Sweet Summer... and Trainings

The first four weeks of summer have come and gone, and I've moved from the "needing to be refreshed stage" to the "starting to prep for next year" stage. I went to a summer training last week and talk about information overload! Moving to a new subject brings lots of things to learn as well as new acronyms. Don't we all just love them?! 

I also started crafting for next year as well. I have standard rectangular desks with storage underneath. The storage is ALWAYS full of junk. I mean snack wrappers from 7 months back and occasionally a random juice container. I've been trying to find a solution to the problem for my entire teaching career, so I'm trying something new this year. I've been having lots of people save small paper box lids for me and have taped them using duct tape in my school colors. Two of the box lids will fit in one desk creating two "drawers." My homeroom students will use one color and my partner teacher's homeroom students will use the other color. Now each class has their own drawer for the items we need for class. I'm attaching a picture of the taped box lids below and will try to highlight them in another post if they end up being successful! 

Thinking to the Future: Technology Goals for the 2019-2020 School Year

It's hard to believe another year has come and gone. One of my favorite things to do at the end of a school year is sit back and reflect on the previous year while looking ahead to the future. Next year I will be changing from teaching ELA and SS to teaching only math. I am very excited for the change but feel this will be a year of challenges for me due to the fact I will be learning all new material while having no math partner teacher at my school. The previous four years, I have been working with a phenomenal partner. We planned together, shared successes and failures, pulled an equal amount of weight and had fun while doing it. 

I have set a couple of technology goals for this school year and feel if I commit them to writing then I will feel more connected to them. 

1. I hope to utilize the program, iReady, that goes along with out district purchased math curriculum. 

2. I hope to find a way to utilize the program Seesaw in my math class. Creating an online portfolio in my reading class fit right in with my curriculum. We completed daily journal quick writes and a writing reflection at the end of each unit. I hope that I will be able to be creative and find ways to create an online portfolio for my math classes. 

3. My third goal for this school year is to utilize my new iPads. I am receiving them through a grant and hope to find innovative ways to use them in my classroom. 

Here's to looking forward to a semester of reflection and a school year of fresh beginnings!