Liebster Award!

I'm so giddy, I can't stand it! I've been nominated not once, but twice for the Liebster Award!

Thank you so much to Fifth in the Middle and I Heart Recess...how cute is that blog name?! The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It is to show new bloggers that they are appreciated and to help spread the word about new blogs.

The Rules:

• You must post 11 random things about yourself.
• Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.
• Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.
• Choose 11 blogs you love (with less than 200 followers and link them in your post.
• No tag back, but please leave me a comment on this post with the URL to your Liebster post so I can learn more about you!

Random things about me....

1. I made a bazillion Pretzel, Hershey, M&M treats to take to my sister-in-law's (my brother's wife) family (who happen to live 4 hours away and I was meeting them for the first time) AND forgot them in our freezer!!! Good thing I didn't forget the Bugles, cheerios, pretzels, M&Ms, goldfish snack mix and cute napkins! Huge hit! I think I could have just brought the bag of Bugles and would have been golden!
2. I'm working on my director of technology certification.
3. My daughter is the fourth generation to live in our house. 
4. I'm the leader for my daughter's girl scout troop and we have a meeting tomorrow. I'm only half prepared!
5. I picked out my china and crystal (and my parents bought it) when I was in fourth grade. 
6. We have the cutest 2 dogs!  A Yorkie and a Maltipoo! They are the best of friends!
7. I love making wreaths! Here is my latest...

8. I LOVE Buc-ee's beef jerky.
9. I am working on a huge project, an outdoor learning environment for my school.
10. I just received 2 grants, one written with 2 other teachers for a Family Science Night and one for an after school program I started called GEMS. GEMS is Girls Excelling in Math and Science. We have over 160 girls participating!
11. I have the most amazing husband! When the school year starts...he does laundry, cooks, cleans and is extremely supportive of my craziness.


My responses are a blend of questions asked by Fifth in the Middle and I Heart Recess! I know that there are only supposed to be 11, but I liked their questions!

1. What is your favorite classroom holiday activity? April Fool's Activity-Followind Directions Prank
2. What is your favorite freebie? An appetizer! :-)
3. What is your favorite holiday dish? 
4. Black Friday or Cyber Monday? This year, Black Friday. Sweet Shoppe was having a 40% graphics sale. I stocked up!
5. Where is your favorite place to shop for your teaching wardrobe? Macy's 
6. Summer or winter? Summer
7. What is your favorite TV show? The Housewives of....take your pick, I watch them all. Guilty pleasure!
8. What is your favorite dessert? Chips and salsa. I know...it really isn't dessert, but for me, it is!
9. What is your favorite sports team? San Antonio Spurs
10. Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip? Mayonnaise (especially on white bread and leftover turkey!)
11. What is your dream job (other than teaching)? Owner of a boutique 
12. What is one thing you wish you were better at? Grading papers in a timely manner and working out!
13. Do you have a TpT store? If yes, post the link. My store! Thanks for visiting! A big figurative language unit coming soon.
14. What do you fear? Fire.
15. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Cookie Bake with family and friends. We invite family and friends over to decorate cookies. Whatever you decorate, you take home. It is my mother-in-law's recipe! There is an ingredient in it that I refuse to acknowledge, but man, they are good!!!!! They are the BEST cookies ever and so is the icing!  Frozen is the best!
16. What is your favorite subject to teach? Science!
17. How many students do you have? 24 precious darlings!
18. Who do you admire most and why? My mother. She was the most positive, kind hearted, always saw the good... person I have ever known!

My questions for nominees...

1. Beach or Snow?

2. Sweet or Salty?

3. Do you collect anything? If so, what? If not, what would you start collecting?

4. Family tradition?

5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

6. If you could change one thing in education, what would it be?

7. What is your favorite dinner recipe?

8. Do you have a TpT store? If yes, what's the link?

9. What is your best teaching memory?

10. Something you have always wanted to do?

11. The lottery question...what would be your first purchase?

Blogs I'm nominating...

1. Groovy in Third

2. Mrs. B's Best - Ideas and Ramblings

3. Fantastic Fifth Grade

4. A Lesson Plan for Teachers 

5. Teacher's Take Out

6. A Crafty Teacher

7. Fabulously Fifth

8. Teaching with a Touch of Twang

9. Lovin' Learning

10. The Teacher in Me

11. PJ Jots

Currently November

Ahhh....November! I survived October with all it's craziness. November, has great potential for being crazy also!
I missed the October link up with Farley, so I couldn't miss November!

Saturday always seems to have a Law & Order marathon. I've actually watched 2 episodes that I haven't seen. Love it! Right up there with NCIS and Criminal Minds.

I just started working on my Director of Technology certification. So far, I have taken a class on Digital Citizenship/Internet Safety. That was really interesting. That class was perfect timing. Our district is working on lessons for digital citizenship. Right now, I'm taking a True Technology Integration class.  It is so good! We are analyzing different videos based on the level of technology integration. Here is a video that is great. Restaurant Project. Ahh, finding the time to integrate to this degree. Should add that to my "wanting" section. 

I woke up and realized there is no coffee in my house! How can that be? I resorted to Vanilla Chai tea. It's yummy, but just not coffee. My family is off to a friend's ranch, so I think I might head to The Corner Bakery  for a lovely breakfast and some much needed coffee! 

Needing-add a massage! The color and cut are desperately needed!

I love to play Jesse Cook in my class. It is guitar music that is a bit peppy, but not distracting. 

Happy November everyone!

Google Apps Summit...way cool!

I had a great time at the Google Summit today. Thanks to Dr. Roland Rios from St. Sam Houston ISD for creating a great conference.

Here are some of my fun tech tidbits that I learned today.

Fun Tech Tidbit #1: Never grade a paper again! Ok...maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but well on it's way to being true. If you use Google Apps, this is for you!

Everyone was talking about Flubaroo.

Flubaroo allows teachers to grade a quiz created from a Google form by simply answering the questions first as the teacher.  Loving this!

Here are a few tutorials for Flubaroo.
The Innovative Educator
Flubaroo Tutorial

Fun Tech Tidbit #2: I attended a session by Amy Mayar.

She showed us how to search Google templates. There were some great resources on the site.
What I really liked, was a post on her blog where she shows how to make a video comment on a student's Google doc using Jing!
Way cool! Check out her posting.
She also talked about using (district account) Google Sites as a student portfolio that follows a student through 12th grade.

Last Fun Tech Tidbit: Interactive Google Presentations
Now, this one was a bit more involved. Do you remember, the old Choose Your Adventure books? Helpful session, since I had done these last year with my students. We used PowerPoint. We also used Student Response Clickers to have participants vote on the path. It had some glitches!

The session today gave me some helpful hints on how to start the process and make it a bit easier to start with students. I also got to mesh my process  with my new learning. There were some great tips for making it easier. We will do these again...only this time through Google Presentation.

I really enjoyed the day. Hope you can use some of the ideas.

I Got Boo~ed!

 It couldn't have come at a better time! What a crazy month! I was super excited to find my surprise hanging on my door early this morning. Which means, someone got there earlier than I did! Wow!
 If you aren't familiar with "Getting Boo-ed" just Google it or look on Pinterest. Totally different from being virtually boo~ed. I got a super cute gift waiting by my classroom door.
Two other teachers and I were going to start it, but someone beat us to it! Even better! What a great way to boost the spirit around school! It's the little stuff.
After school, I went to Target, to find my cute stuff to pass on the BOO!
Final products...

All from Target! So many cute things!

Had to add this...Monster Trail Mix...Really?!!! How perfect is that for Halloween?

Tomorrow, is our school carnival. The fifth grade team will dress as Mad Scientists! Every grade level will parade down the halls of the school showing off their costumes. Right after school, we hold the biggest fundraiser ever! The Fall Carnival! Ahh, the tricks that I will have up my sleeve to maintain control! Actually, I have some really fun stuff planned. Stay tuned. If they work, I'll share.

Side note ~~~ I'm really excited to attend the TCEA Region 20 Google Summit this weekend. If you live in the San Antonio, or surrounding area, you should attend. It is FREE! Here is the information.
Google Summit
Can't wait to share what I have learned.

Back to being Boo~ed...have you done any fun things right before Christmas? Looking for ideas.

Cards and Dice

No...not heading to Vegas. Darn!
A few posts back, I talked about math fact fluency being a hot topic at our school. So, I've been looking for some fun games to reinforce multiplication facts.

Enter...Spiral Multiplication Game!       Spiral Cards for short!
My students are obsessing over the spiral multiplication math game. They are even asking to stay in during recess to play! I found this game at Education.com.

We changed the directions up a bit. Students create their game board using the cards. They select game pieces and place them on the card in the middle. That is the start. Then, they use the double dice. The outside number, is what they multiple the card by... the inside number is the number of spaces they get to move. They love this game!!!

Must have for any game that involves dice! Felt Squares! 

I explain to my students that the dice must be rolled on the felt square----one it absorbs the sound and two, it protects the plastic ones from cracking. 

Here is a picture of one of my felt squares and some of my fun dice.

Happy rolling!

It's Electrifying!

Experience before label! I handed each group the extremely cute, Insulators and Conductors, box of items and asked them to light the bulb.

No other directions! It was so interesting to watch as each team approached the task.
8 out of the 10 groups were able to light the bulb. Ok...one group had a faulty bulb! Oops!
After, I gave them the label...closed circuit, we had the discussion-What makes it a closed circuit?
We then discussed an open circuit...
I posed the question...Are there everyday items that will close the circuit...LIGHT THE BULB?

We created our insulator/conductor testers with the items from our oh sooo cute boxes. We started predicting what item might be a conductor. Then off to the testing.  What great discussions!
Students made their own connections as they tested.  I loved listening.
They added the information to their data chart and then drew a closed circuit. When they finished up their sheet, I had them discuss the questions that were on the inside of their box. Loved the group that said, "Where'd those questions come from?"
Ahh.. the power of wires, batteries and a light bulb! They make you oblivious to questions posted!

The top of the box. 

Inside the box lid

Outdoor Learning Environment and Math Facts

Oh, my goodness! It has been forever since I posted!
I am in the midst of writing 5 grants and prepping to present to our school board for an outdoor learning environment. Ohh, and also doing lesson plans for my oh sooo cute-precious and darling class. (They really are!)

If you happen to have an outdoor learning environment at your school, I would looooooove to hear from you about how it was started, what you have in it, how you maintain it and how your got the funds.

So, completely not related to the outdoor learning environment, my post for the evening is about math fluency! HOT topic at our school.  Our fifth graders are coming to us with low math fact fluency. Research shows that higher order math skills such as multiple digit addition, subtraction, multiplication, long division and fractions will be severely impaired without fluent retrieval. 
Preaching to the choir? I know...
My friend, Amy, found this website that helps to work on math fluency! LOVE IT!!!!!

Xtra math

Students work at their own pace. There is a short, daily lesson that combines basic skills with a beat the teacher quiz. Once they master a skill set, the questions start to become harder. Teachers receive a weekly progress report letting you know how your students are doing. 
 Oh, did I mention... it is FREE!!!!!!!

What do you use for math fluency?