Shopaholics Unite!

 

Who doesn't love a sale?!

 

Check out all of the excitement!

 



Love, Love, Love!

Let's get in the cheesey, love-y, Valentine's Day mood!

I'm going to share some of the things I just LOVE.

Keep in mind that I love SO many things, it's just so darn hard to narrow it down!

 

I love a good workout! Now, I don't always like getting started with a workout {I'll have days where I can come up with a million excuses. For example: "My hair looks great today.  No need to mess it up!"} But, I ALWAYS feel so amazing after I finish an awesome run or workout.

 

Traveling!  My family always went somewhere for vacation every summer, usually the beach, but occasionally we mixed it up.  Thankfully, my parents were both teachers and had the summers to travel with us {mostly to get us out of the house & keep us from driving them completely crazy}!

I've also been lucky enough to find an amazing friend who loves to travel just as much {if not more} than I do - we're on a mission to visit all 50 states!

 

E-cards! Who doesn't get a kick out of these?!

I send them to my teammates to give us a pick-me-up on those tough days, or just save them on my phone for when I need a good chuckle. :)

 

 

My FAMILY! These crazies are the best family I could ever ask for - no more explanation needed. They're amazing & I'm so blessed their mine!

 

What do you LOVE???

 



WOW Moment - WBT!

I'm a little late for WOW Wednesday, but I still wanted to share my WOW moment for the week.

I mentioned once before that I was beginning to dive into this book:

 

Well, I'm absolutely loving it!  I have a hunch that Whole Brain Teaching might just change my whole classroom dynamic.  I happen to have a pretty wonderful class this year - SO smart, rarely a behavior issue (minus the typical chatter on holidays or days that it snows, ya know).

As I began reading, I thought I'd let all the WBT goodness sink in and then decide if I wanted to try it all out next year or not.

 

Then I thought, wait till next year?! What kind of teacher can hold out that long on such awesome ideas?!

Not me!

I just HAD to try it right away!

 

I started out by downloading these adorable posters from Christina DeCarbo to remind my kiddos about our new "class rules."

These are introduced with gestures that really make the kids giggle AND motivate them.  We practice these rules often - in the morning, before lunch, after recess...

I can already see a BIG difference in the number of kiddos who attempt to interrupt my small group lessons, or get up to use the restroom (they're in our room) while we're working.

One poor kiddo was even working at a station while I was teaching a small group and had his hand up for almost 5 minutes before I noticed.  He knew he wasn't supposed to be moving around or talking without permission, so God bless his little heart, he just waited patiently!  But then said, "I'm sooo glad you finally called on me.  My arm was going to get stuck like that!"

 

Georgia Grown Kiddos has an awesome overview of WBT here.

 

So far this week, we've covered:

*Class-Yes!

*Classroom Rules

and

*Teach-Okay!

 

I've also been incorporating more gestures into my teaching, especially during writing.

 

Beginning to use and feel comfortable with these teaching strategies THIS year will hopefully help me feel more confident to kick off next year with them on day one! *Sprinkles!*

I'm really just beginning this WBT adventure, and I can't wait to see where it takes me!

All You Need is Love & Mustaches

While we were busy catching up from all of our snow days, Valentine's Day crept up on us!

 

(We haven't even had our 100th Day yet! Which *gasp!* just happens to be the same day as V-Day, thanks to all the winter weather. You can all feel bad for us having to deal with that crazy mash-up.  Praise the Lord it'll be a Friday, at least!)

 

Just in case you're like me and wait till the last minute to prepare valentine's for your kiddos, I'm here to help!

These gems are only 97 cents at Wal-Mart!  For a 4 pack! *Bonus: They're sugar free!

 

 

Since my class LOVES all things mustaches this year (oh my word, almost a little too much), that means for $5.82 my whole class will be loving life on Valentine's Day.



 

 

I tied them up with a free book coupon with purchase that came in last month's Scholastic box (no cost to the teacher), and this sweet little tag.

Here's one for you!

 

And just in case your class isn't into the whole rockstar theme...

 

Now, I mustache... what are your plans for Valentine's Day???