What is it with teachers and planners? I mean, I don’t know about you, but I am TOTALLY obsessed! Now, my obsession has transferred over to anything digital! If you have a pretty even mix of love for paper/pencil planners and digital, then my new planner is just for you! It’s digital, but it can be used like a paper planner. In my opinion, it’s the best of BOTH planning worlds! So, Is It Digital or NOT? Well, it’s both! This planner was created as a linkable pdf document. Technically, you could print the pages for a paper version although this was not the intent of this planner. When this pdf ..read more

How many of us teachers can honestly say that we LOVE to teach writing? I know there are some that writing is their passion. I’m some place in the middle… and to be honest, it depends on the genre and the type of day I’m having. However, narrative writing is by far (in my opinion) one of the most difficult topics in my fifth grade classroom! First of all, let’s talk for just a minute about how boring writing has become. Read this… respond to this… no, not that way… follow this ‘formula’. “Don’t forget to support your answer!” We’ve created a writing monster that most students are afraid of, an ..read more

This past year was my first year as a gifted and talented teacher. The teacher before me didn’t leave a whole to go on since a lot of the units were dated, old, and missing pieces. I found myself scrambling around to find units and projects that weren’t only creative but challenging at the same time. I was looking for units that empowered choice and motivated them to do their best.   With not much to go on, I decided to create my own units. One of the kiddos favorites was by far my Eminent Person unit. And to be honest, it was one of my favorites! I loved watching the students break into their ..read more

  If you are like me (which many of you probably are), then you struggle to find tangible items for your students to use in the math classroom. This might be even more difficult if you teach in an upper elementary or middle grades classroom! Many believe that math manipulative should be reserved for primary grades. It never fails that every time I have a math lesson where I need SOMETHING for the students to manipulative or use, I have to go on a search for it! So, I decided that I would resolve this problem on my own! I created math tools that my students can create using PAPER (yes, you read ..read more

Have you been wanting to implement the Notice & Note strategies in your classroom, but you’ve been too overwhelmed with where to start? I have a confession… I’m talking about myself! I read the book Notice and Note (which I highly recommend) at least two years ago. I only gathered enough courage to try it […] The post Notice & Note in the Elementary Classroom appeared first on The Creative Apple Teaching Resources ..read more