Today I'm sharing a collection of some of my favorite transfer methods and the fun projects I've created using them.

Virtual Exhibit of Toronto Star images on demonstrations

The ultimate wedding planning tips to better organise your wedding day and have a stress-free wedding, by Cotswolds wedding photographer.

Ever since I first saw the melted crayon canvas idea popping up on Pinterest this summer, I've been wanting to try making one with the kids...

I’m so excited to have my friend Morgan guest posting today. I’ve tried adult coloring books for relaxation and fun, but haven’t tried hand lettering yet. After reading her post, I’m excited to get started! Hand Lettering for Beginners If you’ve ever checked out the DIY section of Pinterest, you’ve probably seen some gorgeous hand […]

Behavior issues can sink a lesson (and a teacher) faster than about anything. Check out this post and learn 15 ways to get that control back!

Did you know you can get paid to read books aloud? If you love reading books, you can make money doing what you love. Here are 17 sites.

Discover Food.coms most pinned and popular recipes on Pinterest, from copycat restaurant recipes and diet-friendly dishes to easy desserts and lots of great-looking chicken dinners.

Check out this awesome how to-photo transfer to wood ! 4 different ways to achieve this cool affect! One has things found from around the house, mod podge, inkjet or laser printer! Lots of options!

Ok. I L.O.V.E the clip chart. I've tried several other behavior management systems and none compare. Seriously. I was first introduced to it by a good friend (and colleague) a couple years ago. She got it from a mentor teacher, who got it from... who knows. Anyway, it spread through our school like wildfire. Why? Because it works and reinforces positive behavior. The real source of the clip chart is Rick Morris. I want to kiss him for it. Click here for the eBook which gives you lots of details. For those of you new to the clip chart concept, here's a run down: Make a chart (see the various examples below) Students start out on Green each day (ready to learn) Good choice = clip up one color Bad choice = clip down one color Another bad choice? clip down Another good choice? clip up They can go up and down throughout the day. "What's that you say Ashley?" They can move up AND down. They aren't stuck on a stupid yellow or red light once they make a poor choice (don't get me started on the red, yellow, green light / 123 magic system). They also don't get three warnings before I actually make them clip down. They know the rules. If they break them, then they know the consequence. However, they have a chance to redeem themselves if they had a bad morning. I'd be towards the bottom too if I came in without my coffee. Non-verbal signals work easily with this. No more interrupting class or making a public scene. Thumbs up = clip up; Thumbs down = clip down Easy to understand and you don't have to even touch the chart. The kids can move the clips on their own and a student can have the job of moving everyone back to green at the end of the day. Parents get it and LOVE it. They appreciate that their child's day isn't ruined by being stuck on yellow at 8am and not being able to turn the day around. Easy to communicate daily behavior (you need 7 markers and some sort of recording sheet... see below). It promotes POSITIVE behavior. It's awesome. More proof of it's awesomeness: I am teaching here in Switzerland and all of my international students 'get it'. I have Swiss, Russian, Italian, French, German, Dutch, and Austrian kids. It took one day to get the hang of it. They love it and they HATE clipping down. I rarely have any behavior problems and when I do it's something minor. Want to make your own? Great! Step 1: Make a chart There are endless ways to do it. Just make sure it will be durable and the kids can easily use it. My two versions are below. The first was in my kindergarten classroom (stool next to it) and I made it from page protectors stapled/taped to the wall (so they could get the clips on) and regular sheets of paper. Here's my mobile clip chart below. It's about 2' tall and I have two different sets of names (for each class). I bought a piece of white plastic/board from the hardware store (not sure what it was for) and painted it, let it dry, then wrote the words with permanent marker (tried painting words, but it looked like I'd been drinking all day so I stuck with black marker). The clips are painted white because I'm a type A person and wanted white. I can paint over them for my next class. I'm pretty proud of myself for accomplishing this in Switzerland because everything seems like a challenge. More examples... What Happens in 2nd Grade Miss Lak's 2nd Grade Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten Finally in First Teach-A-Roo Mrs. Grant's Kinder Gators Reflections from Within Tales of a 3rd Grade Seriously cannot figure out where I found this one. Let me know if you know the source. Babbling Abby First Grade Fever Mrs. Bukovan's Class Step 2: Introduce it to your students (AND parents). They'll get it. Parents might not at first because they're not the ones using it, but they will because their kids will talk about it. Have students practice moving their clips up and down. Make a chart of good and poor choices. Use the rules you already have in class. Don't make up new ones. It's easy to integrate! Step 3: Let it be awesome You will quickly fall in love with it and you'll hardly touch the thing. It will do what it's supposed to do... as long as you're not a crazy and horrible teacher who delights in kids clipping down. Improvements & Adaptations: If a student gets to the top and they're just having an outstanding, super, amazing day, then let them clip up even more. Clip up to the teacher's shirt? What about clipping it to your hair? I know my kids went insane when one of them got to clip up to my pony tail or shirt. Crazy. If my kids got to the top (purple in my room) then they got to spin a wheel. The wheel had special 'prizes' on it: computer time, sitting at teacher's desk, reading to another class, eating lunch with a friend from another class, etc.... not candy and toys. I don't believe in rewarding good behavior with diabetes. Halloween is enough. Make one of your class jobs the "clip manager." The clip manager gets to reset all of the clips to green at the end of the day. Top of the chart = a jewel (you know those sparkly ones at craft stores?) OR you could give them a different color each time they reach the top (which is supposed to be rare). Things to be aware of: Clips will break/come apart.... at the. most. inconvenient. times. Be prepared. Have new ones handy or be ready to fix them. Really young ones (< 5) might have trouble using the clothespin. Give them a week. They'll get it. Kids will start asking you to clip up. All. the. time. Tell them "asking doesn't work." You have to catch them in the act. Once you tell one kid to clip up then you'll have 20 other students copying the behavior. It's great, but be prepared to respond to this: "You let Katie clip up and I did the same thing. That's not fair. Why can't I do it?" Some students might need their own mini clip chart at their desk. You know the ones who have severe control issues. Giving them a mini version serves as a constant reminder. They can even take it to their specials classes (art, PE, music, etc.). You know that sneaky student? They will try to clip up double spots. Beware. I made a rule that if they got caught clipping up double, then they clipped down double. It never happened again. "Piggy-back clipping" - the act of clipping your clip on the end of another clip, thus making a long ridiculous chain of clips. This WILL happen. You know what? Who cares?! Let them piggy-back clip... unless it becomes a distraction. Here's the form I sent home each day. Click it to download! This form was in each student's folder. The circle is to be filled with whatever color the student ends the day on. You need 7 colors and maybe a pen to write an explanation for 'parent contact' students. So easy. I made a ton of copies of this at the beginning of the year and replaced it at the beginning of each month. It's very visual and I even let the kids color in their circles the last quarter of the year (with supervision).... they loved it. SOOO thankful that my friend S introduced me to the clip chart. Thanks S!!! Go make a clip chart. Now. Do it. {ashley}lllllllllllllll

Printable Behavior Sheets provide a practical and convenient tool for parents and educators to track and monitor the behavior of their children or students. These sheets are designed to promote positive behavior and encourage the development of responsible habits. They are especially useful for parents of young children, teachers in classrooms, and anyone involved in managing behavior and promoting a nurturing environment.

I admit - the idea for this graphic organizer wasn't mine. But I did clean up the graphic organizer I've seen floating around Pinterest and put it into a clean, neat, PDF format. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • CONNECT WITH ME! My Blog Facebook Ins...

There are six principles essential to implementing Daily 5... TRUST. This principle develops as mutual respect between student and teacher is formed. The start of my school year begins with district anchor lessons and goals of building positive behaviors in reading and writing. Through these lessons, my students will gradually sustain more control of their learning. With each lesson introduced, students will activate their schema and rely upon their previous learning experiences to have confidence in their newly acquired skill. I've worked to incorporate balance in my district anchor lessons and Daily 5... CHOICE. The only choice I've provided students would be literacy tubs adapted from reading Debbie Diller's Literacy Stations. Each tub has a variety of scaffold activities for student to choose from. This is called a controlled choice. Students are still assigned a station to attend and rotate throughout the week. I love the idea of choice as presented in Daily 5. I'm still working on putting all the pieces together but found a few wonderful ideas through pinterest and wanted to share... The idea pictured below can be used with the Captain Kid posters. I can start the year with controlled choice and slowly release control as routines are established and trust is mutual. Response to Intervention Website The next picture is linked to the how-to post. You can learn how the poster was created and how the poster is used. I love this concept because it incorporates meeting with the teacher. She has offered her icons as a free download. =D Fabulous Flamingos in Second Grade The next picture is my favorite. I love using the smartboard as an option for students making a choice about their learning. Once independence has been established and trust is mutual, I can see opening up this decision with 'big kid' technology. The only problem presented would be the use of the board as an option for word work. Tales from a K-1 Classroom Just as I was going to publish this post, I found a wonderful files free for you! Mrs. Meacham provides lots of freebies, pictures, and a smartboard file (pictured below) on her website. Yay! Choice begins with students understanding their plan for the day with five important questions. What are my goals in reading and writing? Whom will I work with? What will I accomplish? What was I working on yesterday that I want to continue? Purpose + Choice = Motivation COMMUNITY. The concept of building community is not foreign to me. I'm big on creating a sense of "family" and work to understand my students in and out of school. One of my favorite books to help build character and routines at the start of the year is Seven Habits of Happy Kids by Sean Covey. We learn through our reading that accountability and synergy is key for success! SENSE OF URGENCY. Humans are ingrained to ask why? I was speaking to my colleague who says her two year old ask why so many times that she runs out of answers. Getting results from students comes when we create a sense of urgency in learning by explaining why we do things. When students understand the reason behind the task then they become motivated and won't let anything get in the way of their success. STAMINA. I love the analogy that stamina needed for the Daily Five is much like the stamina needed for physical exercise. Understanding students fatigue in reading is similar to that of a person working out for the first time. I've worked on student accountability and stamina for the past few year. The kids maintain their own data notebooks. SO I'm eager to incorporate class stamina charts or personal stamina charts this year. Ms. Fiorini's Stadium: All Star Ideas Teaching with Style STAY OUT OF MY WAY. Oh.my.goodness. I never thought about my interruptions throughout their independent practice. While building stamina, I would circulate the classroom checking the progress, encouraging through praise, and giving reinforcement for on-task behaviors. I interfered with their personal growth as the children looked for my acknowledgement to sustain reading. It's no wonder I had a wonderful class but challenges with subs. This chapter was enlightening! I see many areas of focus for the 2012-2013 school year. I'm eager to reinforce these positive behaviors in Kindergarten and grow with the kids as we loop back to second together. So my question for you... How would you incorporate the questions highlighted in pink above with Kindergarteners? Don't forget to link up your Daily 5 Chapter 2 post. I'm eager to read your reflections! You are welcome to link if you responded to other parties about Daily 5 Chapter 2. Please take the time to link the post and not your blog.

As kids, we enjoyed all sorts of fun hobbies. Somehow, back in the day, no matter how much homework we got, we still managed to do all this other cool stuff. But even if you are very busy as an adult, you should definitely find some new hobbies to try and attempt fitting them into your schedule. These hobbies don’t even have to be something complicated or time-consuming. There are tons of easy hobbies to pick up out there, and so everyone can find something to their taste.

Almost all thyroid conditions stem from an underlying cause of auto-immunity. Here are 5 things your doctor won't tell you about your thyroid. Plus, how to improve your thyroid health and answers your common questions about thyroid.

Creating Pinterest pins from scratch can be a time-consuming thing. I bet you're nodding your head in agreement. This is why I created 10 free Pinterest templates for Canva for you to use. I love

This article goes over instructions for 11 breathing exercises for stress, anxiety and PTSD and includes a printable PDF handout with instructions for 10 breathing exercises all on one page.

How to sew a curved hem? Well it depends! I've made a few videos explaining different techniques for sewing around curves Sew a curved hem using a stitched guideline works well on the more narrow hems

Last week we talked about how to be consistent with your classroom management plan. Which is especially important to begin the school year. This alone will go a long way toward creating the learning environment you really want. Once you’ve conquered this challenge, however, ... Read more

Dubrovnik may be the most popular tourist destination in Croatia, but you can still visit on a tight budget. This travel guide will tell you how!

This simple Pinterest strategy only takes 10 minutes a day and has the potential to seriously grow your followers and views!

Outlawing the words "I'm done" changed my classroom! Find out how to reform fast finishers and improve the quality of work in your room!

It’s every college student’s dream to have the perfect schedule, where you only have a couple of classes and then you are free for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, this isn’t t…

This simple Pinterest strategy only takes 10 minutes a day and has the potential to seriously grow your followers and views!

Thinking of learning how to sew? Pick up these 15 affordable items and you''ll have the must haves for sewing beginners! Click to see the list!

Picture rails might be a home feature of the past, but every home should have them. Don't put holes in your walls, hang them with a picture rail system.

Knowing what to pack can be daunting, so I created this college packing list that contains absolutely everything you will need for college.

If you have an online shop, then you need to be active on Pinterest. It is a great source of traffic. But you can't pin just anything! Learn how to create pins for Etsy listings and how to add them to Pinterest in order to have a winning marketing strategy.

Like our tradition over the past years, we planned our winter vacation way in advance. If up until now we focused specifically on Eastern Europe because of budgets {you can find more about my considerations here}, this year, due to the increase in low-cost flights to a wider range of destinations in Europe – we […]

Learn how to boil artichokes (and eat them, too!). Don't let this green veggie intimidate you! Artichokes are easy to prepare and beyond delicious.

Want to know how to get more followers on Pinterest? Get my top 10 tips to increase your followers and engage your audience, with step by step instructions!

We just met as an entire district grade level to go over our new common core assessment packets and were discussing how much number sense and learning to write and utilize numbers 0-10 there is in just the first nine weeks of school.

Over the years I've created and shared more than 500 printables here on the blog. Keeping track of all of them and, more importantly, making them easy for you to find can be a bit

Today is my final embroidery tutorial, and as previously mentioned it is on couching. Couching is basically using one thread the sew anot...

There's no common sense business on here, these are the oddball things you'll forget to pack for college. You probably haven't even thought of these.