August Currenlty

Hallelujah its August!  I fully enjoy summer break but I am SOOO ready to get back into the swing of things.  Farley's Currently Linky Parties are for sure a major part of my monthly routine :)

I have to say this song makes me feel like I could tackle anything!

I tell you it's an obsession :)  I bought the erasable gel pens, then the highlighters, now I found the markers.  I'm ocd when it comes to being able to erase, so I SUPER love these. So much in fact I ordered them from Amazon and they are shipping from Japan!

Crazy stuff happening in my career right now.  In May I applied to be a Literacy Coach in our building, less than a week later the position was filled and I didn't even get to interview.  No big deal we snagged an amazing coach from Texas and she was way more qualified than I.  

Finished setting up my classroom yesterday for my brand new fourth grade rock stars...not much left to do...except at 3:45 I got a call to interview for Literacy Coach on Monday!  Our lady backed out of her contract last minute!  Guess I may have to pack up all my hard work for a different position this year...I'll keep you posted.

On to the important stuff..back to school must haves...

Sticking with a theme here..these babies have not left my side since I snagged them at target!

I can only wear flats these days, but Kohls has all the shoe candy I can handle right now

 

Last but not least I am a huge lister...I think I may need an intervention.  These post its make my life complete.

If you want a heads up on a fabulous affordable planner...check out my post here.

Can't wait to see what your up to..head on over to Farley's Place!

Currently July

Holla!  It's July

Nuff said about the bacholerrette..she's down to earth and fun! Its my guilty pleasure this summer.

Frixion erasable gel pens in fun colors are my new pen obsession!  I've seen them pop up all over the blog world this summer and I decided to bite the bullet.  They work great..you can try them out at office depot..the red is the only one that I noticed that didn't erase well.  Next I'm buying the erasable highlighters.

I applied for a literacy coach position in my district as we had several openings..but it just doesn't seem to be in the cards for me yet!  No worries I have an amazing grade level team to work with and this is where I am meant to be. 

SO SUPER EXCITED to head on over to Orlando on July 14th.  One of my goals this year was to become a Kagan School Trainer, and after an intensive application process I was selected to attend training for a week.  Anybody else going to a Kagan workshop this summer, or hanging out in Orlando?  Wanna meet up?

I LOOVE working out in the summer, and this year I have been swimming at the indoor aquatic center 2 blocks from my house.  Its so peaceful at 5:15 in the morning.  I'm also using My Fitness Pal to watch what I eat...so far so good :)  Anybody else use this app?

I seriously could not have survived blogging without the help of Megan over at Blog Baby Blog.  She has so many easy to follow tutorials. Any tip or trick you need is posted there.

She also has a teaching blog and designs blogs for others..head on over and check her out.

Your turn, head on over and link up with Farley.

Currently March

Round up the Leprechauns...March has now officially arrived!

 Farley is hosting her Currently linky

It's sad but I DVR the bachelor...I never get to see it Monday nights..so I catch up on the weekends.

My other guilty pleasure has become Downton Abbey...I just started watching it and I am hooked!

As for school this week I have proffesional development which requires a half day sub on wen afternoon and then again on thu morning....NUTS

And I'm still not sure when the rock stars and I can return to our classroom.  I went in this weekend and the leaks were worse! :(

My summer is starting to fill up fast.  I have a week of work scheduled for a district language arts curriculum and assesment team.

Then the next week is booked designing ActivInspire flipcharts to supplement our language arts curriculum.  Super excited to flex my creative muscles, constructing products that will be used district wide.

Now I just need to iron out whether or not a trip to Florida is on the books. I accomplished one of my New Year's goals by applying to become a Kagan school trainer!  The training happens in July but I won't find out if I've been accepted until April.

Lately I have been turning You Tube to invigorate my students.  

Here are a few I have used lately.

Thanks for dropping by!

Currently January

Farley is up to her antics again and hosting a great linky ...
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Wow where has the year gone?

 I really can't wait to get back into the swing of things with my little rock stars.

I managed to get some work done over the break and spent oodles of time with the family!
Thanks to my mom, my brand new iPad will allow me to be 100 times more productive!

I chose Moxie as my OLW because I think we all could use more courage and determination...with synonyms: savvy and proficient what more can I say!

From my family to yours, have a wonderful New Year!

Currently October

So much fun, my fellow mustache lover Farely at Oh Boy 4th Grade is hosting the famous currently linky.

So amazing I stayed out late on a school night this week to see Ingrid Michaelson live in concert...she is so oober talented!

Although loving, quickly deciding that I need to stop drinking these fall flavored lattes...they are bad for the budget and bad for the waistline...but so good for motivation in the morning!

I'm working up the nerve to apply for funding to attend some advanced cooperative learning training happening in February, I have recently become a coach for those using active engagement structures and I really want some new material for my toolbox...plus this stuff really impacts student learning and on task behaviors so I greedily want to learn more in order to better implement in my own classroom!

 Ive jumped on the iPad bandwagon...I found an app that will annotate pdfs and then you can email them...most of our teacher manuals are online pdfs that I could download and add notes.  Our gradebook software also has an app..no more paper checklists that are the manually entered into the computer..click once and move on in the moment :)

Need the wireless Internet to use the iPad that I want..our district wont let any outside devices on the server...grr...but they wont let teachers use the iPads purchased by the district..they are for student use only..completely support this but want the opportunity to use mine (when and if I get one).

Oh of course Halloween books are so fun...pulled a few out the other day and my students were crawling over desks to get at them :)

On a side note our class pet Spongebob Jr (the kids named him) finally came out to play!  I applied for a pets in the classroom grant  and got my coupons in the mail 2 weeks ago...this whole set up and the pet was only 6 bucks out of pocket!

September Currently

Wow we are already in our 3rd week of school!

I used the Phillip Phillips song "Home" as a transition cue today.  The kiddos had till the song was over to cut out the needed materials and throw their scraps in the recycling bin.  What a difference...my anxiety level as well as the kiddos was way down..And EVERYONE finished the task on time.  Amazing.

In social studies the anticipatory set was a simple true false..we live in the state of Lawrence (ha ha)..we live on the southern hemisphere etc :)  I ramped it up a bit by using the acti-voters (techy texting devices).  I also threw in a bit of cooperative learning with round robin cconsensus before they could send in their votes.