Teaching Tip Linky Party

Teaching Tip Linky Party?? Yes, Please!!! Miss Kindergarten's Linky Party? Absolutely!
I love me a good linky party and this one is great! I've been reading through almost all of the teaching tips...
Soooo... what's my teaching tip? I've been trying hard to think of a good one. One that everyone will remember and come back to my blog about BUT I couldn't think of anything that good.... lol... Here are mine:
1. STAY ORGANIZED! Take 10 minutes at the end of each day to organize files, clear off your desk and get the day started for tomorrow.  My summer is usually spent organizing my books, files, and what nots into places where I know I can find them and get them quickly. If there is anything in front of it, it's never coming out. Can I always find my things? No. Can I always take the last 10 minutes of my day to organize? Almost.

Which takes me to...
2. LABEL EVERYTHING! I teach kindergarten and labeling everything over the summer saves me SOOO much time throughout the year. The kids know where to get things and, more importantly, where to put things away. Can you imagine? YES! They can do it. Someone always asks how I keep my classroom so clean and my answer is: hard work! My next answer is: teach the kids how to clean! =) Most of them don't clean up after themselves at home (just being honest) so, it's time to give them that responsibility! =) Can you tell that I'm passionate about it?? lol.

3. USE MUSIC! Save your voice and use music to countdown, clean up, transition, teach EVERYTHING! In my classroom right now we use music to: *tell us when to clean up and when to end ("When the song is done, we can sit down") *help us remember the days of the week, months of the year, and letter sounds *the seasons of the year (thanks, Harry Kindergarten), *numbers in the teens (Harry, you're the best)

Alrighty everyone... be back tomorrow... wait... no I won't.... it's my baby sister's 21st birthday!! We'll be out to dinner for her tomorrow. Will we do anything else to celebrate this milestone?? Why, yes! Yes we will! We are going to VEGAS!! Woo Hoo! Totally excited. Aw man, I just realized that I have been a blogging slacker again. I'll try harder next week. THANKSGIVING WEEK!

How I Became a Genius

Hi friends!
I've missed being here! My husband's birthday and my brother-in-law's is today so we've had a week long celebration for those guys. Lucky ducks, right?? I've also had a whirlwind week at work. I don't know about all of you guys but I'm pooped! We don't get a fall break like you other lucky ducks out there so by this point, my colleagues and I are hauling through... just barely making it past the boogers, fevers, coughs and sneezes. =) Kindergarten teachers understand that one, right?
Well, let me tell you HOW I BECAME A GENIUS!

Last year, my school started using a site called SIGNUPGENIUS.COM to schedule our parent conferences. We could use it for other things as well but we were required to use it for our parent teacher conferences. All of us teachers moaned and groaned upon hearing this BUT it was the BEST decision ever! We use SignUpGenius.com for everything now! Our technology committee uses the site to check out equipment, classrooms use it to schedule volunteers, potlucks, and other things. You know all those parties and celebrations that are coming up... Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah...well... all of those can be set up quickly by you and you don't have to worry about it again! The free site has a quick and easy process to getting your signups up and running and my favorite part? It automatically sends reminders to all those who have signed up!!! Seriously, that is genius. I can't tell you how many times I've had parents forget things on me (I'm sure you understand!). My second favorite part? You can see, of everyone you have sent the sign up to, who has viewed the sign up, how many times and on what day. Now you can't have any of those parents say, "Oh, I didn't get that email, did you send it to the right one?" ("YES! I send all my emails to the same one!" is the response I say in my head)  Well, those parents can't say that anymore because I can tell! Am I the only one with those parents?? lol. As long as you sign up, you can use it for anything really, not just school stuff!
So I put together a little tutorial about my favorite parts and how simple it really is... I tried my best and I hope you can use the site too! Here it is...

Look at all of those responsible families of mine looking at the sign up list. Many of them multiple times (though I still don't have everyone). Now I can keep my desk clear of unnecessary papers, etc, it's online, ready to go AND sends the reminders for me. All I have to do is keep track of who hasn't responded. On the day of my conferences, I print out the sheets and I am ready to go!
I plan on setting another one up soon for our Halloween centers celebration & parade and then our Thanksgiving Feast and then our Cultural Celebration (around the winter holidays). This site has done a great job of eliminating wasting time, energy and paper! It sets up the time frame for me, emails the parents for me, reminds them for me, reminds me for me, keep me organized and clutter free!
Has anyone else used this site?? I'd love to hear from you. I suggest everyone use it, let me know if you do!
SignUpGenius.com thanked me with a gift card for reviewing their site. The gift card was not dependent on a postive or negative review of the site, but was a compensation for spreading the word. All opinions expressed are my own and I say: GO TO THIS SITE BECAUSE IT IS AMAZING!

Have a great night everybody...