Catching Up and Balancing: Finished Open House, Started Instagram Project

   Despite all of my best intentions to write a blog post way before now, I just couldn't get my act together. Plus, I've been trying to have a little more balance to my life.  It's hard, especially at this time of the year, to stop myself from compulsively working on school stuff.  Want to know a big secret?  Most of the time, I really enjoy making school stuff.  I'm such a dork!  I don't enjoy correcting though, and would pay handsomely for a correcting fairy to swing by every day.

  I'm working on making sure that I work out at least 4 days a week.  I'm going to work on increasing the number of days when I can.  Yoga is helping me to balance myself a little more.  I enjoyed doing yoga outside yesterday.  

   Leading up to last week, I spent my time preparing for Open House.  It was just a matter of finishing hanging up kids' work.  For the last 2 years, I have purchased paper guitars for the kids to decorate with pictures that are all about them.  Last year, I taped them to the wall and it was a losing battle!  Every day, I'd walk in the room wondering which one I'd find on the ground.  This year, when the kids were working on their guitars, I had a light bulb moment.  Why not hang them from the ceiling?!  Why had I never thought of this before??  So I jumped up on a table to see how far the guitar would come down.  It seemed perfect.  So far, the guitars have been up for a week and a half and none have fallen!  Such a difference from last year.  

   Open House was last week and it went great, even though I was nervous.  I've been teaching for 9 years and I still get butterflies waiting for the parents to come in.  I hate public speaking and, even though I do it everyday, it's not the same.  It's so much easier talking in front of a classroom of kids.  

   Anyways, so now that Open House is past us I'm hoping that life will settle into more of a routine.  

   Last year, I wrote a grant to purchase 2 iPads.  I LOVE my iPads!  This year, my goal was to use them more often in the classroom.  Originally, I had wanted to create a Twitter account for the kids to use, but sadly, Twitter is blocked at my school.  So I had to figure out what else I could use that the kids would enjoy and probably use in their outside of school life. I personally thoroughly enjoy Instagram.  I checked  to make sure that it worked at school... and it did!  Yay!  I was psyched.  My next step was to make sure that my principal was okay with us trying it out.  Obviously, our account would be private.  He told me that he was okay with us trying it out, making sure that I got parent permission.  I presented my idea to parents at Open House.  Parents were so excited about the opportunity to have a daily window into our classroom.  I stressed that the account would be private and that it would be a great chance for kids to practice internet responsibility.  

   The parents have sent in their usernames so that I could approve their following us on Instragram.  We've had a wonderful time posting pictures of our day and creating the hashtags together.  Starting tomorrow, it will be the job of 2 students to take a couple of pictures throughout the day for us to post.  They will create the post, and I'll approve it.  I can't tell you how excited we all are for this endeavor.  

   I even made an Instagram worksheet for an activity in reading class!  I can't wait for them to see it!

   Do you use social media with your class?

  

Classroom Idea: Nameplates

I don't know if you are like me or not.. but for years now nameplates on desks have bugged me.

For 9 years, I've either taped them down - which is a pain.  I hate taping them down, because it makes it challenging to truly clean the desks, and the kids peel the nameplate up and the tape isn't sticky anymore... and then you're taping them again.   Who has time for that?  

Last year, I tried to use velcro dots, which I was initially excited about.  It did work great for several months.  It was easier to clean the desks.  You just had to temporarily take the nameplate off and scrub.  Yay!  But then some of my friends started to play with the velcro... some of the dots mysteriously disappeared from the desks, some stopped working..   In the end my hopes were dashed.

So my newest idea came to me in the middle of the night, when I should've been sleeping.  In the middle of the year last year I saw an idea on Pinterest about using binder clips for name tags on mailboxes.  Loved the idea!  It worked so great!

Inspired by my love of binder clips, I decided to try to find ones that were a little bigger to use on my desks to hold the nameplates.  I sent the hubby off to the Dollar Store to score some binder clips.  I couldn't wait to get to school to try it out.  You should've seen my happy dance when they worked!

Added bonus of the binder clip.... built in pencil holder!  As long as you have an eraser cap on the pencil.

Before getting your binder clips, check to see how wide your desks are.  When I was helping a colleague to put the clips on the desks a few popped off at us.  The desks in that room were a little wider in the middle, so we had to move the clips to the edge a little.  It's only been 1 day in use, but I'm in love with my clips!

                                                          How do you put nameplates on desks?

Currently: First Days of School - Jitters and More

I can't believe that it has taken me this long to write a new post.   I always forget how exhausting the first few days of school are.  Partly due to the excitement of beginning a new year, AND to the never-ending to do list that races across my mind.  For some reason I do my most creative thinking late at night when I should be sleeping. This is why I keep a notepad by the bed... Because if I don't write down the idea right then...it's gone forever.  Check out the next post for one of those ideas!  I'm pretty excited about this one!
  

Anyways... so 3 words to describe the first days of school - exhausting, exhilarating, exciting

Exhausting:  Having the First Day Jitters is tiring... I was up nights before thinking about how this year would be...nervous about everything!  It's crazy that I still get the jitters even after teaching for 9 years.  Seriously... do they ever go away?  Or if they do... is that when I should retire?  This is why I always read the story First Day Jitters.  You have to read it!  It's a great story and the kids love it.  


Anyways, the first day made me realize that I wasn't in "teaching shape."   My feet hurt and I was tired of standing and talking.  Even though I was so tired after the first day it was a great first day of school.  (I slept for over 12 hours on Friday/Saturday.  It felt good.  My mind finally slowed down and I could relax.)

Exhilarating:  I had a fantastic day with my class.  I think that we will have a wonderful year in fourth grade.  And even though it's hard to say goodbye to summer, it is nice to get back into a routine.  Well, it's kinda nice... I do miss being lazy in the morning and not having to set the alarm clock for 5:30.

 Exciting:  It was great to get back to school and see faces that I had missed over the summer.  It was heartwarming to see my last year kiddos and the 6th graders that visited at the end of the day.  Can't believe how much some of them have grown!  Also, I'm psyched that we have a new colleague on our team.  I think we are all looking forward to a pretty fabulous year together.    

Currently:  This is the first time that I am linking up to Farley's Currently Linky Party.  I'm a little late to the party...

Listening:  Right now I'm listening to the Train station on Pandora, but still hearing hubby's NFL Red Zone.  It is his favorite channel.

Loving:  That I finished correcting all of my assessments yesterday.  I finished them while I watched the CBS special Teach, which I also loved.  Hope I don't offend anyone.. but one of the things that I loved the most was that it showed public schools in a positive way.  I feel like often public schools are the scapegoats in documentaries like this.  We are often portrayed negatively, while charter schools and the like are viewed as our saving grace.  I'm proud to work in a public school!

Thinking:  That it's been too long since I've blogged... I'm going to have to work on that.  I also need to put something new on my TPT store.

Wanting:  To wrap up my work so that I can enjoy the day.  I'm trying to brainstorm some ideas for Open House.  I also want a Starbucks latte... but I don't feel like leaving the house today... guess the Keurig will have to do.

Needing:  To put laundry away.... I'm fortunate enough that my hubby does the laundry on Mondays and Fridays (little like Danny Tanner...) but I still wish that it would magically get put away.  Maybe one day the laundry fairy will visit me.

For Me:  1.  I need to work on balancing life and school.  This is my new school year's resolution.  I'm someone who has a hard time not thinking about school stuff...  So this year I'm trying to work on focusing on other things to balance me out.  We'll see how it goes!

2.  Get myself back in gear... I've been too busy with school that I've been neglecting exercising.  (see #1)  This happens every year, and I resolve every year to make it not an option... but then something has to give and school wins and fitness loses.  BUT this year I am resolving to make it non-negotiable. I will plan it and do it!

3.  I need to try to unplug sometimes..  I adore technology and sometimes it becomes such a time vacuum.  I would love to spend some time reading.  I read so much in the summer, but it always stops with the school year.  I'd love it if I could continue to read during the year.

                                                               What are you doing currently?