~118~ Pencil Sharpener Review

Being that my last post was about my first year teaching, I thought that it would be fitting to do a review on a pencil sharpener that I got for my classroom.

I first discovered this pencil sharpener while looking on Pinterest for ideas to use in my classroom. The blogger posted a video showing how it worked and I knew that I had to check it out.  It’s from Classroom Friendly Supplies, a company run by a fellow teacher.  This handy pencil sharpener comes in various colors, of which I chose this pretty purple. This is not your conventional manual pencil sharpener. The design involved pulling out a metal bracket which adjusts to the size of your pencil and grips it while you’re sharpening it - there’s no need to hold on to your pencil while you’re sharpening it. 

As any teacher knows, a good pencil sharpener is a must in any classroom.  Previous to this one, I had an electric sharper, that while it did a pretty good job, it was extremely loud, often got jammed, and did not work on every type of pencil. 

My sharpener arrived very quickly - so already, I was impressed. I was so excited for it and brought it to my classroom the next day.  The first time I tried it out, I was blown away by how quietly and quickly it sharpened my pencil - 3 turns total.  And the point-oh my goodness! And this was a super sturdy point. I’ve had many pencil sharpeners that make a nice point, but as soon as you start to write, the lead breaks off.  Definitely not the case with this sharpener.  Also, although it works great free-standing, it is easily mounted to any shelf.

My (4th grade) students immediately noticed that our old sharpener was gone and were very excited about our new one.  They loved it so much, that they affectionately named her “Patricia”.  As they started arriving in the morning, I showed them how to properly use the pencil sharpener one at a time.    Some were able to get the hang of it, but many had a hard time with the mechanism of pulling out the  metal part, inserting their pencil, and then getting their pencil out. 

As with almost anything that’s new, my students were a bit too excited about trying out the sharpener and shortly after lunch it got jammed with pencil tip that broke off in the mechanism.  It seems that colored pencils don’t sharpen as well as regular pencils.  Luckily, I was pretty easily able to “perform surgery” on our beloved “Patricia” and get back into tip-top working order.  Sadly though, she is off-limits to students.  However, I still love how well and quickly it sharpens pencils for our classroom! I even brought it down to our building secretary to show her how well it works in case we were in need of buying new sharpeners for the building (which is being expanded and renovated this summer).  She is currently looking into ordering them for our associates to have in their work space.

Final Grade: B+

 This pencil sharpener definitely does it’s job.

The quietness, quickness, and quality of sharpening that it does is top notch and really unmatched by any other pencil sharpener that I’ve used in my lifetime (which is a lot!).  

The reason that it didn’t get an A is because it is not really built to be used by kids. I know that a lot of teachers don’t let their kids use their pencil sharpeners, but it’s one of my classroom jobs so that I’m not spending time doing it each morning/afternoon.  Considering that the 10 year olds in my classroom struggled to figure out how to properly use it (and semi-broke it in a matter of 4 hours), means that there’s no way students in younger grades would be able to use it well, particularly 2nd grade and below. 

Bottom Line: This pencil sharpener is the best I’ve ever used, but in terms of classroom use, it is best for adult use, and isn’t really suitable for kids under 10 years old. 

Disclaimer: I received this pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies in exchange for this review.  However, all words, thoughts, and opinions are my own. 

~117~ Surviving My 1st Year

Believe it or not, this post is actually not about surviving my first year as a mom (though they may be a good one for a future post).  Instead it’s about surviving my first back in a regular classroom.

At the end of last school year, while I was on maternity leave with Ethan, I received a call from our district’s HR director letting me know that my position of Title I Math had been cut. They decided that there was a greater need for an additional Title I Reading teacher instead.  Not exactly my favorite call to receive, but I had known that this was a possibility.  Luckily this did not mean I was out of a job, just that I would have to take on a different position.  Back to the full classroom it was! I decided to take on 4th grade at one the buildings that I had already been working at.
I’m not going to lie, but after 6 years working as a small-group specialist teacher, I was a bit scared about going back to the a regular classroom! My very first teaching job out of college was 4th grade in St. Paul, MN but that was 8 years ago! Despite this, I decided to take on the challenge head-on.

I’m not going to say that this year has been easy-because it hasn’t.  In many ways, I felt like a 1st year teacher again even though this was my 8th year of teaching. But looking forward to next year and the years to come after that, I can see the mistakes that I made this year and want to change for next year as well as the positives that I want to continue replicating and mastering.

There are a few things that definitely made my life and job easier this year:

1. Erin Condren Planner
I decided to treat myself at the end of last year to help me get excited about changing jobs and took the plunge when I saw that they were on sale in May. Some of my favorite things about this planner are how colorful and pretty the design is, and the large blocks for writing in my weekly lesson plans.  I also really like the notes pages that go with each monthly calendar. It made it easy to find notes that I took from various meetings (staff, PLC, PD) and have it all in one place.  The checklists at the back of the planner were also very handy.   And, I loved the super durable, clear page protectors (I ordered an extra one) to keep my class list/parent contact info and master schedule in.
The only things that I would change are to put the zip-lock pouch in the front instead of the back and make it a sliding ziplock instead. I didn’t use it as much this year because it was a pain to get in and out of.  The absent pages were also unnecessary. I had planned to use them instead for keeping track of parent contacts, but I didn’t do a very good job of that past October.
I’ve already received my planner for next year and I’m excited about a couple of the changes that they made to the planner.  There are fewer notes pages that correspond with each month calendar, which I’m okay with-because it makes the planner slightly less bulky.  They did make the monthly calendar spread slightly smaller and added in a column on the right side with an extra “notes” section and small 2015 and 2016 dated calendars.   One thing that I want to utilize more this year are the graph pages. I hardly used them last year. I started playing around with it in the last month of school this year to track weekly reading test data, but I’m not sure that I’ll have enough pages as they made the grid squares larger, meaning that there’s fewer squares per page.
I've already filled in all of the dates, and started putting in things that I want to remember for next year (one of the many reasons I buy my planner so early).
Want one of your own? Grab yours using this link and save $10 off your order!

2. Deep Desk Drawer Organizers
I bought two at the beginning of the year to put one in both top drawers of my desk.  While the top of my desk is almost always a cluttered mess and I’m constantly losing that one piece of paper in some pile, my drawers are very neatly organized and it’s easy for me to find what I need in a pinch.

3. Weekly Drawer Organizer
I saw this idea on Pinterest before school started and knew that I needed one in my classroom.  I bought two 3-drawer organizers zip-tied them together.  I then labeled each drawer Monday-Friday.  The bottom drawer is labeled “print”.  It’s been vary hand to have items printed out a week ahead and be able to file them in the drawers based on what day I’ll need them.  Then when the day rolls around, I can easily find and grab what I need. If it weren’t for this, a lot more papers would get buried and lost on my desk than already are.

4. A Good Teaching Partner
I’m extremely lucky to work in a building with some exceptionally amazing teachers! Included in this cohort is the other 4th grade teacher, who really did a great job of showing me the ropes this year! Had I been left to navigate this transition on my own, I’m pretty sure I would have floundered.  It was also really nice to be able to talk with and collaborate with someone who teaches the same thing as me.  When I taught Title I, I was the only one who taught that exact class in the entire district. While I did love my job, it was very isolating in many regards. Unfortunately, my teaching partner will not be back next year, and I will miss her a lot!  At the same time though, I’m excited about my new teaching partner, who is also a friend of mine.  I just hope that I can do as much for her next year as my current teaching partner did for me this year.

~41~ My Favorite Things v10.10

So remember back in the day, eons ago when I blogged about my favorite things on Wednesdays??  Well, they're back!!  I need a way to keep me accountable of updating my blog on a more consistent basis, and this is one way.   

This week, my favorite things are: 

1. Free Trip + Chicago + Math 

For the past few years, I have been dying to go to one of the regional or annual math conferences put on by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NTCM), which I am a current member of.  This year, they are finally hosting it in a city that is relatively close to me.  With fingers crossed, I submitted a proposal to use district professional development funds to go, and they approved it!  I will be leaving on Wednesday, Nov 28 and returning the 30th.  There are over 200 presenters and exhibits all focused on math strategies and instruction, and I am super stoked to go.  I am a tad bit nervous too.  I've never had to travel for business, and while I have definitely traveled by myself numerous times, in the past I've always met up with with a friend or family member-who I would be staying with and seeing.  This time, I'm staying in a hotel by myself.  If I weren't going to be busy all day, I would suggest that Jake come, but he'd be bored out of his gourd.  Luckily, I have made some friends with girls who were planning their weddings at the same time as me, and live in the Chicago area, that I'm hoping to meet up with on that Thursday evening.  So excited!

2. My new phone

I have been up for renewal/upgrade since the beginning of September and finally got around to upgrading my phone.  After a lot of hemming and hawing between the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy sIII, I decided to go with the Samsung.  There were a couple of reasons why I chose to stick with an android (my previous phone was a Droid 2 Global).

1.  Widgets.  It seems so silly, but really-I use them a lot.  I couldn't imagine not having them.  This was a huge deciding factor for  me. 

2. Customization.  I love being able to customize all of my screens exactly how I want them.  While I can choose which apps to put on the front of my pages on an iPhone, I really can't customize them as much as I can on an Android. 

3. Familiarity.  Plain and simple, I'm more familiar with Android.  Also, Jake owns a droid so we're able to share chargers and any new tips or tricks.   

What are your favorite things this week?

~30~ Blogger Behind the Screens (Part 3)

The mediocre teacher tells.  

The good teacher explains.  

The superior teacher demonstrates. 

The great teacher inspires.

-William Ward

In 1992, I was inspired.  I was just 7 years old, yet it was then that I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up: a teacher.  I was in the 2nd grade in Ms. Erickson's class.  I can't quite pinpoint what it was now, but there was just something about her that made me want to be just like her.  She inspired me to want to inspire others in the same way.

As I continued through school, having more experiences and outlooks on life, I was still determined to become a teacher.  I loved the feeling I got knowing that I helped someone. Once I reached college, these feelings never subsided.  I considered other majors for a bit, but kept coming back to elementary education.  At my college, Augsburg, licensure covers grades K-8 and so I was required to choose a middle-school specialty area.  I initially thought about social studies (WHY, I have NO idea!! After all, it is my worst subject), but soon came to the realization that math was the area I had the most interest in.

Prior to graduation, I student taught for 14 weeks in a multi-age classroom with grades 1 and 2.  I absolutely LOVED it.  I enjoyed getting up everyday and going to "work" so much that Sunday evening would roll around and I'd be ready to go back to school because I missed my kids.  I learned so much from both my cooperating teachers and the students and I knew I had made the right choice.  (I will mention that student teaching wasn't my first experience in the classroom-I had to complete 140 hours of classroom practicums prior to student teaching).

Two months after graduation, I was hired for my 1st real teaching job in St. Paul, MN at a humanities magnet.  I had 18 4th graders-all of whom I will remember forever! I don't think I'll ever forget any of my students, but I think there is something special about your very first class.  It was an extremely tough year as I navigated my way through teaching all on my own.  There were even times that I questioned what I had gotten into.  However, by the end of the year, I had a great group of students who had come together and built a sense of community in our little classroom, and I felt a great sense of accomplishment-I had survived my first year of teaching!  With me wanting to move forward in my life with Jake, I made a decision to resign at the end of the school year and move to IA.  This really was an easier choice than I thought it would be because our school was facing major cuts and I would have probably been let go regardless.

Finding a teaching job in IA proved to be much more difficult than I had imagined.  The first step was transferring my teaching license, something I put off for way too long.  In the meantime, to bring in income, I took on a temp position working for an insurance company doing quality assurance while doing private tutoring to keep up my teaching chops.  After a little over a year of that, I finally had my licensure in place, and was ready to start subbing.  Little did I know this was perfect timing.  Only a week or so after meeting with the associate superintendent, I was called back not about subbing, but a very recently opened job position as the Title I Math teacher.  I was thrilled! I went through a week long process of interviewing and then was hired!  I am now about to start my 4th year in the district and I am absolutely loving my job! The kids make it all worth it and I get so excited helping them to make sense of the math world around them.  My hope is that throughout my career, I will be able to have the impact my 2nd grade teacher had on me-that I will inspire just 1 of my students to do something great.

~27~ Violin, School, & Travel, Oh My!

I know, I've been a terrible blogger.  I definitely have not been keeping up with my New Years Blogging goals, and for that I apologize!  While posts will probably continue to occur intermittently, I at least wanted to stop by and clue you all into why.

Honestly, this is a terrible excuse, but I have just been so busy, that my blog has fallen down the list in priorities, and I haven't had a chance to do any crafting in many, many weeks.  I am very excited though to get to devote some quality time to exploring my new Cuttlebug.  I did stop at Michaels (using a birthday gift card) and pick up some supplies to go with it.  Definitely be on the look out for some posts highlighting it in the next couple months.

Last week, was one of the busiest weeks of the year.  As some of you, my dear readers, may recall, I play the violin in a local community orchestra.  We rehearse every Tuesday night and perform concerts for the public each season.  In addition, we also accompany a local ballet company in their annual main stage production.  This year, it was the Wizard of Oz. While it was A LOT of work, it was so much fun! I don't usually rave about music other than that from Tchaikovsky, but this all original score, from Kermit Poling, was nothing short of amazing.  It was some of the most fun I've had playing the violin in recent years.

Aside from orchestra, I have been very busy with school.  My district is currently in the process of transitioning over to the Common Core/Iowa Core curriculum, and that means a lot of work from me and other teachers in the district to get ready for it.  We are also in the final count-down until the end of school.  Only 6 full weeks left or, 33 days.  It's completely crazy to me how quickly this school year went by.

Finally, I was filling out my calendar for all of our upcoming events, and oh my gosh we are booked through mid-May already and several weekends this summer!  Next week, I am excitedly going to Baltimore, MD to celebrate the final sermon and retirement of my uncle, who also married Jake and I.  It was kind of a last minute plan/trip and I'm so excited to spend some quality time with my family-some of which I haven't seen since our wedding 9 months ago.  I'll be leaving Saturday and coming home Monday.

Next weekend, Jake has a bachelor party in Chicago, and the weekend after that is the wedding.  The 1st week in May we have our spring concert, and the week after that we have a graduation party for Jake's cousin and we are participating in the March of Dimes-in honor of our friends' beautiful daughter who was born at just 24weeks!  More on that later.  In June, Jake will be celebrating his 10 year high school reunion (when did we get so old?!?) and we will be celebrating our 1 year anniversary, and another friends' bachelor party.  And then, we have 2 weddings in July.  I can already tell that summer is going to fly by and it's not even here yet!

I will do my best to post as often as I can, but please forgive me if it's sparse between now and then end of school.  I have lots of plans to get some good crafting in once the school year is over.


P.S. Last week I was given some great news!! I was officially accepted into a Masters of Science in Education program at Walden University and I begin classes at the end of June!

I hope everyone is having a great spring!

Until Next Time,