Message Center

Keeping things organized as a teacher can be difficult, especially if you teach multiple classes with different subjets. However, good organization is paramount and makes your job teaching much easier.

The purpose of a message center is to allow you to quickly find what needs to be found. I'm often puzzled where I tucked a note, or a phone number, or a student list. A cork bulletin board is perfect to keep me on track during a hectic week in school.

What I used:

roll of fine grain and self healing hobby cork board

spray adhesive

wood puzzle pieces measuring 12' X 12 '

scissors and straight edge tacks or pushpins

It was so fun and easy to work with the hobby cork board. I had never used a spray adhesive and now I'm "stuck" - it's a wonderful, easy material to use. I simply sprayed both the wood puzzle piece and a piece of cork board, pressed the two together and rolled it with a kitchen rolling pin. I used the straight edge to trim around the puzzle piece.

I found these cute push pins and now I'm set for any message sent my way.

I probably had enough cork board to create a hundred piece puzzle, but I settled on this cork board grouping to hang behind my computer center.

Pen Pals

A pen pal program is a fun way to give students a real-life lesson in social studies, language arts, geography, and more. Students love receiving mail and eagerly wait until they get a response. This year my class is headed west to Washington. I'm creating a bulletin board to display pictures, news, and information we gather from our new friends.

In the United States, the official label for a postman is "letter carrier". Women have been delivering mail in the United States since the late 1800s. I've named our letter carrier "Miss Susanna" after one of those first known female carriers.

I've been reading about the value of environmental print in the classroom - - all the text that covers classroom walls. Environmental print is a resource, a reference, and a teaching tool. I intend to use even the whimsical to teach lessons - - thus the name Miss Susanna.

My bulletin board tip today is to color skin tones using face powder and a makeup brush. It's an easy technique to achieve skin tone colors.

Read more about pen pal programs for students here and more about women in the postal system at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

H-BDAY T4BU

I'm creating a new birthday board for my students. I figured if I really want to get their attention, I should TEXT them - -and I'm using this 3 foot cell phone to do just that!

I wrapped "treats" as in the past. No one ever gets too old for chocolate!

The bulletin board will read,

WOW

H-BDAY

T 4 BU

Here's a site to help anyone who hasn't mastered this vocabulary - Messaging and Chat Abbreviations.

Moving In

I've started moving pieces into my classroom. This new place is feeling like home. The bookcase with all my old friends is settled. I do believe it'll be happy here.

Final Curtain Call

My curtains are hung. I am liking the color and pattern they add to my room.

Fluency Flexors

I am taking an online class this summer and today I learned a new term - fluency flexors. What are they? "Fluency flexors are short, focused exercises designed to flex reading muscles by reading, rereading, and rehearsing sentences to convey different meanings." Fluency in Focus

I am going to enlarge this muscle man and create a bulletin board titled Fluency Flexors. Middle school students should "get it." I'm certain with an explanation of fluency flexors, students will be motivated to do the drills. Reading is a muscle and they can build fluency.

Check out this great curriculum for fluency practice. These fluency readers use quality literature from texts found in school and classroom libraries and best seller lists.

And the winner is . . .

I collect Newbery books for my classroom library. When I started the collection, it occured to me that I've read a lot more of these books than I realized. As I check my collected books off the list of winners, it's like stepping back in time. These books awakened my love of reading, and working on this collection is like finding old friends. The Newbery Medal is awarded to the year's most distinguished contributions to literature for children.

This summer I have searched the used book stores and I've shopped online. My collection is nearly complete. I intend to display the books in the bookcase created in this post.

I created bookmarks in Microsoft Publisher to tuck inside each book.

I'm working through details for a Newbery book club. Students will be required to read a set number of Newbery books to gain membership. The purpose is to motivate children to read quality literature. Students' interest in books is often triggered by their peers and marketing promotions. I intend to set up discussion boards online and promote my club with member incentives.