I changed my name!

Yes, you are in the right spot.  I changed my name from Silver Slippers and Flying Monkeys to There's No Place Like the Classroom.

What do you think?

AAAAHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! So exciting!!!

Teachers, don't forget that Staples penny items limit is 25 for you, not just 2!!!  This week it's pencils, index cards and highlighters. . .  If you take advantage of the 25 limit for Teachers, that's 50 highlighters (2/pack), 200 pencils (8/pack), and 2500 index cards for a total of $0.75!!!  A:ND, take care of that pesky $5 purchase requirement by getting the pens from their ad and turn around and get those for FREE after rebate.

Go check out my other blog, Heather's Hot Deals to see the awesome tip I learned about today at Joann and their coupons!!

Oh yea, and don't forget that Joann has a Teacher Reward program, too!!  It runs Sept-Aug, so not useful right now, but it's 15% off everything you buy during the year.  Can't beat it!

Tagxedo: It All Boils Down to This!

Tagxedo is the most wonderful tool I've discovered from reading blogs this summer!!  If you love Wordle, you'll like Tagxedo even more.  It has more options for changing your word cloud. The one I've posted below is made from the entire text of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Then there are options for how many of the most frequently used words to include in the word cloud, up to 600.  The easiest use of this program is to make a cool piece of art, or a gift, but also to explore main idea/characters/themes in a text.  It is so easy!!  You can simply paste text in, or give the site the URL of a blog, website, twitter account, or delicious tags,  and it will find the text itself.  Cool, right?  The possibilities are endless.  You can change the colors, shape, design, orientation, font, etc, etc.

Here's a great resource for 101 ways to use Tagxedo.

How will YOU use Tagxedo in the classroom?

Teaching Blog Addict: A+ Teaching Blogs

There are TONS of fantastic blogs at Teaching Blog Addict: A+ Teaching Blogs go check 'em out!!

Action Plan for Next Year

I decided to write down some goals to focus my "summer surfing."  I keep getting stuck on websites and searches for cute stuff that I probably will not ever have time to implement, so instead I need some goals to focus my summer time web surfing down time. Here are the major things I want to focus on/implement next year:

1.  Follow my Balanced Literacy first 20 days lessons.

2. Implement a short procedural lesson EVERY day (sort of Ron Clark's Essential 55 style)

3. Design most instruction around projects (PBL).

4. Do NOT assign anything that I don't plan to look at, grade or use to guide further instruction (NO busywork, or 'practice' just for the sake of 'practice').  I want to do MOST of my grading authentically, standing behind the child, during class.  I am the world's worst at grading papers.  I get these HUGE stacks of papers that I don't have time to really spend grading.  NO MORE!!  PBL should help with this.

 5. Return to individualized spelling and include individualized grammar and writing instruction.  I strayed from this last year because I thought it would be easier, but I'm going back!!

Some links I came across. . .
Four Blocks: Writing
Individualized Spelling Lists

Check out some other teacher's goals at this linky party:




What are your goals for next year?

Next Week's School Supply Sales

Sales are looking much better than last week!

Here's what I'm going to get:

$0.01 note cards @ Staples w/ Staples 8 Sheet Cross Cut Shredder to meet my minimum $5 requirement (plus, my shredder just died). . . . but if you don't need a shredder, I suggest the Free-after-rebate pens for your $5 min. purhcase.

$0.01 pencil sharpeners, and maybe the $0.25 poly portfolios @ Office Depot

be sure to click on "next week's ad" to see the right one

Office Max is the one I'm really excited about because they have FREE backpacks after rebate, so I'm definitely going to get the limit of 2 on that one  (I did it last year, and got lots of printer ink with the reward $).  Also, I'll pick up the FREE mechanical pencils, markers, sharpies and $0.01 printer paper after rebate.

be sure to click on "next week's ad" to see the right one

Be sure to check the ads by clicking on the pictures above for ALL the great deals next week!  Happy Shopping!! 

The Potter Games

What do you get when you mix Harry Potter and The Hunger Games?  The Potter Games of course!  I would only recommend this for middle schoolers and up (as I would for the Hunger Games series), but it's a great site that is kind of like those 'choose your own destiny' novels.  Fun stuff and a great continuation for kids that have read both series!