Getting Ready...Kind of

I took a long blogging hiatus, but am trying to get back into the swing of things. It's been a very long stressful few weeks, but I've been meaning to write a new post for a few days now and find myself too tired to do anything when I get home.

I went back to work last Tuesday with two days of our in-service meetings. I did my first presentation on reading and writing workshop, which I think went well.

I don't know where this came from...please claim if it's yours. :)

Remember my tiny room (check out the "my classroom" tab if you haven't seen it)? Well, it's going through a bit of a renovation right now to add 12 feet on to the end. Yay!

Unfortunately, the project didn't get started until the week before we reported back to school, so it's been a scramble trying to get things finished. My carpet finally went in on Friday, but baseboards aren't set to go in until tomorrow, so I haven't been able to put anything against the wall yet. Still, it's going to be very exciting when it's finished.

Our other building on campus ended up in 2 inches of water two weeks ago, so they haven't been able to work in their rooms either. The carpets are dry and now clean, so tomorrow hopefully we'll all get to really start putting things together. Originally, school was set to start on Wednesday, but we've pushed it back to Sept. 3 because of these setbacks.

However, a trip to IKEA has me all ready to put some cuteness into my room :)

Plus add some of these:

And these:

And finally this:

And I'll be ready to go. Hope you all are having this much fun in your classrooms :)

Liebster Awards!

Today I was nominated for the Liebster Award - twice! Thanks to Kristen from Chalk and Apples and Tonya from Swashbuckling in Seventh for the nominations.

Liebster Awards are for blogs with less than 200 followers. It's really an opportunity to find and support new bloggers. In order to accept the nomination, you need to do the following:

1: Link back to the person that nominated you.
2: Answer the questions from your nominator (in this case I have double the questions!)
3: Share 11 random facts about yourself.
4: Nominate 5 more blogs with less than 200 followers.
5. Pose 11 questions for your nominees.

I have 22 questions to answer (yikes!) so I'm going to do that at the end in case you get bored halfway through (as I wrote that I saw something out of the corner of my eye and it turned out to be a giant wolf spider making it's way across my family room...literally folks...it was huge! My husband thankfully came down and took care of it).

Okay...11 random facts about myself :)

1. I was born and raised in California (Sacramento area) until moving to Washington for college.
2. I've never had a pet other than fish.
3. I competed in gymnastics when I was younger and then coached recreational and competitive gymnastics for 9 years.
4. Just this week I got back from a lovely vacation in Hawaii, where we try to go every year (if possible).
5. My husband and I just celebrated our 5th anniversary (see #4 :))
6. I love all water sports - specifically wakeboarding and barefooting.
7. I taught for 4 years in a multi-grade classroom teaching grades 1-8, where I was also the principal.
8. I'm a vegetarian.
9. I'm not a big fan of spiders (see above story).
10. The Time Traveler's Wife is one of my favorite books.
11. I LOVE setting up my classroom each year. Organization is my friend :)

Blogs I'm Nominating:
1. Adventures in Room 204
2. Teach and Re-Teach
3. Mrs. Patton's Class
4. I teach for Kids
5. Fit to be Fourth

Your 11 Questions Are: 
1. What is your favorite grade to teach?
2. What are your favorite hobbies?
3. Do you have any special goals for this year?
4. Where would your dream vacation be?
5. What is your favorite subject to teach?
6. What do you like the least about your job?
7. Why did you decide to become a teacher?
8. When do you start school again? (or maybe you already have...)
9. What is one school supply that you can't live without?
10. What is your favorite TpT resource?
11. How many students do you expect to have in your class?

And now...My Answers

from Chalk and Apples

1. What do you teach? 

I teach 4th grade. 

2. What school supply do you love most? 

hard one...bins, or my label maker :)

3. What is your guilty pleasure?

peanut butter m&m's...yum.

4. What's your go-to caffeine fix on sleepy mornings? 

actually, I don't really drink caffeine, but a hot shower usually does the trick

5. What are you most excited about this school year? 

finishing my master's :) (I know...it's not really about my classroom, but still relevant)

6. Who is the teacher who inspires you most?

Beth Newingham

7. If you were giving your students a wish list for Christmas gifts, what would be the #1 item on it? 

maybe a gift card to Lululemon or Barnes and Noble

8. What's your favorite Pinterest recipe? 

I'm trying to link this one on my ipad and can't get it to work, so I'm giving up for now. 

9. If you could go anywhere on vacation, where would you go? 

I'd like to go to the Caribbean again. 

10. What time do you wake up in the mornings?

about 5:45 (yuck)

11. If you had a day off, and nothing to do, how would you spend it? 

in the bath with a book :) 

and now...questions from Swashbuckling in Seventh

1. What/who was your inspiration to become a teacher?

My second and third grade teacher :)

2. What is your favorite grade to teach? 

3rd and 4th

3. What is a goal for this year? 

to finish my master's :)

4. What is a pet peeve of yours? 

People who can't see two sides of an issue

5. What is the best book you've read that didn't have to do with the education world?

I don't know if it's the best, but love The Time Traveler's Wife

6. What is the best teacher resource that you've come across?

TpT!

7. What are three of your favorite apps for your classroom? 

I'm really behind on this topic. I like saving educational pictures on Pinterest and sharing them with my students...

8. What is the best lesson you've done? 

oh dear, that's a hard one. My students enjoyed the clay relief maps that we made of our states. 

9. Why did you start a blog?

I had a personal blog for a while, but never wrote anything on it. I figured I had more to say and share about being a teacher. 

10. What is one thing on your wish list? 

More ipads for my classroom. 

11. If there was one thing you could change about the city you work in, what would it be? 

less rain!

Well, congratulations if you made it to the end of the post. Thanks for sticking with me and thanks Kristen and Tonya for the nominations.