Random Acts of Kindness

Last week my husband and I were on a road trip to Santa Barbara when we had a little accident.  My husband spilled his drink.  Luckily it was iced tea so it didn't make a sticky mess.  But, there was tea and ice cubes everywhere.  We pulled off the interstate into a parking lot of this business:

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While my husband was gathering up the ice cubes, I ran into Bryan Equipment Company.  This business sells farming and vineyard equipment.  I asked the owner if he sold paper towels, too.  He said they did.  I told him I was so glad because we were on a road trip and spilled our drink.  The owner refused to sell me paper towels.  He gave me a roll of paper towels, offered me some 409 cleaner, and also gave me 2 cups like the one below.  He told me that these cups would stay in our cup holder and hopefully prevent future spills.  He was so right!  No more spills!  Not only did we drive away with a cleaner car, but smiles on our faces due to an unexpected random act of kindness.  A big shout out to the kind folks in Gonzales, California!

I appreciated this random act of kindness and thought it would be a great lesson for teachers to use with their students.  Are you on your faculty's social committee?  This would be a great thing to implement with your colleagues, too.  Here is a form you can use:

Click HERE to download this FREEBIE.

Travel Tips

Summer is here and I'm sure many of you are making plans to travel this summer.  Along with the fun of traveling, comes the woes, too.  I have been compiling a list of travel tips.

TIPS FOR THE AIRPORT

Little Black Dress

·     Much like we all have a little black dress . . . we all seem to own a little black suitcase. Suitcases on the baggage claim carrel surprisingly look the same.  Mark yours so it stands out.  I.E.:  colorful nametag, sticker, strap, etc.  VERY IMPORTANT!  Before you walk away with a suitcase, check the nametag.  Make sure you did in fact choose the correct little back one!

Check in

·     You will find it much quicker to check in if you check in and print your boarding passes at home.

Security Line

·     Read the rules online ahead of time so you will know what is and isn’t allowed. When you get up to the table where you put your stuff in the bins, put your stuff in one bin at a time and stack them.  Stacking the bins that contain your stuff while your push them down the table to the security machine saves valuable space so other people can begin getting their stuff ready.

·     Once you get through the line and are retrieving your stuff, empty the bins and stack them again so you give other travelers room.

Airport Hallways

·     Situational awareness!  I can’t stress this enough.  This means you need to be aware of your surroundings and how it affects others.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people who will stop in the middle of the hallway instead of moving over to the side; which creates traffic headaches.  Airports are a crazy, hectic place where everyone is stressed trying to get somewhere in a short amount of time.  You can help everyone’s stress level by not impeding the flow of traffic.  

Airport Waiting Areas

·     In an ideal world we could spread all of our travel belongings out like we were at home, but when you travel you’re NOT at home.  Therefore you need to keep your stuff CLOSE to you so as many people as possible can sit in the limited amount of seats.  Parents, while many of us have traveled with small children before and realize it is stressful, it would be even more stressful if your child got hurt because you wanted to let your child “stretch his/her legs”.  I can’t tell you how many parents I see let their small children run around while travelers are dodging their children.  It’s a disaster waiting to happen!  Keep them close to you.

Flying

·     When you purchase an airplane ticket you are “renting space” . . . albeit a small amount of space.  But, for that flight, that assigned space is yours.  It is inconsiderate when you “trespass” into another passenger’s rented space.  I was on one 4 hours flight where this former professional football player had his right buttocks on my seat the entire flight.  That was major trespassing!  I felt like I should get my ticket refunded.  If you need more space purchase 2 tickets.

·     This may not be technically considered trespassing but in my opinion it is irritating.  Airlines have reclining seats and many  travelers think that as soon as they sit down they should recline their seat.  All you are going to do is irritate the person behind you. If you absolutely feel you must recline your seat, only recline it part way.  Most experienced travelers such as business travelers only recline when it is a late night flight . . . say after 10 p.m.  This is an appropriate time to invade the person behind you space.  No joke!  I was on a 6 hours flight from Hawaii.  It left at 2 pm.  We weren’t into our flight 15 minutes when the lady ahead me reclined the seat.  Her seat LITERALLY touched my knees.  UGH!  I even took a picture to prove it because I am writing to Hawaiian Airlines.  Granted!  My knees were crossed, but their seats recline too far if goes all the way back to the next person's knees.

·    

   Parents, from first hand experience I found that my daughter was happier when we took her car seat on the airplane.  I guess it is because it felt familiar to her.  We have flown countless times with her and I don’t think she ever cried one time.  I give her car seat the credit!

TIPS FOR THE HOTEL

    Hotel Hallways

    Remember the science lesson about how sounds travel?  Well, this applies to hotels, too.  When you are in the hallways your voice should be very low.  This is not the time to let your kids run up and down the hall to expend their energy. 

    Time to Wake Up

    If you need to be somewhere at a certain time, you will want to make sure that you wake up at the right time.  You have two options.  You can either call the front desk and ask them to give you a wake up call or you can set the alarm clock.  TIP:  Make sure you turn OFF the alarm clock.  On my last trip, the people next door left their alarm clock on and left their room.  Three days in a row their alarm clock's "ding, ding, ding" went on forever (or so it seemed) until an employee could come up and turn it off for them.  By that time, the neighbors on both side of this room were awake and not very happy.  If you find alarm clocks challenging, bring your own.  You can find inexpensive travel alarm clocks that are small at many retailers.

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Do you want to make your summer vacation more educational for your children?  I originally made the packet below to give to my students that went on vacations during the school year.  It would also work great for summer vacations.

Click HERE to read more about this packet.

Click HERE to visit my TPT store.

Learn from an Olympic Champion

Today I had the opportunity to hear former Olympian speed skater, Bonnie Blair, speak.  I joined my husband on his business trip this week as his "+1".  She spoke at one of my husband's meetings.  Although her speech was written for the corporate world, it only took a few minutes to listen to her speak before I was digging in my purse looking for a pen and paper to take notes.  Her advice could easily be applied to the teaching world, too.

As you can imagine, the theme for Bonnie's speech centered around goal setting.  Summer vacation is the perfect time for teachers to set goals for the new school year. This is the time to take stock in what worked and what did not work last year.   How are you going to achieve your goals?

The Olympics isn't every 4 years.  It's everyday!  Athletes are preparing everyday so they will be ready for the Olympic games.  This is much like school.  Teaching and learning happens everyday which is our students' preparation for their Olympics (the standardized test) at the end of the year.  

You need a plan to reach your goal.  The first thing to think about is the dedication part of Bonnie's plan.  Most school years are 180 days, but the Olympics (standardized test) isn't given the last week of school.  You may only have 140-160 days of instruction before you give the big test.  If that is the case for you and you are on the Olympic plan, you will want each of those days to be "Olympic quality practice" days.  Think about how an Olympic athlete practices his/her sport!  It is very focused and structured.  There is a plan in place so he/she will achieve the goal.  In an ideal world, schools would plan field trips and other extra activities like that after the "Olympics".  Olympic athletes have a team of helpers: coaches, trainers, corporate sponsors, parents, families, friends, team mates, physical therapist, team doctors,  nutritionist, and more.  I sometimes think classroom teachers get into this island mentality.  When we close our classroom door, it is us with our students when really we are actually a state within a country.  We need to take the Olympic approach and reach out to all the different "team members" for advice and support for our students.  Many times advice and support can be done informally.  Many  librarian, reading specialist, math specialist, and counselors have experience teaching either special education or regular education.  Not only do they have experience to draw upon, many of these colleagues also teach your students.  They are a great resource!

Attitude plays a big part in an athletes' success.  Everyone has good days and bad days.  Bonnie said there were times when she had good seasons and bad seasons.  Teachers can easily relate to this!  We have good school years and challenging school years.  During those challenging times, we need to take Bonnie's advice and look for the positive and focus on what we can control.

These are just a few of the tips Bonnie gave.  I hope the tips help you when you begin making new goals for next year.

Important information

I recently joined some of my friends in the Swimming into Summer giveaway.  All of the teachers who followed the directions for the giveaway by Sunday, June 9th will receive all of the lesson packets.  

The packets have been emailed to those who joined our giveaway.  If you participated in our giveaway and have not received the packets, you need to check your spam folder.

Ashley @ The Teacher's Treasure volunteered to send out the packets.  Thank you Ashley!  You will see this in your inbox:

Click on that and you will see:

Click on the google docs link.  Hopefully, you will be able to access the documents without any trouble.  But, if too many users have downloaded this file recently, you may get this message:

If you get this message, please try to click on the link later.  

Usually the giveaways I participate last a few days.  This giveaway was 5 days because we knew it would take our readers a while to visit all of our blogs and join them.  It also allows extra time so "glitches" like malfunctioning computers or internet interruptions won't stop you from entering.  With extra days, you'll have time to fix the problem or use another computer.

If you found out about our giveaway after it was over, make sure you follow my blog and Facebook page so you won't miss the next one.  

Pragmatic Language Disorder

Do you have a student that is your puzzle child this year?  You know there is an issue with him or her, but you can't seem to put your finger on what that is.  When we teach reading we teach our students to find just right books.  Up until now, you haven't been able to find the just right label of what is happening with this student.  He or she may have some characteristics of autism, ADHD, or other labels but these are not a perfect fit.   Although we know a student is more than a label, we need the label so we'll know what strategies to use to help him or her reach his/her full potential.

A few years ago I had a student that was my puzzle kid.  His previous teacher spoke to me before the year began about her observations.  She knew there was an issue but wasn't quite sure what it was.  

I soon saw what his previous teacher observed the year before.  Anytime my students worked in small groups, there was friction with his group.  It didn't matter how many students I put in his group or who was in his group, at some point I knew a student from his group would be reporting to me that there were problems. 

My SLP stopped by to see me one day about another student during center time.  One of the students from his group reported there were problems (again).  My SLP began to watch the group. She thought the issue might be pragmatic language disorder.  I spoke to the parents about having him tested for this and they agreed.  He was tested, diagnosed, and received support that year.  Within a few months of support the dynamics of my center time completely changed for the better.  My SLP was my new best friend!

Do you have a student who:

-has difficulty getting along with other students

-does not read body language

-does not read social cues

-says inappropriate things for his/her age 

-does not understand personal space

If so, read more about this topic:

Does your child have pragmatic language disorder?

Semantic Pragmatic Disorder

Symptoms

 

Swimming Into Summer

You may remember in the fall,  some of my friends Tessa (Tales from Outside the Classroom), Nicole (Teaching with Style), and Ashley (Teacher's Treasure Chest) and gave away some items for free for people who signed up.  Not a giveaway where only a few people got it; every single person received the items!!!!!  They wanted a fun and different way to thank their followers.  Well, they decided to do it again and asked me to join them.

You can receive ALL of this!

To receive the Swimming into Summer items, all you need to do is follow ALL of our blogs and come back and fill out our form.  That's it!  You can enter now through Sunday, June 9th.  We'll start sending them out on Monday, June 10th.  You can go to each blog, by clicking on each button below.

 

Remember, all you need to do to get all of these is just follow each blog and enter using this form.  Even if you're already out of school, you can use these next year! :)
Hurry up though! The giveaway will only run through Sunday, June  9th. So sign up now and we will begin sending out the products next Monday!

Subscribe to our mailing list

Remember!  You only have to sign up or subscribe once.  You can do that on any of the blogs above.  If you get the message that you've already subscribed to "summer frenzy", you are on the list.

Fairy Tale: 3 Little Pigs

I just added a new packet to my store that is aligned with 1st and 2nd grade Common Core Standards.  Included are:

Beginning, middle, and end printables for 3 Little Pigs and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs.  A 5 W's + H printable is included and can be used with any story.

Four All about me - characterization worksheets come with this packet.  

Pig Facts is an informational text center/activity.  Students will research pig facts in books or on the internet.  There are two different recording sheets so you can differentiate this assignment.  Six facts and answer cards can be used as a matching game.

More fun with with homophones is a literacy center.  There are 36 word cards that student will sort into homophone pairs.  These cards can also be used as a memory game.  There are three different recording sheets so you can differentiate this center.

Add to it story is a fun partner activity plus is a great way to reinforce parts of speech.  There are 4 reference signs and 4 stories included.

Pencil task printables can be used as bell work, seat work, or homework.  Skills included are:  homophones, adjectives, plural nouns, long/short vowels, and edit sentences.  This can also be a easy prep center!

Click HERE to visit my TPT store.

Changes for Next Year

I am joining Kim @ Finding Joy in 6th Grade "What Will You Do Differently" linky party.

#1 - My first change is how I will blog.  My first year of blogging I felt like I needed to blog everyday.  I wrote about anything and everything because I felt like I needed to blog every single day.  Now I blog when I have something to say, a topic has caught my interest like the topic of this linky party, or I have added a packet to my store that I want to show you.

#2 - Number two on my list is something I have been working on this past week.  I have been needing to organize my Pinterest boards for quite some time.  I have them somewhat grouped now.  I also want to downsize the number of boards I have and the  number of people that I follow.  

#3 - This is probably my hardest thing on my list to do.  It's right up there like dieting for the level of difficulty for me.  Facebook is an easy place to lose large quantities of time.  Time that could be better spent doing other stuff.  

#4 - Twitter is a new experience for me.   I joined the Twitter brigade last month.  It still isn't a part of my routine so my tweets are kind of random.  I need to cut back on Facebook and spent more of that time on Twitter.  It has interesting information.  Check out my latest find to see if you agree: 

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#5 - It will soon be 2 years since I began my journey on TPT.  I have slowly been revising my older packets.  If you click on a link that is broken, it means that I have deactivated that lesson packet until I have a chance to revise it.  Once I finish the new and improved packet, the old link will work again.

What changes are planning for next year?