I'm out of hiding....Here's what I'm CURRENTLY up to

Hey, hey, hey!

I didn't even realize it was September until I saw that it was time to link up with Farley at Oh Boy4th Grade for a new currently! Where did August go? I have spend countless hours the last few weeks in my classroom getting projects and planning done. I'm in Virginia and school has not started yet, so this months currently will be completely school related.

I am LISTENING to my dishwasher and the dryer run. Last night I was TEACHER TIRED ya'll! I got home form working in my classroom and all my house chores went out the window. Hopefully I will not have another long day like that. I'm up early so that I can get to school and get out early.

I am LOVING the crate seats I just finished making. I cannot tell a lie! I have had all of the materials to make these crate seats since 2012 ya'll! and I am JUST NOW finishing them. Yes just now at 6:00 AM on September 2nd, 2015. It's one of those tasks I've been meaning to get  to. #dontjudgeme

I am THINKING I still have about a gazillion things to get to before the first day of school. I am forgetful. There I said it! I make lists, and then, lists for my lists, and then completely forget where I put my list so I'm lost. Did you catch all that? Yesterday I spent the better part of 30 minutes looking for my keys at work so that I could leave and get lunch because yet again I called myself putting them in the right place and forgot. The day before it was my purse. I completely left it at work when I went home for the night. I don't know how I made it to adulthood or how I function. ANYWAY, I just have a bunch of little tasks left that I am NEEDING to get done. (Do you see what I did right there?!)I have little things left like putting things out for Meet the Teacher tomorrow night and I have to gather all my first week of school read alouds. Hopefully I can get these tiny details done before Professional Development today so that I don't have to think about it when I should be listening. #yallknowwhatImtalkingabout

I am WANTING to meet my new students. I will have 23 sweet little faces this year. 3rd grade is lucky with the high numbers this year. We each have between 23-25 and counting. I know that's not much to some but we typically don't have more than 20. (K-3 get the low numbers around here) We usually get a  boatload of registrations on Meet the Teacher night so we will see if I meet 23 sweet little faces or more.

I think my 3 GOALS are pretty self explanatory and things that teachers across the world strive for. Let's hope I can say I accomplished all three at the end of the year!

Happy School Year All!

Five Fun Facts about Me

It's Teacher Week! Yay! 

It's also my first full week back at work. 

1. I am a serious football fanatic! I am so happy football is back that I don't know what to do with myself :) Football, you complete me!

Totally just ordered this shirt from Be Still Clothing Co.

2. One thing I have to have with me at ALL times is one of my CamelBak water bottles. I carry them EVERYWHERE! I don't even drink out out regular glasses at home anymore. I actually left one of my bottles at Professional Development last week and one of the presenters saw it and made sure to deliver it to me at school the next day! I'm glad every knows I NEED my water bottles.


3. Maci, my five-year-old Yorkie Poo, and I have a complete power struggle over who is in charge daily.


4. I DO NOT like butterflies! In fact, they scare me! They fly all willy nilly and sometimes bump into you. Since I cannot predict where they are going I steer clear. #weirdbuttrue

5. I love to bake! I am super excited about fall because I am ready to go apple picking and make some fresh baked pies.

August Currently

The end is near! It's already time to link up with Farley for the August Currently which means school is right around the corner! Is anyone else going in to over drive creating new things for your class, finishing professional development books, and blog stalking reading for new ideas? Well besides that here is what I am currently up to...

I'm listening to my *NSYNC Pandora Station. OMG! I feel like I'm 16 again! Plenty of Boy Bands, Britney, and even S Club 7...am I showing my age?

I am loving all the pictures and goodies I got at the Virginia Bloggers Meet Up yesterday. I shared a little bit about that in my previous post. But let me tell you, we had some AWESOME sponsors and I had a blast chatting with everyone who came. I love any opportunity to meet new teachers and get goodies for my classroom.

I need to get my classroom done but progress is at a complete stand still due to the fact there is a summer camp at my school and my classroom is actually being used...sigh! 

I am wanting to hear from my principal! I was called in a few weeks ago and told that I may have new opportunity for next school year but the decision wasn't absolutely final yet. So now I wait. And wait. And wait some more! I cannot even take this waiting. I am the most impatient person ever when it comes to waiting so this is good practice. I hope that I get it but I will let ya'll know as soon as I know. Keep your fingers crossed for good news for me :)

I am needing to go to the grocery store! I am avoiding that place like nobody's business today because it's Saturday and it's the 1st of the month. I cannot even handle to amount of traffic in the store but I have absolutely no groceries. It's sad when your summer school kids notice you don't have your normal snack because you ran out so they ask their parents if they can bring in snack for you. That's a hot mess ya'll!

My Back to School Random Act of Kindness is to put together welcome bags for the two new teachers to my school.  Everyone appreciates a school t-shirt and a few cute classroom goodies. I'm planning to have them ready and waiting on their desk before new teachers start back.

What are you up to? Link up with Oh Boy 4th Grade to share your current status!

Scavenger Hunting and Blogger Meeting!

Okay, was anyone else super excited when the beautiful ladies behind Blog Hoppin announced that they would be hosting the 2nd annual scavenger hunt?! I was stoked and ready to hit the ground running with my iPhone camera and my #bloghoppin sign. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from this year's scavenger hunt...

Two of my favorite things, the beach and little Miss Maci all dressed up! 

She's always willing to take one for the team :)

I think I love this picture the best. I haven't hung upside down on monkey bars since I was like 10 ya'll and let me be completely honest I think I pulled a muscle trying to get this shot. But it was fun!

The last day of the Scavenger hunt was also the Virginia Teacher Blogger Meet Up. OMG, I had such an amazing time chatting and networking with teachers from across the state.

Not only did I get to snap a few pictures for the hunt but I met some of the sweetest ladies ever. It was so exciting to meet in real life people you talk to on social media, teachers you buy things from on Teachers Pay Teachers, and bloggers whose blogs you read religiously. Here are a few of the shots I got while enjoying the day in Richmond.

Rachel from Mrs. O Knows and I were prepared with our "Blog Hoppin" signs.

8 of the wonderful teacher bloggers at the luncheon. How cute are these ladies?!

I was even lucky enough to meet Karen Stamp from Mrs. Stamp's Kindergarten who happens to be an author from Blog Hoppin :)

Just as I knew I would, I enjoyed  completing another fun scavenger hunt and was able get all of the pictures I needed. I will be sure to tell you all about the blogger meet up in the next few days. 

Everything Planners: Part 1

Hello Friends!

Just in case you missed my Periscope on Friday, I chatted about my classroom planning tools. My intention was to talk about my online planner but as I was preparing to scope the delivery guys showed up at my door with happy mail! My new EC planner came in the mail...yay!

  

I use two planners for the year. I need the physical planner because #listersgottalist but I need the convenience of having the online planner too. So I'll take a second to share  why I use my online planner and I'll post about my Erin Condren planner in my in my Everything Planners: Part 2 post.

 

I blogged about using planbook.com last summer and how much I enjoyed it. I was able to make believers out of some of my colleagues last school year resulting in us getting 6 months FREE membership! Wahoo! Everybody likes free right?! But on a real note this online planner is completely affordable. Membership is $12 a year, that's only $1 a month when you think about it! You can't beat that.

I came across this gem when I was looking for a planning app for my iPad. Planbook has a free one month trial without having to put in credit card information so I was sold on testing it out. Here is my top reasons I use this planner:


1. I can access this planner from anywhere.
I don't have to carry my work computer back and forth. If I'm planning at home I can use the computer there and when I get to school it's there!

2. I can print PDF's of my plans for the day.
If you work at a school where you have to turn in plans this makes life SO much easier. Just print them out and turn them in. You can use it for a sub and just print the plans for them or I when I know I have an observation, I just quickly print the plan out for whoever is coming to see me so they know what I'm doing.

3. I can attach my learning standards to each lesson.
This is true for national standards, state standards, and even standards for some parochial schools! How amazing is that?! At any point in the year I can check back and see how many times I have taught a standard and on what dates I taught it. That is so powerful especially at the end of the year when it's testing time and I have to prepare for review.

4. I can attach all files to my lesson each day.
No more searching through my computer for my files! I attach any documents or SMART Notebook files I need for that lesson and just pull it up when I'm ready.

5. Convenient sharing!
When I have student teachers, we usually share the account so that we can keep all of our lesson in one place.

6. There's an app for that!
Planbook has an iPad and iPhone app. I can easily pull up my plans if I need to refer to them throughout the day without having to be glued to my computer.

7. I can move lessons easily.
This year we had 2 weeks of back to back snow days. Crazy, right! Instead of having to erase and rewrite a bunch of things written in a planner, I simply hit the "bump" button and all of the lessons are shifted. As my kids would say, easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!

8. Search
If I need to refer back to an earlier lesson and I cannot remember exactly when I taught it. I can type in a key word of phrase from the lesson and It will bring up each time I taught the lesson.

9. Year to Year access!
As teachers we like to recreate the wheel a lot of times but sometimes we want to stick to a lesson that is tried and true! I have access to lessons from years past. I can simply pull up the lesson and add copy and paste it to my current year to use or tweak.

10. Sharing is caring!
You can share lessons with your colleagues, parents, or students if you teach older students. You simply create a key select what elements of the lesson you want to share (lesson, homework, standards, etc) and they can see what you allow them to.

Go ahead and try planbook, there is nothing lose! I'll be back soon for Everything Planners: Part 2. If you have questions for me feel free to leave them in the comments. Happy planning!

Summer Teaching!

I know a lot of y'all are like "She's teaching summer school? She's crazy!" and to that I say, you're right. No I'm just kidding, I'm not crazy, I just like to work. I shared on my periscope #periscopeteacherchallenge yesterday that I have never gone a summer without teaching. I would love to take a break and spend the summer completely on vacation, but not working scares the living day lights out of me. So I'm taking the time to talk a little bit about how it's going so far...

First of all let me give you a little background. The summer school I'm working at includes second through seventh grade and is being housed in a middle school. Second, third, and fourth graders downstairs and fifth, sixth, and seventh graders upstairs. Middle school is HUGE ya'll! There are too many halls, lockers, and everything is just BIG. I"m 5'3" so I feel regular sized when I 'm walking elementary school hallways. I don't want to say I will never teach in middle school but that chance is SUPER slim.

I walked in my room and I'm like "Where is the carpet? Where am I supposed to sit when I'm teaching or working with a small group?" Yes. I'm totally a sit on the floor kind of teacher. Now I'm not complaining, because I did choose this location for summer school but I say this to let you know that I didn't think about the full weight of my decisions before hand. But before the kids started I made it fun and pretty the way only an elementary teacher can do.

Aside from the big building and the lack of coziness of the classroom, I felt the craziness that is the first week of school and teachers I know you know what I mean. I hope my kids like me, I hope I can remember how the kids will get home, I hope I won't have to go to the bathroom! Eeeekk! But sure enough all of that turned out well as it always has a way of doing. The kids and I get along great, I know exactly when and where to get the kids to at the end of the day, and I now have a co-teacher in the room so when I need to go to the bathroom I can go. Hooray!

I'm teaching second graders at a STEM summer program and it's going well. I tend to like to teach anything but third grade in the summer so that when I get back to school in September I am reminded that my kids are not as mature as the group of third graders that just left me. One week down, five weeks to go! Have you ever taught summer school or are you currently teaching summer school? How is it going if you do?

July Currently

Hey everyone! Can you believe it's July 1st already?! I only know because Target is setting up that Back to School section that I have a love/hate relationship with. Ya'll know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, July 1st means it's time to like up with Farley and share what I'm currently up to :)

Right now I'm LISTENING to the FIFA World Cup semifinals game. Will the US women's soccer team play Japan or England? I feel so invested in this game. If you didn't know I'm completely into sports. I played soccer starting at age 5 so I live vicariously through these women.

I am LOVING this summer break. I've fallen into a nice routine of hanging out, reading, working out, and napping. I probably should be a little more productive but why? We have August through May for productivity right?! I'm THINKING I have about a million and one things I need to accomplish for school and around the house but like I said I have August through May for that :)

I am WANTING to workout so bad! But I am NEEDING to go to the doctor. On Monday I had a normal day as usual, I went to tutor and then came home to take a quick nap before going out to play tennis. When I got up I noticed my foot hurt a little and thought it strange but that I would walk it off. BAD IDEA! By the time I finished playing I realized I was really hurting so I came home and iced my foot thinking I'd be okay in the morning. I was also wrong about that. Any pressure on my foot hurt so I knew my workout for the day was out of the question and I had no time to go to the doctor then because I had to a summer school prep day which turned out to be a LONG day of walking limping around a HUGE building (our summer school is being housed in what used to be a high school) and moving materials around all day on a bum foot. Ouch! I decided to rest again today, (Can you tell I do not enjoy going to the doctor?) but will make an appointment if there is no change by tomorrow.

I'm an All-Star at making others laugh. I am usually the resident comedian in my social circles. Actually I'm usually comedian all the time. I am apparently funny, even when I'm not trying to be according to teachers and students around school.

What are you up to currently? I'd love to hear from you!

TPT Seller Challenge...Dare to Dream

I am so excited to participate in the second week of the TPT Seller Challenge: Dare to Dream! This week, the challenge asked us to think about our dreams, and to dream BIG. So I am linking up withSparking in Second, Peppy Zesty Teacherista, Third in Hollywood, and Teach Create Motivate to share the dreams I hope to accomplish through blogging and TPT.

1. I have already written a great deal of curriculum for my district. It is something that I have always been passionate about for a while. In fact I'm hoping to go back to school at some point and get a degree in Curriculum and Instruction. Why not get more practice by making things for myself and other teachers to use.

2. I started my blogging journey about a year ago and my Teachers Pay Teaches (TPT) store a few months after that. What I have learned to love about this community of bloggers is being able to share ideas, resources, stories and more across the world! I love getting ideas from other teachers, and sharing my little bit of the world with others as well. I even talked with my students this year about knowing ( sort of) people from across the world and sharing stories about them during my lessons.

3. This goes along with my dream from above. I sooooo want to go to the Teachers Pay Teachers conference in Vegas. Last summer when I was looking at all the fun everyone was having I was totally jealous to not be part of meeting all these wonderful bloggers I was getting to know. This year I just chickened out. But not next year! If I speak it into existence it will be. I'm going to the TPT meet up next summer!

4. Who doesn't want to be financially free? To be able to purchase things for the classroom without feeling guilt, to be able to save, and to be able to give back in the community. These are things that I'd like to accomplish through TPT.

5.  I do not take many vacations or much time for myself. If I'm not teaching in my classroom, I'm tutoring, or teaching Saturday school, or summer school, or curriculum writing for my school district. Eeeek! That's a lot of work. I don't take much opportunity to travel. So I decided that I would make time to do that. A friend sent me information about a yoga festival that she insists that I go to with her. I work hard and I deserve it! I told her that if she mapped out the details I would be there with bells on! It would be AMAZING if I could finance this trip solely with money I earn from my TPT store. I am planning to add A LOT of things to my store that I finished throughout the year and just haven't gotten around to publishing. Hopefully they will help make my dream come true.

Beautiful background to practice yoga right?!

What are your blogging or TPT dreams? Leave a comment below and then link up with of one the ladies below to share your own Dare to Dream post!

Sparkling in Second

TeachCreateMotivate

Peppy Zesty Teacherista

Third in Hollywood

Work It Wednesday

Hey ya'll! I'm linking up with Katie from Queen of the First Grade Jungle for another Work it Wednesday.

I must say I'm pretty proud of myself for staying consistent with my workouts. It's actually harder for me to do this when school is out. During the school year I know I have to get a workout in before school and only a certain amount of time to do it so I'm usually out of my bed and in the gym in a flash. No school means way too much time to procrastinate in the morning before actually working out but I am getting it done.

I have a gym in my building. Actually it is right below me, so there is really NO EXCUSE to not get a workout in. I like to start with the treadmill because while I'm warming up or cooling down I have a few minutes to read grown up books on my kindle :) I like to get as close as possible to meeting my daily step goal on my FitBit to start my day. I'll come back to the FitBit.

I like to mix it up and I know its important to have weight training in my workout so when I want to get a quick workout in I love doing my Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD. Believe me, I work up a good sweat with this. I recommend this to anyone who wants to ease into adding weights into their routine.

It's been SUPER hot and humid in Virginia so I have had to do most of my workouts indoors this week. I even made time to go to Zumba this week. 

I was really foolish earlier in the week. I didn't get a workout in before I went to tutor so I decided to go for a trail run at NOON! Now that might not have been so bad if I had done my usual 2 mile circuit but silly me decided to do the entire 5 mile trail when the temperature was nearly 100 degrees and very humid. I just wanted to work up a good sweat. At one point I started to wonder how dirty the water in the lake actually was because I was SO THIRSTY!

I DO NOT recommend doing this when it's that hot out but I was happy to sweat and I was proud of myself for getting a workout in. I even go to meet the goose in the bottom picture :)

I am a super competitive person so buying a FitBit a few months back was genius! A few other teachers at my school also have FitBits so we challenge one another regularly with Weekend Warrior Challenges and Workweek Hustle Challenges. I won't brag but I will say I have come out on top of each challenge we have taken. :) While I can be a gracious loser, I hate losing so I do whatever ut takes not to lose.

Besides winning a challenge, I love that we can use the FitBits to motivate one another to get up and get moving.  I am blessed to be surrounded by coworkers and friends with their own fitness goals to help keep me accountable.

How are you staying accountable and who motivates you? Link up and share how you're working it!

Five for Friday...on Saturday :)

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!
It's my first time eek! Let's recap my week :)

It came! I made it! Finally, my last official day of the school year. And let me tell you this teacher was READY! I finished packing my classroom, said my goodbyes, kicked up my heels and raced out the door to sweet freedom!

I was pleasantly surprised to find happy mail waiting for me when I got home. Yee! My stitch fix package came 3 days early. Swoon! I. LOVED. EVERYTHING! It is not like me to get every item but this fix was picked just right for me and I couldn't help myself. I couldn't even get all the clothes out of the box before I knew I would keep them. I decided it would be a "You Survived the School Year" splurge.

More pictures to come later ;)

On my first official day of summer vacation where do you think I was at 7:30am. I'll give you three guesses and the first two don't count. Yup, school!  I realized I lost something the day before and I desperately wanted to find it. Of course I didn't but such is life. While I was there I realized that in my haste to get out the day before I had forgotten to add the letter my kids letters had written to their future 4th grade teachers to their portfolios so I quickly did that.  While doing that I took notice of one letter in particular that cracked me up. All year I stressed how important it is to be honest, have integrity, and be truthful first with yourself and everyone else. I appreciate that obviously this kiddo was hearing me as evidenced by her letter.

I vowed last week to link up with Katie from Queen of the First Grade Jungle for her Work It Wednesday. Now I work out in someway everyday but I decided with this linky party I would work especially hard on Wednesdays this summer. Go Hard or Go Home right?! It's so hard as teacher to set aside time to take care of ourselves so back in January I promised myself that I would make my fitness and my health a top priority in 2015! #healthyme #fitnessgoals

I decided to take it to the stairs. For my morning workout I ran stairs at a nearby parking garage. Later for round two of my workout I had a nice long jog/walk on a trail by one of our beautiful rivers.

During the summer I'm never fully out of teacher mode. I tutor...and I may or may not be teaching Summer School. Ok, so I am teaching summer school but that is several weeks away. I don't do well with too much free time. I get antsy and I shop like there is no tomorrow. So it's best for me and my finances that I have a few things to keep me busy and bring in some extra income.

This summer I'm working with three cutie pie girls; two I always work with me during the summers and one who has worked with me throughout the school year. All three are a joy to work with. This little one cracks me up. Here she is working on her First Grade No Prep Summer Review Packet from The Moffat Girls TPT store. She loves it and begs for one more page to do whenever we complete work out of it.

It only took 4 days but I woke up this morning and realized I missed my kiddos. One in particular. The sweet girl who wrote me this letter gave the best hugs. And she did it ALL. THE. TIME. When she came in in the morning, whenever I called the class to line up, when I dropped the class off at lunch, when I picked them up from lunch...you get the picture. I just wanted one of her sweet hugs.

I settled for snuggling with this sweet thing who is telling me "Mom, I'm too tired to take pics!" But her lovin' is just as sweet. #mykidhaspaws

What have you been up to? Link up with Doodle Bugs to share!

And That's a Wrap...

The 2014-2015 school year is officially in the books. I cannot believe I have taught for nine years! This school year was definitely challenging but I am grateful to have entered the lives of my students and pray that I have made a positive impact on them. It's so moving when that student who has been a challenge all year wraps you up in a bear hug, tears up, and says how much they will miss you. I wish all my kiddos the best of luck in the future!

 

Now down to the business of getting this vacation started. I am very happy to be a  beach bum for the next few months. Don't be fooled, I'm totally going to be a work horse too. I will be teaching summer school for six weeks in addition to tutoring. I totally CANNOT handle too much free time. My bank account doesn't like it. :) So I'll spend mornings teaching and can make it to the beach by 12:30. Yay! Some where in between all that relaxing I hope to add lots of new products to my TPT store. 

Stay tuned! The best of Summer 2015 is yet to come!

I'm Baaaaccck!

It's been a LONG  two months since I have been able to blog! But that's a long story for another post. Right now I want to let you know what I am currently doing. :)

I am currently...

Listening to the beautiful sound of the rain outside. It's been super duper hot and humid in south east Virginia so this sweet cool rain is very welcome! Early the kids and I curled up with blankets and read a few chapters from Sideways Stories from Wayside School as it poured down raining. 

Loving that my usually BUSY cutie pie pup, Maci is being extra cuddly tonight.

Thinking it was an inspired idea to take the morning off. We have been in state testing mode since May 11th and we are still not finished until June 5th! I just needed a few extra hours to regroup on a day where I do not have to proctor a test.

Wanting summer vacation to start ASAP! I love my class but this busy teacher needs a B-R-E-A-K! I am end of the year teacher tired! Ya'll know what I'm talking about. It takes every bit of energy just to get to school and each day my arrival time is a little later. I have 8 more days with my students and I don't know who is more ready for vacation, them or me.

Needing to complete report cards. They are due Friday and I haven't started. Yikes! Talk about procrastination station. It's obviously going to be a fun night with my laptop and Netflix.

Summer Loving come my way! I am sooooo looking forward to reading adult books, spending hours on the beach, going out for boat rides, and completing my 2015 Summer Bucket List. Last summer my teaching bestie and I put 30 things on our bucket lists because we both turned 30 but that was a little overzealous of us. This summer we have decided we will complete 15 things this summer since it is summer '15. I cannot wait to cross of fun things that I don't make time for during the school year like taking trips and reading for hours on end. 

What are you currently up to? Link up for the June Currently.