Sunday, November 9, 2014

Sunday Scoop 11/9

Happy Sunday! It's time for another Sunday Scoop, hosted by Teaching Trio!


I am a busy gal at work these days! There are so many exciting things about to happen! We have a technology in-service morning coming up that I am planning. We will have sessions presented by our own staff on topics like Google Classroom, Moodle, ePortfolios, QR codes, and so much more. I love these mornings!

I am on to Book Fair #2 of the year and the kids will be so excited in the morning! I do 2 Book Fairs in fall and 2 in the spring, for a total of one fair at each of our four elementary buildings.

It snowed up north this weekend and we are supposed to get a good storm tomorrow! I love snow! Woohoo!

If you have ideas to share on a techie science project for second graders about space, I'd love to hear it!

I hope you have a fantastic week!!

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Book Club Beauties - This is Where I Leave You

The first Book Club Beauties round has come to an end!


We read This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Trooper for the first selection. Here are my thoughts...


Check out Cardigans and Caffeine for others' take on this book or to join us in the book club!

Friday, October 3, 2014

October 2014 Currently

Hello! Welcome to October - a few days late :) I'm linking up with Oh Boy Fourth Grade for the monthly Currently!


I love when I catch the Google Play free albums. Makes me happy! And Jason Aldean? Yes, I'll take it! :)

No cold lunch for me today - a French Dip coming my way instead! Yahoo!

I have a girl in my Girl Scout troop (leading a Daisy troop for the first time this year) who has a dad who was big into Boy Scouting but had a girl so now is entering his daughter into Girl Scouts. He is ready to volunteer and last night I was able to confirm that he will be my Cookie Dad! This makes me over the moon excited!

The water pressure in my new house is AWFUL. AWFUL. Did I say AWFUL? Ugh, I hate it. We've had it looked at multiple times and I called yet another plumber a few weeks ago. He is going to come when he has time. I am sure hoping that is soon and he will have a new idea for us that we haven't heard yet. It's a real bummer when you start out every day with a shower that you despise.

My first Book Fair of the year is coming up! (I do four, one at each school.) Calling parents to volunteer really needs to get done!

I have a treat for you! Last month I talked about trying to start my TPT store. I've had one lonely product in there for 2 years. I really should have jumped on the bandwagon then but never had the courage. I am ready to now. In the past week I've posted four items to my store. Please check them out! Three of my total five items are free! I'd love some feedback if you need any library skills lessons!





Sunday, September 21, 2014

Sunday Scoop!

I just love quick things like this! I love to read them on other people's blogs because... well... let's face it, I'm a little bit nosy! I love doing them for my own blog because they are fast and they help you get to know me! 



Teaching Trio hosts the Sunday Scoop each week and I am new to it but happy to link up! You should too! 



I just recently began as Daisy troop leader for my daughter and I need to find a co-leader to do it with me. 
Who doesn't have laundry to do on a Sunday?!
Tomorrow I give another Monday Tech Tidbit training after school. We are focusing on SMARTboards for the first couple of weeks because we were fortunate to add SMARTboards for all of our classroom teachers who didn't have one yet! 

I have thank you notes to write from my little man's baptism. 
I just started reading This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper for the Cardigans and Caffeine book club! If you are a teacher, you should join us too! 

I love cookies. I mean is there more to say?? Ha! We have Oreos in the house right now!

Friday, September 12, 2014

Back to School in the Library

Here we are - Friday! These first two weeks back in school have been all about introducing the library and the computer lab. 

My absolute favorite classes of this week are the Kindergartens! The kids are so excited to come to the library and get to check out a book! (In my schools, Kindergarten checks out 1 book, 1st-3rd grade gets 2 books, and 4th graders may check out 3 items.) "Do you have princess books? LEGO books? shark books? dinosaur books?"... on and on and on! Their enthusiasm is amazing. 


Taking them into the computer lab is fun as well. The biggest challenge for our Kindergarten students is the logging in process. The first step is to press Ctrl+Alt+Delete all at the same time. I teach them to hold up a one with their right hand and a two with their left. Press and hold the two hand down first and then press the one hand on Delete just once. Of all the things I have tried, this seems to be the easiest for them to understand. We use a generic username for elementary students so we don't have the trouble of usernames and passwords thankfully. 

For Kindergarten, we use a freeware program called Sebran to get them started on practicing mousing skills. They love it and you don't have the added steps of getting them out onto the Internet before they can actually do anything. 



I hope you had a fabulous week at school! 

Monday, September 8, 2014

Teacher Book Club? Yes please!

Hello! I am excited about a new book club getting started up over at Cardigans & Caffeine


The book club is being started because as teachers we have time to read during the summer but barely any of that time once school starts! I completely agree with Lucy Calkins when she says to teach reading effectively, you have to be a reader too! And of course in my line of work, I have to read elementary titles all of the time but I don't end up with a lot of free time to read the YA and adult that I love. So when I saw this opportunity, of course I joined!! 

We are in the process of picking the first book now and I would bet that you could still join if you wanted to! 

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

September Currently

I'm late but I'm here! :) It's time for the September Currently hosted by Oh Boy 4th Grade



I am happy to be back to school. There are so many exciting things happening! A few additional words...

Loving school supplies! I visit OfficeMax especially way too often in August! I cannot pass up all of the 25 cent deals! Of course now I have to find a place to put all of those things... 

Thinking about my daughter starting Kindergarten! She is so excited but yet she also gets anxious about things she doesn't know about. She went to a different school for 4K so she is nervous about being in a new school. I am sure she will do just fine!

Wanting to start my TPT store. I've had an account there for awhile, now I really need to start contributing my own products! 

Needing fabric. I ran short of my fabric and I can't find it in a store anywhere! Boo! 

My three trips - Australia has always been on my bucket list. Montana just sounds cool. I don't know exactly why but I want to go there! And lastly, I don't really care which island, I just want a tropical beach vacation sometime in my life! Is that so much to ask?! Ha ha... 

I hope you have a great school year! 

Monday, July 7, 2014

July Currently...

I love the Currently posts hosted by Oh Boy 4th Grade.



I hope everyone has a fantastic fourth!