What's Your Schedule?! Linky!

Having moved from Vegas to Mass and teaching the same grade level, I am amazed about how different the day-to-day schedules are!

It got me thinking...

How long is your school day? How long do you have for each subject? Do you have a Social Studies or Science block? Do you get time for planning or PD each week?

I am NOSY!

The beginning of my school year was crazy-hectic so many of you may have already shared your schedules, but if you want to share them again and make my stalking life a bit easier, LINK UP!

I would love to see what your school day looks like!

Grab the button:

Many thanks, Melonheadz & MTF fonts

This is what my week looks like:

Does my schedule look similar to yours?! Or are we wayyyy off??

**Some answered questions:**

- Our morning meeting is with the kids each day.
- We have duty free lunch for 45 minutes each day except Friday which is 30 minutes
-So far this year, we have had PD about half the time and planning with our team the other half on Fridays - it is awesome. Yesterday, our principal let us leave at 1230 as a reward for our extra time! However, I think those days will be few and far between.
-We also have planning while the students are at specials for an hour and 5 minutes
-Our scheduled time in each morning is 7:29 - it is an early start so we just have to be there to pick up the kids! Our time to leave is right after the kids leave.
-I do not get to choose my own schedule. This is the schedule of the entire 1st grade team which was given to us by our principal!
- I have a full time para - GASP! Yeah... with me.... all day long... I am VERY lucky!
- My kids' specials change each day and we have: Library, Music, P.E., Dance, Art, & Safe/Caring (a class all about being kind friends!)
- When my students go to enrichment on Fridays it is an afternoon full of music, arts, literacy and nutrition! Currently my students practice dance, boxing, and they are learning about the composer, Carl Orff. Next week they will start a new 6 week rotation and learn all about Futsol, Storytelling, and Health/Nutrition. Some classes are sponsored and taught by the instructors who sponsor them while other classes during that time are taught by our specialists and volunteers.

Anything else? Feel free to ask!

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Throwback Thursday!

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I am linking up with one of my *all time* favorite bloggers, Cara Carroll, for a little throwback Thursday fun!

I have been blogging for a little over a year so there isn't TOO much to look back on, but the post I picked is from September 2012! It is filled with freebies and photos and is basically just a bunch of different stuff thrown into one post... which, if you follow my blog, you know that happens often! So sit back, enjoy my throwback post, and then click the button above to go read some other great bloggers' ideas!

***

A little bit of this and a little bit of that!

Here is a quick peek into our classroom on Photo Friday:

[Our sweet little Star of the Week!]

I left that smile in there because she was CHEESIN' all week long! As our first star of the week she was thrilled to be our line leader and helper. She was also beyond happy to take home this little book we made for her today and to quote my little lady "ohmigod, my mom is going to be SO proud of me!!!" Warm fuzzies all over!!

The inside:

"she is a really nice friend"

"because she is special" lol

and

"she is fun and funny"

My {Star of the Week} booklet is always a BIG hit and is in my store for FREE!

If you want to download, just click on the image below:

Next we have the Investigations math game, Counters in a Cup.

We have been working on subtraction and finding missing parts and my students loved this game on Tuesday. Naturally, I brought it back for "fun" Friday (A.K.A. regular day but Ms. Moran smiles a lot and keeps saying over and over that everything is so FUN! - kids are so easy to trick)

 

Start with 10 counters. Students work in pairs to hide some of the counters under a cup while their partner isn't looking. Partner turns around, records how many counters are outside the cup and tries to figure out how many are underneath. Easyyyyy and fun!

[Happy Birthday!]

I am not.that.fun.

 I don't have a huge birthday display or a cape or a party for my birthday kids.

No time.

I do, however, draw a little puppy with a party hat on a card and throughout the day I gather quotes from the other students about the birthday student! I compile them into one card, read it aloud and we sing our hearts out. My favorite quotes of today were "I have a big crush on him" and "He is crazy in a good way!"

Lastly, we learned a wee bit about our 5 senses today!

First we read this book and had a pretty thorough discussion about our 5 senses and how they help us to be aware of our surroundings.

Then we completed a 5 Senses flipbook I made:

 They had to write down three things they could see, hear, taste, feel, and touch. Pretty simple? Yah, but it was a quick formative assessment to let me see who was getting it and who wasn't.

If you'd like the flip book I uploaded it to googledocs. Just click below!

Happy weekend!

2

Summer Bucket List & Some Lucky Winners!

I am so excited to join a FUN linky party hosted by some of my favorite bloggin' friends!

 Thank you Hadar, Teri, and April for hosting the 2nd annual Summer Bucket List linky!

This will a busyyyy Summer for me.. so here it goes!

{1}

WE'RE MOVING!!!! Cross-country, that is! Back to Massachusetts to be with the fam. Parker and I surprised our family last weekend with a fun gift and now we get to plan a road trip! [You can click here to see the video of the surprise reveal - it went great!] I get out of school June 5th and we are set to leave June 30th. I want to spend the a couple weeks planning a memorable road trip with Parks!

{2}

I want to get a job!

 I feel ya, kid
Wahhhhhh.... Moving back home is VERY exciting... but I need to find a job - ASAP. I have just started applying to schools back east and I am hoping some more positions will open up as the Summer season begins.

{3}

I want to plan a wedding!

Marriage date is 9/20/2013 and it is finally getting closer!!

 

source

Wedding bands, centerpieces, flowers, invitations... the list goes on...

I am loving coral dahlias in bud vases and I am thinking of centerpiece ideas as I type!

{4}

I want to decorate a house!

source

If you have been following my blog for awhile, you would know that Parker and I had been looking for a house in Vegas. Well, obviously that has changed (see #1). This means we will likely have to rent for a bit in Mass. before we can save more money to buy a home. I just want to decorate something - even if I have to settle for a little apartment. While I wait not-so-patiently, I will be stalking Pinterest looking for fun decorating tips!

{5}

I want to organize!

 source

Jewelry, kitchen stuff, school stuff, office, bathroom - LIFE! I want to organize my life.

If you don't know of the blog, IHeart Organizing, I grant you full permission to leave here immediately and go scour her website for days. Then, take a bathroom break, and go back for a few more days. I drool in jealousy while looking at her organization skills. I have started making a list of all the things I need to organize and I think if I can take the time to tackle one project at a time, I will be off to a good start!

So there you have it - my Summer bucket list of 2013! 

Oh and if you are here looking for the winners of my 1k Giveaway!

I will be sending out emails soon! Congrats!!!

4

Poetry & Technology in the Classroom!

My good friend, Katie King, has been hosting a fantastic linky lately and I have been missing out!

I used a few fun websites this morning so I thought I would link up and share!

This morning I was the presenter for our grade level's lesson study.

(I am nosy...) Does your school do this?!?!

A couple times a year our grade level team gets together to design a lesson aligned to the common core. Then, we pick a name out of the hat to see who will present the lesson to their class.... in front of all the other teachers....well... lucky me! I got chosen!

The lesson we designed was to meet the Common Core Standard RL.1.4: Students will identify words or phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or apply to the senses.

Here was our 45 minute lesson:

First, I got two 2nd grade poems off of Super Teacher Worksheets {Snowy School Day & Reading Forever}! I have used this site since my first year teaching - it was free then. It is only 25$ for the whole year and I use it a lot for extra practice sheets and homework.

 I read both poems aloud twice. The first time for enjoyment and the second time we listened for feeling words and words that appeal to our senses. I had my kiddos close their eyes to help them visualize what I was reading. After we discussed the words we heard, we watched a Brain Pop Jr. video on writing with our senses:

 I seriously love me some Annie and Moby and my kids love them too! This video focuses on the reasons we should add details to our writing by using our 5 senses. It makes our writing much more exciting to read and helps the reader visualize the work.

Next stop, Read, Write, Think!

 

This website is free and has some great lesson plans. I searched the site last week and found these theme poems. As a class, we chose the sun poem and brainstormed some feeling/sensory words to describe the sun. Lastly, my kiddos went back to their seats and wrote cute poems to describe the sun!
There are plenty of other themed templates that have made their way to our writing center:

My kids were really excited to write their poems and share them with the class! It will be a perfect lead into our Valentine's Day poems we will write to our parents next week :)

That's all I have for Techy Teacher Tuesday (Thursday?)
Go link up with Katie and see all the other teachers' tips!

3

12-12-12 = WAY COOL!

One of my favorite blogging buddies, Stacy, is having a wayyyyy cool linky party to help us document our day on 12-12-12!

Here are a few pictures from my day:

1. One of my little guys took a picture of me while I pretended to read a Santa book (after I really read it aloud).

2. My students playing cover up to practice numbers to 120.

3. My friend, Tanya, put a little twist on my {stocking stuffers} community building activity. She made a seriously adorable fireplace for her students to gather around and write notes to one another. I loved it so much I had to snap a picture!

4. Me being sad that our bulletin board still has pumpkins.... they are Kelley's amazing adjective pumpkins... but still... it needs to be changed....

5. My kids all took pictures with Santa for a gift we are giving to parents!

6. Long o (ow) practice on the rainbow.

7. In-n-Out burger for dinner.

8. Bundled-up for a late night trip to Walgreens.

9. To get POPCORN! We do Cara Carroll's brown bag book club and I have an awesome classroom dad who comes in once a week to reward the students.

10. One of my cuties practicing her read-to-self.

11. We "put up" our sad excuse for a Christmas tree... bahaha... I swear we will be better when we have kids.

12. Bethenny! Catching up on my DVR :)

All-in-all, it was a pretty normal day for me... but I love that I got to share this special day with you all and I get to read about other bloggers' day at Stacy's linky!

 

Happy last few hours of 12-12-12... and HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful sister-in-law, Romy, love ya!!! :)

1

Theraputic Thursdays

Wait, there's a teacher-week linky party going on?!??

I have been in meetings, decorating, filling out forms, organizing, pulling out my hair, and trying not to scream for the past 3 days!!!

I saw today's topic and man, oh man, I can do this one!

This is what I do to relaxxxx after days like today... and yesterday... and I can only guess tomorrow too.

[1]

Shopping (well, kinda...)

This may be very strange, but spending money is actually quite stressful to me, shopping, on the other hand, is wonderful and quite relaxing. Sooooo... I have this odd habit of grabbing a cart at one of my {many} favorite stores and walking through the entire store acting as if I had $500 to spend. I try things on, I negotiate with myself [okay, Susan if you buy these pair of shoes you can't get the purse], I spend hours deciding how I will spend my $500. 

Just when I have made all my final decisions I leave the cart there and walk out of the store.

Is this weird?!?!?? Ha! I don't know why but for some reason it relaxes me and I get the "high" of shopping without any buyer's remorse.

[2]

Long, hot, showers.

I shower until the hot water turns cold.

I know that is NOT environmentally friendly and is not great for my water bill. But I love standing under the hot water. I zone out and am in my own little world.

Fantastic.

[3]

Lay on couch. Turn on Bravo or HGTV. Sit and stare for hourrrsssssssssss.

Weekends and summertime are usually spent with my eyes glued on these stations. 

I have no shame.

That is all I have for today!

I am going to shower, then watch TV :)

I am also making some super cute treats for Meet the Teacher day that I will be posting this weekend, so make sure you come back and check 'em out!

Go check out what others do to relax:

2

Drumroll Pleaseeeee & BTS Jitters!

Thank you to everyone who joined our *SWEET* giveaway over the weekend!

Congrats, Karyn!!!!

An email will be sent shortly :)

. . .

Seeing as in-service starts Wednesday and I meet my kiddos Friday, I thought I would join up with A Turn to Learn and share my back-to-school jitters!

 {1}

I swear, the second I see my kiddos adorable faces, I am put at ease. I remember why I love teaching and I get SO excited for the year to come!

{2}

Every year I get nervous about meeting all my students' individual needs. SO many students, so many standards, I sometimes wonder "HOW is this going to happen?!?" At the end of each day I just need to remind myself that I did the best I can and hope I taught my students to do the same.

{3}

I am soooo loving that I am officially a *super-cool* teacher/blogger this year!! I have an entire techy-world of knowledge and expertise right at my fingertips!! Hopefully, I can provide some knowledge and expertise to others too :)

{4}

Ahhh.... sleep.... how fond I have become of you this summer.

Between teaching, blogging, and wedding planning I have plenty of reasons to not get my beauty sleep. I think I will implement a "curfew" of sorts for myself when I will unplug each night and spend time with Parker before retiring to bed.... I (think) I will do this....

Link up and let me know how you're feeling about going back to school!!

Don't forget to comment on the 2 blogs in front of you!

3

My Summer Reads!

It is the first Monday since school has been out... so I consider this to be my FIRST day of summer! 

I cleaned the whole apartment (its not that big - so I shouldn't get that much praise for this)

Went to the gym (the first time I've seen it since April)

and cooked dinner for the fiance and I!

I was feeling like quite the lil Stepford wife!

Minus the blonde hair, rockin' bod, and overall good manners and submissiveness, but all is well!

Tomorrow I will be laying by the pool with a few good books!

I saw Christina Brainbridge's linky  about summer and I had to join! Reading by the pool, on the couch, and in bed is what I live for all summer long! 

Here is what I am currently reading:

 

and here are some of my past favorites:

So, now I wanna know: what are you reading?!?

Join Christina's Linky and let me know!

Now I must finish the next chapter of 50 shades before the Bachelorette starts...

P.S. I am Team Sean (from Dallas)!

I don't normally like blondes.. but he makes me swoon ;)

Susan

1