Creating a Desktop Organizer for your computer!

Hey hey, y'all! It's Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd!

Sooooo, if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you know that I just got a brand new MacBook Pro!! If it's possible to be in love with a piece of technology, which, I, for the record believe to be true, I'd have to say that I AM IN LOVE WITH MY NEW MACBOOK PRO!! <3

So why am I shouting that from the rooftops on The Collaboration Connection? Well, the first thing I did on my new computer after getting my files transferred over to it was made a pretty desktop that I posted on Instagram and Facebook....

I got SO many questions about how to create a desktop background organizer, so I thought that today I would share a quick tutorial with you of how to do just that! It's really easy, and SO simple to customize to meet YOUR needs, AND.... IT KEEPS YOU ORGANIZED! Win!! :)

If you don't want nor need to learn how to create your own desk top organizer, but you still would like to organize your desktop files, you can snag my desk top organizer (which comes with a template with the categories filled in AND a blank template for you to fill in your own categories), you can click {HERE} or the image below to snag my FREE desktop organizer in my TPT store. :)

If you would like to learn how to create your own . . .

I've got a video tutorial for you! Click play below and you'll be able to follow right along with me to learn how to create a desktop background organizer for your computer!

Thanks so much for stopping by, today! I hope this helps to get your desktop organized in no time! :)

Gonna Make You Sweat....

Hey Guys! It's Aly, from Just a Primary Girl! 

I am so excited to share with you some tips and tricks for Back to School night or Open House! I have a freebie along with a video tutorial. I also am giving a way my Don't Forget the Forms Bundle AND a winners choice from my store! More details below. 

I am writing today about back to school time in your classroom! I know when I try to prepare for back to school night, there are lots of things that I want to be sure to cover. 

Allergies, Curriculum, Scholastic Book Orders, Birthday Parties, Folders, Report Cards, Conferences, Homework, Signing up to Volunteer and while discussing all of that, being positive and remembering everything. 

I HATE looking at notecards! Are you are like me on this- you can seriously talk in front of your entire grade level of students, but bring in 5 parents, and immediately start sweating? I mean seriously, I wear something as light as possible that is usually sleeveless, and I make trips to my air vent through the entire night because I literally sweat five lbs off my body. I am not nervous, nor ill prepared. I just HATE speaking in front of adults. Even during my staff PD days. I can't stand it.

This coming from Miss Personality 1998. Yep - (enter silly freshman year of college pageant award)

cheesy I know, but I was such an outgoing not afraid of talking kind of girl back then. Now, forget it!

Anyway, I thought I would show you how to make a power point slide show to use for back to school night. I am going to include a template and my second video how to. (My first was a how to create your own printables in powerpoint) You can see that post here. I will show you how to make your slide show, but better yet, I am going to show you HOW to record audio slides to insert. I literally just hit play on my slide show at the start of the night. I tell my parents just how much I talk and that if I talked we would be there all night and no one would make their dinner plans. I let them know that they can stop me at any time to ask questions, and I hand them the slide show so they have reminders of what the slides said and they can take notes. I also stop during and add tidbits so they know I am human and really do talk a lot and these pre - recorded slides were simply to ensure they get the most of their 30 minute time. I also don't want to talk so much that I say something silly.

We do three separate times slots so it takes an hour and a half and we do the same thing all three times. Another reason that I love having this slideshow. My first year teaching, I had to present twice and I was hoarse by the end of the night. That stunk. 

Here is the tutorial on how to add audio to your slide show.
This is good for more than just your back to school slide shows. You could EASILY use it to put directions into a powerpoint for students to play games on the promethean board. You could also have students record messages into a power point show for mother's day. How cute would a Mother's Day Tea be, featuring pictures of your children, then BOOM audio too. CUUUUTTTEEEE.

It is HARD recording slides that are over 5 minutes. The chances of NOT stuttering or making a mistake is slim. So be nice my friends. 

Ok, so first up the power point. You need to figure out what are going to be the most important things you want to accomplish during your short time together? Is it that you need forms filled out? If you need forms, click here or the picture to see my back to school forms post for a VERY detailed account of my forms.

or you can click here or on the picture to see my packs in my store. 

I have a sheet that includes the most important forms that I need for my parents to fill out and return that same night. 

I talk about Allergies and Snack. Many parents think that cheezeits are a good snack to send in, and are sadly mistaken once they see we only allow fresh fruit, veggies or cheese. If your child doesn't eat those things, they go without snack. True story. I explain to them that if their child's safety was a concern, I would do it for them too. I also tell them that we get ants like no one's business and I just don't want food in our room. That makes the allergy parents feel like they aren't the only reason we have this rule. 

I speak from experience with my parents. I tell them about my son and him being an autistic child that has allergies. I tell them the importance of rules and kindness in my room. 

I also go into great detail and stop the slides to talk about scholastic book clubs. I tell them about our ipods in the classroom. This is when I let them know that we are happy to take donated iphone, ipods and MP3 players  that are no longer in use. I show them a quick way we use them and they are more willing to donate them at the start of the year!! I have never not gotten the $350.00 big bonus points reward since doing this. TRY IT. 

The great thing about the slideshow is that they have a hand out to follow along, and usually one parent fills out the forms while the other listens. Sometimes, they just fill out all the forms and have no time to truly listen. Which, sometimes, is nice - depending on the parent. 

I have NEVER had a parent really question anything. 

When making your slide show - if you want to include audio for a slide, be sure you save your audio files in a file that you won't delete. (You will see this in the video post as well!) Keep it with the powerpoint slide show because I have learned in the past that you need to keep them. I deleted them and then I had no audio when I pulled the usb to my school pc. Keep them together. Practice it before you do it that night. I didn't so it was a great shocker to find out that I had no audio and would need to talk in the spotlight without warning. 

I hope that this freebie will help you to create your own power point back to school night slides or hand out. 

Enter the rafflecopter to win my back to school bundle pack AND leave a comment below about your back to school night - whether it is how it goes, what you do, or what you are most afraid of. I KNOW you hate talking to those parents as much as me. #keepinitreal

I will choose one winner on Saturday morning to win something of YOUR choice from my store in addition to the rafflecopter prize of my Bundle of Back to School Forms



a Rafflecopter giveaway



Thanks for joining me for:

Click below to see Miss Nelson's behavior beads and win one of her awesome packs along with picking up a few freebies along the way.

Mrs. H.

B2S Bag of Tricks (More Fun Decor!)

Hi all!  It's Carrie from Table Talk with C and C.  It's that time of year where summer is coming to an end and it is time to head back to school!    You walk back into your classroom and the first thing to do is decide how to set up your room and what theme you are going to use to decorate.  That can be a bit overwhelming!  But hopefully some these "tricks" will help you to keep things organized and give you some new options for decor themes.

I LOVE decorating and organizing my room to start a new school year!  At the end of the year, we have to pack up everything, so my room always looks like this when I walk in to start getting ready for the new school year - AHHHHHHH!!!!

Here are the steps I take to get my room set up - 

1.  Set up the furniture first.  Decide where I want the bookshelves, reading table, etc.  (I usually save the student desks for last.)

2.  Organize the classroom library.  

3.  Set up my "teacher space".  (I don't have a desk.  I use my guided reading table as my workspace also.)

Now I can focus on my favorite part - bulletin boards and classroom decor!!  One of my "tricks" that I can't live without is assigning each student a number on the first day of school.  They use this number for everything - check in, turning in homework, finding a clipboard to use, getting mail, lining up, etc.  It makes things soooooo much easier!  

Last year I added washi tape to our mailboxes and homework bins to make them look better.  Then I put number stickers on large binder clips and clipped one to each opening.  Last I laminated colored card stock and taped one sheet into each opening.  

For lunch check in, I created magnets with each student's number.  Students check in for either one of the hot lunch choices or for cold lunch.  Then at the end of the day, the "lunch assistant" moves the numbers back for the next day.

I also use numbers for students to know what their job is for the week.  I don't have a lot of space, so I use the side of my file cabinets to display the students jobs.  And since they are magnetic, it's super easy to switch jobs each week!

Now you can probably tell that our theme is "superheroes".  My students love it and so do I!  So now is your chance to win your own classroom decor bundle.  You have your choice between my superhero bundle or my ladybug bundle.  All you need to do is complete the rafflecopter below.  So simple!!

Click HERE for more info.

Click HERE for more info.

This is Caitlin here now!  Carrie and I co-teach together during half the school day.  Carrie and I have been co-teaching for 2 years and are anxious to start our 3rd year together!  We have it pretty good as she is the classroom teacher and I am the special education teacher that comes into the classroom everyday to support literacy {guided reading} and math. Carrie always does an awesome job of setting up her room, making it very kid friendly, functional, and fun to look at!  This summer I decided to take on some classroom decor making myself.  I am hoping to use some of my decor in our resource pull out room to help make it an inviting work space for the kiddos!  I decided to try a jungle safari theme.  Come step into my jungle and explore the wild! 

Click here to get your very own "wild" pack! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to stop back tomorrow for another Back to School Trick and a fun giveaway!!

Taming My File Cabinet Clutter and a Freebie

Hey teacher friends! It's Jessica from Covered in Glitter and Glue. I'm stopping by today to tell you about one of my my only summer project that I worked on for my classroom. I just couldn't find the motivation this year to do much more than that! 

I decided this summer to tame the beast that is my file cabinet. Or at least one of the drawers in my file cabinet. Let's not get too crazy. 

I wanted to move my monthly files to binders to help keep them organized and in control. In the past I would tend to find a copy of something I liked and stash it in the corresponding month's file, only to every year pull out the files a month at a time and recycle a bunch of things I didn't want or wouldn't use. In my mind, hole punching a paper and putting it in a binder is a lot more commitment to that paper, and it better be good to go through all that! 

Here are the supplies I used: 

-1/2 inch clear-view binders (one for each month of the school year)

-sheet protectors

-sticky labels (I don't know their fancy name)

-binder covers

-labels for the spines

I brought home the first half of the school year's files to begin with and whipped up some covers. Inside the binders I sorted the papers by theme (First Day of School, Back to School Night, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, etc.) and craftivities. The themed papers I put in the front with the labels dividing them. 

The craftivities I put in the back of the binder in individual sheet protectors. 

I used some Martha Stewart labels from Staples and typed the months on them to attach to the spines of the binder and called it a day. Because really...I have no patience for binder spines. Especially for 1/2 inch binders.

I'm pretty excited with how this project turned out. When I dropped off the binders at school I realized they take up half of the space in the file cabinet drawer than the files alone did! Wahoo! 

If you're interested in my monthly binder covers, you can snag them for FREE at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store or by clicking the picture below. 

Happy Thursday everyone!

SUMMER TO DO LISTS! :)

HAPPY MONDAY MORNING FRIENDS!! I hope - oh how I hope, hope, hope - that you are ALLLL enjoying your summer breaks!! 

The weather this weekend in Northeastern Ohio was absolutely GORGEOUS! If you follow me on instagram - @schroedershenanigansin2nd - you may have seen that I've been spending some time outside, loving the sunshine and the beauty that is SUMMER<3

There's really nothing like a sunshine filled day at the park :) And, I've been a bit obsessed lately with taking pictures - I may need to take a photography class....and buy a camera #ilovemyiphone - and I snapped this gorgeous shot of these monstrous trees that were still kind enough to let the sunlight in. :)

And really - does anything say summer like iced coffee?!? Nope.  Definitely not. Journaling, reading and ice coffee-ing were my Saturday morning agenda, after Zumba of course, this weekend!

 Shameless selfie alert - - - I don't shop for myself.  Like....EVER. But I bought new sunglasses annnnd a new bag this weekend on a shopping date with my hubby. :) Soooo selfie it is to show them off.

As BLISSFUL as summer has been - I've been trying to stay in SOME sort of routine as far as keeping my school/TPT/organizational to-dos fresh in my mind.  SOOOO I've (been going to school regularly #don'tjudge annnnd) created a Summer Break To Do list pack! :) It's perfect to just keep track of those ideas that jump into our teacher brains WHILE sipping on a mai-tai or while binge watching ______ on Netflix?!? 

I've been semi-successful so far at staying productive in some way shape or form each day, and I've used my newest product, some cutesy summer break themed to-do lists to help me to prioritize and to keep track of the inevitable to dos, whether they be school related or projects to tackle around the house!! 

Click below to take a closer look at these TO DO LISTS IN MY TPT STORE! :)

You might like to plan your to-dos at a glance for the week . . .

Maybe you like to map out a few mini projects to tackle throughout the week either for home or for school! . . . Oh, and don't forget to check them off when you're done! I know y'all love to check things off of your list as much as I do!!

Or maybe you just want a good ol', adorably clip-arted (THANK YOU NIKKI @ MELONHEADZ) to do list to jot down your thoughts as they come to you!

SOOOO enjoy these blissful days of summer, but hopefully you can use these to do lists, too, to prioritize and not put off all of the things you've been waiting for summer to tackle! :) Summer's here! 

I'm off to tackle a few things at school and thennnn off to plan out outfits and to pack for a weekend of hosting parties with my mom at home followed immediately by a weekend in DISNEY! I'm headed to see Mickey next week! eek!

Thanks for stopping by, friends! :) :)