TpT Seller Challenge: Week 2

Good Morning!

This morning I am finally linking up with Sparkling in Second, Third in Hollywood, Teach Create Motivate, and Peppy Zesty Teacherista for the TpT Seller's Week 2 challenge. This week's challenge is about what our dreams are for the money we make from TpT. I definitely do not make much on TpT but in my dream world this is what I would do with more money earned.

 Family: My husband, daughter, and pup are my world. We are on our own, aside from amazing friends, here in AZ so we are always together. Budgets are tight given that both my hubby and I work in education so it would be amazing to be able to use money for nights out to dinner, movies, parks and events for the little one, more grooming days for the fur baby and much more. I would love to be able to spoil my little family, even just a little.

Savings: This last year has been quite the demonstration of how nice it is to have a savings when things come up. I would love to build it up more and create a larger cushion for any more expensive life moments. It would just be nice to have that beautiful peace of mind.

Travel: Both my family and my husband's family live in California. We don't get to travel there as often as we would like, especially now that we have our daughter. We would love to have money set aside to be able to just decide to head out to SoCal for a three day weekend or for special events. Right now we typically only travel for major holidays and the really large special events like weddings and such. Traveling more would allow for our daughter to know her amazing grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins. We really would love to be able to give that to her since both of us grew up with all of that craziness.

Help: I would love to be able to provide products that help other teachers the way I have been helped. I am only in my eighth year of teaching but the blogs that I follow and the products that I have purchased from TpT have helped me so much on my teaching journey that I would love to be able to help others in their journey. It would mean so much to me to be able to give to others what they have given to me.

This is a tall order for my little store but in a dream world anything is possible. We will see throughout my journey how much comes true. Have a wonderful day and thanks for reading my thoughts.

Ashley

Teaching with Intention: Chapter 4

Hi Everyone!

Tonight I am linking up with Schroeder Shenanigans in Second , Positively Learning, and Kindergarten Smorgasboard for chapter 4 of Teaching with Intention. Our wonderful hosts gave us two questions to help guide our thoughts on this chapter.

 

This has been a very eye opening book for me and this chapter is no exception. Thinking about my classroom culture was interesting. Looking back at this school year I don't feel like I displayed my thinking in all areas like I should have been. Reading and Math are the areas where I share the most and where I encourage students to share the most. We discuss stories and what we think about them as we break them apart. We talk through different ways to solve a problem or what tools we can use to solve a problem. We write things down a lot in our journals or on our desks. Most of those are not displayed so this next year I will need to make sure that more of these moments are displayed in the classroom for them. Only a few activities each month were posted in the classroom. All the other subjects will need to be improved upon when it comes to more thinking being displayed by myself and my kiddos.

To help us with displaying our thinking and our students thinking Miller gives a lot of scenario examples. I loved it. In here examples she words everything so wonderfully and she makes them think through everything and say their thoughts out loud. I also loved how she handled the attention seeker students. I have met the sweet kiddos who will be in my class already and I can see a few who have the potential to be that attention seeker who will say anything whether it is on topic or not. Asking students to provide evidence for their statements is perfect. I wish I could say that I had been smart enough in the past to do that with those attention seeker students. I believe that I responded mostly with a little frustration because they were not paying attention. That will change this year.

Throughout this next school year I will also make sure that I am present more. I walk around observing and helping pretty often. I am rarely at my desk, but there are still too many times that I can remember where the assessments, meetings, tests, technology problems, and all the other craziness distracted me from being present with my students 100% of the time. I think this will be the hardest thing for me to work on because I can be easily distracted with the tech issues that my classroom has and unfortunately there are a lot. It will be worth it in the end to make sure that I am present more. It will help me display my thoughts to my students more often when they are partnered or in groups. 

 

During our reading time we discuss the stories. We stop every couple of pages and start by discussing Who and What. From there we talk about why we think things are happening, what we think will happen next, what characters are thinking, etc. I love hearing their comments. Some are very out there and some are really in depth for such young minds. It makes the stories more interesting to me. This is probably where the most discussion happens, well here and devotion/Bible story times.

We also discuss a lot in math. I had the privilege of teaching Singapore math for a year and fell in love. It opened up a whole new way of teaching math. I loved how much it made the kids and myself think about the methods of solving and how many different ways a problem could be solved. I think it made kids more open and creative in the way they look at math. I no longer teach Singapore but I still use a lot of the strategies in my room which leads to lots of discussions on how things can be solved, number talks, etc.

Other subjects are not as open as reading and math but discussion do happen is smaller capacities. This will definitely be something to work on for this next school year. 

Thanks for reading my thoughts on chapter 4. I look forward to reading your thoughts!

Ashley

Mindsets in the Classroom: Chapter 9

Good Morning!

Today I will be sharing my thoughts on Chapter 9 of Mindsets in the Classroom over on the Hello Sunshine blog. I encourage you to head over there and link up with us. We would love to know your thoughts on Maintaining a Growth Mindset School Culture.

Ashley

Mindsets in the Classrom: Chapter 8

Good Evening!

Normally I would not be writing on a holiday but my sweet girl and her wonderful daddy are both napping so I have little free time. I am writing tonight about chapter 8 of Mindsets in the Classroom and I will be linking up with the ladies at Hello Sunshine as well.

 This was an awesome chapter. It had so many wonderful lessons and books for all grade levels that we can use in our classrooms to teach our students about the brain and growth mindsets. She gives us ideas for everything from preassessments to teaching growth mindset terminology. I thought I would share two of my favorite ideas with you that I will be using during our first week of school this year.

 She gave the example of using thread, yarn, and rope to show how neural connections grow when we continue to work at something new. Thread is the first stage of the connection. As you practice more and get better at the concept your connection grows which is represented by the yarn. Once your continue practicing and reach mastery your connection is even stronger and is now represented by the rope. She also used the thread to demonstrate how a connection can stay thin and frail or even break if we do not keep trying to learn and make that connection stronger. What a simple, engaging activity to help young elementary students understand how neurons build connections and grow stronger as we learn and practice each new concept. 

She also used a clip from Meet the Robinson's to help students understand that failure isn't the end of something; it is only the beginning. It's something to celebrate because we discovered a way that something doesn't work. Now we look at the problem again and see if we can find a new path for solving it. This is such an important lesson that I think all classes should start with at the beginning of a school year. Students need to know and understand that failing at something is not the end and they need to know that their teachers and classmates will be their to help them find another path to learning the lesson. She includes a list of discussion questions for the middle of the clip and the end of the clip to help with your discussion on failure. I think that young kids would love this and learn from it. Besides, what little kid doesn't remember a cartoon? I've included the clip below.

Remember: KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

I would love to read your thoughts on this outstanding, idea packed chapter. Link up with us at Hello Sunshine if you can.

Ashley

Five for Friday

Good Morning Everyone!

This morning I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.

This week my sweet girl and I had a lot of fun shopping together. I picked up a bunch of new bins in my room colors (bright blue and green). I am really excited to put new labels on these and start organizing my classroom. 

We received an invitation to my Aunt and Uncle's 20th wedding anniversary vow renewal. We are so excited and happy for them. We are also excited that my mom will be coming for a visit that weekend to see her adorable granddaughter and watch her step sister renew her vows. It will be an awesome weekend!

I had a lot of fun beginning to makeover my old TpT products. I have quite a few that were posted before I had my large clip art collection. I have 2 completely done and am working on my third one now. They are looking so much better!!

I was blessed to have a dinner with some great friends last night. They are such amazing women and I am truly blessed to call them friends. They bring so much to my life and my daughter's life. I look forward to all the times we will share in the future. 

Every time this song came on the radio I would feel so much calmer so I thought I would share it with you all. Its a wonderful reminder that we never walk alone. It is also wonderful to see my daughter's face light up when this song comes on. 

Ashley

Learn Like a Pirate: Chapter 3

Good Afternoon!

I am returning today to link up with The Primary Gal for chapter 3 of Learn Like a Pirate. This chapter had a lot of great information on peer collaboration.  

The part of my personality that feels the need to control everything was twitching throughout this entire chapter. I loved what he had to say but at the same time I know it will be a challenge for me. I am always hovering over my kiddos ready to jump in if a problem arises. I can't think of too many situations where I let my kiddos handle their own conflicts. Most of the time I worked with that group, separated them, assigned them to different partners, you get the idea. But I like the idea of teaching them strategies to handle their own conflicts without me hovering over them. It is definitely a skill they need to learn and as Solarz is gently pointing out, letting go is something I need to learn how to do in a much greater way so that I can be a more effective teacher to my kiddos. 

I love the strategies he gave to help students solve their conflicts. The first was Rock, Paper, Scissors. I can remember playing that in grade school or with my cousins because we were trying to solve a problem. I never thought to use it in the classroom but it is such a simple one to start with that most kids already know. The second strategy is compromise. Teaching my kiddos to take ideas from each other and find a way to combine them may take a little time but in the long wrong it will lead to some creative, independent thought. My favorite is Choose Kind. I love this one. It teaches students that you both have good ideas but your choosing to let another member of the team lead because it is a kind thing to do. I think all kids and even adults good benefit from this one. It also teaches them to respect each other and each others ideas. That is an awesome lesson for kids, even my little firsties, to learn. 

As a final thought, I love Solarz's statement, "Our differences help us grow and change and experience new things." This is so true. When our students collaborate in groups or with partners they will learn so much from each other because they all approach things differently. Their differences will make each other stronger and more effective learners. 

My students and I will be embracing many new things together next year. Letting go of this much control will definitely be an adventure for me but it is one that I am looking forward to. Talk to you all next week for chapter 4. 

Ashley

Mindsets in the Classroom: Chapter 7

Good Morning!

This morning I am linking up with Hello Sunshine for chapter 7 of Mindset in the Classroom.

 

I like the way that this chapter approaches the gifted title. It really points out a good way to look at the potential that all our students have and that this potential never ends. 

"Too much emphasis on who is gifted creates kids who think they have to be infallible." - Carol Dweck.

Telling a child they are gifted or they are so smart is setting them up to have a fixed mindset. Ricci also points out that it can make these kids into perfectionists which is not a good thing. Kids that have that mentality tend to avoid risks or challenges because they don't want to fail. This is not the mindset that we want our students to have. We want them to look at failure as a learning experience. We want them to keep trying, to face challenges with the thought that they can figure it out as long as they keep trying. This is where the growth mindset comes in. By continually praising their efforts instead only praising their success they learn that it is all about trying. This helps those students who truly do fall in that gifted category remain students who are willing to work hard and keep trying to work through challenges. I love the quote she uses by Subotnik, Olszewski-Kubilius, and Worrell, "What determines whether individuals are gifted or not is not what they are but what they do."

One thing that should never change is how we look at our students. All students have potential. All students can achieve great things if they are given the opportunities and the encouragement to keep reaching for the next level. So it comes down to us making sure that we provide our students with what they need to the very best of our abilities. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my thoughts on this chapter. Link up with us at Hello Sunshine if you are able to. We would love to know your thoughts on the chapter as well. 

Ashley