Back to School

Top Picks for the Most Stylish and Comfortable Shoes for Teachers

May 5, 2019 by Jodi 2 Comments

Who doesn’t love shoes? Well, let me tell you…people with feet that hurt after being on them all day. That’s who doesn’t love shoes. Now, that isn’t to say that I don’t love comfortable shoes, but I have definitely become picky over the years of which shoes work for me. As I’ve gotten *ahem* older, I am more aware of how my feet just cannot handle being in unsupportive, cheap shoes all day while teaching.

I was guilty for many years of just buying inexpensive and cute shoes and wearing them all season until my feet would be screaming at me to buy a new pair. I have found that if I actually invest in some better quality shoes, they last longer, and I don’t dread wearing them all day. I wish that I was someone that could just put on any pair of shoes and have my feet be fine, but that is definitely not me. I can’t even walk around my house barefoot. I have to wear a pair of hard soled slippers. My feet just don’t like me very much 😉

With that being said…I also want to still buy stylish shoes. Maybe someday, I’ll be fine wearing big clunky orthopedic shoes, but today is not that day. I am always on the hunt for cute shoes that I can actually wear all day, or a least a large part of the day, and be pain free.

Here are my favorite cute and comfy shoes that I wear while teaching.

This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase through one of these links, they throw a couple of pennies my way. This helps to support the blog. None of these shoe companies are sponsoring me in any way. I just truly loves these shoes 🙂

Sorel Wedges

A co-worker friend recommended Sorel wedges, and let me tell you, I am so thankful for her. These shoes are my absolute favorite! They are very cute and supportive. My feet do not ache at the end of the day. I have these Sorel After Hours Sandals in Camel pictured above and also the black Sorel Joanie Sandal (pictured below) that I love just as much!

I’m pretty sure that the Ella Slingback sandals from Sorel will be my next purchase to wear this summer.

Vionic Sandals

Another company that makes cute and supportive sandals is Vionic. I ordered these Vionic Kirra Backstrap sandals, and they are a very comfortable flat sandal. The sole of the shoe really supports your foot and are great to wear all day.

I loved them so much that I also ordered the Vionic Tide II Toe Post Sandal in Brown Leopard. These are a little harder to “dress up,” but they are perfect for a less casual outfit. Trust me with this brand. Your feet will thank you!

Toms

These sandals used to be my go-to shoes prior to finding Sorel. I do still love these Toms Majora Cutout sandals though. I have the desert taupe suede and the black leather ones. (The black leather ones are the more comfortable of the two.) I definitely still wear these shoes on a regular basis.

Toms wedge booties are some of my favorite “winter” shoes that I wear frequently, as well as the Leila Bootie that I have in black leather.

Sketchers

Everyone loves Sketchers, right? There are SO many to choose from, too. These are obviously a much more casual shoe than the others on the list, but they are perfect for casual Fridays. I love the slip on Sketchers. They are like clouds for my feet.

Converse

Another casual shoes option are Converse. The soles are definitely flat and don’t seem too supportive, but for some reason, they do not hurt my feet.

Olukai Sandals

I’m actually not even sure where I was when I first walked into a store that sold Olukai shoes, but I remember putting them on my feet after a long day and immediately falling in love. I have the Kulapai Kai sandals and they have held up perfectly for about 3 years now. They barely even look worn, and they are my go to black flip flop in the summer.

I also love the look of these Olukai Upena Gladiator Sandals.

Tieks

While I will say that I do like my one pair that I own, I’m still just not a big enough fan of them to cough up the money for another pair of these flats. (I actually didn’t even pay full price for my first pair. I bought them off of someone that didn’t want theirs anymore.) Maybe eventually I’ll get another pair, but it would have to be in a color that I would wear all of the time. These things are expensive.

Have you tried any of these? Do you have your own favorite teaching shoes that should be added to this list? Share with me in the comments.

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Back to School Challenge

July 21, 2018 by Jodi Leave a Comment

The beginning of the school year is always exciting. New supplies, new students, new opportunities to try something new. However, it’s also stressful. The first couple of weeks always end up being a blur. One of the most important things that I want to accomplish during those first couple weeks of school is a sense of community. I think it is so important to teach students how to work together successfully. We do a lot of group work during the year, so they need to learn early how to cooperate with each other. My classroom challenges provide the perfect opportunity for students to work together to complete academic challenges and earn rewards together.

What is the Back to School Challenge?

The Back to School Challenge includes 10 academic based challenges for the students to complete in small groups of 3-5 students. After each group completes one of the challenges, that group earns a Challenge Ticket. The Challenge Ticket includes a coded mystery word that the group must solve using the decoder page. The first group to complete all 10 challenges (or however many you decide to use) is the winning group. You can decide if there will be a prize for each group or not. I usually hand out something little after each group is finished. (pencils, seasonal erasers, candy, stickers, …)

Each challenge has a picture on the top left of the page. This picture matches a picture on the Challenge Ticket. This makes organization of this project very easy. The academic skills that are included in this challenge include:

-Lowercase Letters
-Numbers or Letters
-Missing Numbers
-Rhyming Words
-Counting
-Beginning Letter Sounds
-Number Order
-Fixing Sentences
-Graphing
-Illustrating Sentences

“I bought your 100th day challenge last year and it was a big hit with the kids! I’m excited to introduce this to my new group of kids the first week of school. I think it will be a great way to promote team-building and cooperation skills, while also reviewing things that they should know from kindergarten.” -Beth

If you love this challenge, you may also want to check out my other Classroom Challenges including The Christmas Challenge, Valentine’s Day Challenge, Spring Challenge, and more.

Back to School Must Haves

July 17, 2018 by Jodi Leave a Comment

Every year, a couple of weeks before school starts, I start purchasing things that I need for the school year. I always seem to find myself wracking my brain to try and remember everything that I need to get. I decided to make a list of items that I buy EVERY SINGLE YEAR before the school year begins, so I can make sure that I have everything I need. This list includes all of my must-have back to school items. I am not including those items that you buy once every couple of years or a new expensive item for your classroom. I am talking about the consumable items that have to be purchased every year.

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase through one of my links, which helps to support the blog.

1. Crayons, crayons, and more crayons

You can never have enough crayons. I feel like my students must be eating crayons each year. They always bring their own at the beginning of the year, but most of those are gone by the second week of school. I always provide crayons in baskets in my classroom, but I am constantly adding more to the tubs. I usually stock up on the cheap crayon boxes at Walmart during back to school time (ALWAYS Crayola), but if I have to buy them later on in the year, I found that buying a large bulk box on Amazon was cheaper.

2. Glue Sticks

Glue sticks are another item that somehow disappear in no time. You can never have too many glue sticks.

3. Folders

I always get folders before the school year starts. I purchase red ones to use as Ketchup folders. (Students keep these in their desk to place work in that they need to “catch up” on.) I also love these Resource Folders from Really Good Stuff.

4. Mr. Sketch Markers

I get a new pack of Mr. Sketch Markers every single year. They last the entire year and are perfect for anchor charts.

5. Chart Paper

I go through at least one tablet of chart paper each year for anchor charts, interactive writing, etc.

6. Astrobrights Paper

I seriously use Astrobrights paper for everything. I love the colors, and I love the quality.

Find this Interactive Practice Folder in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

7. Sticky Putty

All of the walls in my classroom are cinder block. This definitely makes hanging things harder. I have found that Sticky Putty seems to work the best for keeping things up. There are still times when I come into my classroom after the weekend, and I have to pick things up off the floor, but it isn’t nearly as often if they are hung up with Sticky Putty.

8. Name Badges

I love having name badges for my students. These are great for the beginning of the year when they are still learning their lunch numbers. They are also great for subs and/or field trips.

9. Pencils

If you’re a teacher, you know how quickly students can go through pencils. Ticonderoga pencils are definitely the easiest to sharpen and are my go-to pencil choice.

10. Hand Sanitizer

I always purchase the gigantic hand sanitizer container from Sam’s for my classroom. There is a lot of sneezing, nose picking, and shoe tying in 1st grade.

What are your Back to School Must-Haves?

Are you new to 1st grade or do you just need some new and fresh ideas for Back to School? Check out my go-to for the first week of school.

Reading Warm Ups

March 31, 2018 by Jodi 1 Comment

Time spent in small reading groups is so important, and we have to make the most of our time while I have them at my reading table. I like to start with some type of quick warm up to get their brains working before we get into our lesson. I was constantly scrambling to come up with ideas, or I was stuck on doing the same things, so I came up with Reading Warm Up Cards.

These cards are full of quick reading warm ups that we can use in our small reading groups, as a whole group, or when we have a couple of extra minutes in our day. They are also great to use before lining up for lunch or recess. I printed, laminated, and placed each set on a metal ring. This way, they are easy to grab and use.

I created five sets of Reading Warm Up Cards to reach many aspects of teaching reading and language arts; Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Grammar.

Phonological Awareness is the ability of hear and manipulate sounds. I like to remember that phonemic awareness can be done with your eyes closed. It truly is the foundation for learning to read. This set includes cards for Sentence Segmentation, Rhyming, Alliteration, Syllables, Onset & Rime, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Segmentation, and Phoneme Manipulation. (48 Warm Up cards in all)

The Phonics Warm Up cards include 120 cards in all working on Letter Sounds, Short Vowels, Beginning Blends, Ending Blends, Digraphs, Long Vowels, R-Controlled Vowels, and Dipthongs.

The Vocabulary set includes 80 vocabulary warm ups. These cards include a variety of vocabulary words as well as work with synonyms, antonyms, prefixes, and suffixes.

The Fluency Warm Ups include 124 fluency cards working on Letter Fluency, Sight Word Fluency, Short Vowel Fluency, Long Vowel Fluency, Blend and Digraph Fluency, R-Controlled and Diphthong Fluency, Expression, and Short Story Fluency.

Grammar Warm Ups include 104 cards working on Sentence Structure, Word Order, Sentence Fragments, Ending Marks, Nouns, Plural Nouns, Possessive Nouns, Proper Nouns, Irregular Plural Nouns, Verbs, Present-Tense Verbs, Past and Future Tense Verbs, Commas, Contractions, Adverbs, Combining Sentences, Adjectives, Pronouns, and Abbreviations.

I have also bundled all 5 sets, 476 Warm Up cards in all, which includes the Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Grammar sets. Click on the picture below to take a closer look and to download the preview files.

If you have any questions or comments, let me know. I love hearing from you and knowing how things are going in your classrooms.

Comprehension Notebooks

December 23, 2017 by Jodi Leave a Comment

Comprehension can be such a difficult task to teach, but these Comprehension Notebooks have been a life-saver over the past couple of years. They allow me to give a quick daily dose of comprehension, and we can really dig deep into each story. I personally use these in small groups, but they can also be used in a whole group setting. I prefer to use them in small groups because I can use a variety of grade levels in order to differentiate for my students.

Daily Comprehension Practice

These Comprehension Notebooks are set up on a 5-day schedule using the same story each day. In all honesty, I usually do these over a 2-3 day time frame. My schedule does not allow me to meet with each small reading group every day, so I usually do Day 1 and Day 2 together. Then, the next time, we reread and do Days 3-5. You can use these however you feel works best in your own classroom.

Differentiating with Comprehension Notebooks

I have 4 different grade levels of Comprehension Notebooks available (Kindergarten-3rd grade). I personally like to use each of the grade levels in my classroom depending on each student’s reading level. While the majority of my students do well with the Kindergarten, 1st or 2nd grade notebooks, I definitely have students that are capable of using the 3rd grade notebooks as well.

What does each Comprehension Notebook include?

Each notebook includes 30 weeks worth of comprehension practice using both fiction and nonfiction text. The comprehension skills are appropriate for each grade level and include a variety of skills. (cause and effect, main idea and details, compare and contrast, visualizing, theme, inferences, etc.) Every week includes a Write About It section that allows students to respond to the text and make text-to-self connections. In order to help you with differentiation, I also have two different bundles available for you. My K-2nd grade bundle is a great way to differentiate for a 1st grade classroom. I also have a K-3rd grade bundle that includes ALL of my Comprehension Notebooks.

What are teacher’s saying about Comprehension Notebooks?

“True brilliance…that is all I can say about this resource. I am going into my first year of teaching and have viewed thousands of resources and this is by far my favorite. The excitement I have for this is a little silly, I must say! (I even called my mom). I always struggled with comprehension as a child so seeing a clever way to implement reading comprehension activities aside from curriculum is brilliant!” -In the Shade

“This book is probably one of the best purchases I have made on TPT. I have used it daily. It is used as a must do for my students during centers. It took about six weeks of working with the students , but now they are working in a group of about 5 students and getting a lot out of the daily practice pieces. It goes along well with Journeys. I just have to tell the students what page to work on to match up with the comprehension skill of the week. Often they will ask if they can finish the page which is exciting to hearing. I sent it away to be bound into a book as shown and the students know to pull out their books when we have centers. If you are wondering if it is worth it… It is!” -Primary at Heart

“Absolutely a GAME CHANGER in teaching comprehension! Thank you for making a product full of practicality for my kiddos! Your hard work is beyond appreciated! Thank you for making my job easier!” -Krystina

Check out all of my Comprehension Notebooks.

Kindergarten Comprehension Notebook

1st Grade Comprehension Notebook

2nd Grade Comprehension Notebook

3rd Grade Comprehension Notebook

Kindergarten-3rd Grade Bundle

Interactive Task Folder

August 24, 2017 by Jodi 3 Comments

“I’m done. What do I do now?” I know you’ve heard this. My go-to answer is almost always “Go read a book.” This is always a great choice, but I also wanted to come up with a way for my students to have some other options. This Interactive Task Folder was the perfect answer.

After creating a Solar Eclipse Lapbook to use with my students, I knew that I needed to make something else like this that we could use on a regular basis. My students took so much ownership in their work and commented over and over again how much fun they had while making it.

This Interactive Task Folder is great for my early finishers. They can pull out their folders and work on sight words, phonics skills, vocabulary words, math facts, and more. These are also great for students to use when you find yourself with a couple of extra minutes before lunch or at the end of the day.

You will need a file folder for each student. Open up each folder and fold the two sides in towards the middle of the folder. Then, print off the pages needed to create the folder. I used Astrobrights colored paper, but you could definitely use white paper and have your students color their pages if they’d like. The front of the task folder includes a cover sheet, a 120’s chart, and a writing idea list.

For the inside, I have included a BOGGLE board that can be edited. This way, you can change out the letters when needed and just have the students glue the new board right on top of the old one. I also had someone give me the idea to put this on with velcro to make it easy to change out.

Students will also be able to practice their math facts and sight words. These pockets are sized to fit a 3×5 index card, or I have included editable math fact and sight word cards. The Reading Response sheets are perfect comprehension practice for students if they read a book in their spare time. I have included 4 different response sheets in this file.

The Making Words activity is a great way to practice spelling and phonics skills. I have included templates to create your own Making Words cards. I have also included a template for you to make your own vocabulary word strips. These can be changed out each week to keep the items fresh. I like to include the vocabulary words from our reading selections for the week.

On the back, I have included a Word List that is helpful for students when they are writing. It makes a great resource for them to use throughout the day.

These folders can take a bit of time to make, but once they are done, they are such a helpful resource. I highly recommend having your students make these instead of you or a parent volunteer. The students really take ownership in their work and are much more likely to use these if they are the ones making them.

What are teachers saying about this product?
“Very helpful; It’s nice to have everything a student needs in one place.”
“A great way to review basics on a daily basis! I love that I can edit parts of it, and can differentiate for all my students!” – Jennifer
“I think this is my favorite lap book ever! Such a useful tool and easy to individualize in my resource room.”

You can check these Interactive Task Folders out by clicking on any of the pictures in this post.

Back to School

Top Picks for the Most Stylish and Comfortable Shoes for Teachers

Here are my favorite cute and comfy shoes that I wear while teaching.

Back to School Challenge

What is the Back to School Challenge?

Back to School Must Haves

Reading Warm Ups

Comprehension Notebooks

Interactive Task Folder

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Back to School

Here are my favorite cute and comfy shoes that I wear while teaching.

What is the Back to School Challenge?

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