So I promised yesterday that there would be some educational value today, not sure how much I'm going to fulfill the promise. But first things, first. I have a winner of my giveaway.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
So congratulations to Janine from Faithful in First.
Next order of business is my flash freebie. I hope that you've enjoyed these flash freebies I've been offering this week in honor of my blogiversary. I've enjoyed giving them to you. I just am constantly amazed at the generosity of teachers out there in blogland. It means so much to have this supportive community in my life. I've been thinking a lot about why I blog and why I make things. I love this community. I love sharing my ideas and hoping that I'm helping someone along the way. I've gotten some really sweet comments from followers about how I've inspired them and they hope they can create things like I do. That means so much and makes me feel so good. I've been concerned here lately with my numbers. The number of people following me, the number of things that I've sold on TPT, the number of followers I have on TPT. This summer I have been a part of a wonderful Bible study.
It's a great Bible study for a group of women if you are looking for one. Most of the group of women are employed by the school system in some way. It's been nice to be a part of this group. I've made some new friends at church and also been forced to examine some things in my life. One of these, is why I do what I do. This past year, there were times that I felt like people didn't know about all I was doing and I got all upset about. This summer, I've been discouraged by my lack of sales on TPT. Well, yesterday, I realized my focus was all off. I needed to be focused on serving the Lord. If I focus on pleasing him, then I will be doing all the other things I want to do. Like help people and sharing what I love to do. So all that said to say, I'm going to start offering a flash freebie from my store once a week in hopes that I will help someone. I'm still going to try to offer freebies once or twice a week of things that are always free. I'm still going to try to sell things on TPT because I'm making things for my own classroom anyway and I gotta find a way to keep up with my habit of cute clip art and units. But I want my focus to be on helping other teachers and sharing what I've done in my classroom. I need to stop focusing on the numbers and remember that even if just one person reads my blog I've helped one person. Even if it's just a laugh for the day. Ok so now that I've rambled on. On to the flash freebie.
Today's flash freebie is the Monster Mapping set. This contains a variety of story maps to use with students after reading a story or book. My kids enjoy these story maps and thinking maps mainly because of the monster graphics. The freebie will up for most of the day so be sure to check it out. I would love it if you would leave me some feedback and a comment.
Now the last part of this of this post, random questions.
I thought about starting a linky party to answer some questions about school. I enjoyed reading everyone's Tell me more posts and finding about people personally. Maybe that's just the nosy part of me. So I was curious about some school things. So here are some random questions I would love to hear your answer to:
- Do you have a dress code at school for teachers? Can you wear jeans when you want to or flip flops? We don't have a very strict dress code at school. It's pretty casual. We can't wear flip flops though. I find myself not dressing very professionally. I go back and forth about it. I read Ron Clark's The End of Molasses Classes last summer and he talks about the importance of dressing professionally. I would like to dress more like a grown up but at the same time, I spend a lot of time on the floor with my kids and I seem to wind up with paint and other things all over me.(I've had mayonnaise in my hair and fruit roll up all over me before.) So I'm curious about others.
- Do you do your lesson plans weekly or at a chunk at a time? I do my plans a week a time because I seem to need to make changes as I go. But it might be more effective to do it a chunk at a time.
- Do you use daily 5, literacy workstations, reading workshops or something else? I'm going to implement Daily 5 this coming school year but I've been reading a reading workshop book and I'm thinking of doing a combo. Just not sure how that will all work.
- Do you number your students? I did this when I taught 3rd grade but I've never done it kindergarten or first. If you teach those grades and number your students, can they remember the number?
- What do you do for spelling? I would love to try out words their way but I just don't have the money for the book. I might be able to get our librarian to order it but I'm not sure. So other than words their way, do you have any suggestions for differentiating spelling instruction? I read someone's blog post about taking their spelling from their writing. I'm interested in that but I need a little more information.
- If you've moved to common core this year, are you still teaching money in kindergarten and first grade?
Ok so I think those are the only random questions you have. I hope you'll offer me your answers in comments or even blog about it. If you think it would be a good linky party let me know.
