After a 9 day hiatus I am finally back in the blogging world. Trust me, it is not for a lack of writing topics… the opposite actually. Since I last posted my life has been a whirlwind of activities: – In-school meetings – Supervising student council dances – Driving 3 hours to watch our football team play their first play-off game – Driving an additional 3 hours to attend a PD session …. …. …. Oh ya… all of those were on the same day actually (but trust me, the remaining days were just as busy. On top of that,… Read More
2 Stars & A Wish: Week 7
This weeks started our back-to-back short weeks as Monday of this week was Thanksgiving and this upcoming Friday is our provincial professional development day, S.A.G.E. This week seemed to go by very quickly even though I didn’t actually teach that much. Most of my classes are nearing the end of their units and I had 2 classes write their unit tests on Friday. Two things that I think went really well this week are: 1 ) Introducing Formal Lab Reports in Science– We have been working with the Scientific Method since the beginning of’ the school year and we have… Read More
#FunShirtFriday 3
One of our school goals is to build in classroom spirit activities/routines for our students as a way to help foster school spirit and classroom community. One activity that I came up with for our class is #FunShirtFriday that I’ve seen on Twitter. Every Friday, I encourage my students to wear a “fun shirt” to school. Over the summer I found a lot of funny and interesting shirts online related to math, science, art, and teaching in general so I was pretty excited to share these with my students. To take this spirit activity one step further,… Read More
These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things…
We’re at that point where the majority of my classes are finishing up their first units and preparing to move on. As such, I wanted to share some of my favourite projects and activities from some of my classes. Grade 8 Art Our first project in Art this year was a Famous Artist Research Mobile. Students picked an artist of their choice, created mobile using their pieces of art, and included artist bio’s and references on the back. These are now laminated and permanent fixtures in my room! Grade 8 Science In Science we explored cells and… Read More
Sometimes You Just Need To Shut The Door…
Lunch hour… in any other profession I’ve been involved in this meant that I left the premises (or at least moved to a cafeteria/staff room), ran personal errands up town, went to the gym, relaxed and enjoyed my food, etc. Lunch hour… in the teaching profession, however, is a somewhat less-structured continuation of the rest of your day. As soon as that 12:00pm bell rings you are:– Supervising extra-curricular activities– Providing extra support for students who need to catch up– Meeting with colleagues or admin– Holding meetings with students– Making phone calls home– Photo-copying – Preparing for your… Read More
Resources To Start Off Your Week 80
Holy moly, has it really been 3 weeks since I had a Resources To Start Off Your Week post?!? It seems like it has been forever. I have been posting, I just have been posting other awesome things on Mondays… Anyways, today is Thanksgiving and I was reminded of how thankful I am for all of the amazing people who are willing to share their ideas and experiences online. To honour this, I wanted to make sure that I shared some resources with you! As always, I will be adding these to my lists of resources under the Fav… Read More
2 Stars & A Wish: Week 6
Twas’ the week before the long weekend… That’s right, it is Thanksgiving this weekend! Not only that, but it is also our community’s big rodeo event and our school’s Spirit Week. All together, this resulted in our student’s having that “Friday afternoon” mentality ALL week long! It was a bit of a nut house, but we all made it through unscathed. Two things that went really well this week are: 1 ) Having My First Evaluation!– On Monday I had my very first evaluation as a first year teacher. I was asked to submit a list of possible dates… Read More
Spirit Week
This week our Student Council organized a Spirit Week leading up to the long weekend. Here are some pics from the week: Backwards Day & “Pie The Teacher” Fundraiser,I couldn’t think of better shirt to wear to this event! I got off pretty safe in the pie-throwing event! Twin Day!Thing 1 & Thing 2 Movie Character Day: Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games
#MTBoS Mission 1: The Power of the Blog
I am participating in the wonderful #MTBoS World this fall as a way to learn more about teaching and assessing math as well as to connect with math educators and grow my PLN. As a new math teacher (teaching Grades 8, 9, & 10 math) I am interested in learning as much as I can and am so thankful to all of the wonderful educators who are willing to share their experiences online! First off, if you haven’t heard about #MTBoS (or the MathTwitterBlogosphere), it is an 8-week series of missions designed to connect dedicated math teachers who are willing and… Read More
2 Stars & A Wish: Week 5
September is behind us and here is my first 2 Stars & A Wish post of October. Teachers always say that the year goes by so quickly and I definitely understand that now! It honestly seems like yesterday was the first day of school and it is almost already Thanksgiving. Two things that went well this week are: 1 ) Reinforcing our Risk Free Environment Policy– I do not have a formal list of rules in my classroom, but I do have a Risk Free Environment Policy that reads as follows: “Our classroom does not discriminate on the basis of disability,… Read More