Must Have Monday

Well most Texas teachers started their contracts today. It is Teacher Week over at Blog Hoppin. I'll try to keep up the best I can. Today is Must Have Monday so I'll share a few of my must haves.

1. Document Camera

These are awesome. This is my first year to have the lady bug. At my old school I had a different kind that took up tons of space. Actually, last year I got the bright link. Ya know, like a Smart Board but this is a fair trade for the new job :) I'll happily downsize. If you're not familiar with these basically they replace the "old school" overhead projector type things. It makes modeling and guided practice 10 times easier.

2. Microwave

When you have a whopping 30 minutes for lunch and that includes escorting your kiddos and picking them up, waiting in line to microwave your food is simply not an option. Well, not for me anyway! Also, I usually eat oatmeal every morning and sometimes pop popcorn during conference time.

3. Discovery Education

Our district has a subscription to this and I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! You can filter to find videos on almost any topic according to grade, full video, segments, content. The Math videos are pretty awesome and so are the Social Studies. And...they have like every single Magic School Bus movie on there. Oh and Time Warp Trio, oh and Maya and Miguel, oh and Kenny the Shark. Perfect videos for those indoor recess days. Last year I figured out they had the Reading Rainbow videos! That made me BEYOND excited. It gave me a whole nutha reason to love those inside recess days. The math videos are good to use for your "hook". The kids get all in to it. Mine would get carried away and start yelling at the characters that were problem solving.

4.  A Fun Environment and Faculty





If you can have fun and be happy on the job then you will get the best results. This is a group of old co-workers at a team mates wedding. We were making crazy faces. This is one of my favorite pictures lol. I'm sure they'll send me lovely text later for posting this :)