My first freebie!!!

I don't know about you... but I HATE grading homework. I know, don't judge me. There's just something overwhelming and annoying about it. And then... how do you handle the families who give no help - wether they have time or not. I do feel, however, that it's important for something to go home that is informative. We can't possibly grade every problem.

With that being said, I'm so excited to say that, thanks to my teaching partner, I have my first freebie! My partner works at the end of the week, thus the job of checking gobs of homework falls on her. We shared the Friday last year and now it's hers to have and to hold. :) She had the idea to create a check sheet to make checking homework incredibly easy for her, yet really informative and impressive looking for the parents. I've also got the Spanish version coming... so check back again next week.

SCORE!

Think of it as a progress report for homework. It's nothing fancy... but I know that I love a good, useable freebie so I though I'd share. A lot of other stuff I've made has clip art. Since I haven't had time to figure out what I can and cant use, I don't want to post it online. Dang intellectual property!

Anyway, here it is. Please spread the word for me if you have a blog of your own.

Back to School Night

So, tomorrow is back to school night and I've mentally prepared a ton of great info for my families. Then I had a girl tell me today that her mom doesn't want to come because she doesn't like going to "those things". Seriously?!? Does anyone know how much time, effort, and selfish thoughts of THEIR child I have spent preparing for this? Ok, I know I seem irritated, I promise I'm not bitter. Especially when the majority of my class shows up with parental representation each year. That's a smiley for my scoreboard for sure, a drop in the bucket. I will admit, I have members of my own family who say, "I went last year, it's the same old thing." UGH!! I really think that the kids bugging their parents to death really helps my situation out just a tad. I mean, you know you've finally given in and bought your kid something just to shut them up, err... make them happy.

Anyone have any great ideas for helping your families really be engaged and get the most out of it? Or am I the only one with this problem?

So much to say!

WOW! The first couple weeks of school are busy! I think I forgot. Short-term memory loss, I guess. No seriously, this is the absolute busiest I've been at the beginning of the school year in my 5 years...AND I'm job sharing! I actually think that may contribute to my craziness because I have to cram pretty much a full week of work into three days. I'm taking a lot of work home, happily, so that I can find a balance between teacher and mommy. :)

Another reason I'm so busy is because we are implementing a TON of new things this year. Blogland is sure to kill my teaching partner! I've spent the entire summer researching, reading, and stalking some amazing blogs. It's landed me in "I've got to try this" mode. But honeslty, after 4 years of doing pretty much the same thing, I'm ready for a change. A lot of it is going well, some would be better next time with some tweaking, and some I won't do again....

Before I get all wordy and long-winded...

WE GOT OUR TEACHING EASEL/STORAGE CART TODAY!!!

I am so amazed by the generosity of our friends, family, and Lakeshore Learning! In July, I wrote a project proposal for the teacher grant website, DonorsChoose.com. Lakeshore offered to give us a 50% match on the project that also included this classroom rug.  We had the funding in no time and even were able to give back by donating some of our funds to Donors Choose. If you've used Donors Choose, you know how excited I am... and if you haven't go there now! The coolest part is, my husband came to my school this afternoon and stayed with me until 6:00 p.m. to put it together for me! SWEET! 

Ok, so back to work...

Here's what we have or plan to implement that's new this year:

• Daily 5
• Word Study, inspired by Beth Newingham
• Bucket Filling
• Whole Brain
• Morning Meeting

I'd love to know your thoughts on any of these awesome ideas! I plan on devoting a post to each of them in the coming weeks... but until then, please share! :)

Sons of Anarchy is on... so more to come soon!