Adventures in Vegas

I'm home again. After a whirlwind three-and-a-half days in Vegas, I'm back. I've resumed my position on the couch, laptop on lap, TV on Weeds (but goodness, how I despise Mary Louise Parker), bowl of frozen cherries at my side.  I may look calm on the outside, but inside, my brain is racing. You know how you feel when you have 8,000 things on your to-do list but you don't know what order they go in? That's what's happening here. Why am I so full of  stuff? Four Words: TPT Conference in Vegas.

I. Had. A. Blast. I attended awesome sessions and listened to great TPT and blogging stories that gave me so much to think about, and so now my head is full of list after list of things to consider: ad pages to include in my products, and rewriting my titles and product descriptions. Following up on some of the relationships I started with great people I met, and making myself a schedule and sticking to it. Unfortunately, I already didn't do one of those things today. I woke up late and then I really HAD to finish the book I was reading, The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. It only took me about five hours (I wasn't really all that close to the end but it was soooo good), but I've already spoiled one of my resolutions about dedicating specific time to blogging, writing, marketing, blah blah blah. Oops. So I guess I really have to jump on it now. Like, for reals. So I'm going to give you a little debrief (Like an episode of Entertainment Weekly, you won't get the whole deal, but you'll get the gist) of my trip!  Before I left, I had plans to room with four other ladies I'd never met. I mean, we'd "met", you know, by sending irreverent facebook messages to each other, but that was about the extent of our relationship. Oh, and once Natalie sent me wine, forever leaving an indelible mark on my lush's heart.   But basically, I had no idea what to expect from these (mostly Texan) girls. It's a little nerve-wracking, spending three nights in potentially close quarters with virtual strangers (haha get my pun? Because we only communicated virtually? heehee) But when one of them arrived a double-sized bottle of wine, happily proclaiming that it was only eight dollars, I knew we were going to be A-OK. These are the ladies:

Cheryl from Crayons and Curls, Farrah from Mrs. Shipley's Whole Brain Teaching, Katie from Keep Teaching & Planning (KTP on TPT), and Natalie from Teachery Tidbits. Oh, and me :)

And they are lovely, indeed. One of the best things about the conference was that they know what lies deep in the hearts of teachers. This included free drink coupons LOTS of time to talk. Oh, and free stuff. Lots of free stuff. 

These are our swag bags full o'teacher stuff. By the end of the conference, I had collected this variety of freebies:

The happy hours and meet-ups were some of my favorite things. In the midst of this talking- picture 600 teachers smushed into one space and EVERYone uses their teacher voice - the noise was deafening - I managed to squeeze through and around and meet some bloggers and sellers who I really admire. 

Amy, who is an absolutely adorable individual. If I used the word "adorbs", I would use it to describe Amy. But I don't use the word "adorbs" because it's pretty ridiculous.

I met these charming ladies, too, and so many others. 

Confession: when I met Jennifer Runde of Runde's Room, I'd already downed both the free drink coupons TPT had given me. Kind of fast, actually, because big groups aren't exactly my favorite. (I'm not the go-up-and-talk-to-you type.) So when I walked up to Jennifer, full of liquid courage, I said, "Hi Jennifer! I'm Chrissy from Buzzing with Ms. B, and I love your blog. It's so specific and full of thorough teaching practices!" 

I was doing well so far. 

"Thank you!" she said sweetly, gesturing with the international sign for thank you. 

"I'm so impressed with your consistency in posting, too."

"That really makes my day," or something kind along those lines. "I'm blushing!" she said.

To this point, I appeared to be a normal individual. I should've stopped while I was ahead.

It was at now that the wheels came off the cart.

"Well," I stumbled here, not sure what was to come after that grand opening. "You should constantly....be....flattered.... of yourself?" What? What does that mean? Is that English?

"Thank you," she said, as I silently prayed that the teacher talk in the room was so loud it drowned out my ridiculous words. "I appreciate that!"

Lovely woman. Thanks for not calling me out on my absurdity.

See the glass? My downfall.

At one point in the weekend, some of my roomies and I decided that we wanted to take advantage of the fun photo booth in the corner of the meet-up room. We made our way over to stand in the line and giggle. While I was there, I met Ari, the Science Penguin. Anyway, all of a sudden, Paul (yes, that Paul), Deanna (yes, that Deanna), and John Yoo (yes, that John Yoo. I know, I didn't know who he was either, but he's a muy importante individual.) headed over to the booth where we were standing. They nicely asked (I guess they didn't actually HAVE to ask, because they were the ones paying for the photo booth in the first place) if they could cut. John graciously announced he would trade selfies for a cut in the line. So I did! I snapped a picture of Deanna and Paul, 

and then John snapped a picture with me! 

Considering I was about four drinks deep in my five-free-drinks evening (we met up with some preggos and they gave us their tickets :) I think I'm maintaining pretty well!

Later that night, we hit Fremont street and had some fun adventures there. I'll spare you the details, but our first picture pretty much sums it up. See the photobomber? Yeah? We didn't. 

Natalie, Haley from My Silly Firsties, me, and Cheryl

I close this account with the crowning moment of my trip. I, probably as many of you are, am a big fan of Kristen from a Teeny Tiny Teacher. Her writing style is inspired and I love it. So when someone whispered to me in the midst of a crowded room, "There's Kristen! Like, A Teeny Tiny Teacher Kristen!" I was like, "I must go bother her." So we headed over. Sure enough, there she was in her teeny tiny glory. "Hi, Chrissy!" she said brightly. "What's your blog?" "I'm Buzzing with Ms. B," I said. "Oh, I know your blog! You're hilarious!" Kristen said. "AAAAA! You know who I am!" I squealed, trying not to wet myself. I couldn't believe I was on the teeny tiny radar! She agreed to pose for a picture with us and so my evidence is below:

So there was all the fun stuff from Vegas. I intend (I really do) to share some of the bullet points of my learning from the trip too, as soon as I can muster the energy. Vegas kind of wore me out.

I linked up this post with A Burst in First! Click over to read all of the other fun Vegas posts!

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summer summer summer: and a mini giveaway!

Yes, you read the title right - this post is about summer, and I have a LOT to say. But you can also enter to win my latest product! So humor me, read my summer post, and then comment with your favorite thing you've done this summer and your email address, and I'll choose a magical random winner later this week! So I'm right up there in summer. I know because my butt is wearing a comfortable groove in the couch again. Don't get me wrong. I've been doing tons of stuff. My mother makes me wake up early three days a week  yes, three days a week of my summer to go to the gym with her. And although it's starting to grow on me, the gym is still one of the worst places in the world. It's only one step up from Best Buy, and that's just because there's actually something to do at the gym. Of course, by "something"  I mean excruciating, soul-sucking machines that force you to repeat awkward motions in three sets of fifteen. You do all of this so that, three weeks later, you can read the scale and see that you've gained four pounds. Yay gym. This morning, after doing my time in the second-most-horrible-place in the world, I headed over to the pool. It's a neighborhood pool that you have to buy a membership to belong to, Once you've paid, they give you a key, and it's a swim-at-your-own-risk sort of thing. So today, after the gym, i decided to head over to the pool. I took out my key, unlocked the gate, and walked inside... and saw...

that I was ALL BY MYSELF!  Yes! I had the WHOLE pool to MYSELF!  I immediately commenced to doing my favorite things: sinking all the way to the bottom  floating around the pool with my eyes closed like a dead person laying on a towel and reading Game of Thrones I did these things for two hours, all by myself, and then I headed home. Home is about a 45-second drive from the pool, so yay. Since then, I've been watching Wilfred (almost a complete season today) and working on my latest product: Super Hero Classroom Decor Set.  That pretty much sums up the last few days, really. I sit around and work on stuff. Occasionally, I get a hankerin for somethin tasty and I eat huge bowls of cantaloupe or Greek yogurt with peanut butter in it. And honey. Lots and lots of honey. It helps me pretend it's ice cream, which I clearly cannot have because I gained four pounds by going to the gym. I consume cup after cup of coffee to keep me from eating something far more delicious - a frozen yogurt place opened up five minutes down the street. Cruel. It's probably for the best that we're broke.

This is what my cat looks like when I am watching TV.

So I sit and watch the cat and then I sit and watch Wilfred. When I get sick of Wilfred's sick humor, I bust out the big guns: I Love Lucy. And sometimes, I just get tired of the scenery, you know? That's when I move from the couch...to the loveseat. It's like a whole different view over there. When my husband comes home, I pepper him with questions about the world: So what happened at work today? What did you have for lunch? What should we have for dinner? The poor man. So anyway, if you're looking for something to do as you're repositioning from the couch to the loveseat, check out my new product: Super Hero Themed Classroom Decor Set! I'm so excited about it....almost enough to change my own theme from bees.....but not quite :) And if you'd like to win it, leave me a comment about your favorite thing you've done this summer and your email address! I'll choose a random winner this week! Happy Summer!

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Summer Reading List Link-Up

If you're like me, you've got a stack of books that you're "meaning to read" as soon as you "have the time." Sometimes this stack is full of half-read books that you foolishly attempted to start during the school year. You've got a pile of professional books you're kind of looking forward to...in a way... and a stack of personal books you've been gifted or accumulated on your hopeful trips to the bookstore! 
To share my stacks with you, I decided to link up with The Hands-On Teacher for her Summer Reading List Link-Up! and talk about one of my favorite things to do: drink margaritas! Wait- I mean... READ! 

These are my stacks. Professional Stack

In my professional stack, I have four books. I just finished posting about the last professional book I read, Igniting a Passion for Reading. You can read about that here!

I'm also excited about The Revision Toolbox by Georgia Heard. I'm going to put together some writing training for my campus using this book as a guide for the revision parts. She's one of my favorite writing authors, along with Kelly Gallagher. 

Teach Like a Champion is our summer reading book study. The next-to-last week of school, when I could TASTE summer already, my principal had an idea for me to run an optional summer book study for teachers. We only had a handful of teachers sign up, but I'm still looking forward to meeting with them. Sometimes small groups are the best! And I'll be able to share all of our conversations with you!

I just purchased Comprehension from the Ground Up by Sharon Taberski. I am SO EXCITED about this book! I love Taberski and I think she's done a beautiful job of identifying what's important in reading instruction. Can't wait!

Personal Stack

My personal stack is still kind of small. I'm working on it, though! Personally, I'm more of an impulse reader. I judge books by their covers all the time.
I'm partway through the first Game of Thrones, and while I'd like to read the series, they're so lengthy that they'd be the only thing I'd be able to read for a long time. So that may have to wait.

I bought I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak because I really enjoy his writing. It's been sitting on my shelf for several months now, so maybe I can finally attack it this summer!

And one of my friends loaned me Divergent. There's a series that I can probably finish pretty quickly, so I don't mind starting it!

So what's on YOUR summer reading list? And what should I add to mine?
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Five for Friday Link-Up

So this week was kind of nutty. It was my "first week off" from school, but I had inservice on Monday and Tuesday, my brother graduated from high school on Wednesday, and yesterday I went up to school for half-a-day to get some odds & ends done. So today is my first day that feels like summer and I'm so happy.

These are the best weeks to link up to Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday Link Up! 

This week was full of family. On Sunday, we had a cookout at my husband's parents' house for his dad's birthday. The hunny was the chef and his dad tied his apron :)

This was a clever strategy for review that we used during the inservice I attended on Monday and Tuesday. After every major concept we learned, we went to a chart on the wall and wrote as many words as we could think of under each letter. The next concept we learned, we changed markers. Great and easy strategy for review!

On Wednesday, we went to a baseball game at our local minor league stadium. I had two margaritas. 

We had a great time!

And on Wednesday morning, my youngest brother graduated from high school! Proud of him for moving to the next big thing in his life: college. 

Want to share five photos from your week? Link up with Doodle Bugs!

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Igniting a Passion for Reading: Book Study chapters five and six

This is truly embarrassing, but I really need to wrap up posting about our book study. We finished back in March (oh, goodness, that was a long time ago) but it seems that this is the first time I've had the energy and the minutes to share what we talked about! If you've been following these posts, I do apologize and I'm thankful to you! Chapter Five My Modeling Career: Igniting a Passion by Reading with Students In teaching, you very quickly learn that, when you want students to do something - anything - no matter how simple or small, you MUST model it. Whether it's how to turn in their homework or how to respond to a short-answer question, you have to show them how it's done. In this chapter, Layne explains how that is true with the love of reading.  It makes perfect sense. Do you want them to be readers? Then be a reader... and show them that you are. HOT READS

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A great strategy from this chapter is the "Hot Read". It's easier than it sounds. You choose a book at an appropriate level for your class. Place it in a special spot with a little sign that says, "Ms. So-and-so's HOT READ!" Model reading it for a few minutes during the day, and putting it in your bag to read at home that evening. After a few days, kids will start to request your "hot read". What a great, SNEAKY way to get kids excited about a book! One important point Layne makes several times throughout this chapter (and the rest of the book) is how important it is for kids to know the authors of the books they read. If they know which authors they enjoy, they can find more books they enjoy. If they don't, they're swimming through a series of books without any sense of what they love. Chapter Six Can We Talk? Igniting a Passion Through Book Discussions

In this chapter, Layne discusses an issue that I've had in my own classroom. How to have meaningful book discussions without using roles that become limiting and awkward. I know I've used these roles in my own classroom - the "illuminator" and the "graphic artist," having each student assume a specific role and complete a mundane task in order to participate in a book discussion. But if you think about great discussions adults have with each other about books, they're more authentic than that. They include things like this: * Retelling important pieces to clarify to the listener * Reacting to a character's choices or traits * Questioning what will happen next * Describing emotions you felt when certain events happened Instead of having students complete tasks, why don't we model effective dialogue about books and then provide them with a rubric of ideas to communicate with their groups?  Layne also engages students in delivering their own Book Chats. For more about Book Chats, visit this post about chapters three and four of Igniting a Passion! Thanks for checking out our Book Study! Check back soon for chapters seven and eight! Chapters One and Two Chapters Three and Four Pin It

Bright Idea: Behavioral Goal-Setting

Looking for some bright ideas? You're in the right place! 

So happy you're here to check out my Bright Idea for the month of May: behavioral goal-setting! Helping students learn to manage their behavior is a challenge from the first day until the last day of school. This year, while working with a fifth grade class, I wanted to help students who had a history of struggling to control themselves and their behavior make some better choices. 

On the first day I worked with them, I shared a set of classroom expectations. Yes, I know we usually ask students to contribute to the expectations, but there were very specific areas of difficulty this group of students had and I needed to replace some behaviors with positive ones. So the statements on the chart below were our three expectations that we consistently referred to.

Each morning, as we began our work together, we reviewed the expectations in one way or another. I had students act out examples or non-examples, or brainstorm words to describe what the expectations looked like.

During instruction or working time for the students, I monitored them for these three things and, when I saw a group demonstrating one of these expectations, I said something like, "Team Two is really working on being engaged in their own learning! Each team member is participating by sharing their thinking!" and I added some tally points to their row on the table. (These points never become anything, like a prize or reward. They are simply for recognition's sake.) After about a week of this, students were able to identify when they were or weren't following an expectation. At this point, I introduced the goal-setting aspect of our classroom expectations. Each team, each morning, chose one expectation to focus on and work on throughout the day. They discussed for about two minutes about the following things: 1. Which expectation will be our goal? 2. Why? 3. How will we practice this expectation today?

I wrote the goals on index cards and taped them to their group supply bucket on their table. Then, throughout the day, students worked on that expectation and prompted each other for it in a respectful manner, such as, "Remember we're trying to control our comments." At the end of the day, the groups evaluated their progress toward the goal and decided on tomorrow's goal. Would it stay the same or change? I knew we had arrived when I overheard this conversation from Team One: Cathy: I think we still need to work on controlling our comments. Max: I don't think so. I need to be engaged in my own learning. Cathy: But you made a lot of comments today that weren't related to the story we were reading. Max: Yeah, and if I was engaged in my own learning, I wouldn't have been saying that stuff. WOW!  There's still a long way to go, but I hope this helps your kids as it has helped mine! Happy teaching! If you enjoyed this bright idea, please consider joining me on BlogLovin', Facebook, or TeachersPayTeachers  for more great ideas. For more bright ideas more than 130 different bloggers, please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that  interests you. Thanks for visiting!

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