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!

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!

 

Too Much Relaxin'

Warning: This post is completely not teaching related (probably because I haven't done anything teacher related this summer) and has lots of pics.

 I don't know - can you really have too much relaxation?  I have done absolutely NOTHING school related this summer (unless you count blog surfing and being jealous of all y'all that have a ton of things done already).  So what have I been up to?  Lets see...

First up:  Family vacation to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

 The scenery was amazing!!

We took a day trip to Biltmore:

 This was really a combined family vacay/anniversary trip.  My hubby and I will have been married 15 years come August.  This is where we came on our honeymoon and we wanted to come back.  The cool thing about Biltmore (other than just getting to see the largest residence around) is that they are constantly doing renovations, so we got to see a whole different wing of the house that wasn't open last time we went. 

 Next, a trip to Dollywood.  Yes, it rained, but luckily not all day.  I did get to ride this wonderful roller coaster:

 Yep - that was a blast!

 Then, my hubby took us to my Mama's house.  From there we traveled on to Ohio for a small family reunion:

 That's me and my favorite cousin goofin' around.

Then, we had a little party for my little man - he's 7 now!

And now, we are back in Kentucky relaxing in the middle of nowhere with views like this:

So, that is why I have done NOTHING teacher related this summer.  Oh, I did start running on the treadmill and have run almost every day.  I also found this 30 day squat challenge from Lori at Conversations in Literacy.  Click on the link to go to the post about this challenge.  I am on day 10 - 105 squats!  I'm definitely feeling a difference! 

I hope you've enjoyed seeing what I've been up to this summer.  We're headed home on Saturday.  I just realized that when I get back, there's only 2 weeks until we go back to school.  I guess I better get on the ball and get some stuff done when I get home.  I was supposed to come up with a new lesson plan format that would be easier for our teachers to use and was common core friendly.  I found some examples online that I liked, but I only liked pieces of each one.  So, now I'm gonna try to merge some of those things into a custom lesson plan template.  The only problem is - I left all of the examples at home.  Hmmmm...accident or not? 

Anyhoo...I'm curious - what have y'all been doin' all summer?  Working or relaxing?  Leave me some comments and let me know!

Bloglovin' and Monkeys

So, I have to admit that I am not very technologically savvy when it comes to blogs and codes and all that stuff (I know...don't tell my teamies - they think I know it all, lol).  So when I started seeing all this stuff about Google Reader going away and Bloglovin' being the new thing, I jumped right over and set up a Bloglovin' account.  I was able to import all my blogs I follow (ummm, yeah - all 1171 of them!  I have a serious problem, I know...).  What I'm not sure about is how to make sure this blog is on Bloglovin'.  Do you have to do anything special?  I did find a little code on Bloglovin' so I'm putting this here (hopefully it'll work):

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Is that it?  Can somebody out there let me know?

On another note, I woke up today and checked my email and found out that I had won this:


Yep!  I won the whole pack.  It came at just the right time, too.  I hadn't picked a theme for my classroom yet, but now we know what it'll be.  Since I'm only teaching math/science next year, we'll do a "Monkeying Around with Math and Science" theme.  Yeah!!!  If you want to check this pack out for yourselves, visit Sharing Kindergarten. 

Big Changes Are A'Comin'!

We have some BIG changes comin' next year! Of course, we will be doing the CCSS, but  our school will also be departmentalizing K-6th.  We each have 2 subjects (math/science or ELA/social studies) and we will team with the person teaching the opposite subject.  I will be a math/science teacher next year! 
   I wasn't so excited about this change at first - I really like keeping my own little group and really bonding with them.  But, after thinking about how much more in-depth I could get just focusing on 2 subjects, I changed my mind.  Now, we just have to figure out the logistics.  You know, the little stuff - how are we going to manage their supplies, backpacks, cubbies, folders, etc.  One of the things we had to figure out was our behavior charts.
   We use the colored behavior clip charts that many of you use.  Well, our dilemma was to figure out how to move the clip chart with the children so that the other teacher would know how their behavior was that morning.  I think we've come up with a solution.  We are going to take a file folder or plastic 2 pocket folder and clip every child's clip across the top with their name facing inside the folder.  This will be the "Ready to Learn" section.  If a student receives a warning, their clip will be turned backward (name facing out).  Along the left side of the folder will be the "Good Work" section, the left bottom side will be the "Great Work" section, the bottom right side will be the "Outstanding" section, and the right side will be the "Teacher's Choice" section.  It would look something like this:

I know, I know - yucky Iphone picture.  Just imagine it all pretty with some cute labels (just type in "behavior clip chart labels" on TpT and you'll get tons of cute ones!) and the clips across the top.  We also thought that if we really needed to let the other teacher know something specific, we could write it on a sticky note and put it inside the folder so we wouldn't have to have a whole conversation in the hallway. 

So, I'm curious - do any of you out there switch classes, and if you do, how do you manage the behavior issue?  I would love to hear from you!

Oh!  One more thing!!!  How many of you out there would love to get professional development credit for trying out ideas that you find on some of those awesome blogs out there?  My teaching buddy and I were at a district training today and the district people were asking how we would like to see professional development structured for the new year.  We said, we would love to get credit for trying out new ideas that we find online and then we would write up where we found the idea, how we implemented it, what worked and what didn't for us, and what we might change for next time.  We emphasized the fact that this would be easy for the teachers to do, it doesn't pull teachers out of their classrooms for workshops, it would really allow teachers to customize their professional development to their own teaching style, standards, etc, and it's free for the district.

We weren't sure how it would be received, but hey - you gotta try, right?  The awesome part was that they seemed REALLY interested in the idea!  HOW COOL WOULD THAT BE???!!!!  Seriously - PD for blog hopping... I would have so many PD points, I could re-certify forever!

Currently...I'm on summer break!

I finally made it!!! Summer break is here!  What better way to start off summer than with a Currently?  So, here goes:

Listening: I love the show Chopped.  I totally cannot cook, but I do collect cookbooks and love to watch cooking shows.  They take some of the weirdest foods on this show and make some things that look really good.  I would love just to be able to take some normal food and make something good...oh well!

Loving:  Yep, summer is here!  It totally snuck up on me!  But I definitely need some rest and relaxation.

Thinking:  So tomorrow is the first official day of my summer vacation, but do I get to sleep in?  Nope - I get to get up and go to school at 7 am for a safety patrol field trip.  Down to Orlando with a bunch of sixth graders I go...prayers would be appreciated.  Oh, and did I mention there's a tropical storm coming through as well?  Yeah...

Wanting:  This summer my hubby and I will celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.  We have some really close friends that also have their anniversary the same month as ours, so we decided to just take a trip together and make it a family trip.  We'll be spending some time in the mountains in Tennessee (where we took our honeymoon).  I can't wait!

Needing: A nap!  We only have a day and a half to pack everything up at the end of the year.  Half day yesterday and a full day today.  How long do you guys have to pack things up?  I got it all done, but I am beat!

3 vacay essentials:  Summer is really the only time I get to read, so that's what I spend most of my time doing.  I did get a Kindle last year, so that should make things easier when I'm packing.  I also have to have internet access.  There are so many great blogs out there that I have to keep up with what's going on!

So how about you?  What are you doing Currently?

Just Tryin' To Make It...

 Hey everybody,
    I know you probably think I dropped off the face of the Earth, but no, I'm still here.  Things have just been SUPER SUPER CRAZY around here.  I was offered and accepted the position of Director of Women's Ministries and Missions at our church.  With that and with all of the craziness that is the end of the year, well...you know!
   For those of you who are out and already enjoying your summer - soak up some sun for me!  We only have 6 1/2 days left.  I'm hoping that once we get out for the summer, I'll have more time to get back into the blog world.  Until then... thanks for sticking with me!