Lessons With Coffee

So, yesterday my phone was stolen.  Lame. Not only is it lame but it is stupid.  So it was stolen out of my desk.  I had nothing in my room that locked. (I got a key to my desk today....Day late dollar short). It was an iPhone.  A really, really old one.  So old in fact, when I went to ATT to get a new one (I have to wait 4 weeks if I want an iphone 5s...) they told me that I can buy my same style one for $0.01.  That is a penny. So a kid stole a phone that is worth a penny.  WTF! I went to do track my phone or what ever the app is called and the kid turned it off.  Not trackable.  So I called ATT and they hooked me up saying that it is now marked as a stolen phone and no carrier will service it.   I ended up getting a super old track phone and I am back to good old t9.  It is kind of like riding a bike...the skill comes back pretty quick.  With the hopes that the kid will return it. I did find out who took it through other kids :).  I do not have this stude

Starting this month I will always post the reveal linky on the day that boxes are due to be sent out. (the 25th of every month (although we may have to do something for DECEMBER....).  Remember to link up on FB, TWITTER, and IG with the #slantboxes (I am noticing a lot of people using just slantbox.) ESPECIALLY if you do not have a blog. I will always put mine up as a broken link until I get it, so check back often. I will get this linky party started.  All you have to do is link to your reveal post!  Don't forget that if you are posting on social networking sites to #SLANTboxes  (if you do #slantbox you get a few hair styles gone wrong!!!!).  If you are unsure what I mean by a reveal please look at my August Reveal here: My August SLANTbox! ***Also, I did not realize it but you can only do the thumbnail linky if you pay for it.  As I do not charge for anything on my blog nor to I make ONE CENT from it, I am electing not to pay for the link parties and just go with the tex

The October sign ups for the SLANTbox exchange have opened!  I will admit that I was probably not the best SLANTbox partner this month but I feel like the gals I randomly got paired up with I got to know really well this summer. Please know if you get me for a partnere for the first part of the month I am literally spending HOURS re-matching people it is not until about now that I finally have some time to email, and I already have to send out my gift on WEDNESDAY!!!! So as I prepare to send out my box to my partner I am thrilled to share with you the theme for the month of OCTOBER. EDUCATING CAN BE SCARY!!!!  Ok. If you read my post yesterday you can see that my education life got turned upside down...8th graders are totally scary! The idea behind this months theme is to think of things that make your day to day life less scary. Perhaps it is tea, or a movie. Be creative and help make others lives less scary. (planners are big de-scarifyers!!!!). Please be se

So, I had all of these grand envisions of becoming this amazing blogger that kept up with her blog, grad school, her classroom planning, Coaching, and you know having a life.   That all stopped two weeks ago when my principal came to me and said: "you are also going to be teaching 7th grade pre algebra and 7th grade support" I deflated.  I now have 5 preps.  You heard me 5 preps.  I spent all summer creating this perfect environment for 6th grade girls.  As that is what I was told I would be doing.  I have this amazing neon room filled with adorable girly things.  and now I have an 8th grade homeroom (that is graded and I have to make lessons for...) two 6th grade math classes, a 6th grade support class, a 7th grade support class and 7th grade pre-algebra.  oh. AND the 7-8th grade classes are co-ed.  I am frustrated, tired and spend my entire weekends planning for too many PREPS.  3 of my classes have NO CURRICULUM and no guidance.  I have spent the la

I want desperately to post about my ISN's which are going smashingly with both my 6th graders and my 7th graders! But I do not have pictures or anything yet....I will get on that ASAP.   BUT. I want to share today about my Frayer Model dilemma and solution. I love FM's.  They rock my vocabulary world.  What I did not love was the "non example" section.  Often I could think of a non example but had a hard time verbalizing it to students.  OR if I let them come up with a "non example" they almost always had a miss conception about the word.  So I changed it to PROVE IT/DRAW IT. This has worked SO MUCH BETTER than it did last year.  It really helps my kiddos who are struggling with the abstract thoughts and put's it very concretely, pictorially and allows them that kinesthetic avenue of modeling and drawing it out.  SO I wanted to share it with you. Here is a picture of what it looks like: You can download them here: PROVE

The September theme and detailed rules for the exchange can be found  HERE .   Please go read this thoroughly before you email me with any questions. Instructions now that you are paired! 2) Below you will find a link to a Google Doc where I have created all of your matches.  Please download the file before asking questions about it.  Here are some things to know about the Google Doc: There are 6 tabs. The first three are a list of all of the participants divided into groups.  Like I said in the email.  You are divided into bloggers and non-bloggers, and then willing to send internationally, and not willing to send internationally.  As months go on you are more than welcome to switch groups (except for my international friends right now.  As there was only 5 this month you will always have to be willing to send internationally I hope this does not offend you.) The last three are the matches  To find who you are sending to: Look for your email in the first column (It is a

OH my goodness.  I was going to come home and blog about completely lame things just to put a blog up.  BUT I got home, checked the mail and my SLANTbox from Molly at Lucky To Be In First finally came!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ON a side note...Does anyone know how to rotate pictures on BLOGGER with out editing the picture first?  I am LAZY as dirt!  I was super excited!  It was the perfect ending to a GREAT first day with my students.  Yes yesterday was our first day but as I said in my CURRENTLY, I only got to hang out with my homeroom.  Today I got to meet all my kiddos!!!!!! INside of my box was a cute hand written note...New nail polish (That I don't already have...double score!!!!)... A super cute owl nail file (going strait to work!)...Binder rubber bands!!!!! (Oh my gosh.  I love these.  I use them in my huge binders for PD, my binders for GRAD SCHOOL, and my binders for LEGO League!!!!!)...and the cutest stinking note cards known to man!!!!!!! I kind of can not wait

Well I missed last month but decided to link up with Farley at  Oh Boy 4th Grade!  for her September Currently. I did not read the rules properly for the last question...but I sometimes take what I put for granted.  Which is what she was talking about. I did make the rule that I was not allowed to stay at school past 3:45 this year!   Giddy Up Yall!!! Currently: Listening to Daemons by Imagine Dragons.   SOOOO GOOD!   Ok I loved the song RadioActive by them.  Demons (whoops spelled it wrong in my picture) starts with just the singer (a good looking one) and the keyboardist.  Then it has this intense explosion of all instruments and vocals as you are lead into the Chorus.  "When you feel my heat, look into my eyes, it's where my demons hide."  Dude, we all have demons, many of us have more than one.  This songs alternation of the soft melody to the explosive loud work well in this story of how your demons can suddenly appear just