Dear Mr. Ducey, Teachers deserve better!

My open letter to Gov Ducey, 

With all due respect, I triple dog dare you to go a whole year on a teacher's salary and then have the nerve to tell me that Prop 123 is a good idea. And not a teacher in the Mesa Unified School District or another district in Phoenix. Come down to Southern Arizona where the grass is not as green. Where the average teacher's salary is about $38,962, according to Tucson Values Teachers.

On April 18th, I posted on a Facebook group saying that I was going to Vote Yes on Prop 123. I had already received my contract for the 2016-2017 school year. My contract said I'd get a 3% increase if Prop 123 didn't pass and a 5% increase if it did pass. Several days before receiving my contract, my husband got laid off. So looking at my contract and knowing that my income would be the only one in my family for a month or two (hopefully less), my mind was made up to Vote Yes. 

But then I saw this video and this video. What good does it do me to Vote Yes on Prop 123, if you are allowed to not give us the money whenever there is recession, rise in unemployment, or low tax revenue? So this made me think. What will happen Mr. Ducey, if the Prop does pass and one of these triggers occurs? What happens to the money that was going to my family? Will my district have to lower my salary in the school year that follows? I'm not pretending to know a lot about politics or finances. But all of this scares me. And I know I'm not the only teacher that worries about this.

I wish the ballot had an extended answer essay question. "Explain why you choose Yes or No on the Prop." So that you realize that it's not that Arizonians want to deprive Public schools of money. We are just tired of the political games and traps within the fine print. It's ridiculous that people in my noble profession have to struggle to make ends meet while you prance through the Vote Yes Prop videos as if this is the best thing since sliced bread. As if this is truly the only way to help Education. Party of me was going to vote Yes because I knew this would be the only money that Public Education was "guaranteed". We have no guarantee that if this doesn't pass something better will come along or how long it will take to get that money. After doing research, I realize how funny it was to have thought this money as guaranteed.

I appreciate that my district is giving me at least a 3% increase even if Prop 123 doesn't pass. I know some teachers in other districts were not that lucky. That 3% raise is hysterical considering that in Dec of 2015 you gave several State agency directors a raise somewhere between 32- 59% higher. I found that out while trying to research how much money you make Mr. Ducey, which I found out is $95,000. I'm not saying you don't deserve it. I'm only saying I know teachers deserve better. They deserve a more comfortable wage.

So now only 8 days after posting that I was going to vote yes, I'm honestly still undecided but I'm leaning more No than Yes. Not because I don't believe our Public Schools don't need the money. But because our Public schools need a stronger, no hidden agenda solution to our lack of funding. I encourage everyone to do as much research as they can about the Prop. So they make an educated decision.

One last point, (this was supposed to be a short post) my parents honestly told me to consider changing professions this past weekend. I don't hold that against them. They honestly are just looking out for the well-being of their daughter and their 4 year old grandson. They see the effort and heart that I put into my job day in and day out. They see me coming home at 4, 5, sometimes 6 pm with my job still not done, because it never ends. And I thought to myself, how many other professions have to deal with people advising them to change their careers because of the dollar amount? I love my job with all my being. And I get so much out of working with my students and watching them grow and learn. But sadly, that intrinsic reward doesn't pay the bills. Doesn't buy new shoes for my son.


#AZteachersdeservebetter #allteachersdeservebetter

First Month Done!

It's August 30th!! That means we've already been in school for 1 full month. In AZ, we started school on Aug 5th. I know that many people have their first day of school this coming Tuesday.

I have 22 2nd graders this year. It's been a wonderful month! It's amazing how having 7 fewer students makes a difference! Last year, I had 29 students the whole year. Here are my top things 3 that I am glad I implemented this year.

1. Gold tags!! I am loving them! Even though, someone is stealing tags. I use this as my positive reward system. I stole got the idea from The TeenyTinyTeacher. Her Gold tag post is hilarious! Read it!

2. Literacy Centers!! I took a class 2 weeks before school started about Literacy Centers and I am so glad I did! We talked about the Big 5 in reading. (Phonics, Phonenmic Awareness, Comprehension, Vocabulary, and Fluency.) So set to work deciding how to implement it in my classroom. My students love it! And they better since it takes a good extra hour or two to get them ready. I truly have it down to a science were I don't have to spend that much extra time prepping. :) What really makes me happy is the moment when I place the center in the big mailing envelope to be stored for next year. The joy of knowing that next year I will simply need to pull out the center and push play! Because of the focus on my Literacy Centers, I haven't finished training my kids how to do Daily 5. But this week, that will be my big focus.

3. Daily 5 during Writing time!! Last year, my students loved and begged for Daily 5 time! I was really happy with the success. However, my students this year are a bit lower than last years. For this reason, I was happy to do the Lit centers and put Daily 5 on the back seat. My plan is to have the students do Daily 5 during Writing time so that I can conference with students about their writing.

4. Intous Pen!! I am so excited to receive our Intuos pens! Wacom made this pen for artists to be able to draw on the computer. However, it also works as a mouse. And here is the kicker! It has a wireless adapter!! In my other school district we had the SMART Airliner. It was a painful year last year, not having my precious airliner! But this year, I hope we get them soon. I can walk around the room and control my computer while I'm sitting next to Johnny who won't stop talking, won't sit still, needs a little extra attention. Using the Mimio Studio Tools, I can also write on my screen. It's not as perfect or quick as the Airliner but it works! One of the girls on my team, bought hers already and let me play with it for a week. It was so hard to give it back to her!

I am super excited for this year. It is my 5th year teaching so I truly feel like I am with it this year. I am loving 2nd grade! And my kids are so good this year!

I hope each and everyone of you are also enjoying your year or will enjoy it if you haven't started yet!

Enjoy your evening!
Sara

iPad mini in the Classroom

Hello blogging world!

I wish I could get into the habit of blogging! It's already Spring Break of my 1st year of 2nd grade. I've been learning a lot in this past year. I have 29 students in my class but sometimes I feel like there are 40! I have had to change my classroom management strategies several times to keep them interested. It's my 1st year to use Daily 5 in my classroom. I don't follow it exactly like the 2 sisters set it up but is think next year it'll be better. I've used it to keep my class motivated to meet their AR goals while I do guided reading groups and Dibels progress monitoring. The kids do love Daily 5 though. They can't wait to start it each day. 

My. 2nd grade team has been awesome. There are 4 of us. Each one new to 2nd grade but it's been a great year learning from each other. :D 

I am really excited to go back after Spring Break because we got iPad minis for our classrooms. We each got one for our class. I've been like a kid at Christmas messing around with it and downloading apps. I wasn't expecting them to come in until mid April or May. 

Here are some apps that I recommend!

1. Reflector- $12.99

This is actually an app for your computer. But it allows your iPad to connect to your computer like the Chromecast or Appletv. If your classroom is set up like mine, you have your computer connected to a projector. This means you can project your iPad as you walk around your room using Airdrop. With my class this year proximity is everything. One of the things I missed the most from leaving my school in Nogales was my SMART Airliner! It was a Bluetooth clipboard looking thing that has a pen that works like a wireless mouse. The reflector isn't quite that good because you can't control your computer but you can control your iPad. Imagine turning on your camera and you have an instant document camera zoomed on a student's work! The possibilities! 

2. Three Ring- free

Three Ring is a virtual assessment binder for your students. You can make voice notes, written notes, take a picture of work, or a video of them. All this information can be tagged to the student so you can use this data to drive your instruction. I used to have 3 inch 3 ring assessment binders in my class but storage was always a problem. Last week, another teacher in my building showed me that she uses Manila envelopes to do the same thing but at least these you can lay flat. Next year I plan to use both. The app for information that is necessary to have army finger tips and the envelopes for Parent teacher conferences. 

3. Class dojo-free

It's starting to be really popular so I figured I'd talk about it. I've used Classdojo since September of this year. I love it! However, I went back to my clip chart for several reasons. 

a. The parents stopped checking Classdojo. 

B. When a student broke a rule it wasn't as 'in your face' as the clip chart that "hey I need to shape up!" And for a while I tried doing both. I'd try transferring their behavior from the chart to the website but it wasn't constant. 

In my class, I would reset the points every Monday. Students had to get at least 15 points to earn a Special Privilege in my class. If they earned 20, they could get an Extra Special Privilege. I'm too broke for a treasure box so this was born from a suggestion from another 2nd grade teacher in my district. 

I do plan to use it again next year but not invite the parents to get the updates and use a calendar log. (I'm really interested in how things are done at different schools. So I'm about to go into a long tangent about dismissal at my school. Feel free to skip it if you're not interested.) I am using in another way this year. In my school, there are several ways our students can go home. Originally we were built to be a walking K-8 school but many of the parents prefer to drive. So you can be Sibling, Busser, Link (after school daycare), or Parent pick up. We take our 2nd graders to the library and they listen for their names on the warlike talkies. The aides call names of students that are picked up via car. They have a book where they mark that the student went home. One teacher (usually me) checks IDs and marks that the student went home with the correct parent that walked onto campus. I use class dojo to mark that the student was picked up by their parent. 

4. Front Row-free

Ok so this app has the potential to be awesome! It does mini lessons with students on the common core standards. You make student accounts and they take a diagnostic test to practice skills that they are low on. I'm not entirely sure if it's completely free because right now it only shows me the NBT domain and I can refer another front row teacher and get the rest of the domains for free. So if you are a Front Row teacher please let me know to add your email! 

5. Wunderlist- free

Not really a teacher app but I love it! I've used it for over a year on my Android phone and on the computer using the website. It's a to-do list that you can categorize and put subtasks, notes, deadlines, and reminders. I love that you can also share your list with your contacts or Facebook friends. I love collaborating and this is a great way to keep everyone on schedule or aware of what's been completed. 

I'll keep posting other apps as I discover them but I appreciate you stopping by! Maybe now I'll be able to keep up my blog with my iPad mini! 

Have an awesome night! 

Sara Ivelisse 

2nd Grade Happenings

School is well underway! I have so many things I'm excited about this year. The thing I am most excited about is the how I'm using technology this year. If you don't know, I am a total geek when it comes to technology! I think eventually I'm going to go into Training teachers how to use technology in their classrooms. And most of these things, I find by being on Instagram.

1. Classdojo- I think it's really important to think about your school culture and type of parents that you have in your community. At my old school (can't you just hear Phoebe from Magic School Bus?), I would have used this but not to the extent that the creators invented it for. This new school has a ton of parents that are really involved in their kids and USE technology. So I have parents that have the Classdojo app on their phone and they know what their child is doing in my class. And I have instant parent notification. I don't have to worry about planners anymore. I don't have to worry about kids hiding notes from parents. And it's immediate.

2. Volunteer Spot- I found out about this through Owl-ways Be Inspired on Facebook. Linda wrote an awesome blog about it. And I stole the idea. I've gotten so many comments about how parents love how I'm using technology. Check out the blog post!  

But the coolest thing that has happened because of technology is.......

I was one of the three winners of the #eclaborday contest! 

That's right ladies and gentlemen, I won an Erin Condren Planner!! 

I have been obsessing over this planner. And haven't bought it because well... it's that or diapers for my child. And I can buy two boxes of diapers for Michael from Costco = 2 months of diapers. So I'm super thankful that I won! If you don't know what I'm talking about, carefully consider hopping over to www.erincondren.com. But only if you too would like to become obsessed and broke! 

:D

Hope you are enjoying your school years!

Sara

Day 3 of work!

Just finished Day 3 of New Teacher Induction training. I really enjoy these trainings. Yes I could use this time to be working in my class but it's always nice to have a refresher course. Maybe I'm just a nerd. :-)

Chile, by the way, was awesome! Michael was an Angel on the flights and with the extended family. Interesting fact about how they do school down there: there are so many kids in the towns that they have grades that go 7am-2pm and then a different group will go from 3pm-7pm. So your classroom is shared with another teacher. And average class size is 40.

I'm working on several things in my class. I decided this year I'm going to write my objectives on a white board. So my dear, sweet hubby went in tonight to put up a bulletin board and a dry erase board. Yay for hubbies! Open house is on Thursday so I'm hoping to get everything done by then. I also need to get my presentation done by then. Plus make copies. And of course when I need it, I can't find my label maker. To make matters a little worse, I don't have my laptop working. I don't have a charger until my Amazon shipment gets here. Should be Thursday or Friday.

I'm really excited about working at my new school, however, there was one thing I was nervous about that did happen. You get spoiled with technology quickly. I had a lot of technology at my old school. Now I have different technology that I'm not familiar with. It makes me wish I had the time to get to know it. I also wish I had a document camera. Ok my vent is over. 

I am going to try to keep blogging throughout the year and try not to vent too often!

Thanks for reading! Tomorrow I'm going to upload some classroom pictures on instagram. Stay tuned!
Sara

Firsts!

Many firsts to celebrate with this blog! First, this is my first post as a second grade Teacher! I have taught First grade for 3 years in a town 45 mins away from home. And I decided to take a position closer to home. 8 minutes away!! I'm in heaven! It will also be my first time teaching 2nd grade. I'm very excited to work with kids a tad bit older. I'm excited with the things they will be able to do in the beginning of the year and beyond. (Buzz Lightyear to the rescue! Sorry tangent)

My next first is on a personal first. My little family will be traveling to Chile for the first time together. We are taking our 14 month son to visit his other family. My hubby is from Chile. We are leaving on Monday and staying for a month! It's going to be intense! (and I don't mean camping! ) .....(if you didn't get the camping joke, say intense out loud... in tents.... lol cracks me up every time! )

I don't know how I'm going to survive not going into my class room to try to move in for a whole month! But I'm really excited to relax and enjoy my vacation. It's actually winter on that side of the world so pray for me! I'm a Desert girl! Today it was 103 degrees F. Lol It was 50 in Chile today! We are spending a week in Santiago and then traveling to Concepcion to be with my in-laws fo4 the rest of our trip!

Be sure to follow me on Instagram to see our trip updates! @sarlisse

And out of curiosity, any Arizona bloggers out there?

Hope you are also getting time away from life and work!
Chao!
Sarlisse