Getting Ready for Next Year While Still Relaxing!

Are you looking for some quick summer ideas to start getting ready for Back to School?  Be sure to stop by the Virginia is for Teacher's Blog to see my suggestions!

Transforming My Classroom into a STEM Lab: Part I

*I have not been compensated in any way for the products mentioned in this post.

Over the past four years, I have transformed my classroom space into a STEM lab that is available for our entire school to use.  Here is a little background information:

• I'm our school's Gifted Resource Teacher.  I don't have a "homeroom" class of my own, but I work with identified Gifted students and their teachers in grades K-5.  Our county has a collaborative teaching model, meaning I push into classrooms to plan and implement lessons with all students.
• I have a full size classroom of my own, but it is accessible to any teacher in our building to utilize.
• I have amazing support from my building administrators and my Gifted Coordinator at the division level. 
• Our county has an Education Foundation that has funded many of the things I'll talk about. Each Spring they ask for teachers to submit proposals for projects and I've been awarded grants three years in a row.
• Other funding has come from Donor's Choose, instructional supply money, and our awesome PTA.

Top 5 Reasons I Love Planbook.com

*This post is not endorsed by planbook.com in any way.  I just really love the service!

Lesson Plans, circa 2008.  Yikes.

Over the course of my teaching career, I've changed the way that I write my lessons plans many times. I started with paper pencil and an outline of my week that I made on the computer.  I made enough copies for each week of the school year and traveled around with them in a big teacher binder. I liked being able to change plans quickly, but was a pain when I left my plans at home, or at school and I needed them somewhere else.  I also was frustrated when I wanted to use the same lesson from a previous year and had to re-write everything.