Tried It Tuesday {APPR, New Fan Freebie, Pin It to Win It!}

Happy April Fools Day! Today is day one of three for ELA testing in New York. Wahoo! Ready or not...here we go! This is always a stressful time of year for me and teaching all the ELA this year has made given me more pressure. The time constraints on the test worry me the most because my students tend to work slow. On day three (Thursday), they will have three [rigorous] passages to read, five short response questions, and an extended response question to answer in 70 minutes.
I know my students will put forth their best effort. That's all I can ask! :) Then, we have one more week to teach next week and will be on spring break for a week!
The countdown begins...
It's Time for Tried It Tuesday! 

What have you tried at school or home?

My Tried It:
APPR Binder
My APPR (Annual Professional Performance Review) binder was due yesterday with artifacts aligned to Domains 1 and 4 of the Danielson Teacher Rubric.

It is great fun getting this "portfolio" ready every year (insert sarcasm!). I feel like I'm back in college and spent the majority of Sunday and Monday (early) morning getting everything ready since I am the queen of procrastination. It is not a [complete] waste of time because it is somewhat satisfying thinking about the work I do that I'm passionate about but there are so many other things I could have been doing during that time to help my students. Sigh...

About a year and a half ago I made binder dividers for my APPR binder aligned to the Danielson rubric and put them on TpT for sale. This product slowly evolved into more than just binder dividers as teachers repeatedly asked me for more examples of what I used as my evidence. Now, it includes 132 pages of materials to organize the binder with many examples of "artifacts" that are editable for teachers to adapt for their own use. 

Here are some pictures of my binder for this year that I turned in yesterday:

My least favorite task was typing my "Educational Article Reflection and Curriculum Implementation" that aligns to 4e: Growing and Developing Professionally. Our district gives us three choices of "recommended artifacts" for each domain's element and you have to use one of the three or it doesn't count. I have one article reflection from last year in my Danielson product. The reflection from last year and the new reflection for this year is available as a Fourth Grade Flipper Facebook Fan Freebie! It is fully editable for your use too! The iPad article I used this year has a link to the full online article in the PowerPoint file.

Would you like to a chance to win my Danielson APPR product? Pin the image below, leave the URL in the comments and I will chose a winner (or two!) tonight. :)

Have a great week everyone!

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Made It, Literacy Centers, APPR binder:)

I am linking up with my blogging idol, Tara, from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday-Made It!

I am absolutely loving all the products I have recently bought or got as freebies on TPT!  Cyber Monday Sale, I love you!  Finding time to sort, print, and laminate has been a challenge but I cannot wait to use so many items.

One item I bought, printed, and laminated are the Folktales Sorting Cards from TPT here.  I am going to use these for a literacy station to practice the subgenres of folktales (legends, fairytales, fables, and tall tales).  The cards also included Porquoi and Trickster Tales.

I made this worksheet to go with the folktales sorting card station.  You can get it here on google docs.  This is my first time linking a google doc, so please let me know if it doesn't work!

One of my favorite sellers on TPT is Rachel Lynette!  I purchased this Folktales: Fairytales, Fables, Tall Tales, Legends, and Myths pack and it really streamlined my materials.

I also love the December Literacy Centers for Big Kids that I purchased from the amazing Miss Klohn (Adventures of a 6th Grade Teacher).  Here is the Fact and Opinion Sort laminating (have I mentioned how much I LOVE this laminator?!?).

Here is the "Snowmen Sentences Fix-Up" laminated and cut from the same package.  Love it!

I also love all these literacy centers for grammar work from the TPT's Winter Holiday EBook!
"Santa's Prickly Punctuation Problem" is FREE From the Dragons Den and can be found here at TPT.  I laminated the answer keys for a literacy center and love that there is extra practice on commas, quotation marks, and a friendly letter. There is a little for everyone in this 28 page packet with pages for 1st to 5th grade!

 This is the "Great Gift Mix Up" laminated for a FREE math center from Lindsay Perro.

These are a great FREE math center on "Snowman Word Problems" from Time for Teaching.

After posting my APPR binder dividers for the Danielson Model of Teacher Evaluation here on TPT, I received a request to create APPR binder dividers for the standards and elements of the TED (Teacher Evaluation Development) model.  

Here are the Danielson Model binder dividers for each domain and component at TPT:

Here are the APPR binder dividers for the standards and elements of the TED (Teacher Evaluation Development) model on TPT:

Finally, for my home Made-It, I have the wreath that I spruced up for my new fireplace:)  I have never, ever modified a wreath before and I really like how it turned out.  I don't consider myself very crafty (the curtains in my classroom were made with a hot-glue gun and my teacher stool was made using scrapbook paper!), so when I can buy things and make it into something somewhat crafty, I am feeling pretty good!  hehe!  

Wreath before sprucing up:

Wreath after sprucing up:

My hubby figured out how to hang this 36" wreath on the fireplace using a hook in the ceiling.  It is barely noticeable and is tied to fishing line.  I have heard of people doing this before but never actually tried it.  Genius!  Can you see the hook in the ceiling here?

Two more weeks to go and so much to get done!  It always seems to get done somehow though, right? Have a wonderful week everyone:)

If you haven't heard of this new blog, Collaboration Cuties, you have to check it out.  They have an awesome, well-established TPT store and just started this blog!  This weekend only they are giving away a product from their store ($5 and under) to anyone who comments:)

APPR with Danielson, Lovely Wreath, and Shout-out:)

This was my evaluation week and let's just say, I am SO OVERJOYED that the first round is over!  Is anyone else using the Danielson Framework for teacher evaluations (APPR)?  This is our first year and to say that everyone is stressed out is an understatement.

We had to get 12 artifacts ready for each of the components in domains one and four.  They couldn't be "just any" artifacts that fit in that domain.  They had to be one of the three "recommended artifacts".  Between the artifacts, the pre-conference expectations, the 23-page evaluation that we will receive from our administrator, the state growth score, (determined by state test scores), the local growth score (which has yet to be finalized), I have been quite the mess.  To top it off, some of the artifacts are vague as to what is expected and we have already been told that no one will get a perfect score on their evaluation.

In the past, our evaluations have been a "S-Satisfactory" or "N-Needs Improvement" for each category.  Just about everyone got an "S" for everything.  I know that there is always room for improvement, but I guess the idea of not getting a glowing evaluation is scary.  Also, it is very difficult to get a four on all the components on the Danielson rubric but since each district negotiates their own points system, our system states that you get 2 points if you are a three or four on the rubric.  That shouldn't be too difficult, right?  However, if just one of the bullets under a component falls in the two range on the rubric, you get a score of 0.  So, since no one will get a perfect score, our administrator will be searching for a place to give a score of 0 on at least one component.  Dislike!

Anyway, to make me feel somewhat more organized, I created domain and component dividers for my artifacts binder.  You can see them here at my TPT store.

I was observed for 85 minutes and my administrator attempted to write down everything I said.  During my writing conferences with Daily 4 (I just use 4 of the Daily 5 components), I was followed around the room and she had to lean in quite close to me because I sit right next to the student and talk softly.  There are not many teachers implementing Daily 5 at my school and it will be interesting to hear what my admin thinks of it.  At least this evaluation is over and next we will have a walkthrough sometime in the spring.  I won't know when it is coming, so it might be less painful!

I decorated the house for Christmas last weekend and with all the stress this week brought, the decorations gave me a sense of peace and Christmas spirit each evening.  We renovated our fireplace last spring:

Well, I was bound and determined to get a wreath on that fireplace even though my hubby was skeptical.  This is how the wreath looked before I spruced it up (36" Martha Stewart, Home Depot).

Matching garland also from Home Depot:

 Ta-Da!  Here is the wreath and garland all spruced up with extra ornaments, glitter curly things, pine cones, and holly berries:)  Love!

So, if you are feeling the crunch of all the APPR mumbo jumbo, try to remember to stop and think about what is most important this Christmas season.  I know that I have too many blessings to count!

The first three people to comment that you are using the Danielson Framework can have my APPR binder dividers for free!  Leave your email address:)

Don't forget to check out the 100 follower giveaway (pencil sharpener and some amazing TPT products!) at Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late!  Her blog is amazing!!