Road Trip!

I think I am finally recovered enough from moving halfway across the country to finally post about it! We had major U-Haul truck problems. Like I'm talking multiple problems with the same truck, in multiple states! They finally gave us a new truck, but that meant everything had to be unloaded from one truck into another! Let's just say that Uhaul is refunding a lot of our money, and we will never be renting from them again!

Anyway, the point of my post is that since my husband had already moved ahead of me, a large percentage of the truck was my classroom. If anyone ever thinks that schools don't need more money, or that teachers don't really need to be paid more, please send them over to my garage! It is absolutely amazing when I look at all my school stuff mounded up in one place, and I think about how much money I've spent over the years. Not to mention the hours upon hours I've spent scouring yard sales and thrift stores for cheap books, and driving from office supply store to office supply store because they will only sell me five 1 cent folders at a time!!

 Easily 90% of that stuff belongs in my classroom!

Those shelves on the right are two deep!

Let's just hope that I get a teaching job quick so we can reclaim the garage before it snows!

End of the Year Gifts!

A few weeks ago I saw a fabulous idea on the Sister's website about making Wordle gifts as end of the year presents for your kids. I LOVED this idea and immediately decided I was going to do it! We had been talking about Character Traits and so I decided to have the kids write character traits about each other. I printed a sheet of paper with each student's name at the top and 19 lines underneath. We then spread them out and spent time walking around to each paper and writing a positive character trait on the lines. I didn't tell the kids what this was ultimately for, just that we were practicing character traits and building each other up (in our social skills curriculum). 
I then took each sheet and typed the words into Wordle and created a PDF of each one which I sent to the drug store to be printed. I purchased inexpensive frames from Ikea and framed each one. I stayed late Thursday afternoon to assemble each one and display it on their tables. Here is how they turned out!

I am definitely going to do this again in the future!

Math Work Stations Book Study... Blog Style!

So I bought Debbie Diller's Math Work Station book over Spring Break and immediately read the whole thing! I've been trying to figure out the best way of structuring my math block for a couple years now. I've been doing a sort of Daily 5 Math / 3 group rotation mix which I feel has been working fairly well so far. However, after reading Math Work Stations, I totally have decided to try this way out next year!


That being said, I currently do not know what grade I will be teaching next year, or even where I will be teaching for that matter! In less than 2 weeks I will be moving 1700 miles across the country! So, I'm still in the process of applying and interviewing for positions.


Anyway, I found a blog book study recently and am definitely going to be following it. I don't know that I will be able to fully participate (what with moving and all that goes with it!) but I will definitely be following along!

Head on over to Mrs. Wills blog to check it out!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! With only 6 days left in this school year, I've decided to take on a new hobby: blogging! I'm hoping to be able to play around with my blog a lot over the summer and then really jump into blogging in the fall! Be sure to check back!