Meet the Teacher Monday…on Tuesday!!

So I’m trying my hand at joining blogging linky parties this summer and thought that it would be fun to link up with Trina over at The Ordinary to Extraordinary Classroom, for her Meet the Teacher Monday: Summer Edition! Head on over there so you can link up and meet some other awesome teachers!

Meet the Teacher Monday: Summer Edition

1. What's your summer teacher persona? 
Slacker Teacher:catching up on every episode of everything you wanted to watch during the school year
Mommy-On-The-Go: consumed with your children's extracurricular activities
Summer Fun Teacher:hanging with friends and traveling the world
Overachiever Teacher:Making TPT products, preparing your classroom, you never really took a break
I would have to say that my summer persona is a cross between Slacker Teacher & Summer Fun minus traveling the world! J I’ve been having a pretty lazy summer, with the exception of the one week that I worked for our local Kids College and my daily workouts. Besides that I’ve been having fun, doing whatever makes my heart content!
2. It's a sunny day in July. Your schedule is wide open, so you decide to?
Go for a nice walk through my neighborhood and read a good book outside. I might even go get my car washed, something that RARELY happens!
3.What is your favorite summer thirst quencher?
An ice cold glass of sweet tea or water. I’ve been trying to up my water intake so that’s what I’ve been drinking the most this summer. Put a glass of sweet tea in front of me and all forget all about that water. It can’t be overly sweet though, that makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it!
4. Where will you be soaking up the summer sun? Have you planned any vacations? 
My boyfriend and I are headed to Virginia Beach this weekend! This has become an annual trip for us and I look forward to it every year. Nothing like spending that day soaking up the sun and listening to the ocean! I need to remember to re-apply sunscreen this year.! We stay out in the water & on the beach for most of the day when we are there and last year, someone, not mentioning any names, was rather forgetful and got EXTREMELY burnt, I still have beautiful tan lines to prove it! Can I just say that was PAINFUL!!!! Never again will I go through that! We are going to stock up on plenty of sunscreen
5. Any summer reads, professional and personal?
I’ve been trying to get a lot of reading in this summer. So far I have read lots of magazines, blogs, and The Love Playbook by La La Anthony. I’m currently reading The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller., loving this book so far! On my to read list are : The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, Teach Like a Pirate by Dave Burgess, & Crash Course: The Life Lessons My Students Taught Me by Kim Bearden
6. What does your summer TV habits consist of?
I haven’t been watching too much TV during the daytime but the evening time I usually have the TV on while I’m working on something else. I’ve found time though to watch all of Season 2 of Orange is the New Black! Such a great show! I’ve also been watching a lot of reality TV, mostly on TLC. Their shows crack me up! You can also catch me watching some Keeping Up with the Kardashians and a few shows on Bravo. Obviously my TV habits are filled with shows that lack substance, but you know what, it’s summer so who cares! LOL!
7. Favorite Summer song of 2014?
Wiggle by Jason Derulo f/ Snoop Dogg

Turn Down for What by DJ Snake & Lil’ Jon

Both of these songs just make me what to get up and dance and have a great time!
That’s just a little bit about me!  I hope you’ll hop on over to Trina’s blog and link up!
Until Next Time…
Have Fun & Live Life to the Fullest!

July Currently

This is officially my first time participating in Farley's Currently!

Every month I tell myself that I'm going to do it and then the next thing I know the month has passed me by! Yikes! I was not going to let that happen to me again! So without out further adieu...

So here is what's currently on my mind:

Listening- I love Spotify! I have so many different playlists created and lately it's either been my workout playlist or my Summa, Summa, Summa Time playlist that I started last summer. I just keep adding to it. I could listen to music all day long, and with summer time here, that's typically what I've been doing. It keeps me from spending hours watching TV! 

Loving- I've never been one to enjoy exercising, but this summer I've found a new love/passion for it. The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is put on my workout clothes and head out for a 2+ mile walk around my neighborhood. It's been the only way I can truly start my day this summer and I get done way before it gets too warm or humid. Except today the sun was pretty intense! 3 days out of the week, my boyfriend and I have been heading to the gym and I am actually LOVING it! I think it's helping that he is there with me and we are encouraging one another! 

Thinking- One of my summer projects is to finally get my home office together and organized how I want it to be. We've lived in our house for just about 3 years now and I still have not found a home for everything or made my office as cozy and organized as I would like it to be. I finally decided on furniture that I want to put in here, so now I have to decide on what color I want to paint that walls. I'm not the best at narrowing down my choices so I'm just going to have to pick 1 or 2 colors and go with it! 

Wanting- I have a list of different things I want to create for TPT & for my classroom theme next year, but just have not had the creative mojo to get something together. I know it will get there, I just have to make it a part of my daily To-Do List and then it will get done. I don't want to wait until August to start creating. 

Needing- With the summer heat and humidity along with working out everyday I just haven't had time to go get my hair done professionally. I think a day of self-pampering is in order soon! I also need to change my nail polish color. It's a bright pink now, but I'm ready to change it! 

4th Plans- I'll be heading to my grandparents house for their annual 4th of July BBQ then I'll catch fireworks at the Blue Crabs Stadium right down the street from my house. I live so close to it, that I could actually just sit in my backyard and see them, but there are some trees and houses that are blocking our full view! So we'll just walk around the corner from our house so we can get the full view. 


Well there you have it! I've officially joined the Currently craze! That was so much fun! I can't wait to read what everyone else is currently up to and participate in the next one! 

Until Next Time...

Have Fun in the Sun! 

And the Winner is…

Hello there everyone! Sorry I took so long to announce my winner. My student teacher left this week and I got to get back in the trenches of teaching full time again, with less than 20 days left of school!!! Did I mention there was also a full moon this week, so my firsties were loads of fun!!!  

Without further adieu the lucky winner of all of these fabulous, not yet released goodies from Creative Teaching Press is…

 

Drumroll…

CONGRATULATIONS BREANNE!!! You will get an email from CTP soon so that they can get your goodies out to you!!

Breanne doesn’t have to be the only person to get her hands on these products hot of the press!! Everything from the Back to School release is due in the CTP warehouse ANY DAY now!!! You are hearing about it FIRST and you can be one of the FIRST to get your order! Even better, CTP hasn’t even announced it to the public yet, so you get an exclusive first chance! So what are you waiting for! Head on over to CTP’s website and place your order! Can’t wait to see how you incorporate the new products into your classrooms!

Be sure to stop back by later this week! I’ll be sharing some of the gifts we gave to my student teacher along with some new products in my TPT store!

Have wonderful Sunday and start to your week!

Until Next Time…

Have FUN Learning & Teaching!!

CTP Back To School Exclusive Sneak Peek & A Giveaway

Happy Teacher’s Appreciation Week to all of  my fellow educators!! I hope that all of you are each shown how much you are truly appreciated, not just this week, but each and everyday!

I’m back again to share some more sneaks of the new goodies being released very soon by Creative Teaching Press! You will only be able to gain a sneak peek from bloggers with the blog button below!

I said it before and I’ll say it again! You are going to absolutely LOVE the new items that they have coming out! Here are some of the items that I fell in love with immediately!

  

    

These are some of the fabulous borders. I love the patterns & colors!

I’m loving the Math GNOMe management system! This is going to be such a useful tool and will be great in holding students accountable for their learning.

                     

                    

These 5 Star Posters will be a great reminder for kiddos in your classroom of all that they CAN do!

I’m obsessed with chevron, but I know many others are in love with the entire mustache phenomenon. Don’t worry, CTP has you covered! Check out this fabulous mustache themed bulletin board set!

I mustache you, do you love it?  

Last but not least are these amazing Inspire U posters! I loved these the moment that I saw them! Talk about building a positive and motivating classroom environment. These will definitely help you to accomplish that and so much more!

To see more of the fabulous products from the BTS release head on over HERE

Don’t you just love all of these goodies! What’s that you say, you would really like to own all of this! Well have I got some news for you! CTP is allowing me to giveaway ALL of the items I’ve previewed to one lucky follower!! All you have to do is enter using the Rafflecopter below and a winner will be announced next week! So what are you waiting for… go get your entries in!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

 

An InLinkz Link-up

 

Until Next Time…

Have FUN Learning & Teaching!

Shhh…Can You Keep A Secret?!?

 

It’s your lucky day!! I’ve been given the opportunity to be a part of an exclusive group of amazing bloggers who have the chance to share some new Back to School products coming out from Creative Teaching Press!!

There are so many great products coming out for Back to School season and I can’t wait to be able to share more of them with you! For now, you are getting an EXCLUSIVE Sneak peak at a couple of the products that will be available very soon!

First up, is this 5 Star Reader Common Core Poster! This is going to be such a great resource in so many classes!!

My next sneak peak is the New Moroccan Nights Straight Border! I absolutely LOVE this design!

Which of these 2 sneaks can you see yourself using in your classroom next year?

Stay tuned for more goodies and giveaways from Creative Teaching Press! You are not going to want to miss it!  

Click on the image below to hop on over to the Penniless Teacher to see her CTP sneak peek!

Until Next Time…

Have Fun Learning!

What Time Is It?

It’s SPRING BREAK time!! This break couldn’t have come at a better time! It is much needed and I’m looking forward to spending the week catching up on some things that I’ve been putting off, such as blogging (hangs head in shame), and hanging out with my new nephew who was born less than a week ago!  

We’ve had a busy start to spring in our classroom, including learning all about telling time! Lucky for me, I had some wonderful goodies sent to me from Creative Teaching Press, which included some blank analog clocks. These came in handy for having my students review not only how to read an analog clock to the hour and half hour, but they were able to draw right on them, using a dry erase marker that is!

My kiddos had so much fun showing me that they were beginning to master this skill. I have a group set placed in each of my table bins and whenever we have some down time, I just tell my kiddos to whip out their clocks and give them a random time to represent.

Some other ways that I think that these could be used is to have the clocks taped to students desks and have them write one of their peers names at a specific number. When doing partner work, students could be told that your “appointment” at 9:00 is your partner for this activity. At least it would take a little pressure off you of having to assign partners. Of course you’d still have to keep an eye on those 2 students that you always try your best to keep apart.

What are some other ways that you could use these clocks in your classroom?

Want to snag these for your own classroom? Be sure to stop on over at CTP to grab them up!

I’ve got some pretty exciting things coming up in the next couple of weeks! Can’t wait to share!  

Until Next Time…

Remember to Always Have Fun Learning!

Can You Believe I’m Blogging & Weather Tracking Makeover!!

This year has been going so wonderful!! So much so, that I seem to have neglected my blog for long periods of time. Every year, I say to myself that I’m going to devote time to blog at least once a week, and then that turns into once after several months! LOL! I really will attempt to do much better.

I was so fortunate to be given an opportunity to try some products from the amazing company Creative Teaching Press with my kiddos! This is after several, and I do mean SEVERAL snow days this winter! I cannot wait for this dreadful season to be over and I don’t want to hear the word SNOW for the rest of this year!

Once I received all of my goodies from CTP, I had to really think about how I wanted to utilize them in my classroom. After seeing the weather icons, I knew that I instantly wanted to change how we were recording our daily weather. Prior to the new fun method, we were recording the weather in a laminated book that was being held together by binder rings, and then several pages had to be reinforced with clear hole punch reinforcements. This is what happens when you’ve been using the same book for several years and many first graders have been taking such great care of the book!

The pending arrival of spring, prompted me to create a weather tracker that was not only going to be easy to manage, but cute as well! Let’s face it, if it doesn’t look good, especially in first grade, the kids are not going to be as engaged. At least that’s what I’ve learned with my class this year! They are all about things looking fun, bright, and cute!

I used the CTP Chevron Solids to create little pockets. I used fonts from KG Fonts, frames from Lovin Lit and the weather clipart is from the amazingly talented Melonheadz Illustrating.

To create the weather sticks I used the 1” Weather Mini Designer Cuts. Each stick contains one icon.

Each day, students will put a weather stick into the correct pocket and then use tally marks to record what the weather was like for that day. At the end of the month, we will be able to quickly see which form of weather we experienced the most.

This is our first week formally using this new system and I can already tell you that my students are LOVING it! They were excited to watch me put all of the components together and they were even more excited when they finally had a chance to use it.  I loved how easy it was to assemble and make the products fit the needs of my classroom. I’m so glad that I decided to utilize the products in the manner that I have, because they were just the right size to fit in the space that I have on my board without being overbearing.

Now I have some leftovers, because I didn’t use it all, so I’m thinking of other creative ways to put the products to use!

If you are interested in adding these wonderful products to your classroom be sure to head on over to Creative Teaching Press to grab them up!  

Until Next Time….

Remember to Have Fun Learning!!