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I am a full time teacher and mom of three. I love love love my job working with kids and am always looking for ways to keep my students filled with excitement for learning!


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Monday, December 31, 2012

January Currently

It is time to Link up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for January Currently. 

I am feeling very blessed after this Christmas season is coming to an end.  We had great family gatherings, awesome meals, and very generous gift giving.  I have enjoyed my time off from school and it is rapidly coming to a close. 

I am hoping that each and every one of you had a fabulous holiday season and are recharged and ready for the school year to resume. 

Monday, December 10, 2012

12 in '12 Linky Party

A Teeny Tiny Teacher and Miss Kindergarten are hosting a super fun Linky Party called 12 in '12.  The idea is to post about 12 of your favorite things about this year.  What a great way to document your favorites throughout the year!  Here goes!

 
12.  Favorite movie that you watched- I love watching movies.  We have a tradition here at the ole homestead that Friday night is standard movie and pizza night.  I will have to choose 2.  My favorite date night movie is:
 
My favorite family night movie is:
 
 
11.  Favorite TV series-This one is a tricky one because I love lots of different shows!  If I have to pick just one I would have to go with Revenge.  I love the idea of a girl training her whole life to seek revenge on the people who set up and ultimately caused the death of her father.
 
 
10.  Favorite restaurant-I love the hibachi grill that we have.  The name is Fuji.  Makes my mouth water just thinking about it....yummy!
 
9.  Favorite new thing that you tried-Blogging of course!  I started this blog in 2012 and it has definitely been a learning experience.  I have become so much more connected with other great teachers all around the country! 
 
8.  Favorite gift you got-Easy!  My Keurig has been my most favorite gift that my wonderful family got me for Mother's Day.  I use it every single day! 
 
 
7.  Favorite thing you have pinned-Oh man, this one is hard.  I have pinned so many favorites I don't know if I can pick just one!  I always love the funnies on Pinterest so I have to go with this one:
 

 
 
6.  Favorite blog post-My favorite blog post...hmmmm...well I would have to say the one about the Liebster Award.  It was my first award and it wasn't even given to me by my student teacher!  Also because it took SOOOOO LONG to do so I was happy to finally post it!
 
 
5.  Best accomplishment-My best accomplishment of 2012 was deciding to take the School Leader Licensure test.  I studied night and day in every minute of my free time.  I stayed up late night after night after night to prepare for the test.  I took it and passed with an above average score and was very proud of myself! 
 
Someday!
 
4.  Favorite picture-My favorite picture is one of my sweet sweet daughter at her birthday party.  She had begged and begged for a unicorn cake and unicorn stompeez.  When she opened the stompeez and I brought out her cake she just ran around and jumped with joy.  This was one of the shots!
 
Pure joy over unicorn stompeez and a unicorn cake!
 
3.  Favorite memory-My favorite memories are of our family game nights.  We often have those kind of laughs that leave your belly sore the next day!
 
2. Goal for 2013-My goal for (hopefully sooner than 2013) is to get back into a routine of gyming it up on a regular basis!
 
1.  One little word-What a neat idea.  To sum it all up in one little word...
Inspired.
 
 
 
 
 
   
 

 


 
 
 
 
 


Sunday, December 9, 2012

Liebster Award and Bloggy Love




I feel absolutely honored to have been honored with the Liebster award from two great bloggers on the same day!  Thank you so much to Brittany over at:


 
and Mrs.  Foxwell over at:
 
 
The Teacher Wife
 
 
 

So I have to come up with 11 random things about myself.  Here goes…

 

1.   I am deathly afraid of spiders.  Thank goodness the hubs is in pest control!

2.   My favorite color is green.

3.  I am a cancer survivor.  I was born with retinoblastoma.

4.  I can’t function in the morning without my keurig coffee.  Breakfast Blend with a shot of Caramel Macchiato.

5.  My first car was a gray Pontiac 6000.  Talk about embarrassing!!

6.   I have recently become addicted to 5k runs.  Warrior Dash, Color Run…you name it, I want to do it!

7.  I would have plastic surgery in a heartbeat if I could afford it!

8.  I love all things music.  It is the language in which I speak fluently.

9.  I research great books all school year and save them up to read ALL summer long!

10.      I want learn a foreign language.

11.      I would rather text than talk on the phone.    
 
Now to answer the questions that were given to me by both of my new bloggy friends. 
 
First from Brittany.


   

1.  What is your favorite ice cream flavor? My favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla smothered in chocolate syrup!  YUM!



2. What is your teaching style?  I love to use all different styles while teaching.  There are multiple styles of learners in my room so why should I stick to just one style of teaching. 

3. Do you have plans to stay in the classroom for you whole career?  I see myself stepping up to an administration role one day.  I am certified and ready!

4. What has been your biggest 'aha' moment of teaching this year?  When a little lady of mine finally connected all of the reading strategies that I have been teaching her to just blast off with her reading!  Love that!

5. What is your favorite TV show on right now?  It would be a tie between 3.  I have a serious addiction to tv.  Revenge, 666 Park Avenue, and American Horror Story: The Asylum.

6. Toliet paper roll over or under? (apparently this is controversial, I just found this out!) I am a under person!  It makes it easier to find the next available sheet.

7. What is your favorite fast food restaurant? I would have to go with Long John Silvers. 

8. Complete this sentence... My classroom runs on love and laughter, definitely laughter

9. How many siblings do you have? I have one older sister. 

10. Mac or PC? PC all the way.  I will never own a Mac!

11. What was the last book you read? Do you recommend it? I am on book 4 of the Black Dagger Brotherhood series.  It’s Twilight meets Fifty Shades….yes, totally recommend it!
 
Now from Mrs. Foxwell.


1.  What was one of the first blogs that you started following? It was my student teacher’s blog. She is the reason I started this. Sparkles, Smiles, and Successful Students!




2. What is one of your favorite times of year to teach? I love teaching during March because of Dr. Seuss’s Birthday. ONE OF MY FAVORITES!




3. Who is a teacher that you have had that has left lasting fingerprints on your life? My favorite teacher was my 8th grade math teacher, Mr. Lionhart. He did this really cool thing at the end of each year where he predicted your future job. He predicted that I would own my own candy shop called Nikki’s Ticky Taffy.




4. What word or phrase do you say to your class the most? I love the whole brain teaching strategies so I use the call and response “class….” “yesss.”. I also really like to use the mirror (repeat after me).




5. What is your favorite candy? Reese's, especially the specialty ones that come out around holidays!




6. Polka dots, stripes, or chevron? Polka Dots!




7. What movie could you watch over and over again and it never get old? Lara Croft movies. I am seriously addicted to Angelina Jolie.




8. Favorite author and why? I love C.S. Lewis. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is what started my incredible appetite for reading!




9. What read aloud book do you get excited for each and every year? The Wayside School series. I love reading those books out loud. For picture books it would have to be The Spider and the Fly.




10. What is your favorite part about the beginning of a new school year? All of the new school supplies. I love looking at them, organizing them, and using them for the first time!




11. What is one invention that you wish you had come up with? The website Teachers pay Teachers!

 
So now for the rules, my questions and my nominees.  Here are the rules:
 
1.  You must post 11 random things about yourself.
2.  Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.
3.  Create 11 questions for the people that you nominate.
4.  Choose 11 other blogs with under 200 followers to nominate and link them in your post.
5.  You cannot "tag back" the nominating blog but leave a comment on this post with the URL of your Liebster post so I can learn more about you and see who you nominate.
 
Now for my questions:
 
1.  What movie would you identify your life with and why?
2.  What is your favorite sport?
3.  Are you a dog person or a cat person?
4.  What is your favorite subject to teach and why?
5.  If you could move anywhere in the world where would you go?
6.  What is your favorite winter time tradition?
7.  What is one thing that you wish you had for your classroom right now?
8.  Favorite book of all times?
9.  What are some of your hobbies?  (outside of school!)
10.  What do you do for stress relief?
11.  What is your number one thing you advise new teachers to do for a successful school year?

Here are my nominees:

 
6. Jayme and Val at Two Tacky Teachers
8. Michele at The Lightbulb Lab
10. Deniece at This Little Piggy Reads
11. Suzanne at Krazy Town

















Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Blog shout out and new technology tool!


So I love it when I have the chance to learn something new especially when it is something that will benefit my kids in the classroom!  Through blog hopping I found a very adorable blog called EduKate and Inspire...if you have not checked her out...you need to stop what you are doing and go there ASAP!  Besides having a super fabulous blog and tons of resources she blogged about a new piece of technology called mentormob.  I immediately went to check it out and I am in love!  As a person that uses You Tube clips TONS in the classroom this website is a must.  You can link to the video clip that you want WITHOUT the annoying advertisements that always take up the first 20 seconds.  I have only created one playlist so far (Brain Breaks-my favorite of course!) but I plan on creating many, many more!  Thanks again to wonderful bloggy friends for sharing great things so that others can benefit! 



Click the link to see my profile on mentormob. 

Monday, December 3, 2012

Currently time...better late than never!

So I am linking up with Farley again for her Currently.  I can't believe that it is already December.  Christmas break will be here before you know it and then we are half way to the end! 



Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Huh?! What did you say? Amusing Acronyms Linky Party!

IEP, PLC, PBS, AFL, GLE, CCSS, PBL....the list goes on and on of acronyms!  Sometimes I even have to stop and ask myself...what does that one mean again??  When the hubs has the pleasure of listening to some of my teacher friends and myself talking about school he gets this look on his face when we start in with the acronyms.  He often asks me..."how do you keep it all straight?"  I wonder how many letters of the alphabet I could use with all of the acronyms that we have for school stuff.  I will have to sit down sometime and list them all to find out!  So I got to thinking....I want to make up my own acronym dictionary for a successful school year.  Here is what I have so far....

TLC-Teachers Love Chocolate

SCE-Soda Cures Everything

LED-Laugh Every Day

So...what acronym would you put into the dictionary? 

So my student teacher suggested that I make this a linky party...so here goes....

Here are the rules:

1.  Please leave a link to your blog post about the acronym that you would add to the dictionary of teaching. 

2.  In your blog mention this linky party. 

3.  Go back and comment on the blog before and after yours.  Let's get linky!!





Monday, November 12, 2012

Giveaway Time!

Around Thanksgiving we all become a little filled with the spirit of thankfulness and giving.  This morning I came across an awesome giveaway and I wanted to tell you all about it!  There is this cute little blog called Granny Goes to School....have you heard of it???  Well she is sponsoring this awesome giveaway.  Go check it out!





Friday, November 9, 2012

Freebie Friday! Let's Talk Turkey!

I don't know about you but we have really been hitting adding tens.  Well, I combined that skill with the LOVE of turkey (who doesn't have that big, delicious turkey dinner on their minds??) to create this extra practice to see the pattern of adding ten!
Enjoy!





Freebie Fridays


Tuesday, November 6, 2012

What....it's NOVEMBER?!?!

Yep, sure is.  I can't believe how fast this school year is flying by.  I think the first part flew by thanks to Amber, my student teacher.  I am wondering if the second half will go as quickly!

I am linking up again with Farley for the November Currently....yes...I do realize it is already the 6th!





Seriously though....put a cup of Keurig coffee (Millstone Breakfast Blend...my fav!) and some Taylor Swift on and it's my biggest stress reliever! 


Friday, October 19, 2012

Laughter, always the best medicine!

We have been hitting reading strategies pretty hard lately.  Making predictions should be one of the easiest, right?!?!  We had a little benchmark question on the last quiz that asked students to make a prediction about something that might happen at recess......I seriously was busting a gut while reading these.  Here are some of my favorites.  I just had to share!

" I may play with boys?"



"Everybody will go crazy!"

"There could be an earthquake."

"A kid might get in trouble."

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Brain Breaks = LIFESAVERS!

WIGGLES!!!  They can make or break ya as a teacher!  Knowing the signs of when kids are getting them and what to do when they do!  Before the day of You Tube they came in the form of Dr. Jean CD's for me!  Now in the age of Smart Boards and You Tube there are a HUGE selection of short video clips out there that are perfect for getting the wiggles out!

I have a whole Pinterest board dedicated just to brain breaks!
Check them out here!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

A Bad Case of Cause and Effect!

 We are learning about cause and effect this week in reading.   My student teacher found this great anchor chart on Pinterest (where else??).  We were brainstorming something really cute that we could do to further explain cause and effect to the kiddos.  Then we stumbled upon this very fun looking activity with the main character from the story A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon on Mrs. Lemons blog!  Click here for the link to her activity.  I modified it a little bit and we are going to complete the activity later this week.  I can't wait to see how the kiddos do with it!  I'll post pics as soon as I can!

Here is the modified version of my sheet!



   

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Link Up!

I am joining my first linky party!  Here is my October Currently!
Join the fun and link up too at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade!



Scientific Method Visual

So teaching the scientific method can be kind of wordy and boring sometimes.  So I decided to use this great technology tool that I just heard about to spruce things up a bit.  It's called Prezi.  WHERE HAVE I BEEN?  I love this Prezi thing.  Going to start using it more often!

Here is the link to my Scientific Method Prezi.  Hope you enjoy!

http://prezi.com/recommend/g5muiwztpf9c/






A big thank you to mellonheadz for the science clip art that you will see in the presentation!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Scientific Method FREEBIE!

We are learning all about the scientific method this week in science.  Here is a link to the recording sheet that we will be using!


Thank you to mellonheadz for the super cute science clip art!

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Classroom Management Freebie!

We love the clip chart!  I have had great success with using it.  The kids love the opportunity to be recognized for their positive behavior. 
Here is the tracking form that the kids have in their data folder.  They simply color the day the same color as where they ended on the clip chart.



Monday, September 24, 2012

Sound FREEBIES!

So when I said I love science, I was not kidding!  I have some of my favs that I want to share.  One of my favorite units to teach in science is the sound unit.  After teaching the unit I love setting up this exploration station where the kids get to find out for themselves just how sound works!
Enjoy!


Cup and String Telephone
                                                


Balloon Radio

Desktop Noises
 



Slinky Vibrations


Foil Ball
 
 

Friday, September 14, 2012

I LOVE Science!

So we are learning all about lifecycles in science this quarter.  We started with the lifecycle of the butterfly.  Well I had this genius idea that I was going to go hunting for some milkweed plants (which I had no idea what a milkweed plant looked like or where they grew).  I wanted to find a caterpillar to bring into my class to enhance the learning experience!  I came home from school and told my hubs that we were going to go out hunting that evening.  This is how the conversation went down:

Me:  We are going to go hunting tonight.
Hubs:  What are we hunting?
Me:  Milkweed plants with caterpillars on them.
Hubs:  Do you know what milkweed plants look like?
Me:  Nope.
Hubs:  Okay, do you know where they grow?
Me:  Nope.
Hubs:  Awesome, this should be fun.
Me:  I KNOW! 

So we did a little research before we went out and thought we had a good idea of where to go and what to look for.  We spent the next 30 minutes looking at every milkweed plant that we could find and no success.  I was starting to get bummed out.  We drove all around our town looking in every place we could think.  Finally the hubs asked if we could go home.  With a saddened face I said yes.  5 minutes from our house we saw some milkweed plants on the side of the road.  I begged for just one more try.  The hubs climbed through some pretty tall weeds and searched a ton of milkweed and finally he found one!  I was so excited!!
Here he is!



Monday, September 10, 2012

Lifelong Learner

So I have always asked that my students maintain a status of lifelong learner.  Now what kind of teacher would I be if I didn't lead by example, right?  Well, this is how I am leading.  I am beginning this blog.  I am totally new to the blogging world and have no idea what I am doing (which I am sure my students feel this way sometimes too).  I didn't even know that great blogs were out there until I found Pinterest.  So I hope that by creating this new project I can show my students that even teachers have a few things to learn!