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!

One Lovely Blog Award

I wanted to give a shout out to Meghan over at Inside the Classroom who nominated me for my very first blog award, the One Lovely Blog Award! Make sure you go check out her blog for some awesome 2nd grade ideas :)

For this award, here are the rules: 
1. Follow the person who gave me the award. 
2. Link back to the person that gave me the award.
3. Pass to 15 new bloggers and then let them know they have received the award. 

Here are the lovely blogs I have nominated to receive the award:

Ms. W. at Upper Grades Are Awesome: I'm always looking for good blogs to follow for the upper grades!

Kayla at High Tech Teacher: I was inspired by the bucket seats (instead of all those crate seats) that she posted.

Melissa at Fashion Craze Learning Days: She just started blogging today, and I can already tell I will enjoy her blog just by the title! :)

Greg at Smedley's Smorgasboard Kindergarten: He's a male kindergarten teacher, that in itself is awesome. I bow down to those who can teach the young'ins :).

Kim at Shades of Teaching: She's a 5th grade teacher in NYC who has lots of fun projects and ideas in fun flashy colors just like my color theme!

Lindsay at For the Love of First Grade: I found a fun new linky party for the end of summer to participate in on her blog! 

Tamara at Life's a Beach in 1st Grade: She has a couple super cute "Madee-It Monday" ideas with her owl theme! 

Eden at Teaching in Flats: The title shows me she's my kind of teacher! I also start the year in the cutest of wedges and heels, but by October it's pretty much flats all the way.

Krissy at Ms. Hutten's Buttons: She also just started blogging and her enthusiasm for the blog world tells me her blog is going to be great! 

Sherry at Kindergarten Milestones: She's in the middle of revamping her classroom and I can't wait to see the results!

Mrs. M. at The Ramblings of a 5th Grade Teacher: I'm loving her classroom color choices and her desk set up!

Shasta at The Teacher's Loop. She has some super cute "Made-Its" and and some fun linky parties to read through!

Ok, so I know that's not all 15, but I'm working on it! 

The VERY MUCH "BEFORE" Pictures

Do you know that feeling when you work, work, work, all day at school and then feel like you got nothing done?

I went into my classroom yesterday as I said I was going to (yay me for following through!) and worked for about seven hours straight. And even though I worked for what seemed liked forever, when I went to flip off the lights as I walked out at the end of the day, I couldn't help feeling a bit defeated at not quite seeing the progress I had hoped for :(... I really DID get a lot done, there was just so much left behind by the teacher who worked in the room before me, that I haven't gotten to any of the fun stuff yet! I took some "before" pictures so you could all see what I was dealing with when I moved in...

Ok so here it is. Believe it or not, the only things I have actually brought into this classroom are the boxes on the round table, the box of stacking cubes sitting against that desk in the middle of the room, and the computer and papers sitting on the desk. Seriously. Otherwise, this how the room was left. It really is a great room, and the teacher who was in here was really ver organized, but she hadn't originally planned on retiring and didn't take much of anything with her when she left. If you stick with me for the after pictures, I PROMISE it will look really super cute when I'm done! All the chairs, desks, and tables are moved to their proper places for starters...

That cubbie area in the back is quickly turning into my cozy little reading nook and space for my CAFE board. That giant file cabinet is not gone and replaced with much smaller and neater cabinet that sits next to my desk (which by the way, is now on the other side of the room). The circular table is now gone and replaced with a kidney-like table that I dragged in from the room I had last year and the rectangular table sitting in the back cubby area has been moved out and put along the side wall to be used in our writing center. 

I do love all the windows and the big beautiful tree outside my room!

Did you notice all the fabric covering the bulletin boards and shelves and all the posters on the walls? Those are all gone now, too. Just taking all those down (and then the papers, borders, etc.) behind the fabric and organizing the materials on the shelves took me a few hours in itself. But I did find some treasures! The teacher left behind 30 matching clear shoebox containers!!!! It's like Christmas, right? She also left behind some fun games and things to used for indoor recess, so that was kind of exciting. I also started going through everything left in the two closets in the back of the room and got rid of all the containers that didn't match and old manipulatives and activities that I knew I didn't need or wouldn't use. 

So what does that leave me with you might ask? Well... completely blank walls and bulletin boards, empty closets and shelves, and a few books, boxes, and files sitting on the ground. So not much. But better than what I started with, I'm at least super happy to have a blank slate because I am SO DETERMINED to stay organized all year. OH! I do at least have my classroom arrangement done :). I should have taken a picture as I was leaving to show the improvement, but I forgot. I'm hoping to have it organized by the end of next week, so I guess you will have to wait until then :).

The one thing I can brag about is all my beautiful window and this view!! Look past that tree, and that is Lake Minnetonka! Not sure how familiar any of you are with Minnesota, but around here Lake Minnetonka is a pretty big deal. 

What's your favorite part about your classroom?

Fabulous Find Friday

Well, I had the best of intentions to make it into my classroom, but the best laid plans... well, you know how that goes! I did, however, manage to get a lot of errands done and almost finish decorating our main family room in our house (pics to come later!) and we FINALLY got a security system installed in our house, YAY! Now that may not seem like such a big deal, but my husband travels a lot, and not just like he travels next door- he works in the international division so yes, he travels internationally. Even though I know I am perfectly safe, I get a little skittish staying by myself overnight so I am thrilled to have the security system installed before his trip to Argentina this weekend! It just puts me a bit more at peace.

But on to more important things! I also managed to pick up some more fabulous finds for my classroom and am linking up with Elizabeth at Fun in Room 4B for her Fabulous Find Friday Linky Party!

Here are my fabulous finds for the day:

First off, are these two big pads of scrapbooking paper that match my classroom theme. Let me tell you, I have big plans for these my friends! You will have to check back to see the finished pics of my classroom to find out! And the best part about these is that they were on sale for 40% off + I had a coupon for 40% off all items including sale and clearance items + they came from Michaels where I get my teacher discount! All this = 1 happy teacher!

Ok, now my next find also from Michaels. Pretty simple, just ribbons matching my color theme, but they were on closeout for $1 each and let's not forget my 40% off coupon + teacher discount! Gotta love Michaels, definitely stop by one soon if you have one in your area and haven't been there yet (even though I know I'm probably "preaching to the choir" with this advice!)

What's your favorite place to get fabulous teacher deals?

So, that's all for today's fabulous finds, but make sure to check my earlier post for my fabulous finds from Target. I DO actually plan on going into my classroom this afternoon, and I will post "before" pictures of the disaster that is my classroom right now. So until then, happy Friday!

Newbie Bloggers Unite

I'm trying out something new today and joining up with my first linky party! I thought it was only fitting to link up with others who are new to the blogosphere. Janis, over at Grade Three is the Place for Me is hosting a Newbie Bloggers Blog Hop! If you are a new blogger, hop on over to her blog and check it out!

http://gr3istheplace4me.blogspot.com/

All you have to do is answer the following questions:

1. What state you live in.

2. Your current teaching position.

3. Your teaching experience.

4. When you started blogging.

5. Share a blogging tip/resource.

Here are my answers:

1. I live in Minnesota, but I am a recent transplant from South Dakota, where I lived almost my entire life.

2. I am a 6th grade teacher at a small Catholic School.

3. This will be my third year teaching. My first year, I taught 3rd grade in a huge public district in Sioux Falls, SD. Last year I taught 2nd grade in the same school I will be teaching 6th grade at this year. I've kind of been all over the place! :)

4. I only started blogging in July 2012... but I have been blog stalking for quite a while!

5. I don't have a lot of blogging tips, but I'll share my favorite blog that I've been reading a little over a year now: Clutter-Free Classroom. Many of you might be familiar with it, but if you aren't hop over there RIGHT NOW! Seriously,  for any of you who are a little OCD with organization like I am, this blog will be your new best friend!

http://clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com/

And so it begins...

Well, the back-to-school bug got to me! En-route to get a gift for a friend's wedding, I somehow found myself mesmerized in the Target dollar section... two hours later, I found myself leaving with quite the haul for my classroom :).

I was inspired by a fellow blogger's post on organization and might have gone a little bit "bin crazy"! But, one of my favorite buys is the dictionaries! I am so excited to finally have enough dictionaries for all of my students! AND BONUS- only $1 a piece, how can you beat that?!

I am moving from 2nd grade to 6th grade at my school this year (still in an elementary school), and I realized that I was severely lacking in intermediate/middle school classroom supplies.

I also picked up a WHOLE BUNCH of pocket charts. Not sure what I'm going to use them for yet, but for $1 each, I just couldn't pass it up.

Yesterday I made my first trip back to my classroom and brought all my fun new stuff in! I have A LOT of work to do because I had to move all of my stuff out of my previous classroom. Totally worth it with the awesome view I have of Lake Minnetonka out my window though! I plan to go back again tomorrow after my heat yoga work out and will update as I make progress!  Oh, and don't worry- In my giddiness over new school supplies and the start of a new school year, I still remembered to buy the wedding gift :).

Sweet Summertime...for now!

Every year it is inevitable... August 1 comes around and my brain goes into back-to-school mode! It is impossible for me to separate the two from each other. My aunt and cousin are in town from Iowa staying with us right now, and we had dinner at a restaurant down the street from my school. The itch to start getting things done in my classroom came on very strong! While we don't actually start school until after Labor Day, our staff workshops start the last week of August which means less than a month of summer left... I know, I know. That's still quite a bit of time compared to some schools. My mom is a speech pathologist at a school in South Dakota and she goes back in a week. But now that August is upon us I know full well I won't last much longer before my days are being spent in my classroom organizing, decorating, lesson planning, and blog stalking :).

But in other news, I can't let the event that occurred on July 22nd pass with out mentioning it. It was our first wedding anniversary! Peter and I had a lovely time celebrating the completion of our first year together as husband and wife. We went out to St. Croix Falls in Wisconsin and did a little exploring in the town and in Taylors Falls as well. We also went to Interstate Park along the St. Croix river and hiked along through the forest and along the river up to Lookout Point. Quite beautiful! We are so very fond of being by the water, so it was only fitting to include that in our celebration.

I made the poor life decision of wearing heels and a skirt.... Fail! I didn't know that our excursion was going to include such extensive hiking! :)

One wonderful year together! You are so wonderful to me and I am so lucky to have you. Love you, pickle!  Cheers to many more.

We had dinner at a fabulous little restaurant called Grecco's on the St. Croix right in the heart of the town. After arriving, we found out that it was their annual town celebration complete with street dancing, music, and a giant parade making it nearly impossible to get anywhere we were trying to go. We parked a little ways away and enjoyed the small town charm during our stroll down Washington Street before locating the restaurant. It was DELICIOUS! They make everything from scratch and have a completely new menu each week. We sat out on the patio overlooking the river and watched the sunset as we ate and enjoyed some sangria. Perfect :). 

After arriving home from Wisconsin and watching the Bachelorette finale with our neighbors, we had to partake in the tradition of eating the top layer of our wedding cake...

The cake was pink champagne with raspberry filling. We ended up making a giant mess because the frosting was quite disgusting so we pulled it all off and just ate the cake part. It was actually pretty good! :)

All in all, a lovely time!