It’s in full swing, y’all!

I’ve been spending a good bit of time in my new classroom going through the previous teacher’s sh-tuff (and she left a lot because she retired)!

I’ll be headed there in just a bit to start putting all my newly-organized materials away, but thought I’d link up with Christina from [Miss DeCarbo at Sugar and Spice] for a Wordless Wednesday post AND because I truly need your help!

Here’s where you come in…

I know it looks scary!!!  Look away if need be!  However, before you run off screaming, answer one question for me.  

Do you prefer organizing literacy and math centers/materials in file folders or tubs?  My school doesn’t utilize a ton of worksheets, so most of what I have are teacher-made examples, center materials, games, etc so I’m thinking tubs, but here’s the kicker… I’ve never been organized enough get things together like this!  Therefore, share your thoughts on file folders or tubs, please!

Hey y’all!  I was just thinking the other day that it has been so long since I linked up with [Miss DeCarbo] for a Wordless Wednesday post – so let’s fix that!

 

 

This week we are knee deep in STAAR testing, and my mind has really began to wander to faraway places… Like summer.  We still have 33 days, but we are definitely in the home stretch, and I am looking forward to recharging this summer!

 



 

 

 

I’m super excited today because we got the announcement yesterday afternoon that we have earned jean days until winter break!  That’s like 13 jean days in a row – I don’t even have that many jeans!  This is a “reward” for 90% or more of the faculty signing up to attend the holiday party.  I would have went anyway, but I’m more than happy to wear jeans.

Anyway, I’m linking up with [Miss DeCarbo] for Wordless Wednesday!

On Monday our little friend the elf made her first appearance.  We read the “Elf on the Shelf” story and voted on a name.  Thankfully she has a name that I can stomach this year!  Her name is Glitter!!!!

Take a look at what she was up to yesterday.

Do you do elf on the shelf in your class?  If so, what’s your favorite mischievous prank for him/her to do?

You may be wondering how far of a trip it is from the Big D (Dallas) to Florida… Well, it’s right at 10 hours. 

10 hours… in a car…  Sounds awful!  Fortunately, I actually like driving on long trips.  It’s so calming to just put on a good Pandora station and jam down the highway.  Of course I will be trading off with the mister throughout the drive so that I can work on a huge packet that is almost finished!

Time to hit the road.  Before you head to another Wordless Wednesday post, leave me a message telling me what your Thanksgiving plans are!  I hope that each of you have a fantastic Thanksgiving full of family and friends.

Today’s [Wordless Wednesday] post is in honor of Halloween and has absolutely nothing to do with teaching.  We all deserve some fun away from the classroom, right?

As you may know, I have been out of the classroom for the last couple of weeks… You can read more about that [here].  During my brief time off, the mister and I  decided our house was finally ready to host one of our neighborhood functions.  So needless to say I had a bit of time on my hands to get ready for our neighborhood’s wine crawl this past Saturday. 

We’re happy we finally made the leap to host so many people over (there was a little over 30 people who came!).  It was a ton of fun and can’t wait to do it again.  What is your favorite thing to do for Halloween?

It’s my annual 21st birthday!  Ok, maybe I’m not 21, but it is my birthday!

To start off my day right, I’m linking up with Christina from [Sugar and Spice] for a Wordless Wednesday post.  

We got these little goodies the first day of school.  I am just astounded by the level of parent involvement at my school!  Not because they gave use delicious cookies (although that can only help), but because anything that I have needed thus far whether it be behavior related, supply related, whatever really they have been there to help.  I even have my own “room mom” set up by the PTA who comes and stuffs my Tuesday folders every Tuesday and communicates via e-mail to all the parents of kiddos in my room.  It does mean I have a lot more e-mails and phone calls to respond to, but if it’s all in the best interest of the kiddos it’s worth it right?

So my question for you, what is one of your favorite memories from the first week of school?

My district began teacher inservice this past Monday, and here’s a look at a PD session we had on Monday afternoon.  Note:  We started PD a full 2 weeks before school starts because one week is considered “new teacher academy” for teachers new to the district.

Circus PD??  Not quite… After a fun morning at the Meyerson Symphony (no we didn’t get to actually watch the symphony) listening to speeches from various members of the district, we headed out to our various high school feeder patterns to learn more about the goals/mission of our individual feeder pattern.  Hey y’all, Dallas ISD is HUGE so they have to divide it up somehow, right?  

When we got to our high school the whole cafeteria was decorated as a circus!  Streamers, balloons, cotton candy, popcorn, a photo booth, etc!  I was literally thrown off guard when I walked in.  No worries, I eventually collected myself.  It was a cool afternoon of learning about all the schools that feed into that particular high school.

My question for you before you head over to [Sugar and Spice] to link up with other awesome bloggers is this:  How long is your teacher inservice/PD before school starts?

Here’s my picture for today:

Each day after working in my classroom (and the next morning before heading in) I’ve been getting things prepped to go on the walls.  Yesterday afternoon I spent time laminating and cutting out my new alphabet strip and word wall letters.  I LOVE how they came out!  BTW I completely forgot that I had a laminator at home because it was in a box in the garage from a couple of moves ago – luckily I found it when we were going through some the other day.  It was like Christmas in August!

My question for you is, do you like to decorate your room with your own creations, or with products from other’s (teacher stores, TPT, etc.)?

I started looking around for a new teacher friendly planner for this year, but I wasn’t finding anything that I was crazy about.  I’ve tried the whole digital planning and keeping important dates on my laptop and phone calendar, but it just doesn’t work for me.  (Example:  I missed two PDs this summer because I either forgot, or planned to go to the them on the same day I had something else to do! – Oops!)

So, I thought I’d just go with another Erin Condren planner, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay that price tag again.  On top of that I’ve read some not so good reviews about the company lately.  Anyway, I also knew that I wanted the planner to fit my new, nautical classroom theme.  The result… I have been working on my own planner for a bit now!  My goal is to have it finished and printed/bound by Friday!

So my question for you, are you a paper planner or digital planner kinda person?  AND, do you have a classroom theme?

Check back tomorrow for a post about the trip to Mexico!  It was so much fun, but it’s always nice to be home after a trip!

I was cleaning out the pictures on my phone camera, and I came across these gems!

I must say that teaching shapes was probably my favorite thing to teach last year.  I love how hands-on teaching shapes can be!  We used pattern blocks to explore how shapes can fit together.  You can grab those super cool Dr. Seuss pattern block pages [here].  We also used some fun iPad apps and even did an experiment with 3D shapes to see which would roll, slide, or do both.  We made a life-sized venn diagram out of hula hoops, and I printed off the labels.

What is your favorite thing to teach?