Liebster Award Nomination

How fun is this?!  I have been nominated for the Liebster Award by Sarah of Kinder Cakes.  To accept this nomination I have to do a few things:

1. Link back to the blog that nominated me
2. Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers
3. Answer the questions posted for me by my nominator
4. Share 11 random facts about myself
5. Create 11 questions for my nominees
6. Contact my nominees and let them know I nominated them

I am choosing to nominate the following blogs - Going with a 3rd Grade theme:

• Tales From 3rd Grade
• Third Grade is a Hoot!
• Adventures in Third Grade
• Groovin' Into Third Grade
• Third Grade is the Place to BE!

11 Questions posted by my nominator:

1. What is your favorite dessert?

• My favorite dessert is tiramisu!  YUMMY!  I can't get enough of the stuff - that is - when I get it.  I haven't tried to make it myself, even though it is supposed to be easy to make.  I generally only get it when I go to Olive Garden.

2. If you could be a Disney Princess, who would you be?

• I would choose to be Ariel.  I love to explore and travel.  I also never seem to be happy with the status-quo.  I am always wanting to find out more - or learn more!!!

3. What is your dream car?

• I actually got my dream car this year - a 2013 Nissan Rogue in Black Amethyst.  

4. What is your favorite TV show?

• I have several shows I like to watch, but I make sure to DVR Days of Our Lives every day.  I have watched it since I was a little girl with my mom!  I am a Soap addict - there are not many of them left!
  

5. What is the last song you listened to?

• How Country Feels by Randy Houser - I love his voice!!!

6. What is your favorite animal?

• I love my kittens.  We have 5 kittens that are 7 weeks old today!  Each have their own personality.  

7. Which holiday is your favorite?

• My favorite holiday would be Thanksgiving.  I love everything about fall, and Thanksgiving is all about food and family!!!  What more is there to love!!!

8. What is your favorite fruit?

• This one is hard to answer - I love fruit!!!!  I eat a lot of Granny Smith apples and Asian Pears.  But - I love berries, citrus fruit,bananas, etc.  

9. What was the last thing you ate?

• I stopped at Hardees and had a Jim Beam Bourbon Burger for lunch!!

10. If you could meet a character from a picture book, who would it be?

• Skippyjon Jones.  He is so much fun.  I love reading the books to my class, and reading with the voices.  I bought a stuffed Skippy from Kohls last years, as well as several hard back books.  

11. Where would you vacation if money was no object?

• I would love to go and spend a few weeks in Williamsburg, VA.  I am a big history buff.  I remember going with my family when I was a child.  I would love to be able to take my time and check everything out.  There is also a Busch Gardens in the area.  

11 Random Facts about myself:

• I love to go to the movies - my daughter and I go often.
• I was a teenage mommy
• I love books - I have way to many - both for me to read, and for my classroom.
• One year when I was in college, I gave up chocolate for Lent, and ended up going a year without eating it - I still don't each much of it
• My favorite color is neon green
• I am teaching in the same county school system that I grew up in - just a different school.
• I love to crochet and cross-stitch
• I was 32 when I became a grandmother
• I am a morning person - and prefer to be early wherever I go
• I hate science - I have all through school - and it is the hardest subject for me to teach
• I played the saxophone in middle school.

11 Questions for my Nominees:

1. What is your favorite subject to teach?
2. Do you collect anything & what?
3. Do you / Have you played an instrument?
4. What is the last book you have read?
5. What is your favorite genre of music?
6. Why did you become a teacher?
7. What do you think about year-round school?
8. Do you consider yourself organized?
9. Are you a salty or sweet snacker?
10. What is your favorite season of the year?
11. What is your favorite candle scent?

Thanks, Sarah for the nomination.  I hope I have shared something interesting for my followers!!!

Favorite Reading Pins

I'm linking up to this week's Just Reed! Ten Pin Linky.  This week's topic is reading ideas.  This is my first time linking up, and what fun.  I get to go back into my reading board and find all those great pins I haven't looked at in a while.  I have been wanting to do this some time this summer, now I have a great reason!

1.  This is one of my all-time favorites in my reading board - Tabletop Twitter.  What a fun way to get a reading response - so interactive, and it relates to our students' need for social media.

Source:  http://conversationsinliteracy.blogspot.com

2.  Another very student-centered pin I have is the Bookworm Wall Display / bulletin board idea.  I love how this gives students a personal connection to their book reports or activities.  

Source:  http://tupelohoneycaro.blogspot.com

3.  This is a very creative anchor chart for Author's Purpose!!  It really caught my eye!

Source:  unknown

4.  This one I thought was just a simple but memorable way to show the 3 ways to read a book.

Source:  unknown

5.  This pin is an excellent way to illustrate text connections.  The more you can visualize those abstract concepts the better!!

Source:  http://eberhartsexplorers.blogspot.com

6. Most of my pins seem to be bulletin boards or visuals.  This one is no exception - character trait bulletin board!!! I like the way they attached the traits to the book cover images.

Source:  Unknown

7.  I'm always looking for different ways to add to vocabulary instruction.  I want to put this to use this year with the texts I will be using.  It refers to the book Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction.  I read this book as part of a book study years ago.  It is also one that is mentioned in the Common Core Appendices.  

Source:  http://myheartbelongsinfirst.blogspot.com

 8.  Love this CRAFT board.  Ladybug's Teacher Files is one of my favorite blogs.  I really like how she expanded it from CAFE.  Her resources / printables are always so bright and cheerful.

Source:  http://www.ladybugsteacherfiles.com/

9.  I'm lovin' these Bloom's Buttons cards.  I've got to get these printed and laminated.  I am putting them in a center this year.

Source:  http://totallyterrificintexas.blogspot.ca

10.  Visual and concrete tools are always needed when teaching reading.  I thought this one was just too cute!  I can't wait to use this to teach main idea and details.  

Source:  http://www.lessonplandiva.com/

Wow!  That was a blast going through my pins.  I need to do this more often.  I hope I was able to share something new for you to check out.

Goin' On a Blog Hunt

What an awesome way to find new teacher blogs to follow!  Thank you so much Laura Candler at Corkboard Connections.  By the way, if you are not familiar with her website, you have definitely got to check it out - she has a wealth of information and resources for everyone!!

Anyway, back to the Blog Hunt - after Google Reader has been discontinued, we have all had to find a way to continue to promote our blogs as well as read and follow other blogs.  My choice is Bloglovin'.  It is tremendous!  I mean, I loved Google Reader, but Bloglovin' is even better!!!!  If you want to follow my blog, click on the link in my sidebar.

Now don't forget to join the Blog Hunt!  Link your blog, so that others can find you and start following.  If you want to hop on board, click the image below.

New Books & Standards-Based Report Cards

What a busy - but productive day today!

First, I attended a Social Studies textbook adoption meeting.  Originally our county was not going to buy social studies books, but enough of us voiced a concern that our administrators decided to give us the opportunity to check out some options.  They brought us 2 options - one that is the traditional text, and a second one that has a student consumable book as well as all the teacher resources online.  This second choice (from Pearson) allows for any upgrades that could happen over the next several years.  It is also more compatible to the common core.  We had proponents for both series, but ended up going with the second choice - Yeah!!!!

I don't foresee myself using it as a text I will be dependent on, but rather a resource that we use throughout the year.  One great advantage of the books we chose is being able to add any resources we have or can find to the online portion.  It is so interactive.

Once that was over, many of us in grades 1 - 4 (as K has already completed theirs) had a meeting to discuss developing standards-based report cards.  Many of us have discussed this for a while now.  It is so exciting to finally see it actually happening.  We began our discussion, and then we actually started looking at resources - many examples from other school systems - and started working on what we wanted in our report cards.  Much of the time was spent looking at how we could combine similar standards into one cohesive element on the report card.

I think these report cards will allow for such a richer conversation between teachers and parents.  They will allow parents and students to see just what needs to be worked on and what is mastered.  After all, what does an A, B, C, D, or F really mean?  A standards-based report card just makes more sense to me!

How many of you are using standards-based report cards?  Do you find that they are better than the traditional report cards?

Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party

What a fun way to get to know about fellow bloggers!  I am linking up with Latoya @ Flyin' Into First Grade for the Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party.  It's in a Tic-Tac-Toe format.  You answer 3 questions either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.

I am going to answer the questions in the right-most column.  

Dream Vacation - When I was a kid, my parents took me and my sister to Williamsburg and Yorktown, VA.  I absolutely loved it.  I have always wanted to go back and spend a week or two.  I love anything historical.  There is so much there to check out.  It doesn't hurt that there is a Busch Gardens in the area.  

Books I'm Reading:  Well, I guess I have to put these into two categories - School related and personal reading.  for the school-related books, I am tackling several:  

 

For personal reading, I am not ashamed to say I am reading some smutty books.  I just finished the first book in Sylvia Day's series, and working on the second one.

These are similar to the Fifty Shades Trilogy.

Hobbies - As far as hobbies go, I have several, but have not been able to do many lately, other than read.  I love to do many paper crafts - card-making, stamping, scrapbooking, etc.  I also enjoy crocheting and cross-stitching.  However, I have not done any of these for some time.  I have actually thought about putting some of my stuff on sale on ebay.  I just need to get motivated, or quit talking myself out of it!!

Well, that's my contribution.  I am looking forward to reading posts on other blogs.  If you want to link up, visit Flying in First Grade.

Currently: July

It's hard to believe it is July tomorrow!!  Before you know it, we will be back in school!!!

Big Brother is one of my guilty pleasures to watch in the summer time!!!  I watch it with my youngest daughter; we get a good laugh over it.  Anyone else watch it?

Our state is fully implementing the Common Core standards this year.  I have had several trainings and workshops that revolve around them and Curriculum Maps.  I was also lucky enough to be able to attend a 3 day workshop to work on Social Studies lesson plans.  So, I have a good headstart on my curriculum plans - at least by units.  

I really need to be getting to bed soon.  I have a few meetings to attend tomorrow - one for social studies text book adoption, and the other one concerning Standards-based report cards.  I want to make sure my brain is fully functional tomorrow.  

With the weather changing constantly, I have been getting sinus headaches like crazy.  I have had a doozy today.  Sleep usually helps, so I will take my meds and hit the sack!!!

I have been looking around here and cringing!!!  This place is a mess.  I am definitely going to have to take some time to get the house cleaned and organized so that I am not stressing about it. 

My tip:  Take some time for yourself.  If you don't worry about you, no one else will.  I have a bad habit ot worrying about what I need to do for others, unfortunately the stress eventually catches up with you.  I know that by the end of the school year that I was figuring this out the hard way.  I have vowed to take some time to relax this summer!!!  I want to be ready to go when the new school year rolls around!!

Wanna share your currently with others, be sure to link up with Farley at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade.

Also, don't forget that Google Reader is dead after today!!!  I chose to use Bloglovin' as the replacement.  You can follow me by clicking on the link in my sidebar!!  

Jumpin' On the Bloglovin Bandwagon

I am so sad to see Google Reader disappear, but I am very excited about Bloglovin!  I really love the ease of use, so simple to read any new posts - not likely to miss any now.

So, although I was a super-slacker last year with blog posting, I do hope to get things hopping this year.  In saying that, I need to link my blog to my Bloglovin account.  If you choose to follow, click the link below or on the right sidebar.  Hope to see you around!!!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin