Top 10 Reasons I Know I Am Heading Back To School

This party is so much fun...I love reading everyone else's Top Ten Reasons...I laugh every time and my sweet hubby looks at me like I'm crazy. Reagan over at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits is hosting...she has a way cute blog with many awesome ideas! If you haven't checked her out yet, get going!! With no further adieu, here is my Top Ten list:

10. I can't sleep at night. It's either a restless night because I have too much on my mind or I'm having the dreaded teaching nightmares.

9. My office/craft room has been converted into "DANGER: Back to School Zone". But hey, I guess it's out of the way.

8. My kitchen smells like burnt plastic. Not from the turkey that didn't survive for Thanksgiving last year, but because my little laminator from Target is workin' like craaaaaaazy!!

7. My house needs to be cleaned. Badly. But there just are not enough hours in a day.

6. I'm blog stalking all of you, trying to pin, write down and/or email ideas to myself more than normal. I'm thankful my sweet hubby is just as addicted to his iPad right now too (only he's looking at houses, campers and motorcycles....)

5. My sweet hubby called me his "Susie Homemaker" the other night and I gushed. It's been my dream for him to call me that and I'll my hours crafting for this bee themed classroom finally paid off! :)

4. I have no idea what is going on in the newsworthy world, because I have been "stuck" in my classroom or office/craft room completing projects for school.

3. I have been drinking way more Diet Dr. Pepper and Diet Pepsi to keep my creative juices flowing!

2. I'm realizing I only have 1 week left of freedom before I start in-servicing and open house (ours is Aug. 16) and I want to spend every last second at the waterpark, basking in the sun. So if I become MIA this week, you know where to find me.


And the number one reason I know I'm heading back to school...

1. My printer at home ran out of colored ink. :(

This has been so fun! I bet I could come up with at least 10 more ideas! Thank you Reagan for hosting...this was a great idea!

Marcy

P.S. If you haven't responded about the pencil situation your classroom, please do so in my last post! I love reading about all. Your classrooms!

Pencils!!! Help!!!!

Hey y'all!

How in the world do you manage pencils???

I never had a problem with pencils in kindergarten, mainly because I had tables and I kept the big fat kind of pencils in a basket in the middle of the table. I loved those big fat pencils because they only had to sharpened once a year month or so.
This past year in 1st grade, the kids had desks and brought their own cutesy dutesy pencils and I feel my educational assistant or I were sharpening all the time. I can't do that again, especially with 27 little buzzers or more that are currently on my list!

So, help a sista out and tell me how to run my pencil system this year and every year after!!

Thank you!!!
Marcy

New Button!

Hey bloggie friends! Happy Friday night to you! I'm at school workin' since my sweet hubby is workin' late! Might as well be productive!
So, in all my Friday night fun, I made a button! Yes, I did it myself thanks to Cindy at Fun in Fourth Grade and Jackie at 3rd Grade's A Charm.

We'll see if it works....whatda' think??? =]

Marcy

Advice to New Teachers

Hey beauties! How are you tonight? I'm feeling tired...my sweet hubby plays softball Wednesday nights during the summer and it gets to be late before we get home and settled in! Then, to wake up early for tutoring my little summer darlings and a run and I'm spent!!!!

Anywho, after this quick little post, its off to bed for me! I have an 18 mile run to wake up to tomorrow before I hit up some garage sales and crafting! [= (I'm taking tomorrow off from school adventures I think!)

So, Cindy over at Fun in Fourth Grade is hosting her very first Linky Party! What advice do you have for new teachers? Go on over and check her out here:


So, since I'm a 4-year teaching veteran, I would not consider myself a wise ol' owl type but here goes:
1. Find a {new} teacher friend to mentor you. Someone who willingly shares ideas, lessons, and thoughts with you about not only classroom stuff, but life in general. I would not have survived my first year without my mentor. I've switched grade levels and moved down the hall, but I'm still asking for more. Latch on!!!!
2. Stalk blogs...especially this one! [=
3. Ask a million questions!!! Remember that ol' saying, "No question is a dumb question unless it goes unasked."
4. Go out and explore the world or at least your town/city. There are so many great community and business partners that would LOVE to come into your classroom and enrich the learning in your classroom. Plus, share what you do outside of school with your kiddies...they love hearing that you have a real life and learn so much in the meantime.
5. Don't be afraid to ask your classroom parents to help out with ANYTHING!

There you have it. I'm sure I could go on forever! Haha...

Have a BEEutiful night!
Marcy

Open House

Wowsers! I can't believe how fast this week is going. That means only one week left of "freedom"- oh wait, I spend my days at school anyway!
I have been SO busy today! I tutored two sweet little ones this morning- one is moving so we snuck and got a cupcake from my absolute favorite gourmet cupcake shop in my town! That little one LOVED the surprise of a cupcake on her last day in South Dakota!
After tutoring, I came right to school. I wanted to get some things made for the hallway, more on that laaaater! I did work on some Open House things, even though our Open House is not until August 16th! Marlene over at I Heart Teaching Elementary is having a linky party about Meet the Teacher nights! And you know me, I'm impulsive!
So, hopefully I can figure out Google Docs because I have some documents to show you!

I have my parents fill out this Information Sheet because it helps so much with knowing where my little 1st grade buzzers go when school is dismissed. To be completely honest, I did not do this last year as these kiddies are first graders, they should know where to go and I was totally lost! Back to my kindergarten teacher ways...

This little idea I borrowed from one of my teaching besties! She has decided to move across the state and stay home with her little monster and has another one due in November! She showed this to me and I loved it last year! I have all the parents fill out this Information Card at Open House night. Then, if a problem arises, I can whip the card out of a trusty cheap recipe box and their contact information is right there!

I also have the kids do this Scavenger Hunt for fun and to make sure I get all the necessary paperwork. Otherwise, I enjoy talk to the families and answer any questions they have! It's a crazy night, but since it's an Open House format, that is to be expected. Our school tried the formal sit down, teacher presentation one year and that didn't go over well either!

 Does anyone LOVE their Meet the Teacher Night? I'd like to hear about it if you do! =]

Have a BEEutiful day!
Marcy

P.S. I need help with Google Docs apparently...my documents are way cuter than they appear! =]

Currently I am...Linky Party!

I just love a good Linky Party!! This one is kinda so fun and I couldn't resist joining! I am at home, hence the not-so-cuteness! It is thrown by Oh Boy Fourth Grade and Farley has some very cute ideas!!!


So, here's what you do...
Write down what you are currently
listening
loving
thinking
wanting
needing
&
stalking (include 3 Blogs one has to be non teacher)

And so here is mine...
LISTENING to the faint sound of the air conditioner and Sports Center.
LOVING every single one of YOU, my sweet readers!
THINKING there are not enough hours in a day to get everything at school done AND all my crafting projects at home!
WANTING to go for a run but it's now dark outside and I'm too scared to go running alone in the dark.
NEEDING to clean my house!
and...
STALKING
The Sister Teachers
I Heart Teaching Elementary
Craftiness is not Optional


So...I hope you enjoyed my currently's and I hope y'all can link up, too! Some people are so funny!

I'm back!!

Hello! Did ya miss me?
Wow, it has been a long time since I posted. I've had some issues with posting from home on a wonderful iPad! We also spent a long weekend in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota for our first anniversary!

Here's my handsome hubby and I at Mt. Rushmore!

 And here we are four-wheeling through the Black Hills near Deadwood!

And, here we are after I finished my first ever half marathon through GORGEOUS Spearfish Canyon! 

Anyway, I'm back at school. Lucky enough to have my computer up and running, so here I am! I have been workin' hard in this classroom of mine!

I have spent so much time setting up our classroom library. I went through each book and labeled them according to theme and put them in a corresponding basket. Hopefully the little buzzers will have no problem figuring out which basket their tub goes in, riiiight??? Here's what it looks like so far: 

And then, after looking at that cozy rocking chair with the bears on it, I thought it needed something more. Last year, my speech kids had a hard time saying rockING and just called it the rockin' chair. So this summer I came up with this: 

I am planning on doing read alouds and reading lessons at this chair, since it's in our classroom library. So, whatdya think?

Thank you for reading and I will post more about this year's classroom another time! Happy day to you...it's a whoppin' 95 degrees in South Dakota today!

Marcy