Wows! on Wednesday~Proud Mom; More Goodies for the Class; & Dictionaries!

I think one 'Wow' could have been me blogging 3 weeks in a row!  I LOVE Doodle Bugs' Five for Friday, but Friday I am usually wiped out or busy with working in the snack bar at the football games, going to the movies, or just relaxing with my family & then the weekends just seem to fly by so I am not very consistent with posting.  I came up with this "{3} Wows! on Wednesday" for me...to focus on the positives and have just a few things to share...if I have even one comment expressing any interest {or hear on Social Media} I will make it a Linky next Wednesday, if not, it will just keep me going! :D

My first Wow! is a Mom Wow...last night my son was recognized at our district board meeting for having a perfect score last spring on his California High School Exit Exam...today my daughter received 2 grade level awards, one for Band & the other for Humanities, as well as awards for scoring Advanced in Math & At Standard in Language Arts...I am so proud of both of them and the choices they are making!

Yes, I have received more goodies from NAEIR, if you haven't checked them out click on the picture below to check out their site.  I wasn't sure what the upper left hand items were~I thought they were textured paper, but they are work making textures with clay...teacher twist~great for crayon rubbings!! There are 20 sheets of the Angry Bird stickers & Hello Kitty stickers, 40 smelly erasers, & 80 pink erasers...oh, this site is addicting!

My last Wow! is one that I am very grateful for...for over 9 years Rotary Club has given every third grader in our district a dictionary of his or her own!  This year they also gave all of the fifth graders a Thesaurus!  Thank you Rotary!!

Now, a bonus...today was our Costume parade...

 I could resist adding this picture of my grandson from Sunday...he has my heart!

 Thanks! Have a great rest of your week!

3 Wows!~$433 of School Goodies for $26, A Google Form for TpT Purchases, & 4 Kinds of Sentences Game

Wow! 2 Wednesday's in a row blogging! :) Right now that puts me in a super WOW mood!  If I can get consistent at this maybe I will start it up as a linky!

If you haven't seen my last post, just hit the 'older posts' button & look at my previous post about Naeir.org.  It shows my first box from them, this is my second...can you see it's value?...$433...& I paid $26!!!  You can sign up for a free account as a teacher, but beware...if you love school/office supplies & you love an amazing deal, you might just be in trouble...it is quite addicting to check out what is available each day {their inventory is constantly changing}

My second Wow is how many item I have from TpT; 142 Paid Purchases & 482 Free Downloads {since they started tracking it}...I am loving Google Forms & I created one to organize all of my items...after you input your information Google create a Sheet which you can organize & sort by field...that way I can look by the creators of the products eg. Blair Turner, Graphics from the Pond, etc. or by Title or use {I call them Classroom & TABT {The Apple Basket Teacher}  I don't have all of my purchases in yet {LOTS to go on my free downloads}...I may even tweak my Form & add in subject or holiday when applicable...we will see...hopefully if you click on this image it will take you to a copy of my form that you can modify for your needs! 

I just finished getting this 'store ready' & in my store...it is a game for practicing the 4 Kinds of Sentences~Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative, & Exclamatory...I print my games on 5 different colors of paper for my 5 table groups...it makes life MUCH easier if a piece is later found on the floor!...also I love the small manilla envelopes which I laminate & use velcro to keep closed.  Click on the image above to find it in my store!

Good night all!

Wows! On Wednesday~$370 Classroom Goodies for $25! & 2 More Wows!

It has been waaaaaay too long since I have blogged! I decided to share 3 'Wows!' & figured I will make it a linky in future, a bit of a mid~week energy boost...I am trying to keep focusing on the positives & here are 3 of my 'Wow's'~

I have been around the internet connecting with {okay, some stalking too} other teachers for YEARS, and it was only last month that I learned about NAEIR.org...since it was new to me, I am guessing a lot of other teachers have never heard of it before as well.  They are a BBB Accredited Charity.  Teachers can sign up to receive FREE, yes FREE, items for their classroom with FREE shipping...there are handling fees such as $1 for 2-6 rolls of washi tape {yep, had to create a new Pinterest Board for that!}...the most expensive handling fee for the items you see above was $7 for 6 sets of 6 highlighters...the clear address labels were valued at $118 for the 2 boxes!!! You must have a total of $25 for placing an order...their inventory is constantly changing, so you never know what you might find {confession...I have a few more orders processing}  GO RIGHT NOW & SIGN UP {CLICK HERE} IF YOU ARE A TEACHER ADDICTED TO SCHOOL SUPPLIES!! {Then, please come back & read the rest of my post!} {oh, & that was a Pinterest inspired holder for SOME of the washi tape, made from a foil container}

Parent Communication Improved!

~Using Class Dojo, New Interactive Whiteboard, & Google Drive

I have been using Class Dojo DAILY {throughout the day} this school year...I have even stopped using my clip chart, adding custom behaviors to fit my classroom & my school...I have had individual communication through the messages with 12 {out of 26 students}...the parents seem comfortable communicating with me & I don't have to worry about giving out my phone number.  If we need to talk, we can message first to be sure the timing will work for both of us...

Around a month ago Class Dojo added a new feature, Class Story, through it you can share class pictures & messages...through this I was able to send a link to parents for a Google Drive  folder...it is a great way to save pictures of our morning work that we go over daily on the new interactive white board {the students do the work in pencil first thing, then we go over it and they use pen to mark what is correct or make the corrections} & I use the snipping tool, grab a picture, & stick it in that folder  {so I don't blow up the parents' notifications} This way the parents are able to see work we are doing in class & talk with their children about it.

Good night all!

#onenewthing GAFE {Google Apps For Education} My Library

I am responding to EdTechTeam's call for #onenewthing entries.  Last spring I attended Google Summit Conference in Palm Springs; Desert Summit.  I learned quite a lot, and I am super excited about attending another Google Summit next month in Temecula.  This time I will have some very direct questions so that I can further my learning & understanding. 

I have a VERY large classroom library and last year changed it all around to make it much easier for my students to find books in their AR {Accelerated Reader} levels.  I was able to label and organize my books, but I wanted to be able to see who was borrowing which books.  I have tried many methods through the years, but this time I wanted to go digital.

On my classroom blog~ The Apple Basket I provided a link for my students to go to a Google Site I created for my library.  This is the picture they click on:

This is what that Google Site looks like:

The clickable links go to: a Google Sheet with all of my books in alphabetical order by title, a Google Sheet with all of my books in alphabetical order by author, & to Google Forms for each level; one Form for checking the book out & one for checking it back in.

I generated the two Google Sheets by creating this Google Form:

The top is what the Google Forms for the check out & check in look like~The bottom is what my data looks like:

The titles are chosen from a drop list:

I am still working out the kinks such as getting all of the levels linked to the site & trying to figure out how I can share what I did with other teachers so that if they would like to do this for their classroom libraries, they won't have to start from scratch.

I have spent many hours getting this set up, but I feel it has been worth the time invested.  I have over 900 books entered & I just received a large book order I made using my bonus points, so it will be increasing by AT LEAST 20-25 more books in the next week! I can now quickly find any book I am looking for and have a complete history of how my students are utilizing my classroom library.

I would love to hear your feedback!
Thanks,
Nancy
The Apple Basket Teacher