100 followers on TPT = Giveaway!!

I have finally reached 100 followers at my tpt store! Yay! And to celebrate, I am holding a giveaway raffle! Winner get to pick anything they would love to have from my store!! You have until August 1st to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Also, Diane from One Teacher's Adventure is having an awesome giveaway that I am participating in. That means TWO opportunities to pick whatever you would like from my tpt store! Visit her blog here to enter in her giveaway!!!

Monday Made it!

Good Morning!! I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for another Monday Made it linky party! Linking up every Monday definitely makes my Monday's so much better!

I have been wanting a color laser printer FOR.EV.ER. I even blogged about it a couple of months ago. It made me so jealous to read other blogs and see all of their colorful posters. task cards, etc. that they made and printed out for their classroom. After months and months of talking about it, drooling over it, and weighing pros and cons, I decided that I would check out the back to school sales to see if there were any good deals. Staples had a really good deal on an HP colorjet printer. It was originally $429 and was marked down to $299. Even though this was such a good deal, $299 was soooo much money for me to spend.

This is where my super amazingly awesome boyfriend comes in! I guess I must have been talking about it A LOT at home - Johnathan said that he would buy it for me as my early Christmas present! Ahhhhh! <3 So we drove to staples, picked it up and got an even better deal with the 15% coupon they gave us, and brought it home to set it up. I've been printing and printing all day long. Having it at home is even better than I imagined! The color is so crisp and it's great that I can print from my iPad and my MacBook Pro wirelessly. Best. present. ever.

Here she is!

I had to snapchat everyone my excitement!

Now that I had this awesome printer, I HAD to create something to print and laminate! I bought some $1 bins from the Target dollar spot and just dressed it up with some ribbon. I needed cute chevron labels to organize my classroom better.

I then bought some velcro stickies from Hobby Lobby so that I could change the labels on my bins whenever I needed to.

And voila! Interchangeable labels for my classroom!

Lastly, I made these posters a while back, but never had the chance to print them out. Last year, I found that my kids gave up too easily when working on an assignment or a task. I would literally just finish giving directions and not even a minute later, I had kids raising their hand to ask for assistance. I want my students to be able to think critically. I want them to become independent and I want for them to be able to work through a problem by trying every single strategy before needing my assistance. My kids hate when I answer their questions with questions, but I always remind them that I do this for them. They won't have my assistance on the test.

That being said, I created these posters to help my kids become more independent. About 98% of the time, questions some of my kids had would have been answered if they would have looked in their interactive notebooks. So when I teach these procedures at the beginning of the school year, I will make sure to emphasize that they need to have their interactive notebooks out to the correct lesson by the time they need to ask for my assistance. Same goes for the problem solving template that I will give them. I want to visually see that they have tried everything they could to complete their assignment.

Until next time! :-)

Five for Friday Linky!

Happy Friday! I am linking up with Doodle Bugs for another Five for Friday!

Last weekend, I finally decided to create a Facebook page for The Math Nerdette! I've been reading a lot of blog post reflecting on what fellow bloggers learned from their Vegas trip to the TPT conference (totally jealous - wish i could have gone!). One of the repeating pieces of advice I kept reading is how important social media is. I have a blog and I have a TPT store. My TPT store has less than 100 followers and sometimes I feel like no one is reading this blog! So I decided to create a FB page AND become involved with the TPT seller's forum. WHOA! My stats have already gone up so much within the past week! My TPT store followers have gone up by 12!! (This makes me super excited because I was stuck at 69 FOR.EV.ER. and was a little disappointed when I noticed it go down by one). My FB page is almost at 100 likes (and there will be an awesome giveaway/freebie/something special when that happens), and my bloggy numbers have increased as well. I have also learned how to do these so called "pinning parties". I was so intimidated because I'm such a newbie, and seriously, all I had to do was open a thread and read the directions! Super easy to get your products out there via pinterest! For July to be a slow month, I noticed a small bump in sales for me. I share this with you because for other bloggers and TPT sellers who become discouraged (just like me), there is always more that you can do to promote your products! And it does make such a difference with getting your name out there on the forums! 

I've been working a lot on trying to get next year planned (or at least outlined). Last year, I taught 8th grade science, Math I, and Math II. This year, I'm teaching 8th grade math and Foundations of Math II. Two completely new curriculums - not to mention that I will also be the only math teacher on our hall next year. A fellow blogger (I wish I could remember who, I'm sorry I couldn't give you credit!) posted about this AH-MA-ZING website for common core planning called commoncurriculum.com. It's SUCH a great tool to use - not only do you have electronic lesson plans to share with your co-teachers and admin, but it has a section where you can have a year-long plan (just like the districts). If you haven't heard of it or haven't really played around with you, I suggest doing so! It has made planning for next year so much easier.

For each unit, you can easily add your lessons and within the lesson, can add standards, essential questions, and anything else you decide you need by just clicking "add section". It forces me to be super organized and easier for me to know what I'll need to print out or post to Edmodo by just looking at the files I attached for that lesson!

Many students at my school (or just in general) struggle with math vocabulary. Last year, our math department had a discussion on what we could do to expose our students to more vocabulary AND having them understand what we teach and speak "math". Last year, I did frayer models, but they took up too much paper every time we had a unit to do and three other teachers were doing frayers models as well. They were frayered out! What I decided to do next year is make a words worth knowing glossary in the back of their interactive notebooks. My plan is to have my students paste about 4-5 of this template in the back of their ISN like a glossary. Every time we introduce a new vocabulary word or come across a vocab word they don't know, we'll write it in our WWK template. The template has a space for the word, definition, example, and notes. This way, the kids will have a place to refer back to in their ISN's when they come across a word they forgot. I also plan on writing new WWK vocab on little sentence strips I bought from Michaels. They are colorful and bright, so they pop out at you. I laminated (I LOVE MY LAMINATOR!!)them so I can write a word with an Expo marker and wipe off when done.

You can download this FREEBIE template by clicking here!

As mentioned before, I've been working on my interactive notebook for next year. I've created some new templates and practices as I move along to the next lesson. They aren't up for sale yet since I want to write the answers in my notebook first to take pics of and include that in the sale. Here's a sneak peek of a few pages I'm working on...

Whew!! Number 5!! Lastly, on a trip to Target, I found these $1 letter trays that I could use next year! I snagged the last three black trays! They were a little blah looking, so I played around with my ribbon stash and voila! It's still not as cutsy as I would like, but it's a start. I'm thinking of making a label to go in the front.

This was a long, but fun post! Until next time! :-)

Monday Made It

I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made it! I've been working summer school this month, so I haven't had too much time to work on what I had planned. I did have some extra time this weekend to start a project.

I went to Hobby Lobby after school Friday and bought a few things:

I bought a canvas, curly Q styled letters, "hot pink" paint, and "lime green" paint. I've been seeing these "No Name" boards with clothespins floating around pinterest for a while, so I thought it would be a great time to start! Here is what I have so far:

I promise I know how to spell "name"! When I bought the letters, of course they didn't have any more "e's", so I have to call back tomorrow to see if they received their weekly shipment! I haven't worked on the clothespins yet - that will be this weekend's project. I also think I need to dress it up with some ribbon! 

I did have a chance to make posters for common core standards! Most of them are up for sale at my TPT store, but I still have some that I haven't had a chance to post.

NCES for Social Studies for Grades 6-8 Bundle

ELA Common Core Standards for Grades 6-8 Bundle

Math Common Core Standards for Grades 6-8 Bundle

High School Math Common Core Standards for Math I, Math II, and Math III

And lastly:

My last Monday Made It is my new Facebook page! As recently posted, I decided to finally make a Facebook page for The Math Nerdette. 

If you haven't already, please visit my facebook page by clicking here, clicking "like" on the right side of my blog, or by logging onto facebook and searching for The Math Nerdette. It would be awesome if you would "like" my page!! I will be posting freebies from time to time only offered on my FB page, so don't miss out! Until next time!! :-)

Facebook!!

Attention, Attention! The Math Nerdette is now on Facebook! Just log into facebook and search for The Math Nerdette, or you can just press "like" on the right side of my blog. Please spread the word! There are already 2 freebies waiting for you when you like my FB page! And there are plenty more freebies to come! :-)

Flash Freebie!

Interested in a freebie?

Visit my store here to download one and two step inequalities foldables for your interactive notebooks for FREE. This will remain free until at least tonight (I may forget to change it!). Please leave feedback on my TPT site. Included in the download are 2 foldables (1 for one step inequalities and 1 for two step inequalities), 2 word problem inserts (1 for each lesson), and pictures of my ISN that show my teacher notes. Hope you enjoy!

Thanks! :-)

Monday Meet Up #6

Good Morning! I am linking up with The Teaching Tribune for Monday Meet Up!

Back to School Goals 2014 - 2015 Linky

I skipped a day of blogging! Oops! I'm hoping to make up for that today by posting twice. First post is a link up with I Heart Recess! I love this linky because I am constantly thinking about new goals for upcoming year.

Personal - This is always my goal every year and I always fail! Leaving by 4pm is even my new years resolution! I probably end of leaving every day between 4:30 - 5pm. 

Organization - I definitely want to have my teacher ISN completed before school starts. This helps me with the structure of my units since I am kind of running blind with my Foundations of Math II class (this is the first year the middle schools in my county are offering this in middle school). I am hoping to learn from other teachers that teach Foundations and come up with a guide that I can use next year. I also think it would be easy for me to have everything completed ahead of time and organized into binders. I have always had 3-4 preps. This is the first year that I have only 2 preps, so I am thinking this will be manageable!

Planning - I am so guilty of socializing during planning sometimes! I really need to work on this. I am thinking of just shutting my door during planning so I am not tempted to visit everyone on my hall! I also would like to meet with our Math department at the same time every month. Since I'll be the only math teacher on my hall, I want to make sure that we are all on the same page. Plus I love our math department and I never get to see them during the school day!

Professional - Last year was the first year I was given opportunities to present at our staff meetings and the district conference. I never have before because I have always been so shy and nervous. But our curriculum facilitator helped me with my fear. She spoke with me and said that I am a leader and have such great ideas that others would benefit from. If I'm going to continue to be a leader, I need to take the steps to overcome my shyness. So my goal this year is to continue to share ideas and work on my nervousness.

Students - I want to make sure my students understand me and how I run my classroom. A lot of them complain about how hard my work is, but I want to make sure my students are challenged and to not give up too easily. So my goal is to be there for them and motivate them to push through - it'll all work out in the end.

:-)

Five for Friday - July 4th Linky

Happy 4th of July! I am linky up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

 We survived Hurricane Arthur! I actually live a good distance away from the coast, so we got some impact but not a lot. We did have a lot of rain and some strong winds, but thankfully not bad enough that there was any damage. Arthur did derail our beach plans but we made the most of it and enjoyed the pitter patter of the rain from inside!

We were a little nervous since our street tends to flood when it rains for a good while. Last time we had a storm, our neighbors car that was parked on the side of the street was completely underwater! Luckily, our street didn't flood as bad!

This morning, I woke up early enough to surprise the boyfriend with breakfast since he was off of work this morning. Last weekend we took a trip to Raleigh to visit Trader Joe's and picked up the best bacon we've ever had! Trader Joe's is officially our favorite place to buy groceries! We are so addicted by the different kinds of food they have and how low the prices are!

This past Wednesday, boyfriend and I took our furbaby Kramer to PetSmart to get pampered. He absolutely loves getting cleaned as much as we do! He's such a water dog! Because of 4th of July, PetSmart added a cute patriotic bandana and medallion after his bath. He's so stinkin' cute!!

I told myself that this summer, the only school related things I was going to buy was a planner and glue sticks on sale for my interactive notebooks. I failed. As I was browsing through Target (mistake #1) I saw these cute pens that I couldn't resist. (remember my pen addiction?)

They write so well and motivates me to get some planning done for next year. They are also pretty fat so they fit well in my hand when I write since I write so big. Ok, I'm starting to weird myself out!

Every summer, I love reading up on Educational books to get myself pumped for the next school year. I read The First Days of School every summer. This summer, I purchased a book called Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom. I haven't started reading this yet (I'm going to get to it soon - Promise!) but I love it already just because of flipping through it and the fact that it comes with a CD full of useful reproducibles. I feel that differentiating is something that I definitely need to work on, especially in terms of prepping and procedures with the kids. I am hoping that I can get some great ideas from this and of course I'll be sharing on my blog once I get goin'!

I also plan on reading Teach Like a Champion once my friend finishes reading it and Common Sense Assessment in the Classroom.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!! Eat lots today! (I know I will be - calories don't count on holidays, right?)