feature, but it would only be beneficial if Edmodo is used regularly. I'm more of a once in a while user.

I just discovered Livingtree through a colleague, and at first I was really excited by what I saw. This site has many of the same abilities as ClassMessenger, plus it allows students to post to the community. In a way, it acts like a combination of ClassMessenger, Edmodo, and Seesaw. Unfortunately, it looks like all parents can see all student posts. For privacy reasons, I am not comfortable with that.

Remind (101) feels like the granddaddy of parent communication through texts, and it's still a great tool. I tried to use it my first year of teaching, but only two parents signed up. Remind has been updated, but it just doesn't do as much as the other options available. I think Remind is better for middle or high school parents.

Seesaw is a great way to share student work with parents. I don't like to do a lot of worksheets, and many times parents never see what their students have created digitally. Seesaw allows students to upload  videos or pictures of their work for parents to see. Parents can even leave comments. It's like a digital portfolio, and parents can only see their child's work.


I REALLY wish there was a site with all the features of ClassMessenger, Seesaw, and ClassDojo combined! Right now it looks like I will be using those three sites/apps.

If you haven't looked in to any of these options, please click on the link and investigate! I did not give enough information to do them justice!

If you know of any other parent communication options, please share them!

Assess Me! Week 2

It's time for week 2 of The Tattooed Teacher's Assess Me Linky! This week's theme is This or That.

I don't own a single pair of jeans. // My ears aren't pierced, so while I don't wear jewelry, I had to go with a necklace since I could at least wear it. // I despise anything with the word pimp. // I cannot choose between the city or country. // I chose lightning because thunder scares my dog. // Airplane, simply because it can take me more places and I like flying. // No t.v. = neither show. // I usually prefer to be inside, but I also enjoy being outside if I'm going somewhere interesting.

Assess Me! A Get to Know You Linky!

I am linking up with The Tattooed Teacher for a fun (and my first) linky! 

1. Yes, I admit it, I talk to myself.
2. Nope.
3. I don't just crack my knuckles - I crack my neck, shoulders, knees, ankles, and toes. Half the time I'm not trying to crack them, it just happens.
4. I ate less than 2 hours ago, so I'm still full.
5. So this next sentence always makes my kids gasp with shock. I don't have a t.v.
6. I still have them, and they still annoy me.
7. I'm teaching summer school, so I showered at 5:30 this morning. Ugh.
8. I have been to all 4 Disney World parks. This is going to show my age, but once upon a time Florida residents could get a 4-day, 4-parkhopper pass for $99. I really miss those days!
9. I can't even see the big E on the chart without them...
10. Still live in the same city, too.

Changes...

It's amazing how quickly your situation can change in the teaching profession! Just last weekend I thought I would have a 2/3 combo class. Last Monday afternoon I was told I would just have 2nd grade. When I got home Monday night I had a message requesting an interview for a position I applied for last month. The interview went well, and today I received confirmation that the paperwork for my transfer has been filed!

I am sad to say goodbye to my colleagues at my old school. I will really miss many of them, especially the 4th grade team.

But I am SUPER excited about my new position! I will be back in 4th grade next year, which thrills me! I will also have a shorter day again (my previous school went from 8 to 3:20), which means I'll have more time for planning/prep work and PDs. I will miss the extra money, but keeping my sanity will make up for it.

Bonus - one of the really exciting aspects of my new school is that it has a robotics club! Yes, that's right, an elementary school robotics club! I don't know about other districts/states, but that is really rare around here. My science and math loving self can't wait to offer to help with the robotics club!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Third Year

I cannot believe that I will be starting my third year of teaching in less than a month now!

The past two years I taught 4th grade gifted and loved it! This year I will be teaching 2nd/3rd gifted. To be honest, I wish I still had 4th or looped up to 5th. I love the upper grades!

With that said, I am determined that this coming year will be amazing! I have learned so much the last two years and feel like I will be a much better teacher this year.

I'm still not ready for summer to end, but I am starting to get the Back to School excitement bug!