Work in Progress

Well, I don't have a clue how many hours I've been at school trying to put my new classroom together. My son, Kyle stopped by to visit one day, and his friend texted and asked him where he

was.  Here's how it went:
Dan: Where are You?
Kyle: West

Dan:West where

Kyle: West Elementary

Dan: But there's no school

Kyle: I know, but my mom's working 

Dan: But there's no kids

Kyle: I know, but she works a lot.  That's what teachers do

Thank you, son, for trying to educate the general population.  We are not OFF in the summer, sitting in the sun, sipping iced tea.  I took 12 semester credits, moved a classroom, created a 21st Century Classroom, and broke a sweat.  I'm a teacher.  What's your superpower?!

Here's a glimpse into my classroom. Notice anything missing????  Perhaps desks?  Yep.  We start September 7th.  They should (BETTER) arrive between the 28th of August and September 1st, then assembly can begin. :)  They threw my old desks out, so BETTER is the operable word.  I do have some awesome seating, though, don't I? Sorry about all the clutter - still trying to fit things from a bigger room into this room, and going from a giant desk to no desk for now, but a mobile work station is coming. I'm just not sure how much storage there will be in it, so I'm trying to plan on no storage.  So, throw, throw, throw.

IF you are able to donate to a project, or can forward the link to someone who loves to help teachers and classrooms out, I have a DonorsChoose project for my classroom which just went live a couple of days ago.  It's for a Apple Macbook Pro.  I want the kids to be able to work with me to blog on Kidblog, do some skyping and tweeting with other classrooms around the world.  I also want to be able to work wirelessly with a computer within the room, including without a battery needing to be plugged in within an hour or two.  I will have a green screen set up for my students to record stories after writing and editing using manipulatives (including Legos).  I plan to add a keyboard for students to utilize Garage band as well. Again, thanks for any help you can offer! 

 Here's the link to my project: ENTER THE CODE: JUMPSTART TO HAVE THE BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION MATCH YOUR DONATION!!! :)

http://www.donorschoose.org/project/21st-century-learners-ready-for-ilearnin/1614890/?rf=link-siteshare-2015-08-account_projects_teacher-teacher_1022936&challengeid=271257

Growing Pains

My, how time flies!  This little peanut is starting college in a week.

 Our baby.  We are now empty-nesters. Her brother graduated from college this spring. Luckily, she is only an hour away.  She is a strong, successful girl who will take care of herself and not let anyone stand in her way of success, yet kind-hearted enough to volunteer where needed.  I am proud of who she is already, and can't wait to see who this feisty red-head will become!  She has not followed in my footsteps.  She has seen how many hours I spend at school after hours, on the weekends, and in the summers.  She is on the business route.  She will volunteer in classrooms when she can, as she is very good with kids.

Growing pains for her dad and I as parents.  We have to stretch ourselves to let go a bit more than letting her keep the car out until midnight. I thought I'd be fine, until the song, "You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Atkins came on the radio as I was following her up to her new apartment with her last load of clothes, shoes, and more shoes (we marked the box 'softlines' to try to hide the fact that she had so many shoes from her dad, ha-ha!).  If you haven't heard that song before, Google the words.  Heart-breaker!!!  I posted on Face Book, "That was You, God.  I got it!" Perfect message delivered.

My message to you? Make sure you take time with your kids.  No matter the age.  It doesn't matter if they are little and at home, or on their own, already married and with kids.  Take time, make time.  I lost a dear friend to cancer this summer, and looking at her calendars over the years, she always took the time to make it to as many things she could with her boys.  And then with her boys and stepdaughters.  It matters.  Always. :)

Creative Seating

Creative seating in a 21st Century Classroom is pretty fun to shop for! I had some cozy furniture already from a DonorsChoose project and some milk crate seating I made one summer. On Face Book, the Scoop Rockers were the most sought out item on one of the first grade chat groups. I know my students will love to sit in one of these cozy rockers for read-to-self! And when Target put the sand chairs on clearance, our group texts went crazy! My daughter thought we were hoarders, but we were just buying them for other teachers.  We're good like that, aren't we?  The "I've got your back" attitude in teaching is so important! I love my team!!
I just found out my desks will be in between August 28th and Sept.1st - just in time for school to start after Labor Day! Here are some of my new chairs.

You'll notice some stacked light bulbs in the background.  Part of our request was to change the lighting.  I wanted 2500K-2700K (Kalvin) lighting, but they put in 5000K lighting. The difference is I wanted yellow-orange spectrum and they put in blue spectrum.  I get migraines, and I cannot work with all the lights on.  When I have a migraine, the 5000K lights look like you could land a jet in my room when they are all on.
I'll post more pictures as I get my new room ready.  I've been moving my son into a new apartment post-graduation from college, and moving my daughter into an apartment tomorrow for college. Busy time of year! Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by! Please come back, as I'm getting better at this!

What Do Students Remember Most About You?

Cancer Sucks.  There is no other way to say it.  I lost a friend an colleague today to cancer.  Kristi taught with me for the past 15 years.  She was going to retire early and spend time traveling with her husband.  She couldn't wait!  Then in March, she went in to get an injection for pain in her neck.  Chiropractic treatments hadn't helped.  When they x-rayed her neck to see where exactly to inject her steroid, they found several masses. Several.  So large, one had cracked her vertebrae.  Kristi fought, and fought hard, but today, Heaven gained an angel.  I imagine she has claimed an area for a classroom and has a small group of children gathered around her already.
Why do I bring all this up?  One, it's a way of grieving for me.  I'm sorry.  Selfish, I suppose. Secondly, an article came across my Facebook feed tonight, which melted me to my core.  I work very hard at being this kind of teacher, one students remember.  I love my job, and hope to leave as big of an impact as my dear friend Kristi has made.  Enjoy reading this article.  I hope you aspire to this article as well!
http://pursuitofajoyfullife.com/2014/01/26/what-students-remember-most-about-teachers/

Holy time warp! I am so sorry for the gap in posts!  I have been so busy, I can't even begin to explain!  I had knee surgery last December which took waaaaaaay too long to recover, in fact, I'm still having problems with it, but this too shall pass!
I am sorry for those of you who may pop on my site to see if I've updated anything.  I have exciting news!!! My colleague and and I have been awarded 21st Century Classrooms for this next year!  So, in addition to having 2 children graduate (one from college, one from high school), me taking 12 college credits for great summer learning, I have been learning a LOT about 21st Century Classrooms, Project Based Learning, not quite 1:1 devices (see what I did there ;), Periscope, Mystery Skyping, and a myriad of other wonderful learning opportunities for my firsties!

You can now also follow me on Twitter!@MrsHeikes
I haven't taken the time to make anymore games, as I've focused more of my time on moving my classroom (did I forget to mention I had to do that, too?!) and work on all new curriculum for my classroom. I am getting all new desks, including a mobile teacher desk, including a laptop, which I am using right now!

I have made connections with teachers in Columbia, Vietnam, Italy, and many states in the United States to Skype with this next year.  I am going to work with an engineer with NASA who will read to my students and answer questions they have.  How have I done this?  Ask.  Ask friends and relatives.  Ask on Twitter - there are SOOOOOOO many wonderful people out there, willing to help drop the walls on your classrooms.  Make your classroom big!  Get a world map and keep track of all the places you "visit" throughout the year like I plan to do - I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!

So....if I'm not blogging for a while, you'll know why. :)

FREEBIE

Here's a freebie for you!!!  There are 3 Box It In games in this set.  If you've been at my bog before, thanks for coming back!  This is my thanks to you!!  And more to come!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Box-It-In-Reading-Rimes-Game-1588390

Here's another game I made and posted for only $1.00!  With the Cyber Monday - Tuesday sale, it's a STEAL!!!  Your kiddos won't be disappointed.  These games are some of my firsties' favs!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fry-Sight-Word-Practice-Hockey-Theme-1587932

I'm BUSY!!!!  Today I'm parked on the couch finalizing a bunch of games to put on Teachers Pay Teachers.  A good friend of mine, Dori, has been pestering me (in a good way!!) to get some of my games on the site to sell.  We've been using these games for years and years. I usually get ideas from listening to my kiddos.  I've had hockey players in my classroom, so I created a hockey game.  I've had a student obsessed who was in love with kitties, so I made a game focused around kitties.  Pizza?  Yep - got one. Baseball? Snow? Cars? Check, check, check!!!  I LOVE going into the dollar store and finding manipulatives for games.  Inspirations are all around!  I will be adding more and more as I find the time.  I REALLY do NOT know how some of these wonderteachers do it!  Teaching, blogging, creating games and craftivities, FAMILIES - HOW.DO.THEY.DO.IT!  :) I will continue to move into this blogging world slowly.  Maybe I should rename it  - the slothsite -lol!

I added "I Have, Who Has" with Fry sight words 101-200 to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  My next big learning curve is to figure out how to give things away on here - I promise to figure it out!!!  If you know how, please leave me a message!  I know how to use google docs a bit, but not a master, by any means, so help if you can, please.  Thanks in advance!!!!

For anyone in Minnesota, bundle up tomorrow, and prepare for.....indoor recess!!!  We are looking at a -40 degree windchill tomorrow!!!  Sad face!!!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fry-Sight-Word-Practice-I-Have-Who-Has-Game-1587048