First Day Jitters Blog Hop!

IT IS FRIDAY!!! Can you believe it? Another week gone by!

Today, I am linking up with Ashley over at Fierce in Fourth for a :

What a great Linky Party idea! We all know that it's not just the kids that get  nervous about school starting!

So, now I have to tell you three things that I am jittery about for this upcoming school year. Hmmmmm, I am nervous about a lot of things, but I guess I'll narrow it down:

 1. Student Objectives: I know you're probably like, "What's the big deal?", but for some reason I am super nervous. I am one of the few teachers in my building that attended a training called SIOP. It focuses on meeting the needs of second language learners. One emphasis of SIOP is stating and posting language objectives and content objectives. They have to be visable in your classroom and the teacher and students are held accountable for knowing them. At our school, we have never had to visually display objectives. This is something totally new to me. What if I forget to reference them? What if I forget to post them? How do I make the objectives kid friendly?

2. New Teacher Evaluation System: Our district is beginning the Danielson Model. This is basically a four framework evaluation that focuses on planning and preparation, classroom environment, classroom instruction, and professional responsibilities. It is a lot different from our previous evaluation system. There are really some great things about it, but it is going to take a lot of time. I am nervous about having to create a portfolio (which I haven't done since student teaching) and just being evaluated in general. 

3. Caring TOO MUCH: Is that even possible? Yes, for me it is. Sometimes, I try so hard to be the best teacher that I can be that I forget about other things in life. I forget about working out, getting enough sleep, or spending quality time with my friends and family. I stress out so much every school year! This year I have to learn to slow down and do what I can. It can be easier said then done...especially when you have such a passion for kids and teaching...

With that being said, I feel a lot better now that I have shared my first day jitters! :)

Now, it's your turn! Go LINK UP!

First Day Transportation Blues

Hi friends!

Pretty short post today. I need to actually work on some school stuff instead of just thinking about it in my head. I have piles of things EVERYWHERE. It is getting ridiculous!

 I can't believe it...Next Wednesday I can get into my room, August 13th begins Teacher Institute Days, August 15th is "Teacher Meet and Greet", and August 16th my kiddos come to school for their first day! TIME IS FLYING BY!

I don't know about your school, but figuring out how my students are going home on the first day of school can be VERY stressful. I call it the first day transportation blues. Some parents want to pick their kids up on the first day, some want their kids to go home with siblings, other parents just want their kids to go home the "normal"way. I usually spend my lunchtime trying to find bus numbers or contact parents who did not specify their child's mode of transportation. I created this little form to give to parents to fill out and return to me on the first day of school. If I can get at least 75 percent of them back, it will save a lot of stress. Click on the link below to snag a copy. It is FREE as always. I hope that someone can use it! Send me some love if you do! :)

First Day Transportation

By the way I changed my WBT Rules posters so anyone can view, I think I had it for private access only (sorry!) so now,  you can check those out HERE or HERE.

Before I go, I do want to thank Ms. Jefferson over at Surviving Sixth and Cheryl over at Spotted Around the School for nominating me for the One Lovely Blog Award! I feel very special! I will be nominating some blogs for the award soon...but you all know it takes sometime...you gotta make the right choices! 

Have a happy Thursday!

Another Award and a Table...

I love blogging. I have met some wonderful people. :)

I was nominated for another award! I was nominated by Jennifer over at Darling Little Learners and by Angela at Hippo Hooray for Second. Thank you so much ladies!! Is it normal to be this excited about awards? You can definitely tell I am a newbie! :)

Versatile Blogger Award:

Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you.

2. Include a link to their site. 

3. Include the award image in your post.

4. Give 7 random facts about yourself. 

5. Nominate 5-10 other bloggers, include their link, and let them know. 

As if you don't already know enough about me from the Linky Party...

1. I was born in Louisville, Kentucky

2. Jeans are not comfortable to me. I would much rather wear workout clothes or dresses.

3. When I was a kid, my favorite show was 7th Heaven.

4. I am turning 26 in September.

5. I have been wearing glasses since I was five.

6. Everyone actually knows me as, "Katie".

7. I get my hair styled and washed every two weeks by my hairdresser. I love her!

Now, for my nominations:

First Grade with a Cherry on topthe first grade ScoopMiss Augustine's KinderBuzz Around in 2nd Grade
Please check out these sweet blogs! 
On Sunday, I stopped at our local Goodwill. I have found some wonderful treasures there. I highly recommend going just to see what you might find. I have found big books, brand new file folders, brand new binders, and so much more! Well, guess what I found on this shopping trip???

It's a wood table, if you're having trouble figuring it out! :)It was....$4.99! Can you believe it??? What am I planning to do with it, you might ask? Well, this weekend my boyfriend is going to help me paint it black. I am even hoping to add some lime green polka dots to it. I will use this table for "work on writing" with my kiddos. They can sit on floor pillows at the table. I can't wait to turn it into a master piece this weekend!!! Does anyone have any suggestions for what paint to use? I have never painted furniture before, but I am so excited. Thank you to everyone and your lovely projects for inspiring me to be more spontaneous....and PAINT! :)
Happy Wednesday!

Tell Me More, Tell Me More, and a WBT Rules FREEBIE!

Okay, so I am finally linking up with Amy Lemons over at Step into 2nd Grade for a Tell me more, tell me more Linky Party. I am fairly new to blogging, but I have nothing to hide so I am so excited to share! :)

1. I almost was on the show, "I Didn't Know I was Pregnant". Not really, but I should of been. Well, not me but MY DOG. I adopted a dog in December of 2010. They told me she was spayed (because who would get a dog that wasn't?). Well, about a month and a half later, Lexi was acting really strange, pacing, vomitting, you get the idea. I covered her with a blanket and headed to work. I had a friend go check on her and during lunch I got a phone call...."Lexi just had a puppy!" It was a complete nightmare for about 4 months. I couldn't bare to give him (Louie) away. I did eventually give him to a good home...my mom and dad. :)

Lexi under the bed with her new baby, Louie! :)

Louie a year and a half later! :)

2. I played the clarinet and bass clarinet for 11 years of my life. All through high school and college. I LOVED marching band. I actually have an endorsement/minor in music! 

3. During spring break in college I spent a week in New Orleans cleaning and building houses after Hurricane Katrina. I fell in love and went two years in a row after that. New Orleans will always have a special place in my heart!

4. In another world, I would be a dancer. I LOVE TO DANCE. I take every class possible at my gym that has to do with hip hop.

5. My boyfriend and I knew each other in college, but never were interested in each other. Two years after we graduated, we ran into each other and the rest is history. We have been together for 2 years. He is the most supportive person ever and wants to do everything to make me happy. I am 100 percent sure, he is the person I am going to be with for the rest of my life. 

6. I love chips. All chips. But my favorite chips are these:

I could seriously eat the whole bag in one day.

7. I talk to my parents everyday. Well, almost everyday. If I don't talk to them, I feel weird. They mean to the world to me. My little brother included!

 

8. My two favorite shows to watch are Teen Mom and Dance Moms. Ha ha, I am not ashamed to admit it!

9. I have over 80 pairs of shoes and so many clothes I can't even keep track of. Don't worry I am a bargain shopper. My first year of teaching, I wore a different outfit from August until April and then I had to repeat. I know CRAZY!

10. I am one of those dog people. I will take off work if my dog is sick. I do leave work at a decent time to get to my dog. I love her.

11. I used to be obsessed with Hello Kitty. I had almost every Hello Kitty thing you could think of. I did get rid of most it. I still own an alarm clock, a toaster, and a desk lamp. Yes, I still use them. 

12. My two favorite places to eat are Chipotle and Chick-fil-A. Enough said!

13. I bought my own condo when I was 23. I absolutely love it. Buying a house was a breeze for me! I started looking in April and after a week I had a place picked out. I closed on the house a month later!

Me holding the keys the day I closed!

I hope you enjoyed reading about me! :)

Now, onto some "teacher" stuff. I finally got my Scrappin Doodles license! YAY! So, now I can talk to you about the Whole Brain Teaching Rules.

Here are original the five rules:

Follow directions quickly!

Raise your hand for permission to speak!

Raise your hand for permission to leave your seat!

Make smart choices!

Make your dear teacher happy!

Each rule is taught with gestures. I am not sure how to explain the gestures, but you can youtube them or make up your own. The rules are numbered which is great for accountability. You can call out the number of the rule and the children can say the rule and do the appropriate gesture. At the conference, they stressed going over the rules several times a day at first. I love that!

Well, my teammates and I decided to change the rules a little. Here is what we came up with:

Follow directions quickly!

Raise your hand for permission to speak!

Keep your body to yourself! ( All first graders need this rule!)

Make smart choices!

Be safe, be kind, be honest! (This rule came from a kindergarten teacher blog, I can't find where I got it. If you know which one it is or it is you, PLEASE let me know so I can link back!)

We only made a few changes. My team and I were just not sure how our parents or our principal would react to "make your dear teacher happy".

Well, I made some rules posters and you can have them here for FREE. Just click the link below:

Whole Brain Teaching Rules Posters

Please let me know if you have trouble printing, etc. I would love for you to leave a comment if you use them! :)

I had a dream last night that one of my teammates and I got into a huge fight about what student cluster we would get. We were yelling and screaming. That would never happen in real life! The rest of the dream was me on the first day of school. I forgot to put the name tags on the kid's desk and I forgot the class rules I was supposed to teach the class. It was mad chaos. I can't believe I remember this dream so well. I don't know what that means...either I am stressing out about school already or it's a sign. I guess that means I better start planning out my first day...YIKES!

Monday Made it and my FIRST award!!!

Alright, I am ready for my first Monday Made it! I am so excited! I have been checking it out for weeks and now it's my turn! 4th grade Frolics you are genius!

So, here's what I made today:

First Day Name Badges

I got these from Sarah Cooley on Teachers Pay Teachers. You can get them here. They are totally free! I printed them, laminated them, cut, punched a hole, and tied some yarn through the hole. I wrote my student's name after being laminated in permanent marker. I plan to use these name tags for a few days if I need to and collect them at the end. Using permanent marker on laminate means I can use nail polish remover to wipe off and use next year!

One time, I made name tags and put them all together and they got soooo tangled. It was a complete nightmare. So, this time I wrapped the string around each nametag and used a paperclip to secure the string. 

***You wouldn't believe this, but we actually got our classlist in May! This is the first time I have wrote the names on stuff because I am nervous my list has changed! I am just keeping my fingers crossed that they didn't make a ton of changes! :)

Privacy Folders

NOT MY IDEA!! I got this idea from one of my lovely teammates. She is amazing and I told her to start her own blog. Girl, if you are reading this please start your own blog...you are so inspirational!!! :)

Well, I was originally going to make privacy folders out of file folders and packaging tape. When my teammate told me about how she did her's last year, I had to do it! Two pocket folders are so cheap right now! All you do is staple two folders together (the left of one on top of the left side of another...does that make sense?). Then, you're done! So easy! Cheap, too! For a class of 20, you need 40 folders, but I got 50 just in case! I am so excited about these!!!!

My first Monday Made It complete! I know, not super artsy or crafty, but at least it's something! Now, go LINK UP!

FYI, it is 99 degrees today in the Windy City. It is TERRIBLE! I managed to go to the gym and stop at Walmart to get these 

5 bookshelves from Walmart! They are black and were only $15.84. I am planning to put a shelf at each table with supplies and book baskets. I am all about organization this year! I got the idea from Jessica over at Dandelions and Dragonflies. Her classroom is beautiful!

These bad boys are 35 pounds each. There was no way I was going to take them all the way home and carry them up my huge flight of stairs! So, I drove to school (I was only 10 minutes away) and asked the office staff if I could put them in my class. They said yes! I made 5 trips to the car carrying these shelves into my classroom. I was SWEATING like crazy! Probably should have picked another day to move furniture into my classroom...but oh, well at least it's done! In honor of my hard work, I decided to stop and get this:

and then I instantly felt better. :)

Well, before I go I must say thank you to Anne over at Growing my Kindergarten. She nominated me for my first award! Yay, I couldn't be more excited! Thank you so much, Anne! 

This award is named for the german word "Liebster", which translates to  "beloved" or "favorite" and is given to a "new, up and coming blogger".

Here are the rules:
1. Link back to person who gave it to you
2. Post the award to your blog.
3.Give the award to at least 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers.
4.Leave a comment on the five blogs to let them know that they have been offered the award.

I am nominating the following blogs:
Surfing to Success

Darling Little Learners

The Groovy Teacher

First Grade and Fearless

Live, Laugh, Love Second

Please go check out these awesome blogs! :)

BLOG MAKEOVER!!!

HI!!!!!

I am beyond excited! I finally decided to get a new blog design. I tried the free one for awhile, but I just couldn't stand it anymore. I absolutely LOVE my new blog design! It is bold and bright...I love things that are loud. I can't stop looking at it! What do you think???!!!


 If you need a new blog design, I HIGHLY recommend that you check out Design by Christi. She is wonderful to work with. She is very efficient and wants you to love your blog. She is super sweet, too! :)I am a HUGE fan of saving money and her designs are very reasonable. She finished my blog in just a few short days and I could not be happier!! Please, head on over to Christi's page. I promise, you won't be disappointed!!!!!!


My parents are coming back from their anniversary vacation, in just a few short hours, which means I can finally leave the house! I will officially be freed from dog sitting! YAHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!


Guess where I'm going?


TARGET! (Is that a big surprise?)


I need to get some two pocket folders, binder pouches (they are .49 cents on sale this week!!), glue sticks, and file folders. Then I am headed to Walgreens because they have 10 pack sheet protectors for .39 cents!


Am I missing any other good deals this week? Let me know! I am ALL about saving money...
:)

Newbie Bloggers Hop and Some News!

Good evening, blog buddies!


Grade Three is the Place For Me is having a linky party! This is perfect for me!

1. What state you are in

2. Your current teaching position

3. Your teaching experience

4. When you started blogging

5. share a blogging tip/blogging resource

Here goes...

1. I am in Illinois. I teach and reside in the suburbs about 35 minutes from Chicago!

2. I currently teach first grade. I love it! :)

3. I student taught kindergarten for a semester. I was an aide in a first grade and fifth grade classroom for 6 months. I have been teaching first grade for 3 years!

4. I started REALLY blogging in June. It has truly been a blessing! :)

5. The best advice I can give is to comment on other blogs. It is a great way to meet other inspirational people. :)

What a fun linky party!

I have some good news...and some bad news.

Here is the good news: I purchased the Scrappin doodles license for  clip art. I am officially obsessed with clip art. Scrappin doodles has the CUTEST clip art. There are so many choices, I wish I could buy them all! This license means I can post freebies! Yay!

Here's the bad news: the license is going to be emailed to me within the next 48 hours. I don't have it. So unfortunately, I can't post my first freebie like I promised yesterday, just yet. :(

But my first freebie is complete! It goes with the WBT classroom rules that I will blog about soon!

I would like to give a quick shout out to my newest follower...

He's so sweet, I think he might be a keeper! :)