Combatting the Homework Blues During the Holiday Season

I already know what my New Years resolution will be this year - blog at least once a week!! I'm pretty good at keeping up with my Wise Owl facebook page (and really enjoy it!), but it seems like I have this long list of things to blog about and it never quite happens, despite my good intentions.

For those of you who blog religiously, how do you help yourself stay on a schedule?  Do you write ahead of time and then release them one at a time?

Anyway, speaking of letting good intentions slip away and bad habits creep into the picture....I find that the holiday season is where good homework and study habits go to die.  Personally,  the holidays present a perfect opportunity for me to not only make excuses for my students, but also make excuses for myself.  Here are some prime examples....

"It's really too cold outside to grade papers"

"Oh, you had to make Christmas cookies last night so you didn't get to your writing.  Did you bring me some?  Okay, no problem..."

"Hm...does Black Friday shopping count as math? Sure, that sounds reasonable!"

Any-hoo, you can catch my drift.  So what's a teacher to do?

When I taught 2nd grade, I was into fairies.  The desk fairy, the writing fairy, the handwriting fairy....you name it, I had a fairy for it.  I even dressed up as the desk fairy for Halloween one year and yes, I hung an organized seatback from my body and carried around a wand with a Clorox label stuck to it.  Huge hit.

My kids ate it up, but sometimes I did wonder if my classroom boys were offended by all these references to little pink fairies in tutus judging their work and their organizational skills....so I thought, and thought and drank some red wine and thought some more....


ENTER the HOMEWORK KNIGHT!!

The Homework Knight serves the same purpose as my fairy friends listed above.  He will periodically ride into your classroom at night on his trusty steed and inspect the caliber of homework that was handed in that night.  If he is impressed by the quality of the work, he will staple a small token to the homework assignment.  

I would LOVE to offer this item as a freebie, since it really helped me with homework completion, but copyright on the clipart requires that I SELL the items I create with it instead of offering as a freebie.  You are free to recreate using your own clip art or if you are interested in purchasing the pack, you can buy it here on TpT.  If you do decide to recreate this idea using your own clip art, I do ask that you refrain some reselling on tpt or tn since it is part of a larger for-sale packet of mine.   It's called part of the Organized Student Series and focus on homeroom routines. Here's a closer look at what you get if you do decide to purchase.

Here are some sweet freebs (did I just abbreviate freebies?  Woof.) for the holiday season!    Click and download!

Have a great week, friends!!!!  PS - I would love to hear your ideas for homework completion!!

Teachers Helping Teachers

For the last few weeks, I've been MIA for a few different reasons - in the world of support, things always tend to be pick up right around the time of parent teacher conferences, so I've been pretty busy at work!

I've also recently decided to start a work-specific blog on edublog.  Do any of you out there have experience with edublog?  I'd love to check out some of your pages if you have them!  Feel free to leave a link in my comments section - I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and wondering if I should possibly hold off until after the December break to get it up and running.

Hurricane Sandy and the aftermath are also fresh on my mind this week.  As a former Hoboken resident and NYC teacher, it is unbelievable to see the pictures of the damage done to the five boroughs and New Jersey.  Some of my friends and former coworkers have been out of power for the entire week and are still not able to return home to their apartments.

Two years ago, when Hurricane Nicole (which wasn't publicized as a big deal) came up the coast, my car was parked on a side street outside of my apartment in Hoboken.  When I came outside that morning around 5:30 AM to head into work, my poor old Ford Taurus was half underwater (water over the engine and over the front seat of the car).  Luckily, my car is an animal and started up without a problem, but I can only imagine the state of the roads with a storm of this size.

I've been wondering about what I can do to help and luckily, I stumbled on a few awesome causes that help out teachers from the northeast that have been affected by Hurricane Sandy.

The first is Laurah, from the ESOL Odyssey.  Part of her classroom was destroyed in the storm, but that didn't stop her from creating an awesome system where teachers can request help and other teachers can step up and donate their own products from TpT and TN.  Just for one second, imagine walking into your classroom and seeing hours upon hours of your hard work destroyed in a single night.  I have donated several of my items, but please think about donating from your own store if you haven't already!

The second is Erica Bohrer over at Erica Bohrer's First Grade.  I've been a fan of Erica's TpT products for a long time, but I'm literally blown away by her generosity.  She is a resident of Lindenhurst, Long Island - a town that was badly flooded in the storm.   Please consider purchasing her hurricane unit below - all proceeds go to hurricane relief.  Plus, your kiddies are sure to have questions about the hurricane!!

To all of my friends impacted by the storm, my thoughts and prayers are with you.  Stay strong!

Have You Been Boo'd?

Cynthia over at 2nd Grade Pad came up with a great idea for a spooky linky party! Here's how it works: Link up and then blog about 3 fellow bloggers - one who has MORE followers than you, one who has about the SAME as you and one who has LESS than you.  For each, highlight something that makes them special or fun to follow.

As a treat, offer them a freebie from your store!

Here are mine...

During my giveaway, I connected with a whole bunch of new bloggers and First Grade in Foxwell Forest was one of them!  She's got some great math freebies up and cute videos of her singing songs that she made up for her students and I'm loving her new Pumpkin Patch unit!  If you haven't already, check out her blog and get some fun new ideas - I'm thinking she is going to take off soon!!


I also want to highlight Marie from It's a Jungle Out There.  She's a kindergarten teacher with some great ideas for organizing and keep track of student data.  I also think we have the exact same number of followers :)

Lastly, I just LOVE the 3 AM Teacher.  What's not to love?  She's got great TpT products, great ideas and her blog tutorials are very helpful!  If you haven't already, check her out!

If you haven't already, head over to the 2nd Grade Pad and link up!

Massive 100 Follower Rafflecopter Giveaway!!!

I have finally finished my first official Rafflecopter giveaway to celebrate 100 followers on TpT, on my Facebook page and soon here on the Wise Owl blog!  I started this blogging/creating endeavor less than 2 months ago and can hardly believe the support I have already encountered from educators around the world (that's right, even Australia!).  It has been an exciting few months and I am so happy that I finally took the plunge and signed up to join so many other talented teacher bloggers.  

As a HUGE thank you to all of my new followers and fans out there, enter to win a shot at over 30 awesome teacher-created products, a $25 gift certificate to TPT and a product from Deanna Jump's million dollar TpT store.  There are 3 rafflecopters happening simultaneously below and guess what? You can enter for a chance to win for ALL THREE! Woot-woot!  

How do you enter for a chance to win, you ask?  If you haven't entered a rafflecopter before, the basic idea is that you "earn entries" by performing certain specified tasks that are outlined by the people who donate products, usually following their blogs, facebook pages, pinterest board or TpT Store.

You can also earn a whopping 10 ENTRIES by pinning, tweeting, blogging or posting the visual for this rafflecoptor on your personal page.  

Contest ends next Sunday - The rafflecoptor will randomly choose 1 participant to win each contest.  Please make sure you enter an email address or check back on Sunday.  I will post the winners on my facebook page and on here, but if I have no way to contact you - I will have to select another winner.

Most importantly - Be honest!  If one of your tasks is to follow a blog or TpT store....please do the right thing and actually do it!  Many talented educators spent time and resources creating these wonderful products....do the right thing and check out all the great things they have to offer through their stores, blogs and facebook pages - You won't be sorry!

10 + Teacher Products + $25 Gift Certificate to TpT!

10 + Teacher Products + 1 Product from Deanna Jump's TpT Store!!

Silly me!  This awesome place value pack by Jennifer over at Live Teach Create is also being given away with Picture #2

Over 15+ Products + 3 free items of your choice from the Wise Owl!

a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Taste of Something to Come

I've been absolutely dying to blog about my positive experiences with Cognitively Guided Math (CGI for short).  Ah yes, who doesn't enjoy yet another educational acronym?

While I'm not sure how many teachers or districts are using this approach now, I can see it really taking off in the next few years, especially with the language of the common core in regards to solving different types of word problems.

My plan is to post a series of blog entries focusing on different aspects of the program and hopefully in doing so, I'll get a few more people to board the CGI train.  Until then, I leave you with a newly created resource for those of you who already use CGI in your classroom!  You can snap it up at TPT and it includes visual aids for ALL 14 different problem types.  Check out a few examples below!

Hope you all are having a fantastic week!

Catching Up and The Great Pencil War

Well, it seems like I've dropped the blogging ball for the past few weeks.  Time just gets away from you at the start of the school year and normally I would be apologetic but I've been having a great time enjoying the gorgeous fall weather (and perhaps partaking in an Oktoberfest celebration or two).  True to form, I've also burned through several Fall Harvest yankee candles and have been furiously pinning every recipe with the words "butternut", "cider" and "pumpkin" in the title.  What can I say, I heart fall.  

Anyhoo, I've also been busy settling into my new job.  As I mentioned a few posts ago, this is a bit of a transitional year for me.  I picked up and moved to a new city to be with my special friend (read more about him here).  Obviously this also meant that I would need to find new employment, which thankfully, I was able to find.  Don't even get me started on THAT process, it was a very grouchy few months for this teacher.  I'm loving it so far, but anyone that has started at a new school can relate on this point - it can be HARD to learn customs, traditions, do's and don'ts, ins and outs....the list goes on and on and even after a few weeks, I'm still trying to figure everything out.  

But enough about me.  I had a few requests from friends at previous schools to post about my past pencil system.  I don't know about you all, but pencils make me cringe.  They are a necessary evil in all classrooms, being that children do need to write things down on occasion, but man, can they be a giant PAIN in the butt.  Yes? Yes. 

After trying (and crash-and-burn failing at) many ideas my first year of teaching, I spent last summer trying to come up with an idea that would set my pencil anxiety at rest.  After many nights pondering and searching my soul for an answer....genius struck.  

I will be honest about upfront costs - I was lucky enough to have a school that paid for my supplies.  I know that is not the case for many of you, but I do think it is worth it to go for the gold and buy a stockpile of Dixon Ticonderoga pencils.  They are a MUCH better quality than Dixon's cheaper counterparts - they last longer because the pencil lead does not break nearly as often.  

I also purchase-ordered a small nylon pencil case with front netting for each child, plus some extras in the event of breakage.  This is exactly the type I ordered and can be found at Staples for pretty cheap, especially when ordered in bulk.  

So here's the game plan.  On the first day of school, each of my 30 kids got their own pencil pouch, labeled with their name in heavy-duty black Sharpie to prevent squabbling/fist-fighting.  In this fabulous pencil pouch, there were EIGHT brand new Ticonderoga pencils, plus a pink Carnation eraser.    

I explained to my lovelies that they were each responsible for their 8 pencils and erasers throughout the week.  There would be no sharpening of pencils during class time and they would be responsible for putting pencils safely away in their pouch so they wouldn't end up on the floor or in someone else's pouch. 

On Friday, after the last academic period, I would collect the pencil pouches and resharpen every single pencil.   After a few weeks, this became a coveted student job (i.e. not my problemo anymore!)

As an incentive to build responsibility and accountability (and because I knew realistically that my second graders needed to some sort of buy-in to make this system work) I told them that if I found all 8 pencils in their pouch on Friday, they would receive some type of small prize in their pouch on Monday morning.  Usually I would put in small pencil eraser toppers, stickers, the occasional piece of candy if I was feeling particularly friendly or some other type of very small prize.  I also explained that the pencils could be unsharpened, but needed to be in good shape (no erasers twisted off, no pencils broken in half, etc.) 

If there were less than 8 pencils, I would replace the missing pencils so they had eight again.  There would be no prize, but I would leave them a note telling them to try again next week.  Carnation erasers were replaced ONLY one time (after winter break).  I would also replace pencils with reasonable wear-and-tear (erasers worn down, etc.).  

I could never have predicted the wild success I had with this system.  My kids took SUCH good care of the pencils that I rarely had to replace one.  On any given week, there were maybe 3 out of 30 kids who did not receive a prize.  If I noticed more students becoming careless, I would give a really great prize (like a coupon or small piece of candy) to get them re-invested in the system.    It saved TONS of money and I was no longer a) hearing the pencil sharpener every day or b) having to sharpen pencils every day after school like I was doing with the Sharpened/Unsharpened bin idea.  

It also taught my kids to take care of their school items.  I was no longer finding broken pencils on the ground or in their seatbacks.  In the beginning of the school year, I would randomly shout kids out who had taken particularly good care of their pencils which only added to the kids excitement and willingness to take care of their school supplies.  Plus, everybody was super pumped to get into the classroom on Monday morning to find their newest prize!

Here is a FREEBIE resource to get you started.  I share it freely because this system truly changed my life and made me a happier teacher.  It includes set up, directions, tips and tricks to make it work and two sheets of pencil pouch coupons.  

Available for FREE on TPT @ The Wise Owl

Have a wonderful week, friends!

Freebie Linky Party

Cynthia over at 2nd Grade Pad is hosting a Favorite Freebie Linky Party for all of us educators who are staring down at their back to school credit card bills in horror on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Make sure you link up and check out all the the great freebies!  It might almost make you forget about your looming debt to Lakeshore, Really Good Stuff and of course, TPT!

Happy Sunday, everyone!