#teachersNOTinvegas and a **New Social Media Frenzy**

It has been a
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            g time since I’ve blogged! I spent the last school year in third grade and WHOO - it was exhausting (but loved it none the less) transitioning and practically starting over AGAIN. I did get a tad bit bogged down from the stress of the state testing we have in Texas. It literally made me a nervous wreck! Once the days went by, it actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I was probably more nervous than my kiddos! I’m so glad those jitters are gone because I want to make this next year amazing! 

    As many teachers know, the Teachers Pay Teachers conference is going on this week in VEGAS! #jealous (HA! I’ll get there some day!) Although I am missing out I have to give it to the teacher who are attending and sharing the experience with those of us at home through Periscope. It’s a free app that you can download and basically people you follow can LIVE stream videos. Extremely grateful to Lucky Little Learners and Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd  who have shared take-aways from the sessions they’ve attended. Not only that, but also have given amazing inspiration to all teacher to #findyourtribe! I highly recommend this form of social media because the possibilities are ENDLESSS!

                                            

    On another note, since I’m in the #teachersNOTinvegas club, my family and I are spending the week on a camping trip! In a few weeks I will be attending a conference from The Writing Academy. I’m super excited about all the awesome things we’re going to learn! Last month I had the opportunity to attend CAMT in Houston. It is a math conference and if you’ve never been, I definitely recommend going. Next year it will be held in San Antonio and I am definitely going to be there!

    Well, that’s a little update but I’ll be back in my room in a couple of weeks to start prepping for the upcoming school year (YAY!!)! I’ll be sure to share/update pictures of my classroom! Hope everyone is enjoying your summer!

A Little Shopping and a FREEBIE!!!

Today I ventured to San Antonio AGAIN to visit Discount Tire! After they put the lovely new tire on my vehicle, I decided to stop and pick up some things at Home Depot and Target! (:

I’m going to make the famous “teacher toolbox”. While in SA I stopped at Home Depot and SCORE- this was on sale for only $10! (Love saving money!!) After purchasing some things at Lakeshore a couple of days ago, I am once again, contemplating the color scheme I want to use in my classroom. Today I’m leaning towards a teal/grey/yellow, but tomorrow may be a different story! So, I’ll be working on the labels to add to my new organization tool. 

Due to my **LOVE** of shopping, I also nabbed a few tops! This shirt is actually one that I couldn’t put down! I just adore the pineapples! LOL (:

Well teachers if you’ve visited Walmart or even Target you probably noticed this popping up! 

**Back to School**

Summer is coming to an end and the sight of school supplies confirms it! I definitely went a little crazy, but $.25 spirals is AH-MAZ-ING, and I love to have a stash in my room at all times. 

Finally, this afternoon I worked on something that I really wanted to implement last year but never did. I noticed that I had no way of keeping up with how many times my students were leaving the classroom. I wish I was able to have this set up to show you, but due to construction still going on that’s impossible. So I’ll try and share with you how I plan on using the sign-out sheet.

I absolutely love using clipboards, so they are everywhere in my room. Near the front door I will have a small desk to hold the clipboard with the sign-out sheets and a digital clock. When a student is given permission to leave the room they will write their name, time they leave the room, and where they will be going. Once they return to the classroom they will write down their return time. Another way you could use this item is to give each student their own sign-out sheet. The possibilities are numerous on ways you could use these! So head on over to my store and get these for FREE! 

(You can click the picture above to be directed to my TPT store.)

Well that's all for now! Hope you all have an amazing week!

Summer Fun

This being my FIRST summer as a teacher, I’ve spent a lot of time prepping for the new school year! Having to change things up to use for 3rd grade has been exciting. BUT, it feels like my summer is flying by WAYYYY faster than it should, so here’s what Ive been up to!!

I got ahold of my teacher manuals for next year and I’ve started working on my lesson plans! I want to change things up this year since I will have the same students as last year. Amazon helped me out in this area! I purchased several books to help me gear up for reader’s workshop, literacy stations, guided reading, and guided math! The area I’ve struggled with is incorporating the basals into these methods of teaching. In hopes of not completely depending on the basals, I’ve purchased sets of books to do book studies and use during reader’s workshop. As always, TPT has been an amazing resource in helping me prepare for this year, and it’s taken a lot of stress out of moving grades!

The organizer pictured above has been an item I’ve been hunting for a LONG time! It seemed a little to pricey on some of the websites online. Well……..I found these at Sams Club for ONLY $25!!! SCORE!! I was super excited! (: These will be used to help me organize my weekly plans for all the workshops I will be implementing. Since I bought two, the other will organize the papers I will need to copy, file, etc.   

My notebooks for back to school are complete and ready to use! I put together a separate notebook for back to school because I needed to organize all those activities I have planned for the beginning weeks of school. Thanks to The Teacher Talk (Jesslica Williams) and her Back to School Third Grade product, I’m all set! 

The other notebook includes my Attendance Recording Sheets, grade book pages for the entire year, parent contact information, and my 3rd Grade TEKS Checklist. I’m a HUGE fan of notebooks so there are plenty more in the making! (:

Summer school started on the 30th! It’s 12 days that I’m working with students from 4th grade to 11th grade. I’ve always known my heart was in elementary and this experience has reinforced what I’ve already known! Working with the students in Algebra I and II make me miss those areas of learning though! Math has been the subject I’ve always loved because its challenging and I love learning the complex thinking the subject requires! ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! 

The 4th of July has come and gone but the memories last forever! We had a very relaxing day! Since my husband is off at work, we spent the day with my family! the boys played in the pool, as I relaxed in the sun getting my tan on! (: Later that night we enjoyed the fireworks show and some great entertainment at the local park! 

Yesterday I visited my FAVORITE place! I collected some new decor for my room as well as some necessities for the workshops. My main goal was to find a filing cabinet on our trip to San Antonio. After numerous attempts to find one on sale or even at a scratch and dent I finally found one! It was used BUT I only paid $19 for it! So, my first crafty projects will be sprucing up the filing cabinet and making one of the teacher organizing toolboxes! I’m not very crafty so we shall see how this goes!

Hope you all had an amazing fourth of July and continue enjoying your summer! 

Diving into TPT

Sooooo... after a VERY long night, I finally updated my TPT account to seller! Yippie!! Some of the products are ones I've used in the last year and thought they would be a good starting point. Since I started out teaching 2nd grade one of the first things I made was a checklist to track the TEKS I was covering each six weeks. Now that I've moved to 3rd, I have both checklists that I made available. They are up to date and include the new math TEKS that have been added.

I also created a few back to school information pages to send home with parents. It allows parents to provide you with the information to keep in contact as well as to get to know the students a little better.  The link below will take you to the item in my TPT store.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Chevron-Themed-Parent-Forms-for-Back-to-School-1286493

Hope you all are having a splendid weekend!

Moving up... to THIRD GRADE!!!

It's been quite a summer break so far and there's been a few changes. I am now teaching 3rd grade! After the initial shock, I'm very excited about the new adventure/journey! Throughout my first year of teaching I found so many teaching blogs that have helped me along the way, and I've already found so many too help and guide me through this next chapter. So, I have been looking into methods used in this grade level and have come across those who use daily 5 and some who implement reader's workshop. This is something I plan on using, but it makes me a little nervous being able to keep up with everything that it entails.  Luckily for me TPT is a huge resource as a new teacher.

On another note... summer break has been great! My family took a little vacation and it was much needed! Our kids are IN LOVE with swimming, so we spent a lot of time in the pool. Now that we are back to reality, I am getting a few things wrapped up at home before summer school starts! This break will be gone before we know it and another school year will be in full swing.

Hope you all are enjoying your summer break!

Stepping into the World of Blogging

Well.... Here I go! I have decided to take the first step in creating my blog. For my first post I'll introduce myself! My name is Autumn, I'm married, and have twin boys who are 5 years old. I am currently in my first year of teaching, and it has been absolutely amazing! Teaching 2nd grade has been very exciting, and I wouldn't change it for anything. Throughout the first year I have been inspired by so many people from the many blogs I have come to love following and the inspiration I have gained from other teachers is beyond words. The life of a teacher is extremely BUSY! With my first year of teaching coming to an end, I am thrilled to use my experiences to grow and have another wonderful school year. I've already started my to-do list for the summer, so I'm excited to get ahead!