New Blog Title and Addy

Thank you, thank you all for the great comments and feedback.

I recently had someone tell me that I should change my blog title so that people knew it was a resource for Elementary Computer Teachers.  I thought that was a good idea.

I thought and thought and came up with some catchy and pun-ny titles.  They were all taken.

I thought some more.  Those were taken, too.

I finally came up with this one. 

Teach the Bits and Bytes.

I figure it will be understood by those that have anything to do with computers.  Those that don't. . . you're still welcome!  I think a lot of these ideas would translate well into a grade level classroom.

Thanks for all the support so far!  I'm loving it!

~jennifer~

Word Cloud Update

I've had a bunch of requests for the PDF for the word cloud.  Here it is!!!

I made it in Word using text boxes.  I just changed the fonts (1001 free fonts dot com) and flipped some around.

Thanks for all the compliments!
~jennifer~

Making Frames

I'm getting my room ready for the beginning of the new school year and I wanted to frame some of the school posters that we are required to have up.

Frames are hideously expensive.

I hit Home Depot and bought some 3 foot popular boards in 1/4 inch thickness.  These are very thin and light.

I measured the poster with the wood.  It's very non-exact.

I cut them and used some liquid nails between the "seams".  To strengthen them, I also glued some ribbon on to the back.

When done, I spray painted it.

Since my poster was laminated already, I stapled it to my wall and used the Command picture hanging strips on my frame.  I stuck it on the wall over the poster.

Done!  Looks great and really dresses up the poster. 

Bulletin Board Updates

I've put links to the PDFs of a lot of the bulletin boards I made this fall.  It's updated!

Please remember that this is my work so please don't sell it!

Enjoy!

First Quarter Bulletin Boards

School starts in LESS THAN A WEEK .  I don't feel ready, but my room is!  I am a firm believer in appearing organized, no matter how unorganized you are behind the scenes.  No one will know!

Here's a preview of my bulletin boards this quarter.  I've got a few of the PDFs up on here. . . they're free, my friends!  I will eventually start a shop on the Teachers Pay Teacher's site but, until I get off my duff, you can get them free! (As always, please don't sell this stuff.  It's my work and the ideas may be mine or I may have taken inspiration from someone else.  It's not fair to me an not fair to them if you sell it.)

This is my word cloud.  I took some time and made it in Word.  I sent it to our copy shop to enlarge. 

WORD CLOUD

This is my version of the class rules this year.   I will probably have one other version of my rules and rotate them through the years.  CLASS RULES

I have some HUGE walls with no real bulletin boards.  I end up stapling the borders directly to the wall and creating my own bulletin boards.  This one is on one half of my big wall. CURSOR(1)  CURSOR(2)

This is the second half of my big wall.  Close ups below. . .  (PDFs available!!).  The Mouse Control one is a little different than what I printed. . . notice my mistake?  The last one should say OPEN instead of Select.  I fixed it in the download I put below the posters and fixed it on my wall.  That's what I get for not proofreading close enough!

SAVE OR SAVE AS
MOUSE CONTROL
 My other big wall has my all time favorite bulletin board on it.  This is my shortcut tree!

And close ups of this. . . .

 

Our school plays host to a family of barn owls every summer so I added an owl to our tree.

 The nest was printed as black and white on brown cardstock.  I used a nest clipart from Word.

This big ol' board is on the wall outside my lab.  This was the easiest of all because I used pieces from a few different pre-fab bulletin boards.  

This massive one is in the laptop lab.  It takes up an entire wall.  I have PDFs of the companies and their blurb for you!  MADE IN AMERICA

I researched the companies and put pins in the city that the companies' headquarters are located.

The other side of the laptop lab has this:

The iPod measures over three feet tall and about four and a half feet wide.  They are HUGE!    I will have PDFs of the apps up.  APPS

That's it for this quarter!  I have a lot more in the works, including those cute turned menacing bugs I made.  Give me a few days but I will eventually get up the PDFs of some of these up.

Login Card Holders

I'm going for colorful this year!

I made this for my login cards.  There are hooks to the right of the grade levels that the cards will hang on.

The cards will be contained on a binder ring and then hung on the hooks.  This sits on the side of my cabinet.  It's not seen from the door but it available if needed.

The background is fabric I had leftover from a sewing project.  I used my sizzix to cut out the letters and I spray painted an old, yellow frame the shiny black.  I'm using Command picture hanging strips to hold it to my cupboard.

One and a half weeks 'til students. . . one week 'til I report in.  <sigh>  Summer went by SO FAST!!!
~Jennifer