SPRING IS HERE...

ALMOST!

But I love crafts! I made this craft for my sister in-law Molly's birthday. It is so bright! but looks super cute on her table don't ya think!

THE BUCKET TOILET!

As if my classroom didn't have enough stuff! Now I have my own toilet on a bucket. Why you ask? Well back in October (?) we had a lock down for almost 3 hours. We did not receive bathroom breaks and the kids had to pee in a bucket I found under my sink. Not the best moment in my life. This is much much better! Hopefully I will never have to use it!

I am ready to lose it!

OK so not mentally! ha ha

But I am so ready to lose weight. I have been doing Yoga for 2 weeks now and yes I feel tighter but no weight has come off. I am such a immediate satisfaction person. I want so bad to see the pound come off the scale. I think our scale might be broken. I have been eating better and working out more and still nothing.

So here is my motivation! I want to plan a cruise in August. I think that this would be the only way to keep up my hard work. I did a 45 min. cardio work out today and it felt good but I started to get sick half way through. I kept going and finished the whole 45min. It felt good after but I still feel sick, like physically exhausted. So i've got to be able to with stand a long work out with out stopping. Hopefully I can keep up the work outs. I know that my body is tighter but I really want to see it on the scale.

POWER HOUR WAS AWESOME!

Crafty Girls!

So a few of my MG girls friends have gotten into making crafts for your house! So I decided I would join in the fun. I went to Wood Connection and bought some really cute wood crafts for St. Patricks day. I made the Lucky sign prior to the craft party night and it turned out really cute! I am so excited to go get a SPRING sign and make to have up for April and May. Here are the two projects I have been working on. They turned out pretty cute.

This one is still drying. 12 hours later! The glue I used for the sparkles is not the best for glitter!

The final finished project. Still slightly wet!

Thanks for the fabulous fun ideas Annika and Steph! I love you both!

NEW POWER HOUR!

OK so as many people know in Murray District they have an hour (or in my case a 1/2 hour) of a teachers day that is dedicated to literacy learning. It is called "POWER HOUR." I am so lucky to have this time. I have 3 aids that come in and help me and my students to enhance their literacy skills. Well I have been following the direction of the other 2 teachers and doing what they did during power hour. But after talking to my principal I have completely revamped my power hour. I've been thinking about changing it since Christmas but I didn't know if I could. Some days I still feel like a student teacher that has to do as the other teachers say. But I don't! Not that the other teachers do not have great ideas and instruction, they just don't always work for everybody!

So we use to have 4 groups in which the students went to through out the week. But they only received 30 min. of instruction total on guided reading and spelling. So I decided instead of the students attending 2 of the groups a day they are going to go to 3 ten minute groups, giving them 40 min. of instruction in each subject each week. I am so excited to change it next week I hope it works they way I think it will and I hope I don't overwhelm the aids that help me.

I am also planning to redo my center instruction. I feel bad that my kids are being guinea pigs this year! But they are all so smart that I think they can handle it! I am going to try what another teacher suggested on her blog here is the poster board I am going to make.

The students are assigned their first group they have to go to and then they can choose between three others after they have accomplished the task of the first group. I hope that it works. I think that it eliminates a lot of the unpleasant paper work that they have to accomplish in the centers I am doing now! THANK YOU KELLY'S WEB PAGE! I love all the ideas you give me! Their are so many websites that are such a big help for teachers. Here are just a few...

http://www.kellyskindergarten.com/

http://www.jmeacham.com/

http://www.hubbardscupboard.org

http://www.hellofirstgrade.com/

http://www.uen.org/

Just a couple that I use all the time. It amazes me that teachers use to work with out the Internet! I love that teachers post their ideas on their web pages! It is such a big help!

Bad Day, Sad Day, Glad Day!

Today was both a hard day and a GREAT day! I was observed for the second time today by my principal. I was worried that it did not go well at all. She observed me during Power Hour, which is a small group process that kids move through. I have been frustrated with different parts of my power hour time and daily centers. One of my power hour aids is just not watching or taking care of her group. Therefore, I have to stop my lesson to discipline off task students. It is getting old. Today while my principal was observing me, she noticed the same things so now I have her on my side. Not that I didn’t previously but it just felt good to talk to her about it.

I hate being observed because I feel like I am not my best because I try to hard to be my best when someone is watching. I was not nervous before or during the observation. Things went okay. After as the students were leaving to go to recess and my principal was leaving I got extremely nervous that things did not go well. I realized that transitions took to long. Which I have always noticed but it doesn’t bother me too much. Basically, it put me in a bad mood and I was frustrated for the rest of the day.

Well after meeting with my principal after school, I WAS WRONG! She said I did great! We were able to talk about a few things that I was concerned with. (aka centers) She said my transition was forty-five seconds. I wondered if that was a good thing or bad. She said it was fabulous! Needless to say she raised my spirits after a long hard day!