Wonderful Idea >>> Wednesday

 The creative peeps over at Freebie-licious are hosting a linky all week to share some things with you. Wednesday is all about a wonderful idea that works for you in your teacher life, classroom or just anything that you would like to share. I am all about what's easy, organized and works best for me.

First, let me start off my saying I love love love Pinterest but it kills me when I see pins for meet the teacher night and a teacher has like 2-5 stations for the parents to grab all these papers to fill out. I'm sorry if you're one of those teachers (no disrespect), but ain't nobody got time for that. lol. I will save the loonger post all about that for next week where I am going to share ALL about meet the teacher night, first impression and the first day of school. 

Okay. Okay. Let me get back on track here. One of my go-to things is my student info. binder. I keep my student info. sheets and all student assessments in this big binder. I do this so that when I need to mark the assessments, contact parents or fill out report cards then I have everything I need in one binder. It also makes it super easy to bring home all this info. for whenever I may need it.

 My binder looks like this and is empty right now because it's summer summer time y'all.

I created this student info. binder cover page and spine cover which you can grab for free by clicking here. 

Below is what my binder looks like on the inside although it is empty minus this one student info. sheet from last year. I add tabs and put each student's name on a tab. The Welcome Parents sheet is what my student info. sheet looked like last year.

Here is what my student info. sheet will look like for this year. I will print these front/back to make it one page. Okay, so this is kind of where I was going with my rant above. lol. Sorry. I have EVERYTHING that I need parents to fill out on one page. :) I will have this student info. sheet available for you next week for free so stay tuned. 

Here is what my beginning of the school year assessment looks like for my kinders. This will also be available when I talk about the 1st day/week of school so stayed tuned for this goodie as well.

I think having one binder for student info. & assessments is a great idea. Before I was always having to pull out all of my assessments from the filing cabinet and then file them away again after parent conferences and report cards. (insert monkey with hands covering face emoji) It was a hot mess. This is just what works for me! What also works for me is having only 1 student info. sheet for parents to fill out at meet the teacher night. I much prefer to spend my time talking to all of the parents, telling them about myself and my expectations for the school year. Again, stayed tuned for next week where you can get all the details about how that goes down in my classroom. 

Facebook Freebie

Hey you lovely ladies & gents. I hope those of you that started back at school already had a great day. Thanks to Christi @ Ms. Fultz's Corner & her great tutorials I figured out how to add a Fan Freebie to my Facebook Page. Yay! I'm not very good with this whole technology thing but I am trying. lol.

 

 

Head over to my Facebook Page and grab this Alphabet Books freebie for today only.

 

Best Tip of the & Interview Update

Looking for the best code to create a blog button? I have read a few tutorials and looked up some codes as how to make my blog button available on my blog. I wasn't happy with the code I was using and re-did the code for my blog button today.

My Cool Realm has to be the easiest code generator I have yet to find. I just wanted to share in case any new bloggers come across my "Best Tips of the Day" posts.

 

Also... Interview update-----

So last week I had 2 interview for a teaching position next year.

If you haven't been following my blog from the beginning than I'll just do a brief follow up- Since my husband is Canadian we moved from Gulfport, Mississippi (my hometown) to Edmonton, Alberta... Well technically we live in Spruce Grove but it's just right outside the big city. This past school year I haven't been able to teach (tear) or work period since I was waiting to get my Permanent Residency & teaching certification in Alberta. Now that I have both I can teach this upcoming school year. YAY!

Okay so the 1st interview was for the school I volunteer twice a week at. The position is for a kindergarten position BUT it isn't full time :( Since kindergarten isn't full days here yet they would only need me 50% on the time- Monday, Wednesday & every other Friday. On the plus side it's getting my foot in the door right? Another positive is that the school is only a few blocks away and off the same street we live on. I was told I would hear back from them some time this week.

The 2nd interview was for a school that is about 20 minutes away and I've been told is a really good school district. The position is for a grade one BUT also isn't full time (tear, tear). Though it is for like 75% which is better than 50%. I still don't quiet understand how things are run there and how teachers aren't full time but I'll take what I can get. The principal said "It could get my foot in the door & lead to a full time position". I was shocked when the principal and vice principal both told me they also teach along with their administrative duties. SAY WHAT?! Apparently they teach like every Friday. I was told I would hear back from this school by Wednesday... That's tomorrow!!! EEEKK!!!

Both interviews went really well and I really like both schools. So we will hopefully (fingers crossed & praying) that I will find out this week that I have a teaching job for the next school year. Either way I was very grateful to even land interviews because people keep telling me that there's no way I'll get a teaching job next year because it's really hard to land a teaching job unless you've substitute taught at the school & they know you really well or unless you have connections. I wish I had connections, that's how I landed my last teaching job. Unfortunately living in a whole new country I don't have any connections to hook me up. At least not yet.

Please keep me in your prayers these next few days.

I hate posting without any photos so here is my fav. file folder purse that I use when interviewing...
It's perfect for keeping files, lesson plans and my portfolio organized.

 Do you think principals actually ever call your former principal or employer? I always feel like that's a hassle so I include short little positive sentences about me that were provided from my previous principals, other teachers, along with the teacher I student taught under.

 Showing photos in my portfolio from my previous classes is a must in interviews.

 

Best Tip of the Day - Newbies

Through the Shout Out Linky I found a great blog, A Turn to Learn. Need a tech tip or help with anything tech related? This is a GREAT go to guide. I was definitely in search of a "how to lock down/flatten images on Power Point" and now I got it figured out, or at least I think so anyways.

   You can find OVER 20 Technology Tips!!! Wowzaaa!

Other Helpful Tips: Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge
Erica Bohrer's First Grade
Ladybug's Teacher Files
The 3am Teacher


 

Best Tip of the Day

Lately I have been wondering how to make printables that I can share since I usually just make them for my classroom using plain font and images from Google. Abby shares everything from how to, to great clipart choices, to fun font options in her blog so check it out.... The Inspired Apple - Clipart

Best Tip of the Day

Seeing that I'm not so grand with technology any time I find a good technology tip I post it on my blog in case it can help others, but mainly so I can refer back to it since I easily forget... With that being said I found a helpful tech. tip from Sent from My Ipad

Yesterday she posted: "Quick tech. tip for bloggers---

When inserting a picture you can make that a direct link! Just grab the picture while editing a blog and then press the "link" button as if you were going to add a hyperlink in your text! Paste the link you want to attach it to and *tada* your picture is no linked up!"

Thanks Nikki for sharing the great tech. tip! 

Best Tip of the Day

So I had been wondering how to do this.... How to add your blog link that is. Thanks to Classroom Compulsion I now know how to! And Wallah, it's done!

Blogger tip: Make it easy for others to visit your blog. When you post a comment, leave a link to your own blog. Copy this code and replace the caps with your information to create a link:
 <a href="http://YOURBLOGURL">BLOG TITLE</a>

Now I just need to figure out how to create a Button for my blog?!