2015-16 Free Printable School Calendar

That's a mouthful!

I am always on the hunt for blank calendar pages that I can use to pre-plan my units and lessons for a new school year. I'm admittedly a big old nerd, but I do love taking home my unit plans and teaching materials and having a fresh, clean slate for the approaching school year.

Although I'm required to keep electronic plans at my school, I still do plan by paper first. I guess my brain is hard wired to "write it down"!

This year I decided to just make my own calendar instead of pulling one off one of the many free versions on the web. For one reason: I don't need Sat/Sun and without those days...the other boxes are larger (more room for writing!)

Here's a preview:

You can download the entire school-year calendar for August 2015-June 2016 for free in my Teachers Pay Teacher's Store!

Hope you all had a great year and have a long, relaxing summer break! One of my goals is to add more content to this site and my TPT store next year, so I hope you'll hang in there with me. <3

Angie

Fashion Class: Trashy Fashions

Special treat for you today...straight from my classroom! I'm teaching Fashion Merchandising this fall, on a 4x4 block, which translates to 1 semester of class delivered in 9 weeks! (i.e. I'm locked in a room with the darlings for 90 minutes each day.  90 MINUTES WITH 27 TEENAGE GIRLS.  That explains alot, huh?   Nah, they're all really sweet and most of the time they're not giving me the eye glare of doom.)

It helps they still think I'm fashionable.  Lord help me when they figure out how old I really am.

 The week before Thanksgiving, they had a project to practice their understanding of the elements & principles of design, and basic garment shapes (straight, a-line, bouffant, bustle, etc.)  I like to call it Trashy Fashion, and it was inspired by the Season 6 episode of Project Runway, where they created fashions from newspaper:

In essence, each group has two days to design a garment and accessory from newspapers, packing tape, and any recyclable materials they bring from home.  On the 3rd day, we have a little fashion show and then they get to parade through a few classrooms of willing teachers. (We've never been invited through the math hall. I have no idea why.)  This year's fashions may be the best bunch ever!  They're amazing!  Group shot (heads chopped off for obvious reasons):

And some closer detail shots of the dresses!  The hot pink on this dress is recycled Forever21 bags:

Some of the little trims I allowed because these girls are master negotiators.  Their argument was..."but it's leftover from a previous project, so technically it could be considered trash".  Um, OK. Pickin my battles, daily.  And that's not one of them! haha!

There was so much detail on this next one, I wish I had taken closeup shots of each little piece.  It was incredible!!

Yes, this is a boy, and his girlfriend is in the class.  She insisted he be the model for their group.  He was cracking me up in his runway walk.  By far the best runway model!  The dress is beautiful. It has an intricate woven/pieced bodice that this photo doesn't do justice to.  And the fanned ruffle placement on the skirt?  So well thought out.

The colors on this dress come from recycled color copy paper.  I love the pops of color!  

The zebra duct tape snuck in under the radar of "is this allowed".  She was taped into that dress pretty darn fast, on the principle of "ask for forgiveness later".  haha!  It really is cute.

Pretty cool, huh?  Keep in mind, they had roughly 3 hours to make the garment (and an accessory), and they're "fitting" real people, not rail thin models or a perfectly proportioned dressform.  (well, for the most part.  Of course they're little things, they're teen girls!)

In any case, I'd say the PR folks should be paying attention. We're gunning for them! :)

I have some other projects from Fashion and my Graphic Design class that I can share.  I will try to find time this weekend to upload the instruction/activity/project sheets to the blog and to my TPT/Scribd sites this weekend.  Let me know if you are interested in any specific unit/subject matter.  I have a TON of projects for all conceivable design units.  Hit me up!  I'm happy to share!

Dotty Tags ~ Free Printable

A free printable for you!

Last year I made "Days of the Week" tags with a variety of cute backgrounds.  I have been meaning ever since to create just a set of dots and chevrons.  So, here's the first of 2 new printables coming up!

The free download is in my TPT store and it's a zip folder containing a PDF and a JPEG of the full size 8.5x11 sheet of labels/tags.  Feel free to add your own text in a graphics program such as Paint.Net or Photoshop, or just print out and write on/use letter stickers.

I should have the chevron version finished and uploaded to TPT this week too, but I'll do another post and let you know for sure.

Let me know if you'd prefer a Scribd link in the comments below.  Have a great day!

5-Day Lesson Plan Template ~ Free

Last year I created a 5-day Lesson Plan template for my TPT store, that included "spaces" to plan for my entire day.  I teach on a 4x4 block schedule with a split lunch and an "Encore" (study hall) period, so I used a version slightly different than the one I posted on TPT (and here) but it was still mostly the same.

I discovered, though,  that by condensing my weekly lesson plan for each class (I teach 3 preps each "block" with one planning period) I was losing some much needed space for "reminders" and for those activities that were new or unfamiliar to me.  As such, I was working out of TWO lesson plans a lot of the time; the 2-page spread that I created for my "lesson planning binder" and an individual "class lesson plan" for those activity-filled days.

Frankly, I was losing my marbles trying to remember where I typed/put/found information!  So it was back to the drawing board for me!  This is the template I'm trying out THIS year.  It's still a 2-page spread, 5-day lesson plan (week at a glance almost), with all of the items my district requires plus a few extras that I like to have on hand. (Like birthdays).

I still went for a colorful mix, because I like bright, cheery colors.  The font used is "Jester" and is freely available on Urban Fonts and Dafont, last I checked.  The owl clip art is from Pink Pueblo, who has adorable cliparts and Photoshop brushes in her Etsy shop.

This lesson plan format is probably most suitable for someone like me, who teaches multiple classes per day and needs a bit more detailed plan for the week. 

The margins are suitable for hole punching in the center so that the plan lies flat in a binder!  Woot! That's my favorite part. :)

If you need a new LP template, check it out!  It's fully customizable, in a docx format and is a free download in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Let me know if you need a Scribd link, I can add it there as well!

Hope you're having a great year!

Hello again!

Hello there, everyone!  I am at the start of a new school year, and I'm hopeful that I can get my act together and restart blogging here once more.  I had lots of plans and things to share last year, and I just let time and busy work get the best of me. 

I've been getting emails from people regularly over the past few months about my lesson plan templates and my creative syllabus posts.  Thank you ALL for being so supportive and kind! 

I'll be back in a few days with an updated classroom tour (I moved AGAIN this year into a new space) and I have some printables to share too. 

See you soon!

Quick Update!

Whew, the 2nd half of the semester really ate into my free time.  I needed Christmas break to recharge!

I'm reworking my graphic design curriculum this semester and I'm going to start sharing some fun lessons and activities in the next few weeks.  I haven't forgotten about my little blog!  Just sidetracked by life...

Hope the school year is going well for everyone. :)

the Creative Syllabus

My school requires a syllabus for every class, every term.  Since I teach on block, and usually have 3 different "preps" (classes) per block, that means upwards of 12 syllabi each year!  (Not really, I repeat 3 or 4 classes once!)

I've been doing a "creative syllabus" for a couple of years now.  I started doing this because otherwise they're BORING to read aloud to them, and they almost never read along, AND I would find them left behind after the first day on desks and tables.  Grrr. 

So... enter the Comic Strip Syllabus:

This syllabus was created using the Marvel Superhero Comic site.  They have an awesome comic creator!  I love that you can download and save or print your finished comic strip or comic book (yes, you can write an entire storyline with multiple pages and layouts!)  This syllabus is for my Imaging (graphic arts) class.  I'm fairly confident they're going to love it!

For my Fashion class, I created their syllabus using MagCover.com. 

This site is also free and you can download your finished cover (many, many different themed covers already set up to edit with your own images and text!)  I did pay the $1.99 fee to download a high quality version though, since I loved it so much.  I might even print and frame or laminate it for my classroom walls. 

The illustration on my Fashion cover is from a Deviantart artist Bree Leman.  This print was free to download from her DV site, but she has some lovely artwork for purchase too (higher quality/resolution prints).

One thing you might note is how concise the information is.  Due to the format of a comic or magazine cover, you have to be short and to the point.  At first I was worried I wasn't "covering everything".  Then I discovered...I was too wordy before.  The kids stop listening after a while, and besides what do I REALLY WANT THEM TO KNOW??

That's what I concentrate on for the info on my creative syllabi.  The really important goods.  The rest is fluff and unnecessary (and can be replaced with cool graphics and fun comic book SPLATS!)

I hope this might inspire some of you to try a new format for your boring old syllabi!