** Capital Region Blogger Gathering **

So my buddies, Little Literacy Learners and Love to Teach, and I have been discussing how jealous we are of all the blogger gatherings across the state. We've decided to host our own in the Capital Region! We haven't decided an exact location yet because we want to know how many people would be interested first. You can RSVP via email or comment here. Please share this post or invitation to spread the word! Look forward to gabbing with you all!

Help Wanted

I'm watching Starsky and Hutch, drinking Diet Pepsi, and doing report cards when I realized, wow, I've really neglected my blog this year. 

It's been a crazy year! Last week I presented a literacy workshop and I think it went really well. I discussed what a literacy rich environment looks like, how to conference 1:1 with your students, and our district assessment requirements. 

I also put my resignation in about a month ago. If you know of any districts (preferable public school) in the Albany, NY region hiring for next year, I'm on the market. I am struggling with the thought of not having my own classroom next year, but it's time to move on. 

So last week we finished my matter unit and one of my cutie pies wrote this on her test: 

The arrow says "I couldn't think of anything else!!" This was definitely the highlight of my week. I'm still laughing about it. 

On Friday I played a little April Fools trick on my students since it fell on a Sunday this year. I gave them a spelling test and most of them didn't even notice until the very end that it said something vertically: 

They thought this was hysterical!! It says "there really is no spelling test today. April fools ha ha ha"

We also made ice cream on Friday for our snazzy snack and end of our matter unit celebration. The recipe can be found here. It was so much fun and it was actually really tasty. It was made in a Ziploc bag and they just ate it right out of the bag. It shows a chemical change. 

My friend Laura over at Love To Teach does a weekly blog post about freebies that she finds. I like this idea and I want to share a couple of my finds last night. 

This first freebie is data binder materials. This must be very time consuming BUT I can definitely see this making me a better and more accountable teacher. There will also be no surprises when report cards come around. 

This next freebie is a poetry unit. I hate poetry :( I'm just glad April is a short month and I only have to teach it for 2 weeks. Hopefully this freebie makes it go a little more smooth for me. 

Have a great week!! Since I teach at a Catholic school we don't have school Thursday, Friday, or the following week. I plan on working on a magnet unit so if there is anything you would like to see in it, let me know :)

We may all be different fish, but in this school we swim together!

It's a beautiful day in upstate NY.... BUT I'm glued to my computer working on the literacy workshop I'll be presenting this week. Maybe I'll move my work station to the balcony :)

I don't know about your students, but mine have been obsessed with tattling and getting each other in trouble. I have done mini lesson after mini lesson modeling and discussing this and we even have a tattle box! Any tips?

Going along with the issue of tattling, we talked about how we are a family and a team. We made this cute bulletin board to go along with our recent conversations about sticking together and loving one another.

And if you haven't heard yet, Love to Teach is having a super great giveaway. Who wouldn't want an Amazon and Scrappin' Doodles gift certificate??

Spelling City!

I've been busy preparing a literacy workshop that I will be presenting next week so I haven't been doing much blog stalking this month. I hope I didn't miss anything super spectacular! 

Anyways, I was given a membership to Spelling City in exchange for writing a review. I'm sure many of you have heard of it. I admittedly knew it existed but never gave it a try until recently and boy were my students missing out! 

Spelling City gives you the option of uploading your spelling lists so that your students can practice their words by playing fun games. The teacher can create a username and password for each child and a report keeps track of what the students are doing and their scores. I have 3 different spelling groups and it only takes me about 5 minutes each Friday to upload the new lists. 

Recently my school was given laptops so I sign out 3 laptops each day for my students to use during daily 5. Students who choose "word work" have the option of using the laptops for Spelling City. Inevitably, this has been a popular choice. Even with Spelling City's popularity, I have had NO interruptions to explain or help my students navigate the site. It's 100% user friendly for my second grade students. They even like it so much they sign into Spelling City from their home computers too!

My only con to Spelling City is that I wish I could designate my lists to specific students without "creating assignments." What I have done instead is I group my spelling lists and my students know what group they are in and where to find their current list. I just didn't like the idea of students and parents being able to look at the other lists, but thus far it has not been an issue. 

Spelling City can be utilized for free, however, for the great benefits and student tracking I would highly recommend purchasing an annual subscription. It's well worth it! 

Feel free to comment with questions or ways that you use Spelling City in your classroom :)

Sale on TpT tomorrow!!

You all know by now that TpT has a Leap Day sale going on tomorrow. I too will be participating. So, for tomorrow only, you can save 28% in my store. I will be offering 20% and you can use the TpT code for the additional 8%. 

So get your shopping carts ready!! It's a great time to get my St. Patrick's Day unit if you haven't yet. I'll be changing out my math centers tomorrow to my Patty's Day unit games! 

*Giveaway Winner*

Yes, I said I was going to announce a winner this morning, HOWEVER, I was busy at school getting ready to end break and go back tomorrow. 

Anyways..... The winner of the giveaway is....

Valerie! So check your email :)

If you did not win, but you're still interested in the packet, please head on over to my store and get it! Thanks for your support!!

Book Recommendation Bookmark Freebie

Well I was hoping I wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel, but I did some Googling and just couldn't find what I was looking for! I got one of those nifty book turning gadgets (don't know what to call it!) from a Borders closeout sale (best 20.00 ever spent!). Anyways, each Friday we do book recommendations which both encourages oral presentation and book discussion. We're now midyear and I wanted to add a written piece to this so I made book recommendation bookmarks. So now the students must fill out a bookmark prior to Friday. I require at least one share a month and I keep track via a checklist. Hope this is helpful to someone! 

P.S. Don't forget I'm announcing my "What's the Matter?" giveaway tomorrow morning after spin class ;) Check out my previous post to get the details.