Blog Hoppin' ~ Day 1

I'm SOOOO excited to be linking up with Blog Hoppin' for their 2014 Back-to-School HOP!

So today, Day 1, is all about the WHO!  I figured I would give you some history on how I got to be where I am today.  Hope I don't bore ya :)

I decided after having my two children that I wanted to go back to school to become a teacher.  I loved teaching my kids new things each day, and the process that went into deciding what to teach and how to teach it.  Luckily, I was young when I had my kids so at the ripe old age of 25, after my son was born, I decided to jump head first into the college life.  It took what seemed like FOR-E-VA to finish my degree but I did so in 2005.  

My first job immediately after was teaching 1st grade in an urban school setting.  It was a great experience because I was able to co-teach with someone who became my life-long friend.  It was the first year for both of us and I have to say, in looking back, we did a pretty darn-good job!  We were given the "dumping" room.....you know, when all the teachers in the grade below try to piss off one particular teacher, so they give her all the problem students?  YUP, that was my first year of teaching.  By the end of that year, 18 out of 31 of my students had an IEP!!!!  My administrator joked with me that he was going to label the chair with my name since I attended so many initial IEP meetings that year.  My co-worker was amazing!!!  She is a natural-born teacher, through and through.  We really worked so well, and so hard, together that year that I will always look back with great pride at what we accomplished!

Unfortunately, there were MAJOR budget cuts in that district and I was laid off.  I again was incredibly lucky to land where I am today.  I interviewed for a suburban district near my home and was hired on a one-year contract.  The assignment I was given was 1/2 day Kindergarten.  Great you say????  It was great, except I taught morning Kindergarten in one school then had to drive to another to teach afternoon Kindergarten.  I maintained two full classrooms, had 48 students total and was completely exhausted at the end of that year!  But my current principal hired me permanently after that year so I must have done something right.....or she took pity on me :)

I taught Kindergarten for the last 4 years and just moved to 5th grade Special Education.  I cannot even begin to tell you how excited I am.  I really feel like this is going to be a great fit for my style of teaching.  

My teaching philosophy is for learning to be as FUN as I can possibly make it.  I want my kids to develop a true love of learning.  Given their experiences, I think there may be some initial resistance but I'm certainly up for the challenge.  I can't wait to get started!!!

Today, my kids are 19 (daughter) and 16 (son) and they are my WORLD!  I was married last summer to my best friend!  I am so lucky to have found him and have him be in my life.

So, that's me in a nut-shell!  Hello.....are you still awake????

Well don't forget to "HOP" back over to Blog Hoppin' to read about some other awesome bloggers.  Also, don't forget to come back here tomorrow for Day 2!  You're going to want to see that one!

While you're here, please make sure to "follow" my page to receive exclusive, blog-only special offers and discounts!  Thanks so much for stopping by!

The FOREVER Planner

I'm so excited to bring you this product!  I've been using something similar for years, just not as cute!  I worked on it a bit and made it functional for both school and home life.  I also included a calendar template that you can use FOREVER!

This product has a Week-At-A-Glance template for both home and school, as well as 12 months of calendar templates in color and black-and-white.  Trust me, this will keep you organized!!!!

I printed mine and inserted it into my new Binder.  You can download the preview for it HERE.  Just click on the picture above or HERE to download your FOREVER Planner today!

On to other news........this is going to be a VERY busy week!  I start back to school on Tuesday for a week of FUN professional developments.  Can't wait!  I'm also participating in a big GIVEAWAY from Tuesday - Monday.  There are some AMAZING prizes in this giveaway!  You definitely don't want to miss out on this one!

I'm also hooking up with Blog Hoppin' for their Back-to-School 2014 hop!  This week should be a blast!  Make sure to "follow me"so you don't miss any posts......I might even have some surprises in there for my loyal followers!

Facebook Fan FREEBIES!

I'm super excited to launch my Facebook Fan FREEBIE app!  I wanted a way to provide great resources exclusively to my Facebook fans so here it is!  I need to give a HUGE shout out to my blogging buddy Traci from The Bender Bunch for helping me set this up!

So what are you waiting for.  Head on over to my FB Page, make sure you "LIKE" the page, then download your FREEBIE!!!

Thanks so much for being a follower :)

Spoiler Alert!

I want to let you know about an AMAZING giveaway coming up this week.  The giveaway is going to run from August 19-25 and there are some AWESOME prizes up for grabs! 

Don't forget to check back on Tuesday for all the details!

Meet the Teacher Linky!

I'm so excited to participate in another linky today!  Whoa....I'm going to need a vaca after all this!  I'm hooking up with Falling Into First for her Meet the Teacher link-up.  I hope to meet a lot of great new / old bloggers, so here we goooooo . . . . .

My name is Lori and I live in the suburbs just outside of Philadelphia, PA.  I actually grew up in "Philly" as well like to call it.  I've been blogging now for about 2 years.  I have another blog (The Kindergarten Pod) because up until this year, I taught K.  Now I'm moving to 5th Grade Special Ed. so I decided to add another blog and TpT store.  It's been quite a summer trying to rebuild everything from scratch.  It would just have been too hard to continue on a blog / store with "Kindergarten" in the name.

I have two amazing children, 19 year old daughter & 16 year old son.  They are my world and my proudest accomplishment!  I have two furbabies, Mocha & Sophie.  I just love them to pieces.  I have been re-married for 1 year to my soulmate.  We married last July and have been blissfully happy ever since.  He is truly my best friend.  

Okay, here are the questions for the linky.....

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS...

My puppies!!!! See my pic of Mocha below (Sophie was not in a picture-taking mood!)  Colored duct tape (I like it too much!)  Spray paint: Something old becomes something new again!  The Beach:  Someplace I did NOT get to enough this summer!  Chevron & polka-dots: You'll see this reflected in most of my products.  Get-aways with my hubs: Something we don't do enough!

 IF YOU WEREN'T A TEACHER, WHAT WOULD YOU WANT TO BE?

Believe it or not, I'd probably be an accountant.  I like the way numbers work. I like the basic principle of accounting....things need to balance out.  Weird, huh?

THREE LITTLE WORDS THAT DESCRIBE YOU.

Loyal, Fun, Loving

 

FINISH THE SENTENCE, "________,  SAID NO TEACHER EVER!!"

"I LOVE getting up early every day!"
 

Q: IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY AND YOU CAN INVITE ANYONE {DEAD OR ALIVE} TO THE PARTY. WHO ARE YOU INVITING?

My Gram.  I'd love to see her again and I miss our long talks!

Q: IF SOMEONE WROTE A BOOK ABOUT YOUR LIFE, WHAT WOULD BE THE TITLE?

 Meet the REAL Mrs. Murphy!  

{If it can go wrong, it does go wrong!}

 Q:YOU GET TO PICK ONE SUPERPOWER. WHAT IS IT?

 Teleporting.  To be anywhere you want, anytime you want.....priceless!

Q: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE QUOTE OR SAYING?

"You must do the things you think you cannot do." 

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Q: IF YOU HAD TO SING ONE SONG ON AMERICAN IDOL, WHAT WOULD IT BE? 

 Margaritaville

 Q: ARE YOU A MORNING PERSON OR A NIGHT OWL?

I am VERY MUCH a night owl.  It is physically painful for me to wake up early . . . not even joking.  Painful.  All over!

Q: WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE RESOURCE THAT YOU'VE CREATED IN YOUR TPT SHOP?

 I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE "The Ultimate Binder."  I use it myself and it keeps me sooooo organized!

                             

There are SO many templates and forms in this document (over 240) and they are ALL editable!!! It is a unique binder for each person.  Definitely worth checking out.  And I've priced it lower than most on TpT just because I love it so much!  Click on any picture above to check it out!

Q: SHARE SOMETHING WE MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT YOU! 

Mmmmm, this is a tough one since I'm pretty open about things.  I guess something the blogging world wouldn't know about me is that I'm 41 years old.  Most people seem to be in their 20's and 30's so I kinda feel old on here.  But trust me, when you get to be this age, you still feel like your 20-/30-something!  

Well I'm so glad I could participate in this.  I'm heading back to check out some other blogger friends.  Definitely head back to the link-up!  Before you leave, I'd love it if you followed my blog!  I get tremendously happy each time I see that number go up.....trust me, I probably get too happy!  Thanks!

Monday Made-It

Hey All!  I'm hooking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for the weekly "Monday Made-It"  I love seeing & posting on Monday's!  I can't wait to see the cute things people come up with!  Us teachers are some crafty people!

Since my whole theme is changing this year, I decided to change up my Teacher's Toolbox to match.  While it may look flashy to some, I LOVE how it turned out!  You can see in the above picture, the toolbox was a light grey when I bought it.  I primed it, painted it black then sealed it.  I printed out the labels and attached them to the inside of the drawer.  Then I used Zebra Print duct tape around the handle of the drawers.  It's so pretty in person!

My next "made-it" is the reason I'm posting so late.  I was out shopping for Iced-T and just happened to find the black shelves I NEED wanted for my room.  When I was moving, my old ugly brown shelves broke and I was SO happy just devastated!  I found these on sale for $16 each!  Then, by some miracle from the heavens, I found Zebra Print contact paper.  Listen.....can you hear the angels singing????  It was definitely fate.  So I just H.A.D. to put them together.  Here is the result......

They turned out better than I thought they would.  I have a lot of bright colored bins at school that I'm going to put on there.  LOVE!

I also found this little cutie while I was shopping.  I will be hanging this above my new objectives area.  Can't wait to show you that in a later post!

I've also been busy working on my store and uploading products!  This one has only been up a few days and is already selling well!  They are editable Monthly Newsletters. 

It will be a HUGE time saver to just input your information and print.  I've provided three templates for each month....chevron, polka-dot and black-and-white.  Click on either picture to view the product in my store.

Made-It #5

I don't know why I can never find that darn image!

These got a revamp from my old ones.  I can honestly tell you, the kids go CRAZY over these things!  I give each student a punch card.  When they turn their homework in, I / they punch a hole in a numbered circle.  Once all 10 holes are punched, they get a reward.  I usually do extra time on the iPad or extra recess time....since those are the fan-favorites!  The kids take SUCH pride in their punch cards.  I've only ever had two student lose a card.  I provided the cards in lots of different designs so pick the ones you like and print them out.  I laminate mine for durability and have the students cut them out (which they love doing!)  Click on the picture to check them out!

Well that's it for me!  I'm going into my classroom the rest of this week to get things ready.  I'll have classroom reveal pics up by the end of the week.  Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Visual Plans / Sneak Peek

 

I am SO excited to hook up with Dee Dee Willis from Mrs. Willis Kindergarten for a sneak peek at lesson plans.  In fact, I learned how to do visual plans from her blog about a year or two ago.  It helps me because I am totally a visual person.  I need things in bright colors and neat, organized rows.   So when I saw her posting visual plans a while back, I was hooked!

If you don't know what visual plans are, here is a glimpse at an old one of mine.

Instead of writing out long, boring, detailed plans, I give myself a visual cue of what we are doing.  It saves me a lot of time to just glance at my book and know what to have on hand.

Each morning in Kindergarten, the kids arrive on a staggered schedule in about a 10 minute window of time.  When the bell rang, we started with work from my Kindergarten Morning Work packet.  It was great because the product starts off with some basic skills then progresses in difficulty as the year went on.  The kids could practice Literacy and Math / Number Concepts all on the same worksheet.  It gave me the necessary time to take attendance, address notes from home, etc.  The kids weren't just doing "busy work" either.  They were practicing the skills we were working on in class.  I included clipart and a border that the "fast finishers" could color while the others were finishing.

We would begin our day with Morning Meeting & Calendar Time, then we would get right into Word Work.  I loved this time of the day.  The kids were fresh and awake and eager to learn.  I would vary different word work activities, especially during the beginning of the year (VERY short attention spans!)  Early on, I would introduce our Sight Word Mini-Books.  We used these to practice concepts of print, letter identification, letter writing, and discrimination.....all in one cute little book! (We use the Dolch Sight Word list but I also made them for the Fry 100.)  I would use the remaining time to do a read aloud to work on Concepts of Print, fluency & comprehension.  The kids would go to Specials then lunch.

For afternoon Math, we'd start with daily routines {counting forwards, backwards, number of the day, question of the day, etc.}  During the first weeks of school, I would use my Number Practice pages.  These really helped the kids master each number: handwriting it and being able to represent it.  It also gave me time to work with struggling students with my RTI Math for Kindergarten program.  I always tried to address any struggling students as early as possible.  These activities really helped "catch-up" those students.

It was right around this point in the day I would start to lose some students.  We had a V.E.R.Y. long afternoon last year.  Most of the kiddies couldn't wait til rest time and would fall asleep!  I tried to keep them up and moving.  We would start our Sight Word Bracelets the first week of school.  The kids LOVE these things!  I would begin with our first three words....a, the, like.  I'd vary who got which bracelet so there were an equal number of each.  Then we'd meet up with our "teams" (the "A" Team, the "The" Team, etc.) and do brain break activities.  Some days we would build numbers using Play-Doh or something fun!

I posted my old schedule below so you could see how I laid out my day.  Like I said, I had to try to cram the learning portions of our day towards the morning since that was when they were at their best!

I hope this has been helpful to you!  I can't wait to get my schedule for this year so I can get busy making those plans!!!!

Head on back to Mrs. Willis Kindergarten to check out more great posts!  Thanks for stopping by!