Thursday, August 29, 2013

Blogger Exchange


 

Ok, first I have to apologize for taking so long to get this post written, but....well, you know. The beginning of school is cuh-ra-zy!  Anyway, I was so excited to receive my bloggy buddy gift exchange package in the mail last week. My buddy was Heather Langley from the blog Learning with Mrs. Langley.


Click here to visit her site  
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When I opened the package, I was met with these goodies:

Let me just say that the photo booth kit is sooooo cute!  I can't wait to let my kiddos have fun with it.  I'm thinking maybe for the 100th day or  a cute photo op for Dr. Seuss' birthday?  There was also some dry erase markers (which I always need), some thank you cards (always nice to have on hand), airborne (which I just discovered last year and use all the time - used some today, in fact!), a really cute notepad, and some colored pens (which I love).  The funniest thing I learned about my bloggy buddy is that her Twitter name is Teachin' First!  What a coincidence!

If you ever get the chance to participate in a blogger gift exchange - do it!  This is my second one, and it's a great way to get to know new bloggers.  Not to mention, it's a lot of fun! 


Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Exhausted!!!

So,  I am EXHAUSTED!!!!!  I know y'all know what I mean.  The sad thing is - it is our 3rd week of school.  I would have thought I'd be back in the routine by now, but I could really come home every night and go right to sleep. I guess it's because I've been super busy and haven't really had a chance just to relax since school started.  For example, today's schedule was:
        7:30 am - Performance Matters Training
         7:50 am - Parent conference
         2:50 pm - Tier 3 meeting
         3:00 pm - Team meeting
         3:30 pm - dentist appointment
 And this all comes after the weekend when I discovered my daughter had lice (yep, up 'til 2 am Saturday morning combing out hair, vacuuming furniture, doing laundry, etc) and I set my oven on fire.  Yep, it's been that kinda week.

  I'm so tired, I'm having crazy dreams.  Last night, for example, I dreamed that I went to the dentist (thinking about my appointment today, apparently).  In the dream, however, my dentist was none other than Farley!  Yep, you know - of "Currently..." fame.  So she was the dentist in my dream, but somehow, she was also a teacher because in the dream, she was my bloggy buddy (reminding me that I need to post about my blog exchange gift that I got).  In the dream, she gave me a really cool personalized sign for my classroom.  Then, she pulled out a whole alphabet that she had made with her class (oh yeah, I signed up to do an alphabet exchange online)!  For real, y'all - this was my dream last night! 

So in order to (hopefully) end the crazy dreams, I will post about my blog gift exchange tomorrow night and will try to get the alphabet letters done this week.  But for now - I'm off to bed.  Can't wait to see what I dream tonight...

Monday, August 19, 2013

Monday Made It - Behavior Bingo Board made easy

Ok, so I've been watching you guys make amazing things all summer and wishing I was more creative and crafty.  They say necessity is the mother of invention.  This year, I discovered that was true when I sat down to create a behavior bingo board. 

I've seen so many cute, creative, and wonderful bingo boards out there and I thought it might be neat to create one that could change monthly.  I wanted to make 6 rows and a different monthly/seasonal word  or pictures across the top.  So, I gathered my butcher paper, marker, and a yardstick ('cause I can't draw a straight line to save my life.  Seriously, sometimes I can't even make it straight with a ruler!).  After like a million years, I ended up with this:
 The kids will earn small sticky notes if they get to move their clip to blue, purple, or pink on our clip chart.  They will earn one for blue and purple, and 2 for pink.  At the end of the week, I will pick a letter and a number from the chart which will tell us which square is the winner.  Good idea, but folks, I'm not measuring all of that out to make a new chart each month.  Uh uh  - no way!

So instead, I found an old calendar, taped these round dot accents over the days of the week
and added the letters and the numbers.  Here's what I have for September.
Now, all I have to do each month is change out the letters/pictures at the top and voila!  I'm done!    How's that for crafty and creative?  Do me a favor, though.  If people have already thought of this and if it's all over the web, don't tell me.  Just let me keep thinking I came up with it myself, ok?  Thanks!  Y'all are great!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Room Tour 2013

Yeah, so I'm a little late to the party, but you know what they say - better late than never, right?  I so enjoy peeking into all of your rooms every year.  I get some great ideas from you guys.  My plan was to keep up with the teacher week linky and post every day.  I made it to the Monday post (on Tuesday).  It's the thought that counts, isn't it?  So here are some pics of my room this year:

This is what it looked like when I came back



 And then, I opened the closet...
 UGH!!!

Of course, this is what my kids do as I'm pulling things out of the closet...
So after a couple of weeks of hard work, we have the finished product - 

View from the front door:
F
 From the back corner:
 From the front of the room looking back:
 Since I'm only teaching math and science/social studies this year, this is where I'll put new vocabulary when it's introduced.  After a week or so here, they'll be moved to my math or science word walls.
 Our Social Studies focus wall (yep, just noticed that the c in social studies fell down.  I'll have to fix that tomorrow!).
 Our math wall
 Our science wall (sorry about the glare)
 Our classroom helper chart. 
I have to say that I love the idea of labeling things with numbers this year instead of names.  I teach a morning group and an afternoon group this year, so numbers were much easier than putting 2 sets of names on everything!
This is our new behavior bingo (more about this tomorrow - hopefully!)
And of course, when you clean out your room and start getting things ready for the new year, you find treasures like this:
My daughter wrote this note a couple of years ago.  I know it's a little hard to read, but it says, "Mom, I went to go look for you.  If you want to know where I am, I will check the office, copy room, laminating room, and if you get worried, call the front office and do an all call."  You gotta love teacher's kids, lol!

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Teacher Week '13: Meet the Teacher Monday...on Tuesday!

 


Ok, so I've been super super busy getting ready for school (as we all have).  This is the first year in 15 years that I did not do ANY teacher stuff ALL summer!  Usually, I'm back in the classroom mid-July getting things ready (we come back mid-August).  But not this year.  I made myself stay away from anything school related (other than blog stalking and pinterest) until August.  

So I figured that the best way to get back into the swing of things would be to join up with this teacher week linky.


Let's see...10 fun things about me...hmmmm:

1.  I am a procrastinator (hence the Meet the Teacher Monday on Tuesday - need I say more?).

2.  Thursday will be my 15 year wedding anniversary.  This summer we took a family trip to Biltmore Estate which is where hubby and I went on our honeymoon.  I'll show you some pics, but you have to promise not to laugh at my white legs:





3.  I HATE to cook, but I love to bake.  My hubby makes fun of me because I also happen to collect cookbooks.  I love to find yummy recipes in them that I would love someone else to make for me.

4. Some of you are really going to freak out at this next one - I am 38 years old and just started wearing makeup this summer.  Yep, this summer, as in 2013.  Never really had any desire to wear it before, plus I never really had the extra money to spend on it.

5.  I have lived in Florida  for 15 years (moved here from Ohio) and have never gone to the beach.  Nope, never.  I hate sand in my shoes or on my feet and I burn in like 2 minutes flat, so the beach is really not my favorite place.

6.  I LOVE old black and white movies and tv shows.  No bad language, no violence, no disrespectful kids...those were the good ole days!

7.  My hubby is in a Christian band called Rightly Divided.  They haven't hit it big yet, but they are working on getting their first cd together.

8.  I have a Texas sized sweet tooth.  I try to find things that are lower calorie/fat, but still sweet and yummy.  Some of my favorites are
These are to die for!!! So yummy and only 130 calories for a pack.

These are good for breakfast:


And my new obsession:


I could definitely eat these as dessert after every meal (yep, even breakfast).  They are REALLY good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.  I know, I know, that sort of defeats the 90 calorie thing, but when the heat index is 105 degrees, well - it's just perfect!

9.  I traveled to Europe while in high school.  I've been to Paris, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria.  My favorite was Austria - it was sooo beautiful!



10.  My original college major was not education.  For the first year or so in college I was a dual major in International Affairs and French.  I love to travel and I thought I would like to be a translator. 

I've loved reading all about you guys!  Sorry I'm a day late. Come back tomorrow for a tour of my room!