I love using technology! I know technology has a time and place, but that doesn't keep me from asking my principal to get my class it's very own set of Chromebooks. Right now we share a class set of Chromebooks with four other classes. It works -- but there's so much more I could do if I had better access.  It's not feasible for 3rd graders to go completely paperless, but I'd like to give it a try to help avoid these situations.  I had an epiphany while I was teaching reading and writing larger numbers. Whenever I would write a number on the board in word form, I wondered what ..read more

I won't lie - I am not fond (huge understatement!) of decorating. Which can be a problem because I teach next to teachers who have pinteresty classrooms!I tend to get caught up in other things and forget about changing out bulletin boards. Does anyone else have this problem? Then I had a light bulb moment - what if I kept the main part of my bulletin board intact and just added seasonal touches to it? I really got excited about this idea. I think it may be the only time I've gotten excited about any of my own decorating ideas. I started off by begging my very talented artistic friend to m ..read more

Congratulations to Leigh Anne! She won the $10 TpT gift card. I appreciate everyone who entered the giveaway and wish I had a gift card for all of you. Don't forget to shop TpT's cyber sale today and tomorrow to stock up on resources for your classroom ..read more

Woohoo! It's time for some Cyber Monday shopping. Teachers Pay Teachers is gearing up for a big sale tomorrow and I'm so excited!   It's time to make your list and check it twice. Then if you're like me, go back and add more to it! There's so much to choose from - - - digital resources, task cards, Christmas activities, and ALL the upcoming units we will be teaching! With all the shopping to be done, we all need gift cards. TpT has been gracious enough to gift me with a $10 gift card to pass along to you. Enter below for your chance to win. I will announce the winner Monday eveni ..read more

Happy Monday everyone! I'm back today with another FLASH FREEBIE for you. If you haven't caught the Boom Learning card bug yet, you seriously need to. I utilize Boom Cards during my RtI and math stations time. Students have fun "playing" and I  have valuable data on their progress. Every year I have parents asking me for extra worksheets for their kids. Boom Learning makes a nice alternative.  Not only can you see how many problems your kids missed, you can also see the specific problem they missed and which answer they chose. I love this! This data helps guide my remediation g ..read more

I know you've all seen this meme. It's funny! Then you really start thinking about it, and it's not so funny anymore. This meme helped me realize how grateful I am that I have the tools that I need to create my own resources for my classroom. Recently I've been making a bunch of digital task cards that are hosted at Boom Learning. Have you heard of Boom Learning℠? I recently discovered this neat little app that is a big hit with my students. I'm making this an integral part of my instruction and you should too. What's the hype about? Boom Cards are interactive, digital task cards – no p ..read more

Have you heard of Boom Learning digital task cards? Wondering what the hype is all about?  I recently stumbled across this relatively new platform and I LOVE IT! I tested Boom Learning out with my students at the end of last school year. Boom Learning provided great paperless practice for my kids and they really enjoyed it! Whenever they had extra time, they would beg to work on Boom Learning decks! I was shocked! It's really hard to say no when they WANT to practice skills! Here are a few reasons why I'm loving Boom Learning digital task cards: 1. It's digital! - For you this mean ..read more

Oh my!! I'm guessing you have noticed these ugly images all over my blog. Ugh!! They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that means a blog can be difficult to read without the images. Well, looks like I won't be doing business with Photobucket any longer. It was time to move on anyway. So, I'm in the process of cleaning up the clutter and replacing my images. I imagine it's going to take some time, so please be patient with me. This is not how I planned to spend my summer, but on the bright side - this didn't happen when I had a bazillion other things going on! I hope you're havi ..read more

It's my least favorite time of the year. I've taught all my skills and now I need to start reviewing for the BIG test. Ugh! It's a really important time, but it's also too easy to stress out the kiddies. I work hard during this time so that my students can feel a sense of accomplishment and can feel good about themselves when they do well on the test. I alleviate some of the test pressure by reviewing with games. I love using PowerPoint games to review concepts all year long. These games are powerful. There are so many valuable teachable moments when we play these games. Many of the g ..read more

  St. Patrick’s Day is coming! This is not always a great time to be a teacher. It’s a fun holiday, but the whole pinching thing can be troublesome.  Since I’m always looking for ways to sneak in more multiplication fact practice, I created some St. Patrick’s Day themed worksheets. To make the whole "pinching thing" less painful for you, I'm offering this resource for free in my TpT store. Third graders are good at skip counting, but they start having trouble with the bigger numbers like 7s, 8s, and 9s. With this activity, my kids have to look through an assortment of numb ..read more