Follow Me on Bloglovin

So I know I don't have a ton of followers (yet) since I don't post about anything crazy (yet) and don't giveaway tons of freebies.   BUT, for those that are following me, have you heard of 
When you sign up for bloglovin, you can type in all the blogs you love to follow (including me...right?) and then receive emails of when those blogs are updated.  I have my personal bloglovin account email me every night with links to the blogs I follow that have posted updates. I just checked and I'm following over 120 school blogs, eeeeeek.

 LOVE LOVE LOVE bloglovin.

Sooooooo...... in case you haven't already, click on the link below to show me some bloglovin!


Hopefully the ol' blog will get more followers, I love comments!  And once school gets up and going I'll more posts to show what's happening in our room.  Someday I'll get adventurous and create fancy things.

Huge Giveaway Heads Up

Have you been to Tales of a First Grade Teacher yet?? She's busy celebrating followers with a HUGE giveaway!  Be sure to go check her out at http://tales-of-a-first-grade-teacher.blogspot.com/


She has SIX (yes, 6!) different rafflecopters going with some AMAZING (did I mention how huge this giveaway is??!?) prizes.   Her blog is spectacular and she's doing great things in the classroom!  

Head on over there and check her out! 

My Teacher Always Says ... Link Up

So I have just recently found  Forever in First and am absolutely in love with her blog.   And since I'm getting started on this bloggin adventure and doing some linkies, why not do this one!
She had posted previously about giiving a final test at the end of the year, only this test was about what the students know about their teacher. I LOVE love love love this idea. One of the questions on her quiz asked something like "my teacher always says ____________".   Oh the things my kiddos could say!



* That makes my heart smile
* Hmmm, how can you fix this problem
* Bummer, maybe someone can help you with that
* If you're happy and you know it....
* I'll wait.....
*I'll know you're ready when...
* Luckily you don't have to worry about ______. that's my job
*If you can write it, you can read it
* Is that what I expect from one of my kiddos?
* LOVE IT!

whew...the list could go on and on.  And to think, we've been out of school over a month and these are still fresh in my mind. Not to mention all the prompts used repeatedly during reading groups. Wowza.

This was fun. I definitely want to do the end of year Teacher quiz and see their responses next year!  Might even start creating that EOY quiz now (who am I kidding...I'll probably keep surfing blogs until Abbie wakes up, haha)


What are some of YOUR sayings ??

Jumping In ... and Panicking...

Ohhhh, sometimes I think I just jump on the bandwagon.  Without thinking of all the other life responsibilities that go with being a wife, a mom, a daughter/sister, a 30 something (and the list goes on).  I began this blog, looking for a way to document my growth and ideas during my journey of teaching and it's somewhat evolving.   I'm ready to link up with other bloggers and get some consistency here, grow professionally, and get more into the blogging world.  

Which brings me to my latest endeavor.  It's a mix of those next intentions: consistency, PD, and diving into the blog world.  I read over on Twitter where the wonderful Deb Frazer was embarking on a writing challenge, doing some type of personal writing for some group or challenge or, well, I had no idea. So I hopped onto her blog, Primary Perspective, and discovered that she's joining Kate Messner's "Teachers Write 2013".   And of course I thought this would be great.   Kate describes it as "online virtual summer writing camp for teachers and librarians who understand how important it is for people teaching writing to walk the walk",  It's all described here.   I thought it sounded great and somehow I thought I could fit it into my daily schedule (did I mention I'm figuring out how to fit in a daily workout as well as begin training for my first half marathon? AND have a 1 year old and 3 year old?...yeah....I love self-punishment, haha). 

So here's to day one --- because it started today! I already feel like I'm behind. 

Summer Reads

Summer for teachers means laying poolside and sleeping in for 3 months...right? Riiiiight.

Actually my summers typically do involve a lot of laid back time, not much sleeping in with two little ones though.  We have been playing outside, playing inside, playing princess and playing, playing, playing.   I love spending summers with my girls. Prior to having babies though, I spent my summers working on school stuff so its nice to have this professional break and let my mind relax a bit.

But that doesn't mean I'm on full hiatus.  I have my "next year to-do" list,  I constantly follow my favorite teacher blogs, scanning Pinterest and delving into professional books.  With the possibility of teaching a split next year, my mind wanders often to thinking about what that will look like in our classroom. 

So what exactly am I reading? A bunch.  I'm trying to find new chapter book read alouds for next year, which is proving to be fairly hard.  Looking at books to read aloud that can capture their attention yet be good literature (and not bore me too much).  I'm also in midst of a book study on The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  We are hoping to eventually be a Leadership school, which means. I've gotta get myself in order first!  A small group of teachers at my school are working through the book this summer and so far its been a great read. Maybe I can reflect and review it on here when I'm done!

PD on the plane to Cozumel

And somehow I have a book laying around "just for fun" for when I get spare time, haha. Although I actually finished TWO whole books this past week.......okay, I was in Cozumel for a week and had some of that "spare" time.

Until next time...

Technology Overload

Okay -- so I'm officially on technology / social media overload.  I've created this blog...with intentions of using it in the classroom with the kids.  But now that I'm getting more into it and planning tidbits for next year I got all flustered and ended up creating another blog, solely for the kiddos and the classroom. So this blog is fully dedicated to my professional reflections and documenting my progress to being a better teacher.

But I'm getting overwhelmed.  With technology. With social media.   I have a personal Facebook, 2 blogs, instagram, and twitter.  I also have this blog, professional (linked to this site) instagram. And now I have a classroom blog and possibly twitter account.  I feel like I have 15 different feelers going out and having a hard time keeping things straight.  Don't get too confused -- personal and professional aren't crossing, ever.  But mainly I had to sit down today and figure out the purpose for having the professional/classroom blogs, IG, and twitter accounts.   I think the classroom blog and twitter will solely be from the classroom where kids help post about what we've been doing, do document our aha moments and what nots.  The twitter would be to connect to other classrooms around the world. And parents could follow both to get updates.  Here's a question though - I want to create a class Facebook page but not sure how beneficial it would be. Originally it was for parent communication but I think I'm now going against it.  wow - see how I just worked through that problem through blogging? wow..that was a process.

And even in the midst of this I looked up Google Teacher Academy to see what that entailed...SO outta my league there but would LOVE some deeper training in technology for primary grades.

So here's a question for readers (ha, as if I have any readers) ....
What social media outlets do you have for your professional/classroom use?  What benefits do you see from each of them?