Hey Indiana Teachers...

Do You Teach Near Indianapolis?

Then, you will want to read this!

SDE is coming to your town on Dec. 3 & 4 and you won't want to miss us!

Click the image above. 

Join Kim, Palma, and Matt!

Click the image above.

Get inspired, excited, and amazed!

Learn new techniques to bring back to your classroom!

Enjoy a fun-filled day or 2 of learning!

Re-discover the joy of teaching!

I'm So Excited To Be Part of This Conference...

Join me at my sessions:

How would you like to teach math skills through shopping? Seriously, why not have students pretend to "buy" the parts for their next project? I will show you so many ways to make math FUN & how to manage these fun technique that will motivate your students to develop their math skills. Top it off with a wide variety of "shopping centers" for your classroom and you have...

"Take An Imaginary 'Shopping Trip' Through the Math Standards!"

Tap into my 37 years of experience and learn new ways to organize & manage everything from student data to student behavior. Keep students engaged, eliminate behavior problems, and teach more efficiently with the tips and tricks you'll discover in my session...                                                    

"The Amazing Classroom"

Are you wondering how to get your kindergarten students to develop their descriptive, informative, opinion, and narrative writing skills? Let me show you an easy approach that is both developmentally appropriate and crucial to your students' success in writing. Check out my session...

"They Can Do It! Creating Successful Writers in Kindergarten"

And what ever happened to nursery rhymes? Discover how to teach so many foundational ELA skills at this engaging "Make & Take" session! You will leave with so many samples to use in your classroom. All materials and tools are provided, so stop by and have fun in...

"Mother Goose on the Loose!"

And that's just day 1. On day 2, have fun at my keynote presentation:

Start your day with a big spoonful of motivation, a pinch of inspiration, and a handful or two of laughs and giggles. Leave this keynote with a smile on your face and empowered to make a difference in this changing world, one child at a time. Join me for...

"Ingredients For Success!"

Collect tricks and tips on how to create inexpensive or free ways to design centers that meet a wide range of abilities. Turn your classroom into a plethora of playful learning. Stop by and find out how at...

"Learning Centers: Keeping 'Play' in Your Kindergarten Day"

Are you drowning in assessments, data, and making sense of all of the testing you have to do? Well, fear not! I'll show you efficient ways to test, record, and analyze your data. Find out how at... 

"Fall In Love With Formative Assessments!"

Do you want to trigger curiosity, ignite excitement, and create life-long learners? Come and learn the 4 basic steps to inquiry-based learning. Discover how at...

"Inquiry-Based Learning: Let Your Students Drive Your Instruction!"

If you read this post and come to this amazing conference, find me and tell me that you saw this post. I always carry prizes for my followers and I love to give away FREEBIES at all of my presentations!  :)

CLICK HERE

for more info about this conference. 

Let's Teach Sight Words So They Stick!

Join me on 7/12 at 2:45 PM @ I Teach K!

That's when I'll be presenting one of my favorite sessions on sight words! 

Click the image to view the session description.

This session comes with an amazing handout 

that includes:

  ~current brain and memory research

  ~a 5-day plan for teaching sight words

  ~tons of games, songs, and sight word activities 

  ~a FREE sight word activity template

Your students will beg to learn new sight words!

Click the image for more info.

   Discover a simple 5-day plan and easy-to-implement activities that take only minutes each day and makes learning sight words so much FUN! 

Click the image for more info.

You will get to see photos of children interacting with their sight words and their peers in a meaningful and productive way. 

Click the image for more info.

And you will get to see how to easily transform your classroom into a room that promotes learning sight words on the walls, at the centers, and in places you can't even imagine! 

Click the image for more info.

And did I mention prizes?

I LOVE to give away prizes at all of my sessions!

I will be presenting at 

SDE's National Conference,

"I Teach K!", 

on Thursday, July 12 

and Friday July 13. 

Here is a link to SDE's 

website & registration:

CLICK HERE.

My other sessions are:

~Don't Wait, Early Math Intervention 

for Your Littlest Learners

~Mother Goose On The Loose!

Teaching Foundational Skills 

Through Nursery Rhymes

(This one is a Make & Take!)

~Putting Fun Back Into Math:

Discover the Magic of Addition & Subtraction!

(This one is a Make & Take!)

~Put Your Thinking Caps On:

Questioning Strategies to Engage & Inspire

Have YOU Ever Been...

... To One of SDE's National Conferences?

Over 6000 teachers came to Las Vegas this week for:

I Teach Pre-K!

I Teach K!

I Teach 1st!

I Teach 2nd! 

Differentiated Instruction!

&

Singapore Math

I was so fortunate to be invited to presents at both "I Teach K!" and "I Teach 1st!" this year!

If you have never been to one of SDE's National Conferences, you need to start planning now for next summer:  July 10-14 at the beautiful Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.

These are the Cadillacs of Teaching Conferences! Seriously, you will want to attend at least one of these. And they are held at the beautiful Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada!

If you teach Pre-K, there is an entire conference dedicated just for you! You will have so much FUN learning how to address the Pre-school Foundational Standards while providing meaningful learning AND fun for your Pre-K students.

Kindergarten teachers probably make up the largest group who attends Nationals. There is a "buzz" that resonates through all of the sessions, but it's the loudest at the "I Teach K!" sessions!

The night before my presentations, 
I set up my room with samples!

I felt so blessed to be asked to present a few sessions at "I Teach K!" again this year! My favorite session that I presented was all about Sight Words! We learned lots of new ideas, but my favorite was tracing over sight words, that were written on cute flashcards from Teacher Created Materials, with white glue. Then we sprinkled the glue with powdered Jell-o! When they dry you have "Scratch & Sniff" Sight Words! Not only are they tactile, but you can hear them as you scratch and you can smell them too! You might want to remind your "Littles" not to lick their sight words! Just sayin'...

K Teachers "Turning & Talking" 
about the things they just learned!

When you click HERE, check out the video. Get ready to pause it @ 2min, 5 seconds to see me in my favorite tutu apron from showandtellaprons.com .

I also got to present a few sessions at "I Teach 1st!" That was a 1st for me! I presented one of my favorite sessions called "Phonics, Sight Words, & Writing, OH MY!" Teachers got to "Make & Take" a phonics teaching tool, a sight word "craftivity", and experience my Instant Writing Kit which turns any child into an instant writer! We had tons of FUN! Kindergarten teachers can use these with K sight words too!

My dear friend, Kim, helped me (at 10:30 PM) 
set up my room for the next day.
Imagine my surprise when I showed up the next day to find 
all of the tables gone!!!
Oh well, teachers are flexible. 
We just did our "Make & Take" anyway! 
#Whoneedstables? 

Did I mention that we all got to stay at the beautiful Venetian Hotel? 

Well, we got to eat some amazing meals there too!

I think I gained 5 pounds this week, but it was oh, so worth it!

In between presenting, I got to present a mini-session at ESGI's booth! Oh, how I love the ESGI team! They even served yummy goodies from Carlos' Bakery. They called it "Pastries With Palma". I had so much fun at their booth and then Chris Pombonyo, from Famous in Fourth interviewed me! What FUN!

Attending Nationals is like attending a family reunion. I get to see so many presenter friends that I only get to see one or two times a year! 

So many hugs!
Do you recognize any of these beautiful faces?

And, did I mention the ginormous room filled with vendors? So many GREAT products & freebies for teachers!

My favorite vendors after ESGI, were Show And Tell Aprons, Sit Spots, and Teacher Created Materials. 

The SDE "Red Shirt" Team is the BEST! They make EVERYTHING run smoothly! Seriously, over 6000 teachers and it ran smoothly! Well, their Senior Program Planner, Kymra, is the BEST! I don't even know how she stays so cool and calm during an entire week of conferences all running at the same time! 

And, of course, we looked for Pokemons!

Looking for Pokemons!

And I was so lucky to have two of the BEST roomies. 

I stayed with Kim for a few days. She helped me so much!

Then, I roomed with Heidi from Heidi Songs, she writes the BEST teaching songs EVER! I always learn so much from her!

Kim and I rocking out and Heidi and I out to dinner.
That's a live "statue" behind her!

But in the end, it was time to go home. I don't know if you heard about Southwest's computer glitch, but many flights were cancelled and almost everyone was bumped to another flight. I don't know how all of those great SW flight attendants kept everyone happy, but their sense of humor really helped! 

Why do they stow magazines under the sign that says, "No stowing"?
Just asking! 

So, plan now, my friends. You won't want to miss SDE's National's next year! It will be July 10-14 in Las Vegas. You can register at SDE.com/Nationals and they even have an app for that! 

Visit this blog again next week and check out the thermal laminator I'll be giving away!!!