Wisdom for Wednesday - Let it Go!

Hi there! As my summer vacation draws to a close, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with everything that I have to get done. I know many of you feel the same way, so I'm reposting an oldie but a good reminder for us all during this busy back-to-school season. 

Originally posted 12/16/15 with my current thoughts in blue:

Good morning!

I have to admit that as I'm struggling through another busy back-to-school season week before Christmas break (this time fighting a cold or sinus infection), I'm having a little trouble finding some wisdom to share with you. Fortunately, it is not my wisdom we're relying on! ;-)

This is one of those times of year when everything gets crazy busy and I start to feel overwhelmed. 

I'm sure I'm not alone.

That's why when I saw this in my devotional, I thought it was perfect for today.

Spurgeon goes on to say, "If you set the Lord before you, there is fullness of joy in God's every attribute. There is heaven in every glimpse of Jesus' face, overwhelming bliss in every drop of Jehovah's everlasting love. You will not fail. You will not be discouraged."

Let everything go.

All those distractions, pressures, and deadlines.

Or the added pressures of the Christmas back-to-school season.

Shopping, wrapping, decorating, and baking...

Decorating and setting up classrooms, meeting new students and parents, lesson planning, meetings (and more lesson planning and more meetings)…

Obviously, we can't ignore those things completely. 

We must take care of our responsibilities. 

I think the lesson here is that we not allow those things to burden us, to become our focus.

Isaiah 41:10 says, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

Have a blessed day!

P.S.  It helps if you belt out the song "Let it go!" from Frozen at random moments when you are feeling stress. And prayer. Lots of prayer. ;-)

I'M READY-I THINK???

Tonight we have Back to School Night and tomorrow is our first day of school!  I have everything done-I think.  I keep thinking of things that I have forgotten to do, but I'm hoping I am all done now and ready to roll.  Here are some more pictures of my classroom (in a previous post, I had pictures as I was getting some of the classroom done):

 I love all the room there is in the classroom!

I'm trying out the Super Improver Wall from Whole Brain Teaching.  I found these cute posters from Made By Camp Kindergarten.

I hope all of you are getting everything ready for school to start if you haven't started yet.  If you have started, I hope your year has started off great!  

Have a great day!

Five for Friday--Final Days of Freedom!

Happy Friday!

I know from following teachers on Instagram, Facebook, and blogs that some of you are already back to work, but I have a little more time.

I technically report to work on August 22nd. School starts on August 25th.

However, since I'm the assistant high school volleyball coach I feel like I go back to work next week. We start practicing twice a day on Monday so it seems like this has been my last week of true summer freedom. ;-)

Here's what I've been up to (Five for Friday style):

Thanks Kacey! P.S. Check out her post. Looks like some awesome Back to School Math Centers for firsties!

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Eeek! Exciting news about the Bible study I wrote. I found out awhile ago that it was going to be published, but it got very real this week after talking to my marketing consultant.

Picture explanations...

1. I did not have makeup on or my hair done (summer break, you know) so I had to hide. LOL!

2. My Bible study is called There's a Fly in my Tea! My pastor's wife gave me the plaque when I first started writing. It was a great reminder to trust the Lord through the whole process!

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I have a lot to do for my publisher and marketing consultant, and it is causing me to stress out a little bit. 

So lucky you, I turn to creating TPT products for a distraction. 

What can I say? It is therapeutic for me. 

Click the picture to check out the pack! Discounted for a limited time.

 These elephant graphics are exactly why I force myself to stick to a "kid theme." I LOVE them! Just like I love the Robots. The Monsters. The Bugs. Kristi's Hedgehogs. You get the idea. I'd be changing my theme all the time! 

The pack is fully editable, so I created a few posters to show what could be done with it. Click the picture below to get the posters for free!

Another freebie below. I have been wanting to update my Morning Routine posters (also my math rotation posters), so I got that done. I decided to make them editable for you too. :-) 
 

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I saw this on IG and just about died laughing! Then I tried very hard to figure out how I could have the sign without a camping theme. ;-)

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And finally, a new favorite quote from Elisabeth Elliot.

That's it, friends!

Now I really must get to work...for real. 

No more distractions. 

Oh, wouldn't a kid theme with the blue and gray papers be cute?

;-)

Wisdom for Wednesday-Where God Places Me

Welcome to this week's:

I love this saying because it makes me realize that even if I am not in a place that I want to be, God has me there for a reason.  I may not understand why I am where I am, but God knows and I just need to trust in him and know that he will work to make everything work out for the best.

Have a great day!

 

Beginning Room Setup

I went into my classroom on Sunday and began to set up the room a little bit.  It amazes me how long it can take me to do just a few things.  I was there for about 3 hours and when I looked around....I wondered what all I had done and didn't quite understand why what I did had taken me so long.  LOL!

This year we are doing a new theme-GAMES.  I found a cute scrabble classroom decoration theme on TPT from Alison Hislop.  Some of the things that I needed weren't in her packet, but she was very kind and helped me out to make some items that I needed in the classroom.  Here is what I have done so far:

Labels for the boys and girls' bathrooms-I love having bathrooms in the classroom!

This is up on the board for when the students come in.  It is the routine for them to follow when they come in first thing in the mornings.

This is our class stuffed animal named George.  He watches for someone following the rules to sit with during the day.  Towards the middle of the year, he starts going home with the kids and they write about what they do with him at home.

Some of my whole brain sayings.

The left side shows my ten frames where I use the tens frames to give points to boys, girls, class and teacher.  On the right side is where I will post my objectives.

Sticker Chart-If the student doesn't move his/her clip down for the day they will get a sticker.  When they earn 10 stickers they get to pick from the prize chart.

Prize chart that students will pick from after getting 10 stickers.

 Calendar

Word Wall

Birthday Balloons

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST-

you just can't start a year without that burn and blister that you get from the hot glue gun!

I got some done but realized I have A LOT more to do to be ready to go!

Have a great day!

Five for Friday - Classroom Setup Round 2

Hey there! 

I'm back for some more classroom pictures today. 

I will do a video soon.

My kids were off work on Friday, so they went with me to my classroom for one final push to get it all setup. I returned today and finished cleaning up and I think it is finally done! Now I have every intention of taking the next two weeks off (mostly) to rest up for back to work. I report on the 22nd and have students on the 25th.

So let's get to it!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs again!

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This first one cracks me up! 

Kristi and I agreed to get together and work on our TPT store early on Thursday which meant ponytails and no makeup. This made Kristi even more camera shy. Ha! 

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These are photo containers from Michaels. I was so excited to get two of them (one for reading and one for math) and planned to use them for our "I have...who has...?" games and task cards. 

Turns out I am a task card/card game addict and these are full of only my MATH resources! Yikes!

But don't they look pretty? ;-)

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I bought these white plastic tubs last year and finally got them labeled. 

 

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This is how I left my room today:

Desks ready for "Meet the Teacher!" Woohoo!

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I finally got around to making a fluency tub.

I'll do a more detailed blog post soon so you can see what is in there!

I plan to use it as one of my morning tubs and choices for early finishers. The morning tubs are because I will have the non-breakfast eaters in my room this year.

Bonus Picture?

This is really a public service announcement for any and all who are using student data binders. 

This will be my first year having student data binders. 

I am so excited. 

I started out browsing TPT and putting some things on my wishlist and then I found this FREE, editable data tracking binder from The Curriculum Corner. 

Have a great week!

Wisdom for Wednesday - Improving

Hey there!

I just spent three days at the Kansas Coaches School. I can't believe in my years of coaching, I have never been before. WOW! My head is swimming with volleyball and basketball drills that I can't wait to try. :-)

Anyway, while I was there, this popped up in my Twitter Feed (stay with me...I do have a point beyond sports):

 

The reason this stood out to me was not because of my volleyball or basketball players (although I wholeheartedly agree with the quote). It was because of the coaches I observed. GASP!

Here we are at a coaches school with some of the most successful high school coaches in Kansas, along with a few college coaches, there to share information with us and...

I overheard things like:

"We already do something like that."

"I'm skipping this and going ________."

"She wasted so much time talking about her program."

Blah, blah, blah...

I wanted to insert "coaches" into the above quote.

Then it struck me that we could insert "teachers" too.

Think about it.

We sit in staff development meetings where new strategies and ideas are presented. Are we willing to leave there and give it a try? Or do we make excuses about how our current teaching is already "like that?" Do we think we have it "made?"

The truth is the quote applies to any aspect of life really.

We all have room to improve. 

We all need to be teachable.

I think perhaps the problem is that to be teachable, we have to be humble...

Thoughts?