BlogLoving Blog Hop

I'm awake at 6 A.M. and school's not even in session. So why not throw down another post, eh?

Since today was my first ever Linky Party (see the post below this one), what better way to celebrate than to join one myself. I am linking up with A Teacher Without a Class and her awesome LAMINATOR giveaway to let folks know that Google Reader as a blog reader is gone. I'm trying out Blogloving as a means of keeping all the blogs I'm following in one neat little place for me to go through.

It's free and fun as you scroll down all the recent posts from each of the blogs that you are following. You can even catch up with your blogs on your mobile phone, how cool? You can follow my blog once you've signed up on Blogloving by clicking  on the button on the right column of my blog.

Also, here's the code to enter your link if you decide to join in on the Linky Party fun.

Friday Fun - Math Literature Linky Party

You may use this title icon on your posts as well. Just right click on the picture and "Save Link As" to your own post so that it links back to this page.

Here's the fill-out form for your book to post on your blog:

As promised, here is my first Linky Party EVER!

For this section of Friday Fun, I am going to ask y'all to share your favorite Math Literature connections. Last year we had an amazing Math Coach at my school that loved tying math and literature together for students to further their knowledge of both topics.

One of the books she used in her series of Math Literature was the Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns.

Now for my write up:

After you read this book to your students, you can pass out the following sheet for them to fill out on their own. (It's available here The Greedy Triangle Write Up)

 The students get to choose one of the shapes the Triangle goes through and apply it to shapes that they've seen around them. Encourage them to think of some really unique uses for their shape, like the shape made by people bending their elbows! This lesson will get them thinking about how the author gave several creative ways that geometric shapes can be found in the world around us. Their unique minds will think outside the box and show you some insight into their personalities. Be prepared.

Go ahead and click on the link below to add your Math inspired literature ideas. Can't wait to see what everyone posts. Thanks for joining my party!

OH, if you want to add the links to the bottom of your post as well, there's a neat little "grab the code" button underneath the Add your Link button below. Just stick this HTML code at the bottom of your post and Voila!

An InLinkz Link-up

Thursday Tutorials - Linky Party

Happy Independence Day y'all!

I heard the history of this day put into perspective by my niece's FB status this morning:

"Okay guys, one more thing, this summer when you're being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don't forget what you're celebrating, and that's the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn't want to pay their taxes." ;)

 She's so cute.  Love that she used the word brouhaha, it's such a throwback to seventh grade English class with Ms. McGovern.

 Today I thought I'd focus on providing a little tutorial. This is going to focus strictly on technology and not specifically for use in your classroom. Once I got the idea settled I had to think what I wanted to share on this day of Independence. The problem I've been trying to solve in the past few days for myself was the mysterious phenomenon known as a "Linky Party." A ton of the blogs I've been visiting through the TpT community seem to have conquered this strange method of binding themselves together into a tight knit group. 

 Never wanting to be left out of the loop, I want to decipher the code that surrounds the Cool Group. As I struggle to get it working for my blog, you are coming along with me for the ride. Are you ready? Got a cool drink and a cookie? Let's go!

1. The first thing I always do when trying to create something is to head over to Google. So I typed in: How do I create a linky party. The first site it took me to was It's a Blog Party that claims to  know the secrets behind linkies in the post "Building your Blog: Host a Linky Party." We shall see. 

2. One of the things you definitely need in order to host a linky party is a 'button.' This is a little image that acts as a link back to your blog. You can see mine off to the right under the Grab My Button heading. You can add this to your Blogger site by adding the gadget HTML to your blog and sticking the code you see under my button into the gadget box. Just make sure that you change the information between the parenthesis over from my blog site to yours and then change the information between the second set of parenthesis from my image location to yours.

You'll have to load your image up to a separate  sharing site such as Photobucket and grab the direct code from that site in order to plug into the HTML code above. 

3. Next you'll need to build your own linky platform. There are two choices that I looked into Inlinkz and Linky Tools. Both are free to join, but if you want the real benefit from the program, you'll need to pay about $2 a month for the upgrade. YES! There's money involved. Just wanted you to be aware of this before we move forward. 

I think I'm going to go with Inlinkz. Their website just looks cleaner and they offer a discount of $20 for the year if you pay at once. Save yourself $4 for some Starbucks, right? Once you are all logged in and confirmed your subscriptions through your email (there will be two, one for newsletter and one for the site itself, make sure you confirm both or it won't let you log in) you'll have two choices: Go to Dashboard, or Project Manager. 

Your first Linky Party with thumbnail images is totally free. After that you are allowed text only Linky Parties. If you want thumbnails (much more fun for me) you'll need to change your subscription over to the paid service. Let's do that first. Click on "Account" at the top and click on the blue "Extend your Plan" button next to link-up tool subscription. You'll see payment options there. I chose the $19.99 for one year - save 18% option and paid it off. 

If anyone also wants to join this site, here is My Referral Number

4. Now you're ready to start your very own Linky Party, or "Collection" as Inlinkz calls them. Click on the "Create New Collections" button and give your Linky Party a name. 

5. Give it a duration of time that you'd like it to run:

6. Then set up the information for how you want the links to display:
(here I am going to go with the suggestions provided by It's a Blog Party
since they seem to know what they are doing).

7. Finally, you have the option to be emailed when someone links up. This way you can check for spammers and such to delete that mess right away. Also, if you are going to repeat this type of collection again in the future and want to save the settings, create a "Meme" name for it and it will show up under the "Add new based on" pull down at the beginning of your dashboard. Save yourself some time.

SUBMIT!

8. You'll get this gobbledy-gook HTML code that you can include in your post. When you're ready to start the Linky Party, create a new post and go through the motions of explaining it all to your loyal readers. Then when you are ready to include the Inlinkz information (usually at the end of your post) you can switch the post content "Compose" to "HTML". I see it sitting at the top left of the screen underneath the Blogger icon and my blog name. Once in HTML, just insert the Inlinkz HTML code you saved earlier at the end.

9. Preview your blog to see the actual link box happening to see if it all looks perfect.

10. Then you are ready to publish your first Linky Party.

I really hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment or email me (that icon is at the top of the page in the far right corner, just click on the little envelope icon).

Stay tuned tomorrow when I release my first ever LINKY PARTY! Hope to see you there. 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday Writings - Mentor Text

TWO LINKY Parties for me in one day! 

I love writing. Words fascinate me, especially how several different people can take a handful of words and put them together is such different ways. Writing is a way to express your soul and connect with others through visual experiences. Writing opens up doors and gives people impressions of you before you even walk in. I love writing.

For this week, I thought I would try up a LINKY party with those Collaboration Cuties. They are compiling a list of great mentor text to use at the beginning of school. Check out their site for a terrific list of books to use when those fresh new faces wander into your room.

My book choice for the sheer fun of it is definitely:

I Wanna Iguana by Karen Orloff and David Catrow is a personal favorite. The letters written between an overeager son trying to convince his mother, and a mother having some serious doubts is wonderful. I think it's the illustrations that really grab me about this fun little nugget. They just so fun and goofy that the kids love looking at the book over and over.

I would use this text to get them started thinking about the Opinion Genre (Persuasive in another life). They have to express and opinion and back it up with proof, just like Alex in the story. He does do a little begging, which is a trap we don't want students falling into when writing this genre. Rather, backing up your ideas with evidence will convince your reader to agree with you. The students would write to me or another student in regards to something they feel strongly about. Then that person has to write back to give the author that sense of communication, just make sure to remind them to be positive with their responses.

If you like this one, you'll love the new edition to the series: I Wanna New Room. Check them out.

For my second Linky of the day (last week, I didn't even know what a Linky was, ha!) I am linking up with Ideas by Jivey for her ideas on setting up a workshop in your classroom. Since my topic today is Writing, I will stick with that.

One of the things I do before the kiddos arrive is to create a Steps to Good Writing board. This is an area in the classroom where the students come up and move a clothespin from each of the steps to show where they are in their writing. This way I can quickly see who is spending too much time in the Drafting stage. Now I've used tons of things for this in the past. I've had separate pieces of paper, plastic plates, one long wall chart, etc for the students to show where they are. None of these has worked perfectly for me. The chart gets ripped, or the clothespins don't stay on the plates and they fall behind my bookshelves (GRRR). If anyone has the perfect method for this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave me a comment below!

The Steps I use are Planning, Drafting, Revising, Editing, Peer Editing, Final Draft, Publish. Each has a little reminder about what to do at each step. I am going to try and provide you with what I remember for each of the steps. Since I'm not at school right now, I don't have easy access to my files. So bear with me.

Planning: (15 min)
*Get your ideas down
*Jot down everything you know
*This is not the time for complete sentences

Drafting: (1-2 days)
*Choose one idea from your jots
*Jot everything you know just on this topic
*Choose one main character and two supporting
*Don't worry about spelling
*This is your Rough Draft
*Skip lines

Revising: (1 day) I usually attach a colored pencil to this step so they remember to use one for revising
*Make your verbs stronger
*Add sensory details
*Organize your thoughts
*Look for moments to EXPLODE (give more information to your reader)
*Take away extra ideas

Editing: (1 day) A different colored pencil is attached
*Check all spellings
*Watch your punctuation
*Have you capitalized correctly?
*Does your story make sense?

Peer Editing: (10 mins)
*Read your story outloud to a partner
*Partner is allowed 3 suggestions
*Make changes with colored pencil

Final Drafting: (1 day)
*BEST handwriting
*Don't skip lines
* INDENT

Publish: (1 day)
*Create a cover for your story
*Think about new ideas

Hopefully this helps you out as you get started in your Writer's Workshop!

Tried It Tuesday- Blog Makeover

WHEW!

I just spent five hours making my blog all pretty and inviting. It took me a while because I just switched my router over and it didn't help make it faster. Now it's slower. Grrr.

Thanks to Jessica Sprague and her Bloom Your Blog class I think I made it more open and inviting. I love the handwriting font. It just makes it look more personal. Jessica's classes are so great. She's got this way of making things that would boggle the mind so easy, even HTML!

For my Try This I would definitely tell you to go check out this self paced class if you want to give your blog some more flair. Don't worry. If  you have questions there are mentors available to help walk you through it.

Oh, what do you think of the new look? Post a comment or two, if you'd like. Thanks.

Mentor Monday - FB Tabs

It's JULY already? My poor teacher heart is shrinking three sizes at this news. That means I only have 30 days left of summer vacation. Oh WOE is me! To take my mind off of this, I thought I would use my corner of the blogosphere as a way to let you in on all the things I've learned over the past week.

Now this column is probably going to take many weird turns as the weeks progress. Right now it's going to be a lot about how it's going with my TpT store. That's Teacher Pay Teachers, which you can find my stuff for sale here: TpT.

When school begins again (EEK) it will probably morph into a Common Core tornado, so just be prepared.

Today's lesson is going to be about how to add some really cool links onto your Facebook page, I think they are called tabs. They are the buttons that sit under your cover image next to 'Photos' and 'Likes'. Christi Fultz has an incredible blog full of great tips and advice for the teacher bloggers. In this particular post I read, she was discussing how to add these buttons through a free program called WooBox. You can read her tutorial here: Ms. Fultz's Wednesday Work your Blog. Her video is very helpful in figuring out how to get these links to list to all your important information such as your TpT store and your Pinterest boards. Make sure you check out the one about how to add a FanGate in case you are thinking of including some giveaways. Very interesting.



The only trouble I had with following her tutorial was I couldn't figure out how to add a tab. I spent a lot of time clicking on the little drop down arrow next to 'Likes' on my page and trying to decipher the cryptic choices FB gave you to add stuff there. It wasn't until after I watched Christi's two videos that I figured out I had to go to another site (WooBox) to design the tabs. After that, I put up three in no time flat. Oh, while you are designing make sure you notice the teeny tiny size of the tabs you are to create. 111x84 pixels, really? That is small.

Tune in next Monday to see what else I learned. Should be fun since the Fourth of July is fast approaching. I think I might go white water rafting. If I don't make it back next Monday, you'll know what happened.

G'night. 

Have you seen my TpT?

It has just about blown up overnight!

Remember how I was telling you that Jessica Ivey had a great idea? Turns out it was much easier than I thought to repackage all of my old digital scrapbook kits into items to sell on my TpT Store. I was able to bang out SIX new items yesterday and they are all up at the store. If this keeps happening, I might need to have a sale soon.

Oh, it also kinda helped that I had to sit and watch the four gents from CoolRay troop through my house for nine hours while they replaced the entire air conditioning and heating units. Boy was it hot in here. We upgraded our system from an 8 SEER rating to a new fangled wifi 17 SEER rating. You should see the new thermostat we got. It talks to the internet and provides weather reports and can show us how much daily we are using for gas and electric. So cool.

Now if it would only do the dishes. But, I got a lot done and hopefully the trend will continue and you'll have tons to choose from the next time you visit me over at the TpT site.

Can't wait to hear from y'all about how you're using these products.

TpT New Upload

Okay, so while Jessica Ivey and I were cringing and covering our eyes watching World War Z, she came up with a plan.

She is doing some wonderful stuff on TpT and gave me the idea to go back through my old scrapbook kits to use for selling on this site.

*Lightbulb Goes Off*

As a way to get started on that, I came up with a little freebie for y'all to use. It's a little tutorial with screenshots and such to help you figure out how to put frames, papers, and clipart onto MSWord documents.

It's free, so go and download it today! My MSWord tut

Would you like a Free book?

In honor of my anniversary, I am giving you a present. If you go to this link and follow the directions on the contest post, you could win a free (FREE!) copy of my book.

You just have to like the post, or you can like it and share it. I would love that.


 Our Month in Paris Contest

Our Month in Paris - An eBook

After a year long adventure that ended with me strolling down the Champs-Elysee gnawing on a baguette, I managed to get my thoughts down on paper. Those thoughts turned into 124 pages when it was all done. What else could I do with it than turn it into a book. I had purchased many an eBook off the internet from this place called SmashWords not to look into it. SmashWords is a self-publishing institution that allows the authors to offer their works up for the public good. I thought it would be the best way to get my book out to the world. I pushed the button on Oct 14th of 2012 in honor of my furbaby, Scudder's what would be 13th birthday. I love looking at it online. It's gives me the giddies. If you have ever thought of traveling to Paris, you should check this out! Our Month in Paris

Math Exemplars - Gotta Love Them

I have a kinda Love-Hate relationship with math word problems. I see the basic need for the students to be able to attack these kinds of questions with skill. But teaching them to pull a four sentence prompt apart is harder than it sounds.

Exemplars is just a fancy term used to cover math word problems that require the kids to do a lot of thinking to find the answer. They combine reading skills, analysis, computation, reasoning, vocabulary, and writing skills to complete. They are a complete educational package in one! I've been using them twice a week in my classroom as part of our Calendar time.

I print out a word problem that uses their names to increase the participation. The students glue them into their math journals and then use a variety of techniques to complete them for the morning activity. I teach them simple strategies first, such as the CUBES method I found on Pinterest this summer. The kids just Circle important numbers, Underline questions, Box math vocabulary, Explain their thinking, and then Solve the problem.

Getting them to do this every time is a chore reminiscent of pulling teeth. But if you keep after them they will start internalizing the process. After the first quarter of school, I boost it up to the next level. G E P P S. This is more labor intensive but you get a really good insight into how they are thinking and if they can explain their process in a coherent manner. I've uploaded an explanation of this model over at TpT.

You can check it out here: GEPPS MODEL

I also put together my first set of 20 exemplars that start the school year off in one package that includes an Answer Key here: Set 01

I do believe the effort and time is worth putting in with these word problems. It really helps the kids focus on what the questions are asking and not to get tripped up in too much verbage. The BIG TEST is always chock full of these and this is a great way to help prepare them for that day. Have fun!

Planetary Project - Text Features

I was wracking my brain trying to figure out a project to do with the kids for our Science unit on Planets. I didn't want to be stuck doing the same old model of the solar system and have to grade tons of painted styrofoam balls this year. Flipping through our pacing guide for the second nine weeks, I spy my salvation. Text features!

I know, it doesn't sound like such an inspiring topic. But I began to think of how to make it work for me. Why couldn't I have the students create a research project on the planets that makes use of all the text features I have to teach? Kind of like a first hand experience, eh?

So I came up with this little seven page project that you can print out for the kids. You can pick it up for yourself, right over here: Planetary Project

 

Let me know how it works out for you!

Planet Postcard - FREE resource

I am so excited to start teaching our unit on Planets tomorrow. One of the first things I plan to do is share the story from Loreen Leedy, Postcards from Pluto. It's a tale of six children that venture out into the solar system and send their parents postcards from their stops. I plan to have my students make their own postcards to hang out on our bulletin board. The front has a spot for them to illustrate their choice of planets. The back has a traditional postcard format for them to write home with some amazing information they've learned on their journey. What's great about this is I am giving y'all the postcard for FREE! Send me a comment and let me know how you plan to use it. Teacher's are always the best at sharing, aren't they?

Planet Postcard

New Venture - TpT

If you haven't already been redirected to the site, TeachersPayTeachers, while browsing educational ideas over at Pinterest, then you are missing out! There are so many incredible resources available for the classroom and some of them are even free! Well, I have decided to throw my hat in this particular ring and give y'all a way to access my AWESOME brain. Actually, bragging aside, it's a way to acquire some really cool ideas and have someone else do all the hard work. So, if you are interested head on over to my 'store' at TpT and pick up some cool resources. Thanks! ScrappyGuy at TpT

Careful - Pinterest will SUCK you in!

As school got closer my Pinterest fascination grew exponentially. I am finding such awesome ideas to get my classroom ready for the new year. I am pinning like crazy and making so much. I love it, but I do need to spend some time doing other things, such as eating, sleeping, etc. My latest creation makes me so happy because it came out so cool. It is a behavior chart that also includes an area for students to move UP into the Outstanding column. So often those really great students are forgotten as you struggle to keep those interruptions in their seats. It's time we praise the GOOD! On that note, I created this chart with the Super Hero theme in mind. I used the amazing Super Pop Pack papers by DesignbyDani to be found at JessicaSprague.com. Here's a link for ya: http://www.jessicasprague.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.pbv.tabs.tpl&product_id=2399&category_id=31&keyword=super+hero&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=317

Y'all know I love me some WordArt. Wordle was a revelation. But now there's Tagxedo! Much more control and fun shapes to work with. It's a bit of a learning curve though. Here's one I made for the start of school!

Lookee what I made! It was Gordon's idea to save up all the Metro tickets while in Paris. For the entire month I couldn't stop myself from bending over to pick up all the littered tickets that were everywhere. This project uses all of the ticket stubs and restaurant cards we also gathered like squirrels' nuts. I used ModPodge to adhere everything. I wasn't liking how the tickets faded into the background so I modged them onto cardstock and cut out a small edge to make them stand out better. I like how it turned out, eventhough the S is a little wonky.

Lookee what I did!

Jessica Sprague is so COOL!

SADNESS! Blog Train has pulled out of the station

What fun we had, though. Right?
I can't thank Kelly enough for putting this together for all of us to enjoy.

I put all of your comments into the Randomizer and came up with one lucky winner.

She is going to get my FULL digital kit called Viva Venizia.

I am sending all of your names to Kelly for the opportunity to win other stuff. So if your name is not at the top of my random list, there is still hope!

Okay, so here's the winner:



Congratulations to Ann! I am going to send you think link very soon for your free kit.

Thanks again to each and every one of you for playing!