Where It All Goes Down, Earthquake Update, and Three for Thursday

I didn't get a chance to post pictures of my room yesterday, but it doesn't really matter, because there's not much to show yet. I haven't officially started back (Monday!), so my classroom isn't put together. Here's what my room looked like the last time I was in!

I went in yesterday and did a bit more work before meeting my teammates for a working dinner to write our curriculum maps. While I was at school, I walked past the gym and saw this:

Tuesday's earthquake took down some of the ceiling tiles! That seems to be the only damage to the school, thankfully!

I've still been on the lookout for some good articles explaining the science behind the earthquake so that I can talk about it with my students. This article from CNN has some good explanations, and Scholastic News has an article that is kid friendly. Has anybody else found any good articles?

So, now on to today's Teacher Week topic from Blog Hoppin': Three for Thursday!

Favorite Font

I can't download fonts to my school computer, so I typically use Kristen ITC for all of the titles and headings of handouts and Arial for body text. So uncreative, I know! I feel pretty lame since Kristen ITC is quickly becoming the Comic Sans of this decade.

 But, when I want to create a title with a cool font, I get around the issue of not being able to download files by going to a site like dafont.com and browsing their handwriting fonts. You can type in a text to preview, so I type in whatever I want my title to say, and then I take a screen shot of the words in a font I like and paste it as an image in my document!

Favorite Blog

It's so hard to pick! Now that I've discovered teacher blogs, I'm actually worried that I won't have time to read all of the blogs I like once I go back to school! That being said, I love reading Miss Teacher's Juice Boxes and Crayolas! That was one of the first teacher blogs I stumbled on, and I was so excited to find such a great 5th grade blog! Miss Teacher has been blogging since before her first year of teaching, and it was fun to skim through her archives. She also shares a ton of great resources for the upper grades, especially if you're looking for Daily 5/literacy activities.

Favorite Online Resource

Does google count? :) Gosh, there are so many sites from which I gather resources, it's hard to think of one that stands out from the rest! I love Reading A-Z and United Streaming, but both of those require accounts. (I'm lucky enough that my school district gives teachers accounts to those sites.) For a free resource, I'll share Scholastic News. I love pulling articles from their site to share during class meetings, in guided reading groups, or simply on my News and Announcements board. I can usually find excellent information about current events that are of high interest to my students.

Now, off to school to work on my room!