My Bucket List

School started two weeks ago and tomorrow is the first day of September.  That means summer is officially over.  So, it is time for my last summer link-up with Miss Monica over at I Heart Grade 3.  I want to start with a big thank you to her for hosting this weekly fun.  I have been able to read and be inspired by a lot of amazing bloggers, and it has gotten my own blogging back in shape.  I am going to have to become disciplined myself without any help!
This final week's topic is "The Top 3 Items on my Bucket List."  The top two items on my list were easy, but my bucket list is so long, I had a hard time deciding what should be number three.  However, as this is a teaching blog, I think you will figure out why I picked what I did for that spot.

1) Visit every continent.
I live in North America, and have already traveled to Europe, Asia, and Africa.  I still have South America and Australia to go.  While I would also love to visit Antarctica, travel there is WAY beyond my teacher salary, so I will survive if I don't make it before I die.  However, if the opportunity arose, you bet I would take it!

2) Visit every state.
My family took family vacations very seriously, so I was well traveled growing up.  I have visited many of the US states, but not all.  Without looking at a map and counting carefully, I can't tell you exactly how many states I have left to visit, but it is not a whole lot.  (Most of them are out west.)  I have our vacation destinations planned through 2020, and we will hit a few more in that time (although Europe takes up 2 different summers).

3) Earn my doctorate in Education.
My family has always valued education.  My uncle has a Ph.D.  Another uncle has his M.Div.  My father has a Masters (plus 30 extra credit hours).  My mom has an MA, JD, and LLM (which is a post-JD degree).  I have an MS in Early Childhood Education, but I want more.  I love to learn, and I have a hard time imagining stopping there.  Plus, I like the idea of being able to teach at a collegiate level and helping to shape the future of education.  I have had to push off plans to begin my doctorate for a couple of year now due to various circumstances, but I hope to be able to start in the not too distant future (next school year, prehaps?).  I want to study reading and literacy, which are passions of mine.

What are some items on your bucket list?

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My Back to School Prep

Once again, I am linking up with Miss Monica over at I Heart Grade 3.  This summer link-up has been great because it has kept me blogging weekly!  The topic this week is "My Back to School Prep."  Well, as we started school last Tuesday, I am already in full-on school mode.  My prep time is over!  However, I can talk a little about what I did.
This year I changed schools and grade levels.  The room I moved into was full of stuff!  (I still don't have all of my own things in the classroom yet, as there is no room for it!)  The room was pretty well set-up already, but I did move some things around and change some set-up.  Here is what my classroom looks like.  (Remember, I teach three and four year old preschool.)

I still have blank space available for displaying student work.  I also don't like to clutter the walls with lots of things.  I don't want to send students into sensory overload.  I see too many classrooms in which I think the teacher is trying to do too much.  I don't want to minimize all of the work they put into their classroom, but rooms that are too busy with too much stuff can be too stimulating for many students.
Of course, as I teach preschool, I also spent a lot of time planning themes for the year and doing some preliminary lesson planning.  I am very fortunate that I have a great assistant who labelled a lot of student items for me so I did't have to do it!  This really lets me focus on curriculum, which is one of my favorite parts of teaching.  (That is right.  I am one of those strange teachers that actually likes lesson planning!)
I hope your classrooms are ready to go (or almost ready) for the new school year!

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My Guilty Pleasure

It's Monday, which means it is link-up day!  School starts tomorrow, so this last real day of summer is a good day to talk about a guilty pleasure.
First of all, let me say that I love to read.  I probably love to read more than do almost anything else.  However, with that being said, my guilty pleasure is binge TV watching.  I don't do it that often, but, every once in awhile, I do.  When I was in college, my roommates and I watched 13 hours straight of a Fresh Prince marathon on TV.  (I haven't done anything quite that extensive since.)  However, there was a Partridge Family marathon on yesterday.  While I broke up my watching with some work, I still saw a fair number of episodes.  I have also been guilty of binge watching Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, and Gilmore Girls, among others.
While it does not really fall in the binge watching category, the day before school starts (today!) I always veg out on the couch and watch teacher movies al day.  I don't allow myself to do any school work.  Some of the movies are more serious and inspirational, while others are just funny.  This year's line-up includes Stand and Deliver (my favorite), School of Rock, and October Sky (which I have never seen).  I may have time for another movie as well, but I haven't decided what it will be yet.  I use it as my day to recharge and relax before tackling the school year head on.  (And, no, I don't let myself cut, plan, or prep anything for school.  I just watch movies and eat junk food.)

What is your guilty pleasure?  Do you have any traditions before school starts of your own?

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Favorite Websites

It's another Monday, which means it's time for another link-up with Miss Monica from I Heart Grade 3.  This week's topic is favorite websites.  Boy, do I have a lot of those.  So, here are a few that I either have used in my classroom in the past or use to plan for my class.

1) GoNoodle - If you are not using GoNoodle yet, you really should be.  It has great brain breaks, as well as activities for indoor recess and exercise.  My students love it and beg to use it over and over.  The best part?  It is free!  Sure there are features you can pay for, but I have never met anyone who has paid for use.  There are no ads, and you can add your own favorite brain breaks from YouTube.  Plus, you class gets to pick a monster that grows with their progress.

2) Starfall - Starfall is great for Kindergarten to grade 2, although parts of it could also be used in Pre-K.  Starfall has sequential basic phonics skills, games, videos, and books.  Plus, it is very interactive whiteboard friendly.  This was my go-to when I had a few extra minutes to fill.  My first and second graders loved it and learned at the same time.

3) Pre-K Pages - This is a great website for preschool and Kindergarten teachers.  It has lots of ideas for centers, sensory play, and art projects perfect for our little ones!  I also follow them on Facebook.

4) Teachers Pay Teachers - While this may sound like self-promotion, I really do love TpT!  I am almost always able to find the resource that I need for either free or at least a lot less than I would spend at the store.

Check out the link-up to find other teachers' favorite websites!

International Literacy Association Annual Conference

Boy, have things been hectic and busy!  I feel like I have barely had a real summer, but school is already starting up again!  I did get some time away for just Pete and I, but much of the summer has been spent preparing for my new adventure in preschool.  I also made sure to take advantage of some professional development.  The International Literacy Association annual conference was in St. Louis this year, so I made sure to go.  Besides being lots of fun, I learned a lot!
The opening general session speakers were Shiza Shahid (cofounder of the Malala Fund) and Shaquille O'Neal.  Believe it or not, Shaq has a doctorate in education and has been writing children's books.  These speeches were mostly motivational, but were very good.
Of course, I went to a bunch of sessions.  I got to learn about oral language development in preschool, early literacy and Kindergarten readiness standards, beginning sight word instruction (with lots of freebies!), and a variety of early literacy strategies.  I also got to attend a panel discussion with 5 children's book authors about their books and writing life.  On top of that, I got free food (and alcohol) by listening to publishers talk about their products.  The best one of these was the Scholastic author breakfast, which included Mark Teague, Dan Santat, Brian Selznick, Pam Munoz Ryan, and Jewell Parker Rhodes.  The authors all spoke about their favorite teachers, and everyone got a good breakfast and a nice tote bag filled with books by each author!
Of course, the exhibit hall is always a great place to spend time while at conferences.  I walked away with around $400 worth of free books and materials.  I may very well buy some things from some of the exhibitors in the future because I was so impressed with their products!  However, I got out of the exhibit hall having only spent $3 of my own money.  (That was to buy a copy of Esperanza Rising to get Pam Munoz Ryan to sign.
The closing general session speakers were Stephen Peters and Octavia Spencer.  I had a really good view of the stage for this session.  Once again, the speeches were mostly motivational, but, once again, very good.
I was very glad I went.  I don't think I will be able to make it to Boston next summer because of the other travelling I will be doing, but I hope to make it in the future!
ILA also kicked off their new literacy initiative at the conference.  There are almost 800 million people in the world who do not have basic literacy skills.  If you want to help with their literacy initiative, you can text LITERACY to 91999.  The official hashtag for social media is #800Mil2Nil.

An Act of Kindness

Technically the topic for the link up with Miss Monica (I Heart Grade 3) for this week has to do with a random act of kindness.  However, I decided to use this opportunity to brag on and give thanks for my former students, parents, and colleagues at Christ Lutheran School and their kindness toward me, even if it wasn't random.  I taught there for the past 5 years.  However, because my husband relocated, I had to leave my wonderful school.

At our end of the year awards night, I received some wonderful surprises.  The first one was a "Giving Tree."  Many of the parents of my former and current students, as well as some of my fellow teachers had gotten me gift cards and put them on a tree.

I also got a plaque for my five years and a music note coat rack in thanks for playing the piano.

The best gift I got was the one that, of course, cost no money, but did take time.  (I still can't believe they got my students to do it without my knowledge!)  Every student in the school wrote me a short note on a heart.  They collected them together and put them in a container.  I read them all when I got home and admit that I cried like a baby.  (For the second time, since I also cried during the awards night.)

I am excited to be starting at a new school this year.  However, I am going to greatly miss the students, parents, and faculty that made teaching at my former school so rewarding.

On another note, the Teachers Pay Teachers Back to School sale starts today!  Everything in my store is 20% off today and tomorrow.  Plus, if you use the code BTS15, you receive an additional discount.  Click on the picture below to get to my store!

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My Talents

It's another week and time for another link-up with Miss Monica at I Heart Grade 3. The topic this week asked the bloggers to write about our talents. This is a hard one. While there are many things I enjoy doing that others would call talents, I admit that I don't usually feel that I am talented at them. However, I have picked a few of these.
I love music. I started piano lessons when I was six towards the end of first grade. While I took two and a half years off in middle school (because I simply wasn't practicing), I continued my piano lessons throughout high school (which amounts to almost 9 years of lessons). I really do enjoy playing the piano. Even with nine years of lessons, I am only adequate. Of course, not getting very many opportunities to play for awhile during college and the early years of my marriage did not help my abilities. However, at the school I just left, I was the only teacher who could play piano, so I played daily. We had daily devotions and weekly chapel that involved hymns as well as the service of Matins for chapel. I admit, my piano playing has improved greatly over the past five years due simply to the fact that I played every day at school. While I sometimes was frustrated with having to play (especially when a hymn was giving me trouble), I will miss accompanying my students this year. (Becuase I left, the school got the PTL to buy a recording of all of the music in the hymnal. It cost $700. I apparently am not cheap to replace!)
I also love to sing. With the exception of 1 year in high school and this past year due to living apart from my husband during the week, I have sung in choirs since second grade. (This year I did get a few opportunities to sing with choirs as well.) I especially love to sing more challenging music, especially that of Bach and Mendelssohn. In May, I had the opportunity to sing with Opera Theatre of St. Louis in their Spring Sing event, which was a way to kick off their festival season. For that performance I got to sing with the season's cast, as well as famed operatic talents Christine Brewer and Denyce Graves. It was a lot of fun and a good way for me to get back into singing shape after a year of very little choir time!

Photo Credit: J. David Levy and Opera Theatre of St. Louis

Denyce Graves and Christine Brewer are by the piano.  I am a little harder to spot, but I am there!

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