I can’t believe it’s my first official weekend of summer!!! This school year was my hardest and most draining to date, so I am ready to kick my feet back and relax this summer. In order to do that, I needed to get a couple of items to get my backyard ready for summer! I didn’t want to break the bank so I downloaded the Ibotta browser extension! It was so easy to set up and I love that it works with so many of my favorite stores  I headed to Walmart.com because I knew they would have what I wanted! I was searching for a blow up pool, cooler, beach towels, & some food/drink to enj ..read more

I have always wanted to do a scientist research project but always felt overwhelmed with narrowing down famous scientists for my 6th graders. When I first decided I was going to do this project, I literally searched “Famous Scientists” on Google. No surprise to anyone, 99% of the scientists listed were white males who were not alive. My very first lesson of the year was the “What does a scientist look like?” lesson. I was not about to have my students do a research project on these scientists. I really wanted a diverse list of scientists and inventors. I also wanted scientists that my students ..read more

*Many of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means that I make a small commission if you purchase something using my links. Thank you for always supporting my side hustle :)* COST: Before I dive into the content & the items that I used for Glow Games, I wanted to chat about the cost. The number one most asked question during & after Glow Games was, “Did you pay for all of this yourself?” The answer is a bit complicated. My district did NOT pay for one item that I used for Glow Games! With that being said, I 100% would not have been able to do Glow Games without parent d ..read more

Having a classroom management system in middle school is so hard!! A lot of it is too “elementary” for them and they just won’t buy into it! If you want a management system to work for any grade level, there has to be buy in from the students. When I was in college I had a professor who was like Mr. Feeney to me & he told us, “a child will do anything for a Jolly Rancher.” I used this to my advantage & made it into my classroom management system!  Jolly Rancher Wars is a weekly challenge where my 5 classes compete against each other. They have opportunities to earn points through ..read more

Welcome back to Josie’s Favorite Things of 2020! Tonight I am focusing on my teacher and tech favorites. Remember, these are all items I have personally and LOVE. I chose items that I ACTUALLY use as a teacher. These items are for the teachers in your lives or yourself if you are a teacher! This is not a post for parents on what to give their child’s teacher for Christmas!!  (But if you really want to know what your child’s teacher wants this year: it’s a hand written note, or gift cards & wine.) These are items that I use daily as a teacher and can’t live without! Again, to be trans ..read more

Hey there, friend!! Welcome to my first ever “Josie’s Favorite Things!”  I remember my mom waiting for the Oprah’s Favorite Things episode every year when I was younger. I love all the Gift Guides I have been seeing, but I wanted to put my own personal twist on them. Rather than putting together a bunch of popular items that I may have never even tried, I decided to put together a list of my tried and true products. These are items that you see me wearing all the time, items I repurchase, items I have used for years, and honestly just the items I rave about to my friends and family! Over ..read more

*This post is sponsored by Amazon Home. Like many of you, I am working from home more than usual these days. My district is currently 100% virtual through at least the middle of October. We are required to teach live 3 days a week and have asynchronous lessons on the other 2 days. I choose to stay home and record lessons, provide feedback to my students, grade, and plan on the asynchronous days. At the beginning of this unusual school year, I was going crazy working inside the house on the days that I didn’t go into school. I knew something had to change! This is when I found Amazon Home and d ..read more

If you haven’t heard of Merge Cubes, then I think you may have been living under a rock for the past few years! If you want a class set of Merge Cubes and a free subscription, stay tuned until the end of this post! Three years ago my technology coach came to me with a Merge Cube in her hand. She was so excited to show me this new augmented reality cube to use in my science classroom. All you need is a cube and the app! The app reads the code on the cube and creates augmented reality through your phone. The other 2 science teachers and I all freaked out when she showed us! We could hold the ent ..read more

I am so excited to show you a little sneak peek into my new at-home office! I have always wanted an office at home because all of my teacher related items are usually just all over my kitchen, bed, floor, etc. (you know the drill). I wanted a space that was dedicated to all of my classroom supplies I needed at home, while still being organized. I also didn’t want to break the bank while designing a space at home. With all of the unknowns with the upcoming school year, this organized space will also be perfect for teaching at home if necessary!   Michaels has a new organizational line call ..read more

Each week, I have an open Google Meet session with my students. Every teacher on my team is assigned a different day of the week so that every day the students can meet with a different teacher. This is NOT required & is just a time for them to ask questions, get feedback, hangout, and honestly just socialize with their classmates. We have around 140 students on our team and we have around 25 students show up to our virtual meetings. This is just reality! I have tried to have a plan of attack so it’s not just 30 minutes of randomness. Last week I played Quizizz and Quizlet Live with my stu ..read more