Finding Balance

So, I noticed that my last blog post was July 31, 2016.  That's right, 2016....  So I guess my overzealous New Year's resolutions listed in this post will make up for the years of slacking.
So, first a quick recap of where my life is now, from 2 1/2 years ago. My daughter is now a Senior in high school, and I feel like I have visitation rights when she graces us with her appearance.  She is in her own world, and I'm letting it be.  My son is a Sophmore, and while his typical addiction to gaming and his phone drives me crazy, he is otherwise doing great!  We are still pretty close, and he takes good care of me, but I know that it can change in an instant.  I was super close with Brooke when she was a Sophmore too, so I'm waiting for him to follow her path:(
Not much has changed in my career.  I'm still in fourth, still teaching ELA and social studies.  I put so much work into creating things that I can coast now, but I realize that's making me somewhat unhappy.  I need newness and change, so that's part of my decision to get back to blogging and creating.
Running seemed to flourish since I last blogged.  I closed out 2016 still not meeting my goal of 1000 miles in a year, but I managed over 1300 in 2017, and almost 1800 in 2018. My first marathon was in 2013, then another in 2015.  I ran two marathons in 2017, and then somehow ended up running 6 in 2018.  Maybe I got a bit carried away, but it's easy to do when you've found great friends to travel distances to have these experiences with.

Boston

Glass City (Toledo)

Aspen

Chicago

Palmetto Bluff (Hilton Head)

New York

The last month of running (and currently) was not good because of a chronic back condition that I'm finally going to see a specialist about next week.  So my first goal is related to that.  
Here they are: 2019 NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS!

1. Stretching - I am going to stretch EVERY DAY.  I tend to get away from this when my body is feeling good.  Duh!  Stretching is preventative.  So every morning after I run, or in the evening on days I don't run.
2. Blogging monthly - Getting back to reading blogs for inspiration is part of this goal.
3. TpT monthly - Some of my favorite projects to do year after year are ones I put a lot of extra time into for posting on TpT.  The extra money is nice, and helped fund many of my running trips, but I realize that I need some new projects to work on.
4. Reducing dependency on plastic - My daughter and I are planning to find many ways to reduce plastic in our lives.  She has been pushing this for a while, and a recent 60 Minutes episode on our plastic problems helped get me on board.  To make this goal measurable (Smart goals, right?) I intend to find 12 significant changes to my everyday routine.  So basically one per month, but they can occur as they happen.  More on this to come.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far.  I'd greatly appreciate any short comment to help encourage me to keep up with this.  I feel better already to be back.  Blogging for me is kind of like a journal, but if others read it, it is nice:)  Happy New Year, and I look forward to reconnecting with many bloggers from 2016, and some new ones too!

MMI - new planner, running inspiration, and Greek allusions

Earlier this summer I blogged for the first time in a while.  I had hoped to reignite my excitement of the blogging and TpT world, but it's been a struggle.  In trying to blog once a month, I sat down at 7:57pm on July 31 to get in a blog for this month.  If I get through it, I'll join up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics for her monthly linky - Monday Made It.

While adventures like blogging or running tend to come and go, thankfully my passion for teaching hasn't faded out.  I'll be headed into my 20th year of teaching, and still love it!  My first Made-It is my new planner/gradebook for this year.  I started using these 2 years ago, and have made it better each year.  The biggest change this year is for my grading pages.  We are a standards-based school, which is tricky for ELA.  Thankfully, this will be the first year in A LONG TIME that we are not making any changes to our online gradebook.  But I adjusted my pages to allow for me to see progress by having fewer standards per page, and having each page span all 4 quarters.  I plan to cut off the edges, so I only need to write in the names once.  This took a lot of manipulation in Pages, but I'm happy with how it came out.

My Weekly Lesson Planning Page

I've blogged before about my on-again, off-again running.  Well I'm proud that I've been at it for a couple years now (with small breaks).  To help keep me inspired, I finally organized my medals and helped my daughter to do the same with a wall in her room.  She is headed into her second year of cross country at the high school.  She has worked hard this summer and is going into her first official day of practice tomorrow READY!  We have run 4 races together, and have two more before school starts.  This Saturday we will run in a women's race that has mother/daughter teams!  I should mention that my son also runs cross country in the junior high.  He hasn't quite been as motivated, although did very well in the last race that we all ran.

My Daughter's Wall

My "Inspiration" to Keep Running

This is in my office.

Like most everyone else, my store will be on sale for the TpT back to school event.  I did manage to add a product last month.  Last spring I sat down to create a unit of my own for teaching common Greek allusions.  The students and I both loved it.  There is a complete unit of 6 myths and questions to accompany each, aligned to 4th grade ELA standards.  There also is a free myth with questions for anyone to download to try out.

Well, here's to the final two weeks before school starts for me.  I'll be headed back in this week (likely tomorrow as the temperatures will get hotter later in the week).  Can't wait to see what everyone else has made.  Although I've been not so great about blogging, I have been better about reading the blogs I follow.  My TpT cart is pretty full, and I'm ready for tomorrow's sale to start!

Vacation is Over!

Okay, so the title of this post may be a bit confusing.  Summer vacation may just be beginning, but my vacation from blogging is over.  At least that's the plan.  I'm also hoping to get back to adding products to TpT.  I certainly have plenty of items created, it's just a matter of getting them polished and TpT ready.  Hopefully I remember how to do all of this...  If you read this, please leave me a quick comment at the bottom so that I can remember that this little blog is actually read by a few:)

It's been over a year since I've put anything on my blog, so here's a quick run down of what I've been up to:

• Back to taking care of me!  I've been at it for a while now, and pretty proud of staying fit and healthy.  I'm even teaching some group classes at the fitness studio that's been the reason behind me being the most fit I've ever been.  Julie's Fitness Studio is an awesome gem in our small little town.  Here's a video Julie made of me and some of the training exercises she has me do.

 

• Another great year of teaching in the books!  I wrapped up my 19th year, and 3rd year back in fourth grade.  At this point I'm grateful to look forward to another year teaming with Shane Pransky.  He is the math/science part of our team.  Check out his blog, Math is FUNdamental.  We had a student teacher this past year, and all I can say is WOW!  She was amazing, and we were very lucky.  I'm happy for her to already have a job secured in Hilton Head for next year!  Yeah, Elizabeth:)

• My own kids are getting big!  My son just finished 7th grade, and I love him to death, but this is not an age I will look back and remember fondly...  My daughter seemed to also go through a phase at that age that wasn't pleasant, but now she is doing great!  Brooke just finished her first year of high school.  She is a happy teenager, and I'm very proud of the young lady she is becoming.  Here is my family having a little fun with a green screen at the Kennedy Space Center in Orlando.  We left for vacation the day after school ended, and just got back!

 So, what's next?  My plan is two TpT products by the end of the month.  Something fun for free, and Unit of 1 of the materials I've created for Wonders (vocabulary worksheet, questions for the workshop story, and selection tests for the literature stories).  See my previous blog post about these if you'd like more information.

TTFN

Chris Van Allsburg Author Study

Blog Post Part 1

Well over 10 years ago I started an author study unit of Chris Van Allsburg books for my fourth-graders.  One of my colleagues, Shane, worked with me to refine this unit over the years.  Then I moved to third grade and had to leave it behind.  No big deal, for me it was a chance to create something new.  Then I came back to fourth grade after 6 years.  The level had continued to make tweaks to the unit while I was in third.  However, it no longer completely aligned to the updated standards, so back to the drawing board I went.

After several weeks of frantically trying to cram curriculum into the days where school wasn't closed due to snow/cold/etc, and trying to help prepare my students for the upcoming PARCC testing (which I would only do a minimal amount of because of principle), this was a needed day of enjoyment with my students.

It was Read the Most from Coast to Coast, and every student had a blast reading and answering questions about these great books!  Upon getting home that evening, my husband asked how my day was (which he always does) and for the first time in a while I replied, "Great!".  Here are a few pictures.  You can visit our classroom blog to see more.

 

Blog Post Part 2 - Warning, this will contain a lot of rambling!

It's been over a month since I've posted, over even kept up with reading blogs for that matter.  Somewhat due to the stresses mentioned earlier in the post, I pulled back from my usual rigor with school related things.  I did some serious soul searching to try to figure out what was going on.

What I realized was that the wonderful ideas I've been bookmarking, liking (or "heart"ing) to save for later were piling up.  Yet, I was unable to implement hardly any of them because of the time needed to complete other parts of my job that also have been piling up over the years.

Here are some things that now eat up my time, either at home or during instructional time, that weren't around 10 years ago:

1. Standards-Based grade cards (this one counts as 10)
2. PBIS
3. RtI
4. OTES (our new teacher evaluation system)
5. SLO's (although I didn't have to write one this year)
6. UDL????  Don't get me started on this one...

I'm sure I'm missing several other small details, but these are the biggies.  Now, most can't be controlled, as they are state mandated, but number 1 on my list...  That's a local decision.

I'll spare everyone my long list of problems with trying to assess over 60 students on 43 individual standards (in just ELA) with allowing every student multiple attempts to demonstrate mastery.  I can't do it well, AND find time to plan, prepare, and implement great new lessons.  I'm stretched, frustrated, and resentful.

Believe it or not, I don't mind the idea of report cards.  I like being able to communicate with parents about student progress.  But knowing that parents don't give our current grade cards much attention (some not at all!), and then thinking about the hours, HOURS, spent creating them...I'm just done.  If I'm in the same position next year and things don't change, well, I don't really know.

Blog Post Part 3 - Focusing on Me

I'm a hyper, high-energy person who needs a project.  School usually provides me with ample projects to keep me busy.  Yet, for the reasons mentioned in Part 2, I just haven't had the desire to go in that direction.  So I'm back to running.

 

Now, I've signed up for the half marathon, and am so glad I did.  For the first time in a while, running feels good.  In the back of my mind of been contemplating this as a springboard to a full marathon in Detroit in the fall.  If things keep going well, there's a good chance I will.

With focusing on a healthier me, comes eating better too.  We already eat pretty well at our house, but there's always room for improvement.  I bought the Runner's World Cookbook, amazing!  I've already made several things, and I hate cooking.

 

 

These muffins were my first success - and yummy!

 

 If you're interested, I highly recommend this book.  It's full of great recipes, and wonderful information about nutritional needs for runners.

Well, that's all for now.  I'm sure few people will read this to the end, and that's okay.  I needed to get back on the blogging-horse, and get a few things off my chest.  This entry was really for me anyways, but if you read it - thanks!

Rafa Wins! FREEBIE Celebration

So, I had my husband wake me up at his time of 5am so that I could start watching my recorded tennis match.  The first two sets took less than an hour (even less for me when I can speed through commercials).  And although the third set was much tighter, it was an easy win for Nadal.

Check out my TpT store for this celebration FREEBIE.  Up next, Kevin Anderson.  Vamos Rafa:)

Happy Friday everyone!!

Double Celebration! VAMOS!

This will be my first TpT store sale in celebration.  First, I'm celebrating 100 followers.  Second, I'm celebrating Rafa Nadal's win today at the Australian Open!

I won't bore you with details, but it was an intense match.  I feel bad that I wasn't cheering for the American, but I'm loyal to Nadal.  The color in my sale banner matches his Australian Open outfit, and it's his logo in the tennis ball.  See, told you, obsessed!

 

Click here to read about Nadal's sickness during the match, even throwing up on court (Yuck), or his opponent's amazing good-sportsman "give" during the crucial final game.  Or, if you want to understand my obsession a bit more, you can click here.  (For women only).

So, I'm inspired to finally throw a sale for my TpT following of 100, and have a little fun.  Each time Nadal wins I will have a flash freebie in my store.  Freebie will be announced on my store's page.

Now, I need to get ready for our district's negotiation team meeting that is at my house at noon!  We moved it earlier due to having no school today.

Vamos! Rafa!!!!

MMI - Love That Dog novel study

I'm linking up again with Tara, over at Fourth Grade Frolics, for her great linky called Monday Made It.

 

First of all, today is another snow day for us in NW Ohio.  This makes 5 days off so far this year (though one was early in the year for a fog that wouldn't lift).

 
I made a better, quicker system for new TpT products! 
(for me anyways)

Just about a year ago I really got going on TpT.  We had snow day after snow day, and I was very productive.  Last week we had three snow days, and I couldn't find the drive to get some of the products I'd already made TpT ready.  Those extra few steps were killing me.  So I thought about an easier way to finish up those details.

I made a folder called "PROJECT" and created sub-folders and put some files inside that I use for all of my products.  Inside the main folder is another folder that says "PROJECT" as well as a "screenshots" and "preview" folder.  Everything in all caps is a reminder to me that it needs to be renamed.  The other folders stay the way they are.  I have many folders with the same name ("screenshots" for example), but they only contain the screenshots for the folder they are in.  The main folder is for all of my working files.  Once completed, they are saved as a pdf, and placed into the other "PROJECT" sub-folder.  This sub-folder is eventually compressed for uploading to TpT.

Inside the main folder are two files, "cover" and "product information".  The product information file just needs to have the acknowledgements and product detail section tweaked for each product, and the cover file has preset graphics that I use in many cover files.  Once these are customized and ready, they are saved as pdf files and moved into sub-folder.

My "Cover" template.

My "Product Information" template.

The two files in the sub-folder do not need tweaking.  These are standard files that I include in every product.  The preview and screenshot folders are helpful for me to keep files separate.

So..... When I'm ready to start a new product, I hold down the Option key and click and drag this whole folder back into my TpT folder.  This makes a copy of the folder and everything in it.  Then I rename both the PROJECT titles to match my product, and get to work.  

Of course I wanted to try out my new system.  So, while my goal was to get my Love That Dog project uploaded this weekend, I actually uploaded another project.  It was one that I did months ago with my own students.  Of course I still had to polish up the files, but getting them ready for TpT was much easier!

LOVE THAT DOG

student packet

This is one of my favorite books.  Like Dear Mr. Henshaw, I like how the story is told through a series of responses (only "poems" instead of letters).  It makes for a lot of great inferring opportunities.  The main character, Jack, starts in mid-September having to write a "poem" once a week.  His extreme dislike of poetry and hesitation of course leads to great things.  There are a total of 46 of his entries throughout the school year.  I came up with a quick question for each entry (put into a presentation) and a response packet, which is organized by month.  Below are some samples from October.

I was PLANNING to do this last week, but with 3 snow days, and another delay start, we didn't get very far.  Now down to only 3 days left this week...  The students enjoyed the questions and packet so far, and I'm looking forward to finishing.  There are opportunities for them to write some poems in formats like those in the novel, so I can't wait to see how the students do.

 

Students Published!

Earlier I blogged about having students write a persuasive paragraph about a local business, and then delivering those paragraphs to the businesses (click here to read).  Students were excited to see them hanging around town, but last week one business added them to his restaurant's Facebook page.  The owner also sent an email with an individualized paragraph for each student who choose that restaurant.  

Have a great week everyone!  Since today's day off doesn't also have sub-zero wind chills, I might actually brave it into our building today to get some work done.  Or... I'll just get some work done here with this guy to keep my feet warm.