Mrs. Tina's Tots

 The Science of Reading is popping up all over teacher social media, and in professional development alike. It sounds like the newest buzz word, but I've realized that we are going back to the way I was taught to read a long time ago! Somehow, and sometime along the way schools stopped teaching phonics. I have to admit that this was news to me, because I was very lucky to land in a school my second year of teaching that used an Orton-Gillingham based phonics program. I was ahead of my time. Ha! I taught kindergarten for 4 years at that school, then 4th and 5th grade for 4 years, and I just didn't realize that other schools weren't teaching kids how to read using phonics. Honestly, I said "Who isn't teaching phonics and morphology?? How are their kids learning to read?"  WELL, they weren't.  When Arkansas began the R.I.S.E. initiative to teach their teachers about the science of reading my principal at the time said, "Guys, we will do the training, but...

 Here we are again. The last few years have been....whew. I don't even have words to describe them. I stopped doing a lot, as did everyone, the last couple of years to only concentrate on my work, and my family. I had so many personal and professional changes happen I completely lost myself in the noise.  Not anymore.  Now. I write. I start using this space again, because I realized in the last 2+ years I gave up all the creative outlets I once had. I let fear and anxiety creep in and I slowly got less and less happy. Then I remembered and realized as I have so many times before. You choose to be happy. It's a choice. Even when things are hard, you can choose to be happy. Please don't get me wrong it is easier at some times than others, but since it doesn't look like things in education as a whole are going to get any easier for a while, it's time to get to work. It's time to be creative, and live life to the fullest.  And write.  It's time to pick this crea...

"You will have one hour to get what you need out of the building to continue teaching until April 17th, maybe longer." This is the message I received from my administration on Friday. It took my breath for a minute because it was the first time I had seen my reality in print. April 17th. Four weeks from now. Granted one week is spring break and I wouldn't be working anyway, but one week, that's all I needed to recharge and get ready to have the best end of the year ever. Four weeks...now that's too much. And it was going to be the best end of year ever, not because I had spent the last 2 months planning special things throughout the last month and a half of school, which I had, but because of my kids. You see, this year I have the  class. Everyone once in a while as a teacher you get a class that just gels so perfectly together that it's nothing short of magic. The kids all get along, they make each other laugh, they get my jokes, and they are abs...

Well, I found a job! Whew. Last month I was hired as a 5th grade teacher in a wonderful school. After meeting with my principal and team a few times I don't think I could have been placed in a more perfect place if I had handpicked the school myself. Not only is everyone kind and helpful; it also aligns to my own teaching pedagogically. When you move to a new school you kinda have to go with the flow until you prove yourself. No big shifts away from the curriculum, not a lot of new activities, etc. I was prepared for it, and for being told what and how to do things. However, their pedagogy aligns so much with my own that it is going to be an almost seamless transition, or so it seems. With that said my team and I are going to be doing classroom Book-A-Day, and so I went off to Barnes and Noble to see what new books I wanted to add to my collection this year. I found a ton of really cute books, and I thought I would share them with you in case you hadn't heard of them either. ...

Transition. That word has been echoing through my heart and my mind since June when I first sat down to plan for this school year. I was finishing graduate school in December. Finally. For the second time. I was looking forward to having time to relax a little more, spend more time with my family, and take back over my share of the household responsibilities that my husband had been doing. Then we found out that my husband had gotten excepted into a program at a college that was working in tandem with a local hospital. He had quite the acceptance process to make it through, and it was truly an answer to our prayers that he was accepted this year. That word rang a little louder in my head each time another commitment would come up with either of our programs. Being in school at the same time as your spouse is a special kind of something, and has turned us into expert strategists. Every time I would see a cool idea online (that was cool, but could also be taught effectively in a simpl...

Hey friends!! Just wanted to drop in to let you all know that I have picked topics for my social studies units this year!! I just wanted to start off by saying how disappointed I am in the Arkansas state social studies standards! They are so vague, broad, and redundant it's ridiculous. I'm all for teachers having more of a say in what topics they cover, but I don't want to teach something that the teacher before me previously covered thoroughly. (Yes I know that's where vertical and horizontal alignment come in, but in my tiny school there is very little of that, unfortunately) There is also no need to have basically the same standard from K-6th. I liked our old standards much, much better. They were more defined, but still broad enough I could pick my topics. I also learned that from K-8th grade there is only one standard on the Civil War, and one standard on both of the World Wars. That seems crazy to me. Anyway....I'm sure there could be a lot of debate on our ...

Hello friends!! I am bound and determined to keep my blogging going during this school year. I usually blog a few times during the summer, and then the school year hits and before I know it's May again! Sound familiar??!! So I thought I'd start this year off by sharing how I set up the first part of the school year. Now that I've been teaching this grade level for 2 years, I am getting more confident about sharing what we have been doing.  But first, I want to share with you my situation because it is a little bit different than most teachers, and it will help you make sense of my schedule a little more. I teach at a small Title I school. We are actually consolidated with a school about 10 miles away, but we kept our building. We are a K-5 campus, but we do have 3 and 4 year old Pre-k program that share our grounds.  I teach fourth and fifth grade ELA and social studies. I have fourth grade until lunch, and then fifth grade until the end of the day. Fourth grade is my hom...

Hey y'all!! It's been a crazy three weeks of school! I am LOVING being in upper elementary, and it has taken me no time at all to feel comfortable with kids in this age group again! :) I have a lot of different things I want to share from the first 3 weeks, but first I wanted to start out sharing a song! :) My fifth graders have not had a very strong background in language, and they were really struggling with finding the subjects, and predicates. No matter how many times I went over it, or how many interactive activities we did with it I had almost half my class that still didn't get it. I NEEDED to move on, and I was racking my brain, when Taylor Swift's "Shake it off" started playing on my shower radio. And the lyrics just came to me. I was hoping the kids would like it so I sang it for my daughter who's in second grade, and she just LOVED it. The lyrics are simple and repetitive, because I needed to teach it in one day so they would have it in their br...

Hey y'all can we first just Oooh and Aaaahhhh over my new blog design!! I am so in love with it ! Shanon and Courtney from Blogs Fit For a Queen did a fantastic job, and the whole process went so quickly! In fact they were always waiting on me to make up my mind about things! :) I appreciate them being so patient, and easy to work with! I have been MIA lately, but I have a lot of really good reasons! :) To kinda recap the end of my summer I'm going to link up with doodlebugs teaching for her Five for Friday linky! It's more of a summer summary though! I finally graduated from graduate school!! I am so excited! It's been a crazy 2ish years, but it was well worth it. This year is going to be a whole new world with out homework looming over my head every weekend! :) I'm excited to be able to use this  time to work on lessons for my class and TpT! Please excuse the crazy cap. I shoved it back on really fast to take a pic with my little! :) My husb...

Hey friends! The beginning of July was a lot busier than I anticipated!! And, my summer of no worries is officially over! Even though my teacher brain never turns off completely I took a month after we got out of school, and worked only on things I wanted to, only after my kids had gone to bed. This summer was about family time, and we packed A TON into June! :) So, as Jed Bartlett would say, (any other west wing fans??) "What's next!" Here is a rundown of what I have planned for the rest of July! I anticipate it is going to be busy and productive...hopefully! :) FOR SCHOOL * Next week I am leaving on Monday and taking my daughter to gymnastics. Then, I am meeting my mom for lunch, and dropping my kids off with her for the week. I am going to a PLC conference out of town, and my husband works nights 2 of the nights I'll be gone so they enjoy spending the week at Grammy and Big Pa's. :) * The week after that I'm headed our for a literacy coach training...

Hey guys! How in the world is it July already??!! July is the month this year that is going to get crazy busy, and hectic. While I love it, I've also loved the slow pace of my June. It was perfect. I promised my kids June. No working, no crazy projects, nothing but finishing up grad school which I was able to do at night while they were sleeping most of the time. We so needed some slow quiet, and fun time together! July is a whole different kind of beast. Back to school prep, PD, etc... I already saw composition notebooks and loose leaf paper on sale so it. is. coming! :) It's raining today on our 4th of July celebrations so we are taking another slow day, and while everyone is napping I thought I'd link up with Farley for her Currently linky ! :) Listening: to the rain, and the quiet. My whole family is napping, even the dog and cat! We had a really fun morning at the Clinton Presidential Library. Today was a free day, and they have an awesome dinosaur exhibit right no...

Hey y'all!! I am so behind this week, as I was busy with VBS and visiting my parents! Plus, I'm still in the middle of graduate school so I'm just now getting to post! I thought I'd better hurry up before the next challenge was announced. ;) This week we were challenged to dream big, and share what we wanted our TpT store to accomplish. I'm not gonna lie, this challenge was a bit scary for me. I don't like to put my personal goals out there. I almost didn't. But, then I read some of the most amazing stories, and personal goals of the other teachers, and I thought if they can do it...so can I. So, thank you all for pushing me out of my comfort zone a bit. :) I'm linking up with Emily at Third in Hollywood , Teach Create Motivate, Peppy Zesty Teacherista ,and Sparkling in Second. :) 1. This one probably resonates with most of you too. :) We have various forms of debt, mostly student loans, and it would be so nice to only have to worry about our d...

Hey hey! I'm here linking up with Katie King at Queen of the First Grade Jungle for Work It Wednesday! I'm just all about the linky's this summer. ;) I've been following Katie for a little over a year, and I actually found her through one of her fitness hashtags on Instagram, and THEN realized that she taught 2nd grade! :) I was so inspired by her fitness journey, but I never got around to get really serious about my own. Ever since I've had my kids I've felt so guilty taking time out to take care of myself. Like ridiculously guilty. I suffered from postpartum depression after both of my kids. I didn't even realize what it was until it was over. But I used to think "Why would I spend an hour working out when I could spend that hour cleaning, or holding my baby, or...." The excuses would go on and on, and so did the weight gain.  Last year I realized I wasn't as good as I could be, as I needed to be. I wasn't all that happy, and quite fr...

Hey guys! I am participating in the TpT seller challenge over the next 4 weeks, and I finally had time to sit down and complete my first challenge!! We were suppose to pick one product in our store, and give it a face lift. I totally knew I was going to grab the first product I ever made, (and my all time best seller!) and change the cover page. Boy, was it ugly!! :) I just had no idea what colors/papers to use or how to position clip art for a cover page. So here is my before and after!! BEFORE: Things I didn't like:  Too much white space                                               Random placement of clipart                                                       Not the best background or border     ...

Hey guys! I'm back again!! Can y'all believe it, because I barely can ;). I'm linking up with T ara from 4th grade frolics for Monday Made It! Today has NOT gone as planned, and it was a busy day anyway so I'm a little late to the party, but I'm here. My made it this week is not original at all, but since I'm switching grades and have fewer subject areas I needed these. I made myself some READ letters! I will be teaching literacy, and social studies next year so I thought I would integrate the two into my decor some.   I started with some basic letters from Wal-Mart. They were $1.97 each. I already had the acrylic paint, glue, and I was given a map of Georgia from my father-in-law. I didn't realize I was out of Modge Podge so I'm going to have to go to the store tomorrow and finish these up! :)  First I squirted some turquoise acrylic paint onto the back of the letter. This step isn't really necessary I guess, but it will make your e...

Hey y'all!! I have officially been on summer break for 1 week, and it has been a fun one! I thought I'd join Natalie at What the Teacher Wants , and share my summer bucket list! School: So, I have quite a long list for school this summer. My first thing to do is redecorate my classroom next year. I am moving from kindergarten to 4th and 5th grade literacy and social studies. It is a HUGE change, but one I am excited for! However, I don't think my 4th and 5th graders will really appreciate my current decor, and I had to move rooms too so what better reason for a classroom overhaul!!  Pacing guides will be next on my list, and I have actually already started them. The teacher before didn't use pacing guides??? And my principal only had one based on TLI....which we don't do....SOOOO.... I will be working these up for myself next year along with, of course, my scope and sequence. I'm excited to start making TpT products for upper elementary, and ...

Teach inspired. That is my mantra for the new year. I hit kinda a valley if you will last year. I just felt, for lack of a better term, uninspired . I needed inspiration, I needed to fill my own teacher cup. It can sometimes be hard where I work to feel full all the time. I guess you could say that for every teacher everywhere at some point, but it was true for me last year. I work at a school that has one teacher per grade level. Collaboration, even though it can and should be, is not our building's forte. Teachers tend to keep to themselves and since we don't have a team to bounce off of weekly, or even daily it's hard to get that inspiration you need during those hard days, weeks, and let's face it...months. And then a group of teacher bloggers,( I follow most of them and they have truly kept me going with some of their blog posts,) went to the Ron Clark Academy. And, their posts about their trip truly inspired me. I had heard of Ron Clark before, but that was abou...