Just like Pinnochio

I have a student who lies to me all the time. It occurs each time someone tattles on her for an offensive behavior and it has happened about 8 times since she moved in a few months ago.

I know this student needs positive attention as it seems that may be lacking at home. I can tell she is exposed to things that a 7 year old should not see/hear and all I want is to be the one person in her life who shows her unconditional kindness (with boundaries of course), yet I am finding that rather difficult given the frequency with which she lies to me.

We have had several serious conversations about how to treat others and positive ways to begin and maintain friendships. We have talked about the importance of being honest as there may be one consequence for a poor choice but there are always TWO consquences when lying is involved. Despite these conversations, the lies are still coming.

How do you handle students/children who lie?

Teacher Discounts

Everyone knows that teacher salaries don't break the bank, but many companies and stores offer discounts especially for teachers to help minimize out of pocket expenses. 

Here are a few discounts that I have learned about...

JCrew-15% in store discount with school ID badge. JCrew does not advertise this discount, but I asked in my local store and they did indeed give me 15% off and that was in addition to the sale price! JCrew has nice clothes that make great additions to a teacher's wardrobe, but items can be quite spendy.

Ann Taylor Loft-15% discount. Go to www.anntaylorloft.com. You can sign up online and you will receive a teacher discount pass via email. I also got a 20% off total purchase coupon as well. 

Staples-Sign up for Staples teacher rewards (Homeschool teachers count). They have an annual teacher appreciation day in August where you get a goodie bag of free stuff. Plus, with the rewards card, you earn a quarterly rebate check for in store and online orders. Orders >$50 online are delivered free so you don't have to leave the house! Return empty ink cartridges for a $3 coupon off next purchase online/instore. Sign up for email notices (about 2/month) and you'll get big deals like $20 off a $100 order (this is in addition to rebate and free delivery). Good Back to School and Christmas sales. Has copy center service,laminating, computers, photo printing. This is super convenient and a real $ saver!

Office Depot-Office Depot has a program called Star Teacher that offers various perks to teachers. The biggest PLUS: You get 10% Back in Rewards on ink, toner, and paper, PLUS 1% Back in Rewards on nearly everything else we sell when you earn at least $10 in Rewards! PLUS a 15% Instant Discount on Design & Print Services! For more information or to sign up visit www.mystarteacher.com.

JoAnn Fabrics-10% discount. The JoAnn Fabric teacher discount card requires you to fill out some information online and then you receive the discount card in the mail. Because I applied, I also started to receive the weekly flier which includes 40% off one item coupons. 

Borders-15% discount. I never knew it until recently, but Borders gives a 15% off discount to teachers for all purchases that will be used in the classroom. The discount does not apply if you are buying items for personal use, but professional development texts, and children's  books are part of the deal. You will be asked to show your teacher ID badge and fill out a form in the store.

Barnes and Noble-15-20% discount. Teachers can get 20% off the list price of hardback books and 15% off soft cover books with the Education Discount Card.

Lakeshore Learning-15% discount. I am not sure if the discount applies with online purchases, but teachers can receive 15% off in stores with the use of a discount card that is provided with proof of ID badge. Similar to a grocery store discount card, the Lakeshore discount card comes in a plastic credit card size as well as the smaller size that can fit on a key ring. The discount does not apply to certain items, but I have found that most items I want to purchase are part of the discount. 

$$$ Go ahead...start saving money! $$$

Hot for Teacher!

This or That?

Being a teacher does not mean looking like the stereotypical school marm who taught in the one room school house.  Because so many children today are inactive and overweight, teachers should serve as healthy role models by living a lifestyle that includes both looking and feeling good. What helps us look and feel good?

 EXERCISE! 

If we want to instill in our students a strong sense of self esteem, we certainly need to have that same high self esteem radiating from ourselves and exercising certainly helps to make that happen.

Committed teachers routinely spend more than the allotted 8 hours per day at school and in their classrooms. I always arrive an hour before my scheduled working time starts and often stay later in the afternoon as well. After being with kids all day, I typically do not feel like going home and hitting the gym. It is hard to muster the energy to be active when you have been "on" all day. Teachers function as secondary parents, coaches, cheerleaders, friends, and much more. It can be exhausting and here I am telling you to be a physical fitness role model as well?!?!....

For me, getting in a daily workout not only makes me feel great, but it is a great way to actually REDUCE stress. There is no feeling more satisfying than finishing a hard workout and feeling the positive effects on your mind and body. Since time is of the essence, I like to do workout DVD's at home which saves me the time of driving to and from the gym. In the past I have posted about the 30 Day Shred and I was thrilled to find out that Jillian Michaels recently released two more fabulous hardcore workout videos. 

These new videos differ from 30 Day Shred in that they are hour long workouts where as the routines in the shred are only about 30 minutes long including warmup and cool down. If you are looking to improve your shape and see results quickly, these videos are a great option to add to the mix.

Jillian's Banish Fat and Boost Metabolism video does not require any equipment at all. It contains 7 circuits of cardio exercises that each include 5 exercises that are repeated twice during the cycle. It is an hour of nonstop movement that incorporates a lot of kickboxing moves. 

The No More Trouble Zones workout requires a mat and hand weights, but even Jillian only uses three pounds because of the high number of repetitions on certain moves.  Again there are 7 circuits that each contain 5 exercises which are repeated twice. After doing the workout I definitely know I have worked my legs, abs, and arms HARD! All of the exercises incorporate movements that use more than one muscle group to maximize calorie burning. Jillian is a big proponent of not wasting any time during a workout. You don't need to spend hours in the gym and tack on more time getting there and getting back...These hour long workouts which both include a warmup and cool down are all you need! Why come up with your own routines when Jillian does it all. 

She is hardcore, badass, efficient, and effective. 

I know I can be a better teacher when I feel relaxed, healthy and good about myself and Jill's videos are a great way to ensure that I can fit exercise into my busy schedule and still manage everything I have to do to get ready for school. 

Handwriting Without Tears

Yesterday I attended a Handwriting without Tears workshop and it was awesome. To start off, upon arrival, I was given this canvas bag stuffed with materials that are mine to keep ( a teacher's dream! Free stuff is always appreciated!) The bag contained teachers manuals and practice workbooks for grade levels K-4, both a small slate and larger blackboard with lines, wooden pieces for building letters, and a terrific cd with kid friendly songs to help students remember concepts such as starting capital letters at the top and using spaces in between words in a sentence. Below are some photos of my goodies! 

Teacher manuals and workbooks

First Grade manual and workbooks

Wooden pieces for building letters

Small slate board helpful for preventing reversals

CD with great songs about letters and writing

The presenter was an Occupational Therapist and provided a lot of good information about the development of handwriting and students' needs. The most surprising thing she mentioned was that little kids need little pencils. I have always seen fatter pencils and crayons used for little kids and she said those are actually more difficult to use and require more strength, not less. She said golf size pencils are actually ideal. I had NO idea! She also showed paper with 2 lines, rather than the typical paper with two solid lines and a dotted line down the middle. She said kids are more successful with two lines and I am excited to try that.

The Handwriting without Tears program makes learning how to write letters fun, and provides an organized meaningful sequence that groups similar letters together. There are diver letters, frog jump letters, magic c letters and more. She explained how teaching similar letters together helps kids remember how to correctly write them. Simply showing letters in alphabetical order does not work as well. 

Although I wish that my school would adopt this program, I do not think we have enough time in our daily schedules to make room. I know that I want to, and I plan to, but I will have to tackle that myself. It would be great if students would begin this program at an early age when pre-writing skills are emerging, but I still think that it is a useful tool for me to use in helping some of my students who could benefit from further instruction on handwriting. I am excited to try it out of a few of my students, particularly for reversals such as b and d as well as the numbers 5 and 6.

Valentine's Day

You gotta love Valentine's Day! 

I really wish I could get this dress in my size!

Kid Writing 3

Every week the reading program I teach focuses on 4-7 high frequency words that can be found in all of the stories we read throughout the week. I like to do fun activities using these words so the kids really learn them. One of the games I do that is most popular is the dice game. This game requires students to read the words and use them in complete sentences. 

I bought a large inflatable dice that has the numbers 1-6 on the sides. I write the high frequency words or vocabulary words on the board labeled with the numbers 1-6. Each child gets a turn to roll the dice, read the high frequency word that matches the number on the dice and then use the word in a complete sentence. This is a great activity for developing language and ensuring that the kids understand the meanings of the words.

Following this game, I give the students a piece of writing paper and ask them to write a sentence using one of the high frequency words from the board. At the beginning of the year, this was a struggle. I asked students to write just one sentence and this took a lot of effort. 

I did this activity today and not only did the kids do an outstanding job on their writing, but they were able to use 2 or 3 high frequency words in their writing which remained on topic and many of them wrote 3 or more sentences. 

When Michelle showed me her work, I grabbed her in for a big hug because I was so proud of how far she has come this year. You may recall Michelle as the author of the first kid written piece I shared which said "IHF" (I have friends).  All uppercase letters, no spaces. This was the piece that Michelle wrote today... 

"I em extremely hape bekus yestrday It was my brthey. my dad tak me to hagen and I so littie kacs kupcas wwith pingk frostren."

(I am extremely happy because yesterday it was my birthday. My dad took me to Hagan's and I saw little cakes cupcakes with pink frosting.)

Michelle is using spaces in between her words and she has ending punctuation on both of her sentences. She correctly uses capitalization at the beginning of her first sentence and with the word "I." Although her spelling is not entirely conventional, she has letters to represent almost all of the sounds in words and she incorporates some of the sound spellings we have worked on such as /ay/ and /th/. She used the word extreme(ly) which is one of our vocabulary words for the week and she also used a voice bubble in her illustration to depict what he mom said to her. Finally, she incorporated "stretched" sentences by telling who, doing what, where, when, and why. We have been working on the idea of stretching sentences and she included some great elements such as the word "because" to tell why, the word "yesterday" to tell when, and "Hagan's" to tell where. 

Another example from today's activity is Melinda's work. Melinda is an ELL student and was categorized as a "beginning" speaker at the beginning of first grade. She has been in my reading group all year and is very bright. I believe she got a zero on her first spelling test and has come a long way, frequently getting 90-100% each week!

"I am extremely happy because I have a noo shrt. It is so warm and free. my shrt is great"

(I am extremely happy because I have a new shirt. It is so warm and furry. My shirt is great.)

Melinda used two high frequency words (great & warm) and one vocabulary word (extreme(ly). She used correct capitalization in two out of three sentences and end punctuation on two out of three sentences. She used conventional spelling for challenging words like because, happy, and have and incorporated the correct usage of sound spellings that we have worked on such as /-y/ and /sh/ and gave a good try on the word new by using the /oo/ sound spelling that we have learned. Melinda has very nice printing and uses spaces in between words. Her family is originally from somewhere in the Pacific Islands so she speaks with an accent and often confuses the /p/ and /b/ sounds like when she wrote brisin (present) in her journal, but boy has she improved since the beginning of the year!

I am so thrilled with the improvements I am seeing in writing and the best part is my students ask me if they can write in their journal and I practically have to pull them out of their hands to get them to come to the carpet when writing time is over...even the boys!

More Kid Writing

Earlier in the school year, I posted some writing samples that were written by a few of my first graders. I am amazed at the difference in the quality of their writing and I am in love with the this piece, written by Enzo. 

We just finished a unit on American symbols and thanks to the great set of non-fiction books I got through my donors choose request, my students were very interested. Ever since watching the presidential inauguration, they have shown a lot of interest in Obama and the life of a president so it was a great time to teach them a little bit more about our country. I never thought I would be pulling down a map and talking to first graders about the Revolutionary War and the original 13 colonies, but they loved it!

We concluded the unit by talking about President's Day and why we honor all of the presidents, with particular emphasis on Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. Incidentally, we also just started our unit on coins, so the kids were very excited to find Lincoln on the penny and Washington on the quarter. It was really cool to show them what pictures are on the backs of coins and have them recognize them from our study on American Symbols. Isn't is great when it all comes together.

Their final assignment was to write 3 or more sentences telling what they learned about President's Day, Abraham Lincoln, and or George Washington. I had written some of the vocabulary on the board such as Revolutionary War, assassination, and the names of the presidents, but Enzo's work is still impressive in that he correctly uses the words and accurately describes facts that he learned. Enzo is a non-fiction fiend and LOVES to write about animals and invent imaginary face-offs between animals from different habitats after which he shows me and says something like, "Hippo or Bison....VOTE!" His enthusiasm for writing is enchanting, especially when I recall how he started out the year.

It took Enzo quite some time work spaces into his writing. He would write pages, but his pieces were essentially one long flow of letters, without any spaces, and everything was spelled totally phonetically. It is perfectly reasonable to first graders to spell phonetically, but even simple words like of, were written exactly as they sound (uv). Each day when I checked his work, I would compliment Enzo on his creativity and word choice, and kindly remind him to think about adding some spaces. This went on for quite some time.

Until one day, the spaces just appeared..... and his writing has continued to improve ever since!

Enzo is a classic example of a student who has excellent content and is so focused on what he is writing about that he does not worry too much about capital letters and punctuation. I love that about his writing. Although it would be great if he added in some more periods and uppercase letters, his writing outshines that of many other students because it is rich and interesting and shows his personality and interests. 

The funniest thing about Enzo is that he still says he can't read. (He totally can!). He can sound out words and read sentences, yet he is convinced he can't read. Go figure. Someday I think I will find a book in a bookstore written by my friend Enzo. :0)

Baby Showers Galore!

My school currently has FOUR pregnant teachers. Everyone was banking on the group of recently married teachers to get pregnant this year, but so far it is four women who have been married for several years. Two are having their first babies (both boys) and two are having their second babies (genders not yet known).

I absolutely love parties of any kind; wedding showers, baby showers, birthdays...you name it! I also enjoy baking a lot, so I have been combining two of my loves and making decorated sugar cookies for the showers. 

So far, I have gotten excellent feedback. 

For the last baby shower I used a cookie cutter shaped like a baby onesie and decorated the cookies in baby blue and white with polka dots. I did not want to do the exact same design for the next shower, which is tomorrow, so instead I used three different dinosaur cookie cutters and frosted them in pastel colors with round pastel candies on top for decoration. I think they came out great.

My inclination is to say, yes, my cookies are from a cherished family recipe and I make them from scratch, but alas, the mix comes in a bag that can be found in the baking aisle at your local grocery store. I think they taste just as good as homemade and truly it is the decorating and love that goes into them that make them extra special!

I made the same kind of cookies for my sister-in-law's baby shower in December with the onesie cutter and pink and white cookies (It's a girl!). Since those cookies were the shower favor, I individually wrapped them in plastic bags and tied them with pale pink curling ribbon.

Although time consuming, these cookies are not difficult to make. It is helpful to have a free standing mixer because the Royal Icing requires about 10 straight minutes of mixing before it forms stiff peaks. A decorating bag and tip are also required as well as colored gel to tint the icing to your desired color. All of these items (except the mixer) can be found at a store like Michael's or probably even JoAnn Fabrics. The colored gel for tinting is extremely concentrated therefore you only need to use the tiniest amount to get pastel colors like I used.

My next batch is going to be some Margarita shaped cookies with pink and green icing for a friend's birthday. Many websites sell very cute and original cookie cutters, but there are also plastic sets available that include numbers and letters in addition to many holiday themed cutter in which you get about 100 for around 10-15 dollars. 

The Cookie Cutter Shop website has a great variety with many different themes and designs for customizing cookies for your loved ones.