My Beauty Best Teacher

I've been seeing variations of "classroom rules" sign all over Pinterest, and I love it! (I've also seen it's sister sign, family rules, which is equally as cute and catchy.) Most of the signs I see have painted letters on large, wooden boards, but I'm not crafty enough to make one of those. :)

I decided just to create a couple of printables using my handy-dandy PhotoShop software. Here's a black and white version:

Click to enlarge. Feel free to right-click and save a copy! :)

And here's one with more color:

Click to enlarge. Feel free to right-click and save a copy! :)

I have a cheap-o ornate frame (that I got for $1 at a garage sale a while back) that I think I'll spray paint a fun, funky color. Then I can put the black and white print inside the frame and place it on my desk. Other ways you could use this:

• Enlarge it, frame it, and hang it on the wall.
• Laminate it and hang on the wall (or on your door). 
• Print off multiple copies for students to keep in their binders or use as bookmarks.
• Give a print plus a frame to a favorite teacher as a pick-me-up. :)

I recently got the opportunity to review both of Dr. Erica Warren's Following Directions workbooks, and I wanted to tell you what I think.

Before we begin, let me just say that Dr. Warren gave these workbooks to me for free, asking if I would review them on my blog. I am not getting any more compensation than just the workbooks themselves for writing this post, and I would never endorse any product I didn't fully believe in.

With that said, let's talk specifically about Warren's two Following Directions workbooks. The workbooks I sampled are called Following Directions (An Intermediate Workbook 1) and Following Directions: The Easy Way (A Beginner's Workbook 1).

The concept for both of the workbooks is the same: we want to condition our students to pay closer attention to directions and be able to follow directions quickly but accurately. To an extent, these workbooks somewhat reminded me of those "April Fool's Day" following-directions sheets that teachers sometimes give to play a joke on their students, like this:

This (obviously used) April Fool's Day prank was found here.

But unlike the April Fool's Day sheets like the one featured above, Warren's workbooks will not embarrass any student who do not follow the directions precisely (no one has to yell a sentence about their school pride or clap their hands twice during these workbooks! lol).

To help condition students to follow directions, Warren has created a series of worksheet pages with a grid of pictures, numbers, or letters on it. Above the grid is a set of step-by-step instructions as to what the student should do on the grid. Here is a sneak peak at the example page from her Following Directions: The Fun and Easy Way (A Beginners Workbook 1) book:





This is just a simple grid -- the grids and instructions get larger and more complex as you move through the book.

One thing I like about these books is that these grids aren't just practice on following directions. Sure, these worksheets will help students practice following written directions. But I personally think they will also help students exercise their "critical thinking skills" muscle. You see, the directions aren't always clear when you first read them. For instance, one of the directions I saw said, "I am in one of the rows above the second-to-last row." Even as an adult, I had to stop and think about what that really meant. Another line of directions said, "I am a consonant." For this, not only do students need to know the difference between a consonant and a vowel, but they also have to reason that if our answer is a consonant, our answer cannot be a vowel; therefore, we need to cross out all vowels.

As I'm writing this, I'm reminded of the logic grids my 6th grade science teacher used to give us:

This particular puzzle can be found here.

I, for one, love using logic puzzles in the classroom because I feel that most students need to practice those much-needed critical thinking skills, and these are the perfect way to do so. (By the way, Puzzle Baron has actual books you buy that contain paper copies of all of their logic grids. Find one here
.)

Anyway, I think Warren's "Following Directions" workbooks could help students in a variety of ways. There are directional words in almost every line of directions, so students could practice directions and prepositions. There are math words such as "less than," "odd," "trapezoid" with which students will become familiar. There is even some science in these sheets: "I need water to live," and "Sunlight is my food" are two examples. All in all, I think that if you want to give your students practice at following directions (and a few other things), these workbooks are a good buy.

Warren offers a free sample of a Following Directions book on her Teachers Pay Teachers page.

If you'd like to read the reviews and/or purchase one or both of these books, click the images below to be taken to their product listings on Amazon.





Even if you don't want to use these pages as actual activities in your classroom, I think they could still be useful as bellwork or "what to do when you're done" activities for those early-finishers. If nothing else, the critical thinking skills students would build from doing these pages could probably prepare students to achieve higher test scores on those state-mandated exams!

Today's post is brought to you by Adrianne Meldrum from Kids Cog Works. I am so excited for you guys to read this one -- it's such a great idea!

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I am sure you have heard of the show Amazing Race where contestants race all over the world and get clues to their next destination.

Borrowing from this idea, I have come up with The Amazing Word Race! In this game, students would be in groups of two to four. They need to decide the name of their team. The object of this game is to practice or review some phonics that you're students may be missing, but in a super-fun way.

Everyone will be given the first card. It has a phonics sound that they have to hunt for. All books, print, magazines ~ everything is available for their use in this game. They are even allowed to use the dictionary! Players must use at least 5 different resources when making a list. When you say "Go" students will race to get their hands on some print and start hunting for words. If a team fills up their paper, they race back to you and get the next clue.

For an example, on a card it may have the sound /sh/ on it. The card will have a sample of words that start with that sound and have the sound somewhere in the middle. Students may just run to a dictionary and write down all the words that start with /sh/ like "shoot", but if they really get smart they can write down words like "swish" or "fish". You can choose to limit how many words they use that start with the sound on the clue card.

You will continue in this fashion until there is a clear winner. Consider having a winner ceremony and reward all the students in some way for playing the game. I made printables for you to use in this game. Click here to get them. I hope you have fun racing towards better learning!


Adrianne Meldrum has a degree in Elementary Education. She currently tutors struggling readers and middle school math students. She is the author of Kidscogworks.com and creator of Brain Tower . Adrianne is the wife of an engineer and a mother to three very handsome boys.

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Thanks for the fantastic idea, Adrianne! I can't wait to use it!

Thinking of this game makes me wonder if we could tweak it a little to use it for slightly different subjects. For instance, young students could go on an "Amazing Color Race" and try to take pictures of as many, say, green things as possible. Or maybe students could go on a different "Amazing Word Race" and try to hunt the room for other words that fit their spelling words' patterns. 

I wonder if we could even tweak this idea to use it for older students. For instance, when I taught secondary English, I offered extra credit to students that could find examples of what we were learning in real life. I encouraged students to send me music or audio clips recorded from a commercial, pictures of signs or movie posters, etc. that incorporated a vocabulary word or literary concept that we had studied. Could English students could go on an "Amazing Simile Race" or an "Amazing Symbolism Race" with a stack of books or stories?

Or what if geometry students went on an "Amazing Shape Race" and tried to find as many examples of geometric shapes as possible in the classroom or outside?

Really, the possibilities are only limited to your imagination. :) I'd love to hear your ideas and other thoughts in the comments below!

If you don't already know, I started my own tutoring business this year when I realized I wasn't going to get to teach every day. (Substituting is a wonderful opportunity and allows me to glean so many ideas, but I simply cannot expect to get a sub job every day!) About 80% of my students receive my tutoring services in math.

I saw this phenomenon when I was student teaching in 2nd grade, but it has really stuck out as I have tutored my students in math this year: word problems are a stumbling block for many, many students. There is just something about combining letters with what kids have traditionally known as an "all-number subject" that freaks them out (algebra, anyone?).

I have seen a few school districts use a couple of techniques in particular to help students combat this word-problem fear.

Circle the numbers.
Underline important words.
Box the question.
Eliminate unnecessary information.

Using C.U.B.E. in the classroom helps students focus on the important information and get to the nitty-gritty of what the word problem is actually asking them to do. I have seen several different age groups of elementary students use this method with great success. As students get older, it becomes unnecessary for them to do each of these steps. But if your older students have never been exposed to this method, I would suggest showing it to them, as well! One of my close friends teaches secondary math, and she introduced this concept to her freshmen and sophomores this year! So this isn't something that just works for elementary kids.

Let me give you an example of how this works. Since I don't have the ability to circle things on a Blogger post, I'll bold them. Since I also lack the ability to box things in a Blogger post, I'll italicize them. Here's the sample word problem:

Mr. Johnson's class has 21 students. If the seven of his students are absent due to heavy rainfall on a particular day, how many students does he have in his class on that day?

(I borrowed this practice word problem from Tips 4 TAKS.)  Anyway, this is how it would look if a student applied the C.U.B.E. strategy to this problem:

Mr. Johnson's class has 21 students. If the seven of his students are absent due to heavy rainfall on a particular day, how many students does he have left in his class on that day?

I circled (bolded) the numbers 21 and 7.

I underlined the word "left" because it helps us understand what type of problem we'll be doing. I realize you could classify other words in this word problem as "important," but the students I know only underline the important math words. They might also underline words such as remain, divide, in all, altogether, take away, etc. These are the "telling words" that tell students what kind of action they should perform to those numbers. Lots of teachers post these "key math words" on giant keys (aren't we clever?) on a math bulletin board somewhere in the room.

I boxed (italicized) the question so that we could focus on what answer we're supposed to find.

I crossed out unnecessary information about the teacher's name and why the students were absent so that we could concentrate more easily on important info.

You could do this to any word problem!

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Another, similar strategy is called U.P.S. Check:

Understand the problem.
Plan how to solve the problem.
Solve the problem.
Check your answer.

The most common way I've seen students use this method is to divide their paper into 4 parts. In box #1, students will write "U," in box number #2, students will write "P," and continue until they've labeled all boxes. Then, students go back to each box and perform the task. Let's use the same word problem from above as an example:

Mr. Johnson's class has 21 students. If the seven of his students are absent due to heavy rainfall on a particular day, how many students does he have in his class on that day?

So this is {roughly} what the students' papers should look like if they choose to use the U.P.S. Check method to solve this problem:

The C.U.B.E. method and the U.P.S. Check method are both great strategies for helping students solve word problems! ...And, when I think about it, I think U.P.S. Check could be used with all problem -- not just word problems!

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I decided to create some freebies for you! I created 9 different colored poster sets: blue, green, lime, orange, pink, purple, red, turquoise, and yellow. For each color, I created 3 items: a U.P.S. Check poster, a C.U.B.E. poster, and a page that contains both posters in a smaller size -- suitable for printing one for each student and allowing them to place the page in the front of their binders or math folders. Each document can be printed on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper.

Here's a preview:

Please excuse the watermark!

The color name pertains to the color of border each poster has. All borders have polka dots. Click the color name below to be taken to my Teacher's Pay Teachers shop to download the posters for free!

Blue
Green
Lime
Orange
Pink
Purple
Red
Turquoise
Yellow

In case you aren't aware, Read Across America Day is also Dr. Seuss's birthday! :) He was born on March 2, and it seemed fitting to celebrate reading on the birthday of one of the most famous authors in the world.

When I was in school, Read Across America Day was my absolute favorite day. All day, in all classes, we just read! It was the only time I didn't have to drown out my classmate's incessant talking/giggling/goofing off in order to read after my assignments were finished. It was the only day I could read for 8 hours straight without my dad yelling at me to go outside and play or my grandma checking to see if I had a fever because "something is wrong with this kid!" I L-O-V-E reading, and I am more than willing to spend any entire day celebrating it as a teacher!

NEA has several ideas for activities you could do on Read Across America Day (if you didn't want to just read the entire time). Since this is also Dr. Seuss's birthday, you could have some fun by bringing "Seuss-tastical" activities or food into the classroom as well.

Naturally, I turned to Pinterest in order to generate some "Seuss-y" ideas. Here are my favorites:

One Fish, Two Fish book cover creation:

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Green eggs that the kids might actually eat: a vanilla wafer + green pudding + sprinkles

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Thing 1 and Thing 2 Hand-print art

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Red Fish, Blue Fish estimation activity

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Dr. Seuss photobooth op: take student pictures and put them on a bulletin board or card home for the parents

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List all the Dr. Seuss books you've read. Take it one step farther by polling students on their favorite Seuss book and graphing it!

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 FREE Dr. Seuss unit

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Truffula Tree Dominos

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 Make your own Foot Book (and other ideas)!

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Do you have any Read Across America/Dr. Seuss's birthday traditions in your classroom or school? Are you trying a new activity this year that I didn't mention above? I've love to hear about it in the comments below!

I love Teachers Pay Teachers. But what makes me love them even more is when they have a S-A-L-E!

It's time to shop 'til you drop, folks. Teachers Pay Teachers is having a special sale today to celebrate Leap Day. This type of sale only happens once every four years, so you definitely don't want to miss out. Here's more information:

Teachers Pay Teachers is offering 10% off every purchase, and then select sellers (myself included) are offering additional discounts up to 20% off. Click the picture to be taken to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Happy shopping! :)






P.S. Would you like to become a Teachers Pay Teachers seller? Click this link for more information!

Let me ask you a question: how many times a week do you get on Google or Yahoo! and use the search bar? It seems that I am always searching for something! Until a few months ago, I thought there was nothing more to conducting an internet search than just to type in a few words and get the results. But, as it turns out, there's a search engine company called Swagbucks that allows you to get rewards every time you conduct an internet search through them! How cool is that?!

I stumbled onto Swagbucks through Facebook, actually. A couple of my FB friends posted statuses about it, and I finally got curious enough to check it out myself.

Basically, you sign up for an account at Swagbucks, and you have an option to install a search bar (that's connected directly to your Swagbucks account) into your internet browser. Any time you use Swagbucks, you have a chance of earning reward points.

I don't earn reward points every single time I use Swagbucks to conduct an internet search, but I figure if I'm going to be searching anyway, I might as well give myself a chance to get some rewards while I'm at it! There are other ways to earn reward points other than just conducting internet searches: you can take part in their daily polls, you can take surveys, or you can purchase their daily deals. Basically all I do is conduct internet searches (which earn me anywhere from 0-16 reward points) and participate in daily polls (1 point for every answer). I think the surveys are a hoax -- I don't want the companies to get my personal information, and I'm not interested in sitting through 20- and 40-minute long surveys. But you can earn some pretty hefty points through participating in them (I think I saw one survey that would give you 250 points if you completed it!).

The rewards can be pretty cool, depending on how many points you've earned. I think the rewards that interest me the most are the gift cards, but there are rewards in virtually every category: books, movies, clothing, jewelry, electronics, school supplies... you get the picture. You do have to earn a fairly substantial amount of points to earn a nice reward, but isn't that to be expected?

As a teacher with a couple years of experience under my belt, I can personally attest to the fact that teachers can spend a lot of their own paycheck on their classroom. I think it's because we care so much and want our students to have the best of everything. I think you could use Swagbucks to help you get things for your classroom -- all it costs you is a little bit of internet searching or poll-answering!

You could use Swagbucks to purchase supplies for your classroom or for individual students:

A $5 Amazon gift card currently costs 450 SB

A set of 4 skinny dry-erase markers currently costs 349 SB

A 26- or 39-week subscription to the Wall Street Journal currently costs 3,400 SB

 You could also use your SB reward points to purchase things for your classroom store or for a school raffle to earn money:

Modeling Dough currently costs 279 SB

A Spongebob puzzle currently costs 429 SB

A $10 gift card to Fandango currently costs 1,175 SB

A $25 gift card to one of the above restaurants currently costs 2,949 SB

And I've noticed that Swagbucks runs sales on select items at random times. I've seen gift cards on sale before, but they're basically the only thing I keep my eye on at this point, so I'm not sure about the other items. In any case, Swagbucks seems like a great way to earn some things for your classroom or school without spending more of your own money!

I recently redeemed my first prize -- a $5 Amazon gift card -- and am pretty pleased with the results. It takes about 10 business days to receive your gift card code, but it's free, so I really can't complain!

I won't say that searches conducted through Swagbucks get you the same results as a Google search -- they don't -- but if you're searching for something that's fairly popular, you'll find it with a Swagbucks search, no problem. I keep the search bar installed on my browser window so that I'm not tempted to use Google, instead. As far I know, you can download the search bar to any browser window an unlimited number of times, so you could install it onto all your home computers and, if your IT crew will let you, install it at work, as well. If you have computers in your classroom, you may consider installing the Swagbucks toolbar onto those computers, as well (so long as students aren't tempted to redeem prizes for you!). Swagbucks has a strict policy against searching just to earn points, but if you're going to be searching anyway, you might as well make it a Swagbucks search!

Have you heard of (or do you currently use) Swagbucks? What are your thoughts on this service?

One of my best teacher-friends is a secondary math teacher (and runs the Numbers Rule My World blog), and she is always looking for ways to incorporate technology into her math lessons. She tipped me off about this site that has virtual manipulatives, and I wanted to share it with you guys!

Although my friend uses this site with her secondary students, the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives has something for students PK-12!  It's so rare to find an educational resource that can cater to all ages...I guess that's part of why I think this website is so nice.

The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is amazing! I love that it is free and easy to use; you don't even have to register before you start using!

The homepage is relatively simple:

Notice how you can view the site in a variety of languages (at the bottom)!

But looks can be deceiving. :)


As you can see, you can access math manipulatives based on the grade of your student(s) or the target skill. Since I'm a teensy bit obsessed with organizing, I particularly love this feature.

Although the homepage isn't anything particularly mind-blowing, once you start clicking on portions of the index, you'll see that the rest of the site is!

So what kinds of things does it have to offer? Unfortunately, I'm going to have to do more telling, rather than showing, because the manipulatives are used through pop-up screens that then start using Java... I'm not even able to take a screen shot of the manipulatives in action...sorry! I've never had an issue taking a screenshot before, so I can't explain this one! Anyway, I clicked on PK-2, and I was presented with the following list of sub-topics:

• Numbers and Operations
• Algebra
• Geometry
• Measurement
• Data Analysis and Probability

And each of those sub-titles had an average of 13 manipulative options underneath it, but you should be aware that that is an average... the "data analysis and probability" sub-topic only had 3 options. Although the graphics aren't anything particularly flashy or high-tech, I feel that they definitely could be used in the classroom. I saw some time-telling activities, graphing options, pattern blocks, etc. I know that most elementary classrooms don't have a 1:1 ratio of students:computers, but you could ask a few students at a time to practice certain math skills during centers!

As for the secondary side of it, I clicked on 9-12, and I was presented with the exact same sub-topic categories as the PK-2 side, but of course, the options underneath each category were drastically different. The sub-topics in 9-12 had an average of about 18 manipulative options underneath it. I saw some great ones in this category, as well. In particular, if I were teaching secondary math (big hypothetical here, folks), I could see myself using the rational numbers triangles, the Venn diagrams, and the geoboards.

If you're a math teacher, give the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives a chance in your class and let me know how it goes!

In the dictionary, a "brain break" is defined as "a short mental break, taken at regular intervals during instruction, and used to achieve optimal learning."

OK, I made that up, but that's the definition I have in mind when I use brain breaks in the classroom. :)

Why Use Brain Breaks?

As a teacher, you don't have a lot of control over your students' schedule. I mean, you can usually decide when to do math, when to do reading, etc., but you don't get to decide when you leave the classroom for library, specials/encore/activity, lunch, or recess. Sometimes, there is an usually long block of uninterrupted instructional time. For instance, during my student teaching, I taught a kindergarten class who had our specials (P.E., art, etc.) first thing in the morning, and then lunch and recess from 10:45 - 11:45. That meant we had from 11:45 until 2:45 that afternoon before we needed to start getting ready for the dismissal. When you're surrounded by 22 five-year-olds, that three hour block of time can be a lot to handle. (Not to say I didn't l-o-v-e my kinders with all my heart -- I did. But they definitely kept me on my toes, especially since that my first "real" experience teaching!)

While a long block of instructional time is a blessing in some ways (think about how much you can get accomplished!), it can also be a bit of a burden. Kids -- especially the little ones -- have short attention spans and crave variation and movement. Teaching kinders for an entire, uninterrupted three hour block of time was sometimes stressful. And, of course, to them, three hours is FOREVER.

I started breaking up the instructional time with "brain breaks." If I had a lesson that was supposed to last 30 minutes, I would insert a short brain break about halfway through so that the students got to have a little mental release from learning for just a minute before going back to work. 

I do this with my tutoring students (2-4 brain breaks per hour of tutoring unless the student has ADD/ADHD, and then we break more often) and the classes in which I sub. I even did it sometimes with my freshman English students last year. At first, they thought I was a little crazy for asking them to do the Macarena, but they eventually got used to it! :)

I always find that the minutes right after a brain break are incredibly valuable, as the students are the most engaged that they've been...well, since the last time we took a break! The activity gets their blood flowing, the break gives them time to clear their head, and when it's over, their concentration is fantastic.

When Should I Use Brain Breaks?

You could use brain breaks in the middle of lessons or in-between them. You could take a brain break right before you go into the hallway (let them get their wiggles out before trying to get them to walk quietly down the hallway) or to let out some energy after a particularly quiet activity. The beauty of brain breaks is that they are so quick and easy that you can do them at pretty much any time. I've even used some of them for "filler" activities when we have just 1-2 minutes to kill and can't even start an educational game.

What Brain Breaks Can I Incorporate?

1. One-minute dance party (could do a random song or a choreographed song...my 2nd graders loved doing the Cupid Shuffle!)
2. Do 25 jumping jacks
3. Play one game of Simon Says
4. "Minute-to-Win-it" games (some ideas from Buzzle.com)
5. Jog in place for 60 seconds
6. Jump a pretend rope for 60 seconds
7. Seasonal movement -- "fly like a witch on your broomstick for 1 minute" around Halloween. "Gallop like a reindeer for 1 minute" in December. 
8. "Order" -- quickly order themselves in a line, according to the specification. For instance, maybe you call "Order -- first names, ABC order!" and the students scramble to order themselves. You could do height, last names in ABC order, color-coding, birthdays, etc. You could make it even harder on things like height by asking that they don't speak during the ordering! 
9. Hop on your right foot 25 times, hop on your left foot 25 times, then hop on both feet 25 times
10. Play catch with stress balls or beach balls for 1 minute
11. Play telephone
12. Any number of Dr. Jean, Greg & Steve, or Jack Hartmann fun activity songs
13. "Go Bananas" song (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, please scroll down to the end of this post for two video examples!)
14. Do 1 minute of wall jumps
15. Play Sparkle with a spelling word or word wall word (or just try saying "Word Wall Word" 5 times fast! Phew.)
16. Play a memory game, such as "I went on a trip and I packed ____," and each student around the room has to say everything else that has been packed, plus add a new item to the list. Or a variation: "I went to the zoo and saw a ____," and each student around the room has to add an animal to the list. 
17. Play the alliteration game (start with a random word and every student must say another word that begins with the same sound)
18. Variation of the alliteration game: play the rhyme game!
19. Teach a few words of sign language
20. Lightning round of trivia questions (I use Brain Quest packs: Brain Quest trivia packs )
21. Play a couple rounds of Pictionary or Charades
22. Stretch
23. Do "the wave" a few times
24. "Sentence-by-sentence story:" go around the room and allow each student to add 1 sentence at a time to create a story. (You can play until each student has said one sentence or you can play until the story is finished.)
25. Yoga poses (try Yoga Pretzels , which is a deck of cards with easy yoga poses for kids on them)

...You get the idea.

In case you've never heard of the "Go Bananas" song/dance routine, here it is on YouTube:



Here's another version of it that I just found and really like, too:



If you have other brain break ideas, I'd love to know about them! Please leave a comment with your ideas and I'll gladly add them to my list. :)

What do you think about brain breaks? Do you use them in the classroom? If so, when and how often do you use them?
 





P.S. I just found this great blog dedicated entirely to Brain Breaks! It's called Energizing Brain Breaks, and you can read all their ideas by clicking here. Enjoy. :)

This post doesn't offer any resources for you -- it's just an "old-fashioned" blog post that I hope will spark a little bit of discussion.

If you've read my "About" page, then you know that I'm currently a substitute for several local districts in an effort to keep my foot in education and to maybe gain a classroom of my own again next year.

While I would much rather be teaching in my own classroom this year, there are definite perks to substituting. Mainly, I love seeing what goes on in other classrooms. Substituting doesn't allow me to watch other teachers in action, but it does allow me to acquire many ideas on classroom setup, management methods, and lessons. I always leave at the end of the day with my brain buzzing with all the new things I learned. I try to write it all down as soon as I can so that I can apply it to my [future] classroom (when I get one again).

Anyway, I've been subbing a lot this semester, and I've noticed a definite trend in hot classrooms.

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I'm sure this probably has something to do with the budget cuts and the fact that schools are trying to save money in whatever ways possible at this point...right?

I'm naturally a pretty hot-natured person, so my body can find a way to sweat in the dead of winter (sorry if that's TMI). But when I encounter other teachers in the hallway whose hair has become stringy and their foreheads are glistening with beads of sweat, I know I'm not the only one who feels like she's in a furnace in some of those classrooms!

I am realizing just how lucky I was in my classroom last year, where I had free reign (to some extent) over the thermostat in my classroom. Teachers at my school last year could change their classroom temperature to anything between 65-80 degrees. The teachers I'm subbing for this year don't seem to be able to control the temperature of their classrooms at all. I even saw one smart-cookie teacher who was dealing with the heat by placing a lamp underneath the thermostat's temperature sensor; as the lamp's heat increased on the temperature on the sensor, the thermostat thought it was too hot in the room and kicked on a little cool air. Brilliant solution!

I was prompted to write this blog post after a subbing experience where the kids kept exclaiming over my red cheeks, and I could feel my glasses sliding down my face from the sweat. I ended up having to open the door to get some air circulating, but the teacher had written for her students to be doing some very social activities that afternoon, and I was afraid that our noise was going to disturb other classes. On the other hand, I knew it was way too hot in there to be able to keep the door closed....

This prompted me, again, to think about last year, when I had control over my thermostat.  Since I am naturally hot and I spent a lot of time moving around in my classroom, I kept the temperature at about 68 degrees. If my students spent a lot of time in their seats during class, I found that the girls would complain about the cold. But if I kept my students up and moving (which I wanted to do, anyway), they thought it was a good temperature, too. Upon entering, other teachers would comment on how "cold" it was, but then again, they weren't moving around and working up a sweat all hour, either...

If my college classrooms' temperatures weren't "just right," I considered them to be on the cool side. I have rarely ever been in a classroom that is too hot...until this year. It seems to be a common theme that most teachers agree that a chilly classroom is better than a warmer classroom. My college professors reasoned that a chilly classroom will keep students awake better than a warmer classroom will (although, if your lessons are really innovative and intriguing, the majority of students won't have a hard time staying awake, anyway!). I've also heard that a chilly classroom is healthier than a warmer classroom, since germs crave moisture and warmth. I don't want to freeze my students, but I do want everyone to be comfortable enough so that they can function with ease, myself included.

I find it very difficult to function in a hot environment because my mind can't seem to get over the fact that I'm sweating buckets (sorry again if that's TMI. I'm normally not this gross, I promise. :) ).

So I have a few questions for my bloggy friends:

1. Do you have the ability to control the thermostat in your classroom?
2. What temperature is your classroom normally?
3. What do you think is the best temperature for optimal learning? Why?

I'm anxious to know what you think!

I know it seems like I've been gearing up for Valentine's Day in the classroom for awhile now, but since today is "the big day," I couldn't resist one last post.

Today's post will feature products that my bloggy friends in Teaching Blog Traffic School and colleagues at Teachers Pay Teachers have made and posted.

Here we go (in no particular order)....

• Valentine's Day Worksheets. FREE. By Minds in Bloom (Rachel Lynette).  

• February Facts and Fun Cards. FREE. By Sunny Days in Second Grade. 

• I Have, Who Has Valentines. FREE. By Cooperative Learning 365. 

• Valentine Math. FREE. By Classroom Magic. 

•  Valentine's Day Acrostic Poem. FREE. By Buzzing with Ms. B.

• Valentine's Day Writing Prompt + Subway Art Idea. FREE. By Addie Williams.

• HOO Loves Ya ABC Order. FREE. By Lesson Plan Diva. 

•  Love, Love, Love Valentine's Unit. FREE. By Taming My Flock of Firsties.

Happy Valentine's Day, Loves! Hope your V-Day is filled with joy and laughter!

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I know Valentine's Day is still 5 days away, but I wanted to share these in time for you to print them, cut them out, and give them to students!

I made 15 Valentine's Day cards to give to students. They all have a pale pink Chevron border (since I'm really digging Chevron prints right now...as shown by my Chevron classroom management clip charts!) with a little owl on a branch, some hearts, and text. The text all has something to do with owls ("Owl" always be your friend!) and ends with "Happy Valentine's Day!"

I think they could really save me a lot of money as the years go by and I don't have to purchase those pre-made Valentine's Day cards! Plus, I love that they're a little more personal than the ones that come in a box. :) I plan to print them on some cardstock, cut them out, and maybe put a piece of candy with each one (very similar to my birthday cards). 

Here's a preview (please ignore the watermark):

Four of the FIFTEEN Valentine's Day cards I made

If you'd like to download your own, you can find them in my Teachers Pay Teachers store under Student Valentine's Day Cards: Print, Sign, Give!

Happy {early} Valentine's Day!

Since Valentine's Day is next Tuesday, I thought I'd start looking for some cute Valentine-Day-related decorations, food, and kid crafts. I found some really good stuff, so I thought I'd share it with you!

Here are my top finds so far (in no particular order):

1. Heart-Shaped Boiled Eggs. You could bring these for breakfast for your students and surprise them! It's healthy, too! 

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2. Paint-Chip Heart Garland. I'm normally not an advocate of stealing borrowing paint chips like this, but if you have purchased a lot of materials from your local paint store recently, I think you're probably justified in taking a few paint chips. :)

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3. Paint Chip Heart Bookmark. I figured I'd go ahead and get the other paint chip idea out of the way in the number three slot... so cute, and so easy! My students were always asking for bookmarks, so I think giving bookmarks as gifts is a fabulous idea.

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4. Heart-shaped Muffins or Cupcakes! Just place a marble at the top and watch a heart-shape appear. Looks easy, but I haven't tried it yet...

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5. Hand-print Heart Mural. SUCH a cute idea for a bulletin board or "parent welcome sign" for the V-Day party! I love how everyone has to work together to build the heart, too. Ooh, the counselor-side of me is itching to make this into a "when we all work together, more is accomplished" lesson! ;)

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6. Peanut Butter Blossoms. My grandma makes these with regular Hershey's Kisses, and they are DE-LISH! I'm sure if they were made with heart-shaped chocolate, I would love them even more (pun intended).

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7. "From the Bottom of my Heart..." card. I mean, it's so stinkin' cute, I coudn't exclude it from the list!

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8. Hand-print Heart Card. Such an easy gift for parents (or grandparents)!

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9. "You Make my Heart Glow" Teacher-to-Student gift. The Teacher Wife even offers the label as a freebie! All you have to do is buy your own glowsticks. Click the source link to be taken to the freebie!

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10. "I Dig You" Teacher-to-Student Gift. SO CUTE! You could probably find those shovels at a dollar store!

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Annnnd, normally, it pains me to end a list on an uneven number (it's that OCD CDO [alphabetized] kicking in), but I also loved this craft and didn't want to leave it out. So instead of calling it number 11, I'll say, "And one to grow on!"

"No one touches my heart like you!" card:

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What great Valentine's Day ideas do you have? I'd love to know!