"I'm done Mrs. Schultz!"

Oh no!  Teachers I am sure you cringe like me when a student says "I'm done, now what!?" Oh yeah.  I have been reading up at Teacher Tipsters and he really has some wonderful ideas!  I came across...the fast finisher folder!  Ya gotta love the kids for wanting to keep on going, keep on learning, but man I really dislike having to hear "I'm done!"

  So behold "The Fast Finisher Folder!"  (Teacher Tipster calls them his chart folders... he uses them a bit differently)When the students finish an activity they now know they can take out their Fast Finisher Folder.  They heart it, and so do I!  It's a three ring binder, with teacher chosen sheets put inside of page protectors, and then explained to the students.  They then are given a tissue, and dry erase markers.  Go to Town boys and girls!

  Here is it in action.  I actually added our Envision Math part-part whole work mat to it, so the students can quickly work on addition and subtraction... I caught one of my ELL students using his free 5 minutes of fast finisher folder today doing addition!!

He almost got it!  He was so excited that I took his picture.  Next to his fast finisher folder sheets is what we call our Data part of the folder.  I will get into that later!  More to come on the sheets I included in the folder!  Tata!

Making Words

It's been...um...forever...

So sorry!  We have been in school for 29 days, and I can offically now say I feel like my students have a schedule down & I have the management down.  WOW.  That took a long time.  I think I need to keep a big poster at the beginning of the year that says "IT GETS BETTER! I PROMISE!"  Lot's of changes have happened:

• I got my first donors choose project funded!
• We went on our first field trip
• I have a whole 25 students! (Whoa!)
• THE BREWERS ARE in the playoffs!
• The Packers are 5 and 0!

Okay so the last two are a little off topic, but I have to give a shout out when I can!  If you haven't gotten to donors choose, make sure you check it out.  www.donorschoose.org  It is seriously a wonderful site.  Make sure you tell as many people as you can about your page, and let them know it's a donation!

Our first field trip was to the Max & Ruby show, the kids loved it!

We now how a class load up to 28 students here is Wisconsin... yeah.  28.  I am teaching in a first grade inclusion room so we also can have up to 8 students with special needs.  Every day is a totally different day in my classroom!

And I would like to share....  my kiddos!  THANKS to donors choose we got a set of books & all those blue book bins! Wahoo!

Friday Favorites!

Over at Fabulous in First they are having a Linky Party for our favorites!  Check it out here.  See mine below!

Favorite Foods:

 Mmm..  Potstickers

 Jampasta by Rachel Ray, I love to make this, takes time, but soo worth it!

Favorite sign: 

Favorite color:

Favorite animal:

My two year old yellow lab, Maxwell...

Favorite teaching materials:

 

We are lucky to have Mac computers!  I love my SMARTboard!!

Couldn't do guided reading without it!

Thanks for stopping by!  What are your favorites?

Blossoming in Room 3! Day 4

After four long tideous days, I have decided to unveil my work.  Ehh.... So here goes nothing.  I live about 50 minutes away from school, so when I make the drive down there on days off, I want to make it worth it!  I wish so much I could pick up my school and move it, the students, and the staff down my street.  Well, until then, here goes nothing!

Starting fresh

I wanted to start this year off fresh and clean.  I felt like I would just put things everywhere last year so I took everything off the wall, and stored in my back room over summer.  Here is a little before tour of my classroom.  Any suggestions at all, please share!

Here is what you see right when you walk in...

 My amazing smartboard, and 8 mac computers... <3

 

I have a window that peaks into the hallway....and there is my door

 

View from my smartboard area, windows into the back room

 

Here is the back room where I keep my materials not being used and desk.  I am VERY lucky to have this, and I want to reorganize it....looking at it makes me sad :(

Welcome! Oh Blogging...

Welcome to my first attempt at blogging!  I have been teaching for 2 years, I am currently a first grade teacher.  I have taught one year of Kindergarten, and one year of first.  I love my job, and I hope you enjoy all the ideas I have to share!