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Author Archives: Mrs. Jeff
Monday Made It #11 and My Green Wall!
Two weeks in a row! I am so proud of myself. I am linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics  for Week Eleven of Monday Made It! I have seen this idea around pinterest (My PD guide), and thought it was adorable.
These babies will be hanging from my ceiling by tomorrow! 🙂
In other news, my green wall is almost done!
I am constantly in awe of the cohesiveness of my school. Our 8th grade Math teacher took pity on me and helped me out. When I showed him my quart or paint he looked at me in disbelief. He didn’t realize that I only intended to paint a portion of the wall. It will be finished by tomorrow and I am as happy as a kid in a candy store!
Getting Down to Business
It’s starting….14 days before the kiddies come, and I better get busy! For the past two years I have had two classrooms, but haven’t done much with room #2. During the Transition camp tour it was called the party room, because the only thing I’ve done in it is had my “Jefferson’s Jams”. This year I have plans….BIG PLANS I SAY! I’m turning that room into a true Literacy Lounge. My classroom library will be over there, in addition to small group set-ups.
Yesterday I unpacked boxes and boxes of books and still have more! Today I will have help. Hopefully I will leave feeling some sense of accomplishment AND my sanity!
Wish me luck! 🙂
My Very First “Monday Made It”!
As I’ve been perusing other blogs, I see all the creative things teachers are making….and I am so jealous! Unfortunately the best drawing I can do includes stick figures and asking me to create something with my hands…ummm, just doesn’t turn out the way I see it in my head. So I figured “Monday Made It” (which is sponsored by Fourth Grade Frolics)just wasn’t for me…until…..
Eureka! I’m a tech geek and I make plenty of things using various technology devices so why can’t I use those for my Monday Made Its? So here is a video I created to introduce myself to my students using Animoto.
And now that I’ve found my niche’ there will be more to come….:-)
August….Currently
I have been seeing the montly “Currently” post around blogs but I had no idea how to do it. So thanks to Oh’ Boy 4th Grade and The Teacher’s Cauldron, I finally figured it out. Since, I’ve just done my Vistaprint post (find it here), I won’t retype everything that I ordered. But know that it is the highlight of my week! So here’s my August “Currently”!
Hi! My name is Carla….and I’m An Addict!
It’s official…I am a Vistaprint addict! I have been using this website for the past two years but only minimally. My first purchase were postcards to I send home to parents in the mail about how well their child was doing in class.
Positive Contact Postcards
At our school, we are required to make 5 positive contacts monthly – and Vistaprint made it a breeze!
This year, our sixth grade team of teachers decided to create AA (Advisor/Advisee/Homeroom) teams focusing on our college mascots. We definitely want to make sure our students know that our goal is for them tograduatefrom college. So we made banners that focused on our team mascots.
Team Banner
After that, I just lost it! I have created magnets for parents, positive contact business cards, and rubber stamps – and I’m not finished yet! The best thing about all of these items is that the majority of them are free! That’s right, I said it, FREE! I did pay $5 for the banner and you have to pay shipping for the items. But let me break it down for you. In my last order I paid $20 for the banner, 250 business cards, 25 post-it notes, 25 magnets, and a small rubber stamp!!!
Agenda Stamp
Contact Magnet
Positive Contact Card
Drop on over to Vistaprint…you’ll be glad you did!
The Versatile Blogger Award!
Thanks to Hodges Herald and Being Elementary in Middle School for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award!
Guidelines for the award:
1. Thank the blogger who nominated you (and follow their blog)
2. Link back to the person who nominated you
3. Include the award image in your post
4. Give 7 random facts about yourself
5. Nominate other bloggers for the award
6. When nominating, include a link to their blog
7. Let other bloggers know they’ve been nominated
Seven Random Facts About Me:
- Before I found audiobooks, I used to read and drive.
- I collect children….I have six adult god-children.
- I performed at the Apollo Theatre with my college girl group
- My favorite book is Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret. I used to practice the chest exercises daily….now I wish I hadn’t.
- I spent 1 year in Italy when my dad was in the military (I don’t remember it because I was 2…)
- I knocked out my four front teeth by falling down the steps in my cousins’ college dorm – it’s the same college that I went to.
- I am addicted to Smurf’s Village.
And here are the nominees:
No Boyz Allowed Book Review
No Boyz Allowed by Ni-Ni Simone
This book is written from the point of view of Gem, a teenage girl who has been in the foster system due to her crack-addicted mother’s inability to take care of her and her little brother. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.
Book Summary:
True story: I’m Gem, G-E-M, like a precious jewel, and my life has been nothing like my name. I’ve been on my own since I was nine and now I’m sixteen. But so what. I’m good, and so is my little brother. So why the state won’t let us do our own thing is beyond me. Instead, we’ve been forced to live with a foster family who wants to love us, but I’m not beat—I’m just trying to do me.
To make matters worse, I’ve been checking for this guy, Ny’eem. But my new clique has an unbreakable rule—no boyz allowed to come between our friendship—which is forcing me to keep my relationship with Ny’eem a secret. Though not for long. . .because in high school secrets are always exposed, scandals always rewrite the rules, and friendships are never what they seem. . . .
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My middle school girls love Ni-Ni Simone! I found her books last year and grabbed all that I could find. I now have none left…..I was robbed! These books are pretty realistic (well except for the fact that a sixteen year old wears True Religion jeans and 4 inch heels), and the drama is waaaaay familiar to my girls. Ni-Ni’s characters are so vivid and full of life, I found myself laughing out loud throughout the entire novel. I love the McKnight family (Toi, Seven, and Man-Man) and I gain pleasure in being able to reminisce about high school loves and life.
My favorite quote:Â Right after the main character breaks up with her boyfriend because she found out he was cheating on her (supposedly)….
“Ny’eem softly turned my face toward his and said, “Keep it gutter with me in my face. Now say it since you loved me yesterday and hate me today. Look me in my eyes and tell me that.” ….and in case you were wondering, yes, I know it is so ghetto, but I have always had a penchant for bad boys (since I didn’t marry one – I love teaching them 🙂 )
The only thing I didn’t quite like was the fact that the book insinuates you should always trust your guy over your kinda sorta maybe friends….and that boys never lie…
All in all, Ni-Ni Simone is still my all time favorite young adult urban author. I know you’ll love her! My girls (and some guys)  definitely do! 🙂
The Moment of Truth Arrives….
6th Grade Academy Participants
After weeks of planning and hours of eating, sleeping, and begging – we were able to see the fruits of our labor Operation Sixth Grade Transition Academy initiated! :-). Although not perfect, everything went wonderfully!Â
When students first entered into the gym, my principal had music playing. The bus was late, but that was actually a good thing – because it allowed us to be able to get ourselves together (personal hectic morning). Once we began, he welcomed everyone and reviewed our school motto: Tiger PRIDE. Then he introduced faculty and staff members who were present and our student ambassadors.Â
After that, we participated in a few team building activities. This year we are implementing the “Full Value Contract”. The components include: Play Hard, Play Fair, Play Safe, and Have Fun! If students follow these four components we should have minimum problems during group activities. We then dismissed students into their homeroom classes for our activities.
We did find that we had under estimated our time – but we revised the schedule for today to play catch up. Yesterday, half the students participated in a school tour and a Who’s Who Scavenger Hunt – while the other half organized their school notebooks. Today, we switched roles the first part of the morning and then spent the latter part of the morning working with lockers…..whew!
ActivInspire Scavenger Hunt
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I was able to take information from my Daily 5 reading and practice, practice, practice procedures. Students demonstrated the correct model for a procedure, then I had another group of students model the incorrect model followed by the correct model. Eureka! It worked! Why didn’t I think of this before?
Reason number one million and one that I LOVE my principal? After paying for student materials, food, and t-shirts my principal found money to pay us (our 6th grade team) for our time on yesterday and today……Booooyaaaaah! Isn’t he the greatest?
After these two days – I am exhausted! It felt like the first day of school…..two weeks early! But, the students felt the camp was so beneficial and so did we. But I guess only time will tell….
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Transition Camp…The Days Before…..
Binder Covers and Spines
On Friday two teammates and I visited the school to prepare for our 6th grade transition academy. If you haven’t read my earlier post, click here to play catch up. We were fortunate to also have two former students join us in this monumental task.
As we walked into the workroom, we faced at least 25 boxes full of the supplies we ordered. That didn’t even include the boxes that were still packed in my trunk. Unbelievably, we got everything down to our hall in three short trips. While the girls organized the purchased materials, my teammates and I handled paper work. Between the five of us we were able to:
- Set up the students’ binders with paper and tab dividers
- Create a spread sheet for all the students who pre-registered…
- Create labels to place on the T-shirts (which are being printed as I type and look fabulous!)….
- Assign lockers to all the students and create locker labels with the locker number and combination. These labels will be placed on notecards for them to slide in their binder…and
- Create, print, and copy binder covers and spine cards!
Binders and Materials
The binder covers and spines look fabulous (if I do say so myself)! We used our school colors (blue and gold) for the spine so they an distinguish between the binders and red covers. Our students wear uniforms and this year the 6th grade polos are red. We had to go back in today…*gasp* on Sunday to finish, but I’m very excited about what we have done. The positive side to the creation of this academy is that we have created an activity that we think will be very helpful to our students (who go from no class changes to six in one year).The negative is…..MY ROOM IS A MESS!
Unfortunately, my students will walk into a bare classroom on Monday….but boy will they be surprised when they walk in on August 20th! When I walk out that classroom on Thursday the goal is for both my rooms to be 80% complete or better! But, that conversation will have to be another post….
Cross your fingers and wish us luck….the adventure begins on Monday…..