It's That Time Again!

It's been almost a year since I have posted on my blog! How did that happen?! It was a crazy year last year. Probably the hardest and worst since since I started teaching. Without getting too detailed, some of the stresses had be questioning everything about myself, even if I wanted to continue to teach. But...the Lord brought me through and I am excited to start a fresh year! 

Tomorrow will be my first day in my classroom, so hopefully I'll have some pics to post - at the very least I'll have some "before pics!." Also, I just posted a couple things to my TPT store - a fractions workstation packet and my new chevron behavior clip chart (my old one was fading). Click on the images to check them out! Glad to be back in the blog world :)

It's Been Awhile...

Hi Friends!... it's been quite awhile since I've posted. Sooo much has happened since the start of the school year that I have to admit, I've been avoiding my blog. It's like when you haven't talked to a good friend in a long time and you know you're going to need an hour long phone conversation to catch up, but you just don't have the time...Well...it's time :)

First of all, I was on strike for 7 days at the beginning of the school year. I'm sure you all heard about the CTU strike in CPS - that was me! It was CRAZY! I had no idea what to expect, but I quickly learned how passionate and dedicated educators truly are. I was honored, inspired, and humbled to be a part of such an amazing group of people! The whole experience was emotionally draining as well as physically exhausting. I was shocked at how much of the media and public are not only anti-union, but anti-teacher. It made me sad - and because of facebook I learned that many people I know and who know me were passionately against the strike...seemingly for no good reason. But, in the end, we won on all the points that really mattered.  

Here's a pic of us during one of the downtown marches. (I'm on the left in the sunglasses - not that that's important!)

Fast forward to last week...one of our teachers left our school rather suddenly (and although I won't go into specifics, I'll say it's a good thing for all parties)...which meant that on Friday, I found out I would be teaching a 1st/ 2nd split starting on Monday (today). WOW - that was some news to get five minutes before picking my kids up from lunch! So, today was my first day with my 11 new firsties - and I have to say, for only 2 days of preparation - it went pretty well! I am hoping in a week or two we will be full swing and on a roll! I am also hoping to be back blogging more regularly :) I'm avoiding looking at my google reader because I know I have over 1,000 unread posts...crazy! 

Does anyone have any advice for teaching a 1/2 split with Everyday Math?!? Would love any suggestions! 

Stick a Fork in it! Class Pics!

I am sooooo excited to say that my classroom is finally set up! Now I can start thinking about making copies and lesson plans....I think I like setting up better :)

Here is a view from the front of the room, looking back

 This is the classroom library with our cafe board and beanie baby strategies behind it

 This is my math area - bulletin board, work station pocket chart, work stations, and manipulatives. I have a feeling this will not stay as organized!

 This is our HFW word wall. You can get these words at my tpt store. I love how this turned out this year! Rather than teach the words one by one - we are going to go over all of them weekly (and of course they will be expected to spell these words correct).

 This doesn't look like much, but it's most of my students' book boxes and half of my students' buckets for bucket fillers.

This is the Fancy Nancy word wall (which I have posted about before). I know the Velcro looks ugly, but I couldn't get it down...oh well. This is also our computer station.

 This is the side wall. You can see the coat closet behind the research bulletin board. This bb is for research workshop.

 This is the front of the room and a closer view of our night stand...more to come on that soon!

 This is a view from the door looking in. I love how it looks :)

I am wayyyy behind on linking up! So here are all the great places I'm linking up with:

I love seeing how everyone sets up their rooms! So much inspiration!!

Also, thanks to everyone who participated in my giveaway! Katie won and she has already received her gift card. Sorry it took me so long to report the winner!!

B2S Purchases

I've loved checking out what everyone got! I didn't go too crazy, but I did snag a couple of awesome products!

I am super excited about this one! I can't wait to get these babies printed, laminated, and hung in my classroom! I know it will add lots of color, inspiration, and positive energy! I love everything Hope makes by the way :)

This product is so great because it's such an easy and meaningful way to get parents involved in your classroom. I don't know about you, but I work in a community where parent involvement means showing up for report card pick-up once or twice (if you're lucky) a year. So, hopefully this will be fun and not intimidating at all!

Today is your last chance to win a $25 gift card to TPT. I know you're all spent at the moment, but you know in a few months you're going to wish you had $25 to spend (or if you're like me, there's always something I just have to have!).

Click the image to enter! Winner will be announced tonight!

Classroom Library Pics

After 3 days of being in my classroom, I don't have much to show for myself. I've been focused on getting the furniture where I want it, organizing math materials, and the biggest task of all...organizing my classroom library. I've never counted, but I definitely have thousands of books, which makes for an overwhelming task of re-labeling the ones that need it, sorting, and determining how many bins/genres to have. Here are a few "before" and "during"pics. I haven't gotten to labeling bins yet - so don't mind that! I'll be back hopefully soon with more :)

This is clearly a "before" pic - as you can see - I got a new rug! I am standing by the door - the green chalkboard is the back wall.

"Before" pic of the front of my classroom

My new couch!!!! Well...it's not new - it's really old, but I couldn't find space for it in my new apartment and it's just too comfortable to get rid of so I brought it in and so far it's working! I know it doesn't look like much, but it's sooooooo comfy! 

This is the first area I tackled. I organized and sorted math materials. I'm not sure what's going on that hideous chalkboard - nothing sticks - no tape - I've tried every kind. Last year I used butcher paper and magnets. Not the best, but I got through. I need a new plan though.

This is a shot from the back corner toward the front of the room. All you can really see here is the way the desks are set up. I have four tables of either 6 or 8. It's set up for 28 kids, but we'll see how many I actually get. There's always a couple extras hanging around :)

Here is my leveled library that houses book sets for either guided reading of book clubs. Students will not be choosing from this area for their independent reading books, but will get to choose book club books from here and I will pull guided reading books from here.

Don't mind that nasty orange cord. I need to do something about that. So far this is part of the fiction side of the library and on the left side you can see some book boxes (there's another spot for the rest of them).

Here is the rest of our fiction library. I'm still waiting on a shipment of books - that's why there are a couple empty spots. The bulletin board behind it will be our CAFE board and the beanies hang out with us too :)

This is my nonfiction library - all clear bins (from my previous post). No labels yet, but at least they're sorted, right?!

Here's a pic of the whole thing - you can see my new rug that I LOVE! 

Next task - organize my closet. YIKES!

Also - don't forget to enter my giveaway! You could get $25 to TPT!!!!!! It ends tomorrow! Click the image below to enter!

Back to School Jitters and Giveaway

Well, I've been back in my classroom for two days now and I don't have much to show for it. I'm hoping to have pics for you by the end of the week, if not sooner. My library is taking FOR-EV-ER! So today I am linking up with Jessica at A Turn To Learn to share my back to school jitters!

I know what I'm excited for doesn't really have anything to do with school - and don't get me wrong - I'm excited for the new school year and meeting my new kids and trying all the new things I want to try in math workshop and research workshop...but it just isn't the same as my excitement for the Bears and football :) 

What I am nervous for really is something I'm nervous about. I've had some behavior problems in the past - been choked, had to run after a kid who darted out of the classroom and toward the outside door, dealt with a little girl who wouldn't stop getting into fist fights with the boys...but somehow I feel like the two I'm about to get are going to be so much more of a challenge than any of that based on what I've seen of their behavior in K and 1st. My goal (and I've been praying about it this summer) is to help these two students be more in control of their actions and learn how to function in a group. Should be interesting.

I am loving my new room arrangement - couch and all! I got rid of 3 tables this year - which is CRAZY! I'll be meeting with guided reading groups at the carpet! Can't wait to show you pics :)

Finally - what I need to remember is what I need to remember everyday! Us teachers (or maybe it's just me) like to be in control and I need to remember it's really better when I'm not and God is! 

Ok - I have to get to work in my classroom - I'm staring at a pile of books that aren't going to label themselves...but before I go - don't forget to enter my giveaway!! $25 to TPT! Ends Friday...click the image to enter!

300 Followers Giveaway!

I just logged onto my blog and saw that I have 301 followers!!! Which means it is definitely time for a giveaway!!! Yay! Thanks to all my followers for being on this blog-journey with me. It's been about a year since I started this blog, and I can't believe how many things I've learned from all of my fellow bloggers and how inspired I am by all of you! You all are some incredible teachers! As a thank you - I am giving away a $25 gift card to TPT! All you have to do to enter is be a follower :)

This is my first time using Rafflecopter - so I hope I did it/do it right! The giveaway starts Monday and ends Friday! Good luck :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway