That Time of Year

It's that time of year again.  Everywhere I look teachers are frantically hoping that they've done all they can.  Parents are wondering why their students look like zombies.  Students are wondering why their teacher hates them.  Administrators are wondering if their school will make the cut.

It's time for standardized testing.

My small hiatus

I want to take a moment to apologize to those of you who have hung in there with me the last few months!

I have been so caught up in my non-digital life that I neglected this one.

I miss it.  Now that the craziness of a new school has calmed down (yes the end of the school year)  I'm hoping to be able to commit a lot more time to this place.

A little bit nervous....First day of school!

Ok, I realize that a lot of people actually are starting school right now and I really do have a week and a half left....but that's still not a lot!  I am starting to get really very nervous!  I'm at a new school, teaching a subject that I didn't teach last year, and I still haven't met my team or been able to get into my classroom!

I know everything will be fine; great even.  It's just a little bit nerve racking.  I'm going to try and get as much work done the next few weeks that I can so that when I finally do get the keys to my room, it'll be an easy set up.  Thankfully Mr. E has offered his assistance in moving all of my classroom junk out of the garage and into my new room.

Now I just need to get all of my stations ready for this Project CHILD that I've decided to tackle!

Made It Monday: Book Reports Revisted

It's that time again!  I'm incredibly dense and forgot to take pictures of my pride and joy project of the week :(  

 On my one year wedding anniversary my friend's mom sent my husband and I anniversary card.  I didn't think much of it until I read it.  She had scrapbook-made a card that had bits and pieces saved from our wedding stuff IE: announcement, save the date, program, etc.

Five for Friday

Yes, I know it's Saturday, my darn photos took forever to get to me before I gave up and went to bed.  :-P

This week was quite sad for me.  I had to say good bye to the school I have been a part of for five years.  I know that doesn't sound like a very long time in the world of education, but it was my first job.  I've earned my stripes with these kids, and I've known my seventh graders since they were in third grade.

So my Five For Friday:

Sad Days Happen

It's a sad day in this Blogger's world.  I'm finally going to tell my students, my kids, that I'm not coming back to this school next year.  I've been avoiding it because I know they're going to be mad at me.

I absolutely love my kiddos here, and that's going to be the hardest part of leaving; but life has to move on.

Wish me luck.

Linky obsession??

I've realized that for the last few weeks my blog has been comprised of mostly Linkys!  Don't judge me.  It's been super busy at school (as most of you understand) and Linkys are fun and easy for me.

I promise, once we get out for summer, I'll get back to my regularly scheduled programs!

Currently Me

Joining up with Farley for June Currently!  I have to say, I'm rather boring so it kind of entertained me a bit!

My June Goals

A big thanks to Jess for hosting this linky!  I thought it'd be fun to sit down and actually figure out what I want to do with myself this month.

Self Pride at it's Best....And a question for you seasoned Bloggers....

Ok, don't judge me, but I'm actually pretty proud of the new button I did :)  You can tell I'm a new blogger because it's the little things that make me happy.

On that note, something I've noticed that makes me unhappy:

How on earth do you leave a comment with the link to your blog in it??  I tried looking it up on Google and I couldn't find one that worked.  Pretty sure I just made a fool of myself in a couple of comments.  Any help would be appreciated :)

Summer Bucket List 2013

I'm pretty excited to join this linky!  A big thank you to April for hosting!  I love my summers, and better yet, I love dreaming about how productive and awesome my summers are going to be.  Things usually doesn't happen quite as planned, but this year they have to as I'll be getting ready to move to a new school.

MUST HAVE-for next year :)

Sorry guys, I'm on a roll with Linkys this morning!  I thought this was a fun idea to get my mind thinking about what I'm going to require my students to have next year.  I'll admit right away that I got a smidge carried away, but I LOVE back-to-school supplies so I went with it.  I'm a nerd, I know.

I also know I'm a bit late to this Linky Party, but I saw someone else join in last night and figured, why not?!

New things for next year....

Thank you JOY in 6th Grade for hosting a linky party!  I've actually really enjoyed getting in on these.  Who knew blogging could be so much fun? ;-)

Next year is actually going to be a whole new adventure for me.  I'll be back to teaching math and it'll be at a new school!  I've taught math for the past four years, this is the first not teaching math, so I'm okay with that [though I've LOVED teaching LA].  The scary part will be that this is going to be my first time ever in a different school!  I've only been teaching for five years, but all five of them have been here.  I'll get into that, and my soppy farewell, later.

Three things popped into my head though that I am DEFINITELY going to do....

Water Day!

I have to say, one of the perks of being a teacher is that you get to arrange to do all of those things you wanted to do when you were a kid; but couldn't.

One of the things I would have given up a sister for (granted I'd have given them up for a speck of dust) was a bouncy house or a giant blow up slide.

This week we had our quarterly reward day for middle school.  Students who managed to keep themselves under 12 marks (I'll explain our discipline system later) got to participate.

In order to play toward my childish side, I rented a giant bouncy slip and slide!  Holy cow was it fun!

8th Grade Trip

I was lucky enough to spend this weekend chaperoning our 8th grade trip!  Our school is quite lucky in that our 8th graders get to travel out of the state for their reward trip; I've heard that this is becoming a thing of the past...is there any truth to that?

One Year.

It has been one year since my mom passed away.

I miss her terribly still.  I know that feeling will never go away, but I don't know that I want it to.  If I still miss her, then I know she was real.  I know that sounds weird, but I want her memory to still be alive when I have kids, so that they will know about their grandmother, and so that they will know that she would have loved and spoiled them to no end.

This picture was taken about nine months before my mom passed away. She was 48 years old when she had a pulmonary embolism.  It was beyond unexpected.  There were no real signs, other than she could breath very well.  She thought she had a cold though, and that it was just congestion.  The ME said that the cause was being overweight; something she had struggled with most of her life.

Being the Example

One of the most important parts of being a teacher is being the example.  There are some teachers out there who would like to believe that they end their job at 3, and that's it.  I cannot stand when teachers think like that.

What you do, when you're a teacher, outside of work reflects back to the students whether you want it to or not.  All it take is one moment of stupidity and indiscretion and you could not only ruin your career, but the life of a child.

I know it's taking it to the extreme, but just for an example....