Counting Down The Hours

Two more days....aaah, lovely to think about, isn't it? It really is a funny little quirk about teachers. These people (myself included), who love children enough to choose a career centered around them, spend a great deal of time counting the days and hours until we're rid of them for a little while. At least I'm not ashamed to admit it, right?

So, let me just say that I'm eagerly waiting for 2pm Thursday afternoon to arrive. And when it does, I will promptly put school and the children out of mind for two whole weeks! I don't know about you, but I'll be too busy relaxing and eating cookies and watching Maury reading a good book to think about school. One thing I plan to do is catch up on one of my favorite websites...

If you like food, even a little bit, you need to check it out. It's like porn for foodies. I wouldn't even call myself a foodie (I mean I'm no stranger to a can of Spaghettios.) and I can't get enough of it.

So, what will you be catching up on over the break? I'd love to hear! Let's make it a linky party. Feel free to add a link to what you'll be doing for fun and relaxation.



A Little Present

I'm here to confess... I played a mean little joke on my class today. I told them I had an early Christmas present for them. I let them all guess what it could possibly be and then had them close their eyes while I snuck around the room leaving this on their desks:

Can you believe how awful I am? lol  They recovered and forgave my little prank and actually enjoyed doing their math practice. And yes, I do have real presents for them...next week!



Common Core Resources

Common core, common core, common core... that's not a cheer or a chant.  It's my head spinning around in circles like a dryer. Oh wait, that sounds like the exorcist, doesn't it?

How are you all doing with common core? Honestly, it's making me feel a little bit crazy. Not the standards... all the handouts and meetings and PD and "tips" from the county that come to my email every few days. I'm all for change and growth and improvement but sheesh... they're acting like God came down from the Heavens and presented the standards himself and if we don't do every single one of them right this very second, we'll all go up in a ball of flames.  But hey, I'm on the bandwagon. I really am.

In fact, I found this nice little website with videos of actual lessons arranged by standard. Yes, by common core standard! So if you're a little bit stumped or tired or too busy making your Christmas shopping list to think about school, check it out...



Pretty great, right? Well the next one is even better! If your district is anything like mine, they are completely and utterly  unprepared for common core. In fact, they may have told you to stop using the old assessments IMMEDIATELY and then proceeded to provide you with absolutely nothing to use instead. If that's the case, you will love this site...

It has tons and tons of assessments for specific standards written by real teachers.  It's so easy to find specific SHORT assessments for any standard. You may never have to make up your own ever again!  I hope you find this as useful as I have.