Jennuine Teaching

I have been crafting up a storm. I went back to work today. Lots of meetings as well as a talent show! The students don't start until next Monday, but I want to be ready. Especially since some are going to show up this Thursday for Meet the Teacher night. The first thing I made was a cover for my shelves. It was looking a little "blah" so I added a colorful banner. The main project I was working on were my hanging table signs.

Take a tour of my classroom. Pictures in a later post.

Have you heard that Skippyjon Jones is at Kohls? I'm just most of you already knew that. I received an email a while ago and forgot about it. Then while shooping in my local Kohls I saw him. Well I didn't see him, which made me sad. After I wasn't able to find little Skippy, I went online . I was able to find Skippy and all of his friends! Talk about being excited! They also had a backpack for only $5. Yes, I forgot to mention that all of the toys, hardcover books, and backpack are only $5. I bought all of the plush toys, but I bought 2 Skippy's. One for my classroom and one for this backpack. When I was in kindergarten, my teacher had a backpack with a teddy bear and a notebook inside. One lucky student got to take it home every weekend. Inside the notebook they would write what they did with the bear. I want to do the same thing in my classroom, only with Skippy. I'm also thinking of adding a disposable camera in the backpack as well to have them take a picture wi...

I received my first award today from Katherine, over at Blessed to Teach . Thank you Katherine, that was so sweet of you! This award is named for the german word "Liebster", which translates to  "beloved" or "favorite" and is given to a "new, up and coming blogger". Here are the rules: 1. Link back to person who gave it to you 2. Post the award to your blog. 3.Give the award to at least 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers. 4.Leave a comment on the five blogs to let them know that they have been offered the award. Not only did I receive one award, I received TWO! So here is the next award. I received this from Amy at Adventures in Teaching , by the way I love that blog name, so cute! This award has a little more work to it than the first one. Versatile Blogger Award: 1. Thank the blogger who nominated you. 2. Include a link to their site. 3. Include the award image in your post. 4. Give 7 random facts about yourself.  I am in love with...

I have been having a difficult time with supplies over the past few years that I have been teaching. I have tables in my room and even though some people may love tables, me not so much. I love the fact that you save space with tables, but when the students don't have a place for their things, it becomes a problem, especially in 2nd grade. I have tried many things. My first year I tried a single bucket of supplies and by the end of the year it was a total mess. Then I switched to individual boxes. That got expensive for me, even when they were on sale. Then I had the students start to buy them. The only problem was that when a student ran out of a certain material, they wouldn't buy a new one and the other students were hesitant to share. This year I wanted to have a sense of community and that we take care of our things and share. I am going to try out the community supplies again. I will have the students buy their supplies at the beginning of the year, but as time goes on I ...

With the school year starting soon, I'm sure a lot of us are reworking our classroom management plans. Some of you may even be making your for the first time. No matter where you are in the process, I always believe that it is the most important. I've always believed that if you don't have good classroom management, then everything else you do is a waste of time. What is the point in teaching a lesson while your students aren't paying attention? You're just going to have to reteach it. Why not use your time wisely and be productive. With all of the right procedures in place, your classroom will run smoother than butter! Sure classroom management and procedures take a while to teach and learn, but it is all worth it in the end. I am currently reworking my management procedures and when I do I will make an updated post. For today though I want to share with you what I did last year. When I first started teaching I was using this behavior chart. I wasn't really a f...

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that I have been working a lot this summer in order to get ready for the school year. This school year is going to be a busy one for me. I am starting my 5th year and where normally one would be less busy, I am the opposite. I am starting my masters degree and this year I am also grade level team lead. With the responsibility of being team lead, I need to be organized so I know how to answer questions any other second grade teachers may need. I am also responsible for writing the grade level lesson plans. In the past when I wrote lesson plans I always had them in word documents. Where this was nice and customizable, it wasn't very efficient for me. I would have to save each week as a different file and if I was working on a lesson at home, I would forget that I had it saved on my work computer or vice-versa. I was tired of loosing lesson plans. I have also tried the physical plan book, but I found that these were not customizable at all. I would ...

Now that summer is coming to an end and the school year is about to start, I figured I would gear up for the new year. I have been working on many things for my classroom this year, as well as this blog. One thing you'll notice is the new layout. I have it up and running. I also decided to make a youtube channel that matches my blog name. The YouTube channel is www.youtube.com/darlinglearners I figured it would be easier to have all of my videos in one place instead of coming from two different channels. I still have my older videos up, but you have find them in a playlist on my new channel. Here is a new introduction since the last one that I posted was three years ago.