BLEACH

Bleach is my Achilles Heel.  Seriously!  I am not allowed to use bleach in my home because it always leads to disaster!  I discovered that every time I used bleach, no matter how little or large the quantity, whatever I was wearing was guaranteed to be ruined!  So now when anything needs to be bleached, another adult in my household takes care of it, and is sure to warn me about the location of said bleach so I can avoid the area.  We have it worked out nicely.  And my clothes never get ruined by bleach anymore!

So imagine my surprise to discover that I had an unexpected run-in with bleach at my school on Friday!  I had no idea bleach was being used somewhere in the building, but wouldn't you know it, the bleach found me!

I like to wear college shirts to school on Fridays. It opens up a world of possibilities to kids who will struggle to finish high school. I want them to be aware that they have many choices in their future!  So I have two college shirts that I wear.  That day I wore my Wheaton College shirt from Wheaton, Illinois, where I received my BA in Elementary Education.  The shirt is navy blue with orange letters. I recall looking it over in the morning and thinking that I should get a new one for the next school year as the colors were fading,  but it was just fine for now!

About 2pm, after returning from the staff restroom and lounge, I looked down to discover the bleach spot!  On my navy blue shirt!

I questioned how on earth I could find bleach at school. Maybe it was like that from home. Nope!  That happened at school!  Bleach found me! It always does! 

So, it's really not a big deal.  I was going to order a new Wheaton College shirt anyway.  But it's just my luck to have clothes ruined by bleach...at school!

CONSTRUCTION

My school is currently under construction.  We are adding two additions in order to accommodate our fantastic new Universal Preschool Program.  Every four-year-old in Fort Worth can attend PreK next year!  Every one!  In the past they had to qualify as limited income, limited English, military children, or Special Needs children. But now, every child can attend!  We are very excited about this, and very excited that our school was chosen to host the UPK (Universal PreK).  

We are adding four new classrooms onto the end of our PreK hall, which will make 6 PreK classrooms total.  Here is the current state of that project:

We also need to expand our cafeteria and kitchen since we are adding close to 100 new students to our campus.

  

Being under construction is noisy and messy!  There's dirt (and often mud!) everywhere!  Thankfully my principal understands this, so as long as we are under construction, we can wear jeans and tennis shoes everyday, with a school or college shirt.  After ruining my favorite pink pants trekking through the mud in the parking lot, I am thankful for the new policy!  I wonder if I can save my unused jeans passes for next year?!

FREE TIME

This has been a very nice weekend!  My kids spent the weekend at Great Wolf Lodge, so I've had lots of time to myself this weekend!  I had really big plans!  I need to finish the review Math Centers that I didn't get to last weekend and during the week, check out my on-line individual tutoring programs and see where everyone is at, and grade, grade, grade!  Well, free time is a rare and special thing, so I did very little teaching work this weekend!

I did grade a few things, but have 2 more sets of papers to grade.  I know it won't take me long, but fun things are calling my name today!  I did check out my student's scores on Think Through Math and Moby Max Math.  Our goal for Think Through Math was to get 30 lessons in by STAAR.  Last year, pretty much everyone met that goal by COMPLETING the lessons.  This year, the goal was changed to 30 PASSED lessons by STAAR.  Well, that's just not going to happen.  I have only a few students who have been able to pass 30 lessons on Think Through Math.  I have many more who have completed 30 lessons, but didn't pass them all.  The program is great for higher level thinking in Math.  However, it's really much too hard for my kiddos this year.  That's why I love Moby Max Math!  Moby tests the students where they are at, and then designs lessons based on their needs.  It can fill in holes from previous grades, and students can even work ahead.  Our class goal was to have most students at level 4.0 in Moby before STAAR.  I have about 1/2 that have reached that goal, and many more that are very, very close (3.9!)!  We still have a week!

As for fun, I went shopping  for non-teaching things!  I went to Half-Price Books and did NOT go in the children's section!  Boy was that strange!  I did buy myself some Historical Fiction books to read (my favorite genre)!  I also enjoyed watching tv!  It's been a relaxing weekend!

 Tomorrow is back to craziness.  It will be a long Monday, with a long staff meeting for STAAR training. At some point this week I really need to read the STAAR testing manual. It's been sitting by my desk at home so I would remember to read it, but I'd much rather read Historical Fiction.  I'll make time this week though!

STRESS? NOT AS MUCH NOW!

So right now my life is pretty much all about the STAAR test!  I think about it all the time, and even dream about it!  You can say that with 8 more instructional days until STAAR, my stress level is through the roof!  We have new, much more rigorous TEKS this year, we are still teaching new material while trying to fit in STAAR practice and review, and I'm worried about a LOT of my students who are struggling with the pace we have to keep up right now.  I went to school this morning with a prayer in my heart that today I would not let my students see what a big ball of stress that I am.  I would be a good teacher today.  I would introduce Perimeter, and still have time for STAAR Math practice.  Thankfully, I think today went pretty well!

And then I heard the news.  Big, Big News!  TEA announced today that this year's Math STAAR for 3rd-8th grades will NOT count for a school's accountability rating!  That rating is a big deal!  Check out the good news at: http://tea.texas.gov/About_TEA/News_and_Multimedia/Press_Releases/2015/STAAR_grades_3-8_math_assessments_to_be_excluded_from_2015_state_accountability_system/

So, with great relief, I can breathe easier!  Of course I'll still do my best to teach my students what they need to know, but I don't have to worry about the big picture anymore!  My school won't be "on the bad list" if I can't pull off a miracle in 8 days, and I won't lose my job.  (Yes, that's what goes through a testing teacher's mind- the stakes are high, too high.)   Knowing myself, I'm sure I'll still have some stress over the STAAR, but definitely not as much now!  Whew!

On a different note:  I love teaching Perimeter! I have big plans for tomorrow with Perimeter Pig!  Last year I found some awesome units on teaching perimeter that were actually fun!  I'm not sure we will have time to do the Perimeter Craft project just yet, as we still have new concepts to learn before STAAR.  But if we can't fit it in before STAAR, we will definitely do it afterwards!   The students will create their own 3D pig pen, and figure out the perimeter.  Last year's class LOVED this project!

SHOPPING FUN

I visited Mardel, my favorite educational store, this weekend.  I had a gift card saved from Christmas so I went to find some Easter goodies for my kids, and also get some laminating done cheaply.  My husband doesn't quite understand why I couldn't wait until Monday to laminate.  Aside from the time it takes to laminate at school, last I looked at our school laminator, it was taken apart and with my luck wouldn't be working on Monday.  So, since I was going to Mardel anyway, why not laminate!  And yes, I have a small laminator at home for teaching emergencies, but I was going to Mardel anyway!  Anyway, I got 8 feet of laminating done for my new centers (see previous post) for just $2.40!  Well, technically it was free since I used my gift card!  Yes!

While I was there, I happened to see the clearance aisle.  The laminator is in the back of the store.  I'm sure that's on purpose because they put a lot of great items on the end caps that catch your eye as you walk to the back.  I found a lot of great deals!  67%, 80%, and 90% off!!  Very nice!!!  But then I saw this:

I have been searching for a Math STAAR practice book unsuccessfully for many months.  This was on an end cap on my way to the laminator.  Of course I had to stop and check it out!  I did buy some teacher-made quizzes on TPT yesterday that I will use this week, but this was really what I was looking for.  It has mini-lessons AND practice tests.  But, I am too cheap thrifty.  I didn't want to spend $25 on a book, even for STAAR practice!  Thankfully I'm on Mardel's email list and had a 25% off coupon. And then when I realized that I still had enough money on my gift card, I went for it!  So, technically it was free!!

Since it is spring, I decided it was time for a new teacher bag!  I love pink!  I sell Thirty-One Gifts as a hobby.  Ok, so I really do it for the free bags and discounts!  This is the best teacher bag!  It has a lot of pockets, a zippered top, and can be personalized!  The Zip-Top Organizing Utility Tote comes in 19 colors and patterns.  It's $35 and will last a long time!  If you're looking for a great teaching bag, check out my website at: www.mythirtyone.com/392407. Thirty-One has great lunch bags too!  :)  Ok, shameless plug over.  But I really was excited to change out my teaching bag for spring!  Usually I use the same bag for the entire year, or multiple years, but I decided to switch them out (selling Thirty-One means I have a lot of bags!).  I will use my other one for other things, or can use it again next year.  

I am ready for the week to come!  It's going to be busy, busy!  Have a great week!

11 DAYS TO STAAR

It's that time of year again, when testing grade teachers are counting down instructional days to the STAAR test.  Spending long days at school cramming every little bit of knowledge we can into the minds of the students who are expected to take a very long state test.  I have 11 more instructional days until STAAR.  After a full day of teaching, I come home every night and look over what we did that day, who needs remediation on certain concepts, see if I can add anything else to tomorrow's plans, the week's plans, etc....
     The weekend is no different!  It's Friday night and it's all about the STAAR!  I have found some great resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, so I am printing and prepping away!  I am planning a trip to Mardel tomorrow (Easter Bunny needs to pick up a few things!), and since they have a laminator, tonight's work is making some new centers!  We've been bogged down with regular school work and practice tests, there hasn't been any time for centers!  Last year I used some wonderful STAAR review task card sets with QR codes and my students LOVED that!  This year's group of students are unable to handle the QR code fun independently, so I needed something else!

I found this great 3rd Grade Math Review Station activity set on Teachers Pay Teachers!  It has 10 stations that are a perfect review for my students!  

*Place Value (Picture, Word, Expanded Notation, Ordering)

*Rounding (Rounding Mat Included!)

*Patterns in Tables (with Multiplication)

*Geometry (2D, 3D)

*Measurement (Perimeter)

*Time to the Quarter Hour

*Fractions

*Bar and Pictographs

*Number Lines

*Money (Counting Coins, Representing Amounts)

*Basic Operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)

My goal for tonight is to get 4 stations ready to laminate tomorrow, and the rest I can prep tomorrow afternoon and laminate on Monday at school.  I have a lot of Easter Fun planned for Sunday, so I must work tonight and tomorrow afternoon.  Such is the life of a teacher!  :)

I also found some practice STAAR tests.  While they are sold separately, I bought the multi-pack so make sure I have enough practice.  I'm not sure if I need them all, but better to have more than less!

Always so fun this time of year!  (cough, cough!)  On a good note, I found out that I will not have to change the name of my blog next year!  I will remain a Third Grade Teacher!  Yay!  I will have to move classrooms, for the 4th time in 5 years!  And I will have to attend more training to be part of the Dual Language Program.  I will teach 3 classes of 3rd grade Math, and 2 classes of English Writing, as part of a triad!  My students will receive part of their instruction in English, and part of their instruction in Spanish from 2 other teachers.  Should be an interesting year!