Freebie Friday! Proud Wall Banner

In the past month, I have implemented a few things in my classroom to try to make it a positive, student-centered, and affirming place.

I hope that my students always remember how to fix a run-on sentence, but more than anything I want them to remember 7th grade ELA as I place where they knew they mattered and had confidence in themselves.

The freebie I am sharing today is the sign for the Proud Wall in my classroom. This bulletin board has three "sections".

1) Exemplary work (hung up by clothespins) - this rotates and displays work for each of my classes. When students see their work on the board, they get that little trying-hard-to-be-cool-and-not-smile smile on their faces and I know they are proud of themselves.

*these clothespins were SO easy to make.
1) I just cut a strip of washi tape in half (the tape I bought worked out perfectly to be cut in half lengthwise)
2) I placed it sticky-side down (just like regular tape) the clothespin. If the top/bottom edge hung over a little but I just tucked it under.
3) Then, I hot-glued a pushpin to the back.
Ta-da!

2) Affirmations - I will talk more about these in detail another time :) these affirmations are the ones either written to an entire hour or ones that students have chosen to put up.

3) Miscellaneous - awesome student work (aka a song called "All About That Plot" written to the tune of "All About That Bass"), an award from our custodian for a clean classroom, a "Happy Llama Day" card made in my creative writing class, etc. I know this will grow throughout the year.

Here is the link to the chevron "Proud Wall" banner. There is neon and a black and white version. Download for free on TpT! I simply cut out, laminated, and posted on the bulletin board with push pins. If you have space in your classroom and want to try something like this, I would love for you to download the banner!

I am linking up to TBA's Freebie Friday (I love the adorable new button!)

Five for Friday - August 1st!

I am sure I'm not the only one who can't believe it's already August!

I haven't been blogging this week because I have been at New Teacher Orientation - 3 days of curriculum training (Holt Literature), classroom management, and cooperative learning sessions. I've left feeling rather overwhelmed, in good and not-go-great ways...
Good: Lots of resources, lots of best-practices, and lots of support
Not-So-Great : LOTS of information to process, lots more to do than I thought!

At night I haven't had the energy to venture into blogland...I've tried to give myself a "break" from teacher blogs at night...as much as I truly LOVE browsing I needed to recharge...I've been watching Parks and Rec which always makes me laugh :)

Without further ado, here are my Five for Friday thoughts...

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!

I have been working on making Neon Chalkboard Genre Posters (for Middle School) for over a week now, and I am SO excited to say they are DONE!
I made these not only because I wanted posters to match my classroom color scheme (yay neon!), but because I wanted to have the mentor texts on each poster be an appropriate level for middle school students. I have seen some adorable posters out there, but examples with Junie B. Jones and Magic Treehouse are a little young for my 7th graders! I can't wait to print these out, laminate them (of course!), and hang them above my classroom library.
Click on the picture to purchase these from my TpT store.

If you'd like my "Genre" definition poster, it is available as a free download! :) Happy Freebie Friday!

Going to a conference and listening to different speakers made me think about myself as the "speaker" in a classroom. There were some really positive strategies for engagement that I learned from some speakers, and then there were a few times where I felt like the middle school student who uses the bathroom just because they're bored! Students need brain breaks, collaboration time, and visual presentations just as much as adults do :) lesson learned.

I read a great review for Revlon Colorstay Gel Envy nail polish, so I picked some up to try it for myself! Nail polish usually drives me crazy after a day because it starts chipping - but this polish has been going strong for 3 days now! I am a new fan :)

I won two foam dice (I suppose a "pair of die" would be the grammatically correct phrase?) and a neon plastic hat at my cooperative learning session. I can think of plenty of uses for the dice in my classroom, but the hat...any ideas? ;)

This may be a long shot...but does anyone else use the Holt Literature curriculum in their classroom? It's on my mind since I just spent a whole day in training for how to use it with "fidelity"...yes, that's the curriculum instructor's favorite buzzword.

Has anyone else had orientation or PD this week? I met a few teacher who are starting school on Monday - wow!

Yay for Friday!

I have been looking forward to Friday for all week for many reasons...visiting my boyfriend, listening to a book on cd in the car (really though, I can't wait), setting up my classroom, and my first Five for Friday AND Freebie Friday!

First things first. My classroom has an orange wall. It's one of our school colors so it's...festive.

 I must admit I was a bit shocked when I first saw it...but I am going to make it work! It helps that my "neon" color scheme has orange in it, so that will coordinate. It could be worse. I could not have a classroom!

Picture is slightly blurry due to the state of shock ;)

As I mentioned earlier, I am very (probably too much) excited about listening to a book on tape this morning. You see, I'm moving across the state (of Michigan...any fellow Michiganders out there?) for my job, so right now "setting up my classroom" involves a bit of a drive. One of my friends was talking about listening to a book on cd (I want to say "tape", but that's even more outdated!) on her drive - and it inspired me! I picked up "Shopgirl" from the library. It seemed like a fun, kind of mindless read listen...I'll let you know what I think.

I really like blogging. It hasn't even been a week but I'm already having so much fun with it...and I've discovered some awesome blogs in the process! Thank you to anyone who has reached out to me or introduced themselves!

I just started reading "The Revealers" by Doug Wilhelm. I'm really enjoying it so far, especially since it's from a 7th grader's perspective. Any insight I can get is helpful ;) I'd like to do some book reviews of summer reads so stay tuned for more updates!

Freebie time! Can my #5 be a freebie? I hope so!

My very first post was a freebie for a poster I made...you will quickly learn that I love making things for my classroom, especially posters. Since I'm on a neon kick I wanted to remake the "You Matter" poster I originally saw on Technology Rocks. Seriously. 

I loved her poster but needed it to match my classroom...perfectly...nope I'm not OCD at all.

So, here is the version I made; the chevron coordinates with my previous sign. I also made one in black and white just in case you're not on a neon frenzy too :)

Click on the picture to download it free from TpT:

Is anyone else moving for their teaching job? 

Does anyone out there have an orange wall too?!

p.s. - Love neon? Check out my Neon Chalkboard Genre Posters for middle school!

Monday Made It - Classroom Sign

Hello, blog world! I figured that there's no better way to start this teaching blog adventure than to jump right in :) so, why not start my first EVER post with a Monday Made It?

I'm beginning my very first teaching job (feeling incredibly excited/overwhelmed) as a 7th Grade Language Arts teacher. That should be an adventure in itself because I am about the same height, if not less, than most middle schoolers. Wish me luck ;)
But really -  I feel so fortunate to be able to teach what I LOVE. #ELAforthewin

I've been SO inspired by teaching blogs over the past few years, as well as TpT products. And by inspired, I also mean they have nearly saved my life a few times...

Last minute lesson plan ideas? Thank you, blog world.
Oh my goodness I have only been a long-term sub for two weeks and now I have to lead parent teacher conferences? That happened. Thank you, inspiration from teachers who know what they're doing.

In fact, I was inspired by a TpT product that I used in my interview example lesson - and I got the job!
So, it's about time I start interacting with (instead of stalker-following) and contributing back to the teaching community.

I made a sign for my 7th Grade classroom - made in PowerPoint and printed through Shutterfly (I took advantage of a free 8x10 print email offer!).

Yes, it was tempting to keep the picture as-is...

Once I received that lovely orange envelope full of hope and beauty, I put the print in a dollar store frame. Though the prints were free, shipping was about $3...plus $1 for the frame...$4 total is not too shabby!

Because I love you (and I want you to like me!), I am including the link for a free download of these posters. It is the very first product on my brand new Middle of Lit TpT store. I made them in lots of pretty colors, assuming you are like me and want everything to match.

I would LOVE to hear if you download it!

I linking up with Monday Made It! Woohooo!