September Currently & more

As September rushes in, I am crossing my fingers for cooler weather and I'm excited to join Farley for her monthly Link UP. 

Listening:  Does your teenager still watch Sponge Bob?  I can almost quote the episodes I have heard them so often.

Loving:  Tanner is playing football right now.  He likes it, but is playing it mostly for me and to keep in shape for basketball.  We just signed him up for a travel basketball team because we missed watching him play.  Does he look 14?

 

Thinking:  I have to make 2 cakes tonight for the football meal tomorrow after school.  I am making one of my husband's favorite recipes and I am going to have to put a lock on the refrigerator to hide them from him. Who am I fooling?  How am I going to handle the temptation?

Wanting:  To sneak away to the beach this weekend!!  Who doesn't?  

Needing:  A workday!  I can't seem to catch up with emails, workshops, online training videos, PDPS, self-assessments, etc  MUCH less plans & grading papers!

Goals:  I am sure many of you feel the same way about your job - it's a hobby, too.  I enjoy making plans, creating, etc.  I often do way more than I have to.  But, I am going to put Family before my job even more this year!   I have 1 kiddo out of college, 1 in college, and only 1 left at home.  I miss the oldest 2 like crazy & I want to soak in as much of Tanner's last 4 years at home as I can!  

I have a loooonnnggg list of books I want to read.  I need to sit on my back porch & enjoy a good book, not just in the summertime. 

 

Click the button below to link up.

My class has been engaged in data collection since school started.  Graphs are hanging ALL over the classroom.  If the fire marshall wouldn't fine us, they would be hanging from the ceiling and on the doors.  

 I can't wait to introduce these data collection activities into our math stations:

I woke up a few Sundays ago to a super email!

I was the winner of Yari's Birthday Give Away.  She is the adorable Second Grade Teacher in the Sunshine State!  Go check out her blog: Sweet Tooth Teaching! 

I got home yesterday to this lovely assortment of goodies!

Can't decide what's my favorite goodie.  However, she is enabling my pen addiction!

Thank you Yari!!

 

They are on sale til Saturday.   Just click on the pic above.

Enjoy September!

August Pinterest Pick 3 Linky

I am linking up again with the lovelies over at Pawsitively Teaching and Inspired Owl's Corner for the August Pinterest Pick 3 Linky!  Now, that is a mouth full!

 

My first favorite pin comes from Miss Squirrels over at Going Nutty with Miss Squirrels.  (The pic will take you to her website.)

She shared how she made her calendar pockets.  I too had tried paperclips, pins, velcro & even photo corners to add the date on the calendar.  None of them were great!  Since I was redoing the theme in my classroom it was the perfect time to try her tip.

First I made my own calendar - that took forever.  All the measuring, drawing, and tracing!  I made sure 2 calendar numbers would fit into a 4x6 pocket.

Once I had the board ready, I took 4x6 photo sleeves and fused them into 2 - 2 X3 pockets.  Then, adhered them to the board with photo tape.

Here is the finished calendar board ready for the first day of school.

 

My second pin came from Amie @ Simply in the Middle.  I absolutely loved the polka dots and the black back ground & the ribbon!   It just pops!

They say imitation is the best form of flattery.  Mine turned out almost identical.

(I now have 2 blue poms up since this picture was taken.)

 

Pin #3 comes from Jen in Sparkling n Second.

This is my only pin I have not made since seeing it.  I need to find a cheap set of these bowling pins.  Love the colors & I know the kiddos will love playing the game.  You can't have too many sight word activities.

 

I hope you've enjoyed my pins!  To check out more great pins, see below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Assess Me Linky: Week 2: This or That

Welcome to Week 2 of Assess Me Linky.  Thanks to Rachel over at the Tattooed Teacher for letting me join the fun!

 

I would chose jeans over short skirts any day of the week.  I don't mind long flowing skirts, though.  Earrings are a must.  I feel naked without them.  I have always lived in the city and would much prefer the sounds of crickets and frogs over car alarms & traffic.  I shop a lot online for things I purchase often like books or laminating film.  But if it is not something I have purchased before, I need to feel it & touch it.  I take showers 95% of the time, but couldn't live without my jet tub to relieve the stress of a long day or when my muscles ache.  I love sweet tea - too much!  I love to fall asleep to the sound of thunder.  Love flats for work, but feel prettier in heels.  I don't like flying and have never really traveled by train (subway & marta don't count). 

August Currently

I'm joining Farley for her August Currently!

Listening:  I absolutely love KLove Radio.  99.4.  It is exactly what it claims to be... positive and encouraging.  I can't get through a day without listening.

Loving:  I just began using Project Life in my daughter's scrapbooks because I finally (after 19 years) ran out of Creative Memories mauve scrapbooks and can't find anymore without paying an arm & a leg for them on eBay.  It is much faster than regular scrapbooking, although it takes out some of the creative elements and "locks" you into the orientation of the photos. 

 

Thinking:  Time flies by even if you aren't ready.  Now that August 1 is on the books, I will be back at school before you know it.   I haven't accomplished as much as I wanted and only have 16 days to get it done AND Monday I move my son back to college.  Not the dorms.  A real 12 month lease apartment.  I know what that means, too.  I will hardly see him, especially since he's found the love of his life in Boone.  It's quite an exciting and sad time of parenting.  I don't like it, not one bit!

Wanting:  Football to start!  I have a freshman playing football this year at North!  There's nothing like football at North Davidson!  It has a life and atmosphere all it's own.  Secondly, this is going to be the year my Cowboys win the Superbowl!  I've been a fan since I was 6!  

 

Needing: I ran out of magnet laminate & laminating pouches again right in the middle of a project!  I'm sure that never happens to anyone else, right!

B2S RAK:  I've made lots of cards this summer.  I plan to make card sets for my first grade friends!  Here's one set.

Happy August!

Assess Me! Get to Know Me Linky!

Hi everyone!  Can you believe it is almost August (insert sad face)!  
I haven't accomplished enough in my downtime to go back to work yet!   Wait?!  Downtime?  Accomplish?  Do they go together?

I am joining a fellow NC Teacher Blogger, The Tattooed Teacher, for her Assess Me, Get to Know Me Linky!

Join Rachel for week one:

 

1.  I do not talk out loud to my self, but I think we all talk to ourselves in our head.  Right? 

2.  I am not superstitious 95% of the time, but I swear there is something fishy with my mother.  We both were born October 30th - the day before Halloween.  She can say something & before long it seems to happen.  Just the other day, she said, "It's a wonder Zach hasn't gotten a ticket driving back and forth to Boone each weekend."  I quickly knocked on wood.  I swear the next trip to Boone Zach got a warning ticket for a burnt out headlight!  NO LIE!   

3.  I DO NOT crack my knuckles and cannot stand the sound of it!  Gives me the heebie jeebies!

4.  I can always snack!

5.  TV is always on.  I like the noise.

6.  I still have my wisdom teeth.

7.  I always shower even if I plan to stay home in my pajamas!  It just wakes me up.

8.  I have been to Disney on one week long trip & 2 very short trips.  Once on New Year's Eve.  Don't do it!  Horribly crowded.  The park was at full capacity by 10 a.m.  We parked it at 4 pm to wait on fireworks because it wasn't worth fighting the crowd for rides.

9.  I have been wearing glasses since I was 35.  I fight it, but I have to wear them to see far away.   I have contacts, but I don't like to wear them either.  

10.  I actually live in the same state where I was born.  All 3 of my kiddos will graduate from my same high school.  

Todd and I @ North Davidson High School.

Kaitlyn's senior year @ NDSH.

Zach's senior year @ NDSH.

Tanner's 8th grade year @ NDMS.

Link up for some fun!

Monday Made It

 

  I am linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It.

First up, I created new pieces to my calendar to go along with my new theme - birds.

I created them with my Cricut Explore Air which I am obsessed with.

The birds say, "Today is, Yesterday was, and Tomorrow will be."

I will use velcro to move them to the appropriate days of the week.

Below is the beginning of the bulletin board where they go.

I am going to make my own calendar board to match the polka dots.  I can't seem to find anything I like, yet.

 

I did not make the actual ABCs and 123s, but bought them from the Moffatt Girls.  It is called

Bird Themed Word Wall & More.  But I did back them & laminate them. 

What I did make was the pinwheels above using my Cricut Explore Air.  I am going to use them as flowers at the bottom of a bulletin board and think they turned out adorable.