Open House...Check!

All right the race to begin the year is almost complete!

Today was our Open House so I got to meet all of new students (or re-meet, as was the case for many of them). My 6th grade class this year is a class of 14 GIRLS, NO BOYS, CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? And no, it is not an all girls school, it just happened to work out that way! Which made it really fun for decorating the classroom this year because I totally turned it into like a girl's clubhouse :). The girls all seem just great. Two of them are the daughters of teachers at my school, and two of them are the older sisters of two of my 2nd grade students from last year so that's kind of fun!!

I promise that pictures of the completed classroom are coming, but believe it or not, even though Open House is over the room is not completely done yet. Not for lack of trying, believe me! I ordered a few VistaPrint items (as I talked about earlier) and unfortunately they just didn't arrive in time :(.Of course, irony of all ironies, there was a VistaPrint shipment waiting for me when I arrived home today AFTER the Open House. I'm super excited about it and even though we have a 4 day weekend now before classes begin, I think I'm going to go in tomorrow to finish everything up quick! I'll give you a peek at the items I made on VistaPrint:

So the one on the right is the poster I talked about in my last post about Monday Made It. The poster on the left is going to be used in the classroom economy I am setting up this year. Not sure how well you can see it in this picture, but it says "Bank of Hoxmeier Payroll". I got this idea from Stephanie at Teaching in Room 6. I have some little pockets I am going to put on it to use for the classroom jobs in the economy.

The left notepad is says "We missed you while you were gone. Here's what YOU missed". The top business card says "Bank of Hoxmeier Deposit Slip". Also for the classroom economy, and I have to give credit to Stephanie for this, too! Definitely check out her blog :). The bottom business card says "Thanks for making a "paws"itive impact" and I plan on using them to right quick good news tidbits to parents about things that happen during the school days. I'm going to staple them in the student planner when a student receives one on the day it was received!

Such simple little creations, but so fun! Do you have any favorite ways to use VistaPrint in the classroom?

Monday Made It

Exhaustion. 

The kids haven't even arrived yet, and I am so absolutely exhausted it's unbelievable. Somehow I always seem to make everything more work than it needs to be, you know? I was so inspired by all the blogs I have been reading to make my classroom super organized and super cute, and it's definitely getting there, but ever so S-L-O-W-L-Y.

I just keep telling myself only a few more days of this, because Open House is on Thursday so everything has to be ready by then! Ha. And I know in the long run I will be happy with all of the work I am putting in right now. 

But seriously.

My husband just came downstairs to see what I was doing after leaving me to finish watching a show upstairs about an hour ago and when he got down he just looked at me slumped over my computer with bewilderment and said, "Have you even moved?" And the answer to that question of course was no. I haven't made it past the kitchen island since I got home today. That's how you can tell summer really is over.....

Exhaustion.

So I'm trying to remember that eventually everything always gets done (duh, hehe!), and in order to keep my motivation high I decided to post here about something fun and finally show off a Monday Made-It. 

If you can't tell, I work in a Catholic school. This is a poster I made on Vistaprint and just ordered for the prayer corner in my classroom. It is one of my favorite quotes and even though it's super simple, I'm pretty excited about it! 

There you have it, my (finally) Monday Made-It. And if you haven't checked out Vistaprint before, believe me, you definitely should! I've been using it for a couple years now and just LOVE it :). 

5 Things I'll Miss Most About Summer...Bring On Therapeutic Thursday!

Meetings, classroom prep, and professional development are underway and my summer has officially come to an end. While I am thoroughly enjoying being back at school seeing everyone and preparing for the new year, there are a few things I am definitely mourning the end of. So, I am linking up with Nancy at Joy of Kindergarten to blog about the 5 things I'll miss the most.

And with the things I'm missing most, it's only fitting to link up with Blog Hoppin's Teacher Week again for Therapeutic Thursday.

The things I'm using to de-stress and and relax:

1. The new yummy fall coffee drinks at Dunn Bros.

2. Adding more Pilates and Warrior Sculpt classes to my schedule to fill the void that the lack of Heat Yoga has left in my life.

3. Catching up on some mindless TV with the hubby (and yes, he is THAT GOOD of a husband that he will watch daytime TV and trashy reality shows with me!).

 

4. Do a little pampering at the spa in preparation for Open House :).

How do YOU relax during the busiest time of year? Head on over to Blog Hoppin and link up!

About Time...For Must Have Monday?

It's Teacher Week!

Even though it's a day late (totally meant to get to this post yesterday, but I spent the day working on my classroom and then hosted a jewelry party last night so the day escaped me!), I am so very excited to be linking up with Blog Hoppin for Must Have Monday (on Tuesday)!

Last year during Teacher Week, I wasn't blogging yet (only blog stalking :) ha) so I didn't get to participate, but I sure enjoyed reading everyone else's posts...So let's get to the point, here are my top five must have teacher items:

1. Lots and lots of Sharpie markers. I use them every day for anchor charts, planning, projects, you name it... and having them in a bajillion colors is the best part because you can use them when color coding things.

2. My camera. Again, I use this every day in my classroom and not just to take pictures but videos, too. It's so great to be able to playback things that the kids do for them to see! 

3. Super Sticky Post-It notes. Enough said.

4. A super awesome Teacher Planner. I always feel like this contains my whole life each school year, which is almost true because I would be lost without it! I prefer to put my own together in the form of a binder rather than buying one from a store so that I can customize it to my needs. In addition to having my daily plans, I include forms for long range plans, monthly calendars, all of the standards so they are easy to reference, short "important information" pages for each student along with a section to record parent contact, pages for notes at staff meetings, and pages to store those super sticky post-it notes with my to-do list items. Phew. Is it any wonder that I almost hyperventilate when I don't know where it is?

5. Last but definitely NOT least, my caffeine in the forms of Caribou and Diet Mountain Dew. Yes, I might drink far too much of it, but I figure there are far worse vices :). 

Goodbye, Summer!

It seemed only fitting that I join up with Sheree @ Peterson's Pad for her Goodbye Summer Linky Party today because I got my Back to School letter with my class list and teacher workshop schedule from my principal. When I see that envelope from my school come in the mail each August, that always seems to make it official that summer is coming to an end and I can no longer live in denial that school is about to begin... That being said, I feel like I had an awesomely productive summer and I'm quite excited for this new school year, so with no further ado...

Here are the rules: Share four things about your summer!

1. A place you visited

2. A book you read (for school or fun)

3. Something you did or made for your school class

4. Something fun you did

Then comment on the two links before you and one after you!

1. For our first anniversary, we visited St. Croix Falls, WI. That's the St. Croix River in the background, it's really quite beautiful :).

2. I read a lot of curriculum books for 6th grade to study up for my move from 2nd grade up to 6th! I also caved and read the Hunger Games Trilogy, ha...

(Ok, so that Math in Focus text is actually for 5th grade but I couldn't find a pic of the 6th grade text!)

3. Well something I did for my class was a lot of studying! I've made quite a few things to decorate my classroom in the past couple weeks like posters for the classroom economy magazine files to hold my daily plans, a writing process clip chart, and the list goes on...but you will have to check back next week to see pics! I was in my classroom ALL DAY today and made tons of progress, just not quite ready for any revealing pics quite yet.

4. Something fun I did this summer is that I spent a lot of time putting things together in my house! My husband and I just built a house- We've still got a lot of work to do, but I'll give you a little peek into how things are coming:

So there you have it, my summer in a nutshell. Make sure to visit Peterson's Pad to link up and don't forget to visit MY linky party, too, by clicking on this link: Meet the Teacher Night Linky Party by Teacher Wife. Happy new (school) year!

Meet the Teacher Night Linky Party!

As I mentioned earlier, I am moving from 2nd grade to 6th grade. I've been racking my brain to come up with ideas for our Meet the Teacher Open House Night because I feel like all the fun "cutesy" things that I've done in the past aren't quite appropriate for my 6th graders this year... As I was sitting her, I realized that there is a whole world of teachers bloggers with fabulous ideas out there, why not ask them?  I can't wait to read about what you all do when you meet your students and parents for the first time! So blog friends, link up and share your ideas for Meet the Teacher Night.

Here are the rules for joining the party:

1. Grab that button above for your post and link back to this post!

2. Share your fabulous ideas for what you have the parents and students do when they come to your room to meet you. What do you have out for them to do or fill out? Do you give the students any "welcome gifts"? Don't forget to post pictures if you have them!

3. Comment on at least one link before yours and one link after!

Back to School Jitters

Okay, so I know I already posted once today, I found this linky party for back to school jitters being hosted by Jessica at A Turn To Learn and I just felt compelled to post again because we all have back to school jitters!

Here are the rules for the Linky Party:
1. Put your text over the picture to talk about your back to school jitters!
2. Use the HTML code to link back to the linky party!
3. Comment on the two blog posts before yours!

Teacher Fashion!

Well dear blog friends, with my husband being out of the country, I made my way down to SD to visit my mom. Very fun, but it does inhibit me from living in my classroom as the new school year looms closer and closer on the horizon... So, I decided to get some back to school CLOTHING shopping done instead and I'm linking up with Jess at From Blood To Books for her Teacher's Fashion Linky Party! Super fun, right?

Here are the guidelines...

1. Tell me your favorite store(s) that you like to get your "teacher's fashion".

2. What are some of your favorite accessories?

3. What type of shoes do you teach in? (i.e. heels, flats, wedges, etc.)

4. Do you have a "go-to" item in your closet? (i.e. sweater you wear weekly, shoes you wear daily, etc.)

5. Have you ever had a fashion "uh-oh" at school? (i.e. heel broke, button popped off of blouse)

Ok, so here's a peek into my teacher fashion:

1. Most of my teacher clothing comes from the Limited.

Admittedly the full price of most of their clothing items is a little silly, but they have the best sales! AND!!!! If you don't already know this blogging friends, they have a TEACHER DISCOUNT! All you have to do is show your teacher ID card.

I also really enjoy shopping for my teacher fashion at The Loft and New York and Company.

I don't think The Loft has a teacher discount (that I know of, if anyone knows differently, I'm all ears!), but NY&CO has the same discount as The Limited :).

2. I used to have jewelry to match every outfit in high school and college, but I've gotten kind of slack since I started teaching... probably my favorite accessories now are scarves. However, I am having a Premier Designs Jewelry party at my house next Monday and I am excited to start building up my jewelry again!

3. I mostly teach in flats (which I've realized is going to make most of my 6th graders taller than me this year in all of my 5 feet and 2 inches!). If I'm feeling really snappy, I'll put on wedges. My first day of teaching I wore some stellar heels, and I went home barefoot with extremely blistered feet. I save the heels for special occasions now :).

4. I don't have any one item, but I love cardigan sweaters! There are so many cute cardigans out there right now, and they look super cute with skirts, pants, shorts, and capris! AND you can add fun camis and scarves to make different outfits! Here are some of my new purchases for the school year that I'm just loving:

   

5. I haven't really had any big "oops" moments, but my school has a pretty liberal dress policy, and there has been a time or two that I've been leaning over working with a student and decided to take a certain top out of my school clothing options if you know what I mean!

So that's a little window into my back-to-school teacher fashion! Make sure to hop on over, link up, and look at lots of other fun school fashion if you haven't yet!