I am super excited to announce that this blog is about to get a much needed makeover!! I have been working with the talented Tenille over at Designs by Tenille for the past few weeks. If you follow teacher bloggers, then most certainly you have run across one of her designs (check out her portfolio here). Since I find her designs to be so appealing, and they mesh so well with my personal style, I stopped trying to create one of my own and let her do the work! I can honestly say it turned out almost exactly as I had imagined it, and exactly as I had hoped it would- she exceeded my expectations in every way. I can't wait for you to see it!!!
-Lindsey
Five for Friday
It has been a pretty uneventful week around here since I have been on spring break all week, which is quite alright with me!
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I have spent a very large majority of my time working on this little baby. I have just about 8 weeks left of graduate school, so I thought I'd take advantage of my peace and quiet and get a majority of my capstone project done. I am creating and Implementation Guide for Culturally Responsive Teaching... I'll have to post more about that soon!
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Monday we spent the day at the doctors office crossing off all of our annual check ups (one of the benefits to having kids born one week apart!). The first stop was with the allergist for my youngest. As you can see from the picture above (taken just moments into the test) we are still going to be battling with an egg allergy :( The good news is that he didn't react to peanuts this time! We're just waiting on some blood work to confirm the results of the skin test, but hopefully we'll be able to cross peanut off of the once extensive list!
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After being poked and prodded and what seemed like an eternity at the doctors offices we decided to celebrate with our first ever trip to Cherry Berry. He was pretty darn proud of his creation, and ate every last bite (ok... mom helped a little :) ).
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Nothing says "Spring Break" like -26 degrees! Brrr... that was the actually air temp when I brought my oldest to school Thursday morning. Thankfully there was a warm front moving in and the day quickly heated up (isn't it sad that I consider a high of 10 degrees to be "heating up"?). I am SUPER excited for the 10 day forecast though.. 50 DEGREES!! Which also means that next week I will have a bunch of kids dressed for "warm weather" without coats for recess and it will be a disaster. Oh well, at least I will get to open my windows and get out some of the nasty, stale winter air in the house :)
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Since spring and warm weather will eventually be coming this way I took the opportunity to head to they gym this week. It is one of the things that I have found to be the most difficult this last year, and I really need to get back into it. While I would certainly not classify myself as a "runner", I really enjoy the app Couch to 5K. It is a free 8 week training program that you do 3 days/ week for about 30- 40 minutes. My town has a little 5k each May that I like to "run" and I've used this app for the past several years to get me ready.
I know that many of you are just about to be starting your spring breaks next week- I hope that you have as much rest and relaxation as I did! And if you do not get a spring break... well, I rested for you ( you can laugh at me when you're enjoying your summer break and I am still in school). Enjoy your weekend!
-Lindsey
Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites Book Study: Ch 1 and 2
Well, so far so good! My hubby and kids granted me a morning of sleeping in and being lazy (and it wasn't even Mother's Day!), so I got the opportunity to read the first two strategies in the book since I didn't quite make it last night. Similar to what Elizabeth Hall said over at Kickin it in Kindergarten, the first two chapters were very confirming and affirming, like a "pat on the back". There were actually a lot of things that I had just talked about with my student teacher in the last week or so! Here is my take on the two strategies: Brainstorming, and Doodling.
(Graphic organizers provided by Kickin it in Kindergarten)
For this math tub activity I simply gave these two a bucket of cubes, my latest dollar store find, and a dry erase grid and told them to record the data that they sorted. They each sorted the cubes and graphed their results a little differently- this picture shows them spontaneously explaining what they did to each other :)
For our 100th day celebration one of our stations was "Build a 100 cup structure". I simply told each group that they had to work together to build something out of all 100 cups... some groups struggled with this concept more than others, but this group certainly had it figured out!
At some point in my teaching career it became somewhat of a faux pas to do art projects in the classroom. Well, gosh darnit I'm going to bring it back, and if anyone has anything to say about it they can kiss my paintbrush! While I'm not going to rush out today to stock up on tempura paints ( I am on spring break after all ), I am going to start focusing more on how to use "doodling" purposefully in my classroom. I have been piloting 3 new math curriculums this year and one of the things that I have loved is that they all encourage students to draw pictures and "show their work" (does that phrase make anyone else cringe with horrible flashbacks?).
Here is a video of one of my mathematicians using drawing to help him add!
Strategy 3 is Field Trips, I already know this is going to be somewhat of a hot topic for me to read about. We have seen a severe decline in the number of field trips we take (like we have 0 planned for this year...;-/ ), so I can't wait to see what she says about them! Rest assured I will be back on Tuesday ready to discuss it.
The rest of the readings schedule can be found below:
(Graphic organizers provided by Kickin it in Kindergarten)
For this math tub activity I simply gave these two a bucket of cubes, my latest dollar store find, and a dry erase grid and told them to record the data that they sorted. They each sorted the cubes and graphed their results a little differently- this picture shows them spontaneously explaining what they did to each other :)
Here is a video of one of my mathematicians using drawing to help him add!
Strategy 3 is Field Trips, I already know this is going to be somewhat of a hot topic for me to read about. We have seen a severe decline in the number of field trips we take (like we have 0 planned for this year...;-/ ), so I can't wait to see what she says about them! Rest assured I will be back on Tuesday ready to discuss it.
The rest of the readings schedule can be found below:
Chapter 3 discussion over at Mrs. Wills Kindergarten on Tuesday (March 3)
Queen of the First Grade Jungle Chapter 4 (March 10th)
Fabulous in First Chapter 5 (March 14th)
One Extra Degree Chapter 6 (March 17th)
Mrs. Jump’s Class Chapter 7 (March 28th)
The First Grade Parade Chapter 8 (March 31st)
In April, you will be visiting these girls for the remainder of the study:
Mrs. Ehle’s Kindergarten Chapter 9 &10 (April 4th)
What The Teacher Wants Chapter 11 (April 7th)
First Grader At Last Chapter 12 (April 11th)
Erica’s Ed Ventures Chapter 13 (April 14th)
KinderGals Chapter 14 &15 (April 18th)
A Rocky Top Teacher Chapter 16 (April 21st)
The Inspired Apple Chapter 17 (April 25th)
Little Warriors Chapter 18 (April 28th)
Falling Into First Chapter 19 (May 2nd)
Kickin’ it in Kindergarten Chapter 20 (May 5th)
Five for Friday
It would appear that all the cool kids participate in the weekly 5 for Friday linky party, so I am clearly obligated to join! Since I'm trying to take my blogging more seriously I thought I'd try it out for the first time :) Here goes nothing...
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It's that time of year again.... conferences and end of the trimester! We had a busy week wrapping up assessments as well as our second round of conferences. All went very well, and I was one proud and exhausted happy teacher! Just look at all those greens and blues (can you tell I am a visual freak #ilovecolorcoding)- those of you in RTI land know what that means :)
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I AM ON SPRING BREAK!! :) :) My spring break starts today, February 27th, and I do not go back to work until March 9th. Better yet, because I teach in a different school district than my kids- they still have school! Which means a totally quiet house to myself. Oh my heart be still. What will I being doing with all this "me" time you ask? Homework. Lots and lots of homework. I am just a few weeks away from completing my M.Ed degree, and that means it is crunch time for my thesis project. I am hoping to get a large majority of it done this week!
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Our house has been on the market for a few months now, and after a quiet holiday season we are back in full showing mode. We had two showings this week, and just scheduled 3 more in the next few days (one is this evening... so I'd better get to picking up soon!). We're hoping somebody puts in an offer soon- but we have not found our "dream home" yet... so also hoping one comes on the market for us quickly!
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Well, this wouldn't be an official 5 for Friday this week if I didn't talk about the weather like the rest of you ;-P It was a cold one! I can't remember which day this was, but my car is showing the actual air temp... not windchill... after dropping my son off at daycare. I'm thankful that we haven't seen too many of these days this winter.
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It's tough to tell from this screen shot, but boy did I make out big yesterday during the TPT heroes sale! Pretty sure, now that I am typing this and think about it... I don't even think I used the "heroes" code when I completed my purchase I was so dang excited #shoppingfail. I got so many awesome paper and clipart collections for a ridiculous price. I can't wait to start creating with them!
Well, thats about it for this week. It is almost time to pick the kiddos up from school and enjoy some family quality time. Then once they're all snuggled in bed it will be time for me to sit down with
in preparation for tomorrows first book study check in over at Kicking it in Kindergarten. Can't wait!
Book Study
What do you do when your favorite teacher bloggers decide to host a book study? You immediately download the book and prepare to link up! Starting on February 28th we will be reading Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites by Marcia L. Tate.
Now, while I wouldn't exactly say that I have a ton of free time to be reading for pleasure, these ladies seem to be pretty excited and inspired about this book and they are certain to be just about as busy as me. Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade explains the book study in this post. I can't wait to read, blog and link up about my learning!
Lindsey
It's a new year!
In the spirit of New Year resolutions I decided that I was going to be more focused and purposeful this year. It has been going great so far, but we'll see what happens when grad school officially starts up again tomorrow! On the first day back at work I had a bright, shiny, new student teacher to greet me. This is a first for both of us, and we spent the week getting to know the ropes... Needless to say I think he was very ready for the weekend to come ;-). While having a shadow is going to be quite the adjustment, it has already proven to be beneficial for me. I want him to have the best experience possible, so I am forcing myself to focus and be more purposeful with my planning which feels good. I finally created a digital copy of my lesson plans (although not as pretty as I would like) for he and I to edit, which is something that I've been meaning to do for quite some time. Now we'll see how I do with giving up control over the planning and teaching!
Another area where I'm trying to be more focused and purposeful is with my appearance. I wouldn't necessarily say that it is terrible, but I am definitely feeling like I am in a rut. With my youngest turning 3 next month (um how did that happen by the way?), I've hit the "I don't have a baby anymore, so I don't need to look like I have a baby" stage where I feel like I can wear jewelry without it getting yanked off or a pretty top without getting (as much) food/ saliva/ boogers rubbed onto it. I decided to take the plunge and sign up for Stitch Fix- since that's what all the cool kids seem to be doing. I get my first fix on the 26th, so we'll see how it goes! I fully intend to blog about my experience ;-)
As teachers, mothers and wives we have a tendancy to continuously give and not take much for ourselves. I'm hoping that this year I can find the balance between the two. I feel as though I am a much better person in general when I put a little focus and effort back into myself. Let's hope I'm able to stay the course!
Well.....
Well, here we are again... another January, another attempt at this blog! I created this blog back in 2012 shortly after my youngest child was born. I had great aspirations of blogging about our family journey as we balanced a new child, my love for Pinterest, and my passion for teaching. Then life happened. Two small kids, a job, a house and a husband kept me very occupied and left me little time for blogging. As if that wasn't enough, my husband and I thought it would be a good time for me to finally obtain my Masters degree (insert screams of horror here). Fast forward to Christmas break 2014- for the first time in a VERY long time I had some free time. The kids are old enough now where they don't need me every.single.second, so I got to spend some time doing things that I actually enjoy and missed doing (I crocheted a few awesome scarves!). Long story short, I am one semester away from graduating with my Masters in Education degree and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I got started thinking about the things that I want to accomplish post grad school, and ended up creating a sellers profile on Teachers Pay Teachers and signing in to this blog! My goal is to be able to focus more on the great things going on in my classroom and create some new resources to use. Things may be quiet the next few months as I wrap things up with graduate school, hopefully I will stop by a few times and if not I will be back this summer!
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