Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party

I can't believe that it's already the middle of April and that there are only 38 more days of school left. Where has the school year gone? At least that means that summer is almost here and I love summer. But for now it's time to link up with Latoya from Flying into First Grade for her weekly Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party.

Here is the code:
Red- Favorite Ice Cream Flavor
Orange- Favorite Memory from College
Yellow- Favorite Sports Team
Green- Favorite Fast Food Place
Purple- Wild Card(Tell anything about yourself)

RED - FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR

When it comes to ice cream, I'm pretty plain. I like to keep it simple with vanilla. Cookie dough is my second favorite, but nine times out of ten I'm going with vanilla. (Now I really want some ice cream)

ORANGE - FAVORITE MEMORY FROM COLLEGE

When I got to college, I dreaded speaking in front of groups of people. That was until I became a BGSU tour guide. I loved the experience that this gave me. I was forced to talk in front of large crowds and I loved it. Since then I've never had trouble speaking in front of groups of all sizes. So my favorite thing about college was being a tour guide because it helped rid me of my fear of public speaking.

YELLOW - FAVORITE SPORTS TEAMS

Being a Cincinnati native, I have always been a fan of the Cincinnati Bengals in football and Cincinnati Reds for baseball. I've endured some awful teams over the years but I will always be a fan of both. Since moving to NC, I haven't been able to go to as many games as I did growing up and I really miss them, so I have to settle for watching them on tv. (I'm currently watching the Reds game.)

GREEN - FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE

I don't really eat a lot of fast food, but my favorites are Wendy's and Chick fil a. It's hard to choose between the two.

PURPLE - WILD CARD (Tell anything about yourself)

l was raised as an only child by my single mom. A couple of years ago I learned that my father, whom I don't know, also has a son, which means I have a younger half brother. We have talked a bit, but I've struggled with forming a relationship with him because the thought of having a brother is still weird to me. I've been struggling with the decision to contact him again, but I'm just not sure where to start.

Well that's a little more about me. Don't forget to stop by Flying into First Grade and get acquainted with other amazing bloggers.

Five for Friday

Happy Friday everyone! We made it through another week. I had a pretty good week, but I'm exhausted. After doing so little last week during spring break, it was tough getting back on schedule. But this week seemed to fly by.

Well, since it's Friday, it's time to link up withDoodle Bugs Teaching for her weekly Five for Friday linky party.

1. Free Student Book Publishing Project

We are currently working on a book publishing project. Using the company Student Treasures my school is currently working on a writing where our students have the opportunity to become published authors. The best part of the project is that it is completely free. Although I'm excited that we have this opportunity, this project can be a bit labor intensive but the final product will be worth the work. I wrote a post about it earlier this week. Clickhere for more information.

2. Kidblog
I read about Kidblog from Fourth Grade Flipper last week. I looked it up and loved it so I created an account and introduced it to my students this week. They are already obsessed. I can't wait to explore this writing opportunity with my students throughout the rest of the school year.

3. Substitutes
I hate missing school, but I was given the opportunity to attend an amazing workshop that would mean that I would be missing 4 1/2 days. I couldn't pass up this opportunity, but unfortunately that means that I would have a substitute for several days. Wednesday was the second day of the training. Even though I had one of the best subs at my school, I feel like Wednesday was a wasted day for my scholars and I had to play catch up the rest of the week.

4. Skeeball
I've mentioned before that I played in a skeeball league. Well, we were on tv yesterday. Click here to see the broadcast.

5. Wiffleball
I can't think about anything else so I'll talk about what I'm doing this weekend. My friends and I are getting together to play wiffleball tomorrow. There's no special reason, but someone mentioned it earlier this week and several of us jumped on the offer. Looking forward to playing. I haven't played since I was a kid.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm looking forward to mine.

Tried it Tuesday - Student Treasures Book Publishing

Have you ever wanted to allow you students actually publish real books?

Well there is a company that will publish hardbound books for your students and it is absolutely FREE!!

The company is Student Treasures.

I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for Tuesday Tried It.




This how the Student Treasures Book Publishing project works:

1. One representative from you school contacts the company to schedule a publishing date.

2. Teachers sign up for the type of book they want.
- Grades K-3 create 1 class book: You will receive 1 free copy of the book
- Students in grades 4-5 each create their own book: Each student will receive the free original copy of their book
- Teachers may choose to order books that are portrait or landscape
- Teachers may choose to order lined pages for students to write the text or blank pages for students to type the text

3. School representative order the number of necessary packets.

4. Envelopes arrive with all necessary materials.

5. Students work on books: writing, editing, and then publishing their books by either writing or typing and printing on the provided pages. Students also illustrate their stories.

6. Prior to completing the project, send home the parent letter. This letter invites parents to purchase extra copies of the book for about $20. Parents must check whether or not they want to buy extra copies, sign it, then return it to school. In order to receive free books ALL parents must sign and return this letter. But don't worry, they provide enough copies of the letters to send home a second form if necessary.

7. About a week prior to the publishing date, all envelopes are collected by the school representative.

8. The school representative boxes up all the envelopes and ships them back to Student Treasures using the provided mailing labels.

9. About 2 weeks after the publishing date, the published books arrive at the school.

Your students are now published authors.

I first tried Student Treasures about nine years ago. At that time students in 3rd grade could each make their own individual books, so my third graders made individual books. I completely fell in love with the company because my students had an amazing experience, their books turned out great, and of course, they were free.

Since then my school has used the company 2 more times. The books pictured above are from the year I taught second grade and made a class book. We decided to do a second grade ABC book. Most of the kids had two letters to contibuted to the book. They typed the text and then did the illustrations. I received the original copy and I had a few parents purchase extra copies.

This year my school has decided to use Student Treasures again. I introduced the project to my students yesterday and they are super excited about it. The idea of becoming published writers has them super engaged in the process. They have come up with some very interesting ideas for books. I'm excited to see their final products.

I am also going to print out all of their research projects which included an essay and PowerPoints. I will create a class book of those. We also wrote essays about Martin Luther King Jr. that I am going to create another class book of. I will be able to use these for examples in future years.

I'm glad that I could share this amazing project with you. I hope you can take advantage of Student Treasures at some point. Check out the website for more information.

Stop by Fourth Grade Flipper and link up.

Five for Friday

It's Friday again and I'm linking up with Doodle Bug's Teaching for Five for Friday again. Unfortunately, Friday means that Spring Break is over and I'll have to go back to work on Monday. Luckily, there are only 9 more weeks before summer vacation.

1. Spring Break
This was the first year in a while that I stayed at home for spring break. It was nice to spend the week relaxing. It was much needed. It was just what I needed. Now I'm ready to finish the year strong.

2. Friends
Two of my friends met for dinner on Tuesday night. Although we work at the same school, we rarely get the chance to spend time together outside of work and talk about things other than school. So it was nice to be able to spend some time together to catch up on our personal lives. We ended up staying for almost 4 hours.

3. Skeeball

I mentioned in a previous post that I played in a skeeball league. We had a free skee/registration event on Wednesday night. Our next season is starting in a few weeks, so we always hold free skee events leading up to the season. I have been playing for about six years which equals 16 seasons and I love it. It's very competitive so it allows me to compete while hanging out with great friends.

Every week the SkeeEO of the league creates Rolling Times covers. This one was created after our last free skee event. Rodric and I won the random draw tournament. Click here to read the entire article.

You can find out more information about the league at Skeenation.com. There are leagues all over the country.

4. Doctor's Office
I'm currently sitting in the lobby of a sports medicine doctor's office. Thankfully, I'm not the one who is hurt. My friend, Lindsay, injured her right leg playing soccer Tuesday night. This means that she is currently unable to drive, so I have been her taxi the last two days. I drove her to get an MRI yesterday. Last night she found out that she tore her ACL so we are back to doctor's today for her to get a knee brace. Luckily, she does not need surgery right away.

5. School Work
As of yet, I have not done any school work over spring break. I plan to do some tomorrow, but I must admit that it has been nice not to think about school all week.

Well, I hope everyone has had a great week. I have enjoyed my week extremely relaxing week. Don't forget to stop by Doodle Bug and link up.

Have a great weekend!!

Tried It Tuesday: Easy Data Collection

Today I'm linking up with Fourth Grade Flipper for her weekly Tried it Tuesday linky party with a great way to review content and collect data all at the same time.

About a month ago I came across this blog on Pinterest. In the post, Tonya at Tonya's Treats for Teachers explained how she had her students create the data tracker while they reviewed a test.

I immediately fell in love with the idea so I tried it last week. I decided to try it while my class was playing a game to review for our geometry unit.

This is how it works.
1. I made and printed strips of paper numbered 1-24. Making the strips was simple. I just created a table in Microsoft Word then cut it into strips.

2. I passed out the strips to my students and asked them to write their initials in the first space.

3. We started our review. The questions were on the smartboard and students wrote their answers on small dry erase boards. I gave them a couple of minutes to write their answers and then they held up their boards to reveal their answers. Once answers were revealed, we discussed the question and I then gave the correct answer.

4. If students got the answer wrong, they were asked to color in the corresponding rectangle.

5. When we were finished, I collected the strips and glued them to a file folder. I can now see which questions we really need to go back and review. I can also very easily see which students are struggling most with geometry.

Here is the final product.

WHAT WORKED
I loved the fact that I could easily collect the data I needed to tell that they were not completely ready for the assessment. I also loved that it required very little effort from me because there is definitely a limited amount of time to get everything done.

Students were also very honest when filling out their chart. We had a discussion about that it was important to be honest so that when I looked at the data I knew exactly who needed help, so being honest would benefit them.

WHAT I WILL CHANGE
Next time I will make sure that all students are only writing in the appropriate spaces. (One of my scholars decided to write her initials in the space when she got the question correct. I didn't see it until we were almost done.) I will also make the spaces shorter. There were 3 students absent so they all fit. Next time I use it I will change the size so that all strips will fit. It would have also been better if students had done a better job at coloring in the boxes. I think I will require all students to us a crayon or marker next time.

I plan to use this idea again. Students were able to see their data immediately which I love.

I hope this is an idea that you can try in your classroom. Stop by Fourth Grade Flipper to see what other teachers are doing in their classrooms.

Five for Friday

Do you know how excited I am about not hearing my last name for over a week? Super excited!!!! More excited than I've been in a very long time. Why will I not be hearing "Ms. Cade" for a week? Because SPRING BREAK is finally here. And I'm so excited. No alarm clocks, no fifth grade attitudes, no lessons to prepare, no parent phone calls. The best part is that I have no plans for next week, which means sleeping as long as I want to, staying in my pjs all day if I choose to, watching some trashy tv talk shows, ("You are NOT the father!"), and relaxing. I'm really not sure about how I will spend my week of freedom, but whatever I do I know I will enjoy it.

Well, I guess I'll start my spring break by reviewing my week with Doodlebug's weekly linky party Five for Friday. This was a pretty good week with lots of highlights so its hard to choose, but here we go.



1. Behavior
I have the class this year that every adult in my building knows about. That's right the class with the most behavior issues. While I love every one of my students, this year has been a struggle. I have tried everything in my power to fix the numerous behavior issues, but nothing has worked long term. I just have a room full of boys who make a lot of bad choices. Luckily, my girls are the complete opposite. (For the most part) They are so sweet and loving. They have definitely been my saving grace this year. Well, the behavior in my class was amazing this week. (with the exception of 2 boys). Usually when there is a full moon behavior gets worse, but I guess the full moon had the opposite effect on my class this week. Or maybe it was our behavior inventive program. Or maybe it was the looming spring break that had them behaving. Whatever it was, I will just take the time to be appreciative and hope this behavior continues after spring break.

2. Fifth Grade Olympics
It's spring and kids always start getting restless and excited for summer. Because of this, my assistant principal encouraged the fifth grade team to develop some type of behavior incentive to encourage appropriate behavior for the rest of the school year. Therefore, the Fifth Grade Olympics was born.

This is how it works. Each of the five fifth grade classes is a team. Each class will compete against each other in a series of events. The chart below will be kept in the fifth grade hall to track how well each class does in each event.

The catch is that individuals can only participate if they have appropriate behavior. Our first event was about 3 weeks ago. We played tug of war. Each class competed in a match against all the other classes. (My class only won one match, but they had fun, which is what's most important.)
The second event occured on Wednesday in the form of three legged races. One pair from each class competed in each heat. As they crossed the finish line, they were given points. Five points for first place and one point for last. After all the heats, points were totalled and places announced. Two teams tied for third place, two teams tied for second, and one winning team. Unfortunately, my class was third overall and we needed to have a conversation about sportsmanship because my scholars hate losing.

The good thing is that out of the 102 students only 5 of them needed to sit out because of behavior. (3 of them were from my class). But pretty good odds for the entire grade level.

3. Living Wax Museum
After we spent the last 6 weeks researching and writing an essay about an influential African American, it was time to invite the school to the Second Annual Fifth Grade Wax Museum on Thursday. All the fifth grade students were asked to portray the African American that they researched and prepare a brief speech to explain who they were and why they were influential. Each student created a prop and dressed similar to their subject. Once inside the "wax museum" they became wax and had to stay frozen. When a guest stopped in front of them, they had to recite your prepared speech. They did an amazing job. They were so proud of themselves. All students and staff members were invited to the wax museum and they enjoyed learning about the various historical figures.

Here are a couple of figures from my class.

Madame C.J. Walker - This student created the apron and place hair care products in it. She also brought in the doll to pretend like she was doing her hair. She also brought in money because she was the first African American self made millionaire.

Joe Louis - This student made a title belt to wear out of construction paper. Great creativity!!

After the wax museum, my scholars were extremely thirsty and exhausted. They kind of passed out in the hall as we were waiting for dismissal.

The wax museum was a huge success. I can't wait until we hold the wax museum next year!

4. Intent forms
Every year around this time we are asked to turn in intent forms explaining our plans for next year. I'll definitely be at the same school next year, but I think it is time for a change, so I asked to be moved to a different grade level. I'm currently in fifth grade, but I'd love to move back down to second or third grade. I loved teaching those grades. We were also asked if we would be interested in team teaching. That has been something that I have been interested in trying for years. So hopefully, I'll be team teaching in second or third grade next year. Fingers crossed!!

5. Teacher Workday
I love teacher workdays. Yesterday was the last day of the quarter, so today we had a teacher workday. Although I haven't completed everything on my to do list, I am happy I had the time to work in my classroom today.


Time for Spring Break!! I can't wait to get some much needed sleep.

Don't forget to stop by and link up to Doodlebug's linky party.

Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party

Today I'm linking up with Flying into First for the first time for her Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party. This time we're playing the Noun Game and naming our favorite person, place, thing, and animal

1. Person: my mom
My favorite person in the whole world is my mom. I would not be where I am without her. She was a single parent and raised me to be a strong and independent woman. She sacrificed a lot for me and made sure I had many opportunities in my life. She is pictured below with my grandmother, who is my second favorite person in the world. This picture was taken last October at my granny's 90th birthday party. (Doesnt she look great!!)

I am very fortunate to have these two amazing women in my life.


2. Place: my house
My favorite place is my house. It is where I am most comfortable. I love coming home after a crazy day at work and enjoying the silence and solitude of my house. As an introvert, the solitude helps me refuel so that I'm ready for all the craziness of work the next day.


3. Things: sports and puzzles
I know I'm cheating here by naming two favorite things, but I couldn't pick one over the other. I love the competition and excitement of sports. (I'm watching the NCAA tourney right now.) And I love the calmness and reasoning of puzzles. I love all types of puzzles; word puzzles, number puzzles, and jigsaw puzzles. I actually glue and frame my puzzles and hang them in my house. Here is one of my favorite puzzles.

4. Animal: tarantula
Well to be honest I have never really had a favorite animal. I'm not really an animal person. So I'll take this opportunity to introduce you to Theresa. About 4 years ago I went to a science conference. One of the booths was selling tarantulas and scorpions. I decided to buy a tarantula for a class pet. I was teaching 3rd grade at the time and my scholars named her Theresa. I keep her at home now because our school building gets too cold for her.

Meet Theresa the Tarantula!

Don't forget to stop by Flying into First and join the linky party.

Five for Friday

Only 4 more days before spring break. (Well actually there are five but next Friday is a teacher workday so I'm not counting that.) To wrap up this week, I'm linking up with Doodlebug Teaching for her Five for Friday linky party.

1. Geometry
We finally finished our fraction unit last Friday with a monsterous post assessment. My scholars did better than I expected, but we still have a lot of work to do with fractions. Why are fractions so hard to understand? Anyway, we had to move on and geometry was our next unit. Geometry is one of my favorite math disciplines. I loved geometry when I was in school. I think I am one of a limited number of people to actually love doing geometry proofs. We started by learning what polygons were and reviewing the names and number of sides of the different polygons. Then I had my scholars draw a picture using only polygons. That means no circles, no crossing lines, and no lines not a part of a shape. They struggled a bit, but most of the pictures turned out amazing. After drawing, I had them write a narrative about their image. (I forgot to take pictures, so I will have to add the pictures later.)

2. Skeeball
I've been playing in a skeeball league for about 5 years. Usually when I tell people this, they react in the same way. First they ask, "What is that?" I explain what it is and then they say, "They have a league for that?" Yes, there is a skeeball league. There are actually numerous leagues popping up throughout the country. The Charlotte Skeeball League is under the Skeenation.com umbrella. I love the competition and after a few seasons of playing awfully, I became pretty good. A few years ago, I was the first female to win the high rollers tournament.
Well I tell all of this because we had a free skee event on Wednesday for the first night of registration for the upcoming season. At these events we always do a luck of the draw two on two tourney. I was lucky and was paired with the best player in the league and we won the tournament. I love winning. It's always nice to take a break in the middle of the week and have a good time with some great friends.

3. Field Trip
Fifth grade went on a field trip on Thursday to the Charlotte Symphony. It was a required trip for all fifth graders in the district. There was a focus on the arts: symphony, dance, opera, visual arts. The goal was to have the kids think about their many possibilities in the arts. As they head to middle school, they will have the opportunity to choose their electives so the program included interviews of middle school students who were involved in the various arts in middle school. The kids really enjoyed the field trip.

4. Innocence
While riding on the bus to the field trip we passed a bar with a sign that said Draft Beer. One of my students said, "Ooh, look. Can we go there. They sale root beer." He was so excited about getting root beer and no clue about what the sign really meant. It's always nice to see that some kids are still kids and aren't as exposed to the outside world. His innocence was radiating from him. I love moments like that.

5. Innovation Institute
About a month ago, I received an email from our Deputy Superintendent inviting me to the Innovation Institute. The email described the institute as a way to explore oneself. I was instantly interested, but upon further reading, it said that I would be missing 4 and a half days in order to attend. I hate missing days and missing 4 days prior to end of grade testing, was unthinkable. Therefore I was torn. After talking to my principal and her encouragement to attend, I signed up. Today was the first day of the institute. And I am so happy that I chose to attend. As teachers, we are always being pulled in so many directions, so it was nice to slow down for a day and be able to reflect on myself and explore my creative self, which I don't do very often.

These are some of the paintings from today. I won't use this forum to explain what they mean in great detail, but all if these paintings reveal something about who I am and where I want to be at this moment in my life.









I can't wait until part 2 in a few weeks


Well, that was my week. I'm looking forward to the weekend. Baby shower and friends birthday party on Saturday and reconnecting with a friend on Sunday.

Five for Friday

I'm linking up with the Five for Friday linky party from Doodle Bug Teaching for the first time.

This was a pretty slow week, but I thought I'd give it a try.

1. On Tuesday evening, the school orchestra had their second concert. This orchestra is sponsored by the Charlotte Symphony and provides students in grades 2-5 to learn to play an instrument. They can select from violin, cello, clarinet, flute, or trumpet. They also participate in chorus and bucket band. Students meet for practice three days a week. The amount of volunteers from the Charlotte Symphony is amazing. They really invest a lot of time into the program and our students are extremely fortunate to have this opportunity. (I recorded the grand finale, but I'm having trouble uploading it. I'll attach it as soon as I figure it out.)

2. Buckeyes - When I was a little girl, my grandmother would make buckeyes for Christmas. Buckeyes is the state symbol of Ohio, which is where I'm from. They are poisonous, however, the edible ones are delicious. You basically just mix peanut butter with powdered sugar and butter, roll them into small balls, place them into the freezer to harden, and finally dip the balls into melted chocolate. Amazing!!!! Well, these are my go to snack to make when I have to take something to share with my co workers. Wednesday was fifth grade's turn to bring snacks for the staff meeting, so I made a batch of buckeyes to share. They were a hit as always.

3. Is it spring break yet? My students definitely have spring fever. This is always the time of the year when fifth graders feel like they are too big to be in elementary and think they are already ready for middle school. That is definitely where my scholars are right now. We have implemented a behavior incentive program to help manage behavior. We had our first activity last Friday. We had a tug of war challenge between the different classes. Even though my class only won 1 out of their four matches they had a blast. The best part was the final competition. Four of the five fifth grade teachers vs one student in each class. Of course we won. We had to or they wouldn't have let us forget about it.

4. Cut and Grow - In writing this week we have been working on revising. Students are revising their Influential African American essays. This has consumed our week because the essays are due next Friday and we are running behind. I wrote a blog about revising here.

5. And finally, this week ends on a sad note. I realized that the man I was dating was not who I thought he was. While I still love him, I know its time to move on. I'm still struggling with the decision, but I know it is the right one for me right now. Now I just need to stay strong and keep busy this weekend so that I'm not spending all my time thinking about him. Wish me luck!!