Good-bye Summer Vacation

Well, we're down to the last weekend before a new school year begins.  For me, it feels like my vacation has just begun.  Thankfully, I was able to travel this summer, and visited sunny California for the very first time.  I had a ball!  Los Angeles is a beautiful place!  For so long I was afraid to visit L.A., partly due to the five hour plane ride and earthquakes.  So glad I was able to push my fear of flying, and earthquakes to the side.  I would have missed out on an awesome vacation.  Other than my visit to California, my summer consisted of broken promises to read various books on my books to read list, a little bit of exercising, working on curriculum, and spray painting. 

I got the idea of spray painting from one of my favorite bloggers Jodi of Clutter-free Classroom.  Last year, my classroom library had a red and blue theme.  Going forward, I didn't want the same color theme, nor did I want to throw out the perfectly new bins.  I remembered Jodi's post on spraying paint and decided to give it a try.  And I'm glad I did because the bins turned out to be awesome!

 

I really love the color scheme!

School begins next Tuesday, September 3rd, and my classroom is 95% ready.  I have a few more things I want to do, but my new kids will feel welcomed once they enter the room next week.

I've spent the last week working on my classroom and preparing for the new school year.  Last Monday, we had a staff development session and I was able to meet my new grade level partner.  If you've kept up with my blog, I shared with you all that my team of three was now a team of two.  Each grade level now have two classrooms.  Anyway, I gained a new partner and I'm excited to work with her this school year.  We share the same name and live in close proximity to each other.  Not only did I gain a new partner but we now have three new people on our floor and they are all awesome.  I love our hallway!  Again, I'm excited about the new partnerships and school year.  I know we're going to have an awesome year!

Summer Vacation............

Wow!  It's been quite some time since I made a post.  Today is July 4th and like most of you, I'm enjoying my summer break!  The school year ended over a week ago, on Monday, June 24th.  I can honestly say I had an awesome first year!  And I'm not bragging or anything, but I had THE BEST group of third graders ever!  I'm going to miss them all so much.  This group will have a special place in my heart because they were my first "babies."  There were many memories made over the course of the school year, many laughs and cries.

Our third grade team of three, has now become a team of two.  Because of this change, I had to switch classrooms during the last week of school.  For me, this wasn't a welcomed change because I LOVED my old room.  But there's no since in sweating the small stuff, so I'll just have to accept the change, and make more memories in my new classroom.  I'm excited for the new school year but for now I'm going to enjoy my summer vacation.  I have my own list of summer reading that I want to complete and some videos I need to watch.  I also need to think of a new name for this blog, since I'm no longer a first year teacher.  I promise to get better at blogging and update more often.  

But for now, I'll leave you with one of my favorite summertime songs.  Enjoy!

CFC Project 2013 - Before Pictures

I'm an avid follower of the Clutter Free Classroom.  In June 2012, I learned I had a 3rd grade teaching position.  I immediately set off in search of classroom ideas.  I stumbled upon the Clutter Free Classroom Blogspot and have been a follower ever since.  Jodi is simply amazing! 

Anyway, let's get back to the reasoning of this post.  One of my personal goes for 2013 is to become more organized both at work in school.  It's time I get some balance in my life.  Most school nights, I don't leave work until after 6:00.  I can count on my hand the amount of times I left work at the close of the day (4:00).  By the time 4:00 rolls around, I'm much too tired to run out of the school doors.  I take that time to sit down for about 20 minutes.  I just need to sit.  Then I proceed to straighten my classroom and prepare for the next day.  This cycle is repeated several times during the week.  As you can imagine, it can leave a person tired and worn out.  It's time to end this cycle!

I've decided to get more organized and join the 2013 Clutter-free Classroom Project!  Our first assignment is to take before pictures.  In yesterday's post I spoke about implementing math workshop into my class routine.  I have the perfect spot, only thing is, it's cluttered mess!  I'm ashamed to even post these pictures!  (smh)  This area doesn't always look like this, I promise!    

 

 

I'm ecstatic to get help from Jodi and read posts from other teachers, who like myself, need help with organizing our classrooms.  So I'm going to focus on this area first.  I can't wait to see the end results!  Until next time!

 

Looking to get better organized, come and join the party!

 

 

Teacher of the Month

Guess who was nominated for Teacher of the Month for the month of December?  That's right, yours truly!  I was truly shocked when I saw my name.  Being named teacher of the month was one of my goals for this school year.  It may not be a big deal to some, but I'm so proud to have achieved this goal.  Some may have questioned, "Why her?"  And to that I say, "Why not?"  #Favor 

Well on to the next goal - implementing math work stations.  You may remember a post I made a few months back about reader's workshop and how I wanted to give it a try in my classroom.  Well, I decided to put it on hold and start with math.  Math, in my opinion, will be much easier to implement than reading.  I haven't given up on reader's workshop.  I plan to devote some time working on it during the summer break.  I believe adding these workshops will help both myself and my students.  Trying to teach to the whole class, can be very frustrating.  So it's time I change things up a bit.  So enter, math workshop!  I'll be sure to let you all know how it turns out.

Have a great weekend!

Happy New Year

Wow!  I can't believe 2012 is gone and it's now 2013.  It is true, as you grow older the years fly by rapidly.  When I was young, I couldn't wait to be an adult.  Now, I just want time to slow down, just a tad bit.  Lol!  Anyway, I'm so grateful to see a new year, 2012 was good to me!  In 2012, I became the first in my family to receive a Master's Degree.  This degree made it possible for me to achieve a long awaited goal of becoming a certified teacher.  Not only did I achieve that goal, I was also blessed with a teaching position soon after.  

I haven't had any major issues in my life that caused major setbacks, and for that, I'm forever grateful to the ONE who holds my tomorrow.  God has been good to me and if he never does another thing, He's done enough!  I pray that your new year be filled with joy, love, peace, and abundant blessings!

Day of Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

WHY????

Yesterday, a tragic event occurred at an elementary school in Connecticut.  I repeat, an elementary school.  Twenty-six people were killed, more than half were children between the ages of 5 -10, just babies!  What type of person goes to a school with the intent to kill babies?  I cannot fathom experiencing what those children and school staff experienced during that short time period.  I can't concentrate on anything at the moment, my mind keeps going back to that small town in Connecticut.

Here I am sitting in my classroom, expecting students to flow in at any minute for Saturday School.  I'm wondering if any of my students have heard about this, and if so what do I say to them?  Because of the times we're living in, my school as most schools around the country participate in lock-down drills.  This is where we "pretend" that an intruder is in the building and we lock the doors, find a safe spot in the classroom and keep quiet.  Well, to many students this is a quick game of "Hide and Seek" and many do not take it seriously.  No one ever believes that something so tragic would happen to them.  What happened in CT could have happened anywhere.  Praying for the families and the entire community of Newtown, CT.  May GOD bless their souls.