Happy 2015!!

As everyone normally does at the start of a new year, I have made some resolutions. My main resolution is to stick to the other resolutions! ;) Seriously though - how many people stick to their resolutions during the entire year? I hope to be one of those people that do. 
Financial ~ I want to pay down my credit cards and not charge any more up. That second part is tricky!
Health ~ I am going to lose 15 pounds and finally get to my goal weight. I want to achieve lifetime at WW. The second part of this is to drink more water EVERY day.
Personal ~ I am going to learn how to handle my stress in a better way. I have gotten better at this but still not where I want to be.
Reading ~ I am joining the 2015 Monthly Motif Challenge. Each month is assigned a certain motif or theme. I am going to read one book per month that fits each motif. I am really excited about this and even recruited friends and family to join me. Check it out. :)
Blogging ~ I plan on blogging at least twice a week. I am hoping this will help motivate me to accomplish these resolutions. 

Happy 2015!!

Wow!

Wow doesn't even cover it! It has been a super long time since I have blogged. This summer I want to try and get back to it. On the school front .... I will be an instructional coach this upcoming year. It was time for me to step out of the classroom for awhile. I wanted to try something different, but continue in the education field. As an instructional coach, I will be assisting teachers to help better the needs of their students. I am really excited. As of right now, I am not sure which school I will be placed in. I have already been to Amazon to order some books that will help me be the best instructional coach I can be.

It is somewhat sad to know that I will not be setting up a classroom this year. The school supplies have already hit the stores and I will only need to buy them for my children. On the other hand a new door is opening and I could not be happier! Now the hard part - going back to school to bring all of my stuff home. Where will I store all my stuff? What should I get rid of? I do want to go back to the classroom one day so getting rid of everything is not an option.

On the home front, I have been trying to keep the girls busy while the hubs teaches summer school. The big thing in my home is Roblox (I think that is how you spell it). My middle daughter is hooked. I am trying to get her to read more books but <gasp> she does not like to read! I got her into the Babysitters Club series, which I read as a little girl. She seems to like that. My 3 1/2 year old is now potty trained, just in time for daycare. My stepdaughter spends every waking second up in her room. We hardly see her. I try to get them to the library at least once a week. It is too hot to play outside so the park is out. Swimming is a big hit. They are always complaining they are bored. 

On Friday I am going to see New Kids on the Block with my sister. I am super excited and plan on wearing my big Jordan button. Yes I am a dork but that's okay. On that note, I am going to enjoy some dinner with the family. Have a great week!

Goal Setting

This year our school as a whole is focusing on goal setting. We were asked to create walls outside our room with students goals. As they achieve a goal, we add a new goal to the wall. For third grade, we decided on a gumball machine. Students will write their names on gumballs to add to the machine. I was also thinking stars and a "Shooting for the Stars" theme. Nothing is official yet.

During our first week of school, I hit hard on goal setting. I explained to students what a goal is and created an anchor chart listing how we choose goals. We looked at short term and long term goals. I read Louise the Big Cheese and the Back-to-School Smarty-Pants to my students. We talked about how Louise's goal was to get straight A's and how important it is to not give up on your goal. We also talked about the difference between academic and personal goals. I shared some goals of my own with my students.

After discussing goal setting and reading the book, each student created a circle map and wrote their goals in the circle map. I had students narrow them down to the three most important goals. They took these three goals and wrote them down on a special paper titled "My Goals for This School Year." I copied it on color paper to make it stand out. These goals will be placed on the wall outside our room and will be revisited as the school year goes on. You can find the paper here: My Goals For This School Year. I am not sure how to add the PDF in picture format for you to see. I still have a lot to learn.

I am hoping to get my board up and going so my students can add their goals. Have a great week!!

September Currently

I love this time of year! The months of September through December have got to be my favorite. I can't wait for the temperature to drop. It is still over 90 degrees here. I am linking up with Farley for this month's Currently!! 

My hubby is upstairs giving my little one a bath and then nap time for her. My older girls are playing. It is nice when they are all getting along. I am loving that there was no school today. I needed desperately to catch up on my sleep and I did. Well as much as I can for having a

 2 1/2 year old. She decided to sleep all night. Triumph!

Yesterday while my little one was napping I did my lesson plans for the week after this week. Our grade level splits the planning. I am responsible for Word Study and Reading. I also do my reading group plans. For the next few weeks there will be no groups since I am teaching my students how Daily 5 works and I am assessing. I am super excited that I am a week ahead!!!! Hubby suggested always staying a week ahead and that is a super idea. You can see that this was one of my goals.

My sister watches my little one every day while I am at work. She loves my sister but the weirdest thing has been happening. Every morning I bring her she starts crying the minute we turn into the development. She cries "I don't want to go." My sister has to take her from me because she is in tears, just hysterical. She is always fine 5 minutes later and when I pick her up she is all smiles. I am not sure what is going on but it breaks my heart. This is why I am hoping for a peaceful morning tomorrow. Even yesterday she kept saying "we're not turning" and ''we're not going to Heidi's." This might be a long year!

We got DirectTV a month ago and I have learned how to use the DVR. We recorded a bunch of movies that we still need to watch. I am thinking I better get on it.

My first goal is to run 3 miles. I have done it before using Couch To 5K. I even did the Color Run and another run where I ran the whole 3 miles. That was quite awhile ago though. I started Couch To 5K again and am on Week 7. I ran for 20 minutes on my treadmill twice now. It is still too hot for me to run outside. I signed up for the Color Me Rad run in October and I have to be ready for it. My second goal is to stay a week ahead in planning. I covered this already. My third goal is to not go in to school on the weekends.  I am hoping that if I can stick to the second goal, than the third goal should be manageable. We will see what happens.

Have a great rest of the day and week!!

My Classroom

School started four days ago and my classroom is still not 100% ready. I didn't get the time I needed when we returned last week. I am grade level chair this year and that has been taking a lot of time. I'm also not able to leave as early anymore so by the time I get to work and get going, I have very little time left. I am just thankful that the twitching in my right eye stopped.  Stress can do that to you. I do have pictures of my classroom as it is right now.

Below is my front door. This year I have a "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" theme. It is all about sweets.

My writing bulletin board. They told us at the last minute that it was all about anchor charts and that is what they want up in our rooms. I wasn't about to give this board up though. I made writing process posters which are towards the stop. Then I got really cute punctuation posters - can't remember but I did get them of TPT.

My husband built the writing station you see below. We painted it green to match my new pencil sharpener. This is going to be my writing and word study area during Daily 5. The crates are for the Word Study activities.

My class jobs - there are popsicle sticks which each student's name on them in the pockets now. I just have to assign a salary to each job.

The start of my Daily 5 and Cafe board. I will be adding anchor charts and strategies as we go. I want to create the anchor charts with my students.

 This is going to be my vocabulary wall. When we learn about synonyms, antonyms, nouns, verbs, and adjectives, the anchor charts will go up here. I just need to buy letters.

 On my students' desks when they came in Monday morning.

I am hoping this keeps me organized. I have a folder for each day of the week. This is where I am going to place copies.

My desk and filing cabinet. The filing cabinet sits to the left of my desk. I saw this idea on Pinterest. My husband made me this organizer. I placed all the books that I use frequently in there so I don't have to go digging for them when I need them. You can also see my teacher's toolbox which I made last summer. If you keep looking, you will see a lot of things I got from TPT and Pinterest.

I read up on Whole Brain Teaching this summer. I created my own posters for the rules. The rest I got from TPT.

This is going to be my math centers area. The stool to the left was made by my husband. It is for students to step up to reach the Smartboard. It matches my dots on turquoise theme.

I am hoping to finish up my classroom this weekend. It is functional right now but not complete. Have a great Thursday!!

Day Late Dollar Short

When summer started the days were escaping me - is today Monday? I lost track of what day it was. Now that I go back to work in one week (eeekkk), I know exactly what day it is. However I am two days late on joining Blog Hoppin' for:

1. This will be my fourteenth year teaching. Most of my career I have taught second grade. For a few years I was yo-yoing back and forth between second and third grade but I have been in third for several years now. I wanted to teach third grade ever since I started my student teaching.

2. I love to play in Paint Shop Pro and tag. I am on two tagging lists where I create tags and add people's names to them. It is a hobby and a stress reliever! You can find an example of one of my tags below.

3. I have become a fitness freak! After my second daughter I packed on weight which I am still trying to get off. I have joined the world of Beachbody, became a coach, and have about 15 pounds to go!

4. I am married to a wonderful man, who is also a teacher. He teaches seventh grade history. I am glad we have similar hours now. He used to be a chef and worked way too much!

5. My husband had four children of his own coming into our marriage. Three out of four are older and live on their own. The youngest of the 4 lives with us. She is 11. We also have two daughters, ages 8 and 2 1/2. My poor husband is surrounded by girls.

6. I now live in Nevada, but was born and raised in New York. Although I wouldn't want to move back, I am not a big fan of my current place of residence. I would love to move back East somewhere that has four seasons.

7. I am a huge Lucille Ball fan. If you could see my dining area, it is covered in Lucy pictures. I have Lucy collectible dolls, lunch boxes, and a calendar. There is not an episode of I Love Lucy that I have not seen at least 20 times (probably more). One year I was Lucy for Halloween. Yes I am addicted!

8. Speaking of addicted - I am addicted to the world of vampires and werewolves! I am a Twilight fan (Team Jacob) and I also love the reading series Vampire Academy. I'm also a Vampire Diaries fan. 

9. I love country music!! Anyone that knows me knows my love of Mr. Tim McGraw!! When I moved here to Vegas, I had never listened to country music. I don't know what it is about this place, but I got turned on to it and never looked back.

10. I'm into sports!! As I said earlier I am from New York so most of my favorites are NY teams ~ the New York Yankees and the New York Islanders. Odd thing though, I am a Washington Redskins fan. Don't ask me why - it is a long, silly story! I can't wait for football to start!!

Now I need to get my daughter down for a nap. Once I go back to school, I hope these late naps will become earlier naps. Have a super day!!

I Can't Believe It's August & Currently!!

Is it August 1st, really? I can't believe that we will all be back to school in less than a month. My husband goes back on the 14th, I go back on the 21st, and the girls go back on the 26th. Say it isn't so!! 

It is time to link up with Farley for August Currently! 

We have three girls, ages 11, 8, and 2 1/2. My little one loves to play with her big sisters. I can hear her giggling away as they are playing. Another thing I love is that I got my workout done. I am dreading when I am going to have to get up at 4:30 am to get them done once I go back to work. I do two workouts a day, except on Sunday. 

School starts in 25 days! August always flies by so fast. How can I slow it down? I can't tell you how many trips I have made to Target already. There is a fast growing pile of teacher stuff everywhere. The couch in our family room is covered. I have notebooks on the floor next to the couch. On top of our shoe bench I have posters and more notebooks. Then there is a box of folders and sheet protectors next to the shoe bench on the floor. This leads me to what I am needing to do - clean my house! You can see I am a procrastinator as I sit here and blog. :)

I stood in one aisle at Target for a good ten minutes yesterday deciding if I wanted to buy another box of scented markers. I justified it by thinking that my box at school has 3 missing and that I have posters to create. So I bought them and have no regrets! I need to organize my teacher binder and add some new sections. This year I vow to be organized! Finally I need to gather those first week read alouds. As soon as I sit down to plan out my first week I am going to hit the library.

Now that I look at my post I can't help but think of all of the things I have to get done today. I'm going to have some lunch and then get to work. Have a great day!!