Not Sure What To Call This Post

If you've been a frequent visitor of the blog, you might just notice a little change. Well, it's actually a big change! I'm sure you're disappointed that you won't be seeing this mug on the opening screen anymore...

Our designer, Ainsley thought we'd get more followers if we took it off our blog. She's probably right. For those of you who are interested, you can head over to her blog to see her other masterpieces...Or if you are looking for a designer, she's your girl.

Check out her blog!

I haven't been able to post for the past few weeks while she was making changes so this post is going to be rather random! Let's see...

A few weeks ago I made a "Hard Day Survival Kit" for a first-year teacher that I've been mentoring...I pulled some items together that I had {laying around} in my classroom and made something that looked like this:

I took an empty container and placed this card in it, along with a bear, some hand sanitizer, a candle, some M&Ms, and some stickers...I could kick myself for not taking a pic of the basket...But I'll leave you with a printable in case you'd like to pass it along to a colleague who's having a rough day {or week, or month, or year!}

A few days ago I came across quite possible one of the best apps I've ever seen! It's a classroom library organizational app that allows you to keep track of all the books you own by simply scanning the ISBN bar code. Genius! I'm not sure how many times a teacher has come up to me asking me if I had a specific book...My response is usually something like, "Ummm, I'm not sure. What does the cover look like?"

It's also got a neat feature where you can have students "check out" books to take home and it will send them e-mail reminders when it's due. My goal is to have all of my books scanned by spring break, but I'm sure I'll still be working on this over summer vacation!

Speaking of apps, Steve and I are working on creating an app that looks very similar to our Advanced Code Flash Cards. We are about 85% of the way...be sure to check back soon for the finished product.

Last, but not least...Some readers have been asking to see my sub plans for when I'm out. This year has been nice because when I'm out, I don't have to get plans ready. {Huge benefit of not having a regular ed classroom!} So here are my sub plans from last year when I taught first grade. I tried to keep them as simple as possible so that my super-fantastic teammates could fill them out if there was an emergency.  Most of the time I would type everything in and send them to the sub before I was out.

That's it for now. Have a wonderful Wednesday!