#Freeisforme....

Hello Blog World!!!

I am taking full advantage of this awesome holiday. I enjoyed having the whole Friday, Saturday, and Sunday to bum and spend time with my family, and not worry about doing work. I also am able to have time to blog.

This year is off to am amazing start! I love my new school, and all of my new babies. Within the first 2 days I earned the title the best teacher EVER!!!! That was special, and probably record time! LOL! But the feeling is mutual because I have the best students ever!

One of my hobbies is couponing, and it saves my family so much money! As part of my hobby I am a member of several sites in which I get to try things free in exchange for me blogging, tweeting or face booking about it.

Recently I have been able to try HemisFares Pasta, Sauce and Olive Oil,  Evolution Fresh Yogurt, Horizon Snacks, and a few other items. Guess what I #GOTITFREE from +BzzAgent

Evolution Fresh was ok for me. I enjoyed the fruit filling at the bottom. But it was a little sour tasting. The best part was that I #Gotitfree.  I do recommend it though as an easy go to healthy snack.

I will be coming back later on the evening if I have time to add a little more about free stuff.

OH Yea I picked up some Ballpark Franks for $.18 a package this week, and that was awesome. Compared to 3.48 at Walmart that it just like a #Gotitfree.

Until next time....

Back....Into the Swing of Things!

It has been a long time since I felt like blogging. But I must say it feels so good to be back after 2 years. A lot has taken place in my life within that time, and I am excited about the new journey I am on.

From no longer dealing with sickness to changing schools and grades...I am totally ready for this upcoming year. Besides the fact that I feel better than I have felt in the last 2 years life is just grand right now!

Now I am constantly going to work on getting better at blogging, but for now I just want to focus on this school year that starts in a few days. I have been a busy bee creating things for this year as I journey into 1st grade for the first time ever, and I am so ready!!!! I have taught kindergarten and 2nd before, but first is a new journey.

I would love it if you took a look at my first product up for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers. My colors in my room are black, pink , and white and I wanted my number posters to match, and after inspiration from several other teachers I created his beautiful set! Check it out, give me a rating, and show me some Love!!!

Until Next time...CIAO!!!!

How my Ankle holds up with Dr. Scholl's® For Her High Heel Insoles...

So about 3 years ago I had surgery on my left foot, because I was extremely flat footed and that caused a spiral effect for other issues in my foot. Long story short I had surgery and my ankle was never the same again. TROUBLE, TROUBLE!!!

I absolutely love high heels 5 inches or better! I am devastated that I can not currently wear them, because I just had surgery again (Go Figure!)! However, I recently received Dr. Scholl's® For Her High Heel Insoles courtesy of +Influenster and I love them! They made it alot easier to stand and walk or move in 6 inch heels with a gimpy ankle! They were very comfortable, and I pretty much have them in every pair of heels now!!!

Every girl should experience comfort of a high heel like this!!! GO buy them now! LOL

Peace!

How I Shine with New SinfulShine?!?

So for most of the Summer I have been blogging about either school work or something I received from Influenster Vox Box!!! Well I am ecstatic to say that I graduate with my Master's in less than one week!!! GO ME!!!!

Now off to Influenster business:

Another great product I received courtesy of +Influenster and @SinfulColors_np was the Sinful Shine Gel Tech Polish. I love gel nails because they last so much longer than regular polish, but at the nail shop they are super expensive! This polish is a pretty good match point for gel nails at fractions lower than the nail shop cost!!! Since I started extreme couponing recently saving anywhere I can has become very important!!!! Not only that you still get the gel look and feel!

If you are looking for a great product head on over to +Walgreens and pick it up TODAY!!!

Goody Ouchless Ribbon Elastics!!!

Hello Blogosphere!!!

It's the TinyTeacher here again blogging about another product that I received to try for FREE courtesy of Influenster. I was a recipient of the Sunkissed Vox Box, and I am absolutely in love with the products that I received. The product that I will review today is the Goody Ouchless Ribbon Elastics!

My favorite parts about them are simple:
1. They do not have metal parts on them so my hair does not get pulled and tangled.
2. They are cute and versatile so  if I take my hair down mid day I can slide the elastic on my arm and it actually looks cute!
3. They hold my hair very well.

Goody says the following about the product, and I think they hit the nail on the head:

• Soft, stretchy material that looks beautiful on the wrist or in the hair!
• From America’s #1 elastics brand, Goody® Ouchless®
• Unique knot style hair ties are perfect for personalizing or dressing up your look.

So with that being said I definitely recommend this product to you if you value my favorite parts about these little things or if you just want to try them out.

Head on over to Goody and check them out.

Sunkissed VoxBox from Influenster featuring Olay Fresh Effects

I am sooooo excited to be on Summer Break from work! I have 2 classes left before I graduate with my Master's degree. I go on vacation in 3 days, and I received FREEBIES last week!!!!!!

Sounds like a great start to summer right? Well it is! Now on to these freebies!

I was a recipient of a Sunkissed Voxbox from Influenster filled with Goodies to try out for free! I received:
-Dr Scholl's For Her High Heel Insoles
-Goody Hair Ouchless Ribbon Elastics
-Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream
-SinfulColors Sinful Shine Polish with Gel Tech

I am super stoked! I have already tried a few of the products, and I really love these products! The feature product for this post is: OLAY FRESH EFFECTS BB CREAM! My first time trying bb cream.

My Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream smells and feels wonderful. It keeps my face feeling nice and moisturized. This will be my go to product everyday, especially when I don't need the full fledge makeup routine. This is quick and simple. It also gives a radiant look and guess what when I am feeling photogenic it allows me to have #nofilter!!! Yep!!!
Guess what else??? Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream offers six skincare benefits all in one. Those benefits are:
• Refreshes skin instantly
• Brightens for a radiant glow
• Evens tone with a splash of sheer color
• Hydrates for 24 hours
• Smoothes for softer feeling skin 
• Protects against UV damage with SPF 15 

I am sure you would love to check out this awesome bb cream, and I recommend just that. Visit www.olayfresheffects.com or www.amazon.com to purchase your bb cream right away! Don't let Summer end without it.

Also visit www.influenster.com if you are interested in trying out free amazing products like I have done!

Quality Assurance

Have you ever went over something a thousand times to check and make sure there are no mistakes? Sometimes it just seems like you always overlook one thing at least. Many have entire departments dedicated to quality assurance. These departments are responsible for monitoring and evaluating any different areas to make sure a certain quality is upheld.

Quality assurance even plays and important role in online learning. One important factor that I have recently learned in my studies is the importance of being ADA compliant. I was unaware of this practice until my studying. Every time a video or audio is produced a script must be included with it to be in compliance.

There are many ways to assist you in assuring that your online learning module/documents are put together pretty much flawlessly. There are checklists and rubrics available so that you can readily and consistently check to make sure you have good quality material. These rubrics would consider: content, learner engagement, instructional design, accessibility and web design.

Just a Little More Time in a Day Please!!!

This week has not been as busy as the previous week, but I still had to make somewhat of a to do list. Though it was a mental to do list I think it still counts. :-)

I am grateful that the official school year ends in 2 days. This time in 48 hours I will be officially on Summer Break, KINDA! I am teaching summer school for the first time ever, so wish me luck. No sleeping in all day just yet!

Now on to this week's Advanced E-Learning Strategies Class. This week's topic of discussion is Implementing Instructional Content and Media for online learning. With a group project we are currently engaged in I was able to experience this somewhat firsthand. In research and a little bit of my own experience as an online student of this topic I have noticed a few things.

One thing in particular that sticks in my mind is the idea that technology integration is very critical. Due to the fact that online students do not meet face to face and typically pace their own learning it is important that the technology used is very engaging. In my experience having mid week discussion posts and other engaging assignments proved to be effective in not "boring" me.

In the last few years the integration of web 2.0 tools have become very dominant and useful. There are tons of different web 2.0 tools that can be useful to both instructors and students. One web 2.0 tool that I have become very fond of is Google plus hangouts. This free tool is very user friendly and offers many features including, but not limited to, screen share and recording the video session.

Having tools like this readily available, and especially at no cost, seems to keep things exciting.

Enjoy the rest of your week, and I will definitely enjoy mine!

End of the School Year for the Tiny Teacher and My Online Class...

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

I am several days late as you can tell, however, I refuse to go without doing just anything!!! With that determination I must discuss my week!

I have been put on several committees at school, and have had so much going on in the last 10 days!!! The good thing is the school year is almost over, and the flip side is I am teaching Summer School!!! THAT MEANS NO BREAK JUST YET!!! :)

This past week was filled with meetings, end of year planning, field day, awards day, and promotion day planning and a plethora of things going on in my personal life. Enough of that and on to my online class rant for the week.

This week proved to be one of the toughest as far as balancing my schedule with my online learning schedule. It was very difficult for me to keep up this week with everything else that is going on. This is one of the biggest challenges I have found with online learning. However, I am still enjoying this learning process.

This week we are discussing the importance of assessment in online learning. Since learning is not face to face and you can not see the students to give summative assessments really I think it is important to have formative assessments. I think formative assessments are more beneficial in an online learning setting, because the assessments typically require application of material that is covered in a sometimes unique way.

This is also a way to be able and see how the learners apply what they learn in the class as well.

Advanced E-learning Strategies...The Halfway Point!

Greetings blog world! I am halfway finished with my current classes towards my Master's degree, and I think I have about 9 hours left.  Here is my currently for today:

Very interesting I know!!! :)

Now on to the good stuff...
The remainder of this week's post will be dedicated to the guidelines when designing an online course. I am currently doing a group project in which we are actually designing an online course.

It can be very simple to just design an online course just to be designing, but there are some guidelines that will help you have a more effective course. The most important part of designing the course I think is knowing the needs of the client you are designing for and knowing who the potential audience will be. This will help you become aware of what will be most effective.  For example, if you have an audience of high schoolers the design would most likely be more flashy and "cool" than a course for adults who have full time jobs. The more flashy course will be more attractive to the younger audience.

This is not the only guideline when designing a course, but I think it is indeed one of the most important. I hope you enjoy my brief post today! See you next week!

Instructional design methods..Does Gagne ring a bell?

Welcome to another week in the wonderful world of The Tiny Teacher! I am so elated to join you more frequently than I ever have since my blogging journey began! With that being said let's jump right in to this week's point of interest.

This week's post is all about Instructional design methods. 

For most of my life many things that I did came natural, whether it was picking up a microphone and singing in front of a large crowd, playing sports, being a good student, or teaching with no real prior experience. I have been blessed with a gift of being able to be successful at these things and just doing the right thing to excel naturally.

When I first began teaching I had never been a substitute teacher, I had never stepped foot in a public education setting other than being a student. On many occasions my administrators would always compliment me on doing a great job, and they would often say how teaching was natural for me. I have never known or studied the technical side of teaching, I only did things that seemed to be best and right. While encompassing this naturalness I did not realize that I have been utilizing an instructional design method for many years. 

As I was studying for this week's assignment I realized that I have been using Gagne's Instructional events model and possibly even Merrill's model. During our math lesson each day we have to go in steps to ensure that the learner understands and learns what we are teaching. So we follow the same sequence on a daily basis that is much like the steps of Gagne's model. The sequential steps are:

1. Gaining Attention
2. Informing the learner of the objective
3. Stimulating recall of prior knowledge
4. Presenting information
5. Providing Guidance
6.Eliciting Performance
7. Providing Feedback
8. Assessing Performance
9. Enhancing retention & transfer

Every math lesson begins with a hook of some sort to catch the student's attention. Then we discuss what our objective for the lesson will be, review material that has been previously covered and then teach new information. After we model step by step using math manipulatives and hands on activities, as guidance, we show the students how to do the math problems, and then we have them to complete some problems independently (elicit performance). After the independent practice we give feedback and then assess them on whether or not they learned the material. After assessment the students are then put into independent learning centers that correlate with the lesson they learned that day to increase their retention of what they were taught. This is a cycle of steps that we repeat with every lesson.

This is something that I have done for the last 4 school year's, but I was oblivious to the fact that this process had a technical name. With or without the name the Gagne instructional events model has been very successful for me in my classroom. 

Advanced E-learning Strategies Class

Hello Blogosphere!!! It has been quite some time since I have posted to my blog! Mainly because I have been very busy working on my Master's degree in an online accelerated path at Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design.

As a requirement of a new class that I just began I have to keep up with blogging for a few weeks, which will be a task, but fun! That being said let me jump into a little bit about me.

I am in my fourth year of teaching kindergarten for Fort Worth ISD. I am the kindergarten lead teacher, and I enjoy every bit of what I do. Though I love all children KINDERGARTEN has a special place in my heart. I also serve in various other capacities on campus like: student council advisor, PTA board secretary, and MACE committee rep. When I began the year I knew I would be a busy beaver with my Master's, but still signed up to be very active on my campus.

I think I have shared enough for now, and will leave you with a tidbit of info about what I have learned about online education. First and foremost, online education is not for EVERYONE!!! It takes a lot of time and commitment to stay dedicated to basically teaching yourself. It is also very crucial being able to self motivate and stay very task oriented. It is very easy to slip behind on tasks unless you are FOCUSED!!!! The flip side of it is you can move as fast as you see fit and complete things before they are due, which has been convenient for me when I know I have something coming up on a specific date and need to get work done early.

I guess I am finished babbling enough today, and will be back to ramble later in the week!

Peace and Enjoy your Blessings!

"The Taste: Tuesday at 9|8c on ABC"

My review of ABC's The Taste!!!

Not an ordinary cooking challenge show. This is show is more than intense. I really enjoyed the show and found myself wanting more after it was over. I can not wait to see what next week will have in store.

Enjoy this clip from the most recent episode http://abc.tv/Z3jimp.

I recommend everyone to watch this show Tuesdays 9/8C on ABC!!! See ya there

Palmolive Fresh Infusions

Working full time as a kindergarten teacher, going to school for a Master's degree full-time in an accelerated program (2 classes every 8 weeks), being very active in church, singing background for a music artist, and trying to balance life is pretty tough. I have to try and maintain sooooo much, but I am getting it DONE!!!

In the process of everything as I stated in my first blog I was selected as a recipient of the Palmolive Dish Soap Vox Box a few months ago, and I feel in LOVE!!!! Check out Palmolive at the link      ----------> Palmolive® website

Out of all the goodies I received I loved the Lime & Basil scent the best!!! It was so fresh smelling, gentle on my hands and great on the dishes. To me it made dish washing fun and excited... Far Fetched I know, but great smells eases my mind. I think my least favorite was the ginger and white tea, which is why I gave it away to see if someone else would enjoy it better than me, and they did!!! I gave it to my mom, and she loved it, and asked me when I would be getting more complimentary items to share with her... LOL!  She loved the smell, feel and the sparkling dishes in the end! 

Lime & Basil was my favorite, because of the rich smell and great feel. That is what attracted me the most. Although the Lemon was great too!

If you would like to purchase Palmolive Fresh Infusions stop by Walmart or Target!
I hope that I can get selected for more goodies, because now I am hooked on Palmolive Fresh Infusions I would love to try more items and give someone a life long customer, LOL!!!

POP CULTURE

POP CULTURE!?!  To keep up with the ins and out I am also blogging about pop culture! Here I will be attempting to keep my blog current with the latest entertainment news, trends in movies, tv, books, and more... FIRST UP my new crack SCANDAL the tv SHOW!!!

(Photo retrieved from Wikipedia)

Every since I was introduced to it by my facebook friends I have been hooked! That Olivia Pope is tough stuff! I am looking forward each Thursday night, and if I can't get to the tv the dvr is definitely set! Stay tuned for more Pop Culture!

Palmolive Fresh Infusions Dish Soap!!!

So I joined Influenster this Summer after a friend posted and received some really cool things!!! :) The site was revamped with new badges and complete awesomeness in September and I love it! If you want to try it head on over to influenster.com.

So to today's matter at hand!

I was chosen October 1st to be a part of the Dish Soap VoxBox. After completing my tasks I received my first VOXBOX!!! I am soooooo excited! I have a video of me opening it, pictures, and now this blog. I am going to try my BEST to keep up with a million and 1 things. Teaching 18 awesome kindergarteners, in class full time for my master's degree, church, personal life, and everything else I have going on.

Back to the Voxbox! Inside of this pretty white box was 3 full size bottles of Palmolive Dish Soap! I am trying out the Lemon Thyme first, and I will be back to review how that product worked. In the mean time... Smile!