Thursday Tutorial - Remind101

I am finding tons of great resources this year. This one in particular is interesting to me. I had heard about it, but when Jivey showed me on her phone how it was to work, I was hooked.

This little app is a way for your parents to get text message reminders from you without letting them see your phone number. Think of the possibilities! Reminders about Curriculum Night coming up, report cards coming home, field trip money due, or projects that their kids forgot to tell them about. Oh, the happiness you could spread!

Remind101 has this to say about its purpose:

Teachers are busy. Our mission is to make tools that are simple to use, but highly effective. Signing up takes less than two minutes on the website, iPhone app or Android app, and it only takes seconds for students or parents to join a class. Safety is a primary feature: teachers never see students/parents phone numbers, nor will students/parents see theirs.

The connected classroom is rapidly evolving. Remind101 helps innovative teachers take advantage of technology in a way that frees up their time to focus on what they do best: teach.

Sounds like they are really thinking of how to best help teachers do their job. Gotta love that!

I signed up and clicked on the 'Create a New Class.' I was able to give my class a name and a unique code. Then Remind101 pops up a new screen like this:

It gives the parents a number and your special code to text to that number. Once they do that they are in and will receive any texts that you send to this group.

Our Curriculum Night, or the first parent teacher meeting, is tonight. I plan on sharing this with them and seeing how many sign up right there. It would be great if all of them do it, wouldn't it?

Wednesday Writing - Marshfield Dreams

Like everything I do, I always looking for ways to make it better. This year I think I found a great way to make my Favorite Places entry in our Writer's Notebook stellar. Thanks to Ralph Fletcher and his amazing autobiographical Marshfield Dreams.




















Normally what I would do is take the kids on a tour of the school on the third or fourth day armed with a clipboard, paper and a pencil. We stop periodically and they are to sketch the map of our school. Then I send the students home with an assignment to the same thing with their neighborhood.

The next day I have them use colored pencils to make a mark on both the school and home maps with a Heart shape. This is to be there favorite spot on the map. They also mark a smiley face for a happy memory and an X for some place that isn't so happy. Now they've got six different locations that they can write stories about.

This year, I had a staff development where the Literacy Coach pulled out Ralph's book and I knew I had to use. The inside pages included this very detailed drawing of his neighborhood growing up.

So after we took our tour of the school, I sat them down and read the short entry called Jimmy in Marshfield Dreams. It tells the story of the day they find the mudpuppy in the woods. It's a newt with bright red gills, in case you're curious. Then I sent them home with their assignment. 

The student maps were so much more detailed than they've ever been before and I could really see the benefit of having given them a visual to work from before they started.

I can't wait to hear all they stories they have to share.

Bingo Results

Thanks to all who played. And now for the winning announcement....

I am going to be giving my entire (the whole shebang) to everyone who entered!!

Congratulations Erin T and Jivey!!

I will be contacting your shortly.

Friday Fun: Ah-mazing Linky Sale

If you haven't heard, TpT is throwing a Back to School Sale and offering amazing deals.

So a few of my friends have whipped up a fun Linky Party to go with it. Here's how it works.If you have your very own TpT store, check out your dashboard product statistics and find the top TWO items that your fantastic fans just can't stop wishlisting. Place them here. Then go take a look at your wishlist and post one product you plan on taking advantage of this weekend.










It was interesting to see which one of my items topped the list. Turns out y'all love the Math Exemplars Set 01.

This is just a set of files that I keep in my home drive at work. I love putting the kids names to the problems and they get a kick out of thinking their friends are out there buying 2,000 paper cups. Set 01 includes 20 different word problems that you can print out and cut up to give out to your students. They cover several topics that we study at the beginning of the year from Place Value to Graphing. There's an answer key included if you're like me and are a little slow with the math concepts.

Don't even ask what I had to ask three other people to help me with at school today. Sigh.

 

The second most wishlisted item makes me feel a bit guilty. It's the Genre Library Tag set I did.  The reason I feel guilty is because it's using the most incredible talent of Krista Wallden and her wicked cute super heroes. It's not all from me. I hope Krista is somewhere just basking in the glory of her talent. But there it is.

As for me, I'm oogling that Scaredy Squirrel Back to School Activity Pack from none other than those Collaboration Cuties. Not only do the stories make me smile, but it's chock full of great ideas. Here's the item list

Literary Elements

Vocabulary Chart
Brainstorming our own unknowns
Creating our own emergency kits and exit plans
Making Predictions
Cause and Effect
Fact and Opinion
Writing prompts- persuasive and narrative
Creating a Schedule
Elapsed time

Aren't you wanting it too?

Just remember my store will be having a 20% sale from August 18-19 and then TpT is giving another promo code on top of that to earn you a total of 28% off!! Make sure to enter the BTS13 code. So clean up that wish list a little on the first day to earn some credits and then come back the second day to wipe the rest of it out!

Wednesday Writing - Heart Maps

One of the lessons I love doing every year as we set up our Writer's Notebooks is The Heart Map. I first heard about this way back in 2001 when my county had its first Summer Writing Institute for teachers. One of the presenters was Georgia Heard. An amazing instructor that had so many great ideas I still use today. Her Heart Map lesson was incredible. I still have the one I made that year and share it with my students every time we set up our notebooks.

The premise is to have them create a launching strategy for their notebooks that they can refer back to throughout the year. The shape that is normally suggested is the heart of course, but I always open it up for the students to pick their own designs. It is all about finding what is important to them, so letting them pick the design allows for their personality and creativity to stand forefront. I've seen students use soccer balls, flowers, and even a safe complete with combination lock. Awesome!

You start in the middle of your design and draw or write those phrases that are most important to you. Around the edges, you can place such things as favorite people, hobbies, books, subjects, etc. It is suggested that you have them color coordinate each section. Then when you need an idea for something to write about, this Heart Map is there for you.

In her book, Awakening the Heart, Ms. Heard includes several questions that you can ask to help students generate ideas for what to put in their designs. Here are a few:

What people have been important to you and why?

What are some experiences or events that you will never forget?

What happy or sad memories do you have?

What secrets do you keep in your heart?

The students enjoy celebrating those things they love to do and decorating to their {Heart's} content. Hope your students feel the same!

Thursday Tutorial - TpT Widget

Have you seen the coolest new addition to my blog? It's over on the right hand sidebar. That awesome little roller that shows off some of my TpT products for the world to see? Ever since I spied it on Greg Smedley's blog, I had to have it. When I asked him about it his reply was the cryptic, "It's a widget from TpT."

Umm, er. I couldn't find anything like that right out in the open on the TpT website. I even tried to do a search through their help board with no luck. I just happened to accidently click on the right button and saw the html code just sitting there. Who'd I think of first? Of course! My brain was like, "What a perfect tut to share with my bloggy peeps!"

If you are interested in getting one from your TpT store to display on your blog, here are the steps:

1. Open your TpT store (mine is ScrappyGuy's TpT Store)

2. Over to the right you'll see the 'My TpT Store' button.

3. Click on that little flyout window and choose 'Dashboard'. It will take you to another screen.

4. Scroll down to the bottom and find the area for Marketing.

5. Click on second choice 'Link to my Store'. A new screen pops up with a choice to create a new widget. Click on the orange button.









6. It will take you through a series of choices for whether you want to display the Top Selling 25 items of your store, or the Most Recent items, then if you want a vertical or horizontal design.

7. Next you'll see a bunch of gobbledygook. If you are on Blogger, you are in luck. They've created a shortcut for us! SWEET!

Scroll all the way down to the bottom and you'll see this:

8. Give it a title and click next.

9. Done! It will appear on your blog for the world to oogle.










Now if you don't have Blogger you could try the next route.

7. When you see the gobbledygook,  copy it all and bring it over to your blog. You'll need to get into your template design. Switch over to the Edit HTML format by clicking the button choice. You'll need to scroll through your code to find the line. I found mine underneath the 'Mobile' section. After you see the close bracket on the first line you can paste in that goobledygook you got from TpT. 

8. Save your template and switch over to the layout. Select the Add a Gadget choice and look for the HTML. Go back to the TpT site and find the second line of HTML code listed.

9. Post that into the Add a Gadget HTML window and you'll see your new TpT widget lickety-split!

Fun Fun

Tried It Tuesday - Tagxedo

A very unassuming website but BOY is it fun!  Tagxedo works off the same premise as Wordle but provides some fun shapes to fit your word clouds into. I found this last year when I was getting my Pinterest on and made an apple shaped Welcome to Fourth Sign for my new class using their names. I also created a school bus filled with words and concepts that we teach in Fourth. This year I did the same, but I changed it to a star shape to fit with my outer space theme. The kids love looking for their names in the shape.

Give it a try!

Blog Hoppin' - 10 Things About Me

 

 

I'm just going to dive right into this. It's been a long week and it's only Monday! HA

1. One thing you don't know about me is that I have a bonafide super power. Yep. I have bionic glasses. 

They act as hearing aids for me and have a built in bone conduction receptor that sits right on my skull so I can hear all those lovely students talking when they aren't supposed to. 

2. My glasses are not currently working properly. I have been losing reception on the right and after many times of them 'repairing' them it's still not working. Plus, now the left side pops up with this annoying crackling noise that drowns everything else out. 

3. I scheduled an audiologist appointment to talk about options to fix these dang things. I'm about to go crazy! Keep your fingers crossed that they don't suggest cochlear implants (can you say $25,000?).

4. I am not going to talk about glasses in this one. I like to travel. A lot. I love to jet off to foreign lands and immerse myself in completely different cultures. I've spent a week in a Tuscan castle, climbed Mexican pyramids, and lived in Paris for a month. My next trip is set for Australia in December. Whee!

5. Both of my parents died young. I am almost the same age now that my father died at. It's sort of nervewracking. 

6. I've been teaching at the same school for the past 12 years.  This is my 13th group to come through my little room. I am actually teaching the baby brother of a boy I had in third grade back in 2002. He's now a junior in college. OY.

7. I have eclectic tastes while picking my favorite tv programs. I love watching Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables, and Downton Abbey. But I also love watching The Walking Dead, Grimm, and Once Upon a Time. Heartwarming and Heart eating. Can't get enough. 

 

 8.  I love to cook. I blame the Food Network for this craze, even though they wouldn't let me in for an episode taping when I was last in New York. 

9. I walk to work almost every day. The school is literally right behind my house and I have a gate in my backyard that leads me right to it. It's wonderful. Probably one of the main reasons I've stayed at the same school for 13 years. 

10. My favorite season is Summer, but my favorite holiday is Christmas. I just realized that's probably why I want to go to Australia in December. Best of both worlds!

Mentor Monday - Landform booklet

Something we do in Fourth Grade every year is sneak in a little geography. There are several terms that the students are responsible for knowing. But with all the other content we need to cover, it's hard to get this little unit in. We usually slide it into the other content areas. Take our unit on Native Americans, for example. We study the Inuit, Kwakiutl, Nez Perce, Hopi, Pawnee, and Seminole. As we are discussing each of these we can talk about the locations they chose to live and the landforms that surround that area.

I'll go through the Kwakiutl for you, since its such a fun word to say. They settled on the Pacific coast in the Washington - Oregon areas. I can cover oceans, continents, coast, gulf, and bay throughout my discussion of this tribe. When I mention one of the landforms I have them pull out this little booklet that we handed out at the beginning of the year. It's just 3 regular pieces of 8.5x11 paper that have been folded width-wise and stapled to form a book.

Each page can fit up to two different landform definitions and pictures. Since it's the beginning of the year I have printed out the text to glue down, but I want them to draw the pictures to get a clearer sense of what the landform shapes look like. I've had them copying from the board everything including the text, but they took 4-EVA to get it done. I want to see if this helps them get it done faster. Any extra text pieces they can slip into their binder baggie I talked about here.

When I need them busy for a bit while I conduct the reading records we are charged with every year, I will run all of the pictures they need to know into a powerpoint presentation that I have running on a loop with a slide separation of 7 minutes for now to see if this is enough time for them to draw and stay on task. That's 27 students that I need to sit and listen to read complete books while I take notes. So I need the others to stay busy with something. This is a great project for them to complete individually.

I have placed the ppt and the text printout into my TpT store for free. So make sure you take advantage of that. I'd LOVE it if you leave me a little comment there on how it works for you.

Have fun!

TpT Product Swap Results

A few weeks back I asked folks to join in on a TpT Product Swap for Grades 3-5. Bethany from Hunter's Teaching Tales and Julie from Math is Elementary were all over it.

I asked them to each pick a product from the others store to swap. They were to review the product and then write up a critique of how it would be useful in their classrooms. I think they both did amazing with it. I wanted to buy both products right away. Bethany's Graphing QR code task cards would be perfect for my class. And Julie's Math Sub Plans for August and September were such a great packet jammed with fun ideas to leave with your sub. Imagine how happy they would be to have all their work done for them?

Thank you ladies for joining in!

Back to School Swap Results

Can you imagine me doing a little dance in my car as I pulled up to the mailbox to see a HUGE package sitting there?

I knew exactly what it was all about as soon as I saw it. Bethany Hunter from Hunter's Tales from Teaching sent me a chunk of cool stuff.

Look closely and you'll see what I am talking about. From right to left can you see those awesome Super Hero erasers? Oh, yeah. My boys are going to fight over those! Always have room for more Expo Markers. Especially since I plan on having the kids use white boards more often. There is a very large pack of pens in a multitude of colors, so no fear that I will be grading papers with the dreaded red pen.

At the top are some super large push pins. How did she know that I bought a few of these to use on my anchor charts for the bulletin board? Now I have plenty! Umm, there were some tictacs in there as well. Is she trying to say something??

The list keeps going. A oversized pack of sticky notes, which I think I'm in love with. Never saw them this huge. There are two different colors of Washi (ish) tape. My newest craze. Some great sharpie colors for me to get creative with.

Finally, there are some fun stickers for my kids. I ran out last year after using all mine for the AR goal chart. Now I am replenished AND have some star stickers to use instead. Yay Yay Yay!

I can't thank Bethany enough for thinking of me. Plus I need to thank those two fabulous brains of Covered in Glitter and Glue and Adventures of Ms Smith for putting this whole idea together. It really was great getting to know a fellow blogger better!

Friday Fun - Bingo Board

A bunch of my colleagues use a Positive Reward chart in the form of a Bingo Board. Kids who portray great behavior get a chance to put their name in one of the spaces on the board. Then on Friday, the teacher calls out one (or two, or three) squares. Whoever has their name in the square wins a prize.

I'm about to try it this year to get my kids excited about behaving well. I thought this would be a perfect thing to try out with y'all. You can earn ONE square by leaving me a comment below with your choice. You can earn a SECOND square if you bring a friend to check out this blog. Your friend just has to mention you in their post and then you can leave me another comment with your second request.

Sounds easy, right? Oh, wait! I haven't told you the prize yet. How about this?

Here's the Bingo Board. I will fill in with those folks who leave their comments below. Make sure you aren't a No Reply Blogger. If you are, you can check out this tutorial by Jivey, or make sure you leave me an email in your comment.

Since there are 24 (plus the Free Space) it would be awesome if I could fill all of them by next week. So spread the news around. If the entire board does get filled EVERYONE will win my set of I Have-Who Has Synonym Antonyms Set 01.

Annnnnd GO!

What I'm Loving

I'm a day late, but for some reason I feel that is going to be the going trend now that school is back in full swing.

Covered in Glitter and Glue has her Linky going on about three things that she is loving on this week.

Thought I'd jump on board.

1. I'm loving my class. I wasn't on Tuesday, the day before school start. I was hearing all sorts of things I didn't want to hear about my new kiddos. I was anxious and nervous for the year to begin not knowing what to expect. I've had some doozies before. Was not looking forward to a repeat of any of that mess. Once I had them all assembled in front of me and could watch the actual person for a bit, I was able to let the tension go. They have their challenges, but overall the entire class is really really nice. YAY.

2. The Big Bang Theory. I love this show. It is so hilarious and the characters are such fun. It's the only show I've watched that continues to get better every season. I just realized that Sheldon and Leonard are a modern day Bert and Ernie. hee hee

3. Fridays. Over the summer I kind of forget the importance of this day. Tomorrow will be the first Friday of the school year and I am loving it! I get to hang out with my teacher Peeps once school is done and just veg. It's wonderful. And then I have a whole two days were no alarm clock is going this guy!

Thursday Tutorial - MS Word Picture Align

I was plugging away on my Common Core Wall Chart idea for Tpt and I started noticing a disturbing trend. Every time I would cut and paste an image to a new page it would place it in a completely weird spot. Well, that can't happen! Everything needs to be neat and pretty, right?

I needed to find out how to make sure that the slides were in the same place every time. I noticed  on my toolbar were these two extra tabs called 'Drawing' and 'Picture' Tools that would pop up whenever I was working with a picture. So I clicked on the drawing one to see what it could offer towards a solution. 

 

Over to the far right were these two cryptic numbers. After ogling the visual rectangles next to them for a bit, I realized that they were telling me the size of my image both its vertical height and horizontal width. Ahh, so now I know how to make sure that the image is always going to be the same size. 

 

Also if you closely, you'll notice at the bottom right of this area is a tiny little fly-out triangle. If you click on that a new box appears like MAGIC! You can change the size proportions here as well. If you need to change it up without having both numbers change as if they were joined together, uncheck the 'Lock aspect ratio' box under 'Scale.'

Now click on the 'Layout' tab.

It's in here you'll find how to reposition your images on the page. Down at the bottom of this window is the 'Advanced' key. click on that and come to another menu. If you change the 'Horizontal' and 'Vertical' alignment choices over to Centered, your image will slide perfectly into the exact center of your page.

VOILA!

Wednesday Writing - Writer's Notebooks

First day of school. After a night of tossing and turning I wake up with butterflies in my stomach. Yes! Even after 23 years, I still get them. I enter my classroom and flick on the lights. It is quiet now but the room has a certain tension this morning. An air of expectation. The pencils are all sharpened, the chairs are all pushed in, and the floor is clean. I take a deep breath and glance at the clock. It's 7:15. I have another 20 minutes before the bell will ring and those eager little bodies will bounce down the bus steps and stream in the front doors. 20 minutes to make sure I have everything in place and go through my mantra, "I may be as prepared as possible, but never prepared enough for reality. I must trust in my ability to handle all things as they come. Today I will make a difference. Today I am a teacher."

I am ready.

We will be setting up our Writer's notebooks this morning. Another composition book to put in their desk. I want thing one to be special to them. So I'll let them decorate to their heart's content and then go home tonight with homework to gather more things to decorate it with. Then tomorrow I will mod podge everyone's covers so they stay perfect. I got the idea from one of the bloggers I follow and I am truly sad that I can't remember who the genius was. If I figure it out, I will definitely update here.

But for today, we are going to fold down the first two pages of our notebook to act as the Table of Contents. In the past I have held off having them write things here. I would save it as a busy work task during the long week before holiday break. But they do it only halfway, or not at all. So I am rethinking this part. I am going to have them get into the routine of updating their table of contents every few days. Next, we'll separate our notebook into four sections. I am going to have them glue ribbons into each section so we can find them throughout the year. Our county is asking that we allow them to write in all four genres this year instead of just concentrating on two. They believe the more exposure they get, the better retention.  And later the more skilled writers we'll produce. Hmm. There will be a ribbon for Personal Experience (Narrative), Information, Persuasive, and Fantasy. We'll really have to think about which genre to put our pieces in. If we are doing some poetry, are you writing about the weather? Then should it go it personal experience (A Day in the Rain), Information (Cloudless Skies), or Fantasy (The Rainmaker)? Fun, right?

This year I am having them put all of their planning and drafting into this notebook. Once they get ready to move it to the final draft, I'll have them use a legal pad. This move into a different paper is going to make them understand the difference between drafting and final copy. We'll talk about the importance of best handwriting and pay attention to correct punctuation. Always a struggle for us. Maybe the move to a different format will turn their brains into a higher gear. I can hope, right?

Monday Mentor - Setting up Notebook

Last week I showed you how I set up the student binders. Another thing we do at the beginning of the year is set up our Math Notebooks. Like a lot of you, we use the marbled composition notebooks for this purpose. The school provides us one for each student, so I can save a little money there.

The first thing I have them do is decorate the cover with ways they use numbers (photos, stickers, magazine ads, etc). This year I am going to follow the advice of Mrs. Hawk's Nest by hot gluing a ribbon into the back of their books so they can mark their place. So often they just flip to any old page and start working. I am WAY too OCD for that. I want the work to move chronologically through the book, so if I want to refer to something we've done in the past, I have them just open to that date.

I break the composition book into two sections. If you close the book and hold it up so you can see the top of all the pages, you'll notice a definite hole that marks the middle of the book. I have the students open to this page. We dog-ear (fold down) that page and make a chapter header for our 'Calendar' section. This is where they will complete all of their calendar activities during our Math block.

The front section is used for problem solving. I have them paste in a copy of the C.U.B.E.S. method that I found over at Elizabeth's site Fun in Room 4B. You can go to that link and grab your's for FREE!

I then print out a math exemplar related to the topic of study that week and have them go through the C.U.B.E.S. method to help them organize their thinking. You can actually purchase these exemplars by the set in my TpT store.

Math Exemplars Set 01

Math Exemplars Set 02 

Just in case you were curious. 

It helps me to keep all of their work in one place for CRCT review future reference. Plus they can see the progression of their knowledge throughout the year. 

We have a section set aside in our binders for our interactive notes. They can flip through that to help them support their explanations when writing about their solutions. 

Leave me a comment below and let me know how you use your math notebooks!

Tried It Tuesday - Washi Tape

Have you heard of this stuff? Everywhere I turn I am hearing about how awesome this stuff is. I had no clue what it was, so I went to the Shopping Queen, aka Jessica Ivey, and asked. Of course she had an answer. Washi tape is just this super fun tape with designs on them. There are several different brands such as the ones I got called Tape Works, but they all accomplish the same thing.

I picked up three types today.

The Mustache one, A fire brand, and a zebra pattern. They were like $3 each, but you can't put a cost on fun.

I am using the Mustache tape to put on the backs of my behavior clips. This is only so that I can say, "I MUSTACHE you to behave." Get it?

Bethany Hunter must have read my mind because she sent two MORE types of tape. Win!

Catch up - Meet Your Teacher Day

All through yesterday I kept thinking of your encouragement and belief that the day would go well.

Thank you thank you thank you for all the good thoughts. Yesterday was probably the easiest Meet Your Teacher Day in 22 years. Since the county has moved onto having the parents complete all the paperwork online the teacher's job on this day has become almost a breeze. Before we would spend the entire four hour period scrambling around collecting papers, checking medical files, signing forms, and counting money. Yesterday I spent more time hugging on parents and chatting with the students about their summer than I ever have before.

I am recycling four families this year, so that probably helped me be comfortable meeting the parents. They loved looking at all the class pictures I had lined up above my bulletin board. I have a nephew of a student I taught in third grade. He is now a junior in college. Yep, I feel old. But we laughed over the pictures. It was great fun.

I'm already thinking this year is going to be awesome. Sure I will have my challenges. I am actually okay with this because if there aren't any problems to keep me on my toes I can grow a little bored. Lord knows I don't want to be bored at work.

Just wanted to catch you up and let you know that yesterday went very well. Thanks again!

Friday Fun - Linky - Remembering Names

{Grab this button by right clicking and choosing "Save Image As" to add to your blog post}

Today is the day. I get to meet all my brand new fledgling fourth graders. I am so happy that our county has gone to an online registration system. This completely frees up this day to actually chat with my students and their parents. I don't have to rush around checking paperwork, collecting forms, and handing out money orders. It is such a more relaxed session than it was in the past.

My room is pretty much ready and I am already lining up stuff I need to print out for the first day of school. Shh, but I already have names on forms and stuff and I haven't even met them yet! There's always a chance that someone has moved over the summer. For some reason I always get ahead of myself and end up redoing a bunch of stuff. That's okay, right?

There are 27 students on my list and I have some interesting names to remember this year. As I was typing the list up three ways to Sunday, I was already practicing who would come next. It was  kinda hard this early. I need to see them to really get a handle on who they are. It usually takes me a week of interacting with them to really get all of their names down. What helps is that I greet them at the door every morning with a choice:

Do you want:

A. A Five High

B. A Firm Handshake

C. A Finger Jazz

D. A Fist Bump

Most of them go for a high five (I had to change the name up a bit to fit with the other choices), but after doing this a while they start getting creative. I had one teach me several different cool handshakes last year. It's a great way to see who is shy, who are the more boisterous ones, and which ones might need some work on the social interactions. 

Each morning I try to greet them by name and ask them something about themselves. It doesn't always get great responses at first, but they eventually come out of their shell. Some of them a little too quickly, if you know what I mean.

What are some ways that help you to remember their names in the first week? Add your post links below, I'd love to read them!

  

Currently - Oh' Boy August

Fun Linky! Fun Linky!

Farley over at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade is throwing this party together. Go there to grab your chance to link up!

Listening: Frozen, by Madonna. Well, now it's Georgia Rose by Queen Latifah. Just my 'Jazzy' playlist while I work at playing blog catch up. NO tv on during this time, or I will zone out and forget what I was doing. Then it will take all night to catch up. 
 
Loving: All that time I spent getting my classroom put together after moving into a room with windows AND a bathroom, has paid off. I wasn't stressing (too much) this week getting back into the swing of things. I even had time to think about lesson plans for the first day. Ha!

Thinking: Urp, it kinda messed up my workout today. I was going along just fine but then started feeling the acid from the spicy sandwich creep up on me. It is not pretty to jump up and down at such a time.
 
Wanting: I've been eating so bad as school gets closer. Trying to grab onto the idea of freedom. Must stop this now! It's back to Greek yogurt and lean ground turkey for me...starting tomorrow. For now, that blizzard is calling me NAME!
 
Needing: Okay, I went and got the water to curb my appetite. Sitting here sipping away while I finish up my blog work. I wanted to put up a new product in my TpT store. Something simple, but I can't decide on what just yet. 
sip sip
 
B2S Must Haves:  That bleeping pencil sharpener continues to elude me. After all the blog contests I've entered and the begging and pleading to get people to follow me on blogloving so I can reach the 100 quota to 'review' one for the company just isn't happening.
I went through my class library and noticed the sad state of my Native American bucket. In Fourth we teach all about six different tribes. I ordered a couple of great books from Amazon and got an email today that they have shipped. Yay!
Sanity. Meet the Teacher is tomorrow and reality will set in. Let's not have any breakdowns, or trying to open the window so I can escape and go fishing this year, k?