New Blog

I haven't blogged in almost a year! Wow.

I wanted to let you guys know that I will be moving on to a new blog. This one will still be available and I will continue to answer emails and comments asking for documents.

Come and join me!

Click the image to go to the blog.

Peek Face Activity 2014-2015

It's the beginning of a new year. I am loving my new kids. It took until Thursday for me to get into the swing of things. 

This is going to be a challenging year, but we are going to make it.

Positives:

I have won over a kid who presented initially as a behavior problem.

Another boy, who had issues last year, is doing great and we are connecting.

All of my girls are super sweet.

My special cases are going to be close to my heart.

We worked on this activity from Tuesday-Friday. We needed to take things a step at a time.

The final products! We are missing a few...

September Currently

It's that time again!

 I am starting my Master's this semester. It's exciting and a little intimidating.

I really wish I had a second teacher in the room with me this year. My group needs a lot of extra attention. :)

I have to study my Calendar Math resources tomorrow because I am starting it up on Tuesday. 

Oh vacations... how I would love to travel. Maybe one day.

Go link up!

Blog Hoppin Day 2 - Classroom Space

Day 2: My Classroom

I teach in Mesquite, Texas at Hanby Elementary. My school is a great place to be!

A few new pictures...

These are the back of the room.

And the hallway:

You can see more HERE and HERE.

I can't wait to see all the beautiful classrooms on the blog hop. Go check it out!

Back to School with Blog Hoppin!

It's time for a week long linky party for back to school!

Today's prompt: Who are you? Tell us more about yourself!

So, here it goes...

I have been teaching for 6 years.

Two years in Levelland, Texas teaching Pre-K.

Two years in Mesquite, Texas at Hanby Elementary teaching 2nd grade.

Two years in Mesquite, Texas at Hanby Elementary teaching 4th grade.

I am set for another great year in 4th!

I am starting my Master in Education in Instructional Technology. It begins the same week as we do!

My husband, Kevin, is the youth minister at our church. He is a great man and I love him so much. We will celebrate 7 years of marriage this December. We started dating in high school.  :)

This was taken in 2004.

My parents are amazing people. I am thankful for them every day.

I am super proud of my little sister. She is working on her Master's and then Doctorate at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the hardest working person I know. She has spent this summer in Seoul, Korea teaching SAT Prep. She has learned that she doesn't want to be a teacher.  :)

She brings out the silly in me!

I am truly blessed to have married into a wonderful family. My sister-in-law got married last August!

This was taken last Christmas. Logan is a Children's Minister in Virginia and Bailey is a senior at Ouachita Baptist University.

These lovely ladies are my best friends at school! They keep things fun.

My husband and I do not have any kids yet. We have been struggling with infertility for the last three and a half years. We are currently working closely with a doctor and going to a lot of appointments. It has been a difficult time, but we have faith the Lord will bless us with children.

In the meantime, we have two dogs and a cat. 

Go join the party!

Math Vocabulary Cards & Wall

I posted a few weeks ago about my math word wall cards.

Click to view that post.

I didn't plan on putting these by the door, but I think it is going to work out well. I finished decorating my walls and realized that I didn't leave a place for those cards. I am only going to display the vocabulary cards for the unit we are currently working on. I am thinking about arranging them on a piece of chart paper and clipping it to the math anchor chart wall. That may change.

I really like that the others are housed beside the door. I can grab one for review whenever we are lining up! Not a bad plan.

Now I need to focus on planning and getting resources ready for the first week and beyond!

I have loved seeing everyone's classrooms. It has to be one of the best things about #backtoschool!

Ready for Anchor Charts

Instead of buying new ribbon to outline my anchor charts, I decided to use the yards and yards of white border I had in my classroom. #winning

I am only teaching writing, math, and social studies this year. My teammate will be in charge of reading and science! I am pretty excited about it.

Yay! I sewed my new curtains yesterday at my parent's house and I think they work well in the space. I am so glad to have the cluttered shelves covered.

A great place to hang our work.

I will be pointing to this board pretty often.

"Mrs. Morris, I'm done. What should I do now?"

I saw place value bubbles on Pinterest and knew I had to make them.

This was my inspiration:

Click to view her post.

Click HERE to download the place value bubbles. Please leave me a comment if you download them. I like knowing they are being used.

I will be back at school tomorrow. There are always things to do. I am almost ready to start making copies for Back to School Night! Our teacher inservice begins this Friday, so I only have a few days of summer left.

Pretty Walls

My husband came to help me put up the rest of my paper on the walls. Do you use the rolls of fadeless paper from places like Mardel or other teacher stores?

They are very pretty, but very difficult to hang by yourself. After the ordeal of this wall...

I knew I needed some help for the rest.  :)

Husband to the rescue!

So this is the back wall now:

This is the wall across from the first aqua wall:

See my clock???

You can get these awesome clock labels for free from Lessons with Laughter!

This is the other side of the door on the same wall:

I am loving the colors. It is so much quieter on the eyes.

What do you think?

WBT Rules to Display

A new color scheme calls for a new set of Whole Brain Teaching rules posters.

You can download a generic pdf HERE.

I am looking forward to using WBT techniques again this year!

These will be going up this week.

Room Update

There is much more work to be done...

I painted over my old banners so they match the new colors!

On the other side of the room:

I just couldn't ignore the black paper because it wouldn't match. Ugh. OCD is not fun sometimes.

I love my rotating pencil, pen, marker, and highlighter holder from Mardel! This is to the right of my teacher computer.

I love my new toolbox! I couldn't hold out any longer. I convinced myself that I needed one.  :)

I still need to decorate the wall behind and I don't know if all these things will stay on this shelf or not.

I love organizing my room before the school year starts. I know I probably over share pictures... sorry.

Parent Communication

Hey guys! 

This year I am going to use Class Dojo and Remind 101 to communicate with parents.  I have made a fake text message to add to my newsletter to get parents to sign up for Remind 101. I will also display this at our Back to School Night!

I used this website to create the fake text.

You should make one too!

Back to School Classroom

Since wall decorations are under review... today I worked on organization.

I am not really into filing cabinets. I don't keep paper copies. All of my resources are in digital files on my computer, but I did want to use my small filing cabinet this year to keep track of student/parent communication. I assign every student a number for a year, so that is what the numbers signify in the photograph above.

So here are a few photos from today. Just keep in mind that I am not decorating right now. I focused on placing furniture, going through shelves & drawers, and trying to figure out how to minimize.

I don't sit at my desk, but I like using it as a table. Kids LOVE sitting at the teacher's desk to work.

Awkward shelves. Not my favorite. I just can't seem to organize them. I guess if I could buy a lot of little boxes, it would look better, but that isn't going to happen this year. So I will be covering these with a curtain.

These are the same kind of shelves across the room. There is still a lot of work to be done.

Has anyone heard of using rubbing alcohol to clean white boards? It completely worked! Now I just have to do it on my kid's small white boards. Go try it.

This is my work station. This year I added my file cabinet under the table. This table is probably the most used furniture aside from student desks. I sit here before and after school and sometimes when the kids are working. I pull small groups to come work with me. Kids sit here during instruction instead of at the back desks. I have kids sit on the carpet, crate seats, and this table. That way we are all close and learning together.

I need to move my Elmo table over here to complete the area.

Also, scary moment. I unrolled the nasty carpet and a big bug jumped out at me. Yuck. I hate bugs. See that book on the ground? Guess what I used to kill the big bug? Good guess.

My principal is going to rent us a carpet cleaner to clean up our rugs. I am so looking forward to cleaning this gross rug!!!!!!

That computer you see on the table, it is my old teacher computer. The district upgraded my campus over a year ago. This computer has just been sitting unused in the back of my room since then. A big waste. It needed to be reconfigured as a student computer. Maybe they are working on that for this year! An IT guy came in my room today and moved the computer to this table and then walked out. A little weird, but okay.

I have so much work to do! Everything feels so bare.

On another note... I have good news!

I am a Graduate student! Classes start at the end of the month!