Another Monday Made-It-- and one less week of summer BOO!

I was busy this week working on school things again. Of course still no job prospects, but I'm keeping positive. This morning I saw a post for the school that I really would love to work at for a 7th grade ELA position. Of course I'm not qualified- you have to have additional certification. If I don't get my classroom position, I'm going to go for additional certifications during the school year- I just can't stand sitting around waiting like this! 
Anyway, I was busy working on things for my classroom and have chosen to keep a positive attitude and believe it will happen. Hey, I just need ONE of those jobs out there, right?

My first project was this lovely stool. I got it for $5 at a school closing sell-off. There isn't anything wrong with it other than it is ugly. Last week I finished my bucket seats and wanted to have a teacher's edition to match, so this is it!

A couple coats of spray paint did it a huge favor!

And of course my cushion that I made on it. For instructions for the cushion, look at the reference in my last week's post. I made the bottom row of material much narrower for this because I didn't need the length. 

And instead of using the same material as is on the top for the bottom part of the cushion, I sprung for material that has "grippy" dots on it, so when I'm sitting on the stool the cushion won't slide all around. It sticks quite well actually!

 Next, my oldest daughter has been diligently working on my library sticks. So- she has to get credit for this MMI (Thanks Kate!) They are painted with a black glitter paint and then I made number circles in my colors and hot glued them on. They are kinda hard to see on the picnic table cloth- sorry!

Next is my homework club boards. I went to Dollar Tree and got a pizza pan and a small cake pan to do this (so they are magnetic) I spray painted them black and created the circle letters in PowerPoint. If you use one of these, please give me some feedback. I have seen Tara's on 4th Grade Frolics, and I know she uses the monthly and then keeps track of who never leaves the club, but I'm still unsure how to do that. That is why I created the "homework stars" smaller pan. I don't want to flip back and forth- and I don't want to lose track. Of course my 7th grader thinks this is an impossible goal for me to set for students and was "speaking up for my students" but I reminded him that younger grades will not necessarily have homework to turn in every single day so it isn't so impossible. (and besides that, he has never himself had problems with homework, so I don't know why he objected?) I haven't hot glued the letters on yet- I will wait to do that until I'm in the classroom with these- that way nothing will get damaged in transit. I also have a cool green gingham ribbon to glue on the back of them. I also have the glass tiles to go on them- but didn't have them with me when I took the picture.

Finally, my teacher's tool kit-- LOVE LOVE LOVE! I got the file for the tabs from Ladybug's Teacher Files and just picked a font and what titles I wanted for the drawers. I got the toolbox from Lowes and spray painted it. Of course I'm the world's WORST spray painter, so it didn't go without some glitches, but overall, I'm happy with it. 

I have also been working on these cool things called "behavior beads" from Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera! They are a great concept- but a LOT of work to get ready for students. I have everything printed and cut out, but still am working on hole punching and making them "pretty" for students. I promise to have them done for next week to share. 

Have a great week everyone!

Krystal

A first time Monday Made-It :)

I have been admiring all the "Monday Made-It's" all summer and finally decided to jump in and share what I am doing! Admittedly these stools took me more than a couple days to make, but I'm pretty happy with how they turned out!

I got the idea (and directions) for these on Pinterest. I have been wanting something nicer to go under the kidney tables that wouldn't take up a lot of space, but that was also taller than the crates. Still not sure what grade I will be teaching so I wanted something older kids could sit on. My 7th grader was not such a willing model, but you can see they aren't entirely too small for him:

I used a heavy duty material for them since so many teachers have commented about them getting dirty. 

And if you follow the directions on that link, I would recommend making the second row (the bottom row with elastic) at least a few inches longer than the directions recommend. I wanted them to go over the ridges in the buckets completely.

Also, I didn't want to deal with spray painting buckets. I also didn't want Home Depot orange or Lowes blue since my classroom colors are black and white with lime green and pink accents. So I went to the local (uh, there are a MILLION of them!) hydroponics store and bought their black buckets. Shop around--- they varied in price from $7 to $3 each. Also, if you don't want to paint over the writing on the buckets of any color, just use acetone and a green scrubbie (with some elbow grease!) to scrub off the ink on them. 

If you have any questions or want more pictures, just let me know!

My next project was my white boards! My oldest daughter and I went to Lowes and they cut two sheets for me. I got 36 whiteboards that measure 15x15 inches. I found some cool duct tape that I liked and covered the edges to help them last longer. They came out pretty!

That's all for now. I'm working on a matching stool cushion as well as several printables that I am getting ready to laminate.

Excited to see what everyone else is doing!

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3, 2, 1 CLEAR!

Hello! I have decided to bring my blog back to life :) I know I was gone for, well, forever... and I didn't really think I would do anything with this once I was done student teaching. But the last couple months have found me trolling a lot of teaching blogs and in order to post and respond to them, I sort of want to have my blog back. I'll be making a lot of changes to it and trying to figure out how to get it "working" like other teacher's blogs (and maybe even get some cuteness involved??) so that I can share and learn more. 
I did a long term subbing assignment this past spring through the end of the school year. Wow-- did I learn a lot there! My school was in Detroit and inner city schools are so much different than outskirt suburbs schools! I thought about blogging while I was there, but truthfully there were so many negative things that were going on that I didn't want to record it all. In the end of course I left loving (most of) my students and wishing more than anything that I could take a handful of them home with me. Life down there is CRAZY different than in Belleville. 
There were days down there though that I would cry the whole way home (an hour's drive). I remember my son had a band concert one evening and I went to Keystone (where I student taught as well) and ran into a couple of my 2nd graders that I student taught with. Oh, that was bad-- it made me miss them so much! 
I'm still looking for my classroom. For some reason the schools aren't fighting each other to employ me :( Seriously though, I went into education knowing that it is bleak in Michigan- I knew this. I couldn't tell you how many people told me I was crazy. But I followed a dream- and when you follow a dream you don't worry about what everyone else thinks or says. So, for now, I remain unemployed. I look for a job every single day. If there is a job for me to find this school year, I will find it. God has a plan- and I will just keep that as my focus and not completely freak out that I have student loans kicking in this month. Oy! I was offered a job where I did that long term sub assignment but I declined. There were too many factors in that situation that I just couldn't overlook- the biggest one being the commute.
To keep my mind clear and busy while I'm still searching, I have been making things for my classroom. Oh I have some beautiful things I'll be posting pictures of! I'm so excited! Anyway, for those that are still following me, I'll take you with my through my next adventure if you'll have me! 

Krystal