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Sarah Plum

K-5 Resources for Diverse Classrooms

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You are here: Home / Archives for Shop ‘Til You Drop

Monday Made It – Done like a Thanksgiving Turkey!

July 21, 2014 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 55 Comments

Can you believe it? I’m actually posting a Monday Made It — on a Monday. Even while teaching summer school. I’d be in disbelief right along with you if it weren’t for the lower back pain screaming at me, “you sat WAY too long to make that darn planner!”
Let’s rewind, shall we? The summer before I started my rookie year (um, stop the world — that was 2012!) I endeavored to make a teacher planner I wanted to use. So I did. And I’m kind of embarassed, in retrospect, because um… no. It was not the best. But it worked! And I liked it, and so did other people that graciously purchased it from TpT.
No. Just no.
Last year, I updated it. Changed the fonts, made it more clean, and of course reflected the change in calendar year. Previous buyers got the update and they loved it! Wahoo. Right?
Better, but still. No.
You see, I’m an eternal perfectionist. I just cannot let something go if it’s not the best if can possibly be. This is a problem in relation to all things TpT. This is why I tend not to just throw my units up there mid-year — I can’t give them the necessary Sarah-love to get them up to my standards while spinning plates!
But it’s summer. And that means I have plenty (relatively speaking) of time to perfect, perfect, perfect.
Which gives you this:
Ahhhhh. Nice, fresh look. Clean fonts. Rainbow brights that aren’t too bright. Functional layouts. And oh yeah, 300+ pages not counting the editable PowerPoints. Yeah. I went there.

See, I can’t just have a planner with a calendar. That doesn’t work for me. I have a “book.” It’s got my calendar, my weekly overviews, my planning pages, and all of my student information, gradebooks, etc. This is my teacher bible, if you will. {Excuse the poor camera work that’s about to follow. I was trying not to wake a certain sleeping mister who fell asleep on the couch, so no light for me!}

   
It’s in a regular binder so that I can easily add, delete, or move pages as-needed. Like, you know, when white-out just won’t do and December needs to be reprinted. (Can anyone relate?) I have it divided into  four sections: calendar, planning, important information, and data.
  
I probably utilize the information section even more than the calendar or planning, because it’s where I house my contact log for the very important school-to-home connection. It holds me accountable in making contact with my students and their families, and serves as an important piece of data if a child needs behavioral interventions.

And my very favorite piece of the planner is my student information page. I had a rougher version of this that I used last year and it was SO vital, especially when we began sharing students as a team for language arts. My teammates were able to photocopy this page and immediately have a snapshot of the student — from their demographics, to their likes, to other siblings at school.
All in all, this is really a Monday-through-Friday-for-three-weeks Made It. It’s been a labor of love and I am so proud to use it next year, and that I’m also able to share it with all of you. It’s on sale at TpT through this evening (20% off); you can check out some images of what else is included below:

If you’ve made it this far, I’m giving away this planner and a product of your choice from my TpT store! Enter using the Rafflecopter below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Getting Organized, Monday Made It, NOT Your Average Teacher Planner, Shop 'Til You Drop, Teachers Pay Teachers

Five for Friday (on Friday!!!)

July 18, 2014 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 5 Comments

… could it be? I’m actually posting the Five for Friday on Friday?! What is this sorcery?! It looks like I’m doing a wee bit better at this whole consistency bit.
So. Five. for Friday!

Ugh. Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh. This was my afternoon. Teaching summer school usually has one great perk for me: leaving before rush-hour traffic! Well, not today. Today, when I left at my usual 1 o’clock, I was met with a twenty-five MILE back-up. So I took every backroad known to man. My 35-ish mile commute took me an hour and forty-five minutes even still. But, it’s Friday, and I’m home now! And only have one. more. week. to go!
I’ve been working on updating my yearly planner… and it has turned into a HUGE undertaking. We’re talking going from your average planner (calendar, blank weekly pages, yearly overview, variety of covers), to all of that, PLUS, gradebooks, rosters, alert pages, information pages, data, etc. and so forth. I am SO excited about this update because it is something I pieced together over the course of the year based on my own needs, and I just know it’ll really benefit all of you, too! Look for it this weekend on TpT.
I’ve started my back-to-school shopping… not in earnest, though. Just more leisurely. That is, until, I happened upon the newest limited edition Mr. Sketch markers in the B2S aisle. Okay, let me first disclose that I’m not a Mr. Sketch fan. I know, stop the world. I’m partial to Scentos if I *have* to have a scented marker, but I really just like plain-ole fine-line Crayola. Anywho, I thought let me try these out — I love the movies, and how bad could these be? Well. Let me just tell you. Nacho cheese is LITERALLY the worst smell I’ve ever smelled. Even after being a teacher and a Mom to two (sometimes) smelly boys. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT go smell it. Ever. I already did for you, and it’s awful.

No picture here, but there will be this time next week! One of my favorite people in the whole wide world is coming to visit me — my cousin and kindred spirit, Rudi. You see, Rudi and I are four years apart, have seen each other less than 10 times in our lives, live on opposite coasts, and yet she means the world to me. She is my firstborn’s godmother and the most incredible human being. I can’t explain how I feel so close to her despite the limited time we’ve spent together, but it just is — do you have a friend or family member like that? I hope you do, because it’s such a special bond. Expect LOTS of picture spam on Instagram of our visit!
This might be the most exciting news I’ve heard in a while. I’m anxious to see how many children’s books are available, because can you imagine what this could mean for us as teachers? We could have a virtually unlimited library of read-alouds at our disposal, without worrying about where to store them or whether we can afford yet another Llama Llama book (and the answer is always). Will you sign-up?

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Five for Friday, Getting Organized, Plan-Plan-Plan, Shop 'Til You Drop

A little bit of this, a little bit of that…

August 17, 2013 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 1 Comment

First things first — have y’all heard? I’m sure you haven’t, because clearly, I’m so ahead of the game and everything. A little birdie told me there’s a GIGANTIC back-to-school sale coming this Sunday…

I’m so excited, y’all. SO EXCITED. I have about a million things I need to move from my wishlist to my cart, and I can’t wait!
I’m also excited to be *participating* in this sale — with all of my newly revamped items (go to your purchases and check for updates!) and my newest item, my Marvelous Math Meeting (blog post coming Sunday about this amazingness I’m super excited about).
Now, time to disclose my whereabouts these past several days…
I’ve been tackling this:
Ugh, I am having heart palpitations just looking at it. I still have the better part of 10 days until Open House to fix it, but STILL! Would you look at that mess? Empty bulletin boards? No order?
I’ve been doing a lot of this:
Not pictured: IKEA. My wallet is hurting. HUR-TING.
And this happened:
Ugh. At all times to go kaput, it chooses back-to-school when I need it the most! This isn’t the first Canon to die on me way too early, so this happened:
And. I. Love. It. LOVE LOVE LOVE. It is such a powerhouse (HELLO multiple trays!) and the print quality is superb. Love.
But most importantly, I’ve been trying to spend some time with these guys:
We spent the whole day together today, and I didn’t go into school. I needed to just focus on them, and my husband, and how much I’m going to miss our time as a family of four — which we’ve just started getting used to! Le sigh. Say a prayer for me to get through next week being away full days; both Henry (he’s not even three months!) and I are having some separation issues!
I’ll leave you with this mighty cool video of our impromptu evening adventure — plane watching at National Airport! You can hear my not-so-little aviator excited as all get-out in the background.

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Family Fun, Five for Friday, Our Nation's Capitol, Shop 'Til You Drop, Teachers Pay Teachers

How to Make Your Ink Work for You

August 11, 2013 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 3 Comments

Raise your hand if you spend a small fortune on printer ink? You can’t see me, but you’ve got to know both of my hands are raised. High.
As a teacher I’ve spent more of my own money than I choose to count on printing things for school. While I’m one of the lucky ones that does have access to a color laser printer at my school, there are limits of its use (as well as being courteous to my colleagues!) and time sensitivity for me needing to print things.
Many of you may already be aware of Staples Ink Rewards and, like me, have been using it for quite some time to purchase necessities (including ink!) with your rewards check.

You simply collect your used ink cartridges and turn in up to 10 cartridges per month using your Staples Rewards card. Next month you receive $2 per cartridge you turn in — up to $20 — in the form of a rewards check, which can then be spent on ink or other items you need at Staples. (Fine print: You do have to have spent $30 on ink in the past 6 months to earn your rewards, but you’ll see why this isn’t a problem in a minute.)

How many of you are still purchasing name brand ink? I was too, up until a few weeks ago when I decided to price my cartridges on Amazon. While I was searching for my cartridges using Amazon’s handy tool (I have a Canon MG5320, in case you’re wondering), I found several generic ink combo packs that had great reviews and were *drumroll, please* less than the cost of ONE black ink cartridge.
Can I get an amen? AMEN. For under $7, I was able to purchase ALL of the ink cartridges for my printer. That’s right. Three color cartridges, photo black, and regular black. For $7!
If that’s not amazing enough, let’s remember that I also recycle my cartridges. Time for a little math, so bear with me.
5 replacement cartridges = $7 spent (Free shipping with a $25 purchase, or free if you have Amazon Prime like I do.)
5 recycled cartridges = $10 in Staples Rewards
That’s $3 I get paid after the cost of my ink, in Staples Rewards, to buy ink and use my printer just like I always do.
Now I’m not saying Amazon will have generic ink for every printer out there — they don’t, especially older models. But it is worth a look (and reading the reviews, to choose the right vendor!) to see if you can be earning money for things you’ll already buy for your classroom at Staples while also printing all of those colorful centers and decorations with your (no longer) expensive ink!
I hope that this helps you stretch your dollar (and buy some much needed classroom supplies) a little more! I know this definitely helped me to save some money and not feel so guilty about printing lots of things for my classroom!

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Shop 'Til You Drop, Teacher Tips, Thrifty Finds

Send Out Search Party!

August 5, 2012 by Sarah Plum(itallo) 4 Comments

Just kidding! Here I am!
With less than three weeks to go until we report for new teacher induction, the mister and I decided that we needed a break. A change of scenery, a change of pace, and most importantly… some time to really have fun with our family on Long Island since we haven’t seen many of them since Christmas, and likely won’t be making a holiday trip up this year.
So we packed in under 90 minutes, hopped in the car, and made the six hour trip from Virginia! I’m so glad we did because I feel recharged already! This was a great move for us, as we’re going to come home refreshed and ready to really kick our preparations into high gear.
I brought a few things to work on — mainly things to cut out while we’re all sitting around laughing and watching TV — and a few professional development books to finish up… and of course, my famous “to do” book. I’m going to sketch out a master plan and schedule for the rest of the time before we report so that I make the most of it!
I’ll be back Monday for Monday Made It! (yes, even while on vacation) tomorrow! In honor of the amazing time I’m already having on Long Island (wish you all were here enjoying the Italian food, beaches, and laughs with me), I’m throwing a 20% off “Hooray for Vacations!” sale on my TPT store.

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Family Fun, Shop 'Til You Drop, Teachers Pay Teachers

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About the Author

Sarah Plum(itallo) is a teacher of emerging multilinguals and 21st Century Grant coordinator in Virginia. She writes curriculum for inclusive classrooms and presents professional development on a variety of topics.

Read more about Sarah and her background in education here.

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