Teacher Talk Tuesday

So today is Teacher Talk Tuesday over at I'm Blog Hopping! as part of Teacher Week 2011! 

Well today they say we should give some words of wisdom or advice to new teachers.......And I have a few tips to share but seeing as how I am only in year two I am looooooving clicking on everyone else's links to learn more myself!

So here are my tips:

1) HAVE FUN! In my mind this is the MOST important thing! If you are having fun your students will be having fun as well!

2) OVER PLAN! Keep printables, activities, etc in arms reach in case something comes up and you neeeed them!

3) Keep records....I had a super fun parent come back with questions, questions, questions, questions, questions and all I had to do was pull out my student binder. This binder holds my parent communication logs, test scores, examples of student work, conference forms, etc. It will save your booty! Remember my dear sweet teacher friends, CYB! Cover your booty!

4) Do not attempt to go have your butt kicked at the gym by your trainer and then expect to be able to move around with your primary kiddos two days later! Haha when this occurs have class stretch time, especially when you need to reach the top bottom on the SmartBoard and can barely lift up your arms!

5) Keep YOURSELF first! I had a tough time with this the first year and am really trying to remember it this year. I love love love teaching it is the most rewarding job in the entire world. But also the most demanding and it will keep you tired! If you are sick my sweet teacher friends, TAKE A DAY! I know getting a sub in can be tough and you have to PLAN for making sub plans but if you need the day you need to take it because if you don't you are going to end up out of school sick for  a week!

6) Ask for help when you need it! Do not be afraid to ask more veteran teachers for ideas, books, help with plans, etc. 

Those are my tidbits of advice for now. I am still working on number 5 myself but I have promised myself that I would do better at following my own advice. Hehe! I hope that you all are enjoying heading back to school! 

Meet the Teacher Monday! (Woops, it's Tuesday!)

Hey everyone! I decided to hop onto the Teacher Week train over at I'm Blog Hoppin! This is the blog that  Babbling Abby started and she created Teacher Week last year! I did not get into the whole teacher blog thing until the middle of the year last year so I totally missed out and it just makes me oh so sad! :( 

Well time to change that, and I am planning on doing a lot more blogging this year! So here goes....Hopefully Teacher Week will give me the strength I need to get through this year, because unfortunately I think it may be a little challenging!

So on to Meeting Me, the Teacher! :)

That is me at a friend's wedding that I just recently went to! It was such a great time and it was awesome getting to see friends from college that I had not seen in a while! :)

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Tell us a little something about you...

I am Miss C! I have one furry child, named Winston and he provides many entertaining stories that I tell my kiddos at school! I have an awesome family. My mom has been teaching for 14+ years and my dad works in the NBA! I have an older brother and a younger sister. My sister is 10 years younger than I am and is now the only child at home getting everything her little heart desires, haha! (Sorry that was my middle child syndrome coming out there!) 

How long have you been teaching?

This is my SECOND year teaching.  I was fortunate enough to do my student teaching in second grade and then get hired at the same school in the same AMAZING grade! I love my team, there are nine of us! Our school is huge! We have over 1,200 kiddos at this time and still growing. We are the largest elementary school in the area and it is definitely crowded but I love my team, my school, and most definitely my administration!

You might not know...

That mid year last year, I sat down and thought what in the world I would ever consider doing other than teaching....And guess what I came up with?

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Although this job can be challenging in so many ways I would NEVER make a career move! I plan on starting my Masters in the Spring in Administration and Leadership so that when I do chose to no longer be in the classroom I could be a curriculum coach or an Asst Principal! 

And you might not know........that I love to paint signs for things! I painted two for my own polka dot themed room! And I have also painted two for two of my awesome teacher friends, and I am currently working on three more. And when I was bringing one into school this morning I had ANOTHER teacher ask me for one! YAAAY! 

 Sign for one of my best teacher friends! :)

 This sign goes under my SmartBoard where our big meeting carpet is!

This sign goes above my classroom library! Please forgive the terrible cell phone picture quality! 

What are you looking most forward to this school year?

Honestly....I miss my babies from last year! They rocked there were my first class ever and I will miss them for the rest of my life......BUT this year I am looking forward to having a little bit more knowledge of the curriculum which is definitely going to help me snaz up my lessons a little bit more! 

What do you need to improve?

I want to work on adding to my reading lessons to grab a whole of my students' attention. We use the SRA Imagine It! curriculum in every literacy aspect. And to be honest, it can be quite dull and boring for me so I know that it is hard for the students to focus on at times. If anyone else uses this curriculum and has ideas I would LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE PUFFY HEART BIG SMILEY FACE LOVE to hear them! I have been searching blogs all summer for ideas and have found some super awesome was. 

What teaching supplies can you *not* live without?

COLORFUL pens! I hate writing in boring blue, black, and red ink! I bought two packs of colorful pens yesterday! 

Is Dr. Pepper a teaching supply? I would like to think so! It is definitely a slight addiction. It gets me through every day but I am really trying to cut back! :-p

My SmartBoard! I love figuring out new ways to use it in each lesson and during our literacy workstations.

Picture books! I love finding a new picture book that I can incorporate into any of my lessons!

My hot glue gun! I hot glue just about EVERYTHING!

Now there is Meet the Teacher Monday! Now if I can only get to the Teacher Talk Tuesday post before I fall asleep right here on the keyboard! :) 

New things in life && teaching!

Soo....Along with being a first year teacher I am now trying to start running!

I am registering to run my very first 5k at the end of July! To some a 5k seems to little but to someone who has NEVER been a running I will be glad to just finish!

I am doing the couch to 5k program and it is amazing! The thing that really helps is that the program is not overwhelming. When it comes to working out I tend to become unmotivated but this program is awesome! I am on week 3 of the 9 week program and continuing on!

Only issue....serious shin splints and some knee pain! I bought some awesome new aasic running shoes before starting and I did not spare money on them that is for sure! But now I am thinking I need to go find some good inserts! A runner friend of mine said that I need to go to a running speciality store and let them watch me run and see how my feet hit and help me decide on some inserts! I am planning on doing this very soon so that I am well prepared for my first 5k! I have high hopes for this running thing because it is such an awesome stress relief! And now coming on the end of my first year teaching and the stresses of the end of the year I am loving the running thing!


I have three weddings to attend this summer and one of which I am a bridesmaid! I would love to be a little thinner and in shape by the time these weddings roll around...The first one is in mid July so I have high hopes!


Now in my classroom we are wrapping up our Science Kit on butterflies! My kids have LOOOVED it, we did the first butterfly release today and I think we will have about 4 more to release tomorrow as they were emerging today! :o)

Nooooowwwww....... I am searching for some end of the year wrap up ideas...Memory books, end of year party ideas, gifts for the kids to send them off to third grade, etc! If you have any ideas PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a comment!

And if you have any beginner runner tips feel free to leave those too! <3

Amazing Giveaway!

Mrs. Patton and Mrs. Perry are teaming up for an AMAZING giveaway over at Patton's Patch! You should go enter....Or not....Because then I would have more chances to win!!!!! :o)

Love both of these amazing teachers and I so hope that I win!

You know you're a teacher when....

Abby over at The Inspired Apple is having a cool Linky party about my blog topic for today!
I love her blog!

Still so new to the blogging but I am obsessed with all the teacher blogs floating around so I wanted to join in!


You Know You Are A Teacher When:

• You find random supplies in your pockets....Sticky notes, glue sticks, pens, pencils, erasers, scissors(in my purse one day!), and incentive tickets!
• The "look" makes every student/child FREEZE!
• You have a crazy obsession with tubs/bins....My latest obsession is with The Container Store!
• You are out to eat with another teacher friend....And you sit there searching through Lakeshore magazines discussing what to use the end of the year money to purchase!
• Every conversation you have ends up back at something involving teaching, whether it be student or something teacher related!
• There is NOTHING better than seeing a student have that "lightbulb" moment!
• When you have come to realize that only another teacher would understand everything on your mind!
• More than one article of clothing you own has dry erase marker on it!
• You have a container/drawer full of all the lovely trickets that your students bring to school and LOVE to play with when you are trying to teach!
• You realize at 3:00 that you have had to pee for the last 5 hours!
• You can not help but to give "the look" to kids running/screaming through public places (i.e. restaurants, Walmart, Target, etc!)
• You know when a full moon is coming by the behavior of you entire classroom!
• You looooooove new pencils that HAVE erasers on the ends! :o)
• You used to love grading papers as a child (helping my mom grade papers was the best!) but now you are not a big fan!
• When you can not dream of ever having a different career....(I really sat down to think about this one night and I could not come up with ANYTHING BUT teaching!)
• You have a certain tone of voice when discussing "my friend" to fellow teachers....Everyone knows who "your friend" is! :o( (Should I be admitting this?)
• Your heart truly breaks when something is going on in one of your students' lives
• You enjoy reading a good children's book just as much as any child!
• Rain=Indoor recess! (Sad sad day when stuck inside with no fresh air!)
• The Dollar Store and Target dollar spot = NOTHING GREATER!
• When you come home each night and sit right down at the computer to log into Blogger and check all the other teacher blogs for all the AMAZING stuff they post! (I promise one day to think everyone's I borrow from to mine.....Just know that you ALL are amazing!)
• You constantly think of new ways to organize but somehow you never actually get to that....
• Spring Fever hits you just as bad as it hits the students! :o)
• You will struggle to find the perfect name for your personal children....
• My students are my kids....If people did not know my profession and I was having a conversation they would think that I had 22 personal children! I love each and every one of my students, even when they drive me UP the wall!

Last but not least the top two things that make me who I am:

• My students KNOW my personal "catch phrases" (One of them told me, just the other day, that I needed to get some new ones because they heard them so much :-/ OUCH!) and can repeat them back to you and heck, sometimes even finish them before I can get it out! 
• Side note: O-M-Gosh, It is the end of the world! (When a student tells me that their pencil broke, or they dropped something.....Seriously it will be okay!)
• Seriously?!? Seriously?! 
• Well....I could just cut it off and then it wouldn't hurt anymore! (I know, seems a bit much, but it always makes the kid with the boo-boo smile!) This is used when they come to me with MINOR injuries!
• And my personal favorite which I say to my students each and EVERY day....."Love you, mean it!" Some of them never hear the words I love you and I want them to know that even when they are driving me up the wall I doooooo still love them!

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST YOU KNOOOOOW YOU ARE A TEACHER WHEN:

• The one special friend of yours who has had such trouble in writing brings you a Tall Tale full of such voice and descriptive language that you tear up when he is reading it to another teacher......and she tells him how AWESOME it really is! This just happened to me....This is the same friend who drives me bonkers every day but when this happened it just made me realize how much I loooove my students! It is that special connection that can be made with each and every one of them if you just try! Even on my bad days I try my best to make them all smile at least once, whether it is allowing them to sit on the top of their desks during phonics, or just reading something in that "redneck" tone to get them to PAY ATTENTION....This is what matters to them! Show them you care and that you love them everything else will fall into place! (PS One on one time, whether it be just chatting with that student during lunch, really is KEY! Even the ones who drive you nuts just want to tell you about their new video game and when you let them...You have reached a whole new level! They just LOOOVE you!)

Now time for end of the year testing to begin.....Praying for some gooooood GREAT scores from my students the next two Fridays when we are testing! I just know they have it in them!

Spring Break Countdown----12 more school days!

AMAAAAAAZING GIVEAWAY!

The amazing ladies at What the Teacher Wants are doing the GREATEST giveaway yet!!
$100.00 to The Container Store! I looooove looooove looooove this store and could easily spend thousands of dollars!!!

I sure do hope I win! If you want a chance just jump over to their blog at http://whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com/ Or don't because I want to win!

Haha, hope you all are having a great week! I really hope to dive a little deeper into this creating my own blog thing VERY soon! I am an avid blog stalker to all my other favorite teacher blogs!

Awesome give away!

So excited for the awesome give away going on over at Fabulous in First! All you have to do is follow Michelle's blog, her TpT store, and blog about her give away!

So hopefully you will join in the fun!

Ok so here is post number 1!

So new to this whole blogging thing, but have definitely been blogstalking for the past month or so thanks to my friend Erin over at Eberhart's Explorers! We used to live in the same neighborhood but now I am living at the beach, and she is such an inspiration to me! She does fifty million things and teaches!

Lots of other amazing blogs that I follow inspire me on a daily basis, I do not know how they all do it! Once I get this blogging thing figured out I will be sure to link all of my favorite blogs to my page somehow.


Well let's see I am a first year teacher and loving every minute in second grade. Please note that I said loooooving every minute by no means am I LIKING every minute. I never thought about what first year teaching would do to me. I am exhausted twenty four seven! Thankfully we have surpassed 100 days and only have 76 left! So I know I am going to make it through my first year! Teaching has always always always been what I wanted to do. I sit around now and think about what else I would do career wise and can honestly say NOTHING comes to mind.

My biggest struggle at this point is getting my small group guided reading together. The district puts so much emphasis on this area but yet I have received NO formal training.  I would love to hear any ideas/tips/comments that other teachers have.

Also if you know of any second grade blogs please leave the link here for me. I find bunches and bunches of kindergarten and first grade blogs but know of very few second grade blogs....

Also if anyone else uses the Imagine It! curriculum I would love to hear tips on how to ADD to and supplement this program especially for my higher level students.

Hope to hear from my fellow teachers soon! Lots of love and good wishes to you all!