T.C. Booth's Blog, page 13
September 3, 2012
The Balanced Classroom
Hello Friends. I have started a new teaching blog title The Balanced Classroom. I will be posting and sharing my teaching ideas there. I will keep my writing blog with Word Press and leave Teacher Talk published without adding anything new to this site. Thank you to all who are following me and frequent Teacher Talk. I hope to see you at The Balanced Classroom. I am having a book give away for my first ten followers there. 
Tagged: balanced classroom, book give away, new blog, third grade
August 25, 2012
My Cute Little iPods
I had a great first week of school. I’m tired of course, but really enjoyed my new third graders. As you know, my welcome bulletin board is decorated with iPods that have the children’s names displayed as my playlist. I stuck with this theme for one of my activities last week. We read the poem My Teacher Took My iPod by Ken Nesbitt. Then, the children colored their own iPods and glued their pictures on the screen. I displayed their iPods on the wall beside my welcome board. I have to say, they’re the cutest little iPods I’ve ever seen.
Tagged: first week of school, ipod theme, poems for kids, poetry in the classroom, third grade, welcome board
August 19, 2012
August 12, 2012
Fantastic Friday
I don’t know about your classroom, but there is a different feeling in my classroom on Fridays. The hard work of the week is concluding and the students and I are in anticipation for the weekend. The overall feeling is one of celebration and accomplishment.
My students who had good behavior all week are rewarded. I call those students to my desk to pick a Fantastic Friday coupon. The absolute favorite coupon of the students is The Teacher Chair. Whoever pulls that coupon gets to sit at my desk for the afternoon. I clear my things off the desk and allow them to settle in for the afternoon.
Fantastic Friday has become so popular with my kids that I will use it as motivation for reluctant workers or repeat behavior issue. Those kiddos may work on meeting goals for me during the week in order to pull a coupon on Friday.
I am sharing my Fantastic Friday coupons for Back to School ideas. Enjoy!
Tagged: back to school, behavior rewards, fantastic friday, freebie
August 5, 2012
And the Award Goes to…
Thank you to Holly at Krazyfunteaching for nominating me for The Versatile Blogger Award. I am so excited. This is my first award nomination. (Two posts in one day is another first.)
To accept this award I have to:
1. Thank the person(s) who nominated me. Done
2. Include a link back to who nominated me. Done
3. Include the award image in my blog post. Done
4. Tell 7 random facts about myself. Done
5. Nominate 15 other bloggers for this award. Done
6. When nominating, include a link to their page. Done
7. Let the nominees know by leaving a comment on their pages. Done
Seven Random Facts About Myself
1. I have two beautiful daughters. My older daughter is a second year college student majoring in sports medicine. My younger daughter is sports crazy. She will be an 8th grader this year.
2. I’m an avid reader of young adult novels. I have read several this summer.
3. I love to write stories. Along with reading young adult material, I write in that genre. I’m currently working on a young adult novel dedicated to my younger daughter.
4. I have two spoiled cats named Sasha and Sheldon. I have one very spoiled dog named Sammy. All three of my animals match in color. White with gold/orange.
5. Like Holly at krazyfunteaching, I watch the Real Housewives shows. Jersey Housewives are my favorites.
6. I am Pinterest obsessed. My favorite boards are the teaching ( of course) and recipes.
7. My favorite food is lasagna.
Here are the 15 Bloggers I am nominating:
My Life as a Third Grade Teacher
My Life as a Third Grade Teacher
Science, Spelling & Skinny Iced Lattes
Reading. Writing. Thinking. Sharing
Tagged: Versatile Blogger Award 
Pinspired!
You gotta love Pinterest! The amount of pins on my teaching board far out number all of my others. So many of you talented creative teachers sharing ideas makes it difficult for me not to pin every teaching idea that I see. Your ideas have inspired me to be ultra creative in preparing to go back to school this year. Pins from kcrewkidsrock.blogspot and anotherdayinfirstgrade.blogspot inspired my back to school bulletin board and classroom decor ideas. Check out my pinspirations! I actually made the pom poms myself!
Click Picture for Genre Labels Freebie
Tagged: back to school, genre label freebie, pinterest
July 29, 2012
Mission Organization
Thanks to The Clutter Free Classroom, my mission this year is to stay organized and neatly display items. My classroom has a blue wall, blue carpet, and green counter. So my theme will be those colors.
I found ribbon with my theme colors at Pat Catan’s, and strung it across the bulletin board to display my anchor charts. I got blue clothes pins at Wal-Mart and felt flower stickers at to dress up the pins at The Dollar Tree .
I started a message center with important dates with materials found at the places above. The Dollar Tree had loads of materials in my colors. So, thanks Clutter Free Classroom, for all of the good ideas.
Along with my mission to get my classroom in order, I have started a binder system to organize professional materials. I am sharing the labels I’ve created for my binders. Click below to download.
Tagged: back to school, binder labels, classroom organization, freebie
July 23, 2012
Where Does the Time Go?
The count down is on. A little over three weeks until the new school year begins. The back to school time capsule activity that I am sharing is actually fresh in my mind.
It was just a few weeks ago that my children opened their envelopes, sealed from the first week of school, to reveal how they’ve changed.They held up their strings to see how much taller ( or not), they were. Marveled at how their cursive had improved, and giggled at how their tastes have changed. After seventeen years, this remains one of my all time favorite first week of school activities.
Tagged: back to school, first week activity, freebies, time capsule
July 11, 2012
Wonderful Marvelous Names
One of my summer tasks is to clean up my computer files and organize folders. I have two main categories of files, school stuff and writing stuff. Browsing through my beginning of the school year folder, I decided to it was time (July already) to share things that I have created for the start of the school year.
Reading Chrysanthemum to my children the first week of school has become a tradition. After the story, I will lead the children in making words activities using the letters in Chrysanthemum. The remainder of the week , the children get a chance to have their name in the spotlight. I am sharing the form I created for their time in the spotlight.
You can click on the image to download.
Tagged: beginning of year, chrysanthemum, first week of school,
