End of Year Giveaway / Winter Break Happenings

I am running a giveaway on my most popular product at my teachers notebook store. The item I am giving away is my original cause and effect game. This has been my best seller on both Teachers Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers. Three lucky winners will win the game. Hop over to enter today - giveaway ends on January 1.

This winter break I have really enjoyed so far some down time. It has been wonderful to catch up with my Tivo, my Kindle, and my family and friends. I also went to Tijuana Flats Teacher Hero Day on December 27 and got my free meal and my mom bought a meal - we were told proceeds were going to those affected by the Sandy Hook incident. What a great thing the people there are doing to help others and to honor teachers. I enjoyed some Christmas time with my brother and nieces as they came to visit and I am looking forward to seeing my nieces again with my sister-in-law when I travel to Universal for my birthday in a few days! What fun :) Going with my aunt and my little cousin, plus meeting up with one of my teacher friends and her kids for lunch one day. This has been a great break so far. Having a puppy at Christmas time was fun too - Snowball thoroughly enjoyed the holiday! I also celebrated my mom's birthday over the break.

Licking his lips after enjoying his new peanut butter bones!

Passed out after way too much excitement for the day!

On the teacher side, I got report cards done, lesson plans for first week back done, and I made one game because I know I have measurement coming up and teaching the conversions is always so difficult for the kids. I made an "I Have, Who Has" game for both customary and metric conversion practice. If you want one, comment below (good for 4th -6th graders). I will give copies to the first 2 people to comment with their e-mail address.

Hope everyone had/is having a great vacation. May we all be rested and relaxed as we return back in January (and may the light bulbs start going off for our kiddos when we return).

Puppy

 So not school related, but it's Friday - the weekend - and I'm D-O-N-E done. Going to be making a new item for my Teachers Pay Teachers store on idioms, but right now going to share my adorable puppy pictures.

After a bath (which he hates).

Enjoying his yummy peanut butter puppy cookies.

How was your week? I don't know why 4 day weeks seem to take forever, but it was a long one. On the plus side we had a training this week in which I actually got to learn something new and usable in my opinion. Is anyone familiar with Odyssey? I don't mean like Odyssey of the Mind, but it is a computer software program in which you can assign students tutorials, quizzes, practice exercises, etc. You can assign just what some students need or you can assign stuff whole class. I am soooo excited about it. I used it Thursday in my classroom and my kids were BEGGING me to give them more work to do on the computer. Uh? When do kids ASK for work?! I love that I can give them what they need or have my whole class review a topic. Stuff is based on our Florida Standards and Common Core also. Such a neat tool. If you use this at your school, do you have any input on how to best implement in a classroom with only 5 student stations?

Busy, fun day

Not only do I teach school all week, but I teach dance classes 4 nights a week and Saturdays. Our studio has recently undergone construction and expansion so today we had our grand re-opening. Our teams performed their new routines and then had a nice night out with some great parents and kids from the studio.Gotta love a fun day like this. Above is part of the acro piece my dancers are doing this year. Below are some fun pictures from today!

Soooooo Early

Up at 3:00am today because the dance studio I work at is being featured on our local Fox News Morning show from 5am-8am. I am super excited for this opportunity for our dancers, but right now am wondering how I will survive the day (plus Wednesdays we have our super fun-filled faculty meetings to implement common core!) - I think I will need a Starbucks IV to make it through the day.

Swamped

I have been totally swamped this year and haven't had much time for blogging. I am currently teaching my lovely 5th graders all day, then 3 days a week I run to physical therapy right after the bell rings (I was in a car accident in May the last day of school and still nowhere near healed), and then 4 nights a week I teach dance classes (plus Saturday mornings). Also our district has implemented a new "1/2 hour" training time once a week (which my school does 30 minutes earlier on Wednesdays. Plus, I am trying to catch up on implementing common core, etc. Can you say overwhelmed. I will try to get back to some creating & sharing in the next few weeks, but please hang with me.
Thanks

Isaac

Riding out the storm at my mom's. No school tomorrow.

My fur-baby

Snowball around 4 months old

My adorable Maltese puppy (he's currently 9 months old as of July 13). His name is Snowball. He is trouble with a capital T right now! He's into sneaking out of the house, chewing on shoes, and walking all over my keyboard while I am trying to set up my blog. However, he is so cute and cuddly and lovable :)

Welcome!

Welcome. I am currently a fifth grade teacher in Lee County, FL. I am entering my 12th year of teaching...I can't believe it. I have taught second, third, fourth, and fifth grades. I have team taught, looped three times, taught in three different schools (two in Seminole County and one in Lee County). I have always wanted to be a teacher! Besides teaching school, I also teach dance classes 4 nights a week and Saturday mornings. It is my passion to impart in children a strong sense of self, good moral character, and the educational tools to succeed in life.