Product Review: Easy Canvas Prints

I had a blond moment! I just realized one of my posts didn't get submitted and was saved as a draft last week. Better late than never! :) 

I was contacted by Easy Canvas Prints and they were interested in having me do a product review for their canvas prints. They gave me a free 8 x 10 canvas which I have included pictures of below. 

Obviously, I was very excited to do this because I was already really excited to incorporate more artwork to brighten up the room. One thing that is really important to me is to include pictures of my family because the kids really seem to like it and it is a great way to share with them a little about myself. It has also sparked a lot of conversation with the kids and so I have even been able to get to know them better! I have found that if I take the time to get to know my kids then they tend to work harder in class and I have less classroom problems. It makes the whole classroom environment a lot more fun and relaxing overall for everyone.

I decided to get a copy of one of our wedding pictures put on the canvas. It was so easy to do! I just had to upload the picture and realized I can even upload right from facebook (it doesn't get any easier than that folks!) to their website: http://www.easycanvasprints.com/  It was a really quick process and so easy to do! Within minutes I had submitted my order and was excited to wait and see how it turned out.

Here are a few photos of my delivery:

Izzy sees a box and she has to sit on it.

And when she sees the camera it is time to pose!

Packaging inside to prevent sliding around of the canvas.

It was a little difficult to photograph because of the lighting and my camera flash not wanting to cooperate.

Side of the canvas is wrapped beautifully!

I was really happy with the quality of the print! The canvas seemed to be of really high quality and the image seemed to transfer well to the canvas for the most par. I did notice that there were some issues with the picture being somewhat blurry on the canvas, however it was only minor blurring and it was probably due to the size and quality of the picture I submitted from facebook (i.e. low resolution). I would suggest to you if you have a canvas made make sure to use a higher resolution picture so ensure the best quality! 

Overall, I am really happy with the canvas and I think it will be a great addition to my classroom to share with my students and to personalize my desk area! 

Ps. Another great thing about the company is the frequent deals they are offering on their canvas products! I have received several e-mail offers for 40% or 50% and even 60% off canvases!

Laura Robb

Hi there! Do you remember me?

I'm sorry for being such a bad blogger this week. I have really jumped back in to school mode 100%. Students are coming on Wednesday and I am pulling my hair out tweaking my units and thinking about some ideas for this coming year.

My mom jokes that I just need to have a baby so I will settle down because right now, teaching is my life. I'm not going to lie, I'm sure I will not spend hours thinking about lesson plans whenever the hubs and I do have kids, but I love teaching and I love coming up (and finding) new ideas to share with my kids. It keeps class interesting and fun for both them and me.

So yesterday I enjoyed staying at home and not going anywhere for my last official day of summer. However, I spent the day doing some research and pouring over my Laura Robb binder. I finally feel ready to really implement the ideas she teaches in her own classroom. I love that everything she practices has all been backed up by research and she shares all of that with you.

Here is why I love her teaching methods:

I LOVE that you are meeting the kids on their instructional level! Research shows that you can teach the grade level standards but by having the kids apply it to a book on their level they will continue to grow and make progress. If I teach them the grade level standards and they are reading a book that is too hard for them (above their instructional level) then research shows they will move backward (aka not make progress). 

 I can't decide if I want to start small and have only 6-7 books with 3/4 kids each reading the same book so that I can talk to them more about their book and so that they can talk to one another OR if I completely want to jump in head first and let each kid read their own book. I'm thinking groups of 3/4 right now so that the kids can discuss the books with one another too! 

Where do I get the books? Oh, this is actually an easy question. I'm looking into the books my school library already has. I'm also looking at the local public library and pulling books off their shelves. These books are going to stay in my classroom, not go home. If they want to take the book home they will have to check the book out themselves. 

I am still toying with this idea so hopefully I will be able to figure out the logistics by tomorrow. I think I have them roughly done and am just now into the research process of the specific books for groups. :)

So why haven't I done this in the past:

• My first year teaching I was just so overwhelmed with learning the standards and teaching 6th grade. I thought I was going to be teaching high school (which is where I student taught) so the standards were new to me.
• My second year teaching Kentucky unrolled the common core standards! Woo hoo!
• My third year teaching I switched grade levels. Time to get used to some different standards!
• Last year I switched schools and went back to 6th grade. I didn't want to flip the boat until I got a handle on what was usually taught.

This year, I feel ready! I'm ready to tackle things a little differently. I feel really good about my knowledge of the standards and how I'm going to teach them to my students. I am also really excited about implementing these strategies!

Wish me luck as I tackle this new territory!

Getting Ready to Head Back to School!

I can't believe summer is almost over. Please no, not yet!

This week has been a whirlwind and I am sorry for not updating more. I have been so busy working at school and attending PD's time just got away from me. 

I also had to get back to school ready:

 Love my hair, don't you? HA! This had to happen yesterday after my morning collaborating with my colleagues on our first unit of the year. I had it done last in MAY! It was wayyy overdue! :) I have the best hairdresser in the world! Love him!

Have you all found any great back-to-school deals?

I have been on the hunt for some more scissors for my ISN supply buckets and I need some more marker packs. I saw that Tarjay had markers for $0.75 but they were the really skinny ones. I was also being cheap and thought that if I hold out a little longer I might be able to really steal a snag! After all, I want every kid to have their own so that means 30 of them. 

Comprehension Strategies

I have been so busy this week! Monday was the last Language Arts department professional development day. We spent a lot of time looking at one another's rubrics for assignments and giving one another advice on changes to make. We also spent some time as a department looking at the content vocabulary that we taught to make sure that we were teaching the same definitions to avoid confusion in the kids across grade levels. 

This morning was rather uneventful. I woke up with a headache so I spent a lot of this morning lying around. Blah! After lunch I even went back upstairs and got in bed for awhile to try to sleep some of it off.

This evening we had our back to school night. Every year my school has a night for parents and students before school starts. Sixth grade actually meets all of the incoming students in their classrooms and goes through a PowerPoint of what to expect in middle school and what the first few days will be like. This helps ease a lot of the transition and first day jitters for those incoming "babies."

The team leaders in 7th and 8th grade also met with the new students to our school and went through their own PowerPoint. At 7pm everyone is moved outside for the back to school bash. We have giant inflatables that the kids enjoy jumping on and sliding down. Every team has a tent set-up to meet with parents. We just check off who stopped by, sell team t-shirts, let them know about supply lists for the year and fundraising events. The kids also get a ticket for a free hot dog or hamburger, chips and a drink. It is great to see the kids and meet the parents in such an informal setting. We also have a DJ that plays music, cotton candy being sold, cheerleaders selling magnets with the school logo, dance team students doing face paint, etc. It is a huge event and a lot of former students even come back to say hello! The whole bash is held out back from 7-9pm.

So I just got home from this and am busy reading up on some mentor texts. I have been pouring over the book Strategies That Work by Harvey & Goudvis looking at ways to help teach comprehension to some of my kids that really struggle with reading. I read through the book my first year teaching, but to be honest I was so overwhelmed with being a first year teacher and going through KTIP (this is a program they do in Kentucky for first year teachers) that I didn't have enough time to really implement the strategies. 

The book was given to me by the reading specialist who was phenomenal! A newer book had just come out and so she passed down this book to me. Now that I am reading it I am also interested in seeing what changes were made to the newer book.

What are some of your favorite books that you have read to help you teach your students?

Teacher Getting A Lesson

I absolutely love my husband! With a little persuasion I have managed to talk him into creating a history lesson for moi!

A little background information about Sam. Yes, he does have a name other than "hubs!" Ha! I met him back in undergrad at UK. It was our senior year and we were introduced by his sister and my mom who worked together. It was a total set-up. I had no idea that he was going to be there and he said he didn't have a clue either. I thought I was meeting with my mom and a friend for dinner and to go over some information about joining the local Junior League. I also had to babysit right after dinner. So I met mom and her friend at the restaurant and we were chatting and eating an appetizer when Sam walks in with his sister to join us. I had no idea and was so mad that my mom had done this! At the time I had a boyfriend I was seeing that my mom was not really a fan of, so you can understand my surprise and shock at what I was living in that moment. I just remember being really frazzled. He sat diagonal from me and was pretty quiet, until...my mom mentioned that one of my classes was always getting cancelled and she mentioned, jokingly, that she couldn't believe it was cancelled all the time and wondered if it was true.

I remember that very moment as he stopped eating and met my eyes dead on and said, "What's the class?" I told him it was this silly history class all about the Roman Empire. The professor was constantly cancelling after we had already arrived to class. That is when he said he was in the SAME class!

Folks, it was a class of like 25 people because it was a 500+ level class. I have a history minor and he was a history major. He sat in the back of the classroom and I sat in the middle (literally just two tables ahead of him).

That was it for us! We chatted a lot about the class and the frustration with the professor (who continued to cancel classes AFTER I had already arrived to class an was at my desk--thanks TA's for putting a sign on the door AFTER we were all seated and not telling anyone in the room). He said he told his sister he was going to marry me one day that same evening on the phone. He said he vividly remembers it and she thought he was crazy.

The next day when I showed up for class he was waiting for me sitting outside of the classroom on the couch. I knew he was waiting for me (girl intuition and all) but also had a boyfriend and didn't want to even go there. I think I knew he was something special then. I just recall him standing up when he saw me and I gave a wave and went in the classroom to my normal seat next to another boy. The whole time I was chatting with my other friends (who were pretty much all guys) I felt eyes on my back and could see him in my peripheral vision.

You'll never believe what the professor did that fateful day...yep, class was cancelled! As I walked out of the classroom AFTER he had already left he caught me in the hallway. I continued to make my way out of the building as he continued to talk to me. He asked for my number and I gave it to him while also mentioning I had a boyfriend. Apparently that didn't deter him as much as I thought it might.

He called two days later (he said it was a good thing to wait because he didn't want me to think he was too stalkerish) and asked me out for coffee. The funniest thing about this is that I don't drink coffee. Well, I do, I drink the cold "fake" coffee drinks like frappachinos, etc. but this was a local coffee shop, they didn't have any of that. So we both got a coke and talked a lot.

The rest is history! I broke up with my boyfriend a week after I met Sam. We dated for 9 months and then were engaged. We were married in 2009.

It is a pretty crazy story to tell. I had always heard of the whole love at first sight, but never really experienced it. I knew when I met him he was something special. He says he knew that night I was going to be his wife.

Okay, enough of my sappy story. The reasoning I was telling you all this is because my history major husband (who went to law school and is an attorney now) is OBSESSED with the Roman Empire. That was his specialty in college. He doesn't even read "fun books" y'all! All he reads are history books, most of them about this time period. He loves it!

I did manage to persuade him to read The Hunger Games last year. It took a lot of persuading but he relented and really enjoyed all three of them.

One of the units that my 7th grade colleagues taught last year was Hunger Games. They taught the novel and looked at how history was altered. When I met with them this past week they mentioned wanting to go into some more of the Roman Empire with the kids so that they could really see the allusions that the book draws from and make those connections. So little 'ol me mentioned that hubs loves this stuff and I could see if he might be able to help. Needless to say, we were all really excited.

So Sam has agreed to create a historical PowerPoint for me to draw comparisons between Hunger Games and the Roman Empire. Because he has also read the book he started getting really excited and telling me even more connections that he had found when he was reading the books last year that he thought the kids would enjoy. There are a few things that are not middle school appropriate and more suitable for high school discussions, however he has completely agree to help me out!

I am stoked!

We do not plan on teaching this unit until December but I have his creative juices flowing and I want to also pull a lot of informational texts to go along with this historical information.

I probably don't even have to say it, but our Saturday Night Movie was Hunger Games.

Sweatin' It Out

Well, I'm almost done with my classroom! For reals! You wouldn't believe how much work I did today. I was sweating buckets...seriously, it was gross! I don't think I've ever been more disgusting.

I should probably back up first and tell you about yesterday!

Yesterday we had our second Language Arts department meeting. It was really great and I no longer felt as overwhelmed as I did on Thursday. It is amazing what a good night's sleep can do for the body and mind! :) 

We talked as a department about the Common Core standards and about deconstructing them more than what our district had already provided us with so that we could ensure that we were all teaching what needed to be taught. We also agreed that we needed to be on the same page with definitions of terms so that the kids knew what to expect from us.

Our principal, who is a former Language Arts teacher, also shared a lot of insight into writing rubrics that were effective for the kids and for ourselves. We then spent some time developing a rubric that we intend to implement into our unit. My colleagues and I agreed that the first writing piece the kids will do is writing their own myth about a god or goddess. So we looked at the big picture of our unit, our essential questions and the unit outcomes and then worked on our rubric. It took about 3 hours to get it all done perfectly but I think it will be really effective! We tried to think of any and all loopholes that we could find for consistency in grading. We also tried to make sure that we wrote the rubric in kid friendly language and precise language so that they would know what was expected from them.

We also discussed implementing more informational texts and trying to pull away from so much literary. This has been a big change on the Common Core and on our K-PREP test. I love to teach novels, however I find that kids are able to grasp concepts better when I use excerpts from novels and include additional short stories and informational texts to help teach the standards. 

I understand that we are not supposed to teach the standards in isolation, however sometimes I feel like it is necessary for my kids based on their needs. If they don't know how to make an inference short readings how can I expect them to do it when reading a novel? I feel like sometimes I have to back it up and teach them these important skills and then let them apply them to their readings.

My colleagues and I also spent some time mapping out our units and looking at the whole year and planning how much time we hoped to spend on each unit. Right now we intend to have 2 weeks before testing to review everything that we have taught throughout the school year. 

One thing we discussed was including more literacy centers. This was something that I did a lot more at my old school, however it was not done on a daily basis. Last year I didn't do centers at all! I think I was just a little overwhelmed being at a new school and moving back to 6th grade, etc. This year I really want to go back to implementing more centers for my students. 

I read about an easy way to begin centers is to start with just Fridays. You can call them, "Fun Fridays" and the kids will know that every Friday are their center day. I really love this idea! I'm going to talk to my colleagues about it next week and see if they want to jump on board too! 

This was a practice similar to what we had in place at my old school, however it wasn't just for centers. On Fridays we called them "Review Day Fridays." It was the day of the week when we were not supposed to teach new content and were instead told to revisit standards the kids struggled with or maybe even something that they might have forgotten. I loved the concept and I think it helped the kids a lot!

After the meeting hubs and I went to Home Depot and rented their truck to take my futon over to school. Remember when I mentioned earlier in the month that I bought a futon from an acquaintance at her garage sale? 

They were the only owners and it was in great condition! I wanted chairs or bean bags for in my reading area and decided I couldn't pass up this deal! Futons can be expensive and this one is cherry and looks to be over $400 from what I saw online. They asked $40 for it! Steal! Anyways, we rented a truck and dropped it off at school and then returned the truck. 

The principal sent out an e-mail that the school would be open today from 9am to 9pm if any teachers wanted to work in their classrooms. Did I want to work? NO! But I had so much to do! Remember that desk I showed you a few days ago?

I needed to weed through all of that paper work and figure out what I wanted to keep and what was garbage. I also needed to put everything away neatly instead of just jamming it in my cabinet (like I usually do) so that I could easily find whatever I needed.

I worked for 6 hours y'all! I didn't even stop for a lunch break. I was so gross by the time I finished. I had dust on me, my finger was bleeding, my face was glistening (ewww!) and I just felt disgusting!

Thankfully, I feel so prepared and so organized this year! I'm not ready to reveal just yet--I have a few things I need to laminate and put up on the walls first. I also noticed that my desks and chairs hadn't been Cloroxed so I have to do that. The student computers also need a wipe down with a Clorox wipe--then I will do the big reveal!

Here is a sneak peek:

Common Core

Can I have a moment here for a second?

*phew*

It has been an overwhelming day today to say the least. To say I am overwhelmed is an understatement. Today we met as a Language Arts department to begin our back-to-school work. We spent the first half of the morning just looking at the standards and focusing on what we felt like the kids were having a difficult time grasping, what they felt like they had mastered, and what we felt like they completely flopped on.

It was interesting to see that across the grade levels we had some of the same thoughts on some of the standards.

First off, I really love the Common Core. I think it is fantastic that almost all of the states are now using the same standards to help prepare our kids for college. I guess my only complaint in my opinion is that sometimes you look at the standard and have to ask yourself exactly what do they mean by that?

What do they mean by credible AND accurate sources? When they say I'm supposed to teach prefixes, suffixes, etc. exactly what should I be teaching and where does the next grade level pick up?

It is still a little overwhelming to me. This is my third year teaching the new Common Core standards and I feel that I have a better grasp on them than ever before, however I am switching grade levels and that can be a different challenge.

Let me give you a bit of background information:

My first year teaching, I taught 6th grade at a Title 1 school where I had students for 50 minute classes.

My second year teaching, I taught 6th grade at the same title one school but shared the same set of 150 kids with another Language Arts teacher (so the kids got like 1 1/2 hours of Language Arts).

My third year teaching, I moved up to 7th grade and had about 110 of the 150 kids for a second time. I also taught the new Common Core standards for the first time. My colleague was a brand new teacher who had never taught before and I was considered the expert! Gah!

Last year, my fourth year teaching, I switched schools and taught 6th grade Common Core. I had 115 students but worked with two other Language Arts teachers and a fabulous special ed. collaborative teacher.

This year, my fifth year teaching, I am moving up to 7th grade with my kids. I will had 115 students about 1/3 of them I will have again. I have two new Language Arts teachers to work with and a new special ed. collaborative teacher.

So this is where I am currently at. I am looking forward to having my kids again and I really like my colleagues. However, I do feel overwhelmed.

It is really difficult moving up with kids when you might have them again. I feel like after five years of teaching I have slowly mastered some really fantastic lesson plans--some of which I used last year. It's not that I feel that I can't use them again but sometimes I feel like I have to reinvent the wheel again to present the material in a different way to still keep them interested. Does that make sense?

I am really thankful that my 7th grade colleagues have had 3 years to get a good handle on the new Common Core standards too! The first time I did this was the first year they were rolled out and since I was the "veteran" teacher I struggled a little bit. I had a great support system at school, reading coach, instructional coach, etc. that helped develop some great lessons too. I am hoping to use some of these same resources again.

Sorry for the bummer post--I think I felt a little overwhelmed after our meeting today. We meet again tomorrow and on Monday so hopefully I will buckle down, take a breather, and get it together. I am a little too OCD sometimes. :)

In other news, I bought a staple gun! 

Boom! I feel like a true crafty girl, or at least I think I am...HAHA I am trying to make a second bulletin board for in my room and had to get one to get the fabric to go through the insulation board. I didn't realize until this morning that the staples I bought for my staple gun weren't long enough! *gasp* I just got back from the store where I bought some super long ones. Keep your fingers crossed as I give this another whirl tomorrow.

I also have a new can of spray paint. I think I personally keep Krylon in business. ;)

13 days until the first day with students!!!!!!