Currently!

Well it has been almost a month since I blogged, EEEK! I told myself I wasn't going to be too super serious about this and let me stress it out, but I should probably try to post more than once a month. It's been super de duper busy since school started. I ended up with 23 students in my class and I'm really excited about this year. Last week was our first full week and they blew my socks off with their abilities on lots of things. I keep telling them if it stays like this all year long they will have ONE HAPPY TEACHER!! Since this is only my second year teaching, this is the first year I've been able to see old students. I absolutely love it! I get so many waves & smiles in the hall. Melts my stinkin heart! I'm a little disappointed because 6 students from my class last year transferred to different schools, so it stinks to not see them!

Well, what better way to get back up & posting than to link up with Farley for a currently?!

LISTENING: There's not a whole lot on TV right now, so Modern Family is always my go to when that happens. Always makes me giggle and I don't have to fully pay attention! 

LOVING: I FINALLYYYYY made the plunge and told the family I babysit for during the week that I can only do it once a month now. It was a super tough decision, but I'm really glad that I did it. Being able to come home & work for a few more hours and then just relax is AMAZING! Plus, I went to bed BEFORE 10 pm the other night-- I literally CANNOT remember the last time that happened. I told my best friend and she asked if I was sick! HA! 

THINKING: I've got a nice pile of homework next to me screaming to be graded. I'm changing things up soon so I'm not spending hours grading homework over the weekends.

WANTING: One of my friends works from 1:30-10, so if I want to hang out with her I have to stay up real late. She came here on Saturday & we stayed up until around 2:30 (then I woke up at 8 the next day of course) and then I went there last night and stayed until 12:30 and then drove home in a terrible storm (and I went into work today at 8 to get some things set up before tomorrow BLECH). I'm not used to these shenanigans anymore! I have no issues staying up late, but I always wake up early now, so only having about 10 hours of sleep the past two days is making me EXHAUSTED! Early bed time tonight, that's for sure!

NEEDING: I always get home and wonder what to make. I really need to get better about making a menu and sticking to it! 

3 TRIPS: I've always wanted to go to Australia! It's definitely my dream. The other two are kind of random, but they're just always places I've thought about going to visit and have never done it before. 

I hope everyone has had an awesome start to the year! If you so choose, go link up! :-) 

Monday Made It!

Posting again?! One of my besties, Lindsey, from Thriving in Third sent me on this blogging journey and now I always text her asking questions. I kindly remind her she wanted me to do this. She's da best with helping me though! PS, she also makes blog designs and they're super cheap & completely custom (she did this one!). Go check out her teaching blog AND her design site here! Love you Lindsey Poo! (did that take you back to high school at all?)

Okay, okay, back to my real reason for blogging today-- I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for some MONDAY MADE IT!!! I was super de duper motivated yesterday for some odd reason & I loved it. Sooooo here we go!!

If you read my school year goals a couple posts back, you know I love me some Kid President! I wish I could meet him & just have him be a student in my classroom. Although, I'd probably let him just talk ALL.THE.TIME! Well, I loved one of his quotes I saw on Twitter so much that I decided to make a poster with it. It took me way longer than I planned since I painted each letter, cut it out, and then glued it on the poster board. TOTALLY worth it though. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. 

CAN'T wait to find the perfect spot to hang it in my classroom for a constant reminder! 

We all know calling kids out in front of the class is not really enjoyable for anyone. With some students who I was consistently having to talk to last year I did the three sticky notes with them, where I would quietly go over and take one off. That worked really well, but some students weren't consistently having a problem, so I wanted something for students who just need a quick reminder. I found this on pinterest awhile ago and LOVED the idea! I wanted to make them small enough, so it's not obvious, but big enough to write a message on them. Above & below the line behavior is common language at our school so I was pumped to be able to put that on there to get them thinkin'. I was a little bummed about them not being super cute, but then I thought about it, and this isn't really something that needs to be cutesy.

I also talked about in a previous blog how I want to be better about lit circles and teaching it. I found these cute editable signs in Scooting through Second's tpt store, so a lightbulb went on! I labeled them with jobs for lit circle, typed up a short description of what to do, and plan to glue those onto the back, laminate and BOOM! Nifty little cards that remind students of their job. I made 3 sets, because I usually have around 3 or 4 lit circle groups. I don't have a final project picture, because I'm not quite done, but I'm excited for the start of them. LIT CIRCLES HERE WE COME!! 

I got a start on a few other projects yesterday too, but they're not completely done yet. I need to go experiment in my classroom to see if they will work or not before I complete them, so look forward to those hopefully soon! 

Did YOU make anything over the weekend? Go link up if you did, I'd love to see what it is! 

Currently August

AUGUST?! SAY WHAT?! Okay, I must admit I'm a little, tiny, tad bit ready to go back (I bet that was convincing).  With having worked ALL summer, I'm ready to get back to my daily routine rather than going in everyday and saying over and over, "Soooo girls, what should we do today?!". Plus, I love my coworkers and cannot wait to see their smiling faces all the time again!

Today I get to participate in my first Currently. WOOT WOOT! I'm linking up with Farley from Oh Boy Fourth Grade!

LISTENING: My best friend & I are obsessed with these shows. As of yesterday I live alone (WAHOOO), so I need to make sure I don't watch it too late or I start to freak myself out!

LOVING: This is the first weekend all summer I have had absolutely, positively nothing planned & it feels so good. I kinda skipped out on a family reunion today though. Oopsy!! I need this time of peace & quiet though. Plus, it's been nice to get some deep cleaning done since the old roomie left. 

THINKING: I had dinner, but it didn't taste very good. My momma has this awesome strawberry salad recipe that is delish, so I think I need to make that up real quick. 

WANTING: Although I'm kind of ready to go back, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed too. I have training this Wednesday, and next Wednesday so the days are dwindling quickly. 

NEEDING: Apparently my mind thinks I've won the lottery and I seem to have been shopping a lot lately. Most of it is stuff for my apartment so I can be more organized OR stuff for my classroom (of course). Target is my best friend & worst enemy!

1ST DAY: It's coming oh so quickly. Our meet the teacher night is the 14th also so that means I will be getting into my room way before that so it's ready that night. I have been making mustaches like a crazy woman lately! 

I might actually have more than one post this week! I've been crafting like crazy-- can't wait to share them. Have a FAB rest of your weekend. 

2014-2015 School Year Goals!

It is my first post EVER!!! I have been dragging my feet with this whole blogging thing, because I always think, "What do I have to say that other people would want to hear about?!". One of my friends, Lindsey is a blogger and has finally convinced me to jump on the wagon! So, here it goes! Lindsey & I were chatting and decided a perfect first post would be my goals for the school year! 

I'm linking up with Jess over at I Heart Recess for this first post! Go to her blog so you can link up too! 

Personal: Goodness, don't let my mom see this goal! She'll quickly go, "How long have I been telling you this?!". Confession time, I am a....WORKAHOLIC!!! It is absolutely exhausting. Not only was last year my first year teaching so I was learning everything new, but I also have not given up my part time job of babysitting. I absolutely adore all of my families, because it's kind of like having a family right down the road as opposed to my parents being an hour and a half way. Although I do love them, I have to remind myself frequently that I'm a 24 year old who needs to have a life of her own! I have a problem saying no sometimes. I need to learn to put Kadie the Babysitter on the back burner and put Kadie the Human in the front of my mind and not exhaust her. I don't want to get burnt out! 

Organization: I was SO blessed to have an AMAAAAAZING para educator in my room last year. We learned each others moves very quickly, and everything felt so natural. I rarely had to ask her to do something, because she was so on top of it! With that being said, every Friday when homework was due, she'd grab the papers, check them all, and check in with kiddos who didn't turn it in. This was SUCH a time saver for me! Unfortunately next year I won't have her in my room, or any other para, so I HAVE to find a quick strategy to see if the kids have turned their homework in and a quick way to check it. Any great ideas you have, I'd love to hear them! 

Planning: Science is my downfall. I used to get SO nervous going into a new science class all throughout high school and college. I LOVE science, it amazes me, but I just don't get it sometimes! My fab fourth grade team is often in my room, helping me out after school. I need to start planning science much more in advance & finding some supplemental materials for myself and the kiddos, so we can ALL understand it better. 

Professional: Remember how I said I have a problem saying no?! Yeah, that's at school too. I'm actually really excited for this though! We have conflict managers at our school, which is offered to 4-6 graders where they go out to younger kids' recess and help solve conflicts if one comes up (before they go to the teacher). One of our teachers jumped down from 4th grade to K last year, so it doesn't make much sense for her to do it anymore since she won't have had the kids for at least 4 years by the time we're ready to assign them, so I offered to take over for her. The guidance counselor & I are going to try to come up with ideas for how to get kids excited about this! Hoping we can encourage students to do this, and show them how important it is. 

Students: Along with our curriculum for reading, we also read novels based on students' reading levels. The kids absolutely love being able to have an actual chapter book to read. Last year I tried to implement lit circles on Fridays, where the students met with their assigned book group and were completely independent doing this. It didn't go as well as I hoped, and I take full blame for that. I really need to do a better job of explicitly teaching how to ask questions, make thoughtful comments, etc. I think this year I am going to read a short novel with them together & show them the types of questions and comments we should be making. My students last year had this amazing love for reading, and I'm hoping my class this year does too. I can only imagine where the lit circle conversations could go if I explicitly teach it! 

Motto: Kid President is THE BEST EVER! If you haven't seen any of his videos, GO RIGHT NOW! STOP READING & GO LOOK HIM UP. If you have heard of him, you know exactly what I mean. He's the cutest little kid, who has a BRILLIANT mind. We love him at our school and our principal encourages us to show some of his videos! Oh, and he's funny! I am all about class community, and this will definitely be a sign in my room next year. You can disagree, but being mean is a big NO-NO! 

It's hard to believe I'm writing goals for next year already since that means school is right around the corner! In fact, I think I'm heading in tomorrow to go do some rearranging of furniture in my room. Where did Summer go?!