I'm back! Currently and TpT!!!

Whew! It's been way too long since I've been on here.  I was obsessed for quite a while and then it seems like I just dropped off the face of the earth! I desperately need to do some catching up on some of my favorite blogs!

I think that the real reason I have not blogged much lately has been that I have had a really rough year so far.  My class is really tough and I have been working my little tail off to try to make things better!  What was wonderful was that my last two days before Thanksgiving Break were heavenly!  And because my students were so great we did some fun activities, made videos about the French and Indian war on Educreations, played Scoot, Bingo and had lots of iPad free time!  I'm trying to convince them that when they do what I ask I will reward them with fun activities!

This has been an incredible week.  Like I already said, my students were wonderful and Thanksgiving was great as well!  Spent a lot of quality time with my daughter and all of my other family members.  Got some things done around the house, got some Christmas shopping done and even took Olivia's Christmas pics today!  They are beautiful!

I am linking up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for the December Currently! 

Oh, and please go check out my first "for sale" item on TpT!  It is a Decimal Multiplication Scoot that is super cute and only $1.00!  I am wanting to make more products in the future to put on there.  I'm excited!

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Five for...Sunday!

Yet again, another super busy weekend! I am just now getting around to Doodle Bugs Five for Friday Linky!

1.  For one of my centers this past week I had my students come up with a word problem including decimals and make an Educreations video of it.  It's a great app that you can create slideshows and videos on!  They had to first come up with the setting, characters, and action to take place.  Then they wrote the word problem.  They had to find pictures on the internet to illustrate their video.  Finally they put it together and then created it!  The videos were awesome!  Here is a pic of some of my girls narrating their videos!

2.  I already wrote a blog about my new favorite app, Class Dojo, but I figured I would share it again!  Class Dojo is a classroom behavior management app in which you can give and take away points for good or bad behavior.  It is the best thing that has happened to me all year! If you haven't checked it out yet, go do it right now!

3.  43 days until Christmas! AHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!  I love everything about Christmas!  Can't wait!

4.  Today my mother, sister, husband and I took my daughter to the Pumpkin Patch for the first time!  We had a blast!  She, on the other hand, didn't exactly enjoy the super expensive pony ride or the carousel.  We got some funny pictures of it though, so the tears were worth it!  Here are a few good ones!

5.  Last but not least, it's a THREE DAY WEEK!  I am super excited about having two days off to lounge around with my baby girl and have some fun!  YAY FALL BREAK!

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Jamie

Class Dojo!

Man.  It's been a rough couple of weeks.  I normally don't have a big problem with behavior management in my classroom but this year nothing seems to work.  I have been really upset lately and have been trying to think of a new behavior management strategy to use with my class.  Then I found out about this amazing app called Class Dojo!

Oh my goodness! I love me some Class Dojo!

It is a behavior management system in which you can give and take away points based on behavior.  The sign up is super easy; just the standard information.  You put each student into the app/website (whichever you use) and you can immediately start giving them points!

Here is what the layout looks like...

Students can choose their own avatars by logging on using their student code, which is given to you after you put all of your students in.  They can also check their behavior when they get home each day.

What is even cooler is that parents can log on using their parent code (which is on the same sheet as the student code) and track their child's behavior any time they want to! Parents also receive a weekly email each Friday that summarizes their child's behavior for the week.

Here are some of the super cute little avatars!

This app is highly customizable.  It comes with positive and negative behaviors built into it but you can create your own as well!  One big problem I have in my class is students getting out of their seats, so I added a negative behavior for that.  Anytime a student got up out of their seat when they weren't supposed to I simply clicked their name, clicked add a behavior and chose that one!  

All in all, I love this app.  I plan on creating a rewards program to go along with it.  Basically, each reward will have a QR code.  When students accumulate 50 positive points they will choose a QR code to scan with the QR scanner app on their iPad.  Their reward will be whatever they scanned.  Such as no shoes for a day, sit in the teachers chair for the day, eat lunch with the teacher, iPad free time, extra computer time, king sized candy bar, soda at lunch, etc.  Nothing that costs much money and nothing that I have to keep track of!

I am really excited to get the reward system up and running!  Can't wait!

Do you use Class Dojo?

Let me know in a comment!

If not, check it out HERE!

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Jamie

October Currently!

It's been way too long! I have been super busy and just plain ol' tired lately.  But I'm excited to link up to Farley's Currently Linky to share my October Currently!

Listening:  Olivia likes to mumble to her 'Lovey' before bedtime.  It's adorable.

Loving:  I needed a day off with my girl.  I needed to remember what summer was like when I got to spend every single day with her.  Today we played, laughed, napped, watched tv and had a blast!  It made my heart happy.

Thinking:  I am obsessed with tv.  Once I finish a show I immediately begin another.  Today I finished 'Flash Forward', an ABC show that only lasted one season and started 'Prison Break'.  We will see if I like it!  Everyone needs their vice, and worthless tv shows are mine!

Wanting:  I want to go shopping for some new fall/winter clothes!  Fall is my favorite season and I cardigans are one of my favorite things in the world!  I always need more!  Kohls, here I come!

Needing:  I need a get-a-way!  Just a small weekend vacation somewhere!  Desperately!

Trick or Treat:  A special treat to use in the classroom, Remind 101!  Check it out if you haven't!  It's awesome!

Like, Comment, Enjoy and don't forget the rule of 3!

Jamie
Life As I Know It

Five for Friday Linky!

T.G.I.F!!!!

My five random things from this week...

1.  My newest obsession:  Sabra Roasted Pine Nut Hummus and Doritos!  The mixture is perfect! I've seriously been munching on it allllll day!  Nom Nom!

2.  I tried the game called 'Scoot' to review mental math today!  One of my co-workers found it on TpT and showed it to me so I created my own.  My kids loved it!  I personally thought it took a long time (because I have so many students) but they didn't seem to mind at all!  They really loved checking their answers and seeing how many they got right!  Great review game!

3.  I have the cutest daughter in the entire world!  The other morning my husband asked me to fix her 'bed hair' so I threw it up into a little ponytail and put a big bow in it!  Come on...how adorable is this picture????!!!

4.  Today I taught a lesson on creating vivid imagery using synonyms.  My students loved taking words from passages and transforming the "voice" using what we call 'fifth grade words'!  It was a huge success!  I even had them write their own short passage with words that second graders could read and understand.  Then I asked them to give their passage to another group and have them re-write it using synonyms so that it sounded like a fifth grader would want to read it.  LOVED IT!

5.  This week we began using our Science Weekly!  My students really enjoyed it.  There is almost zero time in our curriculum for Science so they jumped for joy (literally) when I passed out these newspapers!  I had some really good pictures of my students working with them but for some reason they won't upload!  Check out the newspaper HERE!  Have you used it?  If so, let me know what you think!

Post your Five for Friday and link back up to Doodle Bugs here!

Thanks for reading!

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Pick up the shovel and fill them.

Never in my schooling do I remember being a part of a 'small group'.  I don't remember 'intervention' or 'remediation' time during the day.

I don't remember being one-on-one with any teacher, ever in my entire schooling.  I am SO glad that things have changed.

Let's be honest.  Teaching (effectively) with 27 students in my room is difficult.  About 68 times during each lesson I have to remind my students to stay on task, to stop getting distracted, to put something away, to stop throwing paper at each other, to stop talking to their neighbor, etc.  My small group time is a life saver.

If it weren't for small groups I really wouldn't have a clue what most of my students actually know.  Being consistent about meeting with each of my students on a regular basis to just go over the basics of what they've been learning has been so great to me and my success as a teacher.  I don't form actual 'remediation' groups.  I figure out which students don't "get it" as I am teaching the lesson and they end up at my table that afternoon.

I love the quote in the picture.  It reminds me why small groups and meeting one-on-one is so important.  Sometimes my students just need that extra "umph" to get over the hump and have that 'ah-ha' moment we as teachers strive to see.  Some understand a concept immediately and some take weeks to finally master it.  Some even longer than that.

As teachers, we must remember that every student is different.  Therefore, how we teach must reflect that.  We must figure out multiple ways to explain one concept.  We must cater to all the different learning styles in our classroom.  We must sometimes allow students to fail so that we truly know where to find the 'holes' in their learning and figure out how to help them.

As I completed my Response to Intervention testing and papers this week I realized I have so many students with many unique needs.  I still have students who are on the phonics continuum.  I have students who can't do simple division.  I have students who have no number sense.  As a fifth grade teacher, this is just slightly frustrating.

It is my job to find these holes in their educational file cabinet and fill them.  Not every student learns at the same time, or in the same way.  As much as we wish they did, they simply don't.

It is time to take responsibility for these student's 'holes', pick up the shovel and fill them.

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Leave me a comment and let me know what you think! :-)

Positive Points Monday!

Happy Monday!  

Tonight I am linking up with Sarah at Permanently Primary for her 

Positive Points Monday Linky!

My positive points from today...

1.  My students have been working on writing a personal narrative from the point of view of either a mother, father, child, or single adult in one of the early colonies that settled in North America.  They have loved learning the stories of these people and how they lived their day to day lives!  When it was time to begin writing they did awesome.  They planned out their essay on one of my favorite apps called 'Popplet'!  It is an app that you can create a brainstorm map/idea web!  Love it!  Here is a pic of one of my students working on it today.

2.  Today I started off our morning by doing "Good Things".  I gave each student a post-it note that they could write one good thing that happened to them over the weekend.  They shared their good things and we put the post-its on my door.  It is one of the relationship building tools I want to continue to use through out the year.  Totally forgot to snap a picture, though! Blarg!


3.  I created my first (not super awesome, but it's a start) product for TpT!  It is a free download of a decimal BINGO I created.  I created it with 6 different color game boards and number squares with tenths, hundredths and thousandths.  If you want to check it out, click HERE!  I got the graphics from http://frompond.blogspot.com as one of her freebies!  Please remember that it is my very first product ever!  Like my page so I will be encouraged to create more products! I really enjoyed doing it.

4.  Last night as I was Pinteresting before bed I ran across this incredible article written by Dr. Fred Jones on EducationWorld called Rules, Routines and Standards in Elementary and Secondary Grades.  I was inspired to try out one of his ideas with my class.  My class still hasn't gotten down how to line up quietly and walk down the hall in silence.  The first time this morning that I had my students line up they were talking as usual and I nicely asked them to sit back down.  When they were all seated I asked them to line up another time.  Again, they were talking so I asked them to sit back down.  We did this 4 times and eventually they realized they HAD to be quiet before we could go anywhere.  I continued to do this the rest of the day anytime we had to line up and by the end of the day it was really working.  Not completely, but we had made huge strides from this morning.  I love this idea and plan on using it every day.  Check it out!

5.  DINNER!  I promised that I would start posting more recipes in the future so tonight I decided
to make a new dish and post about it!  It is called Easy Weeknight Creamy Chicken Alfredo and I found the recipe on a can of Progresso Recipe Starters! LOL!  It was very easy to make, but definitely seemed like it took more than the estimated amount of time (30 mins).  My husband, daughter and I loved it!  Click on the link and try it out for yourself!  Rich, creamy and simply delicious!

I hope that you guys had a great Monday!  

Leave me a comment! :-)