👩🏻‍💻Malchow's Tech Bytes ~ Sept 9th 📱

For those that have been waiting patiently for EpicPals to start back up.... wait no longer. September's boards are now live and linked in this week's newsletter. 

 Click image to access this week's Tech Bytes

It's going to be a JOLLY great year!

Wow! Where did summer go? I can't believe that a new school year is again just around the corner. It's been an amazing summer of travel and family time and although I'm sad to give up the flexibility that summer brings, I'm super excited to head back to school! 

My schedule has changed a bit this year and we have a lot of new staff in one of my buildings so I wanted to get my schedule out there with more than an email, so I once again found myself perusing the candy aisle looking for a small little treat to share with my colleagues. After much deliberation and several different candy purchases, I finally settled on Jolly Ranchers (the other little treats will be used throughout the year if I can keep them hidden away from my boys)

I bought 500 of these great little jewelry-sized bags last year. They perfectly hold 3 Jolly Ranchers in each little bag. Then I created a tag that has my schedule on it to attach to each one. I printed mine on cardstock, cut them out and stapled them to the bags. The cards are approx 2" x 3".  I'm planning to put them in each teacher's mailbox on the first day back and then follow up with my personal chit-chats. 

Here is the link to the cards if you're interested- Welcome Back Jolly Rancher link. You'll be prompted to make a copy and then you can customize to your liking. If you need bags, you can find a variety of different sized ones on Amazon, click here.

Have a great school year!!!!

Hand Pollinators

Is your class studying engineering concepts? Have your students created their own hand pollinators as part of their study?

Use this checklist/poster with your students to help guide them through taking a picture of their hand pollinator, recording their thoughts and reflections and then uploading to Seesaw to share their learning with their parents.

You can find this resource on my TPT store for free.
Enjoy!

Flexible Seating Mini Posters

Are you implementing flexible seating this year in your classroom space or library area? I utilized flexible seating last year in my first grade classroom and LOVED it! I don't think I could every go back to everyone having an assigned spot. 

This year in my new position I don't have a classroom space, but I do have a library space in both of my buildings that both utilize flexible seating to some extent. One of the libraries was just restructured and decked out with new furniture over the summer so the students have not yet experienced it. Not only have they not experienced the new furniture, but they haven't met me yet either- so one of the first things I want to do is introduce myself and the expectations for the new space. I want students to to take ownership of this space and don't want to bog it down with tons of rules so I came up with what I hope will be 4 simple expectations that I plan to go over with each class as they come and visit.

For those that are interested, I created the mini posters to fit in these awesome little, 2 sided, 4 x 6 inch frames that I got from Michael's. IKEA has similar frames called TOLSBY frames. I love that I will be able to stand these up on some of the tables as a gentle reminder of the expectations.

If you are interested in a set of these posters you can find them on my Teacher's Pay Teachers store for free. There are 8 mini posters all together with 4 different boy and 4 different girl clips.

Click here to go to my store to download.

ROLLing into tech integration

The new year is just around the corner (T minus 5 days and counting!) and I'm excited to get started and meet my new colleagues. Although I'm planning to go around and introduce myself and chat with everyone individually, I also wanted to have just a little something to give the teachers in my buildings to start those conversations. After going up and down the candy aisle multiple times looking for the just right treat, I decided upon Tootsie Rolls, because let's face it, what teacher couldn't use just a tad bit of chocolate during these first few days?!

I had these great little jewelry-sized bags that I bought for a project at some point and never used. Finding them in my now "stored in the basement" classroom totes was an interesting endeavor, but I found them and they couldn't have been more perfect. I placed 3 Tootsie Rolls in each little bag and then created the iPad tag to attach to each one. I'm planning to put them in each teacher's mailbox on the first day back and then follow up with my personal chit-chats. 

If you're interested in the cards,  you can access them here or by clicking on the picture. There are two different options to choose from. I printed mine on cardstock, cut them out and stapled them to the bags. The cards are approx 2" x 3".  If you need bags, you can find a variety of them on Amazon, click here.

Click image to access the printable pdf

I'll turn the arrow on this board
to show where I am

One other project that I've been working on is finding a way to let the staff in my buildings know where I am if I'm not in my office (Ok, that just seems so weird to say- I've never had a job with an office before, and quite honestly, I don't plan on spending much time in it either) That being said, the 1st grade teacher side of me will never be gone and I plan to embrace it in my new position as well (watch out everyone!) so I repurposed the "Where Am I?" boards that I used in my classroom last year (hence the dog theme). I'm going to hang these outside of my office space so that if a teacher comes to see me and I'm not there, they know if I'm in there building or not and if so, where I may be. There's nothing more frustrating than having a bit of time to catch someone only to find out that they're not around and you nave no clue if they'll be back in 5 minutes or the next day. With being in 2 buildings on alternating days, I want to be sure that I am as transparent as possible so teacher's can utilize me to the fullest extent. 

On this board I'll move the circles
to the top spot by the arrow

The boards are simply made from cookie sheets from The Dollar Store that I modge-podged some fabric on to. I created the various pieces, printed and laminated them and the hot-glued magnet strips to the back. The arrow has a fatter magnetic circle so that it pops up over the other pieces. I then used E-6000 to attach some extra fabric to the back for the hangers.  The rectangle cookie sheet has neon green Duck tape around the edges.