Brooklyn 8 Months

Brooklyn has hit the 8 month mark and I am still in awe at how fast this time with my kids as babies continues to whiz by me.  She is growing like a weed and she NEVER sits still!  She will be walking before I know it.  She pulls herself up on any and everything.  Macaroni and cheese, spaghetti, and pears have all been added to the list of foods she loves.  Lincoln is still the one that makes her smile the most, but dogs are coming in at a close second!  She adores any dog, but I am sure she loves Morgan and Thor the best ;)  Tags are still one of her favorite things as well.  In fact I never really paid attention to how many things have tags...  A random tag has come in hand more than once!  Although she is really easy and has been a great baby I am learning that she can have quite a bit of a temper and might be a bit dramatic...  She is 18 pounds and 27 inches long.  She is in the 75th % for her weight, height and head circumference.  

        

Our Day Trip

Our annual camping trip to Kalaloch took place about a week ago and the weather was suppose to be beautiful.  Unfortunately an illness threw a wrench in our vacation plans.  Josh unexpectedly came down with something and we were clearly not going to make it to the beach.  I was incredibly disappointed and Lincoln had been talking excitedly about our "vacation" so as a compromise, I took the kids up for the day so that we could visit with everyone and not miss out completely.

We loaded the car and were on the road by 6 a.m.  We pulled into the campground at 8:20 and surprised my mom :-)  Yes!!  We had made it just in time to go hopping around to each camp site and sample the various breakfasts that were being cooked.  We were able to partake in the various traditions in which the family embarks upon every year, trip to Forks, playing on the beach, walk to Ruby, and of course just sitting around and visiting.  Lincoln loved visiting the dogs in the back of the truck and got to try pop rocks for the first time on our drive in to Forks.  It was Brooklyn's maiden voyage at the beach and she LOVED it!  She was like a little crab scurrying across the sand.  

Our trip to Ruby beach was extra special this year.  My Great Uncle Dad passed away and Kalaloch was a place that he and my grandpa came as kids.  As adults they took their families each year.  And their kids in turn kept the tradition alive.  Today their grandchildren and now their great grand children are making the trip out each year.  His ashes were spread in the creek by my grandpa.  It was very emotional and I am soooo thankful that I didn't miss it.    

A Peek into My Classroom...

Ok, the AWESOME ideas for teaching on Pinterest coupled with some great blogs on teaching have inspired me to do a post on my own classroom and some of my favorite teaching ideas.  I'm looking forward to reflecting back on this in a few years and I hope to possibly spark some inspiration for fellow teachers whom have never ceased to stop inspiring me.  This is going to be pretty long...  

The 2012-2013 school year will be my seventh.  It is also the 6th time I've had to move classrooms...  I am hoping (knock on wood) that I will get to spend a few years in my new room, but you just never know!  I started my teaching career as a 5th grade teacher in Centralia, WA and moved to 6th grade my second year (namely because I LOVED going to outdoor camp)  I have been teaching 6th grade ever since.  Although I had to move rooms over the summer and it was/is a PAIN, my new room is fabulous!  The year before I came to my school an entire wing burned down, so naturally it was all replaced.  The rooms are open, bright and have quite a bit of storage and counter space.  I am not a proponent of clutter, in fact it drives me up the wall.  That being said however being a teacher your work really could never end.  And the clutter is at times unavoidable.  There are always papers to be graded, passed back, prep work to be done, parents to contact etc.  That along with my number one priority, my family and I know that once the first day of school hits, it's go time and the likelihood of me getting my classroom organized and projects done is a far off dream.  Therefore I spend a lot of time in my room over the summer, front loading the work as much as possible.

Here is a tour around my classroom.  I have been sticking to an orange and black theme as those are our school colors and I am big on school spirit.  One of our big goals as a staff is to really bond the students to the school and the staff.  The continuation of the school colors within my four walls is one way I hope to achieve that.  I will try to add links to any outside ideas that I have "borrowed" from others ;).  

I plan to have two rosters on this bulletin board along with string and tacks so that students can pin the places they've been in one color and the places they wish to visit in another.

This is my word wall.  I am trying something new this year by putting my weekly focus words on white boards.  I attached them to the bulletin board with double sided mounting squares.  

I will be using this area for weekly events such as assemblies, holidays, birthdays etc.  Again I used whiteboards.  I tacked them to the bulletin board for easy access.  My inspiration... 

I found this online and made it my own.  I want to use inspirational quotes a lot this year for character and confidence building.  Here is where I got the idea though I don't think it is still available.  I just created it on Word and attached it to some scrapbook paper.     

We have had many issues in our school with bathroom vandalizing and gang tagging so I am always looking for ways to keep track of students.  Hence I am going to give this a try along with a couple other things this year.  You can find the idea here

Basic turn in bins and sharpening station...

I love using poster paper on a regular basis for class notes and direction, but I didn't have an easel and wasn't sure I really wanted an easel taking up space in my room.  One of the fabulous janitors at my school suggested using "over the door hooks" on the white board.  I love it!  I keep it in the middle of my board where the two boards join together.   It is also where the screen for my projector pulls down so I feel I am wasting as little actual "white board" space as possible.

The back wall of my room I decided to dedicate as my "memory" wall and is the most "cluttered" spot in the room. I have hung things that remind me of my previous classes (class pictures, projects, gifts etc)  And of course I have my WSU section...  

I plan to hang pictures of my students here.  Every year I try to take lots of pictures (or I have my students take pictures) so that I can put together a slideshow for them at the end of the year.  This year I want to take a portrait pic of every student the first week and another towards the end to see their changes and growth.  

I am trying out something new with my projector...  It is sitting on a crate that is bolted (rather will be soon...) to the desk.  It is attached to the crate with zip ties.  I like that it takes up less space and I have storage under it.  I heard a rumor that all of our projectors were going to be mounted on the ceiling this year, but I'm not going to hold my breath...

My front teaching station.

We have GIANT bulletin boards outside our classrooms which is a pain in the butt!  This is only half of it...  I plan to display student work here.

This is part of the other half of my outdoor bulletin board.  I am excited to have a game on it so I don't have to figure out how to fill the space!  I am going to use this for students as a incentive and/or reward for completing their assignments/homework.  I plan to change the board every other week or so.  The squares all have velcro to make switching out the game easy.  The rest of my bulletin board outside will have my favorite inspirational sayings.  The boggle idea came from here
    

My school is big on attendance and the impact that it has on student achievement (I 100% agree!) so we track our class progress and set goals.  This is where we will keep that information.

This pic is hard to read, but it says "Cispus Here We Come!"  Camp Cispus (our 4 day 3 night outdoor education program) happens in 6th grade.  With all of the budget cuts over the last 5 years it met the chopping block a few years back.  We now spend a large part of our year fundraising in order to ensure that our students can participate in this phenomenal once in a lifetime experience.  Therefore I have a bulletin board dedicated to our progress and upcoming events.  The tiger in the middle is our school mascot, The Oakview TopCat :-)

 For anyone that may still be reading, next I will post some of the organizational tools and activities I am excited to use this year.  

Found this on Pinterest...  Students take the appropriate bottle of hand sanitizer and place it on their desk prior to leaving the room to use the bathroom.  When they return they use the hand sanitizer and put it back.  

Its amazing how little 6th graders know about geography!  I hope this visual display helps them to wrap their heads around these descriptors...  Found this idea here...

I will try anything to up my homework turn in rate! 

You will notice that I LOVE to put everything in a binder...

I've always used something similar to this and I'm going to give this a try this year.  You can download and print it here

I have a binder dedicated to "community building" activities and "brain break" activities.  I plan on keeping a tub with all of the supplies I may need for my activities so that they are easy to actually do in my room.  My plan is to get links posted of the actual documents soon...  For now here is an idea of a couple things in my binder.