Next Year, I Will ....

I am linking up with Finding Joy in 6th Grade for a linky party dedicated to reflecting on this year and making changes for the next!
Here are just a few of mine:

I think it is important to have a family meeting time to build community and set goals for the week.  A follow up meeting on Friday allows for reflection and celebration.

As a student, I LOVED math!  I mean "did the even problems" just for fun LOVED math!

Now, I love making math centers for my kiddos.  BUT...

 As a math teacher, in recent years, I have struggled to feel competent in this area!  

I want to have a REAL Math Workshop with mini-lesson followed by small groups, but I just can't seem to get it right!  I always start out with great intentions and then flub up.

Last summer, I read Guided Math and was sure I had it!

Wrong-O!

So, this summer I am going to joining another math book study looking for help!

Another part of math that I really want to incorporate daily is NUMBER TALKS.  I have used it off and on for the past 2 years and my students really love it.  My problem is at some point during the year I get bogged down with the pressures of getting to all the common core objectives and assessments that Number Talks gets put on the back burner.  I dust if off every now and then, but NEXT year, I will definitely incorporate it daily!

Something isn't right when I have more homework than my High School Junior!

I must learn to bring home less homework and  find a balance in my life.  

It will be my son's Senior Year and I intend to soak up every minute

 AND 

cheer his football team all the way to the state championship!

I need to replace my "School is my hobby" mentality with my real hobby - scrapbooking!

I really, really, LOVE my job, but it shouldn't be my hobby!

Summer Bucket List

I am joining Hadar, Teri, and April for the 2nd annual Summer Bucket List Linky!

                    

1.  Soak up as much time as I can with all 3 of my kiddos and husband.                          

• Kait is not going to be home most of the summer.  She will be an intern @ Ally Financial this summer.
• Zach is going to be a senior in the Fall and time is slipping away.  I am super excited about his senior year in football.  It was such a crazy wonderful ride last fall.
• Tanner is 12 and spends most of his time outside playing basketball with friends.  He will be in his second year of middle school and will try out for the football team!
• My hubby will have 3 weeks off with us this summer!  and a Monday here and there.

 2.  Spend a week at the beach relaxing with extended family and friends!

 3.  Get the invite to become an Origami Owl Designer.
           I have been on the waiting list for two months now.  I got my first locket for Mother's Day and absolutely love it.

4.  Stay up late!  Sleep late!  Stay in my pajamas all day and read all the books  
     on my beside table - all the ones I don't get to read during the school year.

5.  Get my scrapbooking, crafting groove on some more!
Above is one of my recent double page spreads completed for my son's football team a few years ago!  I loved the paper from TLC.
6.  Create more items for my classroom and TPT.
I have so many ideas spinning around in my brain!  I plan to create many new Vocabulary Activities, but I have to take time away from school too.  I hope to put Scrapbooking above school over the summer time!  Last summer, I don't recall taking a school break!

May Pinterest Linky Party

I am joining a fellow NC Blogger @ Diving into Learning for her monthly Pinterest Linky.

Here is my pinterest:  http://pinterest.com/tameraw

How much time do you spend on pinterest?

What are your most recent pins?

I found this adorable owl craft that I have to make for my firsties!

They will LOVE it!

I found this just a little too late!  :(

Next year, I will have the kiddos write a reason why they love their mom or dad on a chalkboard and hold it up in the picture.  

Within hours of finding this idea, I found 10 free dice games on other blogs, sent my husband to the Dollar Tree for 50 dice, and had my summer gift to students ready to rock & roll! 

How Now Brown Cow! and freebie

I was sitting in Chick-Fil-A the other evening when I saw a few children with these adorable headbands.  I knew I just had to have some for my kiddos.

But what would we do with them?

Why not study the sound ow makes in words.

 

For our mini lesson, we talked about the two sounds the ow could make.  I modeled how to say a given word with each of the two sounds before deciding where to place the word.

Next, I guided several students through the process and before long they were ready to try it on their own.

In small groups, students completed the sort as I walked around monitoring.

After completing the sort, we put away the long o words like in crow and only focused on the words in the "cow" column.  

We read the words.  Then, students cut out cow spots and wrote any of the words they could read onto their spots.

We attached the word spots to our clothes and presto-chango, 

my wise ones were turned into cows! 

If you would like an edited copy of my word sort, 

visit my TPT store and pick yours up for FREE here.

Teacher Appreciation Sale

Teacher Appreciation Week is upon us!

TPT is helping celebrating by hosting a huge sale.  

Everything in my store will be 20% off.

TPT is offering an additional 10% of my discounted price for a total of 28% off!

You can't beat that!

Stop by my store Tuesday or Wednesday to get the deals!

Don't forget to use the promo code: TAD13.

Here are a few of my best sellers:

And here are some of my newest activities:

Thank you for all you do and for visiting my blog!

May Currently

Time to link up with Farley again!  

Time for Currently!

Listening:  Everyday I come home from work and my son is outside playing basket ball with   friends.  This goes on until super time even if it is drizzling outside or really cold.  

Loving:  In just a few days my daughter will finish her Sophomore Year in College.  She is going for a double major (Accounting/Finance) with a minor in Women's Studies.  She will be home for almost a month before she starts her summer internship with Ally Financial!  I am so proud of her.

Thinking:  I am too tired to cook or clean tonight!  I just completed a 2 day workshop on Reading 3D - a workshop on how to use our iPads to do Assessments and Benchmarks K-2 in NC.  It was a lot of information to take in over 2 days.  Add the stress of preparing extremely detailed lesson plans for a substitute and stress of lesson planning for next week means I need some Vitameatavegamin.   (Absolutely, 1 of my 2 favorite Lucy episodes of all times!)  

Random fact #1 - At our Vow Renewal almost 2 years ago,  at the end of the ceremony, we walked down the aisle to the I LOVE LUCY theme song!  It received quite the laughs!  Random fact #2 - My grandmother's name was Lucy and my hubby calls me Lucy!

 

Wanting:  I want to send out a huge Thank You to all those who donated products and those who donated to the Jogging for Jonah Cause!  The Jog is in 2 days and I raised quite a bit of money.  We have made a huge difference!  Thank you all!

Needing:  I need to clean this nasty house- a deep clean!  But, if I clean it tonight and you come over tomorrow, GUESS WHAT?  You won't know how hard I worked because...  there will be another load of laundry, another load of dishes, and dog toys all over house again!   I would rather do something like scrapbook a few pages.  Now that, I can feel accomplished about & it will live on!

Summer Bucket List:  

1)  Beach - a trip to the beach is always a must!  We will be going Late July.

2) Scrapbook - I have already booked a Scrapbook Weekend @ a local winery in July and registered for classes at a Creating Keepsakes event in August!.  

3) I am on the Wait List to become an Origami Owl Designer.  I have always loved charm bracelets for as long as I can remember and when I saw these beautiful lockets, I was hooked!  I needed to find another way to help pay for college and I new this was it.  I can't wait for this journey to begin!  Wish me luck!