Dear Genie (A Modest List of Wishes)

Dear Genie, Some days summer prep feels overwhelming. I need your help. Please bring me these things so that I can do a better job incorporating SBG and INBs in all my classes for next school year. I will need everything on this list for each of my classes:

1.  A concise skill list with 10-ish skills per quarter. Connect the list to my state's standards. Format the list to fit in the notebooks, with space for students to record their scores.

For each skill on the list, I need all of the following:

2.  Some good learning activities. These may include lecture, inquiry, projects and such. I'd like a variety, actually. At least a portion of each activity should be formatted to fit in the notebooks. And, if it's not too much to ask, I'd like the notebook portion to be real pretty. Please used colored paper and markers.

3.  A set of differentiated practice problems with a key. Whenever possible, make the practice not look like a worksheet. Kindly make sure each set is structured to encourage cooperation and discussion within groups or between partners.

4.  Four versions of each assessment. When students need to re-assess, I will be prepared.

5.  Additional learning activities and practice (again, with a key) for when my students haven't mastered a skill.

Please deliver by August.

Thanks a bunch, Genie. I am going to bed.

What's For Supper?

One more non-mathy post before I (hopefully) get into full next-year-prep mode.

In case it is helpful to any of my teachery friends out there, I thought I would share a system I set up to help with one of my biggest school-year stresses: Making supper.

While this won't make supper cook itself, it will at least save a ton of time when it comes to menu-planning and grocery-list-making.

First I made a list of 30-ish meals my family likes enough to eat, well, once every 30-ish meals. These are the only things I am going to cook during the school year, usually along with a salad or frozen veggies. Occasionally something might get bumped from the list and something else might get added, but this is pretty much it. There is nothing sophisticated here for sure. They are mostly simple meals with short prep time and minimal ingredients. Cooking isn't really my thing. But it is cheaper and healthier than eating out, so I try.

When it is time to "menu plan", I just need to highlight 5-ish meals on the list. Those are what I'm cooking this week. I cross off the meal once we've eaten it. When we've gone through the entire list, I will print a new one and start over. 

The next problem I've always had is grocery list making. I hate digging around for recipes and putting the ingredients on a list. I also hate trying to remember all the things we use on a regular basis and hoping I don't forget about toothpaste or toilet paper. And then I discovered this app:

You can input your own recipes, or pull them in from a variety of websites. This took me some time, but should pay off with huge time savings later. (Hint, you can skip typing the directions. Its the ingredients that matter). Now I can select the meals that I've already decided to cook, click the grocery cart (see it there in the upper right corner?), and boom! The ingredients are automatically compiled in a list.

I also added a recipe titled "staples" where the ingredients are items we always keep around like milk, bread, breakfast bars, and such so that I can easily add them to the grocery list by clicking on that recipe. And, because I am very thorough, I also created a recipe called "stuff we use" where the ingredients are toothpaste, toilet paper, and such. So I can also add those items to the list with one click. It is very easy to remove items from the list if you already have them on hand. 

Then go shopping. I haven't figured out a way to speed up that process.

I picture myself coming home from a long day of school, looking at what's highlighted on the list, and throwing something together easily since I will already have all the ingredients on hand. So no more worries about supper.

One less thing.

Thank You June

This June I decided not to think about school. It turns out that was an impossible goal, but I did manage to not do any much school-related work for a whole month. Instead I focused on things I wanted to do at home, and on spending time with my family. My husband is also in education, and we end up having six weeks with the whole family home together. So nice.

There were t-ball games, camping trips with hiking, and a dance recital. There were story times, swimming lessons, zoo visits, and play dates. I cleaned out some closets, sewed a Willy Wonka costume (long story), painted a bedroom, trained for and ran a 10k, and made photo books documenting our daughter's (almost) five years of life.

We homed a caterpillar, named her Buttercup, provided her with luxurious living conditions, and watched her do something very unexpected. She died. 

We started this book, loaned from a friend. I am fascinated by the process of helping a little one learn to read. And it works! She's sounding out words like a champ. 

My little learner set up this cute little system for our reading time. The red watermelon means that she is busy chewing a fruit snack or taking a drink and needs a little break. The green peas signify that she's ready to read. It reminded me of red/yellow/green cups from @druinok. And my mind was back to school again . . .

I feel refreshed. And I'm ready to tackle some new challenges in 2014-2015 with a fresh perspective. I'm looking at you, Calculus, cooperative groups, interactive notebooks, formative assessments, SBG, PLC, common core, lions, tigers, and bears, oh my.