Black Friday Sale!

Happy Black Friday! I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My Thanksgiving festivities started Wednesday and didn't end until around 2:30am this morning. I had a blast spending time with my family and shopping with my older sister. 

To keep up with the holiday traditions I'm having a Black Friday sale at my TPT store. Today only everything in my store will be 20% off all day, PLUS If you make your purchase between 11am and 11pm EST on Black Friday (November 29, 2013), you can take advantage of my Buy 2, Get One free deal. Buy 2 products from my store, and I will send you one item for free that is of equal or lesser value.

To take advantage of my B2G1 TPT sale you must complete the following steps:

1. Email me at teachesinga@yahoo.com
• Include your TPT username 
• The name of the 2 products you purchased between 11am and 11pm (EST) on Nov. 29, 2013
• The name of the free item you would like (must be of equal or lesser value of lowest priced item)

You will receive your free item from me within 24 hours! Happy shopping! 

Here are a few of my newest products to get you started =D 

Of course, I will be participating in the 3 day sale on TeacherNotebook and the Cyber Monday sale on TPT

It's a Sale! Fabulous Feedback and My Wish List!

How do you spend your Black Friday, or should we say Thursday this year? I venture out but I'm not one of the crazies! I don't fight, push, or stampede people to get a good deal...

This year you don't have to either. TPT is having a Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale and all products in my store will be 28% off, after the 10% TPT code CYBER is applied. I can't wait to fill my cart and shorten my wishlist!To help you build your own wishlist I wanted to share a few of my favorite feedback that I've received on my own products.

The first product is from one of my favorite bundles. Sight Word Splat

The second is my Noise Control Classroom Management chart. This would be great to help you keep kids under control during the holiday season.

And last, but not least, is my newest favorite product! I actually just finished working on this and getting it posted so maybe you will be the first to leave feedback =D

I can't wait to start stocking up on classroom resources during the sale! I only wish that we had Monday off from school too so that I could spend the whole day shopping. Luckily for all of us, TPT never runs out of their amazing products =D

The first item on my wish list is a RTI bundle though would be perfect with my Title I groups. I'm always looking for ways to do intervention with my reading groups and this just seems great! 

Who doesn't love the new What Does The Fox Say song? I know my husband I laugh at it every time we hear it and my students are singing it all over the school! How fun would this be to help motivate my littlest reading students? 

Well, what are you waiting for?! Head over to TPT and start updating your wishlist! Make sure to shop the sale to get some amazing deals! And don't forget to leave feedback on all of your previous purchases to get TPT credits! Happy shopping!

Time to be Thankful! A Linky Party

Wow! Can you believe that November is almost over and Thanksgiving is only a little more than a day away? Where has this year gone? With all the excitement of the holidays upon us it's time to stop and take a moment to reflect on what we are all thankful for. I'm linking up with the Reading and Writing Redhead for her Time to be Thankful linky party.

I'm also very thankful for all of my amazing blog followers! You have all helped me to become a better blogger and you motivate me to become a better teacher. Each day that I sit down to create a lesson I try to think of how I can make it better not just for my students but for students all over the world! Thank you for helping me and inspiring me! 

What are you thankful for? To join us, save the image below, open it in a PowerPoint presentation, and insert text box to tell us 10 things that you are thankful for this year! Be sure to link back to the Reading and Writing Redhead's blog!

December Reading Challenge

With the holidays quickly approaching I know how much of a struggle it can be to keep your little readers engaged and actively reading. To help motivate my struggling readers I've created a fun little Reading Challenge!

Shh...it's really no challenge at all. The students will complete one challenge a day for the month of December and use their completed challenges to decorate their Christmas tree. To learn more click the image above to go directly to the product listing.

In the spirit of the season I am holding a "flash" giveaway. You will have until midnight tonight (November 25) to enter the giveaway for your chance to win a copy of my newest product! To enter the giveaway head over the A Day In The Life Of A Title I Teacher's Facebook page and look for the "Giveaway" tab.

Good luck everyone!

The Gift of Reading Winners Are...

Congratulations to these three very lucky winners!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

You have each won a $25 TeachersPayTeachers gift card and a bundle of products from these wonderful contributors (be on the lookout for them arrive within the next 2 days)!

 

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this AMAZING blog hop! It was a huge success! I hope you all enjoyed the hop and we all look forward to sharing our ideas, tips, strategies, and resources with you again. 
Happy holidays! 

The Gift of Reading Blog Hop Template

Welcome to A Day In The Life Of A Title I Teacher.

 You have arrived at  

At each blog stop, you will be gathering Reading gifts and freebies.  In each post you will find a picture of a snowman with a letter on it. Collect all of the letter to solve the mystery quote to enter the giveaway. Record all of the letters on your recording sheet and follow each blog along the way so that you can enter the amazing giveaway at the end!

The hop is set up as a loop, so you may start anywhere along the hop, but if you would like to start at the beginning you are in the right place; A Day In The Life of A Title I Teacher's blog.  This is also where you will come after you finish the hop to enter the giveaway!

As educators, we all know that reading truly is a gift! I love to read, just ask my husband or anyone else who knows me. I can't even imagine what life would be like without the skills required to pick up a book and read it for fun. However, there are many students in the U.S. and around the world who don't have these required skills. They struggle with reading daily. They say things like "I hate reading" or "I can't read" or any other hundreds of excuses you've heard when they are struggling. 

I work with the lowest 10% of students, in each grade level, and can I say that it's probably the most challenging job I have ever had and will ever have? Here's a quick example of the struggling readers I work with: One of my 3rd grade boys reads at a .4 reading level, can only read 10 words correctly per minute, doesn't know any of his sight-words, and doesn't know most of his letter sounds! I bet you can imagine the things he says about reading. He "hates it." I've been working with him all year and he is improving and he's starting to like reading a little more each day. The most important gift I could ever give this child is the gift of reading! Each day that I walk into my school I know that there will be struggles. I know that my lessons will not be as perfect as I imagine them to be. I know that I will not be able to do all of the fun activities, crafts, etc. that other teachers get to do. But I also know that I am making a difference in a child's life. I know that with my help each of my 80 students will become better readers and thus better students. I know that I am helping them in a way that no one else is! I am giving them the best gift in the world... The Gift of Reading! 

Now, I know you all came here to get your gifts. Thank you for sticking through my little spill. I just love my students and I sometimes I can't help but tell you all a little about them. My gift to you and to your students is a fun sight words center activity. This activity would be perfect for upper kindergarten, 1st grade, and struggling readers in 2nd grade or higher. I actually use it with my 3rd graders and they love it! I know that your students will love it too! 

Oh and don't forget to collect all the letters along the way. You will use these letters to fill out the mystery quote and enter it at the end of the hop enter the giveaway! You can find the form here. 

My secret letter is...

Thank you for stopping by my blog today! I hope that you enjoyed your gift and learned something new. If you would like to be the first to know about new post, giveaways, and blog hops follow me on Bloglovin' by clicking the image Below. 

Don't stop now! Hop on over to Hanging Out in First to pick up another amazing reading gift! Happy Holidays! 

Click here to go to the next stop

Come back here to enter the giveaway after completing the hop and collecting all of the missing letters! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'm so Thankful! Blog Hop and Giveaway!

We are celebrating all that we are thankful for and that includes teachers!  We want to show all of you how much we appreciate you.  Teachers do so much and this is our time to give back and say thank you!  Thank you for following!  Thank you for participating!  Thank you for collaborating!  Thank you for sharing!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

Join us by hopping through each blog and gathering lots of Thanksgiving and autumn freebies.  In each freebie you will find a picture of a pie with a word on it. That word will tell you something that teacher is thankful for.  Record all of the words on your recording sheet and follow each blog along the way so that you can enter the amazing giveaway at the end!

You may start anywhere along the hop, but if you would like to start at the beginning you may go here.  This is also where you will go in the end, for the giveaway!!

You have made it to blog stop number 14.

Thanksgiving Turkey Poke Multiplication is fun way for students to practice their multiplication skills and get instant feedback on how they are doing. When a student "pokes" an answer they will be able to self correct and monitor themselves. 

These fun Thanksgiving Turkey Poke cards are perfect for fall! Your students will love practicing their facts during center time. 

This set is perfect for achieving mastery of the 3rd grade multiplication Common Core Standard. It also makes for a great way to review multiplication with your upper grade students or serves as a great enrichment activity for younger students. 

Also, don't forget to collect all of your pies along the way. Check inside each document to collect them all! 

Now hop over to the next stop on your journey:

Mrs. Beattie's Classroom

Five for Friday - November 1

Happy November! I can't believe how fast this year is going by! I feel like I did everything and nothing all at the same time this week. I was very busy with my students, helping my principal, and trying to get everything done before I left for the week. I had today off so I feel like I didn't get everything done this week. Once again, I'm joining up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five for Friday linky. I hope I have enough pictures of everything because I completely forgot to use my camera this week lol

This past Saturday our school hosted it's first Fall Festival in 6 years! The kids absolutely loved it! We had a bouncy house, face painting, nail painting, musical chairs, food, and so much more! It was really fun getting to see the kids and watching how much fun they had. 

I just had to get a picture of these fun little cotton candy bags! 

One of my newest duties was to create KIM boards all around my school. I utilized the hallways whiteboard that were not being used and each grade level was able to have their own KIM board. If you don't know what the KIM strategy is I'll give you a quick rundown. It's a vocabulary strategy where the students write the key word, information, draw a memory clue, and write a sentence to help them remember the term. To learn more, check out my previous post  Vocabulary Idea- K.I.M.S Strategy that I posted last May. 

Here's an example of the 5th grade board and the 3rd grade board. 

The picture was taken from a 5th grade student work sample! 

Can you guess what 3rd grade was studying in science? 

The students really like these boards! I can't tell you how many students have come up to me, since they've been complete, to let me know how much they enjoy reading the board and to ask what their next word will be! The student's aren't only reading their grade level board but all of the boards in the school! What a great way to keep their vocabulary high and honor them by using some of their own creates (pictures, sentences, etc) for the entire school to see as we are on transitions. 

Does your school use TKES evaluations? This is our second year using this system and I really like it! It's so detailed and allows the administration to really evaluate every aspect of your teaching. I had my 2nd walk-through this week and was so excited when I received an "Exemplary" for instruction planning! =D I think one of my favorite things about TKES is the use of feedback. Your administrator can leave comments to support their ratings and it's a great tool for you to use to grow as a teacher! 

This is the comment my principal left as evidence of my "Exemplary" score for planning. 

Here are 2 comments that were left on one of the standards (1 is the first walk-through and 2 is the second walk-through). On this standard I received two scores of "Proficient". 

 Are you being asked to grade your students on a scale of 1-4? I like that we are being graded the same way as we grade our students. It really makes me stop and think about how I would assign grades to specific parts of a project/assignment. I've also noticed that I have gotten better at leaving feedback about each area of an assignment so that the students can understand why they received the grade they did.

I will be having my first formative assessment of the year next week! It should be taking place during my first grade group but it could happen at any time. I guess I'll have to make sure that I'm super prepared for the week!

Yesterday, Halloween, we had Book Character Day. The students and teachers could wear costumes for their favorite book character. Of course we had the majority of our students just wear their Halloween costumes but that didn't matter. I decided to go as Katniss, from The Hunger Games. I was so saddened to find out that no one knew who I was, even after telling them =(. I've made it my personal goal, for this year, to get as many of my co-workers and students to read the Hunger Games as I can! I already have a few students who want to borrow my books and get started =D 

I forgot to put my jacket back on before taking the picture.

Do you like my handmade bow? I made it using construction 

paper and string! I had spending my money on things that will 

never get used again when I could use it for my classroom and 

students instead! 

Today is a great day for me! I have the day off =D I haven't taken a personal or sick day all year (yea, yea, I know it's only been about 3 months but it feels like way longer). I'm off to celebrate my wonderful husbands 26th birthday! He happened to have a 3 days weekend this weekend too and I wanted us to be able to spend some quality time together. He doesn't know it but I have big plans for the weekend! Saturday night I'm having a small surprise party for him and some of his best friends. I can't wait to see his reaction. 

Well, that's all for this week. How was your week? What are 5 things you did? Link up and let us know.