Day 5 (Last Day) of Celebrating = 11 Winner's Choice

Congrats Cherie Mae!! Our Day 4 winner!!

DAY 5...our final day :(... of our CELEBRATION brings lots MORE choice!  Here is what we are celebrating:

Today is the last day that  my store is 50% off!.  AND one TPT product is free today (just for the day).

So many products to win today!  Thank you so much to all my Day 5 friends!

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Thank you for participating! Good luck to everyone!

Day 4 of Celebrating = 11 Winner's Choice

Jennifer was a our Day 3 winner!! Congrats!!

DAY 4 of our CELEBRATION brings lots of CHOICE!  Here is what we are celebrating:

There are 5 days...52 products.  Each day we will have a new winner. My store is 50% off this whole week!.  AND one TPT product is free today (just for the day).

Here is what we have today....lots of CHOICE!! Thank you to all of my friends that donated today!

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Good luck!

Day 2 of our Celebration=10 More Products!!

Congrats to DEB T.--our DAY 1 winner!!!

DAY 2 of our CELEBRATION!  If you missed my post yesterday, here is what we are celebrating:

There are 5 days...52 products.  Each day we will have a new winner. My store is 50% off this whole week!.  AND one TPT product is free today (just for the day).

Thank you to all our donations for today!  You can win SO many great products :)

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Good luck!!  I can't wait to pick all the winners!

Day 1 of CELEBRATION! 10 Products to Win!

DAY 1 of our CELEBRATION is here.  If you missed my post yesterday, here is what we are celebrating:

Summer is quickly approaching!  I can't believe this is my last week of school.  And we are throwing a HUGE celebration to help our kiddos remember to READ, READ, READ, this summer!  So I thought it would be a good week to celebrate in the blog world, as well!  What are we celebrating, you may ask?  Well....we hit over 500 BLOGLOVIN' followers and over 1,000 FACEBOOK followers!  So exciting.  And if you are anything like me....my summer is spent reflecting and looking for some fresh ideas for the upcoming year.  So some free products, may be pretty helpful!

Here's what I am thinking.  There are 5 days...52 products.  Each day we will have a new winner.  But I am also going to have my TPT store at 50% off this whole week.  AND I will make one TPT product free each day (just for the day).

Check out what you can win today!

Good luck!!  I can't wait to pick all the winners!






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500 Follower CELEBRATION

Summer is quickly approaching!  I can't believe this is my last week of school.  And we are throwing a HUGE celebration to help our kiddos remember to READ, READ, READ, this summer!  So I thought it would be a good week to celebrate in the blog world, as well!  What are we celebrating, you may ask?  Well....we hit over 500 BLOGLOVIN' followers and over 1,000 FACEBOOK followers!  So exciting.  And if you are anything like me....my summer is spent reflecting and looking for some fresh ideas for the upcoming year.  So some free products, may be pretty helpful!

Here's what I am thinking.  There are 5 days...52 products.  Each day we will have a new winner.  But I am also going to have my TPT store at 50% off this whole week.  AND I will make one TPT product free each day (just for the day).

It all kicks off tomorrow!  Thanks so much for celebrating with me!!

Wordless Wednesday--Fun Clips

Hmmm....what would you do with these clips?

Highlighting Tape in Guided Reading

I am not sure about you, but my guided reading lessons include many reminders like this:
"Look for parts you know"....."Look for chunks you know"....."Find small words inside of big words"....."Use your nonsense words to help"....."It's a know-by-heart word"

We demonstrate.
We model.
We practice.
We remind.
But some students just need more.  That's when I grab the highlighting tape.

I will use it right in the leveled reader that we are using.  Sometimes we use it to highlight small parts of the word.

Sometimes we look for high frequency words that we are working on.

Sometimes we highlight phonics chunks that we might be studying or that an individual student might be struggling to read.

I have even been known to use it to show phrases within the text.

It gives our students a model and provides them with a visual.  It is direct.  And it is motivating.  The trickiest part about it: remembering to take it out of the book.

I hope you are able to use this Bright Idea. Please consider following me on Pinterest or TPT.  For more than 130 other Bright Ideas, please see the link-up below and choose a topic that interests you!  Happy Reading :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Sometimes We Don't Realize...

Last week was The Week (capital letter WEEK).  Our big state testing week.  And I had to proctor.  Oh my!!  The anxiety was H.I.G.H.  I teach the lower grades, so this kind of testing is just completely out of my comfort zone.

Anyways....I went to pick up my assigned kids for their test.  I was serious.  I was focused.

Then I hear, "Hey, she taught me to read in second read." "Yeah! She taught me to read too."

I smiled. Kept walking. I was serious. I was focused.

It wasn't until the next day that those words came back to me.  In full force.

I'm a Title teacher.  And I LOVE it.  Don't want to do anything else.  And as much as I feel that I do connect to my students and they do see me as a "real" teacher, I also realize that I am not their classroom teacher.  So when they see me years later, I am okay with the little half waves and half smiles.  It is okay that they forget my name. I played my part and time rolls on.

My brain forgets too.  It is easy for my thoughts to get caught up in the state evaluations that have begun.  The pressure.  It is easy to listen to the bad press that we can get as teachers.  The pressure.  It is easy to listen to the parents that yell and say ugly things.  The pressure.

But then to hear those kids say that I taught them to read.  It struck me.  And I was so thankful.

I do realize, however, that it was not just me that taught these little children to read.  It was US.


The people that encourage, inspire.
The people that teach with us.
The people that blog, share, create.
The people that write engaging, motivating picture books.
The people that invented Post-its.
The people that sell discounted books.
The people that wrote the MILLIONS of professional development books.
The people that make markers, pens, and pencils.
The people that invented dry erase markers.
The people that laugh and cry with us.
The people that listen.
The people that believe.

Happy Teacher Appreciation week.
Thanks for all you do.

Teacher Appreciation: My "Must Haves"

 Oh....there are FOR SURE more than 3 "must haves" in my room.  Actually, I teach in three different rooms.  So I really could have three sets of "must haves."  But...I'll stick to my top three :)

 Can we really live without Post-its?  Um...no!  I have them plastered all over the place with to-do lists, reminders, reflections.  And then there are the endless uses for lessons and the kids love to use them!

Markers have become quite a staple in my groups this year.  It started when I didn't have enough pencils sharpened in my reading group.  But I really love using them because I can see their mistakes, use them as highlighters, and they are motivating!

My timer!  I can't live without it.  Just can't!  I use it throughout my guided reading group to keep me on track :)  Look at this poor thing.  It has been dropped, misplaced, lost, and it just keeps on ticking for me!

What are your "must haves?"

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Teacher Appreciation: Memories of Favorite Teacher

Name a teacher that has inspired you.  Why?

This question has haunted me since college.  I just don't have a teacher that I really connected to as a young kid.  I was quiet, shy, did my job while I was there, and came home.

My K-12 career was pretty uneventful for me.  The only teacher that really sticks out to me is Mr. Gorman.  But that is because I remember his wooden paddle in the front of the room, his messy desk that he could find anything on, and he was the only male in the building.

This is me on the first day of that fifth grade year with Mr. Gorman:

But my cooperating teacher from student teaching is the TEACHER that impacted me the most.  And still does.  Of course, she taught me many great things.  But what sticks out to me the most--and I think about daily--is connecting.  I remember she would relate so many lessons to her two dogs: their personalities to characters in books, things they did to events in stories, word problems would include her dogs, etc.  She explained that the kids were going to feel connected to me if they could relate/connect to parts of my life.

And she was right (of course!)  My students love to hear about the cats that come to visit me from my neighbor's house or the things that my two little girls do at home.  These connections build relationships, trust, and rapport.

Thank you, Babs.

Babs with my little Ruby

 Don't forget to sign up for your chance to win!

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