Random Messages!

Hello blog world! It's been a little over 3 months since my last blog post, so I'm not even sure there's anyone still visiting my little blog; I hope so! I'm planning to blog daily over winter break. I find it hard to blog during the school year. How do you all do it? I usually start a post, but never get around to finishing it. Does anyone have any advice on how to get into a quick and easy routine?

Even though I haven't blogged in a few months doesn't mean I haven't kept up with the blogging world. A couple of ways I stay in touch is Instagram and Twitter. I've gotten so many ideas just by following fellow teachers and bloggers. 

One of my favorites on Twitter is Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent). You may have heard of his app Stick Around! I've just recently downloaded it, but have yet to figure it all out...something I have on my winter break to-do list. I first came across Tony on Pinterest. I saw his "Roll and Reflect" QR codes, and fell in LOVE with them. Each time you scan the code a different question comes up (I believe there are 20 different questions.) I'd never seen a qr code that had a different message each time you scanned it, so I was intrigued, and started following Tony on Twitter, hoping I could figure out how he did it. Well this past November my hoping paid off, Tony posted the directions on how to create your own HTML's to create a random message here. I was so excited! Following the directions in his post I was able to make my first random msg. HTML. It was so awesome! I created questions for the book Island of the Blue Dolphins. I then had my small group of students scan the code, hold up the question on their iPad, and we went around the circle and answered each one. It worked out GREAT! Here is the qr code I created:

If you're not following @tonyvincent on Twitter you should. Also check out his roll and reflect qr codes; along with his blog post on how to create your own random messages. 

Sunday Scoop (9-14)

I'm back with another Sunday Scoop! I'm linking up with the ladies over at Teaching Trio for this fun linky. 

I've put off my lesson planning since we have PD tomorrow. I'll have to get them done tonight. 

Students have finished their first book project and I'm hoping to get them all graded and returned to students this week. My goal is to grade 5 from each class everyday this week. I also need to make a Walmart run soon and pick up some necessities we are running low on a lot of items. 

Last week, I was hoping to get out and run/walk 4 times and only made it out twice. This week I'm hoping to get out 3 times. Girls on the Run begins this week, so that will help motivate me a bit more. We are two weeks away from my son's 3rd birthday, and I'm hoping to get all the shopping done this week for party supplies, and order the cake, and balloons.

As soon as I post this we are going to head out to the circus. I'm so excited! The ringmaster is a guy I went to school with, and I'm looking forward to seeing him do his thang!!!  It is my son's first circus! Did you know your child can get a free ticket to their first circus if you sign up before their first birthday? We're using his free ticket voucher today.

Have a great week, and I'm of to the Greatest Show on Earth! 

September Currently

I'm finally getting around to completing my currently for the month, and linking up with Farley. 

Listening- Everyone is asleep, and I should be too, so it is silent. With the exception of the hum of the refrigerator, but I can tune that out. 

Loving- What a great group of students I have this year (knocks on wood)! They have been AMAZING! They follow directions, and they want to learn. It's going to be a great year! 

Thinking- Yes, it is 3am on a school night, and I cannot sleep...I hate when this happens! It's going to be a long day, and at some point during the week I'm going to have to catch up on sleep. When will that happen? It probably won't! 

Wanting- You all know the feeling of back to school (new reading series) stress, right? I'm wanting a massage to help alleviate the aches and pains that come with it. 

Needing- I know I need sleep, but for some reason my body doesn't think so. 

3 Trips- I've been wanting to visit Africa for ever! It's on my bucket list, but I don't  have any plans to visit before I retire, which is at least 15 years away:) My dream wedding will take place in Kauai, Hawaii sometime in the future...I hope. My number 3 travel destination was a toss up between France & Italy. If I have to choose I would pick Italy. There is so much history there that I would like to see. 

 Enjoy the rest of September! 

The Sunday Scoop

The ladies over at Teaching Trio have a new weekly linky called, "The Sunday Scoop." It's quick, easy, and fun! It may just be my new favorite linky. Take a look at my Sunday Scoop: 

It's that simple. Click here to link up your Sunday Scoop! Have a great week.

Five For Friday

I'm finally linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five For Friday! It's been awhile...I always have good intentions of linking up, but finding the time is always a struggle! Here I am with a quick Five for Friday to start my day:

Don't you just love short weeks? Mine was even shorter considering I had a sub on Wednesday! It's so hard to have a sub when you're still trying to establish routines, but we made it through.   

All students now have iPads, YAY! It's been a slow start, but finally all students have been issued an iPad. This year each student has their own Apple ID, and it has taken some time to get some of them set up. From what I can tell, so far, I like the idea of students having their own Apple ID. The initial setup was long, but I think in the long run it will be with it. We'll just have to wait and see. 

We finally began unit one of our new reading series, Reading Wonders. It's taken awhile to figure it all out, especially the technology piece, but we are slowly getting into a routine. WOO HOO!!!

We "flipped" our back to school night! I know you've heard all about the flipped classroom? Well we've been moving towards flipping lessons for sometime now. It began last year with flipped faculty meetings, the convocation speaker this year spoke about one take videos in our classroom; which was awesome! So, we decide as a staff to give parents a taste of what their students will experience, and flipped our back to school night. Each team created two posters to hang in the hallway. Each poster contained: QR codes for parents to scan, and view videos that introduced the team teachers, an ELA, social studies, math, and science video that went over course expectations.  All of our specials teachers created videos and had posters hanging in the hallway as well. Each club sponsor created a video and that was available to parents also. Having the videos allowed more time for us (teachers) to visit with parents and answer specific questions, and if a parent couldn't make it to back to school night all of the videos are accessible on YouTube. Here is what our team's poster looked like. Overall, I think the night went well. Many parents had even watched the videos prior to attending back to school night. 

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL!? I am! Today is RED Friday in Kansas City. The town will be painted with KC Chiefs RED as we prepare for the home opener this weekend! We're having a RED Friday celebration at work as well, tailgate in the lounge! Football and lesson plan Sundays here we come! 

  

Even the statues are ready for football season! Have an awesome RED Friday!

Saturday Snapshots (on Sunday)

The weekend has come to an end! School starts on Tuesday, and instead of spending my weekend stressing about open house and the first day of school, I kept busy with non-school related activities. I'm linking up with Miss Nelson, for Saturday Snapshots, with a few pictures from the weekend. 

I attended a Kansas/Missouri blogger meet up on Saturday, and meet some awesome ladies. Thanks Coast to Coast Kinder for putting this together. 

Last Saturday, I mentioned we had won tickets to the Midwest Balloon Fest...here are pictures from the fest; it was pretty AMAZING! 

As we entered the Balloons were being inflated. 

It was pretty cool to see them all glowing at the same time. 

Look it's Elvis! 

I wanted to go on a tethered balloon ride (it doesn't go very high), but the line was super long! Some people waited 2-3 hours for a ride. Here's a picture of the balloon you could ride in. 

Susan G. Komen's Race for the Cure was Sunday morning. I was a bit worried about running/walking this race, because it was storming when I woke up. However, it had all cleared up by race time, leaving us with great weather for the walk. 

I hope you had a great weekend! Have a great week! 

A Peek at My Week

Today, I'm going to link up with Jennifer, over at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings, for a Peek at my week.

Monday will be my official last day of summer:( And I plan to spend it in my classroom. 

Tuesday I officially return to work. I'm sad to see summer go, but excited to see my co-workers and prepare for the class of 2021! Plus, I get to spend the day working in my room. I love that the district gives us the first day back to work in our rooms. It hasn't always been that way. 

Wednesday is all day professional learning. You know the day the principal reviews all those policies and procedures. This day usually gives me a headache, information overload! 

Thursday another day to work in my room, oh yeah! 

Friday morning will begin with convocation. Convocation is usually a lot of fun! I get to see my teacher buddies from other buildings. We get a little rowdy and pumped up for the new school year!  I can't wait to see what the board office has planned this year. 

Then comes the weekend...the weekend before the kids arrive is the longest, most stressful weekend EVER!!! I'm usually trying to finish things for my classroom. However, this year I have plans, so I'm not sitting around stressing about all that still needs to be done. 

Saturday there's a Kansas City blogger meet up! I'm looking forward to putting some faces with some names, and meeting some fellow bloggers in the area. This is my first blogger meet up, so I'm pretty excited. Later, I'll be heading out to the Midwest Balloon Festival. Can't wait to see all the hot air balloons glow! 

Sunday I'm running/walking (more walking than running) in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5k. Then I will prepare for my first week with students!!!

When do you return to work? What does your first week of work look like? Be sure to check out Mrs. Laffin's Laughings a peek at my week linky. I'm sure there's someone still on summer vacation and headed someplace fun! 

Have a great week! 

Saturday Snapshots

I'm back with another edition of Saturday Snapshots! It's been a couple of weeks since I've linked up with Miss Nelson's Saturday Snapshots, so I thought I'd head over and link up some photos from my last week of summer vacation. Yes, I return to work on Tuesday.  

The Midwest Balloon Fest is next weekend, and in an effort to promote the event the Wonder Bread hot air balloon tethered in front of Union Station. We were there to watch the entire set up. Pretty exciting for my 2 year old. 

We even won tickets to the Balloon Fest next weekend! I'm looking forward to seeing the fifty plus hot air balloons. Hopefully, I'll get some great photos to share next Saturday. In the meantime head over to Miss Nelson's blog and check out more Saturday Snapshots.

My Teacher Tote

Teacher by the Beach is having a "My Teacher Tote" linky. I think this is such a cute idea, so I'm linking up. Plus, I just received a new "teacher bag."

I've never been one to specifically purchase a bag for work. The bags I've used in the past have just shown up. Several have come from conferences, some from students, or I've purchased some (cheap) cute bag on sale. Needless to say, I would go through a couple of bags a year. However, switching to a 1:1 iPad school, I found I don't need a huge bag (much) anymore. Most days I leave school with nothing more than my iPad and my purse. So, I was super EXCITED when a friend of mine showed me the Vera Bradley tablet hipster, online. I wanted it! And, guess what!? It arrived yesterday! 

More than anything, I'm excited about the front flap for my iPad! Every purse I own is just a tad bit to small for it. I've been wanting something that would hold an iPad, and whatever else I may throw in my purse; which isn't much. It's very roomy inside, with two pockets and a zipper pocket. To my surprise there is another outside magnetic pocket that I don't remember reading about in the description, but I LIKE it!

What does your teacher tote look like? You can see what others are carrying over at Teacher by the Beach's linky party.

I'm off to find a lunch bag:) 

Wordless Wednesday

I'm linking up with Miss DeCarbo for Wordless Wednesday. 

Less than 3 weeks before I'm back in my classroom. How much summer do you have left? 

Currently {the Middle of} July

It is currently the middle of July, and I'm joining the currently linky party over at, Oh Boy Fourth Grade. I know I'm late for the party, but better late than never. Without further ado here's my July currently...

Listening: The nightly news is on and they're talking about the weather across the United States. It seems many of you are probably experiencing thunderstorms. We are experiencing fall like temps here in Kansas City. As I write this the current tempeture is 70 degrees. I'm loving our current weather, and it's predicted to last the reminder of the week before tempeture begin to warm up. 

Loving: I am having a wonderful summer! I have a two year old and we are having a blast! I'm going to be so disappointed when I return to work, in three weeks. 

Thinking: THREE WEEKS of summer is all I have left. Summer has gone by so fast! I haven't accomplished much of my summer cleaning, or any of the school projects I had in mind. 

Wanting: Summer needs to slow down, way down! Ha! What are the chances of that happening? I guess I need to speed up. 

Needing: As I mentioned earlier I haven't accomplished much of anything I wanted to, and that's because I just haven't been very motivated. I am in dire need of some motivation, or back to school is not going to go well. Any suggestions???

4th Plans: Since the 4th has come and gone, I'll just tell you how I spent it. I attended a family picnic in the park, and was able to catch up with some of my cousins. Fun times! Later, we went to the lake and watched a beautiful fireworks display. 

There you have it, my extremely late July currently. I sure hope there's someone out there still interested in reading a July Currently! I'll do better next month. 

Monday Made It

It's Monday! I made it! And I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for  Monday Made It. This is my first time linking up this summer. Trying to get my mind in back-to-school mode. Only a few weeks left. 

 I made something very simple, post-it clipboards. You've probably seen them on Pinterest. Working in a 1:1 iPad school students don't have a need for much paper. However, there are times I want them to write a quick answer or response on a scrap piece of paper. Since they don't usually have paper it was always a scramble for scrap paper; taking up precious minutes. Hopefully, I can cut down on wasted time this year by having 2 post-it note clipboards at every group. 

These clipboards would also make it easier for me to give students feedback. I could pick up one at anytime and quickly write a note to a student. 

They are very simple to make and require very few materials. 

Materials: 

1. square coasters-usually found at a restaurant. I got mine from Outback Steak House. 

2. Washi tape or duck tape (used to cover the coaster) 

3. Scissors 

4. Small binder clips (used to hold the pos-it on the coaster) 

5. Post-its 

Simple yet practical. I also have one that I keep in my purse for my 2 year old. It comes in handy in the waiting room at the doctor's office or at a restaurant. 

Happy Monday!