Fall is in the Air!

I just finished new teacher orientation today. I am so excited to be teaching in my new district. It's awesome to become part of a school district that really puts students first, values their staff, is constantly learning and improving, and encourages teachers to take risks! I can tell it's going to be a great year. I'm pretty excited about all the quality professional development I will be participating in this year, including a series on Reading Workshop.

I have been in my room here and there this week after orientation most days. I still have a lot to do, but things are coming along. I really need to focus on first week lesson plans now!

Today after orientation, the new hires from my building all went out to lunch with the principal and vice principal. So fun! Next week, the rest of the district reports back to work. We have PDs and some time to work in our rooms. My building is open til 11 pm all next week. Hopefully I will not be needing those late hours!

And now, some random pictures from the week...

 Table tubs! Love the aqua ribbon that I added. Unfortunately I ran out of it before I finished, so back to Meijer I go.

 Target run for classroom things! Pillows and table tubs on clearance...score!

 Ikea bookshelf in the corner. Thanks for putting that together, Gil!

Saw this lesson plan book at the teacher store and thought of my mom! Mary Engelbreit.

I'm getting really excited for fall...apple cider, donuts, leaves falling, crisp air...
Have a great weekend everyone!

Back to School...Goodbye Workouts!

That's usually how it goes for me! The minute I get busy, I get really good at excuses for not working out. The past week or so I've been at school setting up the room and I haven't worked out at all. I'm trying to think of ways to keep me motivated.

I was thinking about signing up for a 5k in October or November. Having a commitment like that may help me get off the couch after a long day to fit in a run. My runs over the summer have been about 2 or 2.5 miles typically. While I don't really need to train for a 5k distance-wise, it would keep me running more regularly and I can definitely improve my pace.

Over the summer I did a lot of 30 day shred workouts and really felt like I got stronger adding some weights to my routine. I definitely need to keep that up!

Here's hoping I can stay motivated during the school year! I have a later start time this year, so I would really love to try a few morning workouts each week. I've tried that before and it didn't last but hopefully I will be less exhausted this year not getting up so early!

This always cracks me up to hear, but I think it may be true:

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If anyone has any tips to pass along to stay motivated, feel free to pass them along!

Classroom Library!

 I feel like I've been in the classroom a lot, but it doesn't look like I've gotten much done! I turned my desk and reading table towards the corner. I think it ended up taking up the same amount of space, but I like that my stuff is in a "nook" now.

 I have made progress in the classroom library. The school provided tons of leveled books so I spent some of yesterday and today putting leveled stickers on all the books. Another teacher gave me a bookcase, so I was able to move the kids' book bins off the counter. It freed up a ton of space and looks much better. I grabbed a black berber rug from Meijer. Still need some seating or pillows for the kids.

 Another shot of the classroom library.

 I've cleared out some things from this half of the room and it's looking pretty bare. Math materials and word work materials will go on the shelves. I grabbed a little table to put next to the computers that I'm going to use as a writing center. Nothin' up on the walls yet!

Started putting up the calendar, but I can't seem to find the rest of my calendar materials.

Can't wait to get student tables...it's going to look much more complete!

Poms!

Yesterday I went into school and felt like I didn't get much done. I ended the day feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount of things I have left to do! I did get the poms up in the classroom and I think they are pretty cute, so that helps. :)

 Today I felt a little better at school because I got a reading table in my room and felt like I had a place to set things down today! The blue & lime reading boxes came from reallygoodstuff.com for the students' independent reading boxes. I think they are going to go on a bookcase somewhere in the room because they take up way too much counter space!

 The closet is starting to fill up...some of my stuff is organized, some is just kinda thrown in there for now!

 I started organizing some of my classroom books. I have about four more boxes full of books at home. I think they are going to stay boxed up for a bit and I can start incorporating more as I have more space. I need a bookcase to jut out where the green table is to create a library "cove".

 Here's the reading table. I moved another table from the room behind the reading table for a bit of space. In my old classroom, I had a counter and shelf behind my desk area so I'm still trying to figure out where to put everything!

The border I ordered online was finally delivered today, so I can get that up on the walls tomorrow!

Tomorrow we are doing a meet and greet with the parents and kids at a local park for about an hour. Wish me luck!

I chopped my hair off...

That is all!

Classroom, Lions, IKEA, Fun...

I didn't go in to the classroom on Thursday because it was pouring rain all day. Moving boxes into the classroom in the rain did not sound fun! So I got some other things done instead and heading into the classroom for a couple hours on Friday.

I didn't get tons done, but I did finish papering the walls. I just have to decide whether or not to put black paper over the already black chalkboard or not. I think I'm going to use the chalkboard as my Word Wall. It's magnetic, so I can just stick magnets on the back of the words and stick them up there. 

The walls look a little weird right now because there is no border up. I decided to do all black walls this year (which sounds a bit dark), but once there is bright border up (in aqua and lime polkadots), and stuff stuck up on the walls, it won't seem dark at all. I like doing only one or two colors up on the walls so the room feels cohesive. Doing a bunch of colors on the wall can be a bit hard on the eye and a little too stimulating for the youngins'! 

I bought a kit to make poms and finished making them on Thursday. These cute things will be going up  in the room soon!

Friday night, Gil's parents came over so we could celebrate their birthdays. We went out to dinner and then headed to the first Lions preseason game. The game was a bit slow, but it was fun anyways!

On Saturday, Erin & Matt came over with the pup to hang out. As usual, Erin and I headed to the store (or three) to buy delicious snacks. After Round 1 of snacks, we all headed out to IKEA. Erin & Matt got a bunch of things for the nursery (awww) and Gil & I picked up some things for my classroom. 

After IKEA, Gil & Matt went golfing and Erin & I headed out to try to find some maternity clothes for her. She found some cute things, but overall, I learned that it is hard to find clothes when you are tiny and pregnant haha. 

By this time it was already almost 9 pm, so we headed back to the house for more food, of course, and just hung out for a while. I really wish I had taken a picture with Erin and her bump while she was here! I got to feel the baby kick a few times and it was so cool! They aren't telling the baby's name before she's born so somehow through the course of the night, the nickname "Brenda Sue" was developed. Ha! 

And for the record, Laila & Wrigley are both so exhausted from playing last night...awesome!

Happy Sunday, everyone!

A Tiny Bit of Progress...

I started off the day by packing up my car and heading to the teachers store. I found cute borders but one, they were out of and the other they only had two packs left. I bought those two, but I'm a bit worried that half my room is going to have that border and the rest will be unfinished because they won't get more in. We'll see! I had to get it though, because it was so cute! I worked in my classroom for a few hours after that.  I was working the whole time but didn't seem to get anything visibly done.

I unpacked a few boxes and got some paper and borders up on the wall. By late afternoon, I found myself moving things around from one location to another, so I decided it was probably time to go. Not so productive! I also have a shelf in the closet dedicated to stuff I will "deal with later". That's probably a bad thing to start...haha.

I brought my classroom rug today and it's taking up a good chunk of the classroom...I'm starting to wonder where the student tables will go!

Boxes!

Something I realized today...when I packed up my old room, I labeled nearly all my boxes as "miscellaneous"...makes it really difficult to unpack and organize!

Starting to get things in the small closet.

I finished mostly all of the tops of the bulletin boards around the room today.

Closeup of the cute "Doodles & Dots" border. I found some more online, since the teacher store was out, but shipping was more expensive than the border. Forget that!

Tomorrow I will head back to get a few more things done, like getting paper up on the bigger bulletin boards. I'll be glad to have that part done...papering the boards is the worst part!

By the way, my "theme" this year is aqua, lime, and black, with some polka dots sprinkled in. :) I got a bunch of cute polka dot labels for lockers and labeling materials today...can't wait to use that stuff!

An Anniversary & The First Day in My Classroom!

 Before I get to school stuff, I wanted to post a couple of pictures from our anniversary (which was July 26). It was a pretty low-key date because the end of the quarter had been super busy for Gil at work, so it was nice just having time to go out to dinner together.

We wanted to go to a new local restaurant that has gotten really good reviews and looks cool, but we called and the wait was about 2 hours (whoops, should've made reservations)! We ended up going to Bagger Dave's. We're so fancy, haha, not! We tried to get a few pictures before going to dinner, which took a few tries. We also had our "Year 4" bottle of wine from our wedding! I'm so glad we did that instead of a guest book...it's such a fun tradition each year!

There were several like this, while we tried to get the timer right. Ha!

A little blurry, but captured the moment at least!

Happy four years of marriage to us!

Now on to school...Today was my first day going in to work on my classroom. I didn't bring tons of stuff because I had to fit my ginormous easel in the car and that took most of the space. 

Here are some shots from the doorway to give you an idea of the space. This room is definitely smaller than my last classroom, but so much brighter, cleaner, and has AMPLE storage!!

Sink in the corner (Score! I never had water in the room before) and student computers, with some random furniture thrown in.

Shelves across the back and HUGE windows. Love them! Gleaming hardwood floors!

In the corner of the room, you can see the entrance to the Glorious Walk-in Closet. To the left of that is another closet.

Promethean board at the front of the room where I will put my carpet. 

Looking out the door at my stuff waiting to be unloaded!

Out the windows, I have a view of the adorable houses (hard to see through the trees). The school is on a really pretty, quaint street.

A little bit of playground is visible from the windows. 

A shot from inside the Glorious Walk-in closet...it has a little window in it!

Started setting up my classroom library. 

So there you have it, all the before pictures of my classroom. I have tons of work to do and still need furniture! I will update pictures as I start to get things done in the room! Have a great night everyone!

Back to School...

Well, I hate to say it, but it officially feels like summer is coming to a close. I have all this week and next week off, but then I have a full week of orientation before professional development days the following week. I am going to start popping into school over the next two weeks to start getting things set up!

I went into school today to work with two of the girls on my new team and it got me excited for the year. Even though I am stressed about the number of things I need to accomplish and the too-few-days to do it all,  I'm excited to get in my new room and organize!

I popped my head into my room for a minute today and the wood floors had been polished and were super shiny. The school is so cute and traditional. It sounds corny, but when I pictured becoming a teacher as a little girl, this is pretty much how I pictured it!

Storage is an important thing to teachers and my last classroom was seriously lacking in storage space. I can't tell you how in love I am with my closet space this year. I actually have two closets and one of them looks like this:

Walk in closet!!!!!!!! It's hard to photograph because it's such a skinny space, but there is more shelving to the right that you can't see. Since I was last at school, all the shelves have been cleaned and put into place and are ready to go. Organizational Dream!!!

In the next few weeks, I'll post some before and afters. I am seriously starting from scratch this year! All my stuff is currently residing in the garage. Can't wait to get it out of there! 

Have a great week, everyone!

Relaxing Summer...

I have not had much to blog about lately and that's because I honestly haven't been doing all that much. And it's been glorious! I've had lots of time to relax, help with my nieces and nephew, workout, cook, and just enjoy the summer weather.

I can't believe we're already into August. I'm going to have to start thinking about school stuff in the coming weeks, but I don't think I'm quite ready for that yet! I can't believe it will be my fifth year teaching!

I did complete two "fun" school projects last week, but that's the most I've done for my classroom lately, besides pinning new ideas on Pinterest (which I have done plenty of)!

Gussied up the old student mailboxes

Made a "Teacher Toolbox"

On Sunday, Gil & I went to the Lions Training Camp to watch them practice. It was pretty cool seeing the team up close. The first preseason game is already next Friday. We're pumped to be season ticket holders this year!

On another note, I was so excited to have a vegetable garden for the first time this summer. Let's just say that the first year did not go so well. I didn't realize at the time, but we picked a difficult variety of tomato to grow, so we are still waiting on our first tomatoes to ripen up! 

We have two baby watermelon that are probably just about ready to be picked...

The jalepenos are doing pretty well and a few can be picked soon.

The bell peppers never blossomed, something ate all the basil, and the tomato plants got so tall that they tipped over, even though we were using cages. Number one gardening thing I learned this year, the plants need way more room than I gave them. I planted way too many things and ended up getting less produce because they didn't have room to grow! Next year I'm definitely going with cherry or grape tomatoes instead of the six foot brandywine tomatoes!!

And lastly, I will leave you with a picture of Laila who has been enjoying her outside time this summer!  She'll nap outside in the shade even on 95 degree days!

Happy August!