Preparing for School Linky Party

Everything was purchased at Mardel.com.

I know I am little late to the party, but I was in math training all last week (I have tons to post about that coming up).  I am joining Mrs. Crouse over at 6th Grade All-Stars for a linky party about preparing for school.  I am going to share this sneak peek of goodies I purchased for my math room decor.  I plan on using much of this for my new Math Focus Wall.  I cannot wait to get into my classroom and put all the ideas I have swimming around my mind onto the wall.  If you are a follower of my blog then you most likely know that my classroom color scheme is pink, lime, and blue.  I decided this summer to add some touches of zebra to my color scheme.  The file folder holders are my favorite item that I purchased.  I am excited to    get into my classroom in a couple weeks and get going on the math focus wall.

What grade do you teach?  7th Grade Math and I absolutely love it.  If I were to teach anything else it would probably be 6th grade math.  Math is definitely my favorite subject to teach.  I taught 6th grade my first 7 years of teaching and I taught everything, except science which is my least favorite subject.  I blame my college biology professor from turning me off from science for life.


What was the greatest advice I received during my first year of teaching?  I don't remember any specific advice as my first year was a LONG time ago.  I do remember getting lots of great ideas from other teachers I taught with.  I also remember what a blast I had with my class and my coworkers my first year of teaching.  We had so so much fun! I used an incentive system called privilege points (two of my team members had this system) and my kids would do ANYTHING if it meant they got privilege points.  It was a great classroom incentive system.


Do you have a checklist you follow when preparing your classroom?  I did a blog post on the After School Routine I try to follow everyday so I come to school the next morning all set to teach.  As far as getting my room set up for a new year I have a much more extensive list that would probably overwhelm you as i overwhelms me every August when I look at in and see what I still have to do.  I will do a post on that soon.  I find having a list is extremely helpful so you don't forget the "little things" that are so important.  I will tell you that my categories for my list are:

• Bulletin Boards/Decor
• Organization (think of looking around your classroom at every single piece of furniture or space you decorate and make a list of what needs to be done
• Hook-ups (of the electronic variety)
• Summer Projects
• Lesson Planning
• Back-to-School

What are some must haves in your classroom that you cannot live without?  First and foremost would be my SMARTBoard.  I love my organization systems like using Day Files for materials that need to be handed out and Class Hour Files for keeping track of absent work.  I also could not live without my two Paper Sorters for organizing all the paper copies I make.   I cannot live without my Lesson Plan book to keep me on track with my pacing.  If we have a half day or some type of assembly I put a post-it note on that day so when I go to write my lesson plans, I realize we have a schedule change.  I have found that keeping my previous year's lesson plan book is an invaluable resource to watch my pacing and also I always put notes in my book after teaching a lesson if something needs to be modified or if it took more or less time than planned.  That is so helpful when planning the next school year.  This year my old lesson plan book with not be helpful at all because we have a brand new curriculum we will be following so nothing will be the same.  In this post you will see photos of my Lilly Notebooks.  I take either the small or large one to every meeting I go to if I do not bring a computer with me.  Who says school supplies can't be adorable?!  I also love am very particular about what I write with.  I am very particular about my writing the writing utensils I use in my classroom.

I cannot express the depth of my love for Flair pens.

I have the twelve pack, but now I want those other 6 markers!

Pink and turquoise are my faces, big surprise. ;)

What is something that all teachers should have in their classroom?  I think the most important thing all teachers should have in their classroom is a system of clear and well established routines and procedures.  The more systematic your classroom procedures are the more easily students will develop routines for how to do things in your classroom, thus saving precious minutes to be used on instruction instead of other classroom tasks.  Students crave consistency and well defined expectations.  Setting these up from day one and spending time the first several weeks of school going over them daily will sow the seeds for a classroom that eventually can run itself because everyone knows how to do things efficiently and effectively.

I WON!!!

This morning my local Office Depot store had their Teacher Appreciation Breakfast.  I got there a little after nine and it was busy, but not obnoxious.  I waited in line for a few minutes and filled out a raffle ticket with my information.  They had an awesome display of Krispy Kreme donuts, Starbucks baked goodies (all their cake pops and mini desserts), other bars and cookies, coffee, juice, and soda.  It was quite impressive.  I had a red velvet whoopie pie and a mini carrot cake cupcake.  Yummy!

I did some shopping.  I really did not have anything pressing that I needed to pick up, but it was nice to wander the aisles leisurely by myself (no boys along) and pick up some fun new markers and post-its.  I also got a new Fiskars scissors pack.  I have seen lots of teacher bloggers talk about how much they love Flair markers so I decided to see what they are all about.

My Office Depot goodies.

After making my purchases at Office Depot I headed out in the rain to JoAnne Fabrics.  I ended spending a couple hours in there wandering around and trying the find the perfect fabrics to use for a classroom banner I plan on making.  I think I hit the jackpot.  I cannot wait to put this all together and see the finished product.  While I was shopping my husband called and told me that I needed to call someone back at Office Depot.  

I am in love with my classroom color scheme!

I called the guy back and found out that I WON THE GRAND PRIZE!!  

My new awesome wireless printer/fax/scanner/copier.

What a productive morning it was!  We have a pretty nice printer/fax/scanner, but that is mainly for Greg to use for his business.  It will be so nice to have a color printer all to myself.  I am supposed to be able to print stuff off my iPhone and from anywhere via email or something.  We need to sit down and get is set up and figure things out.

We are now off to Bayshore for some shopping (nothing school related except maybe clothes), dinner at CPK, and some grocery shopping at Trader Joe's.  Hope you all are having as great a Saturday as I am!

Busy as ever!

I have been very busy doing lots of professional reading, trying to figure out how to implement math stations in my classroom this coming year, interviewing VP candidates (my #1 choice was hired YAY!), attending several committee meetings, and getting my classroom set up.  Here are a few new pictures of my classroom and a few new purchases.

The awesome pillows are from Sam's Club.  The ottoman and lap desks are from Target.

Posters and border from The Learning Shop a local teacher store.

My bookshelf for math stations materials and manipulatives.

This will be my "math corner".  The book cart full of textbooks will hold games and manipulatives once textbooks are handed out.

That's all I have time for right now.  I have meetings for our district wide K-12 math review today and tomorrow 8-4.  I have read so much this summer for the review and I plan changing up things quite a bit in my classroom this year.  I plan on doing some upcoming posts on instructional strategies that will raise student achievement, how I weaving literacy into my math instruction, information on how I am setting up my math stations (that is definitely a work in progress), and I will share pictures of my classroom as I get things set up.

My Target Finds from last week Part 2

Last week I did two trips to Target.  There have been so many lately I am losing count.  I get voucher money for being a math liaison this year so I am planning on saving my receipts this summer from my various shopping trip for reimbursement (for those of you wondering when my shopping madness will end).  It has been a few years since I did a major restructuring of things in my classroom and I feel this year is time for some change.  I am still diligently working on my math learning stations idea and am reading, reading, reading (check my Shelfari and you will see I am not messing around with all the professional reading I am doing this summer).

The latest Target haul

Colorful crates

Now where can I find a pink one?

I DO NOT recommend getting those food storage containers on top of the storage boxes.  I went to put some dice in one and it was difficult to get the top on.  When I tried to open it, the top cracked.  They would be trashed in two seconds with my middle school crew.

Come to mama!

Some magnetic letters to go with my numbers.  I could not resist the pink and green paper clip tabs and the pink goody bags.

Can't wait to get into my classroom and get everything organized!

More Target Love

I spent six hours at school yesterday working in my room.  I will do a post tomorrow about what I accomplished.  I also have before and after photos of my blue storage cabinet where I house most of my math manipulatives.  I will share a few organizing tips also, so check back tomorrow for all of that.

I made two Target shopping trips this week, on Sunday and yesterday.  I am sharing my purchases from Sunday in this post.  

Most of what I bought.

These will come in handy for organizing manipulatives and for Learning Stations material.

More organization.

These clips are magnetic and will be used for a variety of things.  I bought a few koosh balls to use for fun.

I think I may use this for dice or game pieces for learning stations.

This frame color was on sale.  I have an idea for this and will share once it is completed.

A few large storage containers.  Some post its and wrapping paper in my color scheme.

Sidewalk chalk.  I thought it would be fun for the kids to solve equations or do some vocabulary work outside.  Any other ideas?

Magnetic numbers for solving equations.  I purchased a set of letters.

A frisbee just for fun.

Some chairs for my classroom.  I have to decide if I want to keep these or  go with the rocking recliner floor chairs.

This is what they look like.

My collection is growing.  :)

I want to thank Hadar for featuring me at Target Treasures.  I am doing some serious revamping of my classroom set up this year and Target has the perfect items to incorporate into my classroom organization and math learning stations.  I also cannot help, but love the bright color scheme.  Pink is my favorite color and I love me some pink and green.  I think the addition of the blue balances things out a bit.  :)

Classroom purchases AKA My Target Addiction

I have been on a roll lately hitting up the Dollar Store and Target's Dollar Spot.  I have decided on a color scheme for my classroom organizing this year.  It is pink, green, and blue.  I love everything pink and green (that's just the preppy coming out in me), but I felt if I just went with pink and green it might be too girly so I threw the blue in for some balance.  

This morning I stopped at Target before going into my classroom to unload most of my summer purchases. I have taken over a bookcase in the living room with my teaching binders and other math resource books and I knew my husband was not too thrilled with all the bags of goodies strewn throughout the house.  I hit the jackpot at Target this morning with some items that were perfect for my pink, green, and blue color scheme.

Unfortunately not everything comes in my lovely color scheme.  I know these pocket charts are more geared toward the elementary level, but I will figure out a way to use them either in my learning stations or for classroom group work.

Everything is from Target except the green bin three pack in the middle of the photo.  Don't you love the color scheme?

I am bound and determined to do some Math Stations this year and will figure out a way to use those files either for the stations or for teacher created math games.  The scrapbook paper will be used for cutting out letters or something like that.

This is the shelf where I store all my math binders and other teacher resources.  Looking forward to adding more color this year.  Not sure how everything will come together, but I assure you it will all get used!

Blogger is misbehaving right now as I try to add captions to my last few photos.  When I add a caption the photo jumps to somewhere else in my post and it's super annoying.  The next photo is of some little planes I saw at the Dollar Spot and decided to buy to figure out a fun activity or learning station.  My students LOVE to do anything out of the ordinary and I know they will have a blast with the airplanes.    Now I just need to figure out what to do with them.

This last photo is of some random items I have purchased to use in my classroom.  I just love getting my classroom set up for the new school year and am looking forward to spicing things up with my new purchases.  I teach middle school, but I assure you my students love to a have a fun brightly decorated and very organized classroom.  I like my classroom to feel cozy and inviting to anyone who enters it.

This I am linking up to Love2Learn2Day's Math Monday Blog Hop and Target Treasures.