Five for Friday

Hi readers and friends! Today I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the Five for Friday linky party! I enjoy seeing what everyone is up to on a daily basis. It's been such a busy week in many ways. But, I think that will be the name of the game for the remainder of this school year. 

On last Friday, I had a performance with my adult classes at DanceFX Athens. I danced in a contemporary number and a pointe piece. My sweet fiance supported me and came to see me dance! I'm so inspired by the amazing dancing that goes on at my studio, and it's a lot of fun to showcase the things we are learning! Click here to learn a little bit more about my journey as an adult learning to dance and how that has affected me as a teacher. 

My little nephew had a birthday in March, but between a family wedding and Easter, his birthday party had to be postponed a few weeks! So, we celebrated this Saturday and we all had a grand time! He decided to sharpen and show off his walking skills for everyone, but refused to eat his cake (he only wanted to feed it to his Daddy). He's just so cute I can hardly stand it!

This is my "Free To A Good Home" pile. It looks like I am retiring, but I'll just be moving. There are lots of changes going on right now in my life, and I have recently accepted a new 2nd grade teaching job in the Atlanta area. So this Monday and Tuesday afternoons, I set a timer for 30  minutes of clean out time after school and I've made quite a dent in my stuff so far. This is going to be an even more bittersweet end of the year time than it usually is. 

See my blog post here about how we have begun our study of life cycles this year! The kids are not only growing their own plants, but are engaging in some inquiry and changing up variables to examine how it will affect a growing plant. 

I'm the featured blogger over at Teaching Blog Addict this week! Check out the great freebies that teachers post there every Friday by clicking on the picture. Check out my blog post about using student bloggers by clicking here.

Including Kids' Voices In Your Classroom Blog: Freebie Friday

You are here, reading this blog, because you are fluent in using the Internet and Social Media. Many of our students are already fluent, or are becoming so on their own. I would encourage you to harness their interest and provide for them a safe space to practice skills that they will use in their futures!

Today I want to share with you a new product on sale on my TPT page. Actually, it's not on sale; I'm offering it for FREE! Have you ever used a classroom blog? Ours really kicks into gear in the 3rd and 4th quarters of school. I like to use our classroom blog for  a number of purposes, including:

• Sharing pictures and happenings with parents.
• Showing off videos or alternative ways to publish writing.
• Teaching students to write comments and reply to comments.
• To provide students with an opportunity to be a guest blogger. 

Today I'd like to offer you the opportunity to download a free blog post planner to use with kids. I've found that the more I can include my Kids' voices in things like our newsletter and blog, the wider my audience reach becomes as they encourage their families to check it out! You can see some examples by clicking on the tab for my Classroom Blog above. Check out the product by clicking on the picture below!

If you download, I'd love some feedback! If you blog, I'd love for you to comment on this post to let me know how you use a classroom blog!