The Teacher Binder

So I promised some pictures of my teacher binder and here they are! 

**Remember, I'm still building this and it will probably change as we get closer to school and then throughout the school year as well.

Calendars

- I have a monthly calendar and it's broken into sections.  I've purposefully left the dates off so I can print out the same thing next year and just enter in the correct dates.

- I've broken up my tabs into two-three months section.

 These are my planning pages. Obviously I'll probably have to tweak them a bit when I get my teaching schedule, but I made the boxes large enough for small post-it notes, which I think will be the way that I go this year.  I'm so tired to erasing and rewriting plans due to assemblies, early dismissal days (I always seem to forget) or other things.

 

I actually have this "Looking Ahead"  section first. 

Planning Notes

I have sections for Class Lists, Ideas, Meeting Information (any notes that we get at in-service meetings) and RTI/IEP information for students.

I already have some notes in my binder for the things that I want to work on this summer and ideas for bulletin boards, classroom set up, and more!

 That's my start so far and I need to update my tabs.  I used some old ones that I had left over from the years past.

Tomorrow is my day that I spend up at school helping with our summer lunch program.  Not sure what I will get finished, but I'm working on making the seat covers for my crate seats.  I found this on Pinterest, so I can't take credit for it, but it's a great idea.  I'll try and post some pictures as soon as they're finished.

Organizing, Planning, and Reviews!

SUMMER ORGANIZATION TOOLS
I stopped by Target for a few random things today and amazingly I walked out with much more than I had planned on buying.

Look at these!  They were in the dollar section!  I was really excited to find them and bought ten of them.  There were some bright green ones as well, but I am sticking with black.  I haven't decided yet what to use them for, but I know one of them will be used for pulling names.  I'm still brainstorming other ideas. 

I also picked up a few different note pads and pens and pencils for my reward box.  I love Target.

SUMMER PLANNING EXTRAVAGANZA
This week my plan is to set up by teacher binder as much as possible.  Obviously I can't really put this together.  For one, I won't have finalized class lists until a few days before school.  Also, I don't know what my teaching schedule will be yet.  So I want to be able to tweak things, but have a good solid basis for my teacher binder before we get there.  Then I can just fill it all in as I go along.   I'll try and post some pics of it as it begins to take shape over the next few days.

I also want to buy and make my crate seats.  Although I haven't seen crates at Target or Bed Bath and Beyond.  I did find them at Office Max, but they were $8 each and I didn't want to spend that much.  I'm going to Walmart tomorrow to see if they have them in.  I think I might have to wait a month or so, though.   I hope not.  I have plans man!!


READING UPDATE
I just finished Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel last night.  (Stayed up until midnight to finish it!)  I'll be honest, at first I thought I would be dragging myself through this book, but after the first couple of chapters I was hooked.  Half Brother explores animal experimentation and our responsibility to animals as humans through the eyes of a young teenage boy whose parents are scientists.  As part of an experiment, his parents bring home a baby chimp to be raised in their home as a part of their family.  I was very appreciative of the way Oppel had Ben questioning his parents, his friends, his mentor, and himself throughout the novel.  It was believable, just as believable as the relationship that forms between Ben and his "half brother" Zan.   I definitely recommend this book.  I think it's one that my students will really enjoy as well and I'm looking forward to sharing it with them.

Summer Plans

Even before school let out, I was mentally making a list of things to do over the summer.  Reader's Notebook.  Rearrange room.  Deal with my class library.  I was as ready for the year to be over as my students.  I needed a new start.  I felt like I needed a redo for the year. 

I don't think my year was especially bad.  In face I'm sure that I did ten times better this year than I did the last two, but after attending our IRC Conference in March there were so many things that I wanted to change.  I loved the experience, but I felt that my classroom was inadequate.  I used some ideas, but there were many areas that I just couldn't change in April with two more months to go!

Somewhere at school I typed up that list and saved it or printed it out and stuck it some place I would be sure to find it....  And now I have no idea where it is. 

Probably a good thing, though.  I need to rethink a lot of those plans.

Included in my summer plans was, of course, a lot of reading!  I needed to finish rereading The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mocking Jay.  Then my husband had been bugging me to read Abraham Lincoln Vampire Killer for about a month ("before the movie comes out," he kept telling me).  I continually put him off as I was reading this or that, but with so much time during the day I finally took up his offer.  I was hesitant, but couldn't put it down.  Then I turned to my list of informational texts about education (which is what I was SUPPOSED to start with, but had gravitated instead towards my other books).

There are about four of these books I've gained throughout this year and have only had the chance to skim through here and there. I was to read these first before buying any more educational books.  Then, while on Pinterest and searching through other teachers' blogs, I kept noticing one title that kept surfacing.  A title that I hadn't heard of over and over and over again until just recently.  The Book Whisperer.  (Maybe I've had my head in the sand, or just stuck in other books.  I don't know why I haven't heard of it until now.) I decided last night to buy this book on my nook so that I could start reading it right away. 

I was up until about 1:00 am.  So now I'm thinking that my lovely Summer To Do List is probably better off where ever it is.  Although I'm only about 50 pages in, I already have my mind circling around what to do with these ideas.  I mean she's right.  I have to wrap my brain around how I will be implementing some of these ideas.  How will I make this work in my classroom?  How will I convince my administration that this is the way to go address our concerns with RTI and struggling developing readers? How will I make it work for my 50 minute class periods and still include our practically brand new reading text books?   

So, for now I have started a new To Do list.  Many of them are things that just need to be done no matter what as I finish reading The Book Whisperer.  When I have finished reading I will begin to add as I tweak my classroom plan. 

My To Do's

• New classroom set up--figure this out so I can move this around as soon as they let me back in the room (move bookcases to make a reading nook, use sliding boards to display work, back bulletin board for celebration of books read)
• Make my own reader's notebook and use over the summer (started this and have been using and tweaking so that I will know how I want students to utilize theirs and have an example).
• Use the classroom organizer app to catalog my books.  
• Arrange books by subjects--my library is a disaster with books simply put into the shelves where ever they might fit.
•  Make crate seats to put in the reading nook
• Read Read Read!!!

Starting Out

This is my first attempt at a blog and I will be posting some of my experiences and ideas for teaching.

As a teacher of middle school students I have quite a few interesting stories to tell.  I am excited to share my ideas and knowledge as well as gain ideas from readers.

Stay tuned as I muddle my way through this experiment!