T.G.I.S (Thank Goodness It's Summer!)

I can't believe I'm about to write this:
I've already had TWO WEEKS of summer.

Why is it that school days last 246 hours but a summer day lasts 32 minutes?

I chose today to write an update because it's a special day for me. One year ago today I walked into the best interview I've ever had. I knew the moment I pulled into the parking lot that this would be the school for me. My interview went great and I felt as though I was having a normal conversation with the interview team- I wasn't nervous one bit. I remember leaving the parking lot and calling Mr. R and telling him "That was the best I've ever felt in an interview and I pray that I get this job."

We can all figure out how the story ends... a few days later I received a voicemail from my principal (I still have it saved on my phone). I called him back and he offered me a position. We were in the Old Navy parking lot and I cried and cried and cried. Happy tears, thankful tears, hard-work-finally-paid-off tears...

You see, this was not my first interview. The summer before I had applied to over 20 jobs and had 3 interviews... all ending with a no. I'm not even going to mention all the no's I received when I first graduated in 2009. I didn't understand why I wasn't being picked. Two weeks before this interview, I went on another one and heard yet another no. I was heartbroken. But what I realized afterwards, was God had a plan this whole time. I had one dream school in mind the entire time I applied for other jobs and after two years of trying and a whole bunch of let downs, I finally got the job I prayed for.

I'm writing this today because God always has a plan. I know it's so cliche to say "everything happens for a reason" but it is SO true. I have to remember this myself throughout the various seasons of my life. I know I have a lot of friends who are in a season of waiting or a season of change, and I'm here to tell you that things are going to get so much better.

I miss so many people from my old school, but this has been a very positive change for me. My love for learning has returned and I finally figured out what I wanted my Masters in. I have more planning time at school, which in return gives me more free time at home. (Y'all... I'm done with dismissal everyday at 2:45. It doesn't get any better than that.) I have seen so much support this year- from my teammates, specialists, administrators, and parents.

I want to thank my new school family for a fantastic year. You guys are stuck with me now ;)


So what am I up to this summer?
- Trips to Rocky Mount, Charleston, and Savannah (for our anniversary)
- Random other road trips (because you can do that sort of thing when your husband is also off for the summer!)
- House projects: getting a fence!!!!, building a closet office (blog post to come), organizing the house
- GRAD SCHOOL WORK
- straight chillin'

Have a great summer!!

10 Day Countdown

Can you believe we only have 13 days left of school?! Technically only 12 because the last 2 days are half days! That means on Friday we will start our TEN DAY BALLOON POP COUNTDOWN!

Here's a picture of what it looks like (from my old school). I haven't hung it up for this year yet. I'll do that on Thursday afternoon #lastminutelinda

I've updated my surprises to better fit my new school... check it out (fo' free) on Teachers Pay Teachers!


Just print out the slips (feel free to use some and make up your own... it's a pdf due to my fonts but you can just toss the ones you don't want to use), put each slip in a different balloon (you'll need 10 balloons... unless you want to shorten it to a 5 day countdown), blow up the balloon, write a number on it (10, 9, 8... you get the picture) and then pop one each day!

Enjoy these last insane few days until summer!

Literacy Night

My school is having literacy night tonight. We have paired up to present about how parents and students can prevent the "summer slide" in reading. I think this is such a great idea to help promote literacy at home! We're presenting in a neighboring classroom, but I had my kids set up some last minute book recommendations just in case parents go in to see our room.

I loved how they picked a variety of books. As I look around I see informational texts, historical fiction, fantasy, and realistic fiction. I just had to share this one...

I'd say that this friend has mastered finding the theme/moral of a story.... and how to behave in school!

MAP Math Review

My second grade smarties have their spring MAP test for Math on Monday afternoon. We had 4 days this week to review and expand our math knowledge. When you have a group of students that can handle the area model for 2 digit multiplication, you reward them with some review centers. The kids see it as fun, but they don't realize they are actually reviewing everything we've learned. Let's keep that our little secret!

While my students were in these centers, I worked with students individually on areas they needed extra assistance on. It was great to get to know my students more as math learners, and they loved the one-on-one attention!

 Hot Dots are still our fave! Love that it's second grade specific.

 They had the option to use the flash masters or good old fashioned flash cards to practice fast facts. They seemed to like the old school way the best!

 New skill this week: perimeter and area: they used the Tetris pieces to build rectangles/squares and then figured out the perimeter and area of each one.

 I can't believe how fast they picked up on the palettes! I'm not even going to admit how long it took me to figure these things out. But they are quickly becoming my favorite thing! We had skip counting, addition/subtraction, and fractions cards to practice.

 Fraction circles to review numerator/denominator (vocabulary words for the week)

Geoboards to practice symmetry. I still could sit and play with these things for hours. They loved learning that a circle has an infinite amount of lines of symmetry.

Today I'm planning, doing some odds and ends in my classroom, and meeting with my team because it's a Teacher Work Day. This weekend I'm celebrating St. Patty's day, then heading up to NC to visit my best friend, her husband, and my Godson. It's going to be a good weekend!

Ready, Set, Action...

I kinda always thought I would be famous and now I'm pretty sure I am. Well, maybe only in 20 second graders' eyes........ but to them I am a famous director. That's because we just finished up our Readers Theater plays using our new Green Screen. I used the app Green Screen by Do Ink, which allows you to pick any picture to be the background. I borrowed the actual green screen from our wonderful technology teacher and hung it up on my cubbies. We had so much fun creating our plays and comparing them to the books they are based on.

Here's a screenshot of our play If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

*Students do not actually have cupcakes heads.*
This group picked a living room background since their book's setting was a house (hello spiral review on characters, setting, and plot!)

Happy Pig Day play:

They chose to do an arcade background since their characters are celebrating "pig day"

The Stinky Cheese Man play:

This one was my biggest group with 9 characters. They did a great job of moving around on the set. They chose to do an outdoors background since The Stinky Cheese Man is doing so much running around town.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff play:

It's hard to see in this photo, but this group had a great idea of finding a picture with a bridge to use as their background. The troll in this play was voted for best actor due to his very believable "fall off the bridge."

Overall this activity was to help with their fluency. I wanted them to read their lines just like they would talk in a normal conversation. We added a little creativity and technology and the end result was perfect.

*Also, we celebrated our amazing principal's 50th birthday this day- that's why everyone is in black!*

Click the picture to purchase the app! I promise it's worth it!

What We're Doing: Math

When I first started teaching, my classroom had 28 desks, 28 chairs, and a couple of tables. That. was. it. I'm not even exaggerating. My birthday present from my family that year was a trip to the Teacher Store to buy anything I wanted needed. Then over the years I collected more and more stuff (while becoming broker and broker) and I finally had a few class sets of things.

Then I came to my current school and heard about a math manipulatives room. What? These exist? You mean there is a room that holds pretty much any math item that I need? I had to see it for myself. Y'all. I could have cried. My math-loving heart was so full. I just HAD to check out a few items to help my kids with learning time.

We spent today reviewing our skills with these activities:

We used time puzzles to match up digital, analog, and written time.

We used Hot Dots to review time, as well as for a spiral review. These things are amazing!! You can buy them here! 

The group I worked with used the this to practice elapsed time. We also practiced telling time to the nearest minute. I lOvE being able to challenge my kiddos! You can find a similar clock here!

I also added a fun, geometry review center so they could practice with edges and vertices.

I can't wait to share my newest technology project on the blog soon! We are having too much fun integrating our readers theater with our economics unit, all while becoming more Tech Savvy!

Valentine's Day Bag

If you're a last-minute-Linda like me when it comes to school holidays, I have a quick solution for you!

Just print on construction paper, have the kids cut them out, assemble to a brown paper bag, and glue. VOILA! Cute and simple Valentine's Day bags. Now just let me survive next Tuesday and this holiday will be successfully completed.

Get this freebie on my Teachers Pay Teachers site!