Found Poems!

    It's been awhile, my friends! This week my honors classes finished their dystopian independent novel study that they started three weeks ago. I thought I'd reward them by doing something a little more creative and fun (but still academic! shhhh!).  I decided to do found poems with them! I love this activity because the kids have so much fun with it, but I also love it because I can use it as a formative assessment! Now, for those of you who don't know, found poetry is a type of poetry where a passage is taken from a larger piece of text and reframed into poetry. The original text is reframed by adding, deleting, or covering text. If you can't picture it, don't worry! I have plenty of student examples below!

    Because my school recently went 1:1 with Chromebooks this year, I had my students pull out their dystopian novels at the beginning of class and choose what they thought to be the most pivotal 2-3 pages.  This alone can take them a good 10 to 15 minutes. Deciding is so difficult! After they choose, I have them type up their pages in a Google Doc and then resize it to take up most of the page. I make sure I limit it to one page though, because the artwork piece doesn't really work if there are multiple pages involved. Next, they print! I make sure they each print two copies (rough draft and final draft). On the first copy I have them go through and circle words and phrases that are absolutely necessities to the overall meaning and movement of the scene. This ends up being their poem! I have them use the same copy to sketch out a rough draft for their design or picture that will go over or around their selected words and phrases. They must show me a rough draft before they move on to a final draft. 

    I love this activity! When I grade it, I can quickly and easily tell if students understood the main points of their chosen passage. Sometimes I use this activity as an introduction to or refresher on summary writing. It's a great way for your more visual learners to see how a summary comes together! 

Check out these awesome student samples!

If you're interested in doing this in your own classroom, I have my found poem template for sale on my TpT store here!  Check it out!

-Taliena (Koch's Odds 'N Ends)

Mini Classroom Makeover

This week school finally started! Last week I feverishly and frantically gave my classroom a mini makeover. Because my husband started grad school this summer, I felt it unwise to redo my room completely. I decided to take last year's color scheme and just enhance it. I can always try something new next year, right?

The first thing I changed was my Instagram bulletin board. This year, my school went 1:1 with Chromebooks and I don't think social media posters are going to interest them as much now that the real thing will be sitting right in front of their faces at any given time. I decided to hang my personal pictures on it and make it MY Instagram board. It sits near my desk anyway! I printed off pictures from my real Instagram and hung them on this bulletin board. It's adorable because the pictures are square prints just like they are online. I love it and I'm so happy I didn't have to scrap the bulletin board completely.

The next thing I did to enhance my room was decorate my desk. I bought wrapping paper and washi tape (in my color scheme of aqua and coral, of course) at Target. I covered the front and sides of my desk in the wrapping paper then decorated with the tape! I had a few decorative flowers that I created last year lying around from an old bulletin board, so I added them to the front for a little something extra! The night before school I was creating a bulletin board title piece and decided to print out my last name with it (I was on a roll). I added my letters to ribbon with clothes pins and voila! I now have a cute little name tag!

The next thing I changed was very small. I have had a vertical word wall for a couple of years and I decided to mix it up a bit this year. All I did was pick a new spot and place it horizontally. I have to say, I like it much better on its side!

 The last thing I did to add a little pizzazz to my classroom was add a student work wall. I didn't have one last year and it was sorely missed. When I decided this was going to be something I added, I was sitting in my classroom with nothing to actually put it together. I gathered up some old glitter wrapping paper I had been saving for a rainy day and used that as a background. I then took a very long time trying to figure out what kind of border to use and decided to push my creative boundaries. I grabbed the leftover paper I had used to decorate my desk, cut it, and twisted it. I then stapled it around the edges of glitter wrapping paper. I rounded up some extra flowers from old bulletin boards and printed out some bunting. Let me just say, I was (and still am) truly impressed with this board. It's so cute!

 My room didn't get a complete overhaul makeover, but a little face-lift did wonders and I'm very pleased with it. It just goes to show that a little TLC goes a long way! What does your classroom look like this year? I'd love to hear about your makeover projects and see pictures too!

-Taliena (Koch's Odds 'N Ends)

Seven Teacher T-Shirts You'll Want...NOW!

This week I decided to do a post on the many awesome teacher t-shirts I've seen online lately!

I have seen so many teacher t-shirts being advertised on the internet lately. I like so many of them (more like want) that I dedicated an entire Pinterest board to them. I went through my board recently and chose my top seven favorite t-shirts! Don't worry though, I've provided the links and prices for all of the shirts on this list. 

*Quick disclaimer! I was not paid to endorse any of these t-shirts! I just really like them :D

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#1 

My Dog Ate My Lesson Plan (Teespring.com--$22.99)

When I saw this t-shirt I fell in love! I wish we could use that excuse!

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#2 

You Can't Scare Me; I'm A Teacher (Etsy:Umbuh--$25.00)

I can't tell you how many times I've thought this! My students would get a kick out of this one for sure! 

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#3 

I'm Just Going To Wait Until It's Quiet (LookHuman.com--$20.00)

This is probably my favorite tee on this list! I can't even imagine the number of times I've said this! Maybe I could stop saying it and just wear this t-shirt. 

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#4 

If You Think I'm Smart You Should Meet My Students (lessonplandiva.com--$22.00)

Bragging rights! I love this! How will people know how awesome our kids are if we don't tell them?

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#5 

In It For The Outcome, Not For The Income (Teespring.com--$21.00) 

Isn't that the truth? I'm not sure I'd be comfortable enough to wear this one to school, but it has a great message! Plus, I love the apple with the swirl design. How cute?!

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#6 

Don't Make Me Use My Teacher Voice (Zazzle.com--$34.95) 

How many situations do you think could be remedied with the use of your teacher voice? I can think of too many! This shirt made me laugh because I catch myself making a conscious effort not to use my teacher voice outside of school. 

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#7

I LOVE It When My Students Do Their Homework (lessonplandiva.com--$22.00)  

I feel like this is something that my students need to know! It makes my week when I don't have to assign 9th hour (detention) for incomplete/missing homework. Maybe this shirt would help me get my point across!

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If you click on a picture of one of the shirts, it should take you directly to the site where you can order one or take a closer look. I know what I'll be asking for when my birthday rolls around this year. Now I just have to narrow it down! 

Don't forget to share your favorite with me in the comments below!

-Taliena (Koch's Odds 'N Ends)

Middle School Blogger Mid-Summer Giveaway!

I've teamed up with a great group of Middle School Bloggers and TpT Sellers to bring you this great mid-summer giveaway! We are giving away TWO prizes! A $60 Target Gift Card and a TpT Product Bundle! Please see the rafflecopter below for how to enter. And make sure to stop by and check out these other wonderful teacher bloggers!

Best of luck!

Host

Teach. Inspire. Change.

Co-Hosts

          Lit With Lyns   //    Middle School Math Man   //   Teaching Teens in the 21st!        

                         Koch's Odds 'N Ends    //     Junior High Core Values                                

Our TpT Bundle includes the following items:

Research Paper Project

Beginning of the Year Task Cards

Math Brain Busters Variety Set

Close Reading Fiction and Non-Fiction Keys and Types of Questions (Posters)

Student Worksheet for Self-Reviewing and Analyzing Test Results

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Catching Up

So, it's been quite awhile since I've posted on here. Honestly, I've been spending most of my summer trying to get my TpT store up and running. It's been a lot of work and I feel that every time I cross one thing off my list, something else pops up. I'm beginning to realize that being a seller is a job all of its own. This week I took a break from creating new products to redesign my logo and banners. After I did that, I got drawn into the new Periscope craze taking place in the TpT seller community. I'm apprehensive about conducting my own videos, but I love watching others'. They're great!

As my summer is winding down, I have a few things I need to work on for my store but my district adopted Chromebooks this year and I'll need to start converting paper worksheets/activities to digital form. I'm hoping to be able to share more with you on that process as I navigate it. Hopefully it isn't too much work.

Next week I leave for Denver for the AVID conference! I'm hoping to pick up a lot of good information to share with everyone here. There will definitely be more to share with you very soon.

Thanks to all of you out there reading this! See you next week!

The end is near!

It's the last week of school! Whew! Though this time of year is hectic and exciting, I can't help but feel a little sad that my kiddos are leaving me for the big scary high school next door. Today was our school's PRIDE reward activity, which is our end-of-the-year reward activity for students who didn't receive detention all semester. Usually we show a movie or let them play games outside, but this time we had a skateboard youth group come do a demo for us and then we held a dodgeball tournament in the gym. The kids LOVED it! Below 

There were over 800 middle schoolers on our basketball court!

The rest of the week isn't going to slow down either! We have an awards ceremony tomorrow, finals, and grading! As I was packing up my things to go home this afternoon, I couldn't help but laugh at the current state of my desk (and snap a picture to show you guys, of course)! It's ridiculous but I'm pretty sure most of you can relate. 

The end is near! I promise! Keep your caffeine and chocolate nearby! 

Comment and let me know how the end of your year is going! 

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Side notes!

• I have new products (freebies and paid) available in my TpT store!
• Shoutout to Blogsfitforaqueen.com for designing my new blog! I absolutely love it!

My first GIVEAWAY!

That's right! I'm doing a giveaway! If you've been keeping up with my blog so far, you know that my planners are set to come out the first week of June. Well...I finished them a little a head of schedule and I'm too excited to keep them all to myself! It also just so happens to be Teacher Appreciation Week, so I figured we'll go a little over-the-top this week. By that I mean I'll be giving away one of my designer planners (printed, bound, and shipped!), uploading them to TpT, and holding a sale on all of my TpT products! Enough about all of that though! Let's talk about the giveaway!

The planner giveaway starts this Monday (May 4th) and ends Friday (May 8th). You can receive up to 5 entries into the contest and on Friday a winner will be selected at random! There are some pictures of what the planner featured in the giveaway looks like below! Tell me what you think and don't forget to enter the contest before Friday! Good luck!

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