New Year's Resolutions

Hey! I'm so happy to be linking up with my friends Diana from My Day in K and Jayme from Teach, Talk, Inspire for this New Year's Resolutions.

I know! It's the same thing every year. We all say we want to have resolutions and then a week or two into the new year we forget about them or we just don't care. Last year I made goals. Here they were! 

Okay let's talk about these goals. Well, I did get better with number 1. I joined Teaching Blog Traffic School and it helped me a lot. I am even considering resigning just to renewal of the mind. 

Number 2 is still a  juggling act. I have been working more once my kids go to sleep but man do I get super tired and get lazy and watch BRAVO. Are you feeling me? Can you relate?

Number 3 didn't happen and I was so sad about it. I told my husband this year, I was going. I have been saving the money I make from TPT and putting it aside. I won a $150 gift card to any store and I said a VISA so I could use it to register next month. I am going people. Orlando is 10 hours from my house and I am ready. Number 4 I don't know if I really helped anyone but 21 day fix and Autumn has really been helping me. LOL!

I have talked enough about my failings goals from last year. Now let's talk about what I hope to accomplish this year. 

So here they are. I am ready to tackle them. Let's talk a little about these goals. Hang with me I will try and be brief. 

1. Lose the last 50 lbs. If you are new to my blog or really don't know a lot about me, well almost 3 years ago, I had a gastric sleeve surgery. I dropped from 382lbs to 225lbs. Well like all things I have put some weight back on from poor choices but most is from the weights that I have been lifting. 

2. Detox once a month. I sometimes feel sluggish and when I take time to detox, I always feel better. So basically, I fast for about a week and I drink only protein drinks and then I feel good. 

3. Create for my kiddos and TPT. Listen I know we all hope to be a Deanna Jump and make a million dollars on TPT but I am just going to keep it real. I am not doing this just to make a quick buck. Now don't take that the wrong way. I am not saying Deanna is. I'm just saying that sometimes, I watch social media and I see people advertising the crap out of themselves and I dont want to be that person. I want to create because it will be great for my students and if you like it and can use it then great!!! I want to make things for me and not to be a publishing company. Does that make sense?

4. Make it to TPT conference. Well as I stated a the top. I am saving now. I hope to meet so many awesome teachers who inspire me and to make friends with some new ones. 

5. Pay myself a dollar every time I work out. I am going to do this because I figure it will help me to save moneyfor the TPT conference or new clothes. 

6. BE ME! This is very important. I am sassy but can be very tenderhearted. I am a people pleaser sometimes. I don't want to be a cookie cutter. I just want to be me and enjoy/embrace who and what God made me to be. 

Okay there you have it. My resolutions or goals as I prefer to say. I am super excited that you stopped by and checked it out. 

Now if you are enjoying this and would like to join in. Just snag the banner at the top and the picture below. 

Share what your goals are and link up with us. Thank again guys! Thanks for the support and the love. I am so blessed to have you!!!!!! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Featured Teacher: Sarah Hankinson

Welcome back for another Featured Teacher Tuesday! This week, meet Sarah Hankinson from Learning is for Superstars!

Sarah and her husband, Josh, just had the adoption of their daughters finalized! They were foster parents for these girls for 414 days before they became a forever family..

Sarah is in her fifteenth year of  teaching in central Virginia and is a Liberty University graduate. She taught 8 years in fourth grade before moving six years ago to first grade. She has an interesting group this year - a combination of first and second graders! All of these years have been at the same school.

Even with the busyness of life and teaching a combo class, she loves to create whenever possible!  The most popular item in her Teachers Pay Teachers store is her money pack for first graders. It is full of counting pennies, nickels, and dimes individually and in mixed groups. There are picture cards with money amounts to sort and match, along with printables for each coin. Since Sarah teaches in VA, which doesn’t have Common Core standards, this is designed to meet Standards of Learning for Virginia.

Another popular unit is her Benjamin Franklin pack, one of the famous Americans taught to first graders in Virginia, although the social studies standards change for next year! Included is an informational booklet, along with word/picture matching cards, word search, and comprehension questions.

Who doesn’t need a quick print and go, especially at this time of the year?! Look no further! Sarah’s Christmas print and go is perfect for your first graders! Full of 20 black and white printables, including labeling, beginning sounds, syllables, CVC words, writing prompts, alphabetical order, addition fact fluency, and word problems!

And for a winter freebie, which will last you past Christmas and into January! My children LOVE I Spy activities and this reviews distinguishing between long and short vowel sounds.

Want to follow Sarah? Use the links below!

Coaching 2 Proficiency

Hey everyone! I hope your week has started off with a bang. I thought I would come to you today to let you know about something my school did to hopefully help our students to take testing more seriously. 

We call it......

This was a great time had by all. Tiring but fun!

This is my principal ready to meet the students for morning assembly. Today was all about coaching the students to make better choices when taking assessments. 

A few weeks ago we created scrimmage test like the state assessment. Normally the school just does it for 3rd-5th but this year K-2 was apart of it. I was super excited because sometimes I feel like the "littles" are not always looked at as part of the school. This made them take part in this process. 

Each classroom had a set plan for the coaching process. Here is the guidelines that the Mr. Jackson, our principal, gave us.

• Discuss the most missed questions
• Let students work together to solve the most missed questions and ask them why they feel it was missed.
• Allow students to find the misconceptions and share with others.
• Allow each student to explain why they missed certain question
• Coach students that leaving answers blank is a NO NO.  Discuss steps to make educated guess. Teach student how to eliminate the answer they know are wrong and find the two that can be correct.
• Ask students if they agree with their score and encourage them

The day was great but very tiring. I was exhausted by the end of the day. Now even though I say that, I would not trade this day for ANYTHING!!!! I absolutlely love discussing how they could improve their work.

I discussed with them the difference in being a Novice, Apprentice, Proficient, and Distinguished. I created some cute posters with percentage scores for the students to check their progress. I am super proud at how some of the students said they needed to make changes. 1st graders saying they need to do better. This makes this teachers heart smile.

So in honor of today's awesome experience, I am giving you my posters as a FREEBIE! 

Click HERE for Freebie

I hope that you enjoy them and use them with great pride. MUAH!!!!

December Pinterest Pick 3

I'm so excited to be back for the December Pinterest Pick 3 hosted by The Inspired Owl, Pawsitively Teaching , and Just Reed. 

I just love searching through Pinterest for ideas so doing this linky is just a natural fit for me. This month, I really thought about fun that I will have in my home or classroom. Okay enough of me rattling, let's look at my choices. 

Oh I am so excited for this project. I will be making clothes pin reindeer with my students. My father in law came to me and said, "If I buy the supplies, will you make them?" I said, "If you are buying, then of course we will."

Click HERE to see pin

  

Are these not the cutest things ever? I mean I can not wait. By the time you are reading this, we will have painted our clothes pins and they will be drying. I plan to place them on my classroom Christmas tree. I even think this will be an annual tradition. I will write a post later about the process. I will try and take lots of pictures. 

PEANUT BUTTER BALLS!!!!!! Do I even need to say any more? If you truly know me, then you know I am a peanut butter nut. Since have weightloss surgery, I have to have natural PB but it taste just as yummy. 

Click HERE to see pin

I absolutely love the taste of chocolate and PB together. It is a match made in heaven. This year, I am going to figure out how to make them as "clean" as possible. If not, oh well, it will be a well worth it treat. 

My last choice is for those nights when it is cold and you just like to look cute but cozy. 

Click HERE to see pin.

Oh, I don't know why but I love that cable knit sweater. The scarf and boots are so cute. If I could wear earrings I would. My ears are pierced but it hurt when I wear them longer than 30 minutes so, I just skip it. Anyway, is that outfit not the cutest and coziest looking. I am determine to find that out fit and buy it. If you know of places then let me know. I am still a plus size girl but I need cheap. LOL!

Well, I hope you  have enjoyed my Pick 3 for this month. If you love this, then join the fun. Find your pics and tell us about them. I can't wait to read all the other blogs! Ok, I must be off to read. MUAH!!!!

An InLinkz Link-up

Featured Teacher: Elisabeth Shirring

Featured Teacher Tuesday is back from our Thanksgiving break!  

This week we are featuring Elisabeth from Literacy and Lattes!

Elisabeth has been teaching kindergarten and first grade for 11 years and is a National Board Certified Teacher.  For the past 4 years she has taught a literacy, science and social studies in a first grade classroom and provided one-on-one reading intervention in Reading Recovery.  Elisabeth is passionate about helping her students find a love of reading and making sure that each student feels loved and valued when they come to school each day.  

When she’s not in the classroom or creating products for her students, Elisabeth spends time with her husband and two crazy kiddos.  She loves to hike, read, watch Grey’s Anatomy, put monograms on basically everything and drink way too much coffee!

Elisabeth is also a Teacher-Author on TpT.  You can find her store at Literacy and Lattes and she specializes in products for Reading Recovery/reading intervention and science in the primary classroom.  

Her newest product - Learning Letters with QR codes - is a perfect no prep literacy center.    

Her best selling product - Reading Recovery and Small Group Data Collection and Planning -  includes everything you need to track data in reading intervention or guided reading groups.

Elisabeth also loves teaching science in the classroom and making materials for simple science lab investigations.  

Keep your literacy centers fun and engaging with the Super Fun Centers packs!

These printable books are perfect for the earliest readers!  

And how about some freebies?!?

You can also follow Elisabeth by clicking the links below.

Teachers Pay Teachers

See you next week, when we feature Sarah from Learning is for Superstars!

Be sure to check out what these other great teacher bloggers have in store for you this week!