New Year's Resolutions: 2016

I can't believe 2015 is already over! It's difficult for me to put 2015 into words - it was a weird transition year. I graduated from college in 2014 so 2015 was my first full year out of college, I did not have a full year teaching position, I was still adjusting to balancing friendships and work life, and overall just trying to find my place. 2015 did bring me into this fabulous world of teacher bloggers and entrepreneurs which I am beyond thankful for! Overall I think 2015 was the year of laying the groundwork for an amazing 2016! There are many projects I've started and many goals I have begun working towards and I think I've done some great work to see those things really take off in 2016.

This brings me to this fabulous link-up hosted by Teach.Talk.Inspire and My Day in K. I cannot wait to share my 2016 resolutions with you so I can be held accountable. I would love for you to comment at the end with your own resolutions or link to your own blog post with your resolutions.

1. Find efficiency - I think efficient will be one of my big words in 2016. Like 90% of the world, I've got a lot going on in my life and it's been difficult for me to find the balance between everything. I want to spend 2016 finding ways to work more efficiently in order to maximize my time and allow more time for the amazing people in my life. Whether I need a new planner system, a different set-up for my room, an app to manage my time, or a clearer meal plan system, I'm all about finding ways to be the most productive person I can be this year.

2. Take care of myself - With the time issues I struggle with comes the lack of time that I spend on myself. I want to put forth more effort this year on working out at the gym more regularly, eating better foods (or eating not so great foods more in moderation), drinking more water, and taking time to reflect on a daily basis.

3. Stay in the moment - My mind is constantly going a million miles a minute. I find myself thinking about work and things to do all of the time. This year I want to be in the moment. If I am taking a dance class, nothing else matters besides that class and my movement. If I am with friends, my lesson planning or choreography can wait until later - no matter how great my idea might be. I want to enjoy the space I'm in and the people I'm with using more intention.

4. Connect more - In 2015, I've gotten lazy when it comes to text people back, emailing back in a timely manner, and making plans in general. It's time for that to be done! I want to make sure that I'm showing the people around me that they are important to me and that means dedicating the time to respond and make plans.

What resolutions have you made for the new year? Comment below or post a comment on my Instagram photo!

I'm guessing this will be my last post of the year but I have MANY preplanned posts for 2016! Follow me on Bloglovin' or Instagram (@teachdancedream) to stay connected!

Enjoy the rest of 2015!

Allie

Custom T-Shirt Designs

I don't know about you, but I have a T-shirt for everything! We have school T-shirts, district T-shirts, one for every club and group in high school and college, and for every dance recital I have every participated in. Let's just say they take up more than a drawer in my house. Yikes! Now that I'm working to build my brand and business, I wanted a shirt that would promote my blog concept: Teach.Dance.Dream. I had no design, no colors, nothing. I wanted to make sure that I was being careful with where I was spending my money to start my brand.

Sorry for the wrinkles! My iron was not working today.

In late September, A+ Images had an amazing deal for bloggers to receive a custom designed shirt. You could upload your logo onto a shirt, or use their custom designer to add fonts and images to a shirt of your choosing. The custom designer was one of the easiest T-shirt design tools that I have worked with. While I went through a couple visions of what I wanted, the program was easy to navigate. In all, I decided on a simple shirt that just had my blog name as text so I could use it as a conversation starter. Once I have my blog designed later on, I knew I would be ordering another shirt.

About a month after this promotion, I went to the Midwest Teacher Blogger Meet Up. Our fabulous No Coast = Best Coast shirts were again a product from A+ Images. We all loved them! Look at how great they look. The ability to upload your own image means you can predesign with your own fonts (yay!) and then put your custom vision onto a shirt in just a few easy steps.

I would highly recommend following A+ Images on their social media sites (Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram) or visiting their website (www.aplusimages.com). Here are my top 4 reasons why:

1. Custom T-shirts made using the custom designer!
2. Teacher Apparel. Yes, they have pre-designed teacher apparel for all grades and many specialties.
3. Classroom shirts are available for your whole class or as a great present for a teacher.
4. Promotions! While the prices for their shirts are great, A+ Images has some amazing promotions for teacher bloggers throughout the year too. Be sure to follow them before the 1st of the year so you don't miss any 2016 promotions!

Allie

Currently - December Edition

Hello everyone!

Wow it has been awhile since I've blogged. Here's an update on what's been going on in my world.

Listening: Christmas music definitely takes over my music library during the holiday season. I love holiday music so much that I have 19.5 HOURS of Christmas music on my computer! Everything from Mariah Carey and Jessica Simpson, to 98 degrees and *NSYNC, to the classic singers like Julie Andrews and Burl Ives. I absolutely love it all!

Loving: The holiday season is by far my favorite time of year. Everything feels cozier and while it is freezing or snowing constantly in Minnesota, a warm blanket and fireplace makes it all better. Not to mention my obsession with hot chocolate escalates. Leading into the new year encourages me to spend time reflecting and reevaluating how I feel about all aspects of my life. I think taking time to reflect and appreciate is important. Somehow the craziness of this season helps me slow down a bit and do just that.

Thinking: Big ideas is for sure. Have you ever taken StrengthsFinder? If not I highly suggest it! One of my top 5 strengths is ideation. Boy is it in full effect right now! I've taken some time to look at the organizations I am involved in and the ways I can help push them into more successful and active directions. I cannot wait to share ideas with people in all of these groups. Now if only I had more ideas for products to really get hustling on my TPT store...

Wanting: I am trying my darnedest to get through "Move Your Bus" by Ron Clark for the THM chat this Friday on Blab at 9pm central. The book is excellent, but unfortunately at the end of these long days all I want is sleep. Tomorrow is my day to power through the rest of the book. Fingers crossed that I am able to finish it!

Needing: Part of the reason I haven't posted on here or Instagram (@teachdancedream) lately is feeling overwhelmed with all of the social media accounts I am supposed to be manning. I just haven't been getting posts up. I need to organize and plan where I am going with everything. I have an idea to help myself. If it works, my plan will be on the blog later this month. 

Real or Faux: Since I can remember, our tree has always been a fake tree. I would love to have a real tree at least once for the experience, but this year was not that year. 

I hope each of you can find the time to balance work, family, and all of the other hats you wear during this time of year!

Head over to Oh Boy Fourth Grade to link up with your own post. As always, I would love for you to follow me on Instagram or Bloglovin' for updates.

Allie

Guest Speakers to Bring to Your Classroom!

Hello!

I had a FANTASTIC week at school this past week and I felt the need to share some of the cool things my students were able to experience. I really worked this week to make our social students unit on Ancient Civilizations as interactive as possible, and we had 2 guest speakers. Both speakers had fabulous content and spoke at an age-appropriate level (which is hard to find in my experience). So let me begin filling you in!

First, Erin Soderberg, author of the series The Quirks and Puppy Pirates, visited our school to talk about her experiences with reading and writing, her story of becoming an author, and to read a small sample of one of her books. The entire presentation was engaging and inspiring for students. There was a clear message that in order to become a better author, you not only need to write more, but you also need to read more. Through reading you understand how other authors build images, construct characters, and use vocabulary.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.erinsoderberg.com/

After the presentation, I began reading her book The Quirks - Welcome to Normal. While I've only gotten into the first 50 pages, the book points out many relatable emotions and invites you into the fantasy world of this family. I highly recommend the book. I also dug a bit into her website and learned that does FREE 20 minute virtual author visits. While she is based out of Minnesota and does travel/visit schools (for a fee - clearly outlined on her website), I just was astounded that she is willing to pop into classrooms via Skype for free. Not only does Erin have these children's book series, she also writes under the name Erin Downing for her Tween, Teen, and Adult books.

Photo courtesy of: http://www.erinsoderberg.com/

The second visitor this week in third grade was a representative from the Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota. The speaker presented to the staff in the morning and then a few grade levels later on in the day. I was blown away not only by the information I received in the staff training, but by the number of misconceptions I held about seizures and epilepsy. Did you know that epilepsy is the most common neurological condition in children? 1 in 10 people will have a seizure in their lifetime! I had no idea that seizures were this common. However, I feel much equipped to not only recognize a few of the many types of seizures, but also to react in a way that is helpful.

My students were fascinated with the information they learned from the speaker as well. She made it very kid-friendly and reduced fears and concerns that some children held. After a presentation, she read a book that made the content even more relatable. Unfortunately, I cannot remember the name. While serious events are difficult to discuss with students, I believe that they will now be able to respond better in a scary situation. Our school is now a Seizure Smart School!

The last part of my week that I would like to share with you is our social studies unit. We are currently learning about Ancient Civilizations and started with Ancient Egypt. In order to make the unit a bit more interactive, we wrote our name in hieroglyphics and started an Ancient Civilization suitcase. The suitcase will function as an interactive notebook, although we have not spent much time with it yet.

The hieroglyphic name writing is simple, but every single was of my students was engaged and having fun while learning. Each student started with a copy of a hieroglyphic alphabet that I print from Scholastic as well as part of a brown paper bag. They crumpled up the brown paper bag into a little ball. When they spread the paper back into a flat sheet, they wrote their name in marker after spacing the letters of their name with a pencil. It only took about 10 minutes but the kids loved it and the markers helped make it look older. Check out some of their work below. (Side note: I know this activity is pretty common and it's probably been around Pinterest too - although I do not have an exact name to credit.)

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you all have a wonderful week! As always, follow my blog for updates. You may also find me on Instagram: @teachdancedream.

Allie

Currently - October Edition

Hello everyone!
It has been awhile since I've posted but no worries, I have a lot coming up. This new job has me working hard! (I will get into that below.) This month I am linking up with Farley for Currently.

Listening: On Friday nights that I am home, I LOVE listening to Shelia Jane's blab show. It's a great place to debrief the week and have some fun! While I'm not one that joins in the seats, commenting and watching the GIFs roll by is great. Check it out next week (Fridays at 9pm Central time). You don't need to be a Teach Happy Member to watch. I'm not one yet but I would like to be soon. 

Loving: This was my first full week in my new position (a long term substitute job in 3rd grade) and I am LOVING IT! The staff is warm, welcoming, and supportive. I couldn't ask for any more from them. I was told before I started that this school was definitely a community school and I couldn't agree more. While it's been a little chatty this week, my students are hard working and passionate.

Thinking: Since it's my first week and we had a planning meeting for our early release collaboration, I need to rethink my general schedule and get it in my planning book. I'm hoping to get at least the next two weeks done this week so I can breathe easy for awhile (plus next week is a short week thanks to MEA!).

Wanting: I'm slowly building all the parts of my teacher blogger persona. I'm working to get better at posting regularly, starting a Facebook page, Instagram, Twitter, and TPT store. I want to try and get a few products in my store right away. As soon as I have a couple completed I will start posting. I've also signed up to have my blog redone by L. Paull Designs For All. The redo won't take place until the new year but I'm extremely excited!

Needing: With the new job, staying late to get my act together, and teaching dance classes, sleep has not been a priority this week. I'm hoping for 8 hours tonight so I can start to feel refreshed!

Boo-tiful: Fall leaves are one of the main reasons I like fall. Fall is not my favorite season (unlike most people) but I do love the beauty of leaves changing. One of the best experiences is driving to my Alma Mater during the fall because there are beautiful groves on the drive that are just jaw-droppingly stunning. I get to visit next weekend for a workshop since I am my class president.

Thank you for reading! I've got a few posts coming in the next 2 weeks including one this weekend about the fabulous author visit at my school this past week. For information on when I post, follow me on BlogLovin' or on Instagram (@teachdancedream).

Allie

Back to School Thoughts

Hello!

Today I am linking up with The Primary Pack to let you know my thoughts on Back to School time! While this time of year means a lot of things, the number one thought I have during back to school time is NEW! New school supplies, new clothing, new faces, new students, new schedule, new experiences. I just love that even though it may happen like clockwork, the start of the school year adds in a nice twist to life. I have filled out the form below which tells you all of my thoughts on Back to School!

Reminds me of... When I think about back to school, my first thought is back to school shopping. Every year when I was young my mom would take my 2 younger siblings and myself to Target. I LOVED the stacks of new notebooks, pens, notecards, scissors, erasers (and I still do)! I loved the changes in grades when I could finally buy locker materials, or the big kid calculator. I was definitely the kid that bugged her mom to get to the store the second the school shopping list came in the mail!

Makes me want... School supplies make me super happy, but back to school also means chillier weather. This is the perfect time of year to stock up on leggings, boots, scarfs, new jeans and more! I'm a complete dress girl in the summer (it's a rarity for me to wear anything else!) so I tend to need to make wardrobe updates during this time of year. While I want summer to last longer, I definitely want to be prepared for the chilly, Minnesota sweater weather.

Drives me to... With my love of school supplies comes the need to be the thriftiest person ever. Yes I go to Office Depot & Staples weekly from the first week in August until the first week in September. Yes I buy things that I may not totally need. But if I'm already there and pencil eraser tops are 1 cent, you know they are in my basket. I typically try and spend just near the minimum to get the deals, but some weeks I get carried away. I continually tell myself that I'm saving myself money 7 months from now when school supplies are not on sale and I'm running low. My credit card will probably be put away until holiday shopping starts.

Makes me need... More sleep is a must this time of year. For some reason, not getting much sleep in the summer really doesn't hurt me too much. Even nannying during the day is manageable on a small amount of sleep. However teaching in a classroom is a whole new world. I am a night owl through and through so it takes awhile, but eventually the exhaustion will set in and I will start to fall asleep at a bit more reasonable hour.

Causes me to... So many changes this time of year. With the hours I spent looking at blogs, periscopes, TPT products, and more this summer, I have an endless amount of my ideas in my head. I tend to rethink the way I organize everything - both digitally and my paper files. I choose a system that will fit the way I plan on working for this school year.

Makes me think... There is so much potential in a new school year. My students and I are both renewed. I come into the classroom with new ideas and teaching methods. I see so much potential in all of my students and I cannot even predict how much they will learn academically, and how much growth they will have as a kind, caring citizen in my classroom and at home. 

I'm so glad I had the chance to share with all of you. If you would like to participate, link back to The Primary Pack and find the blank template. As well, I've finally set up my Bloglovin icon on the side of my page. Please follow me for new posts and updates!

Allie

Teacher Week: Favorite Subject

Hello everyone!

Once again I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' for teacher week! Today is the last day and I will be telling you all about my favorite subject(s) to teach!

My favorite subject to teach varies a lot by grade level. In the past 3 years I have worked in Kindergarten, 3rd grade, and 5th grade! Yes, it's wide range of ages but I LOVE them all!

Kindergarten

Kindergarten is such an amazing year to watch. Even in the 1st month, I was amazed at how much progress my students had made. The subject that amazed me the most was writing. Most of my students entered my classroom not being able to write their name! By November, we were writing guided sentences with prompts at the beginning and students filling in their own answers near the end! Every day I was so proud of my students for their abilities to express themselves by sound-spelling words. There are so many skills and strategies to get students from a blank page to writing multiple sentences. For me, this subject was fun, rewarding, and allowed my students to be expressive! 

3rd Grade

In third grade, my favorite subject to teach is math. My students last year were able to feel so much ownership when they finally "got" multiplication, fractions, division, and more! So much of the math curriculum is interactive and I was able to delve into real world examples with my students. They found math relatable which was highly rewarding for me to see! The manipulative activities, task cards, and games that I was able to use at this level really made math come alive for students. 

5th Grade

Health is not only my favorite subject to teach in 5th grade, but it is also my all-time favorite subject to teach. When I was into my student teaching experience and was told that I would be teaching not only the basic health curriculum to my 5th graders, but the drug and alcohol unit as well, I was slightly terrified. While the curriculum had a lot of good information and lead points, I think I was most nervous about some of the questions that would come up - and boy did they! Besides some of the questions I expected - Why are these substances bad for you? How come adults can use them? - I got some questions I was not prepared for, such as: What is the difference between rum and beer? Why do some types of smoking cause the munchies and what are they? My cooperating teacher was wonderful though and helped me through my first round!

I ended up loving to teach this unit. I was able to have very honest and helpful discussions with my students about how the choices they make (positive or negative) affect them in so many ways. The curriculum also had us look at advertising strategies to entice people to buy as well as PSAs to warn against dangers.

Here are some of the PSAs that we looked at for smoking and alcohol use. The students were very quickly impacted!

At the end of the unit, my students had the task of creating their own PSA poster about at least 1 substance. This was their final assessment and showed me what they took away from the unit (as well as a paragraph that accompanied the poster). The heartfelt messages that my students showed in these ads were quite inspiring. 

This is a sample of a PSA that a student made. Sorry for the shadows - I took this for personal records ! I never thought I would be blogging with it :)

Once the ads were graded, my students took them home and were able to share them with their families. Get this - many of my students STARTED THE CONVERSATION about drugs and alcohol with their parents. They told their parents about the dangers and some students even requested that their own parents make lifestyle changes. I absolutely love that knowledge about health made my students feel empowered to make changes in their own homes. Definitely a proud teacher moment! 

Thank you for joining me again today! Be sure to jump over to Blog Hoppin' for more favorite subjects!

 Have a lovely Labor Day weekend!

Allie

Teacher Week: Sanity Savers

Hello everyone!

I'm back again for the fourth day of Teacher Week with Blog Hoppin'. Today we are focusing on sanity savers to make work life just a little easier.

I have 5 teacher tips that help keep me organized, motivated, and reduce my stress levels. I hope at least 1 works for you as well!

1. Google Drive - I will admit it, Google drive is probably the only reason I can put as much on my plate as I do. I run most of my life (besides the calendar - Erin Condren helps with that one) out of my Google account.

This is my folder from last spring's long term substitute job. I could share the folders and documents I wanted while accessing everything for myself at home!

Some of my favorite parts of Google Drive:
-I like to work on my own personal computer at home and my school computer at work. Google drive lets me create all sorts of files using its programs. I can also upload ENTIRE FOLDERS of my work into my drive and just download them at school. I am notorious for losing flash drives so this works perfectly for me.

-Documents can be shared. It just takes the click of a button to share a resource with another teacher. I love that I can choose what editing permissions other people have.

-Multiple person editing! Not only have I used Google Docs with my PLCs, but I also had my students (when I was in a 1:1 classroom) share their writing assignments with me. I was able to leave feedback in another color each night to a few students so that I could see where each student was at and provide feedback without wasting paper!

-Forms. I love using forms for responses from students. Whether they answer questions as an assessment or not, you can completely customize the types of questions used in forms so that students can turn in assessments that way or respond to their readings.

Whew! Obviously I love Google drive and all of its options. I promise to keep the rest of these shorter!

2. Clock Buddies - I will elaborate more in another post, but I love using clock buddies to set up pre-made partners. While I do not always use them, they are a great go to.

This is a clock buddy sample. I used this last year but I honestly don't remember where I got it! My apologies!

If you have never heard of clock buddies before. Each of my students gets a sheet of paper with a clock and 12 lines (1 for each hour of the clock). Many teachers have students pick their partners for each hour. I set mine up a little differently. For 4 hours, the students get to pick their partners with no repeats. Another 4 hours are randomly selected through partnered cards (peanut butter goes with jelly,  salt goes with pepper, etc.). The last 4 hours I choose and let students know who their partners will be. This allows me to make pairs that work well behaviorally and allows for academic supports. I rotate through all of the hours evenly but I tend to have my substitutes call only the hours that I have made. When I need students to partner up efficiently, I just say "find your 3 o'clock partner" and they are there. By the end of the year, they don't even need to look at their clocks!

I am working on putting my full pack of clock buddy materials into my TPT store. I will let you all know when it is officially up and running!

3. ReadWorks - readworks.org is a site with all sorts of reading passages that not only are available through lexile level but also offer question sets for passages based on skill.

Sample passage from readworks.org. Where it says skill/strategy, many are focused on just one strategy!

When I need to pull a quick passage, I can make sure my text is at level, on a particular subject, and working a particular comprehension skill! AMAZING!

Sample from readworks.org. These questions are from a kindergarten passage.

I have also used the site to print off articles of interest for some of my more reluctant readers. Starting with an article is a lot easier for them to handle than a whole book and as they see their successes they will gravitate more towards chapter books.

Oh, and did I mention - creating an account is FREE!

4. Movement - I am the person during the staff meeting that needs to shift every 30 seconds. I just can't sit still. I might be part of that dancing thing, but we weren't meant to be sitting in chairs all day and neither should our students. While the tough days it feels easiest to pull away a brain break to make up for lost time, taking the 5 minutes to get your kids moving is essential.

Taken from jamschoolprogram.com.

Some of my favorites are using Go Noodle, having a class dance party to a current song, Fitness Math (another product to be announced soon!), kid's Zumba or Just Dance videos on Youtube and Jammin' Minutes. Most of the time when a class is getting near that level of misbehavior, taking those few minutes will get the class back to business.

Taken from gonoodle.com

*Tip - have the students take a few calming breaths at the end to get them refocused and ready to work!

5. My last tip is for both teachers and substitutes. When I have been a substitute in classrooms, the best days are the ones where I know the teacher's attention getting signals. For substitutes, your day will start off a lot easier if you know the cues that the teacher uses. The students get the sense that you are familiar with the room and teacher. As well, they will respond the first time! If the teacher has not left the signals they use in their notes, ask another teacher or the first student to walk in the room.

For classroom teachers, please leave your attention getting signals in your notes! This part is typically left off of sub notes the most but we know how crucial these signals are to the day running smoothly. Just leave it at the top of the page with other procedures!



I hope at least 1 of these tips is able to help you out in your classroom. Leave comments with any questions you have!

Make sure you stop by Blog Hoppin' to read more sanity savers. I have added many to my list!

Allie

5 Fun Facts About Me!

Today I'm linking up with Blog Hoppin' to share 5 fun facts about myself.

1. I spent last year as a long term substitute. At first it kind of terrified me to not have a full year job. I absolutely loved the schools I worked at, my colleagues, and the women that I substituted for. I will be doing the same this year in another district. Hopefully for the 2016-2017 school year I will be full time teaching!

2. In addition to teaching, dancing is one of my passions. When I graduated from college, 6 friends and I created a dance company in the Twin Cities. While it is small, we had our first show this summer in the Minnesota Fringe Festival. As well, I teach dance classes at the studio I danced at growing up. I love being able to teach in both a classroom and a dance studio!

Photography Credit: (c) 2014 Calabay Productions

Photography Credit: (c) 2014 Calabay Productions

3. I will never be great at playing sports but I love watching them! I definitely grew up in a sports household. While I may not know the rules as well as everyone else does, I am super competitive! Hockey is my favorite sport to watch although I also spend time watching lacrosse, baseball, football, and basketball. I tend to favor Minnesota teams! 

4. I am obsessed with candles. If I am at home, there is a 90% chance a candle is lit. There's just something about it that is so relaxing.

5. This last one may be part of the reason I'm a teacher - I loved elementary school! I had a unique school experience. From 1st through 4th grade I was in a mixed classroom. We separated by level for math and reading instruction but spent the rest of the day as a jumbled class. It was an amazing experience. Not to mention the awesome field trips we were able to go on. In 4th grade, I distinctly remember our zoo overnight trip. Yep, that's right, I slept by the dolphins at the Minnesota Zoo for the night. Talk about making science fun!

Photograph from: http://www.startribune.com/may-14-minnesota-zoo-pulls-plug-on-dolphin-exhibit/151394175/

I'm glad I was able to introduce myself a bit more. My goal is to start to post regularly! I hope you check back soon!

Allie

Welcome to Teach.Dance.Dream!

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Hello and welcome to Teach.Dance.Dream! My name is Allie and I am teacher from the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. I'm extremely excited to begin this blogging journey. I have spent a fair part of my summer following tons of teachers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin, Periscope and more! The wonderful people in this community have already made me feel like I'm a part of the group so I feel ready to add my content and ideas into the mix.

I don't officially have a teaching position for the coming school year. I'm still applying like crazy and am hopeful that something will come along last minute! My job status for the year will definitely guide the direction this blog takes, but either way I will be spending a great deal of time in a classroom this year.

Aside from being a teacher, I am also a dancer (hence the blog name). I dance with a group of friends that I graduated from college with as well as teaching dance classes at night to children and adults! I love to find creative ways to engage students in movement while learning in the classroom and cannot wait to share some of my ideas and resources with all of you! Thank you for stopping by the blog! I would love for you to introduce yourself in the comments. Stay tuned for my book study post on Chapter 1 of "Multiplication is for White People" by Lisa Delpit hosted by Lessons With Coffee.

Allie


Note: I wanted to get the blog started right away. I have a long way to go on the design of this blog! Stick around to watch it transform.