Back to School Success: Meet the Teacher Template

Something I have wanted to do the past few years is a letter to introduce myself to my new class and their families.  With the back to school to-do list a million miles long each year, that letter kept getting put off.  This year I got a super early start and I am pretty excited to share it.  Here it is!

Of course I had to make it in Spanish as well.  Color printing is a huge deal at my school, so I have to decide between printing in color at home, or printing the black and white version at school.  I plan on either handing this out at Open House or sending it home with my students the first day of school.  My only hesitation about giving it out at Open House is that I feel like there are so many papers they go home with already!

You can grab the editable template to make this Meet the Teacher note in English and Spanish, color and black and white here.

Motivate Students to Read at Home with BINGO!

I was tired of my plain old reading logs with spots for the date, title of the book(s) read and parent signature.  My students were not motivated or excited.  I only had about 75% of reading logs signed daily.  The others... I was lucky if they were signed once a month.  Were the students who had their reading logs signed daily actually reading for 20 minutes?  Probably not.  I think that, for the parents, as long as their child read SOMETHING, they signed the reading log.

Then I saw a few versions of Reading BINGO.  Of course I needed something different.  Reading logs for my dual language first grade classroom have to be in both English AND Spanish (back-to-back with the same options in both languages), simple enough for firsties, and easy enough for them to accomplish all of the tasks (keeping in mind many things including lack of resources at home and a big range of reading abilities).

I created four versions of Reading BINGO in a 4x4 grid.  Parents are only supposed to sign off on one square per day.  That doesn't mean that students can't do more than one in a day, but they need to choose which box they want to mark off.  When they have the entire card filled out, they can turn it in for a prize of the teacher's choosing.

My plan is to start this with my new group right away in the fall.  Right now I have a few very eager guinea pigs testing it out.  They were so excited to be the special testers and to show me what they had done each day. My sister, who teaches in a bilingual kindergarten class of all native Spanish-speakers, started doing this with her whole class.  She said that her students are motivated and loving it too.  Starting it mid-year, she did have to answer a few questions from parents, but it has been very well received by parents and students alike.

If you want to grab these worksheets for your class, there are three options available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  You can get the Spanish only version here, the English only version here, or the bilingual bundle here.  All versions also include an editable PowerPoint template to create your own Reading BINGO.  Enjoy!

Fanatics of Jonathan London's Character Froggy

My students are Froggy fanatics!  I have been teaching Jonathan London author studies the past few years, usually in Spanish.  This was my first year teaching it in English and my students were so excited to learn that a new book, Froggy Goes to the Library, was coming out while we were doing our Jonathan London author study (March 2016).  They could not WAIT for me to get it from the library.  It did not disappoint.

Being a dual language classroom, only about an hour a day is in English in the classroom.  Most of the year we focused on extending the previous content unit studied in Spanish.  We took a break from that to do an author study and even the normally quiet students became active participants.  All four language domains were being used and their language took off.  I started by spending a few days on a book, but quickly ditched that idea and went to a new book a day when possible.  I did this so we could get through more books (think of all the new language!) and to keep their interest since they could not get enough of Froggy.

Some days we focused more on oral activities like sharing a prediction, retelling the story, sharing our favorite part or a talking about text connections (text-to-text and text-to-self).  Other days I read a new story and they did a quick partner share before writing on some of the worksheets I made to go along with their books.  I do not teach writing in English, so keep that in mind when you read their examples. :)

Worksheet to go along with Froggy Bakes a Cake

Worksheet for favorite Froggy book - Their reasons were so funny!

If you want to grab these and the other Froggy worksheets, click on the images above or click here to see the product in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Little Known TpT Tips for Buyers

For years before I finally decided to become a seller on Teachers pay Teachers, I was solely a buyer.  Here are a few things I learned over the years that I feel like many buyers don't know:

1.  Feedback = TpT Credits

That's right.  After you buy a product, make sure you go back and leave some love for the teacher-author!  For every dollar you spend, you will earn one TpT credit.  They even round up for you!  It seems like nobody does that anymore in the buyer's favor!  Don't believe me?  Click here to read more.

2.  Leaving Feedback vs. Product Q&A

Believe it or not, sellers love to hear from the people using our resources.  We love those warm fuzzies!  BUT, we are human and no matter how many times we look something over and even our colleagues look things over for us, sometimes something slips by.  If you do find a mistake of some sort in a product that you download for free or purchase, please let the seller know!  This is not done through leaving negative feedback.  If you find something in the product like a typo or a flat out mistake you should contact the seller through the Q&A first.  Give him/her a reasonable amount of time to respond.  Most sellers I have contacted with a problem have been very quick to respond and have been so gracious.  One even let me pick another product of hers for free for pointing out a few mistakes!

3. Check your My Purchases for updates

Products are updated for a number of reasons.  Sometimes sellers choose to update the style of the product, add pages, update content, etc.  Since you already purchased the item, you can simply download the updated version at no additional cost.   Next to the product icon, you will see a note in red font saying "Newly Revised Re-Download."

I did it!

Yikes!  I finally took the plunge and became a seller on Teachers Pay Teachers.  After 7+ years of being a bilingual teacher and having to create countless resources to use with my students, I decided to take things to the next level by making items available for others in the same situation.  I'll start with an introduction and a little about my teaching journey.

When not at school, I love to scrapbook, play volleyball, travel, and spend time with my family.  I am busy at home with my wonderful husband, two stepdaughters (12 and 14) and 3-year-old twin daughters.  My husband is very handy and often gets put to work making things for my classroom.  I am sure I will show off some of his handiwork in the future!  The older girls are busy with sports and always keep us running.  The younger girls love to play outside and with dolls.  Twins are amazing and it has been so fun watching them grow up together.

My first year teaching was a difficult one.  The first half of the day was spent teaching literacy to a mixed group of kindergarteners and 2nd graders.  (Yes, literacy for K/2. At the same time.)  In the afternoon I taught literacy to third graders.  Not being part of one grade level meant I didn't really have a team to work with.  The next year I switched to teaching a bilingual first grade class and joined a team with 3 others bilingual teachers.  Collaboration is a beautiful thing!  The following year I had to switch roles again and was moved to the dual immersion program.  I have been teaching dual language since then and love watching the students learn from one another.  At my school I am lucky enough to work with two other first grade bilingual teachers who are very willing to plan together and share resources.

I am excited to become a member of the blogging community and to share some of my classroom experiences with you!