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. 

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

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.

 

 

 

 

 

   

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

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:

 

 

 

 

 

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:

 

1. Jessica at Learn, Play and Have Fun

2. Mandi at Moore Fun in Kindergarten

3. Claire at Miss. Knight's Khronicles

4. Ash at Pixy Stix and Teacher Tricks

5. Hilary at 2nd Grade is Out of This World

6. Jayme and Val at Two Tacky Teachers

7. Amy at Little Miss Organized

8. Michele at The Lightbulb Lab

9. Olwyn at Teaching in Turtlepond

10. Deniece at This Little Piggy Reads

11. Suzanne at Krazy Town





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. 

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! 

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!!