News!

I am officially going to be teaching 2nd grade at a school 8 minutes away!! Coming from a gal who's had to drive 40 minutes each way, I'm stoked! (So excited that I used the word "stoked") I will be moving to a new blog. I haven't decided the name yet. It's so hard to find a name that hasn't been taken! I don't want to be lame and use my name like before but if I can't think of anything, I might have to.

I'm excited to be able to do Daily 5 and Writer's Workshop next year. I'm reading a book about Writer's Workshop and I'm really looking forward to it. And Daily 5 has been an obsession since last year even though I couldn't do it at Bracker.
I got the greatest news today! My new assistant principal, who used to be my wonderful methods teacher, told me, we are allowed to paint our rooms! This idea had never occurred to me! The possibilities are endless. My head has been spinning since she told me. That was at 5pm and it's midnight.

I should sleep but I feel like I'm running out of time. I leave in a week and a half to go to Chile for a month! And I can't get into my room until after my trip. :(

Okay have to go. And on a personal note, my baby started walking last Sunday. (June 2nd) :( He's growing up too fast!

Update on my life!

So last update was in August. I love August. It's that time of year when I love being a teacher. But it's sadly April the time that I don't like being a teacher! I hope I'm not the only one that feels the same way! :( Our profession is so sadly underappreciated and overly worked.

But life is good! My baby is 1!! I can't believe it!

   

We will be throwing him a Winnie the Pooh Picnic on Saturday. Hopefully pictures to come! 

I was honored last weekend at the Rodel High Tea with my lovely award for working in a Title 1 school for 3 years. 

My dear friends from the University of Arizona and in the middle, me and my handsome hubby!

I want to try to destress by blogging again. I miss it! And I love finding all these different blogs on Pinterest that are so inspiring! I want to stay positive. It's so easy to get over worked and frustrated with our job. But I want to always remember I'm here for the kids and to help them. No matter what happens outside my classroom. 

I do also want to organize myself. It's getting harder to work at home. And I am 4 weeks behind in grading!! That means 2 test per subject (5) per week!!!!! The inhumanity!!!!! lol

So pray for me and I'll pray for you! 

And let's keep smiling!

Mrs. Mora

Classroom Tour!

Thanks to my dear husband my classroom is 97% done as of Tuesday! And I started work yesterday; we spent the whole day in meetings. (We won't have time to be in our classrooms until Monday afternoon! That makes me happy to be done! Also, thanks to Mr. Mora for being able to put things on my wall STRAIGHT! Every time I try, it turns out crooked!

Here are the pictures! I'll explain them as I go. (These were taking by my phone so please excuse the quality!)

Front of my class! On the Right side is my desk and podium for my laptop. On the board on the right side is the Focus of the Week. I have a picture of the story of the week from the Harcourt Trophies series and the Word Power words (HFW) that go with it, the sound of the week, and Six traits for writing. I will be putting up the math once I get my curriculum map from the district. 

On the left side is a yellow clock and border, that is my standards area. I will put up the letters I CAN on Monday. 

Close up of my clock. I got the numbers from this lovely lady who gave it away for free!

I got to my site after the Grammar wall was introduced at my school so we are required by our principal to put up a Grammar wall. However, since I haven't been trained using it, I do the best I can. 

 My classroom theme is Superheroes. And since the Avengers, it seems like everyone is making the cutest stuff! I found these on Allison's blog. She is in Kinder and had some jobs that I don't use in my classroom so I changed them a little. But she's awesome for giving them away for free! I put the students' names on index cards and binder clip them in random order. Every week, I ask the students what they would like to do. And their card gets pinned underneath. This is after I've trained the kids as to what the job entails. For the first couple of weeks I choose the students for the jobs. Then they get to pick. They love getting to pick. And they understand that if what they wanted is taken they just have to choose a different job. Learned this from my cooperating teacher. The amazing Margie Hervert!

Usually I do a Word Wall by order of the stories but this year I wanted to try an ABC wall. So I asked the amazing Kyp McLaren to make me superhero ABC's and a calendar set that is in the next pic. I'm planning on making that rectangle table the Work on Words table but maybe the listening to reading table.

 On the left is my General Wall, it has my calendar, hundreds chart, money, and shapes.

On the right is my Math Vocabulary wall. Underneath I'll be posting Anchor charts as we make them.

 My library! It's almost done. I need to make labels for each genre. And maybe a poster with pictures so my firsties know what the genres are. 

 I got a new Horse shoe table and it's wider than the the one close to the Math wall! SO I'm really excited! I'm gona use it for intervention/guided reading groups. 

 Inspiration for the Clip chart came from Misty. She is also the one that introduced me to the Daily 5 when I stumbled upon her D5 wall on Pinterest. So thank you so much Misty!! I saw her clip chart on Pinterest and then not even three days after I made my clipchart she put it up on her TpT store! haha That's life! Would have been wayyyyy cuter with hers! 

The little Superman poster above my fire extinguisher is from a pin from Allison.

The Red Pocket Chart is for our lunch cards. My first year I would pass out the lunch cards and always arrive late to lunch. My second year (last year) I put a pocket cart on the wall, put the students' numbers on the cards, and had a student put them on the cart each morning. Boom! Never late to lunch again! Old adage "Don't do anything your students can do." 

 This is my door. The little purple, pink and blue box is a cereal box. The students are going to put the bus passes there until it is time to go to specials at the end of the day.

The duck tape is another thing I stole from Pinterest. My student's will have something on a magnet with their numbers to show where they are going when they leave the room. I put magnets on the back of pattern block tiles but they were too heavy to stay with the tiny magnets. So I'm trying to make them more like the pinterest picture. I can't find the pin to link it but I'm sure you've seen it, it's all over pinterest. My sections are (Left top to right top) Boy's Restroom, Office, Girl's Restrooms, (Left bottom to right bottom) Speech teacher's name, Nurse, SPED Teacher's name. 

My backpack hooks. To the right I have my Sounds We Know Wall. But I'm thinking of making that a "portable word wall". Where I put it on a right and the kids can go up to it when they need it. 

And that's my classroom! I also have a Daily 5 wall but it's not finished since I want to wait til my Principal approves it. She's never heard about it before so she wants to sit down to go over it before she says Go for it. I'm dying to know of course so I can finish my room. 

My firsties have Meet the Teacher on Tuesday and Wednesday is our first day of school!! Good luck to Everyone else who is also starting! Especially my dear friends the Ms. Del Valle's!!!!

Superhero Theme Update

I am soooo excited! I just bought this and this from Kyp McLaren, who's blog is: teacheskids2.blogspot.com

I really appreciate her taking the time to make it for me! I'm going tomorrow to decorate my classroom.



Yay! 2 Followers! Shout out to Ms. Del Valle

I am very excited because I have another friend following me. I want to give a big shout out to   

Ms. Del Valle! She just started blogging last week. She is an amazing 4th grade teacher! Very excited for her because this year she will be at a new district! Here is her blog:

Click here!

If Lily had a button I would place it here instead of being lame and only hyperlinking. But alass we are young in the blog-o-sphere and I sure don't know how to make one. hehe

Love ya Lily!! Also, Esther needs to get a move on it and start a blog too. 

What teachers really want...



I've had this in my head for awhile and wanted to get it out. Every year around the holidays (especially Valentine's Day) parents are sweet enough to send us a present from their child. And every year, I end up with those mystery chocolates (I'm not sure anyone likes those....), mugs, or plants.

I really appreciate the gesture! I, however, am a chicken when it comes to those mystery chocolates and usually try to count points during the school year. I love those mugs but I have about 20 Valentine's mugs. Ok I exaggerate. I have 4.

Here is my holiday wish list.

Teachers really want:

1. Gift cards: Dollar Tree, Michael's, or iTunes. I say iTunes because I have an iPad and would like to buy apps for it. Not every teacher has one. Starbucks: I don't like coffee but I'll have a frapechino no matter what time of year! YUM!

2. Scrapbooking paper: I can never get myself to buy scrapbooking paper. It's sooo expensive. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places or maybe I'm cheap. I always think "Ohh I should buy scrapbook paper to do ______." And then I go to the store and say "Um No thanks!"

3. School Supplies: I love those pretty pens from Bic with all the pretty colors. They are practically markers.

4. Dry Erase Markers

5. Gift Cards for local Teacher stores.

6. Milk Crates: for storage, for seating. For anything!

Or ask your teacher what she needs!

Well off to our 2nd day of VBS! Next week, I will be sorting my library! Finally! Yay!

I'm almost finished with the CAFE book from the 2 Sisters. I'm going in on July 16th to pitch it to my principal.

Summer To Do list

I have been so ADD! I have way too much going on! My friend is getting married tomorrow, next week is VBS. And we only have a month left in summer vacation and I feel like I won't be able to finish everything I wanted to do. Here is my summer to do list:

1. Finish reading CAFE by the 2 sisters (finished Daily 5 on Monday)

2. Put resources together to present Daily Cafe to my Principal. (I really want to start the Daily Cafe this year but not sure how it'll go.)

3. Finish making tests for Math Common core for the new SMART Response. (I went through LA Common Core and tied each standard to the Daily CAFE so I've decided not to make tests for the clickers in Language Arts.)

4. Organized my library into genres

5. Convert my books on cassettes into mp3 and load into my iPod Touch

6. Organize my technology ideas for this year.

7. Start decorations for classroom (that's like a bazillion things in it's self! lol)

I think that was it...

I was trying to decide if I would use math notebooks this year when I texted my grade level partner. (There's only two classes per grade in my school.) I asked her if she had sent out the supply list while I was on Maternity leave to the office to send during the summer. She reminded me of some very crucial information. We can't ask for supplies this year. That is just PEACHY! So I'm hoping the parents ask for one. And I'm going to go to the Dollar Tree and buy a sample student supply list for (hopefully) no more than $20. Probably will end up being $30 but better than last year's that was almost $60-$80 depending on where you went.

I'm not supposed to want anything for my birthday because I got an iPad for Mother's Day/Anniversary/Birthday but..... I'm dying to have a label maker for my classroom! I've had to avoid Wal-Mart so as not to buy it! I'm pretty sure I saw one once at either Big Lots! or Family Dollar for less than the $25 Walmart price.