WBT Webinars are back!

It has been a crazy busy year and I am so behind! Well I had to grab a minute to let you know that WBT Webcasts with Coach B are starting up again tonight, yep we are moving to Mondays! So please join me tonight! We are starting a new series on meeting Common Core the WBT way and tonight Coach B will share how to help kids reason accuratly answering the question "What is Evidence?"

Hop over to WBT TV tonight, March 11 at
 5 PM Pacific, 6 PM Mountain, 7 PM Central, 8 PM Eastern

See you tonight :)

TK California

So teaching Transitional Kindergarten is hard, a lot of fun, but REALLY hard! I wanted to share a few of the wonderful videos from the TK Implementation Conference they had down south the beginning of February. I didn't get a chance to attend but these videos have given me some new focus and made me realize that many of the other TK teachers are having a hard time too. Enjoy and keep teaching :)

Transitional Kindergarten: Teacher Institute, Part 1 from Preschool California on FORA.tv
Transitional Kindergarten: Teacher Institute, Part 2 from Preschool California on FORA.tv

Life is CRAZY!

So bottom line is I have not had much time to blog this school year. I have been spending a lot of time learning this year and trying things out with this class. Some things have worked great but many things have not and I really don't want to blog about those things yet. I have a few posts I'm working on that I hope to have posted soon for you :) Until then I wanted to share that there is a new version of My Memories Suite with some AWESOME new features including export to SVG to use with electronic die cutters like the Silhouette!

You can download a trial of My Memories Suite for free by clicking the words  My Memories Suite   This will take you to the  My Memories Suite  store where you can get the trial or buy the program. When you are ready to buy My Memories Suite put in my Share the Memories code for a $10 discount off the purchase of the My Memories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value! The code is STMMMS99167

There is also a limited time sale for 50% off on the full install or upgrade!

I'm installing the upgrade now and will post a giveaway in the next couple of weeks :)

Kindergarten Common Core

Have you all seen this new 600 page ebook for the Common Core Standards?

After seeing this all over many of my favorite blogs this week I finally had a chance to check out the free sample download. WOW these are so cute and useful! If even half the pages are as great as the sample this book will totally be worth the investment.

My school district is still using the California State Standards for now but since most of the California Standards are similar to the Common Core Standards I know I'll still be able to use many of the pages from this book. Then when my district decides to switch to Common Core, which will probably be with little notice, I'll already be started :)

Between this Kindergarten Common Core workbook and the Power Pixs from Whole Brain Teaching I will have the standards super covered :) The workbook is $39.99, but one comment said there is a 15% discount with the code CORE15. If you are a blogger you can receive a copy for free until September 16th! Just click HERE to find out how.  Now if only printer ink was free too because I will need A LOT of ink :) 

Sunshine Folder and Classroom Pics

Please excuse my blogging absence, I have been suffering from teacher perfectitis. I have started blogging about my classroom set up and first days of school several times but deleted the drafts because I didn't like how things were looking. I want the room to look perfect, the projects I shared to be projects that went perfectly with my class, everything to be perfect. Not sure why I thought things would be perfect, but somehow I got the idea in my head that it should be. Well my room is coming along but not there yet and these first 6 days of TK have been hard, really hard. Nothing is perfect and I decided finally that is ok. I'm not a perfectionist usually, just look at my house, but I have wanted to share my best at least.

After really thinking about it I realized my room is actually looking better than any other year and my class is really going pretty well. Most of the class is doing great with the Whole Brain Teaching tools I have introduced and I really only have a few friends that are going to be challenging. We have the 5 Rules, Class/Yes, Hands and Eyes, Mirrors and the Scoreboard going. We also have started Read to Self and Word Work which most of the class can do for 5 minutes each. Work on Writing, Math Stations and Creative Stations are each up to 10 minutes each which is really amazing for four year old students after only 6 days. Now if I can get a handle on my 4 challenging friends I will be able to start assessing and doing small groups since the majority of the class is rocking and rolling. So what if things are not perfect, in the words of Pete the Cat, "It is all good." I'm going to focus on the positive and share any help I find for the challenges when I find them.

 The amazing Debbie from Rainbows in Reach has the most powerful post on her blog today and it is a blog hop. Be sure to hop over and read the story she shares and take a look at the amazing photos of classrooms that are sprinkled through the post. It reminded me that I even though I have been struggling, I am making a difference in the lives of my students. Teaching, especially I think the youngest students, is a mind molding, life altering, hard but rewarding work. Debbie reminded me that we all struggle at times but we are stronger together, making our students stronger too :) So with the knowledge that this is a work in process not a work of art, here are some pictures of my room and the links to the blog hop started by Debbie. Hope you like them :)

 Here are our cubbies with ocean artwork from one of my fellow teachers until student art is finished

 This is our store which is from my own parents, they bought it for my 3 children and we moved it into my classroom. Took me most of 2 days to put it together again. 

 One of 4 tables with crayon cups

 Close up of the crayon cups. I was so excited to get these on clearance for 30 cents each this summer from Walmart :)

 Our Word Wall with the green letters from my Tropical Dot Word Wall Letter sets. The book shelf on the left holds the open Word Work choices and the shelfs under the board hold the goodies that will be used later in the year.

 This is the calendar part of our front board. The monkeys are from Graphics by Ruth and yu can get them here. 

 Hung beach balls and tropical flowers :) You can see the rest of our front board which will hold PowerPix and our screen and lcd projector I use with the ELMO and WII whiteboard.

 Our class library and Wonderful Work Wall

My teacher desk and small group table next to our bathroom :)

Hope to share more soon and that you will join in the blog hop with pictures of your room :)

Teacher Tech Tuesday-Pinterest

One of the coolest tech tools I have found this year is Pinterest and I mainly pin teaching stuff. It amazes me how many cool things there are from classroom theme ideas to how to fix whiteboards that have ghosting. I am in no way a master pinner but I am friends with a few :) 

Rachel, a fellow Top Teacher, from Minds in Bloom has a great post on Pinterest that is a must read.

The delightful Debbie from Rainbows Within Reach is a super pinner and has been sharing the love by hosting some awesome Pinterest linkies. Here are just 2 of the many wonderful linkies Debbie has put together. Be prepared to repin and follow like crazy and link up your Pinterest account too :) Transitional Kinder is both Early Childhood and Kindergarten so my TK friends make there are treasures on both of these lists :) 

 

Debbie is also hosting this freebies Blog Hop full of super awesome freebies. I am so excited to be the second link on her list :) Don't forget to pin your favorites!