Do You Have New Year's Resolutions/Goals for Your Classroom?

This school year has been a year of trying new things and starting over to try to get things working better....

I wrote about some of my upcoming goals for the classroom in my guest blog post here at

I have one more to add after a conversation with another science teacher, and the SIOP training that I went through earlier this year.  I want to try to make the day's agenda and learning objectives more transparent to the students. I do have an agenda board posted, and we spent time on it at the start of school, but I am assuming by now that they know its there.  I think I may be wrong.  I'm going to devote 5 minutes each day on those business parts of class:   -- agenda and objectives   --classroom jobs   --checking in on classdojo points and giving time to cash in for prizes   -- organization (table of contents, attaching things into journal) and making sure they have homework written down I will report back here in a couple weeks and see if it makes a difference....

Giveaway

Are you ready to win some teaching items? Here's your chance! This giveaway combines  2 sites: Teachers Pay Teachers & Pinterest!   This giveaway is put together by Melissa at http://www.teachertreasurehunter.blogspot.com/

Click on the link to go to the Pinterest board with the entries. Just pin items in the giveaway to your teaching boards.  Then click to go to Melissa's site, and cut and paste a link to your pin onto the entry form.  That's it!  Each pin gets you an entry.  Pin every day for even more entries.  Happy pinning and winning! 

Grand Prize Package: 9 TPT items for secondary teachers!

2 Runner-up Prizes: Your choice of 1 item from this giveaway!

Liebster Blog Nominee

Liebster Blog Award

I was nominated by FunintheFours for the Liebster Blog Award.  This is an award to new bloggers  to acknowledge them, encourage them and gain new readers) are:

1. link back to the blog that nominated you  (done up above)
2. post 11 random things about yourself
3. answer the 11 questions posted by the nominator
4. create 11 questions for the people you nominate
5. choose 11 other blogs with less than 200 followers and link to them on this post

1.  Done up above
2. 11 Random things about myself

• 1 have 2 kids
• I live in upstate NY
• I used to do environmental consulting and geology, before I became a teacher
• I am also married to a teacher
• I like to cook, garden, and scrapbook
• I am a creative cook because my son has a lot of food allergies
• I am home sick today, waiting for the dr. to open and see if I have strep throat
• I recently (last year) switched from a high school to a k-8 building and I'm learning so much just by being in an elementary building.
• My older son is in first grade - very interesting to be on the parent end of it.
• Our only pet is 2 betta fish.
• My kids named the fish - "Spikes-a-lot" ('cause he's spiky) and "Darth Eater" (after Darth Vader, and he likes to eat.

3. 11 questions:

• How long have you been teaching and what grade do you currently teach?

I have been teaching officially for 7 years (5 years high school and 2 years middle school).  Before that, I worked as a teaching assistant in special ed for about 2 1/2 years, taught an adjunct class and tutored while I was getting my certification . I currently teach 7th and 8th grade.

• What advice would you give a brand new teacher?

Don't worry about making every lesson creative and unique, but be prepared for anything to happen, be flexible, and work on finding your own style and niche. 

• What made you decide to enter the blogging world?

I have been doing Teacherspayteachers, and gotten interested in reading other teacher's blogs.  It seemed like a good place for me to discuss/share/process some of what goes on in my classroom and the thoughts I have about teaching.

• Which blog do you really love to read?

As far as teaching related....I really like thesciencepenguin.com. It is a little lower grade level than my students, but always a great resource.  

• If you could visit any place in the world where would you go and why?

I would love to go back to Scotland, which I visited once, or I would love to go to Japan, just because it seems so unique and very different from here. 

• What pets do you have? (If you don't have any - what pets would you really LOVE to have?)

Answered up above (sorry!)

• When you were a child what was your favorite book? What is your favorite children's book today?

I loved "The Boxcar Children" series (and many others).  One of my current favorites, to read with my kids is "The Biggest Thing in the ce

• Do you speak any other languages? If so, which ones?

I speak a little French and a little Spanish, but definitely not fluently. 

• What is one item you can't live without?

I am pretty hooked on my cell phone....and a cup of tea.  

• If you look up from your computer right now what do you see?

snow! 

• What is your favorite charity?

Hmm....breast cancer maybe?  
4. 11 other questions for my nominees

• What grades and subject(s) do you teach?

• What made you decide to be a teacher?

• How long have you been teaching?

• What type of district do you teach in (large/small, urban, suburban, rural)?

• What do you think is your strength (or your favorite part) of teaching?

• What part(s) are your weakness or do you dislike?

• What blogs do you really like?

• What are you most proud of?

• What hobby do you enjoy?

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?

• Why did you start blogging?

5.  My nominess: 
http://biology-roots.com/ 
http://mrsodonnellsroom.blogspot.com/
http://2peasandadog.blogspot.ca
and more to follow....