The Leibster Award

I was nominated for The Liebster Award by Rachel from The Special ABCs. I feel so honored that she thought to nominate me.

The Liebster Award is given to beginning bloggers to help acknowledge up and coming blogs. Upon receiving the nomination, the blogger answers 11 questions to help their followers get to know them better. Then, I will have a chance to nominate 11 other bloggers!

1. Why and how long ago did you start blogging?

I started blogging in December of 2012 when the teacher I was working as a Teaching Assistant for introduced me to TPT. You may know her as Anna from  Simply Skilled in Second. She was an amazing mentor allowing me to teach here and there so I would have some experience. I started creating my own products to sell and she told me to start blogging to promote my products. I just didn't like how my blog looked for the past 3 years so I barely posted. I really wanted to start sharing the things I am doing in my current classroom so I decided to get my blog updated. Thanks to Lindsey from LPaulldesigns or better known as Thriving in Third.

2. What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why?
PASSION. Just like my name I am very passionate about teaching and everything that has to do with teaching.  I wish I had more time to be able to really share more and read all the wonderful blogs.


3. Is there something you learned late in your blogging journey you wished you knew before?
I wish I could have started networking with teachers sooner, by joining link ups and blog hops. My goal is to connect more with people and post more.


4. What is your favorite pastime other than blogging?
   I love to do ZUMBA! I have always loved to dance since I was a little girl. Zumba is a great way to not only workout but to have fun and make great friends. I have 4 instructors that I take classes from and we have all become best friends. They want me to get certified so I can substitute for them, but it costs between $200-$300 and that's a lot on a teacher salary. :-/  One day I will save enough money to get certified since I love it so much.

5.  How many hours a week do you dedicate to your blog/TPT?
 It truly depends what is going on in my life, but usually I can spend all Saturday and Sunday between creating products, posting on my Facebook Page and try to blog, which I need to get better at.

6. What category of blog posts do you enjoy most?
 I love reading blogs of second grade teachers since I learn new ways to teach the content of 2nd grade. I also love reading literacy blogs since I am passionate about literacy.

7. Where does your blog inspiration come from?
My inspiration comes from all the amazing teachers sharing their classrooms and how they teach, which makes me want to share what I've done and connect with these amazing teachers.

8. Which post that you've written are you most proud of?
  The post I am most proud of right now is my Chinese New Year  post. I am proud of this post because its the first real post of what I was doing with my students, and pictures of my students doing the activities. Ideally I wish I could do posts like that one once or twice a month.

9. Is there a post you have been planning to do but have been postponing it for a while now?
Like I said in the previous question I wish I could post what I am doing in my classroom once or twice a month. I need to pick 2 dates where I share everything we have done in all subjects.

10. What is your favorite aspect of blogging?
  My favorite aspect of blogging is the connecting with teachers from all around the world. I love learning new and fun ways to do things in my classroom through other teacher's blogs, and I like being able to share my ideas for them as well.

11. Which idea from a blog would you like to try yourself?
I will actually be trying to have my students complete their final writing sample, personal narrative, by using a lesson by Mrs. Lemons from Step into Second Grade which has the students write about their friend and uses the story Getting Ready for Second Grade Amber Brown. I wish I could have used it in the beginning of the year, but I know my students will still enjoy it.

Now I nominate these wonderful teacher bloggers:
Kayla from K's Classroom Kreations
Megan from Snapshots of Sixth Grade
Kellee from Stomping Through First
Teacher Twinkle Toes
Jessi from Wild West by Jessi
Rainah from Fit for Firsties
Melanie from A Trendy Teacher

The Rules to Receiving this Award are:
-Link back to the blog that nominated you
-Answer the 11 questions posted by the nominator
-Nominate 5-11 (blogs with followers less than 200 followers) and link to them in your post
-Contact the nominees and let them know they have been nominated

 

My Daily Schedule

I am linking up with Lucky Little Learners and Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd to share what my CRAZY schedule looks like.  My school runs on a 6 day WAVE schedule that runs A-F. Each letter day is assigned to a grade level K-5 for a planning day. 2nd grade's planning day is on D day and all my students go to their Enrichment/Specials for the entire day. The 2nd grade team meets in the conference room to plan what we will be doing for the next 6 days.  We are also an IB school so we use this time to also plan our IB unit (which revolves around Social Studies and/or Science) and reflect on a plan we just finished. We have no reading or math programs so we plan what standard we are going to be working on and what books we will use for our lessons.

You will notice my schedule is different every single day. We are only assigned a computer lab time that our TA brings them to, our lunch time and STAMPS/Robotics, we then can schedule another computer lab time we (the teachers) bring them to and a library time. The rest of my schedule is created by the teacher.  STAMPS is a chance for students to choose one of the enrichment classes for a second time in a week for 9 weeks at a time.

This is how I post the schedule each day, not only for them but so I can remember which day it is. Love the labels from Maria Monroe. You can click on the picture to be brought to the store.

Every morning our students are allowed to arrive between 7:30-8:15 for Morning Magic, which allows students to participate in clubs and have some interactions with other students playing games and doing some fun learning. Also teachers use this time for tutoring and even reading assessments. You will also notice on the schedule above on Mondays we have a Monday Morning Meeting where the entire school meets in the auditorium and a class runs the meeting sharing important information, share birthdays and the IB attitude of the week. On Mondays we also do Word Study so they can learn their new words for the week.

My room starts with Daily 5 because I have a Title I teacher who comes into my room at 8:15 to work with 2 of my students who are at a Kindergarten reading level and then she pulls a second group at 8:45 that are on a beginning 1st grade level. I work with 2 groups from 8:45-9:45 while the other students are in Daily 5 centers.

A Day

8:15-8:45 Morning Work

8:45-9:45 Daily 5

 

9:45-10:15 Reading

10:15-11:15 Math

11:15-11:45 Lunch

12:00-12:30 Recess

12:50-1:35 STEM (Robotics)

1:30-2:00 Writing

2:00-2:45 Science/Social Studies

2:45-3:00 Snack/Packup/Dismissal

---

 B Day

8:15-8:45 Morning Work

8:45-9:45 Daily 5

 

9:45-10:15 Reading

 

10:15-11:15 Math

11:15-11:45 Lunch

11:50-12:35 Computers

12:35-1:00 Recess

1:00-1:45 Writing

2:00-2:45 Social Studies/Science

2:45-3:00 Snack/Packup/Dismissal

 

---

C Day

 8:15-8:45 Morning Work

8:45-9:20 Daily 5

9:20-10:05 Computers  

10:10-11:10 Reading 

11:15-11:45 Lunch

 12:00-12:30 Recess

12:30-1:30 Math

1:30-2:00 Writing

2:00-2:45 Science/ Social Studies

2:45-3:00 Snack/Packup/Dismissal

---

 D Day

8:15-9:00 Morning Work

8:45-9:45 Daily 5

 

9:45-10:15 Reading

 

10:10-10:55 Spanish

10:55-11:55 Lunch/Recess

11:55-12:40 P.E.

12:45-1:30 Art

1:35-2:20 Music

2:25-2:45 Read Aloud/Snack

2:45-3:00 Snack/Packup/Dismissal

---

E Day

8:15-8:45 Morning Work

8:45-9:30 STAMPS

9:30-11:15 Reading  

11:15-11:45 Lunch

11:45-12:00 Bathroom Break

12:00-12:30 Recess

12:30-1:30 Math   

1:30-2:00 Writing

2:00-2:45 Science/ Social Studies

2:45-3:00 Snack/Packup/Dismissal

---

F Day

8:15-8:30 Morning Work

8:45-9:45 Daily 5

 

9:45-10:00 Reading

 

10:00-10:45 Library

 

10:45-11:15 Silent Reading

11:15-11:45 Lunch

12:00-12:30 Recess

12:30-1:30 Math

1:30-2:00 Writing

2:00-2:40 Science/Social Studies

2:45-3:00 Snack/Packup/Dismissal

 

 

I hope you enjoyed looking over my CRAZY schedule. Make sure to check out the other teachers sharing their schedules below.



An InLinkz Link-up

First Freebie Success

I am so excited! Today I reached 200 likes on my Facebook Page. That is an increase of 100 in less than 2 months! It's amazing! Due to the excitement I had my first flash freebie. I couldn't decide on the product so I even put that up to a vote and the people spoke. I had my Money Unit as a Freebie for 20 mins tonight and had 58 downloads plus 5 that couldn't download due to it being a zip file. I am so excited from the outcome and can't wait to do more! Not only did I do the flash freebie to celebrate but my whole store is 20% off until Wednesday!!  Take a look at my store and if you want the freebie I had tonight for only $4.80 go get it now!

Chinese New Year!

It has been a crazy past 3 weeks! We had 2 weeks of snow days and 2 hour delays so I felt like I fell so far behind. We also got observed by our principal for 5 minutes to see if we are interacting with the standards and are being global since we are an IB school. Well lets just say I didn't get checked for either, and instead of getting discouraged I took it as a challenge. They want us to be global in all, yes ALL, subjects. 2nd grade's continent of focus is Asia, which can have difficulties sometimes finding materials. Luckily these past few weeks we have been able to focus on the Chinese New Year.  We started with making Chinese Lanterns and tied this into our writing unit for How-to's.

                                                        Chinese Lantern

 

 As we made the lanterns I modeled how to write a How-to with the title, materials and method, which was introduced to them prior to this activity.  We did a few different crafts that connected to the Chinese New Year as well to practice the format of a How-to. We made a Chinese Red Envelope and a Chinese Rattle Drum. The kids loved doing these crafts. Next week they are making an Asian hat and Dragon Puppet.

                                             Chinese Red Envelope

Chinese Rattle Drum

 

To make our Chinese New Year Celebration more authentic we had Chinese food and a parade around the school.

 They even carried their lanterns with them during the parade. They also made Sheep Masks since it is the year of the sheep.

To show all we have learned about the Chinese we created Flip Flap Books from Simply Skilled in Second that came out adorable! We worked on 2 letters a day and usually when I do these adorable books I do it with them, but this time I had them work on this independently, except my kiddos that need teacher help. 

The kiddos were able to work on these independently because Anna included a brochure of all the information needed to answer all the information on each letter.

 

                                                         Finished product
Due to being told I wasn't being global you know I had to display these beauties in the hallway for everyone to see! :)   Thank You Anna from Simply Skilled in Second for these adorable Flip Flap Books!

 If you would like to get that mazing Flip Flap Book click on the picture just above.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all the wonderful things we did the past few weeks for the Chinese New Year. I will keep you all posted on what other fun global things we are doing in our classroom.

Teachers Are Heroes TpT Site Wide Sale

Who doesn't love a HUGE TPT sale. Well TPT is throwing a "Teachers Are Heroes" Sale tomorrow Feb. 25th. I am linking up with Mrs. D's Corner sharing what is in my cart for the big sale. I have found some great products through this link up which is why I wanted to share my cart. Click on the photo to be taken right to the product to check it out.

I love these scoots. I keep seeing them on Sailing Into Second's Facebook page for a Giveaway but missed it. They are bright, colorful and cute.

 We are about to start teaching Fairy Tales after teaching Fables and I loved this unit. Love how it is common core aligned and uses cultural versions which is perfect for my school being an Global School.

I love these Social Studies Vocab Cards that are aligned with the NC Essential Standards. My principal is very big on showing interaction with the standards which this would help.

There are a bunch of clipart bundles in my wish list as well. I am back into creating so they might add up quick.  Hope you have a great shopping spree tomorrow!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Snow Day

We have our first real snow of the year in Eastern North Carolina, which resulted in a snow day. The snow has become rain so I am sure we will have a delay tomorrow or no school again. You would think I would be happy, but we have to add each day to the end of the school year. The only good thing about today off is that I get to work on a few products just in time for the big sale tomorrow!!! I love being a teacher and the best is a huge sale just because teachers are amazing. Enjoy 28% off all my products and a lot more products from other fabulous Teacher Authors.

My New Blog Design!!!

My journey for this blog started when I was introduced to TeachersPayTeachers and started creating products that I thought kids would enjoy. I had to start promoting my products so I started blogging. I had one problem I HATED how generic my blog looked compared to all the other wonderful Teacher Bloggers. I never wanted to blog because I wasn't excited about it.  I did a lot of research on who did custom blog designs. A lot of the ones I came across wanted between $100-$200 and since I recently moved on my own I didn't have the money to spend that much. I then came across Lindsey Johnston's Blog Designs and not only were they cute, but they were affordable!!!  She created an amazing design that matched my personality and was always willing to make any small changes I asked, which there were a lot since I am OCD. She had it done a lot sooner than I thought and always willing to help me in any way. I now feel like I can brand myself on a professional level and have now joined all my fellow Teacher Bloggers in STYLE!!!   Thank You So Much Lindsey!