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

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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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Whew! What a Week!

So last week was our first run at a new state standardized test, and I've got to say, it was pretty insane. It was a week so full anxiety, exhaustion, and stress. If it had been my first year and I had to go through that, I'm not sure I would've survived. Here's to hoping next year's testing week runs more smoothly than this year.

I think that one of the big contributors to my stressful week was that I had my classes start a summative research assessment. Self-inflicted, yes, I know. It made for a hectic time. I had to pick up tests before school and lock them in my classroom, run to the computer lab for 1st hour, run back to my room for testing, then run back to the computer lab after for the rest of my classes. At least I got some exercise, right?

There is a silver-lining to this sad story. My kids are really impressing me this year. Their projects are turning out great. The project (in a nutshell) is to create a campaign about a social issue. The campaign must include 3 media channels that contribute to a solution for their chosen social issue (i.e. a t-shirt, a brochure, a bake sale, a PSA commercial). My students really like this project. They get to work in groups that they choose and have the opportunity to creatively express themselves. When they are finished creating their campaigns we have a presentation day where they get to show-off their t-shirts and fun logos and such. Its a great experience. I've posted a couple of works-in-progress below! I'd love to know what you think!

Teaching Planners Update!

It's been too long! Last week and this week are probably the most stressful of the year with test prep and the state testing that follows. With that said, I have had time to do some work on my line of planners I'll be releasing this Summer. When I made the decision  to do this I gave myself the deadline of mid-July. After some consideration, I have decided to up the launch date! More and more schools are moving to the year-round calendar, and thusly, some of you will need planners before mid-July. It's going to be a busy couple of months. All I can say is BRING IT ON! I'm so excited to share these planners with you!

With all of that said, I feel like I need to preview some of the planner themes to get you just as excited as I am! Here are a few of them!

Superhero-Secondary Planner
90's Black & White Flowers-Secondary Planner
Circus-Primary Planner

I have two planners completely finished (only needing a final edit) and I'm working on two more this week. I need some feedback from you guys! What are things you wish you had in your planners? What do they lack? What would be super convenient? Is there anything that could be added to make your life easier? Tell me what you think a teacher planner should be! Comment below!

Until next time!

P.S. Follow me on Instagram!  @kochs_odds_n_ends 

Short Update!

So it's been a few days since I last posted and because I'm trying to make this a regular thing, I'm trying to work it into my busy schedule. Because it's so new (and I'm forgetful), I'm already finding it difficult to post often. I promise I'll get the hang of it!

We're heading into the crazy part of the school year where testing (state and district) start taking over schedules and throw lesson planning into chaos. I'm not quite in panic mode...yet. Ask me to reflect again in a few weeks and I'm sure I'll be stressed and frazzled.

On top of all the testing and end-of-the-year activities, I've been trying to make time for blogging and creating new products to add to my Teacherspayteachers store (Koch's Odds 'N Ends). It has definitely been a slow start, but I've managed to upload six or seven things this week. I plan on working on some new classroom posters and some public service announcement/campaign assignments this weekend! Keep your eyes peeled and, if you like free goodies, subscribe to my blog!

I think I'll have time to post again in a day or so. I hope my posts are making it out to at least some teachers out there interested in why I have to say! If you're out there, let me know!