It's That Time of Year

It's time. 

Today starts my official first day back,and by official I mean paid and have to show up. 

We all know I've been in there almost every day for the last two weeks!
This year is bringing about a ton of changes for me, but I'm really excited.
First I became the K inclusion classroom teacher,
Then I moved rooms,
Next I became team leader.
If that wasn't enough my entire team from the past two years was broken up,
So it's me, 3 new to K teachers, and a para.
Plus those 8 ESE students and 10 "typically developing" students.
Whew, that's a lot.
Of course, leave it to me to decide to change up lots of stuff this year!
It's going to be a major learning and growing experience, but I'm excited for the challenge. 

To start the year off right I made some cute beginning of year gifts.

Everyone on my team is getting one of these today as first day pick me up.

Everyone got a cute patterned composition book, post-its, sharpie, and highlighter.
Not shown, Dove dark chocolate.
What teacher gift is complete without chocolate?


I love how the gift tag came out. I saw the wording somewhere on pinterest.

I just started working on my student's gifts for Open House.

I printed it on bright paper to match my theme.
I'll punch holes on top and bottom and slip a pencil in.
Click the picture to download this freebie!

 

The End is Near

The end of the school year always sneaks up and then rushes by!

I have been so busy with everything happening recently. 

Not only have I been busy with the usual end of the year stuff, 

but we had a lot of school activities as well.

Not to mention, many changes for me next school year. 

I will not only be Kindergarten team leader, but I will have the inclusion class. 

This means any of the ESE students will come to my room and I will have a full time aid. 

I'm excited for all the changes, but it also means packing and moving classrooms!

With only this week to go I worry it's not going to get done!

1// We had swim for two weeks. 
Hot and sweaty called for a daily top knot.

 2// Class Butterflies! 
We spent the month raising them from caterpillars. 

3// Pony Races! 
One of my favorite things we do at the end of the school year. 

 4// Career Day!
Although the beginning of our crazy end of the year schedule, the kids always love it. 

5// Field Day!
Why oh why do we do these things in May? 
90 degree weather, I am not a fan!

 6// We Like To Move It Move It!
I started using GoNoodle in my classroom and the kids love it!
If you're a teacher check it out!
It a website full of 1-5 minute brain break activities. 
I use it for indoor recess, getting out wiggles, calming down, and class rewards.

Back to Reality

After two blissful weeks of lounge clothes, family, and laziness it's time to face reality. 

Today I get to jump back into the hustle and bustle of teaching 18 little ones. 

To be honest, I'm a little nervous to go back.

The end of winter break used to mean starting fresh. 

New classes, new professors, new schedule. 

Now I feel like I'm going to go back and immediately be behind!

There's nothing I hate more than feeling like I'm not prepared. 

After two weeks that's exactly how I feel, unprepared. 

On the other hand, I'm ready to be back in the swing of things. 

I like my schedule and being busy.

This break has been wonderful and I'm thankful that Kyle was able to finish work when I did.

We were able to spend the whole break together. 

Today Kyle goes back to school.

We experienced a semester of me being full time in school since we've been married, but never Kyle.

It will definitely be an experience and I hope we adjust to it well.

While it may not be new to him, it will be for me. 

Our approach to education has been quite different.

I was that crazy organized person that had my classes color coordinated.

Not to mention my monthly planner, weekly planner, and iCal.

And yes, they were color coordinated to match.

Kyle on the other hand hopefully remembers to check the syllabus.

Big things warrant a phone reminder.

Hopefully my organization and his lack can blend together into a semi-organized semester.

We're also starting back on our diet.

No more crappy holiday snacking gross feeling.

Make sure you check out this giveaway!

I've giving away some ad space along with over $1200 in prizes!

Goodbye Lazy Days, Hello Teacher Pay!

I didn't talk too much about how much I had been struggling trying to get a job.

For one thing, not much was happening.

My county had a hiring freeze.

And then after school had been going on for while I just didn't want to answer everyone's questions.

On Friday I got a call about an interview for Wednesday.

Then on Tuesday I got another interview for Wednesday.

Two interviews, one day. 

I was super excited and super nervous. 

My first one took 10 minutes, that can't be a good sign.

The second one went wonderfully, but they didn't know when the position would be approved.

So I was still hopeful, but not expecting to hear anything. 

This morning I got a job offer to teach Kindergarten!

I'm so excited and can't wait for everything to go through so I can be in my classroom. 

Here's to being a first year teacher starting the 6th week of school.

SCARY!

Any teacher friends out there want to guest post about classroom experiences?

I'll be slightly crazy and stressed soon!

 

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

And the phone call that turned it all around.

Some days just seem to be like that, nothing goes the way you plan.

This morning I work up crazy early so I went back to sleep, only to sleep through my alarm clock. I hate waking up later than I plan!

Comcast knocked on my door for something with the last tenant who lived here! They never changed their address and not only are we getting their mail, but now were having people come by!

After spending the morning running errands I came back home ready to eat. I heated up some leftovers and as I turned to go eat the entire bowl fell out of my hands. Potatoes, carrots, and chicken covered in Italian dressing flew everywhere, including our hall rug. 

I cleaned everything up, spot shot the carpet hoping to avoid ants and started again.
The next time I came in the front door the entrance way was completely covered in ants, despite the raid that had been sprayed. Where are you coming from tiny ants!!!

While I was waiting for my pan to heat up I decided to check my email. My computer was frozen. Restarted it and went to put my quesadilla on the stove. Came back to the gray screen of death! I frantically start trying to figure out how to fix it since I literally was planning on backing it up today so we could reformat it this weekend. At this point I smell something burning. I freak out and run to the kitchen where my quesadilla is black.

My computer flashes rapidly between these two pictures and the normal apple.

Two lunches and a computer down...

I call my dad since he had problems with his Mac recently to see if he has any idea what to do. Of course, as my luck would have it, he has no idea. Now my poor laptop has an appointment to see if it can be saved and if it's even worth it at this point to fix it. 

I had to drive my laptop to my parents so my dad could take it in since I wasn't able to. It starts pouring. I then spend two hours waiting for my realtor to be available to give her a check that I've been trying to get to her since we moved. 

It was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Until....

I got a call from an amazing elementary school down here for my first job interview!
Hopefully all goes well and I'm employed before school starts!

This is the Stuff

 

I like things organized. 

My planner and my iCal are color coded and have my life in them. 

I don't like not having plans.

I like having control.

God has a sense of humor, he gave me Kyle, my complete opposite in this.

He also is constantly trying to teach me to give up control. I constantly struggle against this.

Enter the most unorganized time of my life.

I'm going to be honest, these last few days have been some of my roughest yet. 

We're moving a week from today and currently don't have somewhere to live.

School starts in a month and I haven't had any sort of interview lined up. 

And there's nothing I can physically do to get any of this to happen. 

I wrote before about how we had found a condo and were so excited about it. We're still trying to get the condo, but it seems like one thing after the other keeps getting in our way. I don't doubt that we'll get the condo, it just doesn't look like we'll be in it when we need to be. We filled out the forms, and found out 11 days later that the owner's realtor never sent them to the association. We figured everything out with them and then found out we needed to give them a copy of the lease. We didn't have one because the realtor said the condo had to approve us before the final lease was signed. We found out the association has to meet with us and only meets on Mondays. We have to move Sunday. We get the final lease and are told we have to pay, first, last, and security. All the same price. We had been told first and last. We couldn't afford all three. 

I called my dad sobbing because I had no idea what to do and was so stressed. My dad is not only a minister, but used to work for a company that teaches people about how to handle their money. After helping me figure it all out he says,"I'm glad you're going through this." I'm sorry, what? My dad clarified that he was glad that we were figuring out how to deal with the stress of money and searching for the right solution before doing something dumb in a panic that messed us up even worse. Leave it to my dad to remind me of the blessing in my mess. 

As for a job, I've applied every place that's hiring in my county for my age group. Hopefully someone will call me soon! Jobs were just posted less than two weeks ago, but once again for me, not having a future plan is stressing me out!