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Sunday, July 31, 2016

HP Instant Ink: The greatest thing since sliced bread!


Printing to most teachers is really important, but also REALLY expensive. 

Case in point:


I have tried all different kinds of methods for bringing the cost of printing down. Getting ink from overseas (the cartridges worked about half of the time), buy the XL ink cartridges, and tried different off brand cartridges. Nothing ever worked so I usually just printed from my schools horrible printer that would leave those awful horizontal lines from the toner constantly being low. Printing it color was never an option aside from the one cartridge I would buy at the start of the school year.

My mother introduced me to the greatest thing since sliced bread last summer: Hp Instant Ink Program! With this program you can choose from 3 different plans ranging from 2.99-9.99 a month and print in either black or COLORED ink as much as your plan allows!!!! Your printer monitors you ink level and if you are running low, ink comes right to your door without you even having to think about it. There are even rollover pages. 


I have the $9.99 plan and I am beyond happy with it.

The website tells me how many pages I have printed of my allotment:


 It also breaks down how many pages I have printed per day.

Customer service is great also. One time I got a black in cartridge in the mail instead of color so I called customer service. They overnighted me a color ink cartridge and the conversation only lasted 5 minutes. 

I love being able to print something in full color without having to worry about the cost of ink or draining my resources to quickly. I have only gone over my printing allotment once and that was at the beginning of school last year (heavy printing season). 

How do you get in on this magic you may ask?
First things first, you need to have an HP printer

Here are my recommendations (I have the Envy 5540):




Next, you need to sign up for an account. If you want to use my referral link you (and I) get a month free!

I can't recommend this enough. Get it now for all your back to school printing and you can make sure your bulletin boards are in full living color! :)

Thursday, July 28, 2016

Differentiating in the Secondary English Classroom


Last year I decided that I was ready for a new challenge. I wanted to focus on differentiation as much as possible. For each new topic that was covered in my room I would do a whole group lesson on the topic, generally with a Prezi presentation. Then I would have the students break out into their learning groups and rotate through a list of differentiated activities.

Today I am going to walk you through a day (or two) in my classroom teaching figurative language!

Before any activities or teaching has started, all of my classes were broken down into different learning groups based on pre-test scores. Each group was assigned a color. This color would correspond to the activities they will complete during independent time.

Some of the supplies I use for this:




I started the class with a bell ringer from my Bellringers and informed the class that for the next couple of days we would be working on Figurative Language:

After we went over the bellringer as a class, I handed out a copy of the mastery checklist that I created (See later in the post) The mastery checklist has all goals I would like the students to complete and master by the end of the unit. It is a way for the students to monitor their progress and study. 

I then handed out the notes for the Figurative Language Prezi. I went through the prezi while the students filled in their notes. We went over any questions that the students may have had. Then we broke out into our learning groups. 

Group 1:
This group worked on Figurative Language in Music. During the summer, I purchased some cheap Mp3 players. I put the songs that would be used throughout the year on the mp3 players. I also purchased some ear buds and headphone splitter. Groups chooe song lyrics with THEIR group color and listened to the songs on their Mp3 players as a group. After listening to the song, the groups completed the lyrics activity. 

The high group got a copy of the lyrics with only the types of figurative language present listed. 


The medium group got a copy of the lyrics with how many of each type of figurative language are included.


The low group got a copy of the lyrics with the instances of figurative language highlighted and the amount of each kind to identify. 


Supplies I used for this:


Group 2:
This group worked on the figurative language sort. The students cut apart the activity and then began sorting the pieces into the different types of figurative language. High group got no accommodations. Medium group is given how many of each type there are. Low group gets how many of each and an example of each.

Group 3:
This group worked on figurative language color by term. The only accommodation I made for these groups is that I gave the low group a copy of the colored answer key in gray scale. I did this so that students could see how many of each type there were, but not what they were colored.

Group 4:
This group worked on figurative language computer lab activity. I had two computers in my room so I had the students partner up to complete the activity. No accommodations were made for this activity.

Group 5:
This group worked studying for their upcoming quiz/test. They quizzed each other on definitions, made flash cards, read example sentences and identified them. Basically, I am trying to teach students HOW to study.

Quiz:
Once all the activities have been completed the students came to me and got a copy of the quiz to complete ON THEIR OWN.

Throughout all of this I am walking and monitoring and asking random students questions for punches on their reward cards from my differentiated questioning sheets

Free For you:



Products discussed in the blog post:

 Complete FL    FL Prezi             

 Questioning      Lab   Color by term

 FL Jumble        FL in Music
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Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Back to School Night School Supply Board

I don't know about you, but on back to school night (open house) I always get a ton of questions about what supplies students should get. I decided that this year I would do something to help reduce those questions! Enter the "School Supply Board"! The board has examples of the supplies I would like my students to have.

I bought a tri-fold board and hot glued the supplies I wanted to that board. It was surprisingly simple and I am quite happy with the result! 

Example Photos:



Back to school supply board

Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Teaching Tools I Couldn't Live Without



I have been teaching for over a decade now and there are some tried and true supplies that, if I didn't have them in my classroom anymore, I would be lost without! 


The List

Writing Utensils I Love

 Wine Rack Pen holder


I couldn't survive without my Inkjoy Pens. I use them for everything! I also have my flair pen for a little extra pizzaz. If you have not tried gel highlighters yet, let me tell you...they are awesome! What classroom would be complete without a little metallic sparkle?




Coffee, coffee coffee
Who doesn't need coffee to get them through the day? I have a Mr. Coffee Kcup maker in my classroom. It has been a lifesaver on more than one occasion. I also use my Contigo mugs (I have 7 now) because they keep my coffee hot for HOURS!




I LOATHE chalk....but I love my chalkboard markers!
These have only recently become more mainstream. It used to be next to impossible to find chalkboard markers. I am SOOOO happy that they are now commonplace and easy to find!





Paper Pots
My paper tissue pots have become part of my life at this point. Both of my paper pots were broken this year by the same student (I am still bitter about it) and I need to choose a new one!




Paper Holders
I purchase construction paper holder (it's more cost effective) and use them to hold copies or to use as student cubbies for those who tend to lose EVERYTHING.



Multi pocket Folders and Binder Holder
I use these multi pocket folders to hold my teacher copies of the weekly lessons. I keep my lesson plans in the binder holder and keep it open to the day's lesson plans (in case of administration walk-ins). Yes, that is a dish rack. I use it to hold my folders and some pens.




Duct Tape
I use Duct Tape in all kinds of ways in the classroom, but my personal favorite is to makeover my teacher desk. I have done this in every new classroom I get moved to!



Shoe Organizer
With limited storage space, you sometimes need to get a little creative with your organizational methods. I use different shoe organizers around my classroom to organize my materials. They work great and hold up surprisingly well!




I love my Desk Apprentice from Staples!

http://www.staples.com/Staples-The-Desk-Apprentice-Rotating-Desk-Organizer/product_597003
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Monday, July 25, 2016

Tissues in the classroom

Last summer I blogged about my undying love for Paper Pots. I must have started a trend at my school because everywhere you look there is another Paper Pot. It's pretty neat actually!

Sadly, my beloved pink and green Paper Pots broke last year at the hands of the same student. Paper Pot serial killer...I'm still upset about it.


 RIP Paper Pots

I was on the prowl for my next paper pot fix when I found THESE:







I am so excited about them! Do any of you use paper pots in the classroom?

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Faculty meeting back to school BINGO


There is nothing more pointless than the back to school convocation/faculty meetings. I swear that the higher ups just come up with an agenda and then say to themselves, "Nope...they still have too much time getting their classrooms together. Let's throw in another team building activity!"

One year, I kid you not, the entire faculty had to pick out a rock, name the rock, and introduce our rock to another teacher. 

In order to help ease the pain of this cruel injustice, I have created a back to school BINGO board. Print out a few and play with your friends. Just don't actually yell out, "BINGO!" Or maybe do and let me know what happens! ;)



Thursday, July 21, 2016

Classroom Escape Room (Review Game)


I am obsessed with escape rooms! They are so much fun! I wish that I could do one every day. On my spring break trip to Atlanta I was able to do three in one day and it was super exhilarating!

Before my state test I decided that I wanted to do a fun review game for my kids and decided to try my hand at an escape room. It took a lot of trial and error, but it was a MASSIVE success. I decided to share my escape room plans with you as best as I can in case you want to try something similar in your classroom.

Step 1: The days leading up to the escape room I rolled a suitcase around with me (You will see why)

Step 2: I broke the students into four groups

Step 3: I created a newspaper article that informed students that I was taking over the world and handed one out to each group.

Step four: I hid a card in my miniature file cabinet that said, "Don't just stand there in limbo, take a look in the classroom window."

Step five: The first set of clues to decipher that opened the Word Lock was hidden behind a book in the window.

 Step six: Inside of Lock #1was the POV clues

Step seven: Inside of Lock #2 was a set of UV flashlights and 4 pieces of seemingly blank paper. Once the UV lights were turned on students will find a number on each of their pieces of paper. This opened the lockbox. 

Step eight: Inside the lock box was four ziplock bags with puzzle pieces and a short story for each of the groups. The students need to read the short story and then put together their puzzle. One of the puzzles will have the correct symbol answer written in UV pen, the other three will be distractors with penalties.

Step nine: Each group will get a reading passage with multiple choice questions. Once they finish the passages, if they answered the questions correctly they will get their groups number to contribute to the final lock box. 


Step ten: Students open the suitcase and thwart my takeover!


Some pictures of my students completing the tasks


 





Supplies I used (Click on the pictures)



(3 boxes)