Hello Mrs Sykes

Every year, schools have a "budget season," when purchasing decisions must be made for the following year. If you are an administrator in a school that uses iPads or other mobile devices, you need to take a look at Tech Tubs from Copernicus Educational Products . {source: www.copernicused.com}

I'm so excited to be back with the Bright Ideas group! Today I'm sharing a few of my favorite hacks for my home office. These organizational hacks might help you begin the new year with a few fresh ideas for your home office.

Spring is a wonderful reminder to freshen up and begin anew.  At home, I'm working on closets...  My closet, my kiddos' closets, and the dreaded hall closet.  {{Why does everything end up in the closet??  I found a jump rope next to the paperwork for the refinance of our house...  both in the hall closet for some reason!  Uggggggh.}}   To avoid dusting, scrubbing, and putting stuff where it belongs, I am also "Spring Cleaning" my computer.  My graphics files needed some attention, so I spent 30 minutes reorganizing.  Love how it turned out!!  It's so much easier for me to find the clip art I need when they are organized by artist!  :) Also, I'm making sure I left feedback on my Teachers Pay Teachers purchases to earn my TPT credits.  They add up quickly, and are easy to redeem for free resources!!  Log in to TPT, click on the "My TPT" tab, then select "My Purchases."  It will show you a list of all of the purcha...

So... we got the email this week.  The one I dread every year.  You know which one - the one reminding you about copying quotas, and how we all need to limit our copies as much as possible.  I always try to limit my copies by projecting as much as possible and having the students use whiteboards, but I'm trying out some new things this week to avoid making copies.  I thought I'd share... If you really need to make copies, do you need a class set?   Check out these C-Line Reusable Dry Erase Pockets .  I've tried tons of alternatives, like a piece of cardstock in a sheet projector, a laminated sheet, and a sheet inside a zip-lock bag.  (Teachers liked to reduce, reuse, and recycle before it was cool, right?)  Ummm, those alternatives might work for a while, but then they look ragged and icky.  These pockets are rugged, sturdy enough to use in the classroom, and wipe clean easily with a felt eraser, a tissue, etc.  We've been using t...

Good evening, bloggy friends!! I thought today I'd share a bit of my classroom with y'all. Warning: Long post ahead!!! First up: Post-it management. I don't know about you, but I'm so enamored with those little sticky sheets. We use them to predict. We use them to show our thinking. We use them to mark where we needed to infer. Today, we were using them to document our connections, and I finally had a method to keep them organized: this chart paper grid with the prompt on a whiteboard. Our CAFE wall: (though we refer to it often, we keep forgetting to add our new strategies!!) Thanks for hanging in there for the long post!! Have a wonderful rest of the week. :)

Wow.  That's just all I can say.  Wow.  (Love me some Kevin Henkes, by the way...)  So my goodies arrived yesterday after school from Highlights magazine; you know the ones I mean.  You send home the slips, parents sign and return, and you pick out cool stuff from the gifts.  Don't judge - I love free stuff! This arrived: The Organization Station.  It changed my life today.  Absolutely no exaggeration.  (maybe a slight exaggeration, but it's pretty fabulous all the same!)  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it when it arrived, but my amazing new teaching assistant suggested I use it for work in progress, so I can see at a glance what remains to be finished.  Brilliant.  :) The kids took the switch well, and I was able to make a bribe deal with a couple of green beans who always seem to have "tons" of work to complete.  They keep their pocket empty (aka - finish their work!) and they get to keep one ...