A classroom sneak peek!

Well it's getting too close for comfort!  Back to school time officially starts Tuesday for me.  We have four days of professional development and then the kids come on the 19th. I am starting to get really excited for a new year, new students, new curriculum, and new learning for me!

I was up at school last week to decorate my classroom and get it in working order.  Here are some pictures of some of the things I've made and decorated!

This is one of my bulletin boards.  We are supposed to display lots of student work so I bought plain black magnets and put colorful stickers on them so we can just hang work up on the chalkboard instead of stapling or taping it everywhere!  I also have my word wall right next to it.  I do some pretty cool things with the words on my word wall.  I explained one of them in one of my recent blogs, Educational Apps.

 This is where I will write my objectives this year! Last year I had frames that I wrote on with expo markers but they were hard to erase and write on and the kids eventually broke two of them. :-(  I figure this will be easier!

This is how I keep track of which student is doing what during our Daily 5 time.  They just move their name card to whichever center they want to do and I can just do a quick look and check they are at the right center!

This is full of rules, our general rubric and a voice levels chart, etc.

I absolutely love this.  I made it last year and it is right next to the door of my classroom.  Students simply move their number anytime they leave my classroom so I always know where they are.  I have had so many times that I tell a student he or she can go to the nurse or the library and then ten minutes later I have no idea where they are!  This really helps to keep me in check!

And this is something new I am doing this year at B2S night.  This board will be hanging up and parents are encouraged to take a circle off of there if they are able to buy the needed supply.  On the circles I have things like headphones (for our iPads), clorox wipes and ziplock baggies, etc.  I always need these things but don't want to buy them out of my own pocket!

This is a little look at my classroom so far!  Hope you enjoyed! :-)
If you did, please leave me a comment!

Goals for Back to School!

I'm so excited to learn about 'Linking up' and getting involved with other bloggers!  I am setting some goals with the Back to School Goals provided by I {Heart} Recess and I love it!  School is sure to be crazy this year with implementing Common Core but setting goals is a great way to start off semi-stress free!

Later today I am going to post pics of my classroom and what I've done so far to prepare for the upcoming year!  11 days until the kiddos come and I celebrate my 26th birthday! :-)

Favorite 5th Grade Apps!

"Devices come and go, but progressive teachers who adapt will last longer than any device". 

-Andrew Marcinek

I saw this quote today posted on my edutopia.org Facebook feed and I absolutely love it!

I was very blessed to receive a grant for last school year that provided 30 iPads, 30 cases, a charging cart and money to buy lots of incredible apps for my students!  It was given to me by members of our school district's foundation and I could never thank them enough.

When we would practice skills last year in class I often had my students get out their iPads and open up a whiteboard-like app to help them practice.  I was very surprised when a few of my students told me they would rather use pencil and paper!  I never thought I would hear them say that when I asked them to open up their iPads.

When I saw the quote above, it took me back to that moment.

As teachers, we must be progressive.  We must allow ourselves to iPads.  Some students prefer using pencil and paper.  And some really enjoy using white boards and markers.  As the school year approaches, my hope for the upcoming year is that I will truly adapt to and cater to the way my students learn best.

I want to share with you a few of my favorite apps to use with the iPads I won with my grant!

EDUCREATIONS (free!)  http://www.educreations.com

You can do sooooo much with this app!  I have had my students create recorded videos where they can swipe through pictures they found on the internet and talk about each of them.  They have also created their own photos and done the same thing.  You can almost use it like Power Point.  My students created numerous Social Studies projects using this app.  We also use this as a whiteboard for practicing math and sentence structure.  Another thing I really like about this app is that it has pre-made videos on it that students can watch to help them understand a concept.  It is very easy to use and my kiddos love it!

CONTACTS (free, comes with the device)

This app comes already on your Apple device.  The main thing that we use this for is a digital word wall.  I have my students add 'contacts' (vocabulary words, people's names or terms that we are studying) and write a description of it in the Notes line.  It was perfect for making our classroom word wall purposeful and for helping students remember to spell commonly misspelled words!

EDMODO (free!)  https://www.edmodo.com

I am IN LOVE with this app and my students are as well!  It is basically a social networking site for your classroom.  As the teacher you can monitor everything your students post on it, which I really like.  The first thing you do is create your account and register your students.  From there your students can login and explore.  They can upload their own profile picture, post on the classroom wall and reply to each other's posts.  As the teacher, you can write posts and create polls that your students have to respond to.  You can assign classwork, homework, post links, and even assign due dates for assignments.  I often posted articles for my students to read and they had to respond with 3 facts about the article and one question for the author.  You can even assign homework with this app.  I found that my students who did not have a computer at home had smart phones in their home.  Students can download the app on their smartphone and do their homework on there!  LOVE this app!


Those are 3 of my very favorite apps to use with my students.  I will post more through the school year!

Like or leave me a comment if you'd like! :-)

My 1st Currently!

This evening I have spent so much time on the computer looking at all of your blogs! I have followed a ton of people and gotten a lot of great ideas.  I absolutely love this!  I stole this from this super awesome blogger at http://ohboy3rdgrade.blogspot.com because I saw a lot of other women doing it and I figured I would as well!  Thanks for the fun freebie!

I am really hoping to learn more about blogging and keep mine updated as much as possible with fun school stuff as soon as the year begins!  Only 18 days until the countdown to next summer begins! Oh, and 18 days until my 26th BIRTHDAY as well! :-)

I Am Not Supermom...

I am not Supermom, but I am A Super Mom...

It’s hard to be a mom. I have a full-time job and I don't get to stay home with my baby girl all day every day. Even if I could stay home, I wouldn’t. But when I am home I cherish every moment I get with my daughter, even if she is acting bat-shit crazy!

I don't get dressed in my cutest clothes and wear my highest heels when taking my daughter to the splash park or the playground. I just don't see the point. I don't want to sit back and watch her play - I want to roll in the dirt with her and get sand between my toes! If she can't have fun with her mommy, whom can she have fun with?

My daughter throws fits. And when I say "fits", I mean rolling on the floor screaming like she just stepped on glass. Lots of times I'll pick her up and try to console her, but often I just leave her there. She soon realizes that she's crying for no reason and stops all on her own.  She is learning self-regulation this way.

She screams in public, like a fucking train whistle, just for fun! I don't even try to stop her anymore because it is a part of her self-expression. Why should I stop her? Even if it sounds like drunken karaoke to you, it's precious to me.

You look at me as I chase after my daughter running through the mall dressed in jeans and a tee shirt, no make up on, and my hair looking on the homeless side. I know what goes through your mind...because it went through mine before I had a child. I've decided I don't need to spend time making myself up to impress you. Instead, we get out of the house as quick as we can so we could soak up every moment before naptime.

I have finally realized that needing a "mommy moment" is not selfish. It is most often what keeps me sane enough to be a super mom! Sometimes when I need just a moment to myself, I decide that it's time for my daughter to have a snack.  She sits in her high chair and munches on goldfish while I sit still and self medicate on Pringles and Diet Pepsi. And that is okay.

I let my daughter walk around outside without shoes or socks on and splash in puddles when it rains. I let her stick her fingers in each and every little nook, crack and cranny inside and outside because she is an explorer. She doesn't travel the world, but when I allow her to explore like that, I'm sure she feels like she is!

My daughter likes to snack on roly polys. You could ask me why, but I have no idea! And lately I find that letting her munch on them is a lot easier than getting bitten or watching her throw one of her crazy fits. Now, I don't just watch her pick them up and eat them, but when she already has one in her mouth and I try my hardest to get it out unsuccessfully, I give up and let her have a tasty treat!

When I hear my daughter wake up in the morning and start talking to herself, I lay there and listen to her on the monitor for a few minutes before going in to get her. Listening to her having inaudible conversations with her "lovey" is a beautiful thing. And it lets me rest my eyes for just a few more minutes before the craziness of the day begins.

My daughter is a fun, ridiculously energetic little lady who I love more than life itself. I do my best to provide for her, care for her and love her every moment of every day. I am not Supermom, but I am A Super Mom. Maybe not to your standards, but I'm pretty sure I measure up to hers just fine. And after all, she's the only one that matters.

It has been TOO long!

Wow.  My last post was almost a year ago.  The second I started school my life was consumed with teaching, being a mommy and a wife.  I had no time for anything!

Needless to say, I want to start posting again.

Last school year was very interesting.  I had a great class and had a really awesome year!  But I was very glad to for summer to get here!

My summer has been filled with playing with my little girl and watching tv! Seriously! I have never watched so much television in my entire life!  I finished all of the current seasons of Bones and am just a few episodes away from finishing Lost.  Quite a time waster but at least it kept me occupied between games of patty-cake and getting hit in the face with books.  Just a side note, I am in love with David Boreanaz...Yum!

First, I made the most incredible yet simple dinner EVER the other night.  Bacon wrapped chicken.  All I did was season the chicken with Cavender's All Purpose Greek Seasoning, salt, pepper and a dash of Montreal Steak Seasoning and then wrap them in bacon.  I seriously use Cavender's and Montreal Steak Seasoning on every chicken dish I make.  It just adds the extra "umph" each recipe needs!

I baked the chicken at 425 for 30 minutes and it was delicious! It was a big winner in my husband's heart!

Besides watching tv, cooking and playing with my daughter my summer has been pretty uneventful.  Gloriously relaxing and uneventful!  

Pizza with a Twist!

Every time I've tried to write a post lately it wouldn't let me add a picture! So I'm back on now with a picture of my latest recipe!  It's a type of Margherita Pizza with a twist.

Ingredients:
Pizza crust
2 tbs. Pesto
3 tbs. Alfredo sauce
2 chicken breasts, cubed and cooked
Mozzarella Cheese
Roma Tomatoes
Basil

I used a dry bag of the 'make your own' pizza crust.  I don't really like to do this but it's all I had so it worked great! Especially because I wanted the pizza to have thin crust! I made my crust and then spread the pesto on it.  I mixed the alfredo sauce in a bowl with my cooked chicken and then spread the mixture on top of the pesto.  I topped it with mozzarella cheese and roma tomatoes.  Finally, I added basil to top it off.  

I love the mixture of pesto and alfredo! It's a light, crispy pizza that is easy and delicious! 

Enjoy!