A Teacher's Summer

The sun stays out late, the alarms are turned off, but that doesn't mean a teacher takes the whole summer off.

I've been in trainings and still have one more training to attend before making any decisions involving enjoying my summer.

As a 2nd year teacher, I have plenty that I want to adjust and change for myself and to better improve my teaching. Which teacher doesn't want to improve? Make things easier for themselves and make their students' learning experience better? That is the square I find myself standing in.

My mentor brought up a good plan, her suggest was as follows: take advantage of your training days - plan around those days. When you go home, relax. There is a reason why teachers have the sumer off.

With that said, let me share what I have accomplished and how.

• Math Lesson for the first week 
• During math training, the best way to check for understanding is to be able to apply it. I applied my new found skills by sketching up my 1st week's lesson plan. Not only did I complete it, but I had the Math curriculum writer look over it. :) That's winning. 

ORIGO is the new Texas adopted Math Curriculum. AWESOME! I love their additional support and resources, did I mention it's all ONLINE! WOOOOOOOOOOO! 

• Grade Book Page 
• After completing my Math lesson plan for the 1st week, I realized I'll have 3 grades for Math the first week, I need something to put that down in! Check out Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT) for great resources for every need! 

• Homework Log
• My Math lessons include 4 Math homework assignments, which made me question what I could use to log homework. Once again, TPT came to the rescue with great ideas! Check out my awesome Homework- Weekly log! :)

• ClassDojo
• I'm sure many of you heard about it, many of us wonder about it. GET IT! It'd best to have it at hand and decide not to use it, than to start the first day of school and not know where to start. It's monster theme might happen to go perfectly with my new classroom theme (COMING SOON!).  The application/program can be shown to students, has links to share with parents and did I mention it has monsters! Check it out for yourself!
  http://teach.classdojo.com/#!/launchpad

So, do take a summer off, but if you must - there are simple things that can keep you on-track. Happy Summer my friends!