There's A New Blogger In Town!

Welcome Amanda Brown! I'll let her tell you more about herself :)


     Hello Hello!  I'm absolutely thrilled to join Darnee in blogging!  I wanted to start a professional blog for awhile, but simply didn't sit down to do it.  Darnee's already started the ball moving, so it's a lot easier to jump in!  Thanks again Darnee! 

     I have been a teacher with second grade darlings since January 2010.  It seems like yesterday I walked into my first classroom with wide eyes and nervous stomach butterflies, and yet it has been 3 and 1/2 years.  Time flies when you're a teacher.  I remember sitting at my desk, watching my teachers, and thinking, "I can't wait until I am a teacher!  Look at all the pretty pens you get to use!"  Teaching is more than cute crafts and pretty pens isn't it?  I believe teachers are some of the most incredible people alive!  I'm honored to call myself one of them. 

      As much as I love teaching, it has been nice lounging around the house watching reruns of Friends.  However, the new year is fast approaching!  It's a great time to start envisioning the upcoming year!  Wal-Mart already has it's back to school supplies up.  (At mine, the composition notebooks were ransacked!  I had to crawl around on the floor to reach the back of the display for the remainders.) 

      With my newly bought school supplies, I have begun to make a few necessities for my new classroom.  I look forward to sharing! 


~ Amanda

I Can... Poster Freebie

In an effort to be more organized about covering all the Texas TEKS, I've created I Can... Posters for each of the core content areas. I was inspired by the plethora of I Can... Common Core posters I've been seeing all over TpT, Teacher's Notebook & Pinterest. I saw them & thought I can do that, especially since I haven't seen any TEKS related ones since the whole country, with a few exceptions are going common core. I have ELAR (Blue) & Math (Red) ready, working on Science & Social Studies & will be adding them as they are completed. Reminder: these are ONLY 2nd Grade TEKS.

July Currently

Linking up with the other 400+ bloggers for Farley's July Currently installation :)

Listening - Pitch Perfect, saw this movie when it came out, because I'm such a fan of Anna Kendrick ever since I saw her in the indie film, Camp. I'm also a lover of all things Rebel Wilson, what a riot, love her as Fat Amy. When I first saw the movie I recognized one of the film's locations as being the Greek Amphitheater on LSU's campus. I thought "Nah," couldn't be, well then during the riff off in the Huey P. Long Fieldhouse & then the shot of the Music Building it was "OMG! That's LSU!!!!!" So that movie has an even bigger place in my heart, Geaux Tigers!

Loving - I get high anxiety when I make my eye appts each year or so. I loathe the eye pressure test, you know the one where they blow a puff of air into your eye, ugh! Well thankfully they have a less invasive procedure to check that, still sucks though cuz they have to get really close to your eye. I got my new contacts, but after using my glasses since my last pair of contacts ran out, I thought it was time for a new pair. I found a really fun, cute pair for $50 :) Can't wait to sport them next week when I go home for vacay.

Thinking -I'm in the throes of laundry that's been piling up since school began last year. Laundry is the bane of my existence, so now that it's summer I've been catching up.

Wanting - With the onset of July my summer is swiftly going to fly by the rest of the time. The next few weeks are going to be crazy busy. Planning, packing, visiting, etc in preparation for going home. The week after I have a workshop, then I head over to Louisiana for my brother's wedding at the end of the week. Finally the following week I'm helping out my sister with the Tribe's Language Camp.

Needing - My textbook. I er um didn't order my textbook early enough, so I sit here patiently waiting for the book to arrive so I can dive in, read my chapters & get my assignments done so I'll have one more thing to cross off my ever increasing to-do checklist.

Tips, Tricks, or Hints - Long drives = no drinks. Taking a lot of road trips home, I've gotten pretty good at my routine, and that includes not a lot of fluids :) Oh & don't forget your summer playlist to keep you awake & motivated during those long drives, especially if you're driving alone.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

I submitted my final project for my very first graduate class, yay! My next class starts Monday, so for a moment I'm going to talk about things that make me feel pretty by linking up with the gals over at Across the Hall in 2nd Grade for their favorite Beauty Basics linky :)

 

1. philosophy's Amazing Grace fragrance - this was my first buy on QVC ages ago. I was skeptical about buying a perfume before actually smelling it & when I first got it & used it, it was really strong. Then after going back to an old faithful scent I wasn't excited about it anymore I tried Amazing Grace again. I haven't gone back to any other scent or brand for that matter since. I have tried other philosophy scents, but I always come back to Amazing Grace. It's very feminine without being overbearing. It's floral & clean scented, but not crazy heavy floral. I get sooooo many compliments from my students & coworkers. I do have to warn though, a friend of mine was always complimenting me about how good I smelled :), so I got her a sampler gift. She said it didn't smell the same on her as it did on me, so she wound up giving it to her daughter. My only other favorite in the grace line is their Pure Grace. it smells like soap & water coming from the bottle, but then when I'm wearing it, it smells like sunscreen lotion, no clue why.

 2. A coworker was using Wen conditioner, she's a low maintenance kind of woman, very no nonsense :) I love her death. She mentioned using Wen and when I saw a childhood idol on the infomercial, Alyssa Milano, I had to try it. I do use a shampoo every so many days cuz my hair is oily already & just using a conditioner, no matter what kind of formula, does not bode well for my tresses.

3. My niece's friend was selling this, in the fashion of that other independent consulting make-up company does ;) Now being a fan of philosophy, I tried the purity cleanser, I tried Neutrogena, Cetaphil, Oil of Olay; I even went down the ProActive path, which was way harsh on my sensitive skin. I tried Beauti Control Spa Facial system & honestly no other facial cleansing system has cleaned my skin & not been harsh the way BC does. I tried taking a break from it, trying similar products from the drugstore, for cost's sake, but it was so not worth it.

4.  Too Faced's Shadow Insurance - Don't want eye shadow creeping into your crease lines by the end of the day, want to maintain full coverage color on your eyelids, this is THE product. I haven't tried other eye shadow primers, but that's because this one worked so well I didn't need to try other products.

5. tarte cheek stain in flush - Yeah, it looks really dark in the tube (it's got s push pop applicator), but this stain stick gives you just a hint of color or more if you want. It can be applied to fresh clean skin since the company is all about being eco-friendly & no harsh chemicals in their products or on freshly make-up'd skin :)

6. Cover Girl Last Blast Fusion - I've tried sooooooo many mascaras. Other drug store brands, expensive department store brands, but when I got this as a sample to try & review for a consumer website I was completely hooked. This is the only mascara that does'n't flake off or give me raccoon eyes. It stays on my LASHES all day long. THE BEST mascara I've EVER used! No joke :)

7. eos Sweet Mint Lip Balm - one of my friends posted about how her hands were as soft as bunny fur when she used their hand lotion. I always wind up wasting hand lotion, but lip balm, that's a different story, I can't get enough of it. I first got their sweet mint flavor, then branched out to honeysuckle honeydew. I've since acquired summer fruit, tangerine & lemon drop, still missing strawberry sorbet & pomegranate raspberry. My lips are kiss ready at any given moment when I've got these babies handy.

8. Cover Girl NatureLuxe Gloss Balm - now when I need a little bit of color I reach for my Gloss Balm. It's got a hint of color, not too ostentatious. Perfect blend of color, gloss & balm, great for summer :)

 

9. OPI I'm Not Really a Waitress - this is my go-to color for any time of year, any season, any occasion. It's the perfect red, which is hard to come by with my pale skin. Some reds can be too orange or too blue. This is just right. Can't go wrong with INRAW. Really & truly almost all the colors I've tried with OPI are awesome. Plus, you can't beat the fun names ;-D

My First Monday Made It!

 

I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for a Monday Made it. I'm getting addicted to blogging by the way.

Here's my Made-Its I worked on last week in addition to My Super Teacher Binder I posted about yesterday!

My Daily 5 Posters

I also made a few toolbox labels for when I get back in my room & start organizing my desk area :) Again the backgrounds are by MrsStanfordsClass.blogspot.com.

Nothing too exciting, but functional all the same & I'm getting a little bit better at the creating materials.

Til next time!

My Super Teacher Binder

Tuesday evening my internet went all wonky :( I thought a reboot & a good night's sleep would cure all ills in technology land. I woke up Wednesday and lo & behold molasses internet rears it's ugly head all morning. I had my assignment due & needed to get it done, so instead of wallowing around the house & fighting it I went to Barnes & Noble to get out the house & meander with the living.

Internet was smooth sailing at B&N. I got my assignment done & began working on this baby again. I'd been piddling a bit with it starting last weekend, but these last 3 days I've been banging it out. I'm trying to get a lot of things done before my brother's wedding in 3 weeks. I also made some sweet Daily 5 posters, I'll post those another day. 

I'm linking up with Ladybug's Teacher Files for their Optimum Organization linky party, to debut my Super Teacher Binder. I'm sure I'll add more things before the year starts, but here it is!

I'm sticking with the Superhero Theme again this year :)

Self-explanatory

What teacher doesn't need calendars I have no clue ;)

I did a 2 page spread after seeing the Organized Senorita had them in hers. Mine originally one page.

  

This is just for timing of my day, I also have pages that I'll put my weekly breakdown on with library, computer, specials, any other subject/rotations needed.

 

I have a couple of these pages for ID#s, Lunch #s, Birthdays, Usernames/Passwords, etc.

I put all the parent stuff right behind the student stuff :)

Last year communication logs were major. Let's face it, they're always a good idea.

This is just lesson extras. My actual lesson plans will be submitted through our online dropbox in ProjectShare that our campus has set up for us. I also have my Erin Condren lesson planner for quick-at-a-glance lesson plans. I bought it last year & hardly used it :( So I need to make sure I get my money's worth this year :)

I added this & a page to take notes on projects & field trips. Whenever we have meetings sometimes I forget to write things down or type them up, so I'm making a conscience effort to rectify that this coming year.

 

Tip of the iceberg, but I wanted you to see how I did it. I modeled it after my sub binder I purchased last year.

Behind here I have places to take notes at Grade Level, PLC, Committee & PD meetings.

A Just In Case spot for anything else. I also have a wireless notebook in the back for extra notes.

Blog Lovin'

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/8231265/?claim=v6s96x9g8yp">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>