Gooooooooood Morning 2013!

I am so excited for 2013. I know it is going to be a great year! Make sure you head over to The Teachers Cauldron to link up for this awesome linky party!

Personal

• Make sure I have mapped out my objectives and lessons for the week on Saturdays.
• Get more active in the school activities!
• My desk needs some serious organization...

Blog

• Post more!! I have been MIA (for good reason, see my previous post) but I plan on posting AT LEAST once a week, if not more. 
• Get more teacher blog friends!

Fitness

• I am going to leave this one blank for right now. I have had some blood work done today to find out what is going on with me (i.e: Celiac's Disease) before I list some goals! 

 

Now go link up! Happy 2013 Everyone :)

12 in 12 Linky Party!

A Teeny Tiny Teacher has launched their second annual Linky Party. This year you answer 12 questions about what you did in 2012! You can hook up here:

12. Favorite Movie You Watched: 

This movie was delicious. Seriously. Best Daniel Craig Bond film and very close to being the best Bond film ever. Plus the theme song is so sexy. Adele's voice is so amazing. The film's main villain (I won't spoil! Promise!) was utterly creepy and oozing with evilness. Loved it! I recommend you watch the film when you get the chance. You won't regret it (like *Ahhem* Quantum of Solace).

11. Favorite TV Series: 
I love all of the Real Housewives shows but I decided to go with a non-reality show. I feel as though we are getting inundated with realityesque shows. Time to get back to well written sitcoms. Now, I love me some Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, and Modern Family; but the show that both my boyfriend and I can enjoy TOGETHER is Subguratory.

This girl is exactly like me. It is kind of weird actually. Her father is played by the actor who played Elton in Clueless (hottie!).

10. Favorite Restaurant:

I love burritos. I love burritos so much that if burritos were a man, I would marry him and slowly eat him until I died and he was eaten.

Seriously.

9. Favorite New Thing You Have Tried: 

I got a groupon for hot yoga near my workplace and I thought, what the hell why not? Oh boy oh boy! I loved it. The classes are 75 minutes long and I feel all the crap and bad vibes just sweat out of my body and into the universe. The room is not insanely hot but warm enough to feel good when it is about 30 degrees out with a wind chill making it even colder. Try it! You can usually find a great groupon or livingsocial.

8. Favorite Gift You Have Received: 

 
 
The boyfriend gave this to me for Christmas this year. This is a great little tablet! Makes packing much easier now that I don't have to bring my laptop with me everywhere. Plus, I can bring it to work and use the Office Suite program on it to take notes during meetings.

7. Favorite Thing You Pinned: 
I am going to keep this one secret because it is on my secret board :-p I don't want people knowing about it until I am ready to share it with you!

6. Favorite Blog Post: 
Honestly, this one. I have not been able to updated as much due to family problems (see my earlier post).

5. Favorite Accomplishment:
Making it through my first year of teaching and actually wanting to come back for a second year!

4. Favorite Picture:
n/a

3. Favorite Memory:
All of my memories with my grandmother, who passed away in October. I think about her many times of day and I keep those memories close to me.

2. Goal for 2013:
To update more, finally get my butt into gear health-wise and focus on more student-centered learning in the classroom! I know that it says one goal but I can't just choose one.

1. One Little Word:
Humble.

Link up so I can see your 12 in 12 as well!   

 

Liebster Award!

I know that double posting is a no-no here in the blogsphere but seriously, I got the Liebster Award! Shout out to Christy at Crayons and Whimsy for giving me this award on December 5th. I am obviously way behind on checking out my comments. Thank you again Christy!

The Rules:

• You must post 11 random things about yourself
• Answer the questions the nominator set for you
• Create 11 questions for the people you nominate
• Choose 11 blogs you love with less then 200 followers and link them
• No tag back

11 Random Things about me:

1. I love to cook! It is one thing that my Grandmother and I bonded over.
2. I have a cockroach phobia. Legit.
3. I love the freezing cold weather (below 30F) even though I complain about it.
4. Burritos are my favorite foods.
5. I "adopted" three freshman football players this year as part of our mentor program at our school.
6. I am a master gift wrapper. I am fantastic with the bows.
7. I am addicted to Pepsi Max.
8. I have fallen in love with hot yoga even though I hate sweating. Hot Yoga is so relaxing!
9. I am terrified to take my Principles of Teaching and Learning Praxis exam...
10. I want to get my PhD in History from George Washington.
11. I am a die-hard Chicago Bears and Florida State Seminoles fan!

Now the questions from Christy:

1. How long have you been teaching? 2 years and going strong! 
2. What is your favorite thing about being a teacher? Witnessing that moment when it finally "clicks" in my students' heads. I love that moment! 
3. What is your favorite grade to teach? Well I have only taught 9th grade, but I would really love to teach 12th next year. I am an expert in British Literature!
4. What type of lesson planner do you use? I use the plain old paper and pencil. I got a great planner from Barnes and Noble this year. I love it!
5. Do you have any hobbies? Cooking. I have started taking fancy pictures of my culinary creations and I would like to start scrapbooking to pass it down. 
6. What is your favorite place to travel? Europe!
7. If you were stranded on a desert island tell me 3 things you would take with you. My boyfriend Christopher, global cell phone to call for a ride off the island and 100spf sunscreen. I don't like the sun and it doesn't like me lol. 
8. What was the last book you read and did you like it? I read, for the 2493574987 time, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire over the weekend because I wanted a break from the school stuff. I loved it!
9. What is your favorite food? BURRITOS!
10. Do you watch TV? If so, what is your favorite show? I have soooo many. Let's see: Modern Family, Subguratory, PLL, Vampire Diaries, Gossip Girl (RIP), Sopranos (RIP), and Real Housewives.
11. What is your favorite app? Pinterest...it is dangerous.

It has been awhile...

My apologies for not updating in a very long time. These last few months have been, for lack of a better word, hell on Earth. I received two phone calls within 48 hours of each other that no one wants to receive: I lost a beloved Grandmother and Great Uncle to cancer at the end of October. My world was shattered. My Grandmother was instrumental in my upbringing and was a very large part of my life. We talked nearly every week, if not multiple times a week. I have not been the same since I lost her. I have started going once a week to the grief center here in Washington, DC and it has been getting better, ie: I am not crying every 2 hours and I am actually bathing again. I have finally gotten some of my motivation back in the past few weeks so that means more blog updates! I would really like to share my ideas for the Hero unit I have coming up based around the story The Odyssey. Look forward to another update next week as I start planning my introductory lessons! As always, I love comments :)

October Currently and a mini-rant

Linking up with Farley again this month for October Currently! Hop on over and join the fun!!

Onto the second part of my post: I am pretty sure I have/had walking pneumonia. I am pretty sure I got it from the combination of my school being a)full of 2000-2050 people daily, b) unnaturally humid and c)full of sick students. One thing I am 150% sure of, however, is:

I AM FRIGGIN OVER BEING SICK!!!!!!!

Did I scream that loud enough? Has everyone heard me? I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. My brain literally hasn't functioned properly in two weeks. It is showing in my work. My department chair came to observe my Honors 9 class yesterday and it was God-awful (not exaggerating). My major hold up are my SMART objectives. Last year, I got solid 3's (or effective) on IMPACT for my objective-driven classes. This year I feel as if I have taken a step backwards in that department. Is it because I am teaching English now? But I am sick and tired (see a trend here?) of blaming my issues on switching content areas. I feel as though I am using that as crutch. I really want to talk to my department chair about using our Professional Development day to get some work done on creating objectives. I believe quite a bit of the department needs some help in that area of IMPACT. Anyways, I joined the school wellness challenge and I need to be healthy in order to participate. This crud needs to go away. 

Has anyone else noticed an influx of teachers getting sick or is it just my school?  

Let's Talk About Rigor

This is the biggest obstacle that is standing in my way right now. Rigor. Moving from a poorly performing school to one of the best in the District along with having highly motivated students, I am at a loss as to how to up my rigor game. I am not going to lie and say that I am not terrified that I am going to get a "developing" score from our master educators on my IMPACT.

I am currently teaching English 9 regular, inclusion and honors. We are reading To Kill A Mockingbird and I have absolutely no idea what I am doing. I keep thinking "did I make the right change to English? Should I have stayed with History/Social Studies?". Has anyone else made the switch to a new subject area and dealt with the same problems?

Am I just completely off my rocker? Someone let me know!

Sunday Social!

How has everyone's week been? I ended up taking off Friday because I rocked a fever at school all day on Thursday. I have a horrible cough and congestion. BUT! The weather is freaking glorious here in the nation's capital. The BF and I have the windows wide open and are ready for some football. Anywho, let's continue on with our Sunday Social questions...

1. What is something that you have wanted to do but are afraid of?
Trying Socratic Seminars! I am terrified to turn that control over to a bunch of 9th graders.

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Still teaching. However, Chris and I will be probably be married or engaged and living in Southern Maryland.

3. What are you looking forward to before the end of 2012?
A huge snow storm! We didn't get one last year and this autumn has started off with a bang of cold weather. Loving it!

4. What are your hopes for your blog?
That it will continue to grow and gain more readers. I would love to become closer with my readers!

5. Do you always see yourself living in your current town/city?
In the area, as I say in #2!

 6. What is your morning routine?
Wake up, check email, get dressed, put on clothes/makeup/brush teeth, watch some news and leave out! 

Sunday Social!

1. 5 items you cannot live without on a daily basis (water, food, shelter, & clothes do not count).
Oh jeez let's see: iPhone, MacBook, teacher planner, Sugar lip balm, and a good pen.

2. All time favorite book & why.
Pride and Prejudice because I absolutely adore the Bronte sisters. This is a book that I constantly read time and again. I love Mr. Darcy, my perfect man!

3. Something you'd like to accomplish by the end of 2012.
Losing 50 pounds!

4. If you could go back and relive any year of your life, which year would it be?
Freshman year of college. I would've taken my schooling seriously and started off on the right foot.

5. What do you wish people knew about you without you having to tell them?
I am a really a nice person once you get past my tough exterior. I don't want to be viewed as a pushover. I am so very sensitive so be kind :-p 

Massive update!

This is me everyday after school!

Whew! I know I haven't updated in a while because I have been SO INCREDIBLY BUSY!! Between internet issues at school (so enjoyable considering we have to do all of our data, attendance and SRI testing on the internet now) and meetings out the craphole, I am ready for a mini-vacation already. I am having such a hard time getting back into the swing of things. I haven't properly worked out in since before school started. My sleep schedule is either falling asleep at 8 pm or going to bed at 3 am. Now that football season has started, oy vey, my Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and Monday nights are consumed with footballllll. I find moving to another school and another subject area to be...daunting. I feel like I am failing. I know that I am great at teaching English but I feel as though I am not as good as other teachers in my department. Does anyone else have these feelings of...inadequacy? Or am I just going crazy?

The school itself is gorgeous (I plain on doing a massive picture post soon). The classrooms are state-of-the-art and we are completely green. Every classroom has a Promethean board (boo!hiss!), white board and kickass audio system (I may or may not crank Kayne West after school through the system...). The massive downside is that I teach in 4 different classrooms. My "homebase" is in the room that I teach only 1 class. My 1st and 3rd periods are in the same classroom (thankfully directly after each other). My 4th, 5th and 6th periods are in 3 different rooms. I am constantly moving around and get frazzled quite easily because I tend to leave things in my other room and have to go back. Sometimes the teacher in my "homebase" is understanding, sometimes she isn't. I just can't wait until I get the hang of things!

How has everyone else's first 3 weeks gone? Leave me some love below!!

First Full Week

I know, I know. Horrible blogger for not updating this week! I am so exhausted. I have been going to bed at 8 pm some nights! I am so ready for this weekend, getting some real sleep and planning for the week ahead. However, I am going to do that on Sunday and Monday. I need tonight and tomorrow to just vegetate (and see Expendables 2 with the bf). My 5th period on-level English class is off the chain. I have no idea what to do with them other then to implement a ticket system and hope that works. Pray for me! Other then that, my classes are lovely. Especially my honors kids. They are so cute. I plan on doing a classroom reveal at some point next week. It is going to be different because we have to share classrooms in my school (overcrowding). Look forward to that!

How about you guys? Have a good first week?

Therapeutic Thursday!

I know I skipped over Where I Teach Wednesday because a) my classroom isn't ready yet and b) because I want to do that post justice. My new high school is GORGEOUS and I can't wait to share it with you!

Now on to the good stuffs! During the school year I am usually on robot mode and it is very hard for me to come out of my teaching mode. I have a few things that will make me normal again!

1. Community
I adore this show. It cracks me up! My boyfriend also thinks that I am just as psychotic as Annie too lol.

 

2. Pretty Little Liars
I don't know how it happened, but I got sucked into this murder mystery.

3. Ben and Jerry's Mint Cookie Ice Cream. Sooooooooooooooo delicioussssssssss.

4. Football Season baby!! Go Bears!

How about you? How do you wind down after a long day at work?!

Technology Tip Tuesday!

Technology Tuesday! I am writing this while I watch What Not To Wear so bear with me if you see any typos or anything. I love this stinkin show! Ok so technology. I am moving into a school this year that has 100% of the time working internet so this is going to be a great year for me to experiment with the technology at my fingertips. Some things I use religiously however are Google Docs, Wordle and English Companion Ning.

1. Google Docs

Great to use with students or colleagues to share docs, spreadsheets, and powerpoints quickly as possible.

2. Wordle

I like using this in classes all the time to show the most frequently used words in the unit or book. This is a great visual aid for students who need that!

3. English Companion Ning

This is more of a teacher resource then for students. There is a great community and Common Core resources for mainly secondary ELA teachers then elementary. Check it out!

I am sure that throughout the year I will be posting more about the technology as I explore what my new school has to offer me. I am so excited!

Teacher Week! Monday Must-Haves with What the Teacher Wants

Today was the first day of pre-service week. 170 secondary education teachers shoved into a tiny room with huge 5 inch binders filled with information for us to memorize.

I.loved.every.minute.of.it.

I miss my students from my old school but I don't miss the dysfunctional administration. I knew exactly what I was going to be doing every single minute of the day. In fact, I know what I am doing every day this week! It is so refreshing. How is everyone else's pre-service week?

Anywho, I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' for Teacher week! It is Monday Must-Haves today.

1. Comfortable clothes and shoes. 

I live in school essentially so I need to be comfortable at all times. Flats and stretchy pants and clothes are a must. I love majority of GAP pants because they have a little bit of stretch in them.

2. Hanging File Folders. 

I use these puppies for everything. I keep 5 on a file holder on my desk for the week (holding all important documents) and I use these as mailboxes for my students. Love love love them!

3. Comfy and smooth writing pens.

I love pens. I have a serious obsession with them. Especially uni-ball pens. I got my Office Depot gift card from school today and I can't wait to go get those comfy pens!!

4. Pictures to put on my desk. 

I love having pictures of my family and friends on my desk. Sometimes we have bad days and we need a pick-me-up. I look at my pictures and instantly feel better.

5. Fabric covered bulletin boards. 

Want to know how to get one of those gorgeous bulletin boards that you see on pinterest? Fabric! I love the clean look of the fabric. I picked up some sweet black and white polka dot fabric at JoAnn Fabrics in Florida and I can't wait to get it up this week! 

That's about it for me today. Hop over to Blog Hoppin' and link up!!

I received horrible news...

Well I am back from Florida! Both of my grandmothers are looking good and strong. I am glad I got to see them. Anywho, upon my return home I had a folder full of information from my school. Inside was the list of classroom and who would be occupying it. As I read through the list I discovered that I will be sharing my classroom with TWO other teachers. I felt my stomach fall out of my butt. How am I supposed to make my classroom feel like my own if I have to share it with TWO OTHER PEOPLE?! I have bought so much stuff to make my classroom feel like home. I have made posters, charts, and borders just to make sure that my classroom wouldn't feel so sterile like mine felt like last year. I have routines and rituals in place that I won't be able to use if I don't have my own classroom!!

Has anyone else had to deal with this situation before? How did you deal with it? How did you make your classroom your own? :(

Please help!! :(

One Lovely Blog Award!

Oh my goodness I am blushing! A big shout-out and thanks to Megan at Teacher-Wife for giving me the award. Check out her blog, it is amazing. She loves organization as much as I do!

For this award, here are the rules: 
1. Follow the person who gave me the award. 
2. Link back to the person that gave me the award.
3. Pass to 15 new bloggers and then let them know they have received the award. 

1. Already following Megan and I suggest you do too!

2. Linky at the top!

3. Oh jeez! I want to pass this to everyone!

Kristin at Simply Speech. She has a great blog on her work as a speech language pathologist and lots of great printables for IEP maintenance. Plus she is from my neck of the woods in FL!

Young Teacher Love. I love everything about her blog. Plus the color scheme makes me happy!

Robyn at Being Elementary in Middle School. One of my first followers and a great support. She is moving into a new subject this year like me and knows how nerve wracking that is!

Tiffany at The Learning Effect. I stalk Tiffany. I love her blog, the Nest Effect, for all of my OCD (or CDO) organization neediness. She has amazing printables and will keep you on track in terms of organization!

I know there are others that I don't have on this list but I REALLY NEED TO PACK. I am leaving at 10am and I haven't even dug out my luggage. Or finished the laundry...it's going to be a long time.

Thanks again Megan!

Teacher Style Linky Party!

I am linking up with From Blood to Books! to do a BTS Teacher Fashion Linky! 

 

Here are the guidelines...

1. Tell me your favorite store(s) that you like to get your "teacher's fashion".

2. What are some of your favorite accessories?

3. What type of shoes do you teach in? (i.e. heels, flats, wedges, etc.)

4. Do you have a "go-to" item in your closet? (i.e. sweater you wear weekly, shoes you wear daily, etc.)

5. Have you ever had a fashion "uh-oh" at school? (i.e. heel broke, button popped off of blouse)

1. Some of my favorite stores: Target, J. Crew, New York and Company, Ann Taylor, GAP, and Banana Republic.
2. I got some cute silver and gold bangles from Ann Taylor Loft (on sale! with teacher discount too!) that I am going to wear. I need to get a gold watch badly. I am sick of carrying my cell phone around to figure out the time (we don't have a clock that works). I also wear the same gold tear drop earrings that my Godmother got me from Italy. Love them. So simple and classic.
3. Flats obviously! I have only two pairs right now (Sam Edelman black lace flats and silver flats from Nordstrom). I think I am going to check out TOMS flats today and buy a pair.
4. Cardigans. I cannot live without my cardigans. I have one in every color of the rainbow.
5. I wore this super cute turtleneck that I got from J.Crew. It was that tissue material. However...being that I am large-chested, it stretched out the material in the boob area and all of the boys in class could not keep their eyes off my chest. I didn't realize it until I went to the restroom after school and was like OMG YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING.

Join up and let us know about your teacher fashion!!

Panic Mode - Activate!

WARNING: this a freak out post! If you aren't interested in the inner-workings of my convoluted mind, don't read on!

So I totally had a panic attack during my nap this afternoon. I had a dream that it was the first day of school and EVERYTHING was going wrong. The kids wouldn't listen to me, I wasn't prepared, and my classroom was in the gym that I shared with 4 other teachers. I started hyperventilating in my sleep. I have tried to make contact with my partner for our Unit 2 plan but she hasn't returned any of my emails. My department chair emailed all of us today and said to bring a copy of our work for our in-service days (20-24th). I have next to nothing on my unit plan because I have no idea what my partner is doing.

I feel like I am failing before I have even started.

Has anyone else felt this way before? I am moving to a new subject area this year which is might be the cause of my anxiety. I wish I felt more prepared!

Please tell me I am not the only one!!

Another Currently!

I am hooking up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade again this week for another "Currently". I am feeling incredibly under the weather today (headache, vomit-feeling, and exhausted) so I haven't really moved from my spot in the bed to do any crafts or even work on curriculum. Yesterday I asked if anyone wanted to guest blog for me but I haven't gotten any takers. I would really appreciate it if you could! Just leave a comment below and I will email you the deets. 

Anywho, onto the "Currently..."

Anyone want to Guest Blog for me next week?

I will love you forever if you doooooooo!

This upcoming week I will be in Florida visiting family and won't have a lot of time to be blogging. Instead of letting my blog sit lonely and alone, I would love to have someone guest blog for me while I am gone (August 12-18th). If you are interested, leave a comment with your email address below and I will get into contact with you.

Look forward to seeing who wants to guest blog!

Show Me Sunday

I am joining up with 3-6 Resources this Sunday for "Show Me Sunday" focusing on time fillers. I try to never have left over time in my classes but sometimes crap happens, right? When that happens I rely on a few back-ups to fill in that time wisely. This is geared towards 9th-12th graders but I am sure they can be scaffolded for younger classes.

1. Whip Around. Starting at a corner, each student has to state something new and interesting they learned from the class. No one can repeat what someone else said.

2. Facebook Status Updates: Students chose a character from the reading today and create a facebook status for that character.

3. Reflective Journals. Part of their portfolios, students write reflective journals about what was discussed in class and any remaining questions.

That's it! I also have a small announcement: I am bringing my laptop in for service tomorrow at Apple and I don't know if they are going to take my baby from me for a few days. If so, don't freak out if I disappear for a while.

Join in with the linky! I can't wait to see what you all have to share :)

Monday (Saturday) Made It!

This is my first Monday Made It with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics and I am doing it on Saturday because I don't want to wait until Monday to show you some awesome things I did today. I actually feel quite accomplished today, I did a lot of school things and completely re-organized my walk-in closet. Ok! Onto my school-related accomplishments for the day!

Teacher Binders!

Super Cute Clip Chart

Another Picture of it

Some Labels

My Glitter Clothespins for my NO NAME hanger.

I also want to let you in a little secret I have if you don't have a laminator: use an iron on cotton setting!!! See those uber-cute owl labels up there? I laminated them with my iron today! If you are in a pinch, this an easy and quick way to laminate anything. I obviously still have a lot to do. I have to hold off on a lot of my shopping because I am going to Florida in two weeks and I know they have much more then here in DC (so weird, usually it is the other way around!). I went to Target yet again yesterday and could not find any cute ribbons to decorate my containers and chip chart. What the crap.

I think I am going to take those small containers I got and spray paint them white...ACE hardware trip! I also really need to crack down on my curriculum writing. I just wish that my partner would e-mail me back so I can see where she is on it.

How about you guys? How is the preparation coming?

P.S.: Does anyone know how to add the list of blogs that join the linky? I can't find the code when I entered my blog!? Leave a comment below if anyone knows. Thanks!

Currently...

I am linking up with Farley from Oh Boy 4th Grade for "Currently" in August. I should have completed some of my crafts today but the heat completely zapped my energy after being outside all morning so I took a 5 hour nap instead (bad teacher!). However, TOMORROW, I will have a huge post of all the crafts I am going to do! Here we goooooo...

I am so excited for tomorrow's blog post already!!

Let's Talk Data and a to-do list for UGH-est.

Data. The new thing that is being pushed at every level of education. I feel as thought I have to have data on every single thing that I teach: exit slips, Common Core based assessments, formative assessments! Now that I am switching to English, my student's performance on the DC-CAS and PIA exams are about 40% of my IMPACT score. IMPACT, as some of you may not know, is DC's highly controversial teacher evaluation system. I am not going to get on my soapbox and rant/rave about the system, because that will take up the entire post and then some. However, I recognize some of the positives that come out of it. Recording student data is actually something that I and my students enjoy doing. Watching them color in the graph showing their progress from PIA to PIA is an awesome way for the students to recognize their improvement and gets them invested in their education/learning. It also is great to show parents and administration. I like to make literacy folders for my students at the beginning of the school year and staple in a data recording sheet that THEY complete. This is a completely student-driven activity. This year I have re-vamped my sheet, only aesthetically lol. A big shout out to [simply speech] for this post. This post gave me some inspiration to fix up my data sheet and make it more user-friendly for my students. Hopefully this gets me to the highly-effective range this year! Below I have linked my document for your use/enjoyment. Let me know if you like it and how you plan on using it this year.

DOWNLOAD FILE

Alrighty, time for a to-do list. I feel like there is so much to do and not enough time! Here we go...oy.

• Finish reading Enrique's Journey and create an assessment for the first week of school. (their summer reading book)
• Finish up Unit 2 curriculum and email off to department chair ASAP. (was supposed to be finished today but I was writing a 25 page paper for my master's class...oops!)   
• Create IEP, Data and Parent Communication Binders.
• Print off Welcome Banner and laminate.
• Locate squishy light bulb balls for "Do You Need a Light bulb Moment?" project.
• Purchase fabrics, borders, scrapbook paper, laminator, laminator sheets.

I know I have more that needs to go on there, but my brain is so pooped from writing my research paper.

How about your to-do lists? How big/long are they?

New Year Resolutions, Target and Container Store Haul and so much more!!

This new school year I would like to...

1. Stay organized! I have such a hard time using the tools that I have created and keeping organized.

2. Stay on top of my planning and not plan the night before. Last year was understandable, I was hired two days before school started originally as English then was told on the first day of school I was switched to History.

3. Be more visible in school. I usually sat in my classroom pouring over curriculum or taking a nap (don't judge me!). I want to spend more time in the teacher lounge with my co-workers.

4. Attend school events. I never even went to a football game last year because a) it was in SE DC...not the safest after dark and b) I was just so tired after school that I literally couldn't wait to get home to sleep. 

*******************************************************************************

Today I did some massive shopping at Target and Container Store.  I am not a fan of shopping, at all. Especially when it comes to clothes shopping. I am not exactly an obese person but I am not a pixie either. It is just very frustrating. Anyways, I went school shopping! I still have yet to find clothespins to make my "No Name" hanger. The boyfriend and I are also working hard on fixing up our tiny apartment. We bought a new lamp and priced a desk for me(!!!!!!!!!): 

Super Cute, amirite?!

I like there are two cubbies that I can put my printer and a cute fabric/wood box in.

Now onto the school supplies, which we all wanted to see anyways :-p: 

For each cluster of desk. Will have highlighters, stapler, post-its, note cards and pens, pencils and markers.

For my desk, week day folders (all lesson materials for the week in each folder)

For department and staff meetings.

Possibly for student/parent contact. It was a dollar, I will figure out a use for it lol.

Precious sunflower magnets.

Mini staplers! for the boxes.

Cutter, glitter, craft stick, lightbulb and ink.

I clearly have a lot more shopping to do, but I am going to try to hold off until I go down to FL in a few weeks. I should find more inexpensive items down there.

How about everyone else? What have you purchased? What do you need to purchase?

Blog Hop!

Let's see if this works...

1.  what state you are in: I live in the District of Columbia so I technically don't live in a state! :-p

2.  your current teaching position: 9th grade English Teacher

3.  your teaching experience: Last year I taught in a Title 1 High School English and World History

4.  when you started blogging: I start blogging at the beginning of this year strictly as a cooking blog. This summer I felt like I really needed to branch out and blog more about my real passion, teaching.

 5.  share a blogging tip / blogging resource: Try to update at least every other day if not every day! Keeps the people interested in your blog. :)

New Blog...

I have decided to switch my blog from cooking blog to a teaching blog. I would really like to be able to post pictures and ideas on this blog about my classroom and what the kiddies are doing. I want to become more crafty and innovative this year since I am moving into a new/nicer school then Spingarn. As much as I will miss the kids, I won't miss that disgusting building. Wilson has been coming renovated and is one of the best in D.C. I am so very excited to start my new school year teaching a new subject (English)! I am sure that I will continue to incorporate cooking into this blog (hello cookies!) as well as some fashion/fitness tips. If I even have anymore readers, is there anything in particular you guys want to see?