How to Print Bigger!!!

I've had a few people mention that the name plates in my store print too small and it's difficult to read them, so I thought this post was necessary.

Did you know it's super easy to print anything bigger?!?  I just learned this not that long ago and it's a great trick for any teacher!

First, if you are using an editable file (i.e. PowerPoint) you will want to save it as a PDF file.
Then open the PDF file.  When you go to the print screen, you will want to click on "Poster"

Then click on the box beside "Tile Scale" and type in a number bigger than 100%.  I like 125%.  Whatever you do, don't type 150%!  That's huge!

Switch to portrait so they fit.

This will print on two 8 1/2" x 11" pages because it's bigger than 11".  It actually prints half on each page, so it's easy to trim and tape them together.

If you choose 125%, the new name plates will print 12 1/2" x 3 1/2" which is perfect for desks!  The regular printing was 10" x 3". (Please ignore the colour - my printer's almost out of ink!)

If you find that too small/big then you can adjust the tile scale as you need.

Super easy!  

Hope that helps,

~Melissa

"We Remember" - 2015 Legion Remembrance Video Contest Entry

This was made by one of our high school students.  He's entered it in the video

contest for the Legion.  So amazing!

Good Copy Song

I'm a little obsessed with all things Taylor Swift at the moment, so with writing the Punctuating Song, thought I'd take a stab at turning a Taylor Swift fav into a song about writing.  I love it, and have been singing it all weekend, can't wait to teach the kiddos tomorrow!

Here are the lyrics:

Here is a link to the original video, I found it easier to listen to Taylor singing in the background when I started learning it:

And here is a karaoke version to use in the classroom:

Here is the link to download my song lyrics for "Good Copy":

Good Copy lyrics

Punc-tu-a-ting! Song

Soooo I've been doing some YouTube stalking of The Ron Clark Academy lately, and combine that with reading Kim Bearden's book, "Crash Course", and following every one of their teachers on Instagram, watching Hope, Adam and Kim's Periscopes and watching The Ron Clark Story, I guess you could say I'm a little obsessed ;)

And with all the inspiration I decided to try my hand at song writing - partly because I was on Pinterest looking up teaching punctuation ideas, and came across this cute Australian video called punctuation with kung fu fighting.  Now, I immediately thought of the song and went - "Hold up - that would totally work!" They were getting these tiny people to punch the air for full stops and so on, but I knew I could make it into a song.

So I copied the lyrics into PowerPoint, and inserted a text box to the right of it and as I listened to the song on YouTube, I started to play around with the lyrics until they reflected what I've been trying to teach my 2nd graders.  I know, there are always kids who will NEVER remember periods - it's the bane of every teacher's existence - I used to joke I was going to get one hand tattooed with "Capitals" and the other with "Periods" so I could just hold up my hands.  But it's still early in the year, and any effort is worth a shot.

So anywho, here are my lyrics:

Here is the video with lyrics and vocals to get a sense of how to sing it:

And here is a karaoke version, which is what I will use in class to sing along to:

To download my lyrics click here:

Punc-tu-a-ting! Song