New School + Moving + New job = CRAZINESS!!

So after waiting so impatiently and having a few mental breakdowns, I passed my OPI!  I am now a certified Michigan Teacher!  AHHHHH!!!!  Now that I get to keep my job for sure I am going a little crazy and the nerves are starting to kick in.  I hardly slept last night and I am pretty sure it is because I did nothing to prepare for school.... In good news though my husband also found a job and has already started!  We are going to be way more financially stable this year than we have been in a long time!  Of course to get to the stability part we going to have to go completely broke... but oh well we will survive...I hope.  I am not excited at the fact that we are moving in with my parents for a few months to help us get stabilized... not because I don't love my parents and really appreciate them letting us crash with them for a little, but because I will have an hour commute to work everyday! YUCK!!  At least I get to drive our new car to work!

I had CLEAR training last week and am super stoked to be able to use it for oral tests/assignments.  My goal is to hopefully get a tablet by the end of the year to create more advanced lessons so that I can start looking at what"flipping" is all about.  Of course I'm thinking flipping my classroom might be a little too much my first year, but I figure as a part-timer I might actually have time to make videos, thus giving me a head-start the next year on flipping!

Research on Pinterest has been my thing lately and I have recently found a lot of information on Interactive Notebooks.  I would like to incorporate them into my classroom but I am not sure how to use them at this moment.  I think I am going to take notes on ideas for it throughout the school year and then have one figured out.  My first year students will hopefully be great guinea pigs and I can't wait to try some ideas and get creative!  With my first year and this blog I have one goal; share my best/worst parts of my week every week as a type of reflection on my teaching.

So come along with me on this crazy ride!  I will be learning about TPRS, teaching middle schoolers, and so much more!  Any comments, suggestions, or words of encouragement are welcomed!

- A CERTIFIED MICHIGAN TEACHER!!!! :)

Updated Syllabus Idea

So after having read a French blog (Chez Renée) it gave me the idea of updating my syllabus.  Although I haven't officially taught a class yet, I had my own syllabus for my class during student teaching.  My old syllabus was a standard template with all the necessary information, but to be honest it was just a syllabus.  I hated reading my syllabi in college and I know students probably don't enjoy them much either.  So why not make them look pretty and catch the eye?  So with a little help from Microsoft word and a bunch of clipart, I came up with the syllabus you see below.

New and improved 8th grade French syllabus

3rd page of new Syllabus

Here is the original:

Old and slightly boring syllabus

I am really happy with the change.  Now I just need to show it to my department head to make sure that it is okay and that all my procedures are okay as well in accordance with school rules/expectations.  What you do you think?  Stick with the original or kick it and keep the new and updated version?

TPRS'in it up!

So the school that I was hired into uses TPRS to teach the foreign languages.  Although I have heard about this technique and have wanted to learn how to use it, I do not know a whole lot about it.  I knew that you used stories to teach the target language (TL) and that you spoke in the TL as much as possible.  Other than that I was not sure on how to use it or how to teach with this technique.  So this week I have been doing some research.  Here is what I have found out:

There are 3 phases to the TPRS teaching technique
Phase 1 - Introducing the target words and ESTABLISH MEANING!
   - This is where you use signals and pictures and props to make sure students understand the words you are introducing.  I am excited about this part because it mirrors my own way of teaching the TL.  I love props and signals linked with new vocab!

Phase 2 - STORYTELLING
 - Now this phase is new to me.  You must use the students in your class to act out a story that uses the vocab you just established with the students.  You guide them and coach them through to act out the story as you are telling it.  This seems hard to me but I am excited to see it work and how students react to this.  As a student myself I hated being in front of the class doing goofy things, so I can see that this part will have to be planned well so as not to bring up a student that will not benefit from being an "actor"

Phase 3- READING
  -  Of course this part seems the hardest as I was not taught with this technique.  We read very small passages and exercises from the book, but we never read full out stories.  I didn't get to this level of TL use until I was in college.  Of course it excites me to think that young students can use the language so quickly and apply their understanding of the TL to read a passage and create their own!


Some questions I have about this technique include:
1. How long does the teacher "establish meaning"?
   - This seems to take up a lot of time and I am not sure I understand how to transition from one phase to the next.

2.  Is there room for games and other activities so that students may use and practice the target vocabulary?

3.  Is there a textbook I am following?

4. How do you help students to transition into using all TL in the classroom in the beginning levels?



I am still enjoying my research into TPRS and I can't wait for my instruction on how to use it in the classroom.  At the same time I have some fears that some of my favorite activities and my creativity might get lost in the TPRS technique.  CAN'T WAIT TO GET INTO MY CLASSROOM AND GET MY HANDS ON MY  MATERIALS SO I CAN START PLANNING!

Crafty Beginnings changing to Crafty Teachin'

This past year I have been working as a Title 1 paraprofessional, and honestly I loved it!  Although I was trained to teach either French or English, math has always been a joy of mine and teaching it in the younger grades was inspiring!  But, I still have a passion and love for the French classroom.  So with that in mind I set out to find a job as a French teacher. 

I sparked my passion once again for the French language and applied to several jobs.  One job was closer to home but was only part-time so I thought I had a good shot at it.  I got the call!  After 2 interviews and a sample lesson, I got the job!  I am super excited to start my year off as a French teacher next year!

With that being said my time for craftiness might decrease and my crafts might be more education-directed.  So... I have decided to change up my blog.  I think I am going to blog about crafts AND teaching from now on.  Although I enjoy my crafting and I love to share my ideas, I have found that my teaching ideas have inspired so many others and I want to share.  With a new year as a new teacher, I will begin my blog Crafty Teachin'.  I am super excited to share how my year is going and include any new techniques and ideas I find along the way! 

Stay tuned for my summer planning period as I am going to go education crazy!!!

Classroom Management Ideas: Punch Cards

So our Kindergarten teacher has been our for the last few weeks.  The dean had been planning lessons for the substitute, but she is gone now so we are all at a lost.  I am in the Kindergarten class for an hour everyday and I have been tired of not accomplishing anything these last few weeks since our normal classroom teacher has not been there.  So today I took it upon myself to plan a centers activity.  Each student got a packet that corresponded with the centers and on the front they had an incentive chart.  They had three boxes on the front that a teacher could put a smiley face in if they did a great job.  If a student is not following directions or not listening they lost their front page.  Now the front page is super important to them because each smiley face they received was an entry into the drawing for a "Right-On Ticket".  A bonus was if they filled all three boxes they received 4 entries instead of just 3.  Of course if they lost their front page, they could earn it back, but they had to refocus and get back to work.  It seemed to work really well.  Also, students are getting much better at applauding for their classmates when they win the drawing instead of crying or getting upset if they don't win.  This is a huge step for this group!  We have been doing the drawing now for about a week and it is a real great motivator for the class.  To start this routine, I started with every student having 3 slips of paper and when I thought they deserved to be in the "bucket" I would walk by and put the bucket down in front of them.  Of course if their behavior is not "1st grade ready" I told them I would dump every name into the trash and start all over again.  I only had to do this once and the lesson set in really fast.  I had a FULL bucket and then they just lost control and focus and I waited till everyone's eyes were on me and I dumped every name in the trash.  This was upsetting of course but behavior improved dramatically afterwards.

Now me are moving on to a punch card idea.  Students will get a punch from the teacher/para/adult running each station.  If there is no adult or para to give the punch, students will be given punches based on teacher observation.  I am hoping this discourages students from trying to draw their own smiley faces on their incentive chart.  If this was my class I might make the punch card a part of the whole day.  Have one for the whole day and then make the punch cards worth "class bucks" the students can collect in order to "buy" prizes.  But I am only in the class for an hour so this isn't possible.  I like the punch card idea though a lot that I am thinking of doing something like this for my own classroom in the high school setting (when I find a job).    Except I want to make it like a time card.  Their time card would have a warm up and exit ticket place and they must have it clipped while walking in and clipped while walking out (JUST LIKE A JOB!)

I will post the punch cards and the center papers soon!  Let me know if you have any questions as well!

Cheap But Thoughtful Valentine's Gift

Do you have one of those husbands that has a hard time thinking of date ideas and so you always have to plan the dates?  Welcome to my world...  My husband is a first year teacher and has little time to be creative or romantic, but he has looked in this box for a few hints (not that he has done one yet, but with V-day coming up I am thinking this little box might come in handy for him!)  With Valentine's Day fast approaching I have decided to share this little idea with those that might have agreed to a "cheap" Valentine's day or you just like to give your special someone something with a little thought behind it.

The gift is called a Hint Box.  I found the idea somewhere online last year as I was looking for gifts for my hubby.  I used a card board box I bought from Joann's and covered it with paper and mod podge to make the box pretty. Make your box as flashy or as simple as you like!  (You could also just use a mason jar or something like that to put all your hints into.)  I then took strips of paper and wrote date night ideas on each paper slip.  Some ideas cost little to no money and others would cost a little more.  After I wrote out each idea I folded up the piece of paper and wrote either "free" "$" or "$$" on the outside of the slip.  This way my man could look for a date night that fit our budget at that time.

Here are some of the date night ideas I included:
1.  Free- pack a picnic lunch and have lunch/dinner at the park.  Bring a book (or game) for each of us so that we can finish the date with reading or a game.
2.  Free - Wii night!  Line up an array of Wii games and prepare to have some fun!  Rent games or just use the ones we have!  Make it into a competition with some kind of prize ;)
3.  $$  - Take me to a store and give me $10 to spend in anyway I want (on something I want, not need) and give yourself $10 to spend as well!  Shopping trip!
4.  $$ - For a very special date, write me a love letter and give it to me at dinner at a nice restaurant.  Finish the date off with some flowers.
5. $ - Make a movie night.  Pop some popcorn, buy some movie theater style candy and surprise me with a movie rental!
6. $ - Setup a puzzle and snacks for a fun night were we can snack and talk and puzzle together!
7. Free- Take me to a park with a blanket and a board game and have a game night outside!
8. $ - Surprise me by taking me out to a great ice cream store!
9. $$ - Ice cream sundae night!  Get all the fixings and create an ice cream buffet for us to share!
10. Free- Clean the house and surprise me with a spa day.  Rub my feet, hands, and back with candles burning and soft music going.  Never know how this might end.. ;)

Of course you can always come up with more dates specific to you and your special one.  I love ice cream so it is often featured in my ideas :)  We also love games and puzzles so I included this in my ideas as well.
With the hint box I also created a list of 101 reasons why I love my husband.  I picked 101 because I thought this would challenge me to find very small and specific details... 101 reasons took me awhile but after about a week of really thinking and watching what makes me love this man so much, I came up with 101 reasons!

This gift went over really well and my husband loved it!  I have done the coupon books before but I never stick to them so I thought this was a better twist!  I am hoping to add a few more suggestions this year as part of his V-day gift!

Crockpot Loaded Baked Potato Soup

So after looking on Pinterest for dinner ideas I stumbled upon a loaded baked potato recipe that seemed easy enough.  I was a little skeptical at first as you use frozen hash browns for the potatoes and this just seemed like it wouldn't work.  WOW!  It totally worked and the result was fantastic!  The recipe can be found here http://crumbsinmymustachio.wordpress.com/2012/10/25/crockpot-loaded-potato-soup/

This soup was amazing and so easy to put together!  Just throw everything in (expect the half and half and the flour) and let it cook on low!

We had a snowday yesterday so we were in the house all day smelling the soup and it was so tempting to dig in before it was even finished.  I forgot to take a picture but it was fantastic and it made a lot of soup!  For a comforting meal at a good price you have to check out this recipe!  Thanks to Crumbsinmymustachio for such a great meal!  I plan on checking out what else you have on your site in the days to come!

Back on the Horse with a 50th birthday present

So here we are in a new year and I have not been a very good blogger.... I have not written anything in quite a while....  Oh well not much has been done or happened since the last post.  I have finished a few projects over the last month or so.  I finally finished an afghan for my best friend that I promised her 3 years ago... oopps...  It is pretty gorgeous and I liked it so much that I have started another one for my own house.  I made some Christmas cards but instead of sending them out, I used them with my Christmas presents.  So it worked out pretty well I think.  I forgot to take pictures of them so I will have to get better about that as well as just plain posting on here!  I also reorganized our "guest room" into a craft room.  I have a craft room now!  I was working on a project in there this morning though and it was a little chilly... that was when I realized the heating vent was closed... :) So I still ended up crafting on the dining room table.  My most recent project is a gift for my dad for his 50th birthday.  As a recent college graduate I of course have TONS of loans to pay-off so my budget has become increasingly smaller over the last few months.  Plus we just had Christmas so my wallet is really feeling the pinch now... So after looking on Pinterest for a little bit and perusing the Internet, I came up an idea.  I decided to make him a jar gift.  

I used an old spaghetti jar that I saved and filled it with 25 pieces of candy.  I then made a list of 25 memories and hopes for the future that involved my dad in some way, shape or form.  I cut out each reason onto a slip of paper and folded it up and put all the slips in the jar with the candy.  I made a cut tag that I hot glued onto the front of the jar and I mod podged a decorative piece of paper onto the lid to hide the name of the spaghetti jar.  Tied a ribbon around the rim of the jar and called it good!  It isn't amazingly beautiful but I am happy with the outcome and I think my dad will love it!

Here is the tag I used if anyone wants it!

50’s not so bad...

Here are 50 memories, dreams and candies to make the day a little sweeter.  Look back on the good times, look forward to the ones not yet made and don’t look at your waistline after you eat all the candy J

Here are a few sayings to remember as you are turning 50 today:

1.      Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live! – Anon

2.     The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down. -  T. S. Eliot

3.     I still have a full deck; I just shuffle slower now – Anon

4.     I'm not 50. I'm 18, with 32 years of experience!