DonorsChoose Giving Page

Hi everyone! I apologize for the absence again, but this summer I'm going to be making a schedule and looking into a blog planner so I'm better about posting. :)

DonorsChoose Home Page

I was thinking about starting up my own giving page on DonorsChoose.  I've been on a big DC kick with donating, posting projects, and also teaching other teachers about it.

DonorsChoose is a non-profit organization that allows teachers to create projects with a materials list, which then gets posted on their website for people to go through and donate towards the cost.  It has been heavily supported by large companies and corporations such as Chevron, Chase, Townshend Press, Bolthouse Farms, and many more. Also it is supported by everyday people and teachers like us who want to help students!

Product update:
Soon on TeachersPayTeachers, I will be posting a handbook I created for the workshop at my school, which the teachers said was really helpful. :)

Leave a comment if you would like to see a Shutters & Scribbles giving page on DonorsChoose. :)

Luv ya!

*~Sarah~*

PS: I'm considering creating a Facebook page too to make quicker updates. :)

Finally back!

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted in so long. I am so sorry about that... I had a lot of family stuff going on. BUT all is well now and I am back with exciting stuff for the new year! I can't wait to begin to share everything with all of you. I'm going to break it up into several blog posts to make it easier for everyone.

First off I hope everyone had a great holiday and enjoyed their well deserved break! I know I did and I received the best gift ever!!!! For a birthday and Christmas gift my wonderful mom bought me an iPad!! I couldn't believe it cause I had wanted one for so long and I must add that this first blog post is coming to you from the Blogger app on my new iPad. :)

Being a good teacher and a major dork the first thing I did was search for all the educational and teacher apps. Next thing I did was look up how to use it in the classroom. Well let me just tell you that I found some excellent stuff!!!

One of the first things I found was Class Dojo.  This is an amazing classroom management app, which is free - that makes it even better in my eyes. It links to the full website, which is where you will set up your account and everything.  Here's how it works. :)

First go to the website www.ClassDojo.com and set up your account.  Here you will be asked to add your students, which is very quick.  The program will assign each student an avatar.  You can choose the random option to speed up the enrollment portion.  That is what I did and then I used the avatars as a reward if the student reached a certain number of points they got to come in on their free time to choose a new avatar if they wanted.

After you sign up on the computer, go to the app store on your ipad or iphone and download the app for free.  The developers just did an update where the online and app version are more compatible.  When points are given or taken away a sound is made, so what I do is I walk around with my iPad adding and subtracting points, while I leave the sound on my laptop so the students can hear the sound of points being given or taken away.  This part works wonders in the room!  A sound will go off and the students will look to the laptop then get back on task.

What is also really cool about this is it comes preset with behaviors for positive and negative points, but everything is editable!  I added some of my own behaviors to be more specific according to my class expectations.

Now this gets even better!  You can email/print out weekly reports to send home to the parents. Parents and students can also log onto the site on their own to see their reports.  Honestly, I have not gotten this far into the program just yet, but I do plan to try it out before the school year is over.  Here is what the report looks like:

I just love how this breaks it down for the parents, so they can see exactly why their student earned and lost points.

Have any of you used this?  How do you use it? How do you have it set up?

I'd love to hear ideas of how else it is being used because I know I am not using it to it's full capacity right now.

Well I hope you all enjoyed my first blog post of the new year and please stayed tuned because I am fortunate enough to be testing an amazing piece of technology in my classroom for the next three weeks!!

Luv ya!

*~Sarah~*

Manic Monday Freebie - Gradebook Covers!

Happy Monday everyone!  You know what Monday means...

Yep! You guessed it! I'm linking up with Classroom Freebies for Manic Monday!

I have another freebie to share with you. A while ago I made covers to go inside your teacher binder, then I realized I didn't have anything cute to put in my gradebook.  So no matter how you keep your grades, this covers will make it even cuter! :)  Just click on them to save!  

If you have any troubles at all leave a comment or email me and I will get them to you ASAP :)

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

Luz ya!
*~Sarah~*

Fall Sale!

Hey guys!  Thought I'd let you all know that I'm linking up with

for the fall sale!  From now until Monday at midnight, everything in my store is 20% off!!  Be sure to check out the blog hop and my store!  

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!

Luv ya!

*~Sarah~*

Fun Day & Limited Time Freebie

This day was certainly a roller coaster!  If you stick through this blog post there's a special goody for you at the end ;)  Let's see who else can relate to my day, I'm sure a lot of you can.

First off, I was running late this morning and was squeezing the life out of my shampoo bottle trying to get the last little bit.  Upon arriving at school I then remember I have a half day substitute and no plans... nothing ready for them.  It's rush, rush, rush to get everything together and ready.

My students were being good, chatty as usual but we're working on that.  I go to give them their Math test... and it disappeared!  I searched EVERYWHERE! I even had kids helping me look for them and there was no sign.  I print some new ones, pass them out then... they suspiciously appear on my desk where I know I had just dug through.  Now I hate to think negative thoughts of students but this was just too suspicious and I am 99.9% certain someone took it.. and I am 99.9% certain of who it was...but, honestly, I was not in the mood to deal with it so I ignored it.

Anyways, the training went well, but here's the exciting part.  In our district we are implenting the DII (Direct Interactive Instruction) strategies from Action Learning Systems.  They're real fun strategies and things you probably do in your room already.  So our coach was talking to us then turned to me and asked if I had a TeachersPayTeachers account.  I was all surprised because I had never said anything to her or around her about my store.  I told her yes and then she preceded to tell me how when you search for DII products on TPT my Standard & Objective posters are the only products to pop up!

We then talked about my store and I asked her about posting DII lesson plans on there and she thought it would be great because she has a lot of teachers looking for them :)  So that's my next project!  I was so thrilled though that she was able to find me! What a small world!

That was my big excitement for the day!

Just as promised here is your special treat!  Ijust got finished making binder covers for a gradebook :)  They are free only for a limited time!  Enjoy!

Manic Monday Again!

Happy Monday!!

(If you say it with enthusiasm it will make it better right? LOL)

I am linking up with Classroom Freebies for their Manic Monday.

Here is my freebies for today... it's a PowerPoint of 7 writing prompts used for narratives and descriptive writings along with a writing rubric you can adjust for any type of writing.

I used these prompts last year and the students had so much fun with them. I left it as a PPT so that you can edit as needed and also add more if you wish.

I hope your students enjoy them as much as mine did!

Here is the rubric I used which worked well for me.  It is saved as a .doc so you can adjust as needed to suit you.

I'm having trouble displaying the rubric here... Google Docs is not cooperating with this file.  Go HERE to check it out! :)

Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you think. :)
Luv ya!
*~Sarah~*

New TPT products: Unsolved Mysteries, Banners, & more!

Hi guys!

I have been working on some new products for my TPT store.  Check out what I have posted!

I finally finished with the Unsolved Mysteries project.  I posted about this back in July.  This is the project that helps students draw their own conclusions based on evidence they gather about unsolved mysteries in the world.  Here is what some of the unsolved mysteries are: Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, Atlantis, and many more!

This is what you receive with this product:
Powerpoint with an outline of the project
Directions in PDF format
Stationary in PDF format for the final draft of the research report
Labels for the students research folders
Folder cover in PDF format

The project has 6 parts to it.
Research
Map of Research Site
Interview
Evidence from Site
Research Paper
Presentation - done in partners or group

There are many ways you could run this project and adapt it to your class.  Last year I had the students work in partners or groups of three right from the beginning, but this year I'm going to keep it independent until the presentation where they get together as a group to reveal their findings.

This is a fun and very different research project than what the students are typically used to.

Check it out at my TPT store for $4.00!

I also made some pennants and banners! :) I was so excited when I finally figured out how to make them.

You saw them in my classroom pictures post here and then I posted them for sale in my TPT store.

Here's what I made (which I'm very excited about if you couldn't tell already) :)

I took the pennants and placed them together for the sample file so everyone could see how it goes together.  The letters are to be printed on a 8.5 X 11 inch piece of paper. 

This product includes the following pennant files:

1st grade          2nd grade              3rd grade          4th grade          5th grade      6th grade

History        Math        Reading       Science        Spelling        Writing

Go check it out HERE and download the sample file.  If it's something you would like, I just dropped the price to $3.00.  If you want something added to the set just let me know. :)

I also have PowerPoints that are for Where the Red Fern Grows and Bridge to Terabithia that have reading response questions and quizzes for only $2.00.  I am currently working on Dollhouse Murders and City of Ember.

Where the Red Fern Grows Reading Journal Responses and Activities

Bridge to Terabithia Reading Journal & Quizzes

That is all for today! I'll be back tomorrow with an awesome freebie for Manic Monday!! :)

Luv ya!

*~Sarah~*