Looking Ahead to the 2012-2013 School Year

While the last post made me nostalgic for summer vacation, the eve of a new school year has gotten me thinking about the aspects of the school year that I am looking forward to. My goal this year is to work harder on having a positive outlook in the classroom and trying not to take myself too seriously. This is often easier said than done (check back in November), but as of right now that's the plan! So here are just a few things I am looking forward to as I pack up my teacher bag tonight:

1. The kids! I know it sounds corny and cliche but one of the things that I love most about teaching is that every 9 months is a new beginning. And although I love my former students dearly, it's nice to take on new challenges and set my former students free to take on their next adventure.

2. After a fantastic summer of puppy kisses and house projects, a small part (emphasis on small) is looking forward to getting back into a routine. I had my first grad class of the year last week and sitting in one place for four hours almost pushed me over the edge. Definitely need to get over this!

3. As a newer teacher I have constantly felt as though I was trying to play catch-up with my colleagues when it comes to curriculum. This year though, we are getting all new curriculum and I am ready for the challenge. This is the first time that I feel as though I will be on the same page as my colleagues and begin to make the curriculum my own.

4. At the end of the day, one of the best parts about my job is working with my fellow teachers. We laugh, we cry, we prank each other. I am so fortunate to work with such a great group of professionals and they make coming to work easier on tough days.

5. Last year I spent a lot of time simplifying my life. I quit my part-time job (what was I thinking?), I practiced saying "no" and I started doing yoga. All of these things have helped me to focus more on the job at hand (aka my students) and I am hoping that this year I will be able to reap the rewards of these sacrifices.

With that positive mindset, I am off to go enjoy what's left of my summer vacation (all 17 hours of it)! What are you looking forward to as you pack up your bag tonight?

Top 12 of Summer 2012

Going into my third-year of teaching, I am finding that I am, well, a little less enthusiastic about the upcoming school year. I can still remember going into my first year, counting down the days until I met my new kiddos and started my career. But now that I am a little more cognizant of reality, I have been struck with the end of summer blues.

So to beat them, I am going to say GOOD-BYE to summer and welcome in a new and great year. It's all about the attitude right? Here it goes, the Top 12 Favorites of Summer 2012:

12: You might recall from a previous post that we got a puppy this summer (more on that later). Because of this, I got to spend a lot of time hiking this summer. I am definitely going to miss that!

11: Sleeping in! 

10: Having the time to curl up with good books on the hammock and relax. My top favorite books this summer include MWF Seeks BFF, Walk to Water and The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

9: I loved trying out some new recipes this summer. Our top pick: pulled pork tacos with avocado sauce - yum!

8: This was the summer of actually starting yoga, not just saying that I was going to do it. Yoga was actually fun relaxing. One of my goals for the school year is to stick with it.

7: We were lucky to be able to spend some good QT with some of our closest friends this summer - I'll miss having that time.

6:It was nice to be able to get some big projects around the house done this summer, like the puppy's kennel, painting all of the doors upstairs (ugh) and having time to organize. Projects during the school year are always on a "must-do" basis.

5: Dare I say it? Watching TV. I cringe as I type this. I'm not a huge TV fanatic, but because I miss out on so much during the school year, I can't pull myself away during the summer. Some summer favorites: Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and 2 Broke Girls.

4: Pinterest! I swear I invented Pinterest in my mind ten years ago, but now that it actually exists, I'm addicted. I spent far too much time this summer pinning (thus all the school projects I was motivated to do).

3: For some reason, I can never do any good clothes shopping during the school year. Trust me and my credit card bill, it got done.

2: Lucy! Lucy was definitely the highlight of our summer and I am going to miss, miss, miss her while I'm away at school. It'll definitely be nice to come home to puppy kisses :)

1: The thing I will miss most about summer is getting to spend time with my husband! We're both going to be crazy busy this school year as we both finish up our Master's and take care of The Goose.

What are you going to miss most as you head back to school?

You Can Do Anything!

I can do anything, I can do anything. I've been saying that to myself a lot these past few days as I start to organize my classroom for my incoming kiddos. There's just so much to do in so little time!

But that's not really what this post is about, have no fear. It's actually about a new bulletin board that I am going to be posting in my room this year that was inspired by another teacher in my district when I did walk-throughs at her school and by the movie The Help. I know, randomness. But in the movie, one of the main characters constantly reminds the child that she cares for that "You is kind. You is smart. You is important." It really stuck with me and I decided that it was a message that I wanted my students to embody and to know (in a more grammatically correct way, of course).

So here is my inspirational bulletin board for the year!

The Paint Can

During the summer, I really like to take time to do projects that have inspired me over the school year that I don't have time to sit down and do amidst the chaos. One project that I knew I wanted to tackle was creating a center where students could free-write in their writer's notebooks using motivating prompts. I found some great prompts on different websites, but they were all on simple cards and I didn't think my students would get excited about choosing one. Enter The Paint Can.

The original plan was to create a Journal Jar that looked something like the picture on the right. Thanks to good ol' Pinterest though, I decided to be wild and crazy and use paint samples from Lowe's to write the prompts on.

Once I had my free paint samples in hand, it was off to Michael's to find a mason jar. After scouring the store for twenty minutes and dropping a stack of scrapbook boxes off a top shelf on my husband's head (I really needed to see if they were on sale - oops!), I stumbled upon the perfect container: a faux paint can!

When I got home, I wrote the prompts on the paint samples and folded them into triangles. Then I jammed gently placed the triangle prompts in and voila! My first Pinterest-worthy masterpiece (if I do say so myself!).  

So if I had to pick one project that I was proudest of this summer, it would have to be The Paint Can. During down time, my students can pop the lid off with the handy-dandy lid-popper do-hickey (official term, obviously), pick out a prompt and get writing!

I'm really excited to head back into my classroom tomorrow and start unpacking everything to get ready for the school year - it's going to be a busy week!

Good-bye Summer, Hello School Year!

Our puppy, Lucy, at 8 weeks old!

It's hard to believe that there's only a week left of summer vacation! My husband (who also teaches) and I definitely had a busy summer filled with house projects, school projects and our favorite project - our new puppy! We brought home our 8-week old yellow Labrador Retriever puppy Lucy the day after school got out and it has been non-stop ever since.

With only ten days left of summer vacation, it is finally time to accept reality and more importantly, to get back onto a schedule. The worst part about starting a new school year is getting used to waking up at the crack of dawn and staying up late to get everything done. So starting on Monday, I'll be doing half-days back in my classroom to start getting myself used to going back to work and to have Lucy get accustomed to us not being home with her 24-7. BIG SIGH!

Because tomorrow will put us into single-digits, it's starting to hit me that my  classroom to-do list needs to get tackled - ASAP! I've been plugging along most of the summer on projects that I just can't find the time to do during the school year, such as setting up centers for morning work, thinking about and planning for my new math notebooks that I hope to launch this year and pondering how to incorporate explicit goal-setting into my classroom.

That being said, I'm going to get cracking on wrapping up some last minute projects. Tomorrow I will be sharing one of my first Pinterest projects (addicted!) so be sure to check back!

About Me

Anyone that has ever met me would tell you that I love projects; I love everything about them - the to-do lists, the task break-down, the thrill of finishing a project. That's why it shouldn't be a surprise that I'm ready to take on a new project: this blog! For the past two years, I have been haunting the education blogs of fellow colleagues and I figured it was time for me to try my hand at it.

This year will be my third year as a fifth-grade teacher in a small town in New England. I teach all subjects, but my favorite subject to teach is by far math. It's ironic because growing up, I HATED math. I have vivid memories of crying at the kitchen table, well past my bedtime, as my dad and I scoured out-dated math books (pre-Google, obviously) in an attempt to figure out my math homework.

I have wanted to be a teacher ever since I can remember. I graduated from college three years ago and was fortunate enough to land a full-time teaching job right away. It has definitely been an adventure juggling teaching full-time, graduate classes, extracurricular activities, a new puppy and being a new wife. I wouldn't change any of it for the world though!

So here goes another project, just in time for a new school year  - bring on the coffee!