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Reflect & Refresh [Part1]

Welcome
to Reflect and Refresh, a two part linky party where teacher bloggers share
their reflections on the 2014-2015 school year and ways they are planning to
refresh their teaching in 2015-2016.

Why
hello my sweet teachers! 

You’re
looking exceptionally tan today. 
I can
see your pleasant face through the computer, it must be the fact that you’re at
ease because you can use the restroom as you please.
I
think my rate of eating lunch is finally starting to slow down. 
Cheers
to Summer my friends 🙂
I
really love my Summer. It is a time to relax and become a normal human again.
But we entered this profession so I am assuming we have the same character
traits. Regardless that it’s Summer, we just CAN’T turn off our teacher brain.
(Try
telling me that at the grocery store when I see a
child misbehaving…my jurisdiction is only in room 20.)
We
are perfectionists at heart and the Summer is the perfect time to reflect on
our previous year. What was great, what went wrong, what new ideas can I bring
to the table?
I’m
here today to share with you my favorites and also what I aim to work on
🙂 
This
year was amazing communication wise. My school launched Twitteras our main focus of communication. It was AMAZING for parents to have a
glimpse into their child’s classroom throughout the day. Did you know that even
if parent’s don’t want to create an account, the can follow along via text
message? Check out my blog post to see pictures and video tutorials I sent out
to parents. 
Class
Dojo Messenger:
I
LOVE LOVE LOVE Class Dojo on so many levels. I chat about it so much but
it’s because I firmly believe in its affects to parents. This year I used the
messenger app WAY more than I did last year. Messenger was easy for parents
because they felt like they were texting me, I never had to feel uncomfortable
telling a parent I wasn’t sharing my number, AND my e-mail wasn’t clogging up.

I do
like the app on my phone, but when parents message me at 11:00 at night, that
dings on my phone. Next year, I think I will turn off the notifications before
I go to bed 😉
Last
year, I had all my task cards just thrown on a wall on hooks. As my task card
fetish grew, I lost wall space and it just started to look scary
overwhelming. 
This
year, I organized my task cards into buckets. These labels helped me so much
when I was in a panic trying to see what I had for a specific standard. I just
opened my bucket to see what I had already created. My goal for next year is to
print out the recording sheets for all these task cards and place at the bottom
of each bucket. This way, I don’t have to search my external hard drive and
re-print it out.
Get these labels–> HERE
It is
constantly preached that we are to ‘plan with the end in mind’.
I
teach all subjects and sometimes I am just ‘planning with the hope I don’t
drown’ in mind 😉 
It
was a struggle for this this year to plan every subject and be ahead of the
game with assessments. I really want to look at the released STAAR items and
use my school resources to create some quick checks for the math standards. I
feel like if I could have that together, I could better gauge when the kids
needed more time with me. 
It’s
a learning process….
 Myself?
Yes….I exist. I have a heart and a mind and that mind needs to relax! 
I
LOVE school but I also love reading and working out. I plan to take a few hours
a day and just focus on ME. Gosh, some teachers are SO SELFISH 😉 
Winding
down to me is also working on Teachers Pay Teachers.  

I
have so many projects that I half started during the school year that I NEED to
finish. I’ll make some elaborate lists with adorable fonts and graphics, after
admiring my lists I’ll eventually tackle them.
I
hope you link up for Reflect & Refresh Part 1
I
look forward to reading your post! 🙂
Click the buttons below to read more! 

Amber

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6 Comment

  1. Reply
    Mrs D's Corner
    June 8, 2015 at 1:12 pm

    Love love love your labels for your bins! Super adorable! And I definitely need to put myself on my big summer list. What a great idea!

    Thanks for linking up!

  2. Reply
    Destiny Christian
    June 8, 2015 at 1:37 pm

    You crack me up Amber! I wish my school was as into technology as yours! Get your booty down to Austin and we will definitely "relax"… 🙂

    Destiny
    Terrific Teaching and Learning

  3. Reply
    M Whitt
    June 8, 2015 at 4:36 pm

    Amber, you are so creative-your bin labels are so cute! I never even thought about using Twitter to communicate with parents! That is definitely an idea I'm going to look into! Have a fantastic summer!
    Melanie
    -Momma with a Teaching Mission

  4. Reply
    Stephanie Chambers
    June 9, 2015 at 5:19 am

    I LOVE your task card storage and bin labels. They are super cute! I also need to remember to put myself on the list! Thanks for the reminder :).

    Stephanie
    The Learning Chambers

  5. Reply
    Peggy Means
    June 11, 2015 at 7:21 pm

    Amber, your blog is so bright and cheery! Hey, that task card organization rocks! I can't count the times I reprinted stuff because I couldn't find it. CUTE labels! (Are those going up on TpT?)
    Happy Summer!
    Peggy @ Primary Flourish

  6. Reply
    Ashley Reed
    June 14, 2015 at 6:55 pm

    So excited to find your blog and to participate in the TPT Seller Challenge! Random question…but what font is in the body of your post? Love it! 🙂

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