Date Night for a 2nd Grade Teacher

School starts on Tuesday.

Teachers had to return to school this past Monday. It was great- it was a good time to organize. I moved into my classroom so quickly last summer that I had no idea where anything was for the entire school year, so I spent LOTS of time this summer putting everything in boxes with labels and sorting papers into binders. This week, I went into the new teacher on our team's classroom, got ideas, then went back to my classroom and added file folders. I am pretty much in love with my classroom right now. Let's hope it stays this organized when students are actually IN it.

Though everything was organized, I realized I still had

several things to do before Meet the Teacher tomorrow, so I interrupted our previously scheduled date night to INVITE Brian to my classroom to help. Boy, do I love my husband!

After we left the school, we had dinner at Taziki's (Yum! ADORE their Friday Pasta Special!), then headed home to watch a movie. I let Brian choose the movie, so I was shocked to find This Is It in the DVD player when we got home.

Michael Jackson was an INCREDIBLE performer. The movie was super interesting. I have decided that if he was still alive, I would want to see his concert.

Has anyone else seen the movie? What did you think?

If you haven't, check it out! It's pretty great!

Cricut Dreams

Last Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, Brian and I went see our great friends Brad and Katie in Demopolis. Aside from a wonderful time of fellowship and catching up, I was introduced to the Cricut. We spent the weekend finding creative ways to use it. I fell in love and began dreaming of great and fabulous things I could do with it- gifts, classroom, our house, a future nursery. Nothing seemed too big or small for the Cricut.

For our anniversary, my sweet Brian gave me a Cricut. I am beside myself! I have been in heaven creating things for my classroom and am anxious to try cutting fabric and vinyl. I have worked for hours making a word wall and letters for my bulletin boards.

We recently had a new teacher join the 2nd grade team at our school. Aside from the fact that she is Godly and wonderful, she is also VERY creative and fun. As she was setting up her classroom, she hung a painted canvas on the wall to add a homey feel. I decided I needed to do that in my classroom as well and was determined to use my Cricut. After browsing the aisles of Hobby Lobby, I came home with black paint and bright polka dotted paper (I had the canvases at home.)

My final project?

They look awesome in the room, but could also be useful in a playroom one day. I have cut out the words "be creative" and "make good choices" too, but am completely out of black paint. I hope to do those later this week. I have a lot more work to do before I am good at the Cricut, but I am loving the chance to practice! Hopefully you will see more Cricut projects here in the future!

2010 Writer's Festival

Each year my school puts on a writer's festival where they work with two other schools in the system to get popular children's book writers to come and speak to the students. This is the week and I am loving it. This year's authors are Gordon Korman, Stephanie Greene, and Matt Faulkner.

Gordan Korman spoke yesterday. He wrote books like Swindle, Zoobreak, Liar Liar Pants on Fire, and the second book in the 39 Clues series, One False Note. He gave fabulous insight into the importance of researching information as you write. The students enjoyed hearing from him and the book sale/ signing after school was packed.

Today, I had the opportunity to have lunch with the second author, Stephanie Greene. She was delightful! She was truly interested in knowing what students, teachers, and librarians wanted in books and had an incredible knowledge of other book authors. I was intrigued by her point of view. Stephanie writes the Owen Foote series, the Sophie Hartley series, as well as several other books. She was particularly good because her books are on my students level- she was great!

Images from Amazon.com

Tomorrow is the last day of the festival. Author and illustrator Matt Faulkner is coming to speak to the students. He is probably the author I am most excited about. He illustrated the book The Monster Who Ate My Peas which has quickly become one of my top 2 favorite picture books (next to Click Clack Moo). He also wrote and illustrated a picture book about two children's innocence during the Civil Rights movement called A Taste of Colored Water. I am anxious to hear what he shares and see some of his work in person.

Because of my internship, I have helped with the process of setting this festival up over the past couple of weeks. It has been so cool to see it come together and to see the children enjoy it. As one mother said, it's letting the students see authors as real people and opening their eyes to the possibility that they could do it too. I am blessed to be in a system that is able to organize and create this opportunity. It also has me racking my brain for a way to raise money to do something similar in my own library one day. But that is another bird to chase....

Happy Hump Day everyone! I hope you are having a great week!

19 Little Pumpkins Lined in a Row

We painted pumpkins in my class!! We measured and compared sizes, wrote personal narratives of the life of our pumpkins, then came to my table in groups of 4 and 5 and painted. It was stressful. It was messy. It was fantastic.

Aren't they precious?

Thanks for the great pumpkin math suggestions my friends!

Tuesdays Unwrapped

I must begin by saying, I've been a day late all week. I adore long weekends. I love having a Monday or Friday off to spend time with Brian and spend time with friends, but when the new week comes, I always get my days mixed up. So today, I will share my Tuesday Unwrapped because it really was a joy to look at the simple things and recognize how great my life is, whether it is Tuesday or Wednesday. For those of you who don't know, Tuesdays Unwrapped is brought to you by Chatting at the Sky . It is meant for you to slow down during those fast paced, tiring days, and look at the small, meaningful things of the day. I love it.

Today I stopped being stressed out about curriculum and about reading and writing conferences and about talking students, and ENJOYED my class. We played math games, brainstormed words, used real life examples to show the meaning of words, enjoyed computer games together, and simply got to know each other a little bit better. As the day ended in rainy day recess in the computer lab, one sweet child looked at me and thanked me for letting us stay a little longer in the lab. He didn't complain that we didn't go outside. He didn't overlook the fact we were supposed to leave 20 minutes before. He gave me a hug and thanked me. It was a precious moment that reminded me why I was there and how I can make a child's day great just by enjoying being with them. Children are such a blessing.

My Classroom!

So, the entire reason behind my not posting for the past 3 weeks has been my classroom. Friday I finally put the finishing touches on it so it is student friendly and educational. I am so excited about my job. I know God has big things in store for me and I can't wait to see what they are. Please be praying He prepares my heart and mind for whatever it is. Monday begins our official days of meetings and whatnot before school starts on the 18th. I love the area the school is located. It is the type of place where students walk to the ice cream shop around the corner after school. The outside of the school is warm and inviting. Brian said he thinks it looks like Hogwarts. I wondered if he had ever seen Harry Potter because it certainly doesn't, but it does have the old time movie looking feel.

My classroom is SUPER spacious. I have more places to store things then I do in my own home (which is never bad for a teacher.) I opted this year not to have a teacher's desk. Brian thinks I am a loon, but I never used it last year and it takes up so much space. The horseshoe table will have to do :)

Behind the horseshoe table is my birthday cake cabinets. Poor Brian spent about an hour cutting out cake iciing from scrapbook paper one random Tuesday night. I think they turned out pretty good and I spent nothing because I collect scrapbook paper like Hobby Lobby will never have another sale. I am going to put candles with the students names and birthdays on the cakes of their birthday months.

This is my word wall and character trait bulletin board. I am going to hang the student's pictures by the traits because those are what we are aiming for!

This is the calendar math section of my whiteboard. We will take note of the days of the week and how many days we have been in school.

My favorite part of the my classroom is the reading nook. It is the perfect amount of space for grabbing a book and a bean bag and settling in for a good read. This picture isn't actually a finished product, but it is close enough.

Finally, here are my work hangers. I used these FANTASTIC hooks from Ikea to hang them on the ribbon. They don't slide and they were quick and painless to use. I can't wait to hang student's work!

Have a blessed day!!!

Praise the Lord!!!

Hi friends! I am so excited to let you know that today the Lord answered a major prayer- I got a job!!!! I am officially (as of Monday when the board votes) a 2nd grade teacher at a school about 10 minutes from my house. The principal called me yesterday to be sure I had not accepeted another job offer, then asked if she could call my references. She did that first thing this morning and then called me at about 11:00 to let me know my references were great and that she wanted me to join the team! This is the same school I interviewed for the 6th grade reading position- they said they had me in mind for the 2nd grade position the whole time! I am so grateful for the job and this opportunity. God has taught me so much over the past 3 months about trusting Him and looking to glorify Him in everything, whether it be with me as a teacher or not. He has just proved one more time that He is faithful, no matter the state of my heart or my mind. He is SO good!

Here are a random selection of pictures from my classroom. I obviously haven't brought any of my classroom materials there yet, but I plan to start that tomorrow. If you have any suggestions for the very tall window, leave a comment- I am kind of puzzled on that one :)

To celebrate, Brian, Mom, Daddy and I went to La Fiesta. La Fiesta is very important to my history- I eat there most birthdays, including other people's, and that is where I found out I made 8th grade dance team. You can tell it has a lot of significance to me. When I heard I got the job, I was torn on where to have my celebration dinner, but in the end La Fiesta won out, because I hate to tarnish it's name in my big event list!

Here are some pictures of us from the evening!

Finally, I went to Hobby Lobby's clearance rack today and found some AWESOME deals!

Lamp- $10

Don't love the shade, so I bought this adhesive lamp shade for $2.50. I am going to adhere cute fabric the match the room the lamp is going in. Bodie obviously wanted you to notice her, too :)

Wire baskets- $1 (I bought 3) I am going to spray paint these black and put them.... somewhere. Who can pass up a $1 deal?

Once again, thank you for your prayers on the job search. Have a blessed evening!!!

Wooooo Haaaaaaaa!!!

Quick update-
The principal called this morning and I will be interviewing for a 6th grade READING position. I did my internship in 6th grade reading and have LOVED reading for my entire life. I am ridiculously excited. Please pray :)

Another day of frustration...

As I posted before, I am supposed to have a job interview this week. I am excited about it- it will be a change from my past 2 years and I think it could be good, but I still haven't set a time or date. The principal told me yesterday she would call me to set up a time and I honestly waited all day, hoping she would call. But she didn't. Several things had to go through at the board before they could start interviewing and I understand that. I would just love to work at this school so I am waiting with bated breath. Maybe tomorrow :)

Last year, I began reading Breaking Free by Beth Moore with a couple of girls. I only got a few chapters into it then stopped reading for no reason at all. Anyway, this summer I decided to give the book another try and God has really blessed me through what Beth is sharing. As I am frustrated with lack of hearing and with searching for yet another year, I was encouraged to read this section- I hope God speaks to you through it as He did to me....

"In Matthew 14:25-32 in the midst of a storm, Jesus came walking on the water. To his terrified disciples, He said; 'Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.' (vs. 27), but the storm continued to rage until he got into the boat. The point is not that we have nothing to fear but that His presence is the basis for our courage. Christ did not say 'Take courage! I am calming the storm. Don't be afraid.' Instead, with the winds still raging, He said 'Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.'

Christ does not always immediately calm the storm, but He is always willing to calm His child on the basis of His presence. 'Don't worry! I know the winds are raging and the waves are high, but I am God over both. If I let them continue to swell, it's because I want you to see Me walk on water.' We'll probably never learn to enjoy our storms, but we can learn to enjoy God's presence in the storm!"

Once again, I am reminded that God has a plan- He is good and gracious. Everything will work for His good.

Have a blessed day! :)