Why I Chose These Websites

The Brown Bag Teacher
brownbagteacher.com

This website is made by a practicing teacher in the fourth grade but she was also a first grade and fifth grade teacher. She has seven heading on her website and then has subheadings under each topic. One of the subheadings that I liked under"My Classroom was"5 Tips From an Organized Classroom regardless of the age level. Under"Organization ", she also had an article called "Managing Time in the Classroom". There are a lot of good resources because of the experiences that she had. The organization of the website is good and overflowing with information. There are pictures that show you how to have your class line up. There are different tips for storage. There are different ways to do math centers. When working with different developmental age groups, she had different colors of buckets. Some activities that I saw that I liked how she had different activities based on different ages. She also had a sample of daily schedules for a first grade classroom. She is very open to telling what works and what does not and how to be flexible but also organized. I loved this one because it has great information for everybody. 

Mrs. Nelson's Class
mrsnelsonsclass.com

This website has 5 main sections. I love the design of her website with the white and blue. She is a kindergarten teacher but the website is geared towards preschool through 1st grade teachers. I love that she puts her philosophy under the "About Me section". In "Lesson Units", she has three subheadings so teachers can get ideas for teaching themes or reading.In "Teaching Subjects", she has ideas of how to do centers and teach math, phonics, reading and writing.With teaching math she explains that hands on is good and she talks about the topics in math that she teaches. Under"Classroom Management", she has the schedule and how to set up your classroom and supply list. One of the ideas that I loved was that you can have an online stopwatch to use during center time or other times for transitions. For classroom and behavior they have a compliment chain that when somebody get a compliment from another teacher they get to add links and then they also can work on patterns with the links. At the end of whatever goal they have they can possibly get a surprise. I liked this website because it had good ideas and I know I will use it in the future.

Oh Happy Day
iha4k.blogspot.com

This blog is put together by my mentor teacher in 4K. She has the blog divided into months. She has pictures showing the different activities. She told me she has not updated August but it still shows the time and effort that she uses in planning her classroom. She has set routines in the classroom and they know what is expected of them. March 31, she shows pictures of conversation hearts in a big heart so they can do math and count how many fit in the big heart. She has a picture of a chart that says Kindness Counts and it tells ten ways that you can be kind.In her classroom they get kindness coins to fill their buckets when they are caught being kind. The activities are developmentally appropriate and there is an explanation about what they did or were trying to accomplish. Hers is more a blog than a major website but it is very interesting and it shows the different activities that the children do. I enjoyed being in her classroom. She is a great teacher.

Happy Teacher/Happy Kids
happyteacherhappykids.com

This site comes from a first grade teacher. I love the topics that she has on her site. She has a great activity to teach the children not to interrupt. It is called, "Interrupting Chicken." It is based on a book and she reads it and teaches them about not interrupting. She does this at the beginning of the year. One of the classroom management ideas that I liked was putting construction paper in a bin so it stays un crumpled. She also has a section for if you are a brand new teacher. She has a section on curriculum. She has made healthy snacks for the classroom based on fairy tales so it makes it more fun. She had apples for Snow White's apple slices. She has a freebie section for teachers to help with things like handwriting. She has a section broken up into the seasons and activities that fit the best for that time of year. One of her tips for new teachers is to practice positive things that you could use when dealing with difficult parent and or principals. I really enjoyed this site because it was encouraging to new teachers that you can do it and that we are all in this together.