Discovery Education

WOW! This past week has been stressful beyond belief. Valentine's Day parties were exhausting. Those students were beyond hyper on Friday too! I was able to enjoy a nice relaxing dinner afterward though. The 3-day weekend was very productive. Saturday I took my re-certification exam for SMART. I am now officially certified to teach SMART notebook version 11. I'm sure they'll have another update and I will have to re-certify again. But for now it is completed!

Sunday night I was able to attend the Luke Byran concert. It was AMAZING!!! He is a great performer and it was nice to visit my old collage town! Monday was my relaxing time, until my illness kicked in. UGH I despise allergies.

20 or so teachers from my school district are piloting Discovery Education in our classrooms. For those of you that use this, isn't it awesome!! Those that do not know, Discovery Education is a program that offers a continuum of solutions to meet your district's needs. They offer real-time assessment, free lesson plans and materials including thousands of videos on specific topics. I have been able to assess my students in Reading and Math using benchmark tests aligned to the Common core, and see which areas my students excel, meet, or need work in. I decided since we still have ISAT tests this year, I wanted to know how they will do on this test. Next year I will have them take the common core test.

The white bar on the right is where you would find the students' names. The columns are vocabulary/reading strategies, reading comprehension and Lit. Elements. I can see where each student stands under each category.

The results can also be broken down by standards, and you can see which standards specific students are not understand as well as if there are any standards the ENTIRE or most of the class is not understanding. I was able to pinpoint topics that needed to be addressed as a whole class and in my small groups for both reading and math. I am so excited to work more with this program. Finger's crossed the Board approves this to be implemented in the district next year. I do not know what I would do with out it!!! If your school or district does not use this program, I highly recommend it.

Kimberly

New Look!

As you may have noticed my blog has a new look! I recently became a member of Teaching Blog Traffic School (TBTS) to help me out on my journey. I have been working on my brand and I am here to tell you that my main focus of this blog will be Rockin' in Third Grade and I will be posting about my third grade classroom. I will admit now, against advice, I may post a few personal things about myself outside of my classroom. Yes I am a third grade teacher but that is not all I am. I love my family and friends, as well as my hobbies and sometimes we all need a mental break from our jobs. So I hope my "side" posts won't discourage  you from following my blog. My blog and my teachers pay teachers store now are both using the same logo and message!!  It was hard for me to do. My TPT store went by Third Grade Rocks, but that blog was already taken. Teaching in Third Grade was taken. So Rockin' it is!

I am looking forward to working on new posts. Like I said earlier, I saw an inspiring Keynote Speaker at Illinois' NCLB conference last week and I have yet to read a little from his book, but when I do I can not wait to talk about it. If it is anything like his speech it will change some outlooks I have in teaching some more.

11 more school days until the state ISAT test! It's hammer time!


Kimberly

Canvas Signs

I had a great time at the NCLB conference in Chicago. Wednesday we listened to a very inspiring Keynote Speaker! Later this week I will post about what he talked about after I read a little more of the book I purchased from him. As most of you know leaving your classroom for two days can be a headache. Sometimes it is easier to just stay. I played a lot of catch up on Thursday and Friday after I came back. So I have been on brain overload.

I decided to spend my Saturday catching up on my DVR from the week and making some crafts. As I told you before I recently had to have new carpet installed. In order to do that I had to pack up ALL of my scrap-booking items. After unpacking I was able to see all the stuff I have that I have forgotten about. I have had a Provocraft Cricut for over 3 years now. I have more than enough cartridges, some I have never used before. I told myself that this has got to change so that's what I did today. I used my cricut again! I took a drive to Hobby Lobby and picked up a few items, and got to creating. I made two products today, both for upcoming holidays.

The Valentine's Day sign was made on wood that was pre-painted black from Hobby Lobby. I found this for 30% of in the Valentine's section. I used two different color vinyl. The X's and hearts are in red, the rest of the words are in pink. Putting the vinyl on wood was MUCH easier than on the canvas, but I used two different transfer tapes and I am not happy with the straightness of this sign. It may not be to very noticeable but I see it. I might be taking another trip to Hobby Lobby and trying again. I think it would also look great on a white canvas. The red and pink would really pop better on white than the black does.

The St. Patrick's Day one was my favorite, it may be because it is my all time favorite holiday, but I also really like the look of it. I used a darker green vinyl and added green glitter to the shamrock. Like I said it was much more difficult to get the vinyl to sick onto the canvas. I also had to cut it out a few times because the letters were smaller and vinyl is very sticky and difficult to work with.

Sometime I would like to start an Esty shop and sell items like these. I have started reading up on it, but haven't gotten very far. If you have any tips on how and where to start that would be great! If you are interested in purchasing any of these items, I would be happy to create one for you. Just contact me and we can figure something out. Hope you have a great weekend.

I hope you have your chance to get back in the swim of things,

Kimberly

NCLB Illinois

I'm writing tonight from the NCLB conference in Chicago, Illinois. Today was the first day of the conference. There is two more days left, but unfortunately my district only paid for two days. One more day left for me. One conference I sat in today dealt with technology. I feel really good about what our school is doing in regards to technology. My building is a 3rd-5th grade building. Last year we began using a semi-block schedule. Each grade level has two 45 min. sessions. During the first 45 minutes, Half the students are broken into 4 groups that go to P.E., Music, Computer lab, and library. The other half go to break out sessions chosen by each grade level. Students that receive RTI service, ELL, speech etc., get pulled during their break out session time so they do not miss any core teaching or their special classes. Then the second 45 minutes the students switch. Each day the Music, P.E., Computer Lab, and Library classes rotate.

 I know its confusing, took a lot for us teachers to get used to it as well. But it has really been a blessing. Now all students are receiving technology starting in 3rd grade for at least 45 minutes a week. Our Pre K-2 building does not have a computer lab, but each classroom contains 3-4 computers. When they reach our building we can utilize the computer lab more efficiently with this block schedule. The computer lab is no longer being left unused. And teachers that are not comfortable with teaching with technology, are not as overwhelmed with learning how.

 We are still in the mist of building the curriculum, but after listening today we are in the right direction, and have taught in some ways more than expected. We are always looking for suggestions though and to increase the bar for these students. Now in year two we are seeing things that need to be eliminated, and looking for ways to implement more.

Cutest Couple

I know second post in one day! I'm going crazy! Some friends of mine just got married in October. They really wanted to get married on 10-11-12 but that date was already taken :( So they went for the next day. They just purchased their first house together and are enjoying being newlyweds. They entered a cutest couple content through Chicago's WGN news show. If you vote you can help these newlyweds win a vacation to Mexico.
All it takes is one click, or 100! You can vote up to 100 times. Help them become Chicago's Cutest Couple!

Thanks in advance for your help. Hope you have a chance to get back in the Swim of things, Kimberly

Happy Friday

Another week has come and gone. It was our first full week back in school this entire month. With conferences, an institute day, plus MLK day, we haven't been in school much since  we came back from winter break. I am ready for a break again! Even if its just a weekend. :)

This weather in Illinois has been so crazy. We broke a record on Tuesday for the warmest day in January in over a hundred years, and now it is only 6 degrees outside. Brrrrrr. Time for a weekend in doors. That means Sunday will be spent eating comfort food and watching the Superbowl!

In honor of the super bowl Teachers Pay Teachers is offering 10% off on all products! Use the code SUPER at check out! I am offering an additional 10% off on all products, so that is a total of 20% off!!

New products have been posted on my store. View my profile on Look for the newest one called SMARTboard Attendance. Take attendance and lunch count each day using the SMARTboard! It's been a while since I have made a new lesson or anything for that matter pertaining to the SMARTboard. I am a certified trainer and soon I am going to be taking a test to upgrade my certification to newest version of the program. So I am practicing the newest upgrades. Stay tuned for more SMARTboard lessons!

I hope you have a chance to get back in the Swim of things!

Kimberly

Scrapbooking

In less than a month I will be taking a weekend away with some friends to do some scrap-booking. I have high hopes to get the majority of my nieces book done if not all of it. I have started to organized my stuff already and making lists of ideas, so I can quickly get into it when I am there. It has been a while since I have been able to scrapbook and I am really looking forward to it. Once I finish her book I can move back onto my own. The last pictures I scrap-booked from my own dates back to 2009! I really need to get back at it!

Today's post I wanted to share with you a scrapbook file I created for my classroom. I want to share my love of scrap-booking with my students and incorporate writing into it.

 

 Download this document from my store. Have your students complete each page throughout the school year. There is a page for each month starting in September and ending in May. Also there is a page for field trips, birthdays and more.

Students are to complete the writing portion, then color and cut out each object. I have my students glue them onto construction paper and I use a binding machine to bind all the pages for the students to take home at the end of the school year. Students can also color and complete page as is, or use your own creativity!This scrapbook will not only be a wonderful keepsake for each student, it can also serve as a writing portfolio to track the students’ progress the year. 

Purchase this package now! First person to comment on my blog will receive this item FREE!

Hope you get your chance to get back in the swim of things!
Kimberly