TeachersPayTeachers – The Teaching Texan

Teacher Planner Meets Facelift

theteachingtexan — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 21:28:00 +0000

Organization is the name of the game for many successful teachers. Having access to information, lesson plans, grades, and more in one place at any time is invaluable.

I remember when I started out with teaching. I ordered a fancy planner online and was set to go. While I loved the organization capabilities I couldn’t help but feel that I was paying for pieces that I didn’t need, nor want. I often wished that I could change aspects of the layout, colors, etc.

Three years ago I did just that! I created my own [Nautical Theme Teacher Planner].

Last year this planner received a few minor updates to bring it into the 2015-2016 school year, but it has received a complete facelift for the 2016-2017 school year! I am also able to offer the planner as a customizable [hard copy] now as well! This is great for anyone who doesn’t have the time (or patience) to assemble the planner themselves. And guess what? It’s still customizable! I’m excited to link up with Tara at [4th Grade Frolics] to share all the details!

Before I introduce you to the new planner… If you are a teacher-blogger, teacherpreneur, or TpT author you are DEFINITELY going to want to check out my all new [TOP Teacher Planner] designed with the teacher-author-blogger-extraordinaire in mind!

I am beyond excited to share some images of the planner with you today (and I’ll try my best to let the pictures do the talking). Meet the 2016 – 2017 Nautical Theme Teacher Planner!

For those who already own the printable version of this planner you will notice several updates right off the bat. First off, there are now FOUR editable covers to choose from! My favorite is the whale cover pictured above. What are the other cover options?

You will also notice that this planner now has tabs! OH MY GOODNESS! The ease of finding exactly what your looking for is fantastic. The printable version of the planner has a template that includes the tabs, while the hard copy planner comes with tabs installed.

Another new addition for the 2016-2017 planner is a holiday and important dates spread. Need to add more holidays or dates? No problem! There is space built in to add as you please!

What about birthdays? No worries! Keep track of your students’ and teammates’ birthdays on the two-page birthday spread!

As in the old planner, each month contains a full two-page spread and two note-taking pages. You’ll notice that the month spread have a sleeker overall design (and updated quotes for inspiration).

I am loving the clean look of the lesson planning pages! I also love that the planner can be customized to run vertically or horizontally with your choice of times/subjects/days!

Keeping a paper record of grades, attendance, or who has turned in a permission form has never been easier! Simply flip to your included checklist section!

Want to see what else is new? You can check out the editable printable planner [here] and the customizable hard copy planner [here].

Happy planning y’all!

The Little Explorers Debut

theteachingtexan — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 21:12:00 +0000

As I sit down to write this post I realize that it is mid-July. Wait. Summer, where are you going?!?

This summer has been a busy one for me with lots of PD, teaching a summer camp, and working on non-school related things. I’ve got to remember to tell myself to slow down for a few days and recharge.

Speaking of slowing things down a bit, I’m unveiling a brand new non-fiction series today that I’ve been working on like a madman. Literally… Now that I can share this awesome-sauce resource with all of you, I think I can take a backseat to working for a couple weeks.

So anyway, enough about that. Are you ready to see my brand-spanking-new non-fiction series? I hope so! But, I’m going to make you wait just a moment longer while I explain my inspiration behind it.

I’ve always loved science and learning about animals, gadgets, plants, etc. through non-fiction. When I started teaching I even wanted to just be a science teacher (OK, that may still be a dream of mine). I hoped to inspire my students to love science just as much as I do. As I jumped into the classroom, planning math my first year, I quickly learned that my school and team did not do the best job possible bridging and connecting content areas. I will raise my hand and admit that I was part of that problem. It just felt like an insurmountable task once we were knee deep in the school year to plan these big thematic units and gather all of the necessary materials.

Fast forward to my second year teaching. New school, new grade level. We, and I do mean my whole team, did a much better job of bridging content areas through thematic units. If our literacy unit was about the ocean, we spent time picking and connecting ocean-themed topics that fit the standards for science and social studies as well. But, it still felt like more could be done.

I could honestly see a difference in how my students connected with material. Because we were building and modifying kiddos’ schema across the board, they had an easier time fitting new pieces of knowledge into their existing framework. No more reading about automobiles in literacy block, then exploring plants during science, and being a good citizen during social studies. The choppiness of days like this literally made my stomach hurt.

I’d love to know other teachers’ opinions. Does it shock you to know that there are schools that don’t use thematic units? Or, is that how your school plans?

To make this already long story short, my goal is to make sure that I am prepped and ready for bridging content areas this year. I’ve got a road map for units through the year, and I’m spending my time on the front end putting together the resources I will use. Lucky for you, I’m sharing them!

Please welcome [Little Explorers: The Complete, NO-NONSENSE, Non-Fiction Resource]!

This is the road map for the year.

So once I had my road map laid out, what next? I figured ironing out the exact activities that needed prepped in advance vs. what could be done right before the unit was taught was important.

After reflecting a bit, I decided on a few must-haves for each unit that would help myself and other teachers easily connect reading, writing, science, and social studies.

I really feel like having all of these items ready to go is going to make this aspect of my year such a breeze. Now I can spend my time focused on working with my kiddos rather than that nagging feeling of everything I need to do to prep for the next day or next week.

Now, I should be clear and state that the whole year isn’t complete yet. It’s a growing unit so each month on the 15th I will upload the resources for the following month. But enough with those details. Let’s dive into what all is inside a unit. I think we’ll use the [Fantastic Farm] unit that is featured for August as an example!

As you can see, there are a TON of resources included for each non-fiction unit. My hope is that myself (and others) will have plenty to pick and choose from as needed.

I’m the king of trying to pull up all YouTube videos for the day, signing into each account, opening center rotation files, etc. in the morning before kiddos arrive. Nothing spells T-R-O-U-B-L-E more than having to log into a website or search for a video while kiddos sit by idly.

The Teacher Tips page is perfect for this because it lists recommended mentor texts, videos, and prep work. I even made the video pictures clickable for easier access!

Of course I love building in the thematic unit during small group or Daily 5 time. That’s why I included leveled readers for the topic accompanied with comprehension pages and close read passages.

Who doesn’t love to look at beautiful, full-color pictures? That’s the inspiration for the magazine-style articles in each unit. These articles are short bursts of information that dig deeper in the overarching unit. They are perfect for hooking students into a unit or as an extension. I can totally see these being perfect for small-groups, too!

And let’s not forget the importance of vocabulary and writing. Content-related vocabulary can be such a struggle for kiddos, especially English Language Learners and students with little background knowledge of a topic, so there are many resources included to bolster content-related vocab.

Didn’t I mention content-related vocab was important? This QR Scavenger Hunt is sure to be a hit! Last year was my first time delving into the world of QR codes, and my students LOVE using them!

Plenty of options for graphic organizers are a must.

Another idea I considered while designing this unit was that many teachers/schools only teach non-fiction text and text features as a unit during one part of the year, especially in younger grades. But why? Why are we not providing our youngest kids plenty of exposure to non-fiction texts early on? Well the included mini-book steps up the exposure and actually asks kids to utilize or create non-fiction text features. This way, using non-fiction text features is a daily, weekly, monthly experience rather than an isolated unit. I imagine this will greatly impact my kiddos as they move into higher grades.

Last but not least, are the engaging science experiments and recording sheets. I tried to make these as straight-forward as possible and think through some helpful tips for completing the experiments.

You can check out the current Little Explorer resources at the links below! There is much more to come in the future!

[Fantastic Farms: A Non-Fiction Farm Unit]

[Think Green: A Non-Fiction Tree Unit]

[Little Explorers Non-Fiction Yearlong Bundle]

TPT Seller Challenge Week 3: Create Your Masterpiece!

theteachingtexan — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 19:38:00 +0000

It’s week 3 of the #TPTSellerChallenge! This week is all about creating a masterpiece!

Let me tell you what, I’ve created just that! This labor of love has taken me several months to complete. But guess what?! It is finally FINISHED! It’s also the sibling of my best selling [Math Intervention Binder].

Before I jump into the specifics of my [Reading Intervention Binder], I’d like to share a bit of background on how intervention is done in my classroom.

First, lets start off by taking a look at when intervention happens in
our classroom. Each day (Monday-Thursday) we are fortunate enough to
have an Intervention Team (I-team) visit for a 50 minute block. The
block is divided into two 25-minute portions. During this time, the
Tier 3 kiddos work with an I-team teacher, while Tier 2 kiddos work with
me. I do one rotation of literacy, then one rotation of mathematics.
While all of this is happening, Tier 1 kiddos work on various activities
(AKA centers) such as iPad apps, math/literacy centers, read to self,
etc (similar to Daily 5 without the mini-lessons).

On Fridays we still have I-Time but the I-Team doesn’t visit the
classroom. I use this time to meet with some of my Tier 1 kiddos to
make sure that they are getting the necessary extensions that they need
to keep advancing. This is also the day that my Tier 2 & 3 kiddos
get to independently work during I-time through centers activities practicing the
skills that we have been focused on throughout the week.

All of this is great, but who has the time to make a bazillion-and-one
activities to target all of the MANY, MANY skills that we should be
covering during intervention??? I know that I don’t! Time with kiddos
during intervention is so precious that I need to be prepared, ready to
go, and in a hurry!

Fortunately, this [binder] has almost a bazillion-and-one activities! Let’s take a look.

The binder is conveniently organized into 6 sections: Phonological Awareness, Comprehension, Concepts of Print, Phonics, Vocabulary & Word Structure, and Writing.

These sections are designed to help you target specifically where a student is struggling (and easily)! They are also aligned to the NWEA Map Test. If your school uses MAP testing as a progress monitoring tool, this is perfect for you! It’s also a fantastic school if your school does not use MAP testing! My new school does not participate in MAP testing, but I will still use this resource daily because I have seen how effective it can be!

Here’s a closer look at what skills are covered in each section.

Phonological Awareness

Concepts of Print

Comprehension

Phonics

Vocabulary & Word Structure

Writing

I choose to utilize this resource as a binder with each page inside of a
page protector so that the kiddos can write on them in dry erase
marker, then erase them for next time! Hello time saver! However, you
could make class sets of specific pages to use as an independent
practice, homework, centers activity, etc. It truly is a versatile
resource!

This makes it so easy for me to have 3 different kiddos working on
different pages or skills at the same time because they are all
organized in one place! Let’s face it… just because you have 3 kiddos
in an intervention group DOES NOT mean that they all 3 need to work on the
exact same skills. But, how can you manage having three 5-year olds
work on different skills at the same time?? When it’s as a simple as
pulling out one page that targets each kiddos needs, it starts to become
a lot easier to target those areas of need!

In honor of the #TPTSellerChallenge, my [Reading Intervention Binder], [Math Intervention Binder], and [Reading & Math Intervention Binder BUNDLE] are all on sale until July 2, 2015!

Visit any of the hosts of the challenge to see lots of other fantastic masterpieces!

[Third in Hollywood]

[Sparkling in Second]

[Peppy Zesty Teacherista]

[Teach Create Motivate]

TPT Seller Challenge Week 1: Makeover Madness!

theteachingtexan — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 23:38:00 +0000

It’s week 1 of the TPT Seller Challenge!

If you don’t know about the challenge, you should definitely check it out and consider joining. It’s going to be a fun 4 weeks of teacher authors challenging themselves to be better!

Let’s take a snapshot of my beginning stats…

These numbers may not be high to some TPT teacher authors, but I am so proud of them! This is after 2 years of blogging and only one year of being a TPT teacher author. I hope for another successful year, and I know this challenge is going to kick start it!

This week is all about re-creating a cover or a product.

Well… y’all know me. I can’t just do one or the other. Yup. I did both – I re-created a product AND designed a new cover for it!

I decided to work on my [Editable Nautical Theme Teacher Planner]. The product needed to be updated for the 2015-2016 school year – and I never really created a cover for it in the first place.

Now this spiffy baby has a shiny new cover, product preview, AND has been updated. Excuse me while I pat myself on the shoulder! This was also my first exploration with using a real picture as a cover image. I must say I like it!

I love, love, loved this planner this year. When it was all said and done it cost me about $15 (much less than some of those other super expensive planners out there)!

Christmas Vacation: Mountains, Snow, Skiing, & Family

theteachingtexan — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 22:14:00 +0000

I hope everyone is enjoying their winter break! I don’t know about y’all, but I would be totally lost without these 2 weeks off! It’s such a fantastic time to recharge and hit the road hard in January with a refreshed mindset.

That, and it’s the perfect time to travel!

Speaking of travel, I wanted to share a bit of our vacation to Breckenridge and Denver last week. When we took our trip to Mexico this summer I felt like I took literally NO pictures, so I made sure to take plenty this round!

For some reason we chose to leave on Friday evening, just a few hours after school got out… That led to inherent CRAZINESS with trying to get home, packed (because I always do it last minute), and to the airport. This is our 2 suitcases, backpack, and tote bag BEFORE we called a friend to borrow another suitcase to separate some of the stuff from the large suitcase. No one needs to pay heavy bag fees…

Unfortunately the craziness didn’t end with packing… Our flight was delayed (many, many times) totaling 3 hours. The flight before us that was also headed to Denver was also delayed 3 hours – so we thought maybe we could get on standby for the earlier flight. We waited, and waited, and actually made it onto the earlier flight!

Our happy dance onto the airplane was short lived, though. We got on to find that the 2 seats we were given were already occupied. Come to find out the scanner had not read the 2 tickets for those passengers making them think they actually had open seats. So we un-happily danced right back off the plane.

Due to the delay we were going to also miss our shuttle from Denver to Breckenridge, and of course they couldn’t get us on another shuttle until mid-day the following day. Missing a day of skiing was NOT in our cards, so we were fortunately able to cancel the shuttle and rent a car.

Once all of this mess was out of the way it was time for our fantastic trip!

While we were in Breckenridge there was a winter storm for about a day and a half which totaled 24 inches of snow! You may say UGH, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the snow and it made for some awesome skiing!

To assist in keeping somewhat warm, we may have stopped ~~once~~ several times on the slopes throughout the trip for hot chocolate with a “spirited” peppermint addition! YUM!

This may have also given me the extra little courage to go down my first black diamond runs! For those who don’t know, a “green” is beginner, a “blue” is intermediate, and a “black” is advanced. This was only my second time skiing, but I was determined to go down a black and not totally wipe out!

By the 3rd day we were only doing black diamond runs. It was a GREAT workout and super fun! Certainly helped to solidify my desire to move to the mountains!

Anyway, that’s about it for the ski portion of the trip (minus the great food – but somehow I didn’t manage to get any pictures of it), so here’s some random scenery pics as we headed down the mountain to Denver!

The view while driving is just breathtaking!

Once we got to Denver we spent time with the mister’s parents and family. They are super fun to be around! (Again, I ended up not getting a ton of pictures while in Denver…) However, I did manage to snag this lovely photo.

If you can’t tell, that is a blanket wrapped around a tree! I guess it was cold? Completely random, I know, but I couldn’t resist getting photo evidence of this!

My favorite picture of the trip happened on our second to last day on the trip. We went with Dustin’s uncle, aunt, and cousins to a small mountain town to have lunch and take a train ride through the mountains.

It’s pretty awesome – even with Dustin’s uncle photobombing!

Well I think that’s about it for this trip. I’m feeling like I did a much better job snagging pictures this go round.

Only a few days of winter break left, and I plan on being super lazy!

AND, I almost forgot! I am throwing a sale in my [TpT store] from today until January 1st! You can head over and get a 15% discount off of everything! You can visit my store by clicking [HERE].

Wordless Wednesday: Thanksgiving Traveling

theteachingtexan — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:58:00 +0000

Rise and shine! It may be 5 AM, but we are officially on the road to Florida! Not to worry, I still made time to stop by to link up with [Miss DeCarbo] for a Wordless Wednesday post before we headed out.

You may be wondering how far of a trip it is from the Big D (Dallas) to Florida… Well, it’s right at 10 hours.

10 hours… in a car… Sounds awful! Fortunately, I actually like driving on long trips. It’s so calming to just put on a good Pandora station and jam down the highway. Of course I will be trading off with the mister throughout the drive so that I can work on a huge packet that is almost finished!

Time to hit the road. Before you head to another Wordless Wednesday post, leave me a message telling me what your Thanksgiving plans are! I hope that each of you have a fantastic Thanksgiving full of family and friends.

Monday Made It: A Bit of Turkey and Superheroes

theteachingtexan — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 13:34:00 +0000

How about the weather across the U.S. today?? I’m a little jealous of the snow in many parts of the country – good ol’ Texas is going to get up to around 80 degrees today. Can I trade with someone who doesn’t want the snow???

I thought I’d kick off Monday morning by linking up with Tara from [4th Grade Frolics] for her monthly Monday Made It linky!

I don’t have any awesome crafts to share this month, but I do have a couple of new digital creations that I would love to share!

I whipped up a fun little no-prep packet for Thanksgiving. We are really getting into the meaning of Thanksgiving, and I wanted some additional resources to use throughout the next couple of weeks. Voila! My first no-prep packet was born! You can check it out [here]. It’s full of additional literacy practice pages, math practice pages, word wall posters, and a fun craftivity!

My second creation is a superhero themed writing packet! My campus is a following a writing initiative this year to help our students become better writers. This Friday is a campus-wide writing day. All grades will spend the entire day going through the entire writing process (this should be interesting in Kinder!). Anyway, the topic is going to be to write about a time the student was a hero or someone was a hero to them. I decided we needed a super cute booklet so that our students will have a fantastic finished product to be proud of. It will also be great exposure for our kiddos to “write a book.” You can check out my Superhero Writing Prompts Booklet [here].

I hope everyone has a fantastic Monday! Stay safe in the weather! Only 2 weeks until Thanksgiving break – let the countdown begin!

It’s Fall Y’all TPT Sale!

theteachingtexan — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 01:36:00 +0000

It’s officially Fall which means it’s my absolute favorite time of the year! The cool weather, cardigans, pumpkins, Texas State Fair, and Halloween all make this my favorite season!

To celebrate the first full day of Fall I am celebrating my throwing a sale at my TPT store. Everything is 20% off from now until September 25th.

That also means that my newest creation [My Hispanic Heritage Month Book] is on sale too!

Share with friends and then head to [my store] to check out the goodies!

Happy Fall Y’all!

A Teacher Planner Dilemma

theteachingtexan — Fri, 01 Aug 2014 00:30:00 +0000

The other day I asked my readers if you used paper and pencil for planning or digital planning. I definitely had a mix of responses, which is great! Everyone has different preferences when it comes to keeping dates and planning lessons.

My preference is definitely paper and pencil/pen. I’ve tried so hard to do the whole digital calendar deal, but even with alarms set I still manage to forget things!

I guess it all goes back to upper elementary school and middle school when we had to keep planners with everything inside. It was a great skill to learn, but darnit if old habits don’t die hard!

Anyway, I bought a planner from a well known planner company last year despite the hefty price tag. To be honest I loved the planner! Well as I was searching around this year I saw some not so nice reviews about this planner company. Yes, I am aware that it is generally dissatisfied customers that are often more verbal about their feelings than are satisfied customers. I still didn’t want to chance paying that much money and not getting what I paid for. Plus, I couldn’t find a design that was exactly what I wanted.

I searched and searched for a different source to buy a planner but most were too feminine, or it was going to take 4-6 weeks to even ship! So… what did I do?

I made my own!

Now, my whole point here is that it really was not so difficult for me to do this myself and maybe I will inspire someone else to get creative (and save some money!).

Hang with me as I give you a virtual tour of my new planner, and then I’ll tell you just how much this baby cost me! Trust me, you’ll be as surprised as I was.

Inside the cover. I chose to include some of my favorite inspirational quotes throughout for when times get tough. I also included a 2 page Year at a Glance page so that I can jot down big themes, etc.

For each month I included a double page spread to keep track of appointments, extracurriculars, and anything else that pops up along the way! I’m big on taking notes – but misplace lose them! So, I knew it was important to have notes right inside my planner. I put a double page spread for each month to jot down important info from PD sessions, team meetings, etc.

And here is arguably the most important section of the planner. The lesson planning pages. Now, I probably won’t keep the detailed plans that I’ll have to submit here. Rather I will use the space to jot down materials I’ll need and the big idea of each lesson. I don’t like to teach with a copy of the lesson plan in front of me anyway, so this is a perfect refresher to see what’s coming up.

Finally, I have some pages for student checklists where I will check off when students turn in homework, bring back permission slips, etc. I also added some general note taking pages at the back just in case.

So that’s my planner in a nutshell. Ok, not quite a nutshell but you get the picture. I spent about 5 days designing the whole thing in PowerPoint and used all clip art that I had already purchased (BONUS!).

After printing the whole thing on 65 lb paper (this is important for longevity of the planner), I had Office Max laminate the front and back cover with 110 mil lamination and then bind the whole thing.

Ready to know how much it cost me? With the cost of the paper, lamination, and binding I spent a grand total of $13!!! I mean seriously, where can you get a planner for $13??

So, have I inspired you to create your own planner? You could even use the same type of template for a digital planner that you type right into.

If you absolutely love my Nautical Theme Teacher Planner, you can actually grab a copy of the EDITABLE digital file [here].

Check back tomorrow for a fun 5 for Friday post!

5 for Friday: Shopping Sprees, Productivity, and Sun!

theteachingtexan — Fri, 11 Jul 2014 13:02:00 +0000

Another week of summer is coming to an end… Part of me wants it to slow down, and part of me is ready to get back to work. I will say I’m leaning towards summer slowing down, haha!

Since it’s Friday, I’m linking up with DoodleBugs for her 5 for Friday linky (what else would I be doing on a Friday??) Here’s my 5 random things from this week…

This week I went on a little shopping spree, OK, 2 to be exact…

First, I went to Hobby Lobby to grab a few things for some things that I am making. Well of course they were having a sale! Almost all of the stamps/stamp pads, cardstock, and scrapbook paper was all 50% off! I was pretty excited! I also went and grabbed one of those drawer organizers from Home Depot, also on sale for $10, and I will be giving it a makeover this weekend.

Then, I went on a bit of an online shopping spree. Of course some of my purchases had to be some new swimsuits for Mexico! (Also on sale.) I LOVE them!! I kind of feel like the king of sales this week…

Here’s a pic from the little nuggets 1st birthday party last weekend. Check out that little ham and the mister!

This week I finished my Ending Digraph: Sound, Sort, and Spell packet and bundled it with the Beginning Digraph packet. I am so excited about this [Digraph Bundle]! Love this idea for some hands on practice with digraphs.

If you follow the First Grade Stampede Facebook, you had a chance to get this a Freebie earlier this week! If you don’t follow the FB page already, you can head [this way].

These will go perfect with the digraph sticks that I made a couple of weeks ago. You can check out how I made them [here].

I’m headed to the pool for the day! As soon as I get this post finished and a workout in, I’m meeting up with a good friend to chill in the sun! I dunno about you, but I love lounging by a pool and soaking up some rays! I also need some sun so that I can get more of a base tan before going to Mexico next week!

6 more days until I am laying by the pool here!!

Happy Friday y’all! Head over to [DoodleBugs] to check out some other 5 for Friday posts!