December Currently

Tomorrow, very special holiday visitor will be coming to my class, but before I run up to my school to prepare for his arrival, I wanted to share this month's Currently:

I used my new Maggie font for this month's Currently. If you like it, you can grab it here!

Oh, pop music. I love it. All of it. I grew up with the likes of Britney and Nsync, can you blame me? Every time I hear a song I like on the radio, I Shazaam it on my phone and then add it to a pop music playlist on YouTube. I also recently bought Taylor Swift's new album because one of my students picked DJ for a Day for her reward, and she brought the CD to class and I immediately fell in love (my favorite tracks are I Knew You Were Trouble and 22).

Part of the reason I love doing these every month is because it's nice to have these to look back on and see what was going on in my life each month. This month in particular I am loving (no, LOVING!) the fact that my mom got a new job and will be moving to Houston in just a few weeks. When I graduated from college in 2007, my mom was offered a job that took her to Africa (Algeria, to be specific), and after about a year and a half there, she moved to Beijing, China. Then, when my grandmother's mental health began to decline, my mom moved back to the states to live closer to her mom in North Carolina. So, for nearly six years, I haven't lived in the same state as my mom, so I am over the moon excited for her return to Texas. She will be moving here during my last week of school, so the timing couldn't be better. I can't wait to have her be just a few hours away!

I have no idea what to get my boyfriend for Christmas! What do you get for a guy who says he doesn't need or want anything? I'm open to suggestions!

I'm sure I'm not alone in needing more sleep. This past week, specifically, however, I couldn't seem to fall asleep before midnight, and because of that, I developed a nasty twitch in my right eye. I could feel it flare up every now and then, but I didn't realize other people could SEE it until one of the kids in my guided reading groups said something about it! He tried to be so polite about it, too, but you could tell he was kinda freaked out that my eye was going crazy! My boyfriend has a Temper-Pedic pillow and I love it, so I'm thinking I should get one of those to help me sleep.

Last weekend, I decided to bite the bullet and buy myself a new MacBook. My old MacBook laptop is five years old and doesn't do what I need it to anymore, so even though I'll be pinching pennies for awhile to pay for the new one, it has been SO nice to have a computer that works well again! Now I just need some time to transfer everything from my old computer to my new one.

My RAK is from last week - one of my teammates had a terrible day (like the kind where you just want to quit your job right then and there), so to cheer him up, another teacher and I blasted some uplifting music in the third grade hallway to let him know he's our hero and that we love him. During Red Ribbon Week last month, my third grade team and I all wore shirts with each others' pictures on them to show we were each others' heroes, so that's why we played the hero music for him after his bad day!

Me (on the left) and my third grade team with our hero shirts.

Our third graders got a kick out of us dancing and lip syncing to the music in the hall. It was a fun way to start the day!

Another fun way to start the day is by doing this:

That's our assistant principal, me, our principal, and librarian doing the chicken dance in front of 500+ students, teachers, and parents at our awards assembly on Friday. Because at my school, we work hard, play hard, and dance hard, too.

Have a great week, friends! 

October Currently

Hey there friends! As I'm sure you all know, Farley hosts these wonderful Currently linkys every month, and even though it's four days late, I'm linking up for the month of October - better late than never!

A note about those hot drinks - I don't drink coffee, but I do drink tea (chai, to be specific) and hot chocolate. I've heard a million and a half wonderful things about the pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks, but since I don't drink coffee, I thought I wasn't ever going to be privy to the taste of pumpkin spice. Well, this morning one of my co-workers brought in Coffee Mate pumpkin spice creamer, and she told me to add a bit to my chai. Let's just say my mind is BLOWN. It is the most deliciously fallish drink I've ever had. I'll be heading to Target tonight to get me a bottle (or 12) to keep at school to add to my tea in the morning! 

As for my book choice, The Hallo-Wiener by Dav Pilkey is always a favorite in my class because the town I teach in hosts a Wiener Dog Festival every spring (yes, for real), so they super love this book since the main character is a wiener dog!

Now I'm off to finish up my parent/teacher conferences! Have a happy Columbus Day, y'all!

Currently Linking Up

Hi friends! Today I'm linking up to a few blogs to share some things I've purchased and created, and to also share my August Currently.

First, I'm linking up with Christina to share some of the things I recently ordered from Vistaprint. I bought a Groupon for $17 of $70 worth of products, and I'm pretty excited about what I made! First, I made behavior punch cards out of business cards.

In one of my very first blog posts, I wrote about my rewards system, and this year, since we're going to be a Leader in Me campus, I decided to change the phrase from "________ does great things" to "________ is a great leader"! I'm hoping the business card size won't be too small, especially because I ordered 500 of them!

Next, I ordered these oversized postcards to use on our back to school night, which for us is the Thursday before school starts. I left the closing blank because I'm planning to share these with the other teachers on my team, and that way we can each sign our name on the bottom.

I made these postcards, too; they're blank on the back and I used a rocket because my class is the Rockets!

The last thing I made was this banner, and while it wasn't part of the special deals offered with the Groupon, I only needed to spend $25 over my $70 total to get free shipping, and I figured it'd be smarter to make something else than just pay for shipping! I love this quote, and I'll refer to it to help my students remember to be proactive (habit #1).

I'm also linking up with Elizabeth's Fabulous Find Friday linky party. My birthday was yesterday, so I did a little shopping (although I bought nothing for me personally; everything was for my classroom!) and this is what I found:

I got this wonderful organizer at Michael's for around $30. I found it in the plastic scrapbooking storage section, and right now everything in that section is 40% off (the sale ends tomorrow, so if you want one for yourself, you'd better go quick!). It was originally $70, and I had a coupon for an additional 20% my entire purchase, including sale items, so it ended up being more than half off! I'm not quite sure what I'm going to use it for, but it makes me happy just looking at it - these guys have so much potential!

I found these felt crowns at Hobby Lobby for 80% off -  they were in the summer section, and with the discount, I paid $1.30 for BOTH! I'm planning to use them for birthday celebrations in my classroom! The small plastic containers came from HEB (a grocery store), and they were only $1! As soon as I saw them I knew they'd be perfect to hold dice - I pinned this awhile ago, and have been on the look out for dice rolling containers ever since, so I'm very happy to have these.

Finally, I wanted to link up to Farley's August Currently - head on over to her blog to grab your blank copy and link up!

I used my Boxy Print font for my answers - if you like it, you can find it in my TpT store here!

For my back to school must haves, I need to find a new pair of black leather flip flops. We're allowed to wear flip flops at our school as long as they're not like shower shoes, so I'm on the hunt for a new pair since I literally wore the soles out of my other pair last year! I also need a new lanyard for my keys and ID, but I've already purchased my eraseable pens! If you've never heard of these before, they're called FriXion pens, and they're made by Pilot. I had a student last year with sensory issues, and his therapist recommended he use these pens instead of pencils because they were easier for him to hold. You can buy these pens at all office supply stores, but they only have red, blue, and black. Well, after some searching, I found a website called JetPens, which sells the FriXion pens in tons of colors! These particular pens are imported from Japan, and they work beautifully. In fact, I am so obsessed with these pens that I just ordered myself the FriXion markers too! I'm mostly excited to have these for my gradebook - now if I need to change a grade, I don't have to scribble over it or use White Out; I can just erase it and write it again!

That's all I've got for today! I'll be back on Monday to finish up the second half of my Cliffs Notes version of the 7 habits (and don't forget, my giveaway for an Erin Condren teacher planner ends Monday night, so if you haven't entered, you have a few more days to do so - click here to go to the giveaway page!). Have a great weekend, y'all!

Fun New Fonts + July's Currently + A Giveaway!!!!

Hello friends! I've been super busy these past few weeks - my mom was in town visiting for awhile, and then I went up to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area to visit a friend and my boyfriend's family. This week, I finally had some time to get creative, and I'm so excited to have a few new things share with you all - I've made four new fonts, and I've just posted them to TpT!

This one is called PlainPrint Bold: 

 This is called Boxy Print:

 This is my fancy shmancy Calligraphy Print:

And this guy is called Bubbles!

This is my first time to list anything for sale - all of my other products are free, so I'm nervous and terribly excited to see if there will be any purchases! The response to my first font was overwhelming (it's still posted over on dafont.com - over 17,000 downloads as of today!), and I still get so happy when I see my font pop up on people's websites and products. I hope these new fonts will be just as useful and popular as my first one was! 

If you like what you see, head on over to my TpT store to purchase and download! And, if you're interested in getting one of my new fonts for FREE, please leave a comment below telling me which new font you like best! Since there are four new fonts, I'll pick four winners - don't forget to include your email address so I can email you your choice if you win! I'll randomly select the four winners next Tuesday, July 10th, so be sure to leave a comment before then! 

In other news, since I missed June's currently, I wanted to be sure to link up with Farley this month with my July currently. I know I'm a little late, but here's what I've been up to:

For my reads, I picked Holes as the book I love to read aloud to my third graders. I have a few go-to books (Matilda, Because of Winn Dixie, and Charlotte's Web are a few others I read regularly), but I really love Holes because it provides so many great conversation starters. I also appreciate that the main characters are BOYS who are strong both physically AND emotionally.

For my go-to professional book, I immediately thought of the Two Sisters, as their practices and teachings definitely changed the way I approach reading in my classroom. However, next year our school is going to become a 7 Habits Campus, so I've been reading The Leader in Me, and I'm sure that will end up being my new go-to book.

Alrighty, that's all for now! Don't forget to comment if you'd like a chance to win your favorite font! Have a great weekend, y'all!

Currently and Catch Up

Hey there, friends! After two days of benchmark testing, I am SO ready for spring break! At least the kids have a test to work on during the 4 hour testing window - I just had to walk around and actively  monitor - booooooooring!

Anyway, I wanted to share just one more solar system activity we did two weeks ago. We read Margaret Wise Brown's The Important Book (I'm sure you all know it well!), and we discussed the way the author used lots of descriptions to explain to the reader why and how that item/object was important. Then, I told my kids they were going to write their own important book, but there was a catch - their whole book had to be about the sun, so everything they wrote needed to explain how and/or why the sun was important. I made each kid a book out of a single sheet of long construction paper, following this tutorial, and they turned out so great! Here's what a few of my kids thought was important about the sun:

This student made his own copyright page - the little rocket says, "Better than Scholastic!" - haha!

Love this illustration (and isn't his handwriting beautiful?!).

He wrote, "The sun makes the moon gloe (glow)." - shows me he was paying attention during our moon studies!

I love that this student drew the orbital lines with his planets!

I was proud of this student's connection of the sun to the water cycle - great thinking!

I am so on board with what this girl drew - I'm ready for sun, bathing suits, and laying out by the pool!

This idea (which came from our curriculum, interestingly enough - I'm not always on board with their suggestions, but I really loved this!) could easily be used with any subject or concept - you could make an important book about a character from a story, an animal, habitats, adding, subtracting, and whatever else you can think of! This activity was great because it was self-directed, and it showed me who had really learned the important concepts about the sun and who hadn't. My kids enjoyed making their books, and even asked if they could make more important books about the planets - my answer was an enthusiastic YES! :)

Now, on to this month's Currently, courtesy of Farley, of course! I created this yesterday, and then ended up not having time to post last night, so that's why my answers sound a little off, but still, here's what's up with me these days:

Your 3 words are supposed to be words that your students, friends, and family would use to describe you, and the words must start with the first letter of your last name. I think I'm a pretty reasonable teacher (I was also going to cheat and write "Really organized," but that's two words and organized doesn't start with R, but I thought it would be a good answer since my students actually DO tell other people that I am really organized!!), my friends know they can rely on me for just about anything, as long as it doesn't involve starting something after 10 pm, and my family definitely thinks I'm a bit random. I send stream of consciousness emails, I love tomato products but hate raw tomatoes, and I enjoy recreating the scene of Buddy the Elf on an escalator when I go to the mall. Maybe that makes me more ridiculous than random, but I digress...

Before I go, I found out yesterday that I was awarded a professional development grant I applied for a few weeks ago from my district (yay!). I'm so excited, because (a) this was my first time to ever apply for a grant and I got it (!!), and (b) it means I get to attend Debbie Diller's Summer 2012 conference in Houston. I'm only going to attend the first two days, since the third day seemed like it was geared more towards lower grades, but I was wondering if any of my blogging friends would also be in attendance? Since I won my funding through the grant, I'll be the only one attending from my school, and maybe even from my district, so it'll be a great opportunity to meet some new people. If you'll be attending, let me know, because I'd love to meet you!!

Now I'm off to start my spring break right - with a glass of vino and a line up of TV shows from Hulu. I'm already in my sweatpants; it can only get better from here. Happy spring break y'all!

Currently

Farley has posted another Currently for February, and while it's currently time for me to be asleep, I wanted to link up before the week's chaos keeps me from blogging! 

I hope to be back later this week with a fraction game to share! Happy Monday y'all!

Currently

A few months ago, I found this pin via Pinterest, and immediately loved the idea - I even tried to do with my students every few weeks, but several of them kept writing the same answer for every section (like "soccer" - really? you're currently listening to soccer? I don't think so), so I decided to let it go. Now that I'm getting back onto the teacher blog bandwagon, I figured it's finally time for me to submit one of my own. If you don't know Farley yet, she's the curator of all things Currently (at least, as far as I know!), and she's pretty hilarious. Here's my 'currently' contribution:

I thought it would be appropriate for my "one little word" to be focus - a few days ago, I was getting stuck on the word organize, but I think I'm already too organized for my word to be organize. So, since I want to make time management a priority, I'll definitely need to focus on making and sticking to a schedule. I also want to focus on myself - I want to focus on staying healthy and fit, and I want to focus on doing more things that make me happy - like crafting, cooking, reading, and blogging!

If any of you happen to find me through Farley's link up, I'd love it if you'd follow me! I think if I had more followers, I'd be more likely to keep up with my posting! I also have a few things I'd like to share this week, if I can figure out how to upload and embed documents to my posts! (Anyone have any tips for that? I'm at a loss - the only thing I can get to work right now is a big old ugly URL!) As for now, I have a few papers to grade before crawling in to bed - I always seem to have trouble falling asleep on Sunday nights, and as a result, I'm exhausted on Mondays. Here's hoping sleep will be on my side tonight!