New {School} Year Resolutions

I love the idea of making school year resolutions. I am always making goals and writing them down and now that I have a blog dedicated to teaching, it will be so much easier to keep up with them.

1. Use my time wisely- I have made a schedule for myself this year that I need to keep up with. I am working on my master's degree and I don't want to fall behind in any aspects of my life. In case you were wondering what my schedule looks like and also so I can document it somewhere, here it is...
• Mondays- 
• Leave work on time (2:45)
• Exercise (3:00-4:00)
• Masters Homework (4:00-6:00)
• Tuesdays-
• Late day at work (4:00)
• Lesson Planning
• Cleaning/Organizing
• Copying
• Exercise (4:15-5:00) 
• Masters Homework (5:00-6:00) 
• Wednesdays- 
• Leave work on time (2:45)
• Exercise (3:00-4:00)
• Masters Homework (4:00-6:00)
• Thursdays- 
• Late day at work (4:00)
• Lesson Planning
• Cleaning/Organizing
• Copying 
•  Exercise (4:15-5:00) 
• Masters Homework (5:00-6:00)
• Fridays-
• Leave work on time (2:45)
• Exercise (3:00-4:00)
• Masters Homework (4:00-6:00)
2.  Stay ahead- Often I find myself getting "lazy" and falling behind on things like grading and lesson planning. Then when it comes time for report cards I'm scrambling to get everything done. I'm hoping since I have two "late" days at work, I can keep up with this one.
3. Eat Right- With school starting, I don't want to get stuck in my old habits of unhealthy eating. Often times I will bring a microwave meal everyday for lunch just because it's quicker. This year I am planning on premaking my lunches, that way it will be easier to grab in the morning. 

I have more resolutions, but I don't want to overwhelm myself and not stick to them. I may just have these as my first quarter resolutions and then after fall break, see how well I stuck to these and add three more. If you haven't made yoru new school year resolutions yet, I highly suggest that you do.

Currently: Back to School Edition (August)

I wanted to take the time to do Oh' Boy 4th Grade's Currently Linky Party. It looked like a lot of fun and since tomorrow is Back to School for me and all of my students, i figured it would be nice to document the things I am doing and thinking.

B2S Must Haves

1. A Cricut- I love my Cricut so much. It's an electronic die cutting machine that will save you soooo much time when wanting to cut things out for bulletin boards. I also use it to make things for my little darlings.
2. A thoughtfully planned out classroom- I can't stress this enough. You want to make sure that everything had a place before school starts. Once the craziness of the school year happens, you won't have time to organize things. If it already had a place, all you have to do it maintain.

Hanging Table Signs

I have been crafting up a storm. I went back to work today. Lots of meetings as well as a talent show! The students don't start until next Monday, but I want to be ready. Especially since some are going to show up this Thursday for Meet the Teacher night. The first thing I made was a cover for my shelves. It was looking a little "blah" so I added a colorful banner.

The main project I was working on were my hanging table signs.

Classroom Video Tour

Take a tour of my classroom. Pictures in a later post.

Skippyjon Jones at Kohls

Have you heard that Skippyjon Jones is at Kohls? I'm just most of you already knew that. I received an email a while ago and forgot about it. Then while shooping in my local Kohls I saw him. Well I didn't see him, which made me sad. After I wasn't able to find little Skippy, I went online. I was able to find Skippy and all of his friends!

Talk about being excited! They also had a backpack for only $5. Yes, I forgot to mention that all of the toys, hardcover books, and backpack are only $5.

I bought all of the plush toys, but I bought 2 Skippy's. One for my classroom and one for this backpack. When I was in kindergarten, my teacher had a backpack with a teddy bear and a notebook inside. One lucky student got to take it home every weekend. Inside the notebook they would write what they did with the bear. I want to do the same thing in my classroom, only with Skippy. I'm also thinking of adding a disposable camera in the backpack as well to have them take a picture with them and Skippy. I can't wait for my order to come in!!

I Have Self Control and a FREEBIE!!

I was browsing through Pinterest, as I normally do, about 1000 times a day and I came across this video.



First of all, let me say that this guy is amazing. I've only watched this one video and after I upload this post, I'm going back and watching all of his videos. How awesome would it be to have him as a teacher? Back to the point of this post though.

I was watching this video and I realized that this would be so helpful in teaching self control, just like he says. It's very concrete and easy to understand. You can use this for classroom management reminders, cafeteria behavior, recess, etc. All you have to do is remind them of self control and the bubbles. This is also a great idea for students that tend to get very angry easily. You could always pull them aside and do the bubble activity with them individually. You may even let them blow the bubbles slowly to help them with their breathing and calm down.

I am going to try this activity on the first day of school and I will let you know how it turns out. It could go wonderfully, or there could be a few students who take it to far. I will experiment and report back.

Now I don't want to do this activity all the time because then I think it looses it's affect. I went ahead and made a poster that I can post in my room and whenever there is a student who is about to loose it, I will point to it and remind them about their self control. Of course I had to share it will all of you wonderful blog readers. You can get this poster for FREE, all you have to do is click the image and it will take you to my TPT store.

My First Award(s)

I received my first award today from Katherine, over at Blessed to Teach. Thank you Katherine, that was so sweet of you!

This award is named for the german word "Liebster", which translates to  "beloved" or "favorite" and is given to a "new, up and coming blogger".

Here are the rules:
1. Link back to person who gave it to you
2. Post the award to your blog.
3.Give the award to at least 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers.
4.Leave a comment on the five blogs to let them know that they have been offered the award.

Not only did I receive one award, I received TWO! So here is the next award. I received this from Amy at Adventures in Teaching, by the way I love that blog name, so cute!

This award has a little more work to it than the first one.

Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.

2. Include a link to their site.

3. Include the award image in your post.

4. Give 7 random facts about yourself. 

• I am in love with The Beatles. It's true, I have a collection of Beatles memorabilia and I keep adding to it. My favorite Beatles is George Harrison.
•   I love to be crafty. I have three Cricuts!! I love making cards, scrapbook layouts, and things for my classroom.
• I am obsessed with owls. Anything that has an owl on it, you know I will be buying! I went to Pottery Barn kids just to buy my new lunch box this year and yes it does have owls all over it.
• I am secretly still a kid at heart, but aren't we all? I love watching Disney movies, coloring, and singing children's songs. It's a good thing I went into teaching. Now I have an excuse, hehe!
• I can't go without painting my toe nails. Even in the winter when my toes never make an appearance, I have to have them painted. When I have time and I'm not too lazy, I like to match my pedicure with my manicure. I will change them every week depending on my mood. Once I did zebra print when we took a field trip to the zoo. We had a vote in my class to see if I would do zebra or cheetah, zebra won. ;-)
• My car has to be spotless. I cannot stand driving in a car that has trash all over it. It doesn't bother me if it's not my car, but I'm a very organized person and I tend to loose things easily. Hence the reason why I have to be organized. So keeping my car clean is just one less worry. Now if only I could keep my classroom as clean...
• I've actually been blogging since 2009, but I never felt confident enough to share it with anyone. Now I figured, why not it's fun! 

5. Nominate 5-10 other bloggers, include their link, and let them know. 



I am nominating the following blogs for both of these awards:

Blessed to Teach
Teach-On
Mrs. A's Room
Adventures in Teaching
Teaching Little Apples