Linky Party: First 12 of '12!

To jump start myself back into blogging again, I'm joining up with a fun Linky Party that Lorraine at Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies is hosting.  The idea behind it is that you post your first 12 posts of 2012.  It was actually fun looking back, as I sometimes forget things I've posted. :-)  Somehow throughout the year, I forgot about my themed days of Market Mondays and Website Wednesday.....I may just have to bring those back! 

1/12/12 - Wiki With Us This post I talk about about my themed days and also introduce my wiki where I have a lot of my free products and ideas available to you. 

1/16/12 - Market Mondays: Art Drying Rack This art drying rack is still by far the best one I've seen yet.  A lot of my colleagues opted for the same one I had but a few got different ones. I still love mine the best.

1/18/12 - Website Wednesdays: Edmodo  Edmodo is one of my all time favorite collaborative websites that I still use with my students.  Especially since we now have 1:1 iPads in my classroom.  If you haven't checked it out, you simply must.

1/23/12 -  Market Mondays: Store More Chair Pocket Deluxe These fabulous chair pockets where one of the best buys I've made for my classroom.  I still stand behind them! :-)
 

1/26/12: Building Elements

1/25/12 - Website Wednesdays: Artsonia This next post is all about Artsonia.  A fabulous website that you can use to search for fun art projects, post students' artwork into online portfolios AND earn money for your school.

1/26/12 - Building Elements  This was a fun little project I did with my students on the number of protons, electrons and neutrons an element has.  Oddly enough, I just posted about this same unit yesterday regarding a new project I did this year.  

2/1/12 - Website Wednesdays: Classroom Freebies Too Here I talk about a great website where you can find a ton of things for free to use in your classroom.  I'm no longer a contributor since I simply ended up not having the time due to the growing demands of my job and daughter at home but still love checking out this site to see what is posted. 

2/6/12 - Market Mondays: Gumball Machine - Without the Gum!  In this post, I talk about one of my classroom management tools that I use which is a huge hit with my class.  They love taking a turn at our "Puffball Machine" to see how much Kenzie Kash they can earn. 

2/7/12 - Grid Art Masterpiece Here you can read all about an annual art project that I do with every class.  This year we did the art work "Scream".  So much fun and I love seeing how it turns out. 

2/8/12 - Liebster Award My blog was recognized by a fellow blogger! Pretty awesome. :-)

2/9/12 - Website Wednesdays (errrr.....I mean Thursday) Mangahigh  Looking for a great site to practice Math skills with your kids. Check this post out. 

2/11/12 - Fonts, Fonts, and Even More Fonts - Part 1 If there is one thing I absolutely love more than colored markers, it's fonts!  Come check out some of my all time favorite free fonts.

Whoo - alright!  There are my first 12 of '12!  Check them out if you haven't already.  And be sure to go back and look at some of my other ones.  There are some hidden gems in there.  :-)  For even more great blog posts, head on over to Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies and check out what other bloggers have posted. 

Summer - a time to reflect and refresh!

As I spend my summer relaxing after a grueling school year of assisting with our school's accreditation, finishing my masters program in one year and tackling the task of being director of our school's after school program, I am once again being reminded about how much I love the upcoming month of August. Nothing gets me more pumped up about the new school year beginning than the numerous ads that are out advertising back to school sales. While many parents cringe at the thought of receiving the upcoming teacher's supply list, I gleefully go from store to store to find the best deals for my buck!

After all - what other time of the year can you get 12 pencils for a penny?!? (Staples people - check it out) However, I have come to find out that over the past few summers I tend to over buy on these amazing deals. Upon last check, I discovered I have about 1000 pencils that have never been sharpened. Or about 100 folders that are simply collecting dust in my school closet. So this summer I have turned a blind eye towards these amazing deals and am simply focusing on ideas for my classroom. 

Speaking of which, I was lucky enough to have another one of my ideas accepted into Mailbox Magazine for intermediate teachers. Funny - it's an idea that I submitted almost 2 years ago and upon seeing it am reminded as to what a great idea it actually was! And saddened by the fact that I haven't used it for quite sometime. This summer's goal? To pull out and dust off those old ideas and to find some new ones!

Teachers Who Inspire

As I finish my Masters program this past week from Full Sail University in Education Media Design and Technology, I am now flooded with more free time than I've had in over a year. However, my personality is one of that who likes to stay busy so I've decided I needed something new to spend my time on. Hence my blog - The Art of Possibility for Teachers has begun.

As educators, we always have those fellow colleagues who work with us or who we find online that inspire us. During my years of teaching, I have found many who have helped shape my teaching and continue to do so. I would like to take a moment to pay homage to those teachers. 

Brent Coley - Mr. Coley's Class Website

When I first began teaching in 2004, Mr. Coley's website was one of the first 5th grade classroom webpages that I came across. It was because of him, that I ended up creating my own website for my class! Not only did he inspire me to do that but he also provided many great ideas such as Roving Reporters, Club Ed and using a classroom economy. Additionally, he uses his website to showcase student work, which I just think is a fabulous idea! Even 6 years later, I find myself cruising back to his site to just refresh or check out his new ideas. Mr. Coley's inspires me still to this day and was one of the leading reasons I wrote my thesis on using technology to improve parent/teacher communication. He is not only an inspirational teacher I'm sure to his students but also to educators everywhere!

Beth Newingham - Mrs. Newingham's Class Website

Many teachers are aware of this amazing teacher, Mrs. Newingham! Not only does she have a wonderful website, she also is a featured blog writer for Scholastic, Inc. Her ideas are revolutionary and make me wish I was a lucky student in her class. Always willing to share her ideas, she is one teacher I wish could work with to see in action. Whether you are interested in ways to use your classroom library more effectively (check out her page and resources on this!) or you are trying to find a way to make studying the states more interesting for you students, she has you covered! I'll admit - this past week alone, I have purchased the social studies books she uses off of Amazon, the CD from the publishing company and hats galore from Oriental Trading to make my U.S. State tour just as amazing. Not too mention, I'm busy creating travel tickets for my students. All in all - Beth Newingham is beyond inspiring and well worth your time in checking out!

There are so many more teachers out there who inspire me and I could go on and on, however I will discuss just one more. (But of course provide links to all the others). ;-)

Danny Pezzotta - Planet Bravo

Mr. Pezzotta is no longer a classroom teacher but instead has branched out and started his own business on teaching technology to kids. I have been lucky enough to know him since he was hired on to implement formal technology instruction at our school. However, over the past year he has inspired me time and time again to be a better teacher and implement technology in numerous ways in my classroom. Always willing to take the time out of his extremely busy schedule, Mr. Pezzotta has assisted me with numerous projects in the classroom including helping to create a formal excel payroll spreadsheet for my classroom economy and providing tech support for many of my own classroom projects. While he no longer gets to work directly with kids but is more behind the scenes, my own students have been indirectly inspired by him through his brilliance and willing to help me become better at what I do. I highly those that live in the Los Angeles area look into his company and summer programs for kids.

Links to More Inspirational Teachers:

Mr. Roemer

Mrs. Renz

Ms. Jasztal

Mrs. Van Dyke
Özge Karaoğlu

Stay tuned for a new posting on using wikis for Literature Studies...