My New Digs Revealed!

As most of you know, I have moved from a spacious classroom to a luxurious closet  office this year in my new position. So now that the hustle and bustle of the first week has finally slowed down, I finally had some time to snap some photos for all of you! It isn't quite exciting as a classroom...I'll admit...but bear with me ;)! There are some things I am pretty excited about that involve my fab dual staff inside!

So here we are...step on in!

Here is my resource library. I compiled a variety of my favorite read alouds from my classroom and organized them by genre/content area for teachers to borrow and utilize with their students. Whenever I go into rooms, I may pull them for a lesson as well!

Here is the little checkout board I have hanging on my wall. (I know, i know...they have technology for this nowadays...but until I am blessed with an iPad, this will have to do!)

I also took my lovely little pink mirror from my classroom and placed it above my shelf. The frame statement that once said "The reflection of a superkid..." now reads "The reflection of a super teacher..."! (I know I am a total dork.) But teachers need some lovin' too, right?

I also hung this "Super Resources" bulletin board next to the resource library as a place to put information about upcoming events, interesting articles, handouts, sign ups, you name it for the teachers. 

As you move your way around this expansive space you get a nice glimpse of my beautiful modern pipe art ;)! I did try and get a little creative in tying one is as my magnet holder!

Here is my former guided reading cart turned storage place for resources I will be utilizing in the classrooms throughout the week.

And of course no office of mine would be complete without a little monkey action. I just couldn't part with them seeing as they make me think of all of my sweet kiddos over the years who have brought them to me!

I created labels for all of my bins, crates, file holders you name it. Tried to create a little uniformity (and get as organized as possible)!

Here is my actual desk space. I took the "LEER" letters that used to be in my classroom library last year and used wood glue to adhere them to a small board so they could stand on a shelf.

Finally one of my favorite areas in my new place is my "Super Inspiration" bulletin board. I added some of my favorite quotes in Spanish as well as am planning on pinning up cards, notes, and anything "inspiring" I receive throughout the year as a constant reminder as to why I do what I do!

You can snag your free copy of these quotes in Spanish here. There are 5 x 7 in size. It hasn't been tested on my end, but you may be able to stick them in frames as well!

Fonts/Graphics: Kimberly Geswein, Krista Wallden

Check out more classroom and space organization here:

and here ;):

First Day- Check!

Well...I survived another first day to live and share about it! I must say it was quite the different experience not having my own classroom this year! I didn't really know what to do with myself!

I spent the day helping where needed and going in and bugging checking in on how all of our amazing new dual staff was holding up! We have quite a few new teachers this year and it took me back to my very first day of teaching seeing the excitement they had when the kiddos arrived!

This being said, I tried to do something little to start the excitement right off the bat. Each of our Dual Language/ELL teachers received one of these fun little snacks in their mailboxes when they arrived!

This idea was actually inspired by First Grade with a Twist and you can find her original post here . She create something similar on Avery labels and stuck them on baggies for her kiddos the first day!

Mine I decided to attach with an orange ribbon instead that I simply hole punched through the goldfish bag. While these are obviously a little more staff oriented, I also created some that you could utilize for your students if you would like below. Both are available by clicking on the image :)!

Oh and last but not least...look what a little birdie dropped off in my office today. 

He told me he even requested green to match my office colors. I think I'll keep him ;)!

New Pinterest Group Boards!

In an effort to gather more ideas for my new position (as well as share useful ideas with you all), I have created two new group Pinterest boards that I am quite thrilled about!

The first is titled "Dual Language SuPeR Maestros". I created this board as a place for Dual Language/Bilingual teachers to share and gather ideas for the classroom. My hope is to get a TON of quality ideas from experienced teachers all in one place! If you are interested in following the board and/or contributing to the board you can click on the image below and follow the board directions :)!

The second group board I recently created is titled "SuPeR Coaching Ideas". I created this board in an effort to gather ideas for Instructional Coaches such as myself all in one place. We are talkin' ELL, Literacy, Math Coaches, you name it! This position and all that it entails is brand new to me, and I am looking to some of you who have been in similar leadership roles in your building to share your wealth of knowledge and ideas! Same as above, check it out and let me know if you would like to contribute, by clicking on the board image below!

Happy Pinning :)!

B2S Sale 2013!

Just wanted to remind everyone that today and tomorrow is the giant Back to School Sale @ Teacher's Pay Teachers! You can receive 28% off my entire store when you use the code BTS13! I've posted a few of my "B2S" faves from my store below for you all that are some great ones that helped me to get my room up and running on the right foot. Be sure to check out all of the other stellar TpT sellers sales as well - I know I will! Sale runs through tomorrow!

You can click on the spread below to head to my store to start shoppin (and savin ;)!

Teacher Week 13' - Parte Cinco

Today is the last week of Teacher Week 13' and the theme is teacher tips and tricks. Before I begin my post, I want to say that I have had so much fun this week not only sharing my ideas, but more importantly learning from all of you! There are so many inspiring teachers in this bloggin' world of ours, and I feel so blessed to be a part of it all!

That being said, this week one of my colleagues and I are hosting another meeting for our new teachers. We put our brains together to develop this "First Week Checklist" (a tip sheet of sorts) that we plan on giving them as a reminder of the key things that should be getting done before/during the first week of school! I thought I'd share it with you all today as it may even have some good reminders for you vet teachers as well! It should be pretty universal, although a few dates, specific names of what you call things may be different - but you get the idea :)!

Click on the image to grab a copy of the checklist from Google Docs.

Graphics/Fonts courtesy of Scrappin Doodles and Kimberly Geswein.

A few other fun tips for you all for this upcoming weekend:

Remember those adorable "turquoise capris" I posted a week ago...you know that super sale I found...got them for like $8 (click here for a reminder ;)). Well...because I spread the "Kohl's Love" I was provided with a discount code to share with all of you that will be valid on their website until Sept. 12. So hit up Kohls.com if ya'd like and get 10% off on something nice for your first day with the code BLOGIT10. 

Also, in other exciting savings news, this weekend is the big BACK 2 SCHOOL SALE at Teachers Pay Teachers. You can get up to 28% off at my store along with many others when you use promo code BTS13 on August 18-19. So get your shoppin shoes sweatpants ready folks, it's going to be a weekend of super savings!

PS. Thank you to The 3am Teacher for creating the adorable sale banner!

Teacher Week 13' - Parte Cuatro

Teacher Week 13' continues on folks. Today is all about classroom management. 

In our building, we utilize something called CBIS which, in a nutshell, is our school's version of PBIS. This is a school wide behavioral support system, thus we all utilize the same expectations throughout the entire building! 

Those include:

1) Put forth your best effort.

2) Be respectful.

3.) Be responsible.

4.) Be a model.

Here is the "Super Expectation" bulletin board we created at the beginning of the year together as a class last year. I hung each of the 4 expectations and then as we talked about them and what each entailed the students helped me to create pictures demonstrating these ideas to hang all around them. This stayed up all year.

Yes, those of you that speak Spanish may have noticed my error in "Se repetuoso"- I cringe when I see it and cannot believe it took me like two weeks to notice before I changed it! 

Anyway...I generalized these a bit for you all with pictures that represent the expectations a little bit better than my lovely superkids and have uploaded them to Google Docs if you'd like a copy to create your own bulletin board. Click on the image to download them in English or Spanish.

Fonts/Graphics: Print Candee, Kevin and Amanda, Scrappin Doodles

(And if you really want them with the superheroes like mine...feel free to leave me a comment with your email...and I could always send those too ;))

As a positive way to motivate students as well as hold them accountable to these expectations, I created a clip chart system for use in my classroom throughout the day. 

Here is what this clip chart system looked like:

This clip chart is a great way to encourage those students that always follow expectations as they can move up through the levels, as well as encourage those who may have lowered their clip as they have the opportunity to change their behavior and move up thoughout the day!

It worked perfectly as a complement to our CBIS system and it could def. be adapted, I feel, to meet the needs of many others as well! It's quite versatile and you can use it to meet your students/building needs as you see fit!

Yet again, I tried to generalize it a bit for you all as the "plan de acción/Action Plan" part was a little specific to my classroom. The levels are now: Super Job!, Excellent!, Very Good, Ready to Learn, Time to Think, Teacher Choice, and Parent Contact. There is an option for "El maestro decide" for my guys in Spanish as well! Grab the updated version in English or Spanish at my TpT store by clicking on the image below to utilize in your classroom this school year :)!

Teacher Week 13' - Parte Tres

It's day three of Teacher Week 13' and it's going to be a short and sweet one tonight folks as I am wiped out from a day of classroom organization with our new teachers! 

Fancy that, the theme of today is "classroom organization". 

Now, if you are interested in how I organized my classroom last year, you are more than welcome to check out my "classroom tour" post from last school year here. 

As you know...there is no new classroom photos to show this year...(but get pumped for some really sweet office ones in the coming weeks ;)).

However, I did want to share a little organization tip (and freebie!) with you all tonight. Once of the most important parts of effective classroom organization is not only in how you organize student materials, but your own materials as the teacher as well.

One of the things that has helped me greatly over the last year or two is having a variety of well organized binders to put all of that ever-so-important paperwork we have for everything under the sun! I am talkin' lesson plans, guided reading schedules, meeting notes, professional development handouts, you name it. It is important to keep all of it organized or it is so easy to have it get lost in the shuffle.

Here are some examples of my binders from this past school year (super themed of course).

Thought you guys might enjoy a cup of this organizational bliss as well, so I tweaked them a bit and made them a little more universal (simple- no specific theme) as well as made them editable so that you could change the name and school to personalize them for yourself. I also include one black template for you to add your own title if you would like. There are 9 covers already created + 1 create your own for a total of 10 in all.

Click on the image to download and enjoy. I would really appreciate your feedback, and good luck getting organized in the coming days for your kiddos!