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Having problems opening a file? Are you getting an error message that says the file is bad or corrupt? It’s not. I double and triple check everything I post. It’s a problem with your computer. I know that does not help your frustration level any…been there, done that. If you are using Explorer, chances are it’s the browser. When you first get the file error try it once or twice more, you can usually get it the 2nd or third time and it’s just being persnickety. If not, try restarting your computer and then try again. If that doesn’t work, try a different server. I have had more problems opening documents with Explorer than any other server. I now have switched to Fire Fox and have had absolutely NO problems opening documents. You can download it for free here: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fx/
If you still can't get a file, which is highly doubtful, but then who knows with crazy computers, please don't give up! Drop me an e-mail and I'll attach the file and send it to you! No worries.
Having problems downloading the printables?You need the most updated version of ADOBE and you can download it for free! http://get.adobe.com/reader/
After you download it to your computer, make sure that it is your default PDF opener otherwise your downloads could still be blurry. That’s because another program on your computer called Preview, might still be opening your documents. Change the default PDF program to ADOBE. Ashleigh made a great tutorial on this. Click on her “educational journey.”
http://ashleigh-educationjourney.blogspot.com/2011/10/pdfs-macs.html
The PDF's won't print:This again is not a problem within our site. Adobe sometimes does not "play nice" with MACs. Problems often arise then visitors have up graded to new software. A quick fix and "go around" is to print from your print preview button. This has always worked for me. You can also Google "My PDF won't print." and you'll get a page full of other tips and tricks.
I forgot my password or username. What do I do? I keep getting "Invalid token" or some other error message that keeps me from logging in.
The "invalid token" is not coming from us. It's a glitch in your server. Often happens with Explorer, but never with FireFox as far as we know.
Try switching to Firefox. or... Register again with the letter of your first name and then your middle and last name.
For the safety of our visitors we do not keep usernames or passwords in our database.
If you are still having a problem logging in, send me an e-mail note and I'll delete you from our database. It's a quick fix, and all you have to do is register again with whatever name & password you want.
Do I have to Click on the GREEN PDF READER "thing" on the banner or side bar to be able to download things?You do NOT have to download the green PDF reader "thing" that sometimes appears at the top banner section and side bar on my site. Those are ADVERTISEMENTS. I'm sorry if they are confusing you.
Google AdWords chooses the 3 ads that go on my site,
I have no control over the ads.
The PDF ones seem to appear on EVERY site I've been on that has PDF files available.
They DO have the word "advertisement" in tiny black print, but a lot of people don't see that,
as sometimes they run all 3 ads on my site, as well as other people's sites at the same time.
These ads change through out the day though.
All you have to do to download my items is REGISTER. :-)
You'll see that button at the top.
Anything that is not WATERMARKED (TeachWithMe is written diagonally across the pages.) you don't even have to download.
You just click the star button to view the free pages and can click print or save.
You always know if all of the pages are listed, because I state how many pages are in the file in the description.
MOST Frequently Asked Questions:
2. You went from a pay-for site to an all-free site. How can you afford to do this? A few months ago we added a donate button. Even donating a dollar is very-much appreciated.
We also added Google Ads. They pay us pennies per click. There is no cost to my visitors for clicking on ads. Although we have no control over the ads Google chooses for our site, they have done an excellent job of realizing we are a teaching site and generally put ads that teachers might find useful on our site. We also have the power to block certain in-appropriate ad categories.
3. Why have you set up all the units with the same type of skill sheets?
My students cannot read directions and have short attention spans so they are not really good listeners when I’m explaining things. I was wasting a lot of time answering repetitive questions of “What do I do on this page?” Having the same type of skill sheet eliminates the problem as students know what to do. They don’t waste time asking questions and get right down to business practicing the skill. I’m freed up to help children one-on-one or do other tasks.
The changing themes keep their interest and the repetitiveness finally turns on the light bulb. Children’s confidence and self-esteem is also built because they are not frustrated. I combine as many as 10-12 skill sheets together to make workbooks for my students. I take only 1 or 2 minutes to give directions at the white board. They can do an entire workbook on their own because of the icon-signage on the board, and because they are used to doing the skill sheets. The skills match up to my standards on my report card so eventually the children finally “get it”! This concept is so “freeing” for me.
4. How do you use the little booklets?
I use them as part of my reading block that also incorporates math, science, and writing. I love overlapping my subjects and getting “more bang for my buck” because my students’ attention spans are so short it’s a great way to nail a variety of report card standards and subjects with one booklet that they can do independently or as a whole group in a very short amount of time. I only have about 7 to 10 minutes before lunch when my students come back from their exploratory (gym, Spanish, music etc) class. This the perfect time for me to plug in the “Where Have All The ________’s Gone?” booklets. Children find a seat and get down to business, working independently. As each child finishes, they bring their booklet to me to check. I either have them take it to their backpack and get ready for lunch, or leave it on their desk for us to read as a whole group after lunch.
The spatial direction books are perfect as a whole group activity after lunch. I will also have my students do a 10 Little Booklet, or another booklet independently along with a whole group one. When everyone is done, we read the booklets together and do any art, writing, or discussion extensions. As children finish, they do a Tummy Tubby Time activity, work with me one-on-one, or are free to go to a Free Play Center activity depending on the day. I designed the booklets so that your theme could continue into the afternoon and cover more subjects. A booklet, once a child knows the “how to” of it, takes only about 4 to 10 minutes to complete, depending on which one they are doing!
5. How many pages should my workbooks be; and, how many centers should I put out?
That depends entirely on your students’ ages and ability and the amount of time that you want to spend on Table Top (skill sheets) and centers. I purposely DON’T put a time on any of my activities because I think this can be misleading. I can nail a day to a few minutes for my kids once I know them, but every year, and every group is different. The first week of school I only have 1 to 3 skill sheets on the table and 1 center activity and it seems that they are so needy and can’t do a thing! As the week’s progress and their attention spans and abilities get better I increase the lessons and centers.
You will always have students who are very focused and complete everything “early” and those who are “pokey pants” and never complete everything no matter how much time you give them. Make sure that you have something for the “quick kids” to transition to that’s “fun” that they can do independently, so that you are freed up so you can help the pokies one-on-one get the hang of things. By the end of September, my students are doing 6 page “skill-books” and 3 to 4 centers. By the end of October they are doing 8-10 page skill books and 6 centers. One of my centers is always a one-on-one art project that they do with me. I call on children to come work with me, while they are working on their table top.
By January everyone is up to a 12 page skill book and 6-8 centers. 2 being a more artsy center with me. On big theme- party days, when I have parents helping, my students have done as many as 10 centers, which is great because our kindergartners have to do 12 centers independently, so I feel my little ones are really prepared! Some of the centers take just a minute like snip and cut, pinch and poke, or bingo dot a pattern or math equation. Others are more complicated like a graph or complete a cut and paste pattern, or cut and paste a small-medium-large themed item. I also throw in a few art projects. The nice thing about all of the Unit Books is that they provide skill sheets for your table top as well as center activities. Your entire morning is covered!
6. Are the magic tricks difficult? Do I need to practice to become good at doing them?
Absolutely not! They are very EASY! That’s why I chose the change bag, dove pan, and the various coin tricks as well as the crayons and coloring book tricks. I don’t want to turn a teacher into a magician. I’m simply adding magic as an alternative teaching method into your repertoire!
Teachers have enough work to do with out trying to learn something difficult. If you can flip a light switch on the wall, you can operate a change bag. If you can lift the lid off a fry pan, you can operate a dove pan. If you can squeeze a box, or flip a magazine you can do the crayon and coloring book tricks. The coin tricks are just as simple; and NO you don’t need to practice either.
You may want to run through what you are going to say to your students, or how what you are doing relates to your lesson and transitions into the next, but as for practicing the trick over and over so that you can perform it, that’s really not necessary.
For example, when I do a workshop I’ll always have at least 1 or 2 hesitant attendees who’ll say: “That looks wonderful, but I can’t do that.” I shove a change bag in their hand. They do the trick and comment. “That’s so easy! I LOVE this! Can I try it again?” And then the fun begins…
7. Why do you have a lock on some of the sample pages?
Life would be so much easier if I did not have to worry about crazy people floating around in cyberspace who do things like spread viruses and pirate websites. I hadn’t even heard of pirates, but apparently they up and steal entire websites and sell one’s products in other countries! The locks were NOT meant for teachers and parents, but for pirates so they can’t remove the watermarks. I wasn’t even concerned about watermarks ‘til advised to protect myself.
8. We’ve noticed you taught Upper El. and even high school, are you going to do some things for other grades?
Yes! Now if I can just find my way through the basement and into all those boxes the little pack rat in me has stored away….Would you believe I STILL have the units I dreamed up for my freshmen, sophomores and seniors 30 years ago! Where does the time fly?
More currently tho’ there are some things on the site that 2nd grade teachers can use. When I do my workshops I try to up-grade some of the stuff so they can also attend. If you have a 2nd grade teacher who wants to visit the site the art books and the Hot Tips And Cool Solutions would be grade appropriate.Our 2nd grade teachers have a unit on butterflies in September and some of the art projects would be fun for them, the free writing prompts would also be suitable. I do want to work on that grade level next because I taught it before, as well as get some more math things for 1st grade developed too. So hang in there…it’s comin’.
Any suggestions of what you’d like? PLEASE let me know. I’d love to hear from you! I plan on designing NEW things around feedback!
9. Sometimes when I click on a show pages button it says "Internet Explorer cannot find the page." What should I do?
This sometimes happens with the server. It happened to me several times too when I was checking all of the buttons. They DO ALL work, the SECOND time I clicked on the button after it gave me that error page it worked EVERY time so try it one more time.
10. What standards are you "nailing" with the art projects in your art + activities books?
Most of them include many of the following: Identification of colors, basic and sometimes 3-D shapes, sequencing, sorting, following a 3 step or more direction, small-medium and large size comparison and contrast, spatial directions and placement, cutting skills, writing skills, name recognition, concepts of print, some incorporate science facts, and recognition of or work with numbers and/or letters, working independently, showing self-control, making a pattern, and counting.
The art projects also help decorate our classroom and hallway and build a child's self esteem. They also help increase muscle coordination and dexterity and promote cooperation, independence and listening skills. Verbal acuity is also increased when the child shares his project and explains it to his classmates. Reading skills are also enhanced when we read a project together as a whole group at its completion, if applicable, further reinforcing science or math facts.
I design my projects around the Y5 report card standards which overlap pre-school and kindergarten. If you'd like to see the specific standards I'm stressing and how I do it for a particular project, simply e-mail me with the header: Report Card Standards, and I'll be glad to give you the "low down". As always, I'm here to help, and if you're studying something and would like an art project designed with particular standards in mind, I'm sure there are other teachers out there that are in the same boat. e-mail me and if time permits, or if I think a lot of teachers could benefit, I'll get to work on it, and perhaps include it in a "freebie" for the art project of the month.
11. How do I subscribe to your BLOG's RSS Feed? Click on the little orange box near the top right hand corner on whatever Blog Page you're on. Then follow the directions.
12. How can I share your site with a friend? There are two ways. You can click on the little envelope icon at the top right hand corner on any product detail page. A window will open up for you to send to the e-mail recipient of your choice. In Firefox you can click on the FILE menu in your browser, click the "send link" option, then fill out the e-mail window. In Internet Explorer click the FILE menu, click SEND, then click" send page by e-mail" or "send link by e-mail."
13. I can't read your pdf's my computer keeps saying it's a corrupted file, or it can't read your file. Do you have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer? All computers need that to read pdf's. You can download it free at: http://www.adobe.com/
If you do have this program are you using Internet Explorer or Fire Fox? If you are using Internet Explorer, try Fire Fox. If that's not possible then try clicking a second time. When I am checking my links when I'm in Explorer, I will sometimes get a message that Explorer cannot find a page. Everytime I click on it the second time, it ALWAYS has found it. If the problem persists, e-mail me at diane@teachwithme.com and I will send you the free pdf's via e-mail. Sometimes simply refreshing or rebooting your computer sometimes helps too.
14. How can I contact you? You can reach Diane through e-mail at: diane@teachwithme.com
15. Why did you switch to an all-free site? I love sharing and have always enjoyed giving things away. Despite our ridiculously low prices the economy is still hurting. We felt that teacher's and homeschool parents would benefit by being able to visit and download anything they wanted, without the barrier of being budget concious. Hopefully they will tell others and that will generate enough traffic, so companies will be interested in advertising with us, which will help pay for the cost of running the site.
16. Why are some of the things watermarked and some aren't if everything is free? It would take me a zillion hours to undo everything that I already did. I prefer to use that time to design new things. The new things that I design are watermarked so that people download instead of simply print off things. This helps me with data. I get a notice of what people are downloading. This helps me track what teachers/parents are interested in, what I need to design more of and what I can take off the shopping cart that no one is interested in.
17. Am I able to view all of the pages when I click on the view button? No. For some of the things I have the entire booklet there for you to see, so you know if you want to download it or not. For longer books I just put a sample of the pages. You always know how many pages are in a book because I list it as the first thing. If you want to know if you're seeing all of the pages, check the number listed against the number that is shown.
18. How do you earn money to run the site if it's all free? We are using Google AdSense. They choose advertisers for our site. We are paid when someone visits our site and clicks on an ad. We get paid per click per day by AdSense with no cost to our visitors. You can also make a donation to our site by clicking on the DONATE button on the right sidebar. Even a dollar helps. Currently it's costing us approximately $179 a month to run the site.
19. Why should I register? Although, everything on our site is FREE, by registering, I am able to track what people are downloading, so I know what to design and keep on the site. You can only receive ALL of the downloads available, if you register. You also become part of the TeachWithMe community and receive an occasional e-mail of what's new. We NEVER sell our e-mail list. It is completely confidential and you are able to opt out at anytime. We all get busy in our lives and it's nice to have an e-mail reminder of a site that you visited and now has something new. I'm a freelance writer for Mailbox, and I love that they remind me of their new things each month. I simply click on their link and zoom there. Scholastic does the same thing and it's a big time saver for me. I thought I'd do the same for my TWM followers.
20. I've looked for your stuff in Mailbox and don't see it. Look for me as: Flohr or Tondreau-Flohr. For some reason, they continue to print Diane L. Tondreau Flohr even after I got married. Oh well...
21. It says invalid token when I try to login. What does that mean? This is a glitch in your computer's operating system and has nothing to do with our site. Try logging off and logging on again. Try a different browser. Try rebooting.
22. It says I am not registered, but I did register. What should I do? If the system says you are NOT resgistered, you are NOT registered. Unfortunately, somewhere in cyberspace the goonie-glitches who snarf things and drive us crazy like the washers and dryers who eat socks have absconded with your time. Simply register again. The good news is that you can use the same information.
