TpT Seller Challenge Week 2: Dare to Dream

I am loving this TpT Seller Challenge! I definitely experienced a severe case of TpT-burnout during the school year, but now this much-needed motivation is pushing me to revise my old products and create new products. There's nothing better than binge-watching "Parenthood" and "Orange is the New Black" while working on my TpT products. Thanks to Teach, Create, Motivate; Peppy, Zesty Teacherista; Third in Hollywood; and Sparkling in Second for hosting such a fantastic challenge!

There are many things in life that I wouldn't be able to do on my teacher's salary alone. With a lot of time, research, and hard work, my growing TpT business may help me reach my dreams. Here they are:

1. I cannot wait to finish the K-12 Reading License program at Hamline University. Earning this reading license will be the next substantial step in my teaching career. I've completed two out of the required six courses, but decided to put the rest on hold until I've saved enough money to pay for the courses in full without taking out loans or borrowing money from my sister. I still owe her money from the course I took nearly a year ago! At least she doesn't charge me interest like my credit card companies do...

2. I bought my MacBook Pro in 2009, but it's time for a new MacBook. While I love what I've been able to create with my MacBook Pro, I just want to toss it out the window every time I see this hostile wheel of death:

I added the maximum amount of ram two years ago and it helped a lot, but now creating classroom resources, polishing up TpT products, and completing homework has gotten even more complicated with an aging computer that is so incredibly s-l-o-w. Also, the battery wants to be serviced:

I suppose I could replace the battery and install a solid state drive to improve the speed, but that would cost me several hundred dollars. It's been 6 years since I purchased my last laptop, so I think it's time I treat myself to a new one. Hopefully I'll be able to purchase a new MacBook or MacBook Pro within the next year.

3. I had a great time hiking the Annapurna Circuit in Nepal in 2007 and loved every minute I spent during my 6-week trip to southern Africa in 2011 so it would only make sense to make a trip to Tanzania. I really, really, really want to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, but it would be a very expensive adventure. Perhaps summer 2016?

4. I was elated when I became a first-time homeowner last summer in July. While I love my home, I had to cut back in other areas to make financial ends meet. Before I owned a home, I had enough money to go to a very special gym, The Firm. I was addicted to their spin classes. They were so much fun and made an hour class feel like it was 15 minutes. This gym also offered yoga classes. They keep the classes pretty small so the instructors were able to connect with everyone to ensure we had the best form possible. I was really close to doing a handstand! Unfortunately, I couldn't afford the membership anymore after buying my home so I had to cancel it. I can't wait to go back and reinstate my membership so I can one day do a handstand.

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Week 1 of the TpT Seller Challenge, Makeover Madness, inspired me to update my old products. Last week's post showed my "Tally Marks" makeover. I started out with the intention of just improving the product cover, but then it turned into an all-day project. I ended up revising the format of all the worksheets, adding an additional activity and adding an answer key. This makeover madness motivated me to improve another math product, my "Counting Coins" product. I created this coin product a year and a half ago, so it definitely needed more than a cover update. Here are the changes I made:

I really need to stay away from my blog, TpT, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. for the rest of the day so I can focus on finishing my "Writing for Social Justice" lesson plan. I will be presenting it tomorrow for the last day of my Minnesota Writing Project class at the University of Minnesota. My 3rd grade lesson plan focuses in on the social justice theme of bullying. I will write about this and share my lesson plan and resources next week in case you are looking for something to do with your students in October for National Bullying Prevention Month.

Enjoy the upcoming weekend!

Ms. Mai Huynh

Five for Friday (6/19/15)

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! This is the end of the second week of my summer vacation. Since I'm not teaching summer school for the first time in nine years, I thought I was going to have tons of time to relax, but this summer is shaping up to be one of my busiest summers both personally and professionally.

I love creating resources for the classroom, but sometimes I really lack the motivation to spruce the resources up with eye-catching covers to post onto TpT. While it's a lot of fun and the production involved serves as my creative outlet, sometimes I would just rather relax and stare at the TV. Luckily a group of lovely ladies organized the ultimate 4-week TpT Seller Challenge hosted on Teach, Create, Motivate. The first week of the challenge involves revamping a product or cover. I was totally on-board! If you are a seller and haven't joined yet, make sure you read all about the TpT Seller Challenge and join. Here's my first makeover I did on my tally marks product:

My second makeover is the BIG makeover. I spent a lot of time creating first grade morning work for my kiddos that were aligned to the Minnesota State Standards for Math and ELA, but now I've decided to revise it to align with the Common Core State Standards for Math and ELA. Minnesota is unique in that we were the only state to adopt the CCSS for ELA but not for math. Our math standards are currently being reviewed and there are many rumors that suggest we may be adopting the CCSS for math, but who knows. Rumors are rumors. Regardless of our state's decision, I decided to make the change because I got a lot of inquiries asking me to make Common Core aligned morning work. Hopefully I'll be done by the end of July. If you wish to purchase the Minnesota aligned first grade morning work, then you should do so now. You would then have the added benefit of being able to later download the updated CCSS version for no additional charge. It's a pretty amazing 2-for-1 deal!

I just absolutely love miniLUK puzzles. Children are highly engaged with the playful design while reviewing key skills. If you don't know what they are you should watch this short video to learn all about it. Even though it sounds like it, I am not affiliated with this company--I just want everyone to benefit from this great product. It took just two activities with me for my niece to complete the rest of the activities independently. She was able to check her own work too so I was able to keep the other little guy occupied!

Since there are so many approaches to education, teachers constantly need to be learning and being a part of professional learning communities in order to be skilled and effective teachers. My friends and family are always saying, "You're in school again??" Yup! I'm not seeking any sort of degree beyond my master's, but I'm always looking for additional opportunities, whether at the university or at a workshop, to further advance my educational practice. An area that I've never been entirely confident in is my teaching skills in writing, so I enrolled in a 3-credit course at the University of Minnesota called "Writing for Joy and Justice." Our course is based on Linda Christensen's text Teaching for Joy and Justice.  

The final project involves writing a lesson plan that addresses a social justice theme. I chose to address the social justice theme of bullying. I've been busy gathering and reading resources, so I'll share the lesson plan that will be written, in a later post. Anyway, while researching, I stumbled upon this amazing publishing company called Free Spirit Publishing--and it's based right here in Minnesota! Here's their incredible mission: "Free Spirit has had the same mission for more than 30 years: to provide children and teens—and the adults who care for and about them—with the tools they need to think for themselves, overcome challenges, and make a difference in the world." Needless to say, I found many books and resources that fit nicely within the climate I have and would like to continue fostering in my classroom. Here's the first two books (in which I imagine will be the start of my Free Spirit Publication collection):

I wonder how long my two nieces will continue doing the work that I've created. As of now, they don't even realize it's work. They actually think completing these worksheets is some kind of fun! Here's my niece working on her summer packet:

I'm so excited to have fun this weekend and work a little less. I'm going to Rock the Garden (one of the largest music festivals in the Twin Cities) tomorrow to see one of my favorite bands, Belle and Sebastian. And the cool thing? It's happening in my backyard...literally! They are almost done setting up for the festivities that will begin tomorrow afternoon.

Here's a picture taken from my balcony:

Then I'm going to spend Sunday with my daddy (I'm 33 and I'll never stop calling my dad my daddy) and the rest of my family. Happy father's day to the best daddy in the world!

 

That concludes another entry from Diary of a Grumpy Teacher. Until next time, please enjoy your weekend!

Mai 

The Last Week of School

MCA and NWEA testing is finally over. Thank goodness! Testing season is so taxing on the children and teachers. While it's tempting to stop teaching and show a movie every day (it's true, I walked by a few classrooms last week where they showed a movie every single day), I think it's important to keep those little ones actively engaged in learning up until the very last day of school. I'm impressed by all the teachers that use this time to fully immerse their children in fun projects, something we don't always have time for before state testing. Our wonderful ELL teacher, Ms. Christine Brinkman, had one of the third grade classrooms create a diorama showcasing their favorite story from our National Geographic REACH curriculum. Our students can only be creative if you give them the opportunity to be creative. And boy did they run with this project! Here are a few examples of the amazing student work:

Ms. Ashley Eichhorn and I had our students make pinatas after reading The Pinata Maker by George Ancona. It was such a mess, but sometimes it's just necessary to let the kiddos be a little messy. The pinatas turned out nicely!

To prevent the dreaded summer slide, we sent home an 8-week summer packet with each of the students. Each day the students will have five math and five literacy problems to complete. Depending on the student, each page will only take about 10-15 minutes to complete so it's just enough daily spiral review to help them retain what they have learned, but won't take up too much of their summer fun time. If the student brings back the packet completed during the first week of school, they will get a reward from their teacher.

Are you looking for a free summer packet to send home with your students? Or are you looking for a free summer packet to use with your own child? You can have a 5-day summer packet sample for students going into first grade, second grade, third grade, or fourth grade for FREE!

Or you can purchase the full 40-day summer packet for students going into first grade, second grade, third grade, or fourth grade. Either one you choose, parents and students will be delighted!

Four more days until summer break! I cannot wait to lay by my pool with a good book and summer cocktail!

Happy summer everyone!

Mai

The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl

I cannot believe I'll be wrapping up my ninth year of teaching in 17 days. Now that we have completed our state testing, we can spend the last four weeks with our kiddos, stress-free. While we are without the stress of tests, I still put a lot of pressure on myself to ensure the students are still actively engaged with fun and thorough lessons.

I struggled all year to motivate the boys in my third grade reading intervention group. They're all very sweet boys and would always do what was asked of them, but I could always tell they were never genuinely interested in the lessons. I tried so many different approaches to actively engage them, but nothing seemed to work. Finally, we started a book unit with The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl and that seemed to do the trick. I had to use binder clips to remind the students where to stop reading, otherwise, a couple of the kiddos may have read the entire book in one night.

All of my students in this reading intervention group are ELL so we had to spend a lot of time with vocabulary words from the book. We defined and explored the first six vocabulary words before reading the book using various activities. The students used dictionaries to write the definition of each word. They also played charades and completed worksheets and puzzles for further practice. After reading the first two parts, I repeated the same process for the last six vocabulary words. 

I read the first part of the book out loud to the students and then guided them through the first comprehension worksheet. I always teach and model how to complete the first comprehension worksheet so the students know some strategies for how they will complete the rest of the comprehension worksheets independently. Since the students are responsible for reading each part of the book independently, these worksheets are perfect to check to see if they read carefully. If they did, then they should get majority of the questions correct.

After giving the students the task of reading the second part and completing the corresponding comprehension worksheet, I was thrilled to see the students leaving my classroom with their noses deep in the books.

After reading part four (pages 30-39) my kiddos had a spontaneous discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of having wings instead of arms, just like the Greggs. This gave me the idea to lead the students in an activity to explore how difficult it would be to eat an apple without arms. So I brought in apples and had the students attempt to eat the apples without their hands. They had a blast trying. The kiddos and I couldn't stop laughing. It was a riot! It got a little gross when they laughed with a mouthful of apples and bits of it were flying everywhere, but I'm glad they enjoyed it. After a few minutes of trying, I let them finish their apples with their hands as they discussed and wrote in their journals what it was like to eat an apple without any hands.

We finished the book unit in about a week and a half. The last activity involved choosing one of the writing prompts as shown below. I'll post their writing piece as soon as they are finished. I told the boys we would be starting the new book unit in a few days and they actually cheered! I was elated!

Four more weeks until summer vacation! When does the school year end for you?