Favorite Things: Back to School

Even though I am not a teacher, I am taking college classes. I am super stoked about back to school shopping and all of the upcoming sales! Today I am linking up with a huge group of teachers who are sharing their favorite back to school must haves and they are hosting a HUGE giveaway! Make sure to stop by and enter their Back to School Favorite Things Giveaway!

1.

Five star Flex Binders! These are so awesome. I think I bought mine 2 or 3 years ago and it is still going strong! They fit nicely into my laptop bag and make traveling to school pretty light.

2.

Colored Pens! The brand doesn't really matter but I purchased these last year and they were either FREE or just $.25! 

3.

Poly Folders! I still purchase the 2 pocket paper folders when they are on the $.01 sale but I usually donate those to family or our supply drive at work. I love the poly folders that have holes punched in them. They give me extra space in my Five Star Flex binder.

I am sure I could sit here all day long and post about of all of the fun things I NEED to have for back to school but I will leave you some time to check out all of the other things that have been posted.

Studying for Spanish Class!

I just started my first Spanish Class in about 7 years!! I am super excited about it but it does require a bit of studying. One of my many goals is to become fluent in Spanish. I think it really neat to know multiple languages and I feel Spanish would be really helpful in an Elementary School setting.

I like to study with games, so I scoured the internet to see what I could find.

To study my numbers 1-100:
I used this game. The number is said out loud and you type it in. If you get it right the game continues. If you get it wrong you have to try again.
http://www.spanishspanish.com/numbers/numbers_practice100.html

This site is put up by BBC and has some really nice games. Much better art than the site above. The games are matching games.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/spanish/

Learning Colors

If you took Spanish in high school and also in college you probably realized that what you learn is quite similar. Even though some of these games seem like they are just for little kids, I have found them very helpful in my college years. As I continue through my Spanish class this semester I will try to update this list with any other websites that I find useful.

What tips or tools do you use with your students? What tips or tools did you use when you were in school?

~Mrs. Bearfield~

Group Projects. Blah

As many of you know I am still working on my Elementary Education degree. I just started my 2 newest classes last week. I am currently enrolled in a Spanish class and a Communications class. I really enjoy going to school and learning new things. What I do not enjoy is working on group projects. In college they are the worst. There normally is not assigned class time to work on them. You don't get to choose your partner. Partners are shady. I understand that they are supposed to help you in your career and that especially as a teacher collaboration is important. I have already learned these skills. I have a "real job", we have to work on group projects all the time. Someone who has to work in a group to "keep their job" tends to care a bit more about the group.

My 2 most recent partner experiences have not gone well. This time around, we had a project due on 1/21/14 and it was assigned to us the Tuesday before. My partner and I exchanged numbers and discussed our ideas on that following Thursday. He seemed like a great partner. Now... It's Monday. Project is due tomorrow and I have not heard from him. I know he has my number because he text-ed me so that I would have his number. Lucky for me I am use to this kind of thing. :( I have already completed my half of the project and I will complete the second half in just a bit.

How do you make sure that group projects go smoothly? Do you ever assign "at home"  group projects? What experiences did you have in college in relation to group projects? Any tips to save me some sanity when I am forced to work on my next group project?

~Mrs. Bearfield~