Day 46 Teaches 3rd in Georgia

I have been finding lots of blogs...LOTS of blogs. I think I have my list made through the middle of March already!  It's fun to see all the different styles and personalities through these teacher's blogs.

What I have found is that blogs are like finding a book at a bookstore.  If the title doesn't hook you, the cover photo might.  Now that's good and bad.  It's great marketing, but you might miss some amazing stories if you only look at the cover.  Which is what we teach our students all the time.

Just like there are thousands upon thousands of books, there are almost as many blogs out there as well!  And if I only looked at the header and the most recent post...I might not find  some awesome jewels out there.

Today's blog is a good example.

To the author of this blog, I will apologize first.  I got caught up in the cute and fancy headers that so many bloggers have created to draw me, the user, in.  Your header was pretty simple...and you really don't have very many posts either.  So I almost surfed right on by...But your blog is like the iceberg where only a little bit of the possibility is above the surface.

If you are a 3rd grade teacher...you have to dig into this blog.  She has some very useful tips and ideas...but what you don't see right away is her huge resource over on TpT!  She has a LOT of great units, games and lessons that she has put together for you to use right away in your classroom with your students!  She has 175 items in her store!  Wow!  Go visit her....now!!

Day 20 The Happy Edugator

Here is a new area I haven't delved into yet....

Middle School!

I barely survived my own two daughters being in middle school...I just couldn't imagine teaching middle school.  I know middle school teachers though who say they don't know how I can teach 1st grade too, so I guess it's true...The Lord God Made Them All

Side note....James Herriot was one of my favorite authors when I was a middle school kid.

The Happy Edugator is Deborah (great name by the way) a 7th grade English teacher in Georgia.  She has a lot of out of the box (or rather, out of the boring text book) ideas to make learning fun for her students.  I wish my daughters could have had her for a teacher. I know they would have loved her!

She uses different books that I have never heard of and even an episode of the Twighlight Zone to teach those boring skills you need to know in 7th grade!  And if you are teacher looking for ideas...you have got to visit her TpT store...she has almost 700 items in her store to liven up your lessons!

I had to chuckle...on her google+ profile she has a quote that should be posted in every classroom and household in which a teenager enters:

Think before you speak, and speak not all you think.

Follow me and see where I Hop to next!

Day 19 Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas

It has been a long two weeks.  It seems hard to believe that this was the same amount of time that we just had off for Christmas break.  These past two weeks seemed a whole lot longer.  Don't you think so?

But now it's Saturday morning! And to make this one even sweeter, it's a 3 day weekend!  So what fun plans do you have for your weekend?

To start my morning, I am on the search for more teacher blogs.  It's not hard to find them...it's harder to keep track of them.  Pinterest is great for that.  I always tag my favorites that I want to go back to on my board. But I started my 365 Blog Hop Challenge to get to know more of my blog neighbors and to be able to find them again.

If two weeks flew by, then my three day weekend will be gone in a blink of an eye!  Especially with all that I have to do this weekend....

My weekend will include:

• Sleeping in (I got up at 7:00 instead of 5:30 -- woohoo!)
• Adding blogs to my 365 Blog Hop Challenge
• Staying warm (it's 9 degrees outside right now at 8:30 in the morning)
• Finish grading the assessments I gave last week
• Start my report cards
• Taking pictures at my friend's daughter's 18th birthday party
• Adding more blogs to my 365 Blog Hop Challenge
• Working on my report cards
• Watching the 49ers game
• Finish lesson plans for the next two weeks
• Making the program for our Cheer Competition next weekend
• Working on my report cards
• Paying the bills :)
• Turning the pictures I took at the birthday party into a photo book on Shutterfly
• Working on my report cards
• Catching up on the laudry folding

So now you see how a 3 day weekend can fly by?  Goodness....just looking at that list makes me feel like it's already Monday night!

I think I will get back to the fun part of my weekend...looking for blogs...

This is the one I was hanging out on this morning.  Her blog is called Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas!  Fern is from Florida and teaches 3rd grade. She was even chosen as teacher of the year at her school...so her co-workers know what a treasure she is. She has lots of fun ideas and freebies and items on her blog and in her TpT and Teacher's Notebook stores that you and your students will just love!

I have to admit, one of her posts just stopped me in my tracks...

Read what it says under the picture!

Yes, this is the top of her desk when she leaves school everyday.  This is what I have always wanted to achieve, but have never been able to accomplish!  I just love the 3 hole punch next to it all.  Maybe if I had that on my desk it would help me stay organized...lol.

Nope, organization is just something I have to keep striving for...I don't think it is what I will ever attain 100%.  I just have little windows of hope!  But Fern, you are amazing!!  Not only do you create awesome units and activities...but you probably know where they all are! lol

Day 18 Wild About Fifth Grade

I teach 1st grade. I don't know about the other 1st grade teachers out there...but I get the funniest responses when I mention that I teach 1st graders.

"Wow, how can you do that?"

"I sure couldn't do that!"

"Better you than me!"

"Isn't that exhausting?"

"I'm glad you teach my 6 year old, cuz I sure couldn't do that all day!"

There are a few things that make it tough...For instance,  I don't particularly care for the untied shoelaces (especially the little boys who walk in and out of the bathrooms with them untied -- ick!).  I could totally do without the nose picking --  really I have like 8 boxes of tissues around the room!  Then there are the occasional potty accidents.  And this time of the year, it is just amazing the amount of time it takes them to put on and take off their snow suits before and after every recess...

But I love teaching 1st graders. I can't imagine teaching any other grade.  I almost had to do just that this year....I almost had to teach 4th grade...or even worse, 6th grade!  I say that in good humor because I have taught both grades...they aren't all that bad...but I really like teaching the little ones in 1st grade.  Everything is new and exciting.  And when they learn how to do something, they think they are so proud of themselves!

But I will be honest...the main reason I love 1st graders is that...they are still shorter than me!! :)

In my inbox today I got an email from Melissa in Michigan.  She is a 5th grade teacher (more power to you!) -- and hopefully taller than most of her students!  She wanted to be included in my blog hop challenge...so I visited her blog.

Melissa is Wild About Fifth Grade!  Her blog was started last fall and she is doing really well already.  She has hooked and linked and pinned and TpT'ed a number of useful tools and units already!  Now I don't teach the advanced math that a 5th grader will need to know but I sure could have used some of her units to help my two girls when they were in 5th grade struggling to visualize those abstract math concepts.

Welcome to my 365 Blog Hop Challenge Melissa...you are my first upper grade blog!

Keep up the good work!

Day 11 My Silly Firsties

Last weekend I got lost on TpT.  I forgot what I was even looking for at some point.  You know how that is?

You find a cool freebie on the Sunday Free Download TpT Email that comes out, 

then you visit one of the seller's stores, 

then you search for something else, 

then you visit that seller's store, 

then you follow them to their blog, 

then you visit one of the blogs that inspired the last blogger,

then it reminds you of something else you were thinking about looking for...

and all of a sudden you realize that the dogs want to go out again and the timer for the dryer went off...twice...

and what started out as a quick "just checking my email" turned into "your lost in the maze of the internet looking for the perfect activity to finish those darn lesson plans you have been dragging your heels on all weekend."

Ok, so this 1st grade blogger stopped me and brought me back to reality...or rather, my true purpose...finding another blog to feature on my 365 Blog Hop Challenge.

Today's blog is by Haley in Dallas, Texas.  Those Texas ladies are real prolific bloggers!  Is that where the saying "Go Big or Go Home" comes from?  I don't know, but whenever I come across a Texas Teacher...I'm never disappointed!

My Silly Firsties is full of great ideas.  If you are new to setting  up a classroom or you just don't like how things are rolling for you and you want some great ideas to reorganize yourself...and your students...check out her back to school post.  Her classroom is so organized and well thought out.  Now that I have read it, I want to start my year over again! lol

And in her spare time, Haley creates some great stuff to use with her class and has shared them on TpT.  Some are freebies too.  I love the game UNO and love using it with my students.  Haley has a great sight word version of it in her TpT Store.  Check it out!  

Welcome to my 365 Blog Hop Challenge Haley and anyone else who stopped by today!  Be sure to Follow me and find out who I discover next! Maybe it will be YOU!