Stitch Fix Review (November)

You may think this is a bit off topic of teaching: however, you are very wrong. I am teaching you something new right now! Maybe...Anyway, I know quite a few teachers and quite a few bloggers who use stitch fix to spruce up their school wardrobe, and I thought it was a brilliant business plan. So here we go! Back on task!

If you haven't heard of Stitch Fix, let me tell you ALL about it. I recently subscribed to the service because I thought it was a great idea and I was curious. (I can honestly tell you that I was very close to coming up with this years ago for men. But I was a fashion merchandising student in school at FSU and no one took me seriously. I didn't even take myself seriously.)

Here is how Stitch Fix works:
- You sign up and create a style profile, complete with sizes, styles, colors, fit, etc. It is very easy and user friendly.
- You create a pinterest board called "Stitch Fix Inspiration" and pin outfits and styles you like.
- And wait for a delivery!!!!
- A stylist will be assigned your profile, and will view your inspirations.
- Once a month your stylist will send you 5 pieces of clothing, with a letter explaining each choice.
- You will need to try on each piece and decide what you want to keep.
- If you want it, keep it! If you don't, put it in the prepaid bag and send it back within 3 days.
- Each month you pay a $20 styling fee, but if you end up buying an item from your box they deduct that amount from your purchase.
- If you want to buy everything in your box you get a 25% discount.

It's that easy! I thought there was going to be these hidden fees or costs that you have to pay but their aren't! Well, unless you count jacking up prices, but what retailer doesn't? And it is sent to you, you don't even need to leave your house! I would pay a little extra for that.

Here is what I got in my very first fix: Styled by Sierra

Octavia Hayley Bird Print Infinity Scarf - $28

I love infinity scarves! I would wear them year-round if I didn't live in Florida. However, this scarf in particular was not my favorite. I was not huge on the bird print, and the color was a weird mix between pink and purple, making it hard to pair with many things; at least for me...not worth it. 

Verdict: Returned Willingly

Papermoon Heather Lace Detail Blouse - $48

I really like this shirt. I went back and forth between keeping and returning it. I love loose and flowing shirts for work. I have to be comfortable! I like the lace detail on the front neckline and back. The only problem with this shirt, is that I already have 2 that are very similar AND they are all dark in color. 

Verdict: Returned but sad

Gilli Haven Dress - $64 

I love this dress! I love the flowy skirt. I could do without the polka dots but the dress is very flattering and comfortable. It is also long enough for school! Hooray! The stylist suggested pairing it with a cardigan like this one, or wearing a sweater over the top and using it as a skirt.

Verdict: Happily Kept

Margaret M Emer Jacquard Straight Leg Pant - $98 

41Hawthorn Cordoba Elbow Patch Blazer - $84 

I had SUCH high hopes for this blazer! I love the elbow patch look, and I love blazers. So I thought win-win. Wrong! I don't know if it was because of the dark drab grey color, the tweed texture, or that it was slightly big on me, but I felt like a GRANDPA in it! I've seen girls pull it off. Maybe if it were a lighter color?

Don't even get me started on the pants. I hated them. They were teal but from far away they just look like weird skinny jeans with no zippers or pockets. What threw me completely was the print. It reminded me of a couch print or a companies logo. They also had this weird bunching thing in the crotch when you walk. These are the kind of pants that you cannot wear underwear with because you will always see a pantyline. Can't do it. They were very comfortable though, I will give them that. 

Verdict: Both Returned Willingly

Now, my goal is to love/buy at least one piece from each fix. I can build up my wardrobe slowly and actually use the $20, I would be spending on a styling fee, if I don't buy something. So the box was a success! I have a new dress for work and play! The stylists tell you that with every fix you get and give meaningful feedback, the more your stylist gets to know you and your style. So if you do get a box you don't like, send it back tell them why you don't like it. They can do better next time. Give them a chance to get to know you. I have heard of people having to change stylists or requesting senior stylists after several boxes that are totally off of their style. 

Still, tonight I am cuddling up in my favorite outfit: My fiancé's shirt ;-)

Keep it up for the little hands and continue working on those lesson plans!

- Amber

Physical Movement in the Classroom

 As a part of dreaded observations, I have chosen to focus on incorporating more physical movement in my classroom. As a reading teacher this year, I have missed the physical movement and fun academic games that can be incorporated in science and math. So I have been thinking of ideas to use with reading that get students up and out of their seats, while learning. There are many ways to incorporate more movement into your classroom. Here are a few ways I've been using physical movement in my classroom...

Kagan Strategy "Four Corners" 

This might be my students' favorite physical movement activity. I usually post a paper at each corner of the room. I ask students a question and they have to walk to their answer.

How I've used "Four Corners" in reading:
- Phonics: I write digraph blends or long and short vowels on a post-it in each corner, I read words one by one that are synonymous to one corner.
- Reading Comprehension: I put a characters name in each corner, and ask questions about the story. (ex: This character ___________.)

Kagan Strategy "In and Out Circles"

I will start this by saying, 2nd graders have a really hard time getting into two concentric circles. Haha! So another teacher suggested doing it in lines, and it was amazing! I have the students get into two lines facing each other. One partner acts as the teacher while the other is the student. After some time with the activity and their partner I have the last student in one of the lines switch to the other side and everyone moves down to a new partner.  And so on...

How I've used "In and Out Circles" in reading:
- Spelling: I write out the list of spelling words on the board. The line facing the board give their partner (facing away from the board) a word to spell. If they get it wrong, the teaching student corrects them.

- Sight word cards: One line holds the cards at a time. When partners switch a few times, have the lines switch the cards too.
- Vocabulary: Each student has a word (in both lines). Students need to tell their partner the meaning of the word their partner is holding and use it in a sentence. Students keep their own card as they switch partners.

Kagan Strategy "Stand up/Hand up/Pair up"

This is an easy one, and it doesn't take much time. When you ask a question, ask students to stand up, hand up and walk around the room. When you say pair up, they need to partner up with whomever is closest to them, and discuss the answer.

Tip: I often use "Stand up/Hand up/Pair up" on Monday morning so students can briefly talk about what they did the past weekend. Or their favorite part. They just have to tell SOMEONE!

How I've used Stand up/Hand up/Pair up in reading:
- recounting a story
- comparing answers to a question
- You can use it with any partnering activity

Gallery Walk

I used to use this with math ALL the time. This is very similar to "four corners" however, you can have more then 4 papers set up around the room. After you set up papers around the room, students  (partners/groups/individually) can walk to each paper and complete the short activity until the teacher calls time to switch. The students switch clockwise.

Tip: Sometimes I have students use a pencil and post-its at each table, or put the paper in a sheet protector and have students walk with a dry erase marker.

How I've used "Gallery Walk" in reading:
- Predicting/Asking Questions: I placed character names around the room and had students go to each and use a post-it to post a question to the character.
- Types of sentences: Each paper has a name of a type of sentence (Declarative, Imperative, etc.). Students need to come up with their own sentence on the paper. (I've used sheet protectors and dry erase markers for this one.

Snowball

I am not really sure if this is Kagan or not, but I use this pretty often in my classroom. Snowball is when each student writes something on a piece of paper, then crumbles it up into a "snowball." When all students are ready (and I count to 3) everyone throws their snowball in the same general direction. From there, each student gets to pick a new snowball and continue. This is amazing for anonymity. No student will get embarrassed because we do not write names.

Tip: Encourage students to have nice and neat handwriting so others can read it, and have students throw to a wide open area like the whiteboard or carpet area. (Snowballs still seem to go missing sometimes ;-)

How I've used "snowball" in reading:
 - Continuation writing: snowball after a few minutes of writing and pick up where your person left off
- Sequencing: after a read aloud, What happened at the beginning/middle/end? Snowball after each portion
- Agree/Disagree: After answering an open ended question...Do you agree or disagree with your snowball?
- Asking and answering questions: First round, students write a question on their paper that can be answered from a story we read. Second, we pick our new snowball and answer the question. Third, pick the new snowball and agree or disagree with the answer/correct it.
- Cause and Effect (Ex: Cause: It rained  Effect: _______) or (It rained, so ___________.)

Teacher Circle

In teacher circle, students gather with their whiteboards in a circle with the teacher in the middle. The teacher asks a question, and students answer on their whiteboards. On the count of three, students flip their whiteboards to the middle so the teacher can see their answers.

Tip: This works best with short responses.

Simon says...answering

I may have just made this up, I'm not sure. When asking students to answer a multiple choice question as a group I either have them answer in sign language, on a whiteboard, or simon says answering. Simon says answering works like this...I start by writing a key on the board. (Simon says: If the answer is A, sit on the floor; B, stand on one leg; C, hop up and down; D, sit in your seat.) Then  I ask students a series of multiple choice questions and I am able to informally assess their knowledge on any given subject. They LOVE it!

I hope this gives you some ideas to get your kids up and moving in the classroom. One thing I try to take away from school everyday is making at LEAST one lesson more fun for my students.

Keep it up for the little hands and continue working on those lesson plans!

- Amber

Substitute Folder

This year, our school asked each teacher to create a substitute folder to be held in the office for unexpected absences. I think this is a brilliant idea. The substitute doesn't have to go to the team leader and try to find information...AND even better, I don't have to stress about getting things together when I'm sick.

Here is what I included in my folder:

- Substitute Welcome Letter
- School map
- School extension list
- Class roster (with responsible students highlighted)
- Health/allergy information
- Dismissal list
- AM/PM Duty schedule
- Class schedule
- Specials rotation list
- Lunch table number/map
- Center groups
- Emergency procedures
- Classroom procedures and rules
- Emergency worksheets to be copied
- Substitute activity ideas
- Loose leaf paper (for notes and updates)

And HERE WE GO!!

I cannot BELIEVE it is the middle of the first week of school already! I have been so busy, I haven't been able to even think about posting. My kids are awesome. I am so impressed with how much they learned in first grade last year! GREAT JOB first grade team!

I have SO MANY new students who joined our school for our Engineering and Technology magnet, which makes me so unbelievably happy!

I LOVE getting to know my kids. The first week can make or break a school year, and definitely sets the tone. I was taught to be strict the first couple of weeks of the school year and followed that notion in previous years. I was very strict year round. This year, however, I am trying a different approach. This approach may not be for every teaching style but so far is working for me. My classroom has always been very organized and very structured. I have rules (obviously) and a procedure for absolutely every possible scenario in my classroom. My students do not do well with down time, so I cut out most, if not all down time. I teach the students exactly what I expect and remind them of procedures often. I am very consistent and fair with every student. Since my classroom, classroom management plan, and procedures are so structured, I am able to focus on building relationships with my students right off the bat this year. I can honestly say that I have enjoyed the past three days of building relationships with my students WAY more than the days I spent being extremely stern. 

Rita Pierson once said "Kids don't learn from people they don't like." This gave me the thought of building relationships as soon as possible to see how far it could take us. I am really excited with what I see so far. I have noticed that kids don't like disappointing people they like either. I try to get as many of my students to smile throughout the day as possible. This could be as simple as smiling at them while you talk to them, giving them a compliment, and telling them you care about them. They love attention, no matter how small. If they aren't getting good attention then they will try for negative attention. They don't care, they just need it from someone. I am trying to give all 18 of my students as much positive attention I can dish out to forego any negative attention attempts. We will see how this year goes.

Keep it up for the little hands and continue working on those lesson plans!

- Amber

Meet the Teacher

Meet the teacher went pretty well this year. I didn't have as many students/parents show up as last year, but the students and parents that I did meet were amazing! Here are a few of the things I did this year for Meet the Teacher. 

I try to always set up a student station. During Meet the Teacher, parents usually have a lot of paperwork to fill out, things to read, and a teacher to talk to. I learned my first year of teaching that during this time, their children are not very patient. I've seen parents get REALLY frustrated. I do not have children of my own (yet) but I thought about what would make it easier for my parents to have the time to talk to me, and fill out the appropriate forms. I came up with a coloring station. I posted a prompt "What was your favorite part of your summer?" As I met students I asked them to draw their favorite part of their summer, so I could post it for the first day of school. I ask them to write a couple sentences (if they can) and tell me about it when they are done. I can loosely gauge a students abilities here too. Parents really appreciated it. I had whole families and siblings coloring and talking about their favorite parts of summer. Students were literally dragged out of the classroom to meet other siblings teachers. SUCCESS!

The first stop for parents was the sign in table. I placed my wish list here, with fingers crossed. I definitely had more takers last year but I had more parents show up last year too. There is no harm in asking. My first year I didn't put out a wish list because I knew the poverty level at my school was very high. But I just place them in sight and do not pressure anyone to donate. If they can, they do. My wish list sign said "Please lend a helping hand... pick a hand to donate that item to our classroom. We would greatly appreciate it. - Ms. Lemos" 

I placed all name tags on the board so students (and parents) could pick their seats. After Meet the Teacher, I was able to figure out who didn't make it and place the rest of the students where I wanted them. 

Believe it or not, every student picked a seat as close to the front as possible, without their parent telling them. I was shocked. Once their student picked a seat, the parent would get to work filling out the student information form on that desk. 

Each desk had a bottle of water, a gift bag, a student information sheet, a pen, a book, my classroom management plan, and a letter from a student from my 2014-2015 school year. I am so happy I decided to have my students write these letters last year to the incoming 2nd graders. Reading these letters was hilarious! I laughed and laughed at the tips and advice my old students wrote to my new students about being in my class. One of my favorite quotes "Ms. Lemos is so fun. Don't break her rules, you will not like it." LOL! Sounds awful! 

I gave each student a chapter book to keep. I received a donated box of High School Musical chapter books from A Gift for Teaching. Some of my students cannot read chapter books yet, but I gave them a goal that by the end of the year they will be able to read them by themselves. For now I told them to ask a parent to read it to them and use it for homework. 

Welcome bags...this was something I was adamant about doing this year. Growing up, I always helped my Aunt set up her classroom for MTT. She always had a bag for the student/parents to take. I believe hers may have been an emergency school year kit. I wanted my welcome bags to act as my welcome letter. I wanted everything in the bag to somehow be incorporated into the letter as well.  This was harder for me than I thought it would be. Each bag had starburst, smarties, a bag of wise chips, and a bottle of water. The welcome letter read "Welcome to Ms. Lemos' reading class! I am so glad you are here! I was bursting with excitement to meet you. I know you are thirsty for knowledge and ready to learn. I am so lucky to have so many smarties this year! Have a great last weekend of summer! See you on Monday, wise guys! -Ms. Lemos"

Overall, MTT was a success. Despite the storm and crazy parking, families came to our classrooms with smiles on their faces. 

It was a great start to the 2015-2016 school year!

Keep it up for the little hands and continue working on those lesson plans!

- Amber 

Writing Folders

Writing folders...hmm.

Every year I change the way I do writing. Last year I used writing journals (spirals), and it worked pretty well. However, I realized that students were having a hard time finding their stories in their journal, and understanding which step in the writing process they were in. I found this writing folder idea, that I will be implementing this year.

You will need three 2-pocket folders, stapled together, to create a 6 pocket writing folder.

The first two pockets will be for blank writing paper. Probably primary handwriting paper in one pocket and lined paper in the other.

The next two pockets start the writing process. The first pocket is for prewrite. Students will brainstorm their ideas for their writing and keep it in this pocket. After brainstorming, students will work on their rough drafts and leave it in this pocket.

When students move to the revising phase of writing, they move their paper to the revising pocket. Lastly, students work on the final draft and keep their work here.

I am excited to try it this year. Who knows maybe it will stick.

Let's keep it up for the little hands, and continue working on our lesson plans.

- Amber

Interactive Notebooks

I think interactive notebooks are brilliant! If I would've known about them, I would've incorporated them into my lesson plans a while ago! An interactive notebook is a notebook or journal (I prefer composition notebooks) that students use to hold important information that they can interact with in different ways. This may be worksheets, cut, colored and glued into the notebook with important grade level content, graphic organizers drawn or glued in, small flip books, etc.

I found all of my interactive notebook pages on TeachersPayTeachers. I am teaching ELA this year, so all of my interactive notebook pages are obviously Reading/Language Arts. However, there are interactive notebook pages, worksheets and ideas for almost every grade and every subject. My interactive notebook pages came from Nicole Shelby and Laurane Rae.

I DID NOT create these pages, but I wanted to show you an idea I had to aid in the lesson planning process. If you like my idea and would like to integrate interactive notebooks into your curriculum, please check out Interactive Notebook Pages on TPT.

I created a teacher Interactive Notebook binder to help aid in lesson planning and be used as a sample/example for student work. I will also use this binder as a reference to remember what important information should be filled in by students.

Inside this binder, I have ALL interactive notebook pages placed inside sheet protecters. All extra printouts are also inside each sheet protector (in case your students need extra copies). 

I have my interactive binder tabbed by subject. Since I am teaching ELA this year, I have Phonics, Language Arts and Reading. Each tab has a table of contents written down in order of standard.

This will help in the lesson planning process as well. I will be bringing this binder to planning meetings to make sure we are hitting each standard, and inputing important interactive pages into our plans. 

I will let you know how it goes this year!

Let's keep it up for the little hands, and continue working on our lesson plans!

- Amber