Teacher Tuesday: Megan Richter Edition

Caffeinated Counselor Introduction
Megan joined the 2nd grade team 3 years ago and she fit right in. Trust me, that is no easy feat.  We are talking about a team with at least 50 years of combined experience and they have been together for years. Her team speaks so highly of her and that is such an amazing compliment coming from such established educators. Megan also comes from a family of educators, so it's pretty much in her blood. When she was hired, the first thing we heard was that she actually went to Beverly as a student. I think that is so cool! She had several of our teachers who still work here or sub here as her teachers.

Megan is kind, dedicated, and always willing to take risks. She tries new ideas and is so positive when doing so. I love going to her class for guidance lessons. When I walk in, I always find her reading a book to her students. They are absolutely silent, wrapped up in the story, and sprawled out on the floor comfortably imagining the characters. I guarantee this is something they will remember forever.

I won't delay the fun any longer. Introducing the fabulous Megan Richter.

Teacher Interview

How long have you been teaching? 

3 years

What is your classroom decor? 

Wild Animals

 Her students love her cute little reading area! 

I love this bulletin board that highlights awesome student work! 

What is your favorite story about a student? 

I had a very sweet student write me a heartfelt letter that told me how much she appreciated me. Those are the best rewards! :)

What is your favorite lesson to teach?

I love teaching about Space!

What inspires you? What is your strong?

My teammates inspire me every day with all of their hard work and dedication. My strong is that I am a PISD graduate and I attended Beverly Elementary!

In her display case on the left you can see her cute little 2nd grade picture with an award she earned when she was a student at Beverly. Love! 

What is your favorite Techy Tool?

I love using the iPAD and the QR scanner.

What is your favorite Caffeinated Beverage?

Coke

What is your favorite school celebration?

The 100th Day of School

I couldn't find a 100th day pic, but how cute is this team all dressed up for Dr. Seuss Day and Character Day on Red Ribbon Week.

What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?

Cook

So Megan, when's dinner? :)

Tell us your best classroom management trick.

Beat the teacher is a fun game to play to get kids listening.

Favorite teacher you've ever had?

Mrs. Moore (2nd Grade)

Check out this awesome pic of them now. Mrs. Moore became Coach Moore and subs at Beverly often. They get to see each other quite often and I think that is just the coolest thing ever.

Student Interview

I asked these two cuties, Jack (left) and Tanner (right) to tell me all about their teacher Ms. Richter. They were hilarious and totally cracked me up the entire time. Also, as silly as they were, you can tell they REALLY love their teacher.  

 

1. What does your teacher do for fun?

T- Goes Shopping- probably at Target or the mall
J- Sits at home and plans stuff for us on the computer so she doesn't forget her good idea.

2. What would your teacher do with $1,000,000?

T- Buy a giant ship and also another condo.

J- Buy a dozen pieces of clothes at the mall.

3. If your teacher wasn't a teacher, what would she be?

T- She would work at a train station!
J- She would be a pet worker at PetsMart. She loves kitties.

4. If your teacher was a fruit, which one would she be?

T- An apple, because she eats them all the time.

J-A lemon! Yellow is her favorite color, plus lemonade is yellow and she likes that!

With all that yellow, I know Minion Day must have been her favorite :)

5. What scares your teacher?

T- Spiders! She has been afraid of them since she was a kid at Beverly.
J- Kids who put scissors in their mouth and open and close the handles! That really happened and it really scared her! That scares me too! Oh my!

6. What is something that your teacher doesn't like?

T-Sour things
J- Kids getting in trouble

7. If your teacher could teleport, where would she go?

T-Jupiter
J- The Pet Shop
She does love teaching about space and she definitely loves animals! These kiddos know their teacher well!

8. What makes your teacher so special?

T-She went to Beverly and she gives a lot of Bobcat Bucks
J- She's our teacher and she's nice

This was their silly pose!

Thanks for reading about the amazing Ms. Richter! I hope you enjoyed it! Until next time...

Red Ribbon Week Wrap Up

I took a little break from blogging because last week was SO MUCH FUN. I spent most of my time each day taking pictures and celebrating Red Ribbon Week with the staff and students. At some point, it occurred to me that RRW is a little like a sorority or fraternity theme party. You know a fun dress up event that you need to have a costume for, but on a serious budget. Here are a couple of throwbacks to those good old college days that are good for a laugh...

Now, on to the fun events of Red Ribbon Week! Enjoy! 

This one was pretty easy! Although, for a Red Raider I found that I have an alarmingly small number of red clothes that aren't just t-shirts. I'm going to need to work on that!  

This day was so fun and our school really got into it. Capes, masks, and onesies...what more could you ask for?

This was by far my favorite day! Our students LOVED dressing like minions and there were some very creative ideas. I bought a minion onesie from Target and it was so cozy- except that later in the day, cozy turned to sweltering heat :/. Where are you Fall? 

For this day, I had students and staff fill out a minion to tell why they want to be drug-free. They turned out SO CUTE!

The Friday before Red Ribbon Week, we had our school Walk-a-Thon, so a lot of teachers were just staying until it started. I asked for some helpers to hang minions all over the halls. So many of them came to help and made it look so cute! 

One of our 5th grade teachers, Joelle Garcia, made this giant minion to hang outside my office. Check out the pipe cleaner hair. I am beyond impressed with her artistic skills!

Mrs. Holloway REALLY got into this one! Doesn't she look awesome? I had some serious outfit envy on Thursday. Her husband Hal wasn't so sure about this look, but I think she is the clear winner! 

Each student got a bracelet as a prize and reminder to stay drug free! 

 Some high school football players came to speak to the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders about making good choices and staying drug free. This is one of my former students sharing his story of determination and success. 

This was by far my favorite day! There were so many creative costumes and most of them were homemade which made it even better. 

Thing 1 and Cat in the Hat

 Jack and the Beanstalk

 

The Pigeon, Pete the Cat, Madeline as Madeline

 Splat the Cat, Alice in Wonderland, Thing 1

Little Red Riding Hood, Cat in the Hat, Fern from Charlotte's Web, and Minnie Mouse

'

Fern and Charlotte found each other during our assembly! 

I was super excited about this idea. In the morning I was the Very Hungry Caterpillar. At lunch, I went to the cafeteria and ate with the some of the students. Then, before the school-wide assembly, I changed into a butterfly. The amazed faces and funny comments when saw my new outfit were priceless. 

That's it for Red Ribbon Week. I can't wait for our next theme week- College Week. Let me know if you have any great themes that your school uses. We would love to try them out! 

Friday Favorites

School Spirit

We had our first assembly of the year this morning and introduced a new character to our Beverly Bobcats. Meet Bob...

So, I know you are thinking that this is a pretty cute bobcat. Here's what makes it even better...our amazing art teacher, Mrs. Morley made the entire thing herself. She tried to explain it to me once, but I was so mesmerized I don't think I understood a word of what she was saying. Let's just say that if I had tried to make a bobcat head, he might look more like a Blob than a Bob. Check out this Flipagram to see the progress from start to finish...

Kelso's Choices

Kelso is a cute little frog that helps kids make good choices. It is a conflict resolution program that our school has used for many years.

 By 5th grade, the kids can pretty much name all the choices and tell all about Kelso. For their lesson this week, I had them create some sidewalk art with chalk. I told them that the younger students in the building would really be looking at their art during recess, so they needed to do a really great job. I took this time-lapse video of one of the frogs being drawn. What a great example of collaboration.

Everything Pumpkin! 

First grade has celebrated "pumpkin week" for years. They weigh the pumpkins, graph, estimate, explore, write about them, read about them. If you could pumpkinfy an activity, we did it. We always carve a pumpkin after graphing which face you would want to see on the pumpkin. We also estimate how many seeds are going to be inside our pumpkin. 

My first year of teaching,  I set out to carve my pumpkin with a basic kitchen knife...left handed. My mom (our instructional specialist at the time) walked by and looked horrified. I guess I looked like I was about to cut my fingers off in front of my class? She quickly came to my rescue and carved the pumpkin. It became quite the tradition.

As you know, carving a pumpkin is no easy task. So one year she got creative...

If you've never carved your pumpkin with power tools, you are really missing out. The kids got the BIGGEST kick out of it too! 

Dry Shampoo

I saw this on Facebook the other day and could totally relate...

I use Dry Bar Triple Sec pretty much daily, even on clean hair. It's a great volumizer and texturizer. Plus it smells delicious. 

Kickball Thursday

I have played kickball for about 5 years. I look forward to Thursday every week to get my kickball fix. Right now, we are in playoffs. We didn't have the best regular season we've ever had, so we went into playoffs as the 16 seed. And let me add that there were only 16 teams in playoffs, so we were playing #1 last night. We won that game and the next and are on to the next round. This team is awesome! They make me laugh and we all support each other.Win or lose, it's always a good time. #butletsgetrealiwanttowin #cinderellastory

This pic is from two seasons ago when we won the championship...