Excellent Article

The New York Times published an article Sunday "How About Better Parents?" by Thomas Friedman and it is an absolute MUST read for everyone!!!

Blog on Fire!!! Yay!!!

A HUGE thank you to Christine at Hopping into First Grade!!!! 

 

The rules for this award are:
*Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them in your post
*Share 7 things about yourself
*Pass this award along to 10 recently discovered blogs


Seven things about me....
1. I am an "Alternative Certification" teacher...meaning my degree is in Accounting/Finance (I worked at a Management Analyst prior to teaching).


2. My career move to teaching happened in a matter of about 48 hours...call it an epiphany or a quarter life crisis...everything fell into place and I have not looked back :)


3. My I co-teach with my mother who has been a kindergarten teacher for 30 years. My grandmother was also a kindergarten teacher and my sister is an ESOL teacher. I guess you could say it's like our family business. 


4. I plan to start my Master's this spring...I am trying to decide between Ed. Leadership and Communication Disorders.


5. I love love love math....weird because k-12 I rarely made above a C in math. In college, it just clicked...and my love for it began. I truly believe anyone can understand/appreciate math...if it is taught correctly. I do not think that I suddenly matured just before taking Calculus my freshman year in college. I had an incredible professor who served as a facilitator, he allowed his students to try the problems, then he would demonstrate the correct approach, and so on...


6. I love technology!!! I especially love how familiar children are with technology and how quickly they adapt to technology.


7. I truly love my job and without a doubt I love going to work each day. No matter what is happening in the world outside my classroom, we are having a fantastic time together!!! 

Awesome (CCSS) Math Resource

I stumbled upon this snazzy math resource... Illuminations....it is part of Verizon's Thinkfinity and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). The lessons are aligned with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).

Math is so important to me because I struggled with it for most of my education. In college, I finally found my niche and I ended up majoring in it. I promise you my high school math teachers would never believe it. 

I am trying to decide if my new group of kiddos would benefit more from whole group math instruction or math centers...or perhaps a combination of the two...

Either way this site is worth checking out!

New Year = MIA

I feel so out of touch with my TBA blogs since the new school year started (just the typical adjustment process); however, I am slowly finding a balance.


Our school is in the process of installing a snazzy new technology package that includes...a SMARTBOARD!!! Woo hoo!!


Today, I stumbled upon this website which has several Smartboard files for Kindergarten!! I absolutely cannot wait to use them!!

SMART Board lessons for your Kindergarten classroom

Common Core State Standards

Since Kindergarten is the first to implement the CCSS, I wanted to provide my parents with a handout of the Kindergarten Common Core State Standards.

Click here for the math PDF and here for the language arts.

Lettering Delights Freebie: First Day Signs

Lettering Delights is offering FREE classroom signs to help you welcome your students. They have signs for grades PreK-12. 


These signs make super cute first day pictures! :)

Click here to download signs.

P.S. They have lots of other freebies!

Another reason to love Matt Damon....