Time to Clean Out Those Closets?!

I started going through my mess of papers in my classroom yesterday. Back at the end of the school year, I mentioned (as a tip) that teachers need to make sure they put those papers back where they belong....yeah, I don't do that very well :-) So, I pulled all of the papers out of the random binders I had put them in and started sorting them into piles by topic. I decided that I'd finally break down and make myself create one binder per topic...they probably won't be as pretty as many of the ones I've seen on Pinterest, but they will be organized.

While I worked on the papers, my daughter helped me clean out my

closets....I guess technically she organized them for me, since I couldn't be convinced to throw much away. Our afternoon went kind of like this:

Daughter: "Mom, you have 4 packs of Geoboards that aren't opened. Do you really need them? Plus the overhead projector one? You don't even have an overhead projector any more."
Me: "You never know, they might be fun to use in 9th period; or they might change the curriculum again and I might need them."

Her: "Mom, do you need all these flashcards?"

Me: "Wellll, some of the kids don't know their facts, and they might not have cards at home, so I can let them borrow them. Someday I'll give them away to someone who needs them."

Her: "Mom, you don't teach this subject any more. Do you need this bulletin board stuff?"
Me: "I could end up teaching it again. People get switched around."

Her: "How old is this Scrabble game?!"
Me: "Well, it belonged to the teacher I replaced (24 years ago!) and she retired, so who knows! Stuff in my closet could be 50 years old!"

Her: "Perquaky?" (game she's never heard of)
Me: "Yeah, that was the other teacher's too. Is there a date on it?"
Her: "1970."
Me: "See! I wasn't exaggerating! That's 45 years old, so 50 years wasn't that far off. I can't throw it away now...it's like an antique!"

She REALLY enjoyed questioning why I still have all these things....I just can't seem to throw them away...but I suppose, some time in the next few years I will.

Maybe I should go through the closet again, strictly following these 2 rules (it's only 2 rules - shouldn't be hard to follow...):
1) If I haven't used it in 20 years (or maybe 2??), it's safe to say I will NEVER use it and I should throw it out,or give it away.
2) If someone else can use it more than I do, I should give it away.

What do you have lingering in your closet??

Memory Wheels - First Day, Last Day, and Any Day in Between!

This post has been moved to: http://www.cognitivecardiowithmsmm.com/blog/memory-wheels-first-day-last-day-and-any-day-in-between

Love to Doodle (and a freedbie)

Exponents Color by Number For most of my school life as a student (and even as an adult, during PD), I have really liked doodling! During lectures, discussions...it would help me focus, but also give me something to make me look busy, so I wouldn't get called on in class! I always hated being called on and almost never participated voluntarily:) I liked to draw cubes, rectangles, squiggly lines, etc, and color in different parts of the doodles. Download this freebie:-) I really wanted to make some color by number activities. Since I am not good at creating actual pictures, I decided to make my color by numbers similar to my random drawing/doodling. My Exponent Color by Number is most similar to my past doodles, but I thought it was a little too random, so I started using actual shapes. The Integer Operations Color by Number (freebie), as well as most of my other color by numbers are more structured, but so much fun for me to make! Computerized doodling! Anyone else

Math Class - First Day Activity

Rectangle of pentominoes Many 6th graders seem to have a pretty negative attitude about math, so I try to do something interesting to "grab" them during our first class. Last year, during the first math class, we spent part of the period working with pentominoes. Before working with the pentominoes, however, we played a name game so we could learn each others' names (I find it impossible to start anything else if I don't know some names, and fortunately, I learn them fairly quickly). rectangle outline For the activity, I divided the students into groups of 3 or 4. The directions for the activity were not complicated - the task was to make a rectangle, using all of the pentominoes. I gave students an outline of the rectangle, as pictured to the left, so they would know the correct size of the rectangle. The squares in the grid are each one inch. The rectangle is 5 squares (inches) wide and 13 inches long (13 inches includes the row that has the "Pent

SherrieAugust 8, 2015 at 5:57 PM
ROTFLMAO I'm dying here because I have been trying to get my master bedroom ducluttered this weekend and it's been quite an adventure. Yesterday I found 29 socks with no math. Now mind you I did have FOURTY-TWO matching pairs. These were just the colored socks, not including white ones. Today I found some other socks and matched up at least 20 more pairs, but I guarantee I have more than 29 that still have no pair. After about 2 hours of sock matching I opened one of my bottom dresser drawers to find MORE SOCKS. In addition to post-its and markers, apparently I hoard socks. I just cannot get over my self. LOL
Sarah KovesAugust 9, 2015 at 9:04 AM
You sound like me when my mother helps me clean my house. I have gotten better about it in my classroom. We had to pack everything up because of summer construction; I sold a bunch of old books on Amazon for new ones and threw out a ton of stuff from the teachers I replaced at the last two jobs...file folders full of old stuff. Thanks for sharing.
Kovescence of the Mind

Middle School Math Moments (and more!)

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