Teacher Week - Sanity Savers

Next up for Teacher Week over at Blog Hoppin' focus on what keeps us SANE throughout the year.  For me, this was easy! Below you will find four things that I use/used on a daily basis.

 Do I even need to explain?

 You may get tired of hearing about these beautiful little bottles of oils, but they are GAME CHANGERS!  Kiddos giving you a headache; rub a little Thieves behind your ears and on the back of your neck. Want your kiddos to be a bit more calm? Diffuse Lavender in your classroom.  Need to clean your desk from all those nasty germs, but despise the smell of cleaners? Spray some thieves (and a little lemon for tougher germs) and clean away!

I start every day with a little Stress Away and Joy on my wrists.

Love these little bottles of beauty!

 I had to learn the hard way. Thankfully it was only my third year teaching and I didn't have quite the large files I have now!

If you spend your money on nothing else...get an external hard drive.  

I back up everything. Anything I create for school, my clip art, important forms, etc... I take it with me everywhere, can plug it into any computer and bring up whatever I need.
It's the best investment in my opinion!

If you have not heard of GoNoodle by now then you may just be living under a rock.  Living in Florida, the weather is very unpredictable and ever-changing. You can head to school in the morning wearing clothes for a hot, sunny day and an hour later you need a rain jacket, umbrella, rain boots and a canoe and paddle! For these days, we use GoNoodle as our indoor recess. 

We love GoNoodle for brain breaks! Teaching 5 and 6 year olds requires lots of moving around and GoNoodle totally takes care of that in a super fun way that has every kid engaged! Love me some GoNoodle!

Get them wiggles out!!!!

I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot of really good ones, but I'll leave that for the rest of the amazing educators who are joining in on Teacher Week to share their ideas.

Click below and save your sanity!!

Classroom Design

Since I am not in a classroom this year, I have compiled several ideas from my classroom over the past seven years, as well as several other wonderful teachers'. These teachers have created masterpieces in their classrooms that help keep organization throughout the year, while making it easily accessible to students, and -of course- extremely engaging!

The classroom library is always my favorite area in every teacher's room. When done right, the creativity that is used to engage students is impeccable! Due to 'fire codes' I was refrained from decorating my classroom to any extent other than a palm tree (thanks to Deanna's wonderful idea/tutorial), 2 mini aderondacks and some pillows.

  (library in 2013)

See. I had to make the most with what I was allowed to do. I actually had to take down the 'floating' beach balls. I also used the kids cubbies as our classroom library.

I also love using this organization system to help me and the kiddos keep all the books where they belong and easily accessible!
I am currently working on a Plain Jane Library Organization kit! :)
 OBVIOUSLY, this little packet needed an update!

Now for some inspiration...

 

Reagan Tunstall 

The colors, the rug, chairs, the black bulletin board area that will soon be filled with reading strategies/anchor charts...love it all! So cozy and inviting!

I love how Lindsay made her library area an large, open space. It seamlessly falls with the rest of her class and, again, looks so comfy and inviting!

I love the bench that Maria added to her library, the gorgeously bright and engaging colors, and those floor mats! Perfect for those kiddos who want to grab a book and curl up somewhere else in the classroom.

I also love this idea from Learning in Wonderland! No more bothering you with broken books during your small group time. :) 

 I also first saw this lovely bench on her Instagram feed and fell in love!!!
I will most certainly be using this in my next book nook area.

 In my previous school, the standards for this area of our classroom seemed to be ever-changing. 

Inspiration for my next room:

 Growing Kinders NAILED it!

 Learning in Wonderland has a quick video on her blog and Instagram that shows you how she displays and uses her objectives board. Simple and keeps them all in one place. Gotta love that!

 Jessica from The Teacher Talk created an area in her room that allows for students to place their name in an area they would like to focus on. 
This idea is so much better than placing your kids clothespin on a learning scale/rubric. Love, Love, LOVE this idea!!!!

This, to me, needs to be the most inviting and organized place in your entire classroom.  I spend a lot of my day with my kids 'on the carpet.'  I want this space to be open, safe, and set up so that I can snag anything I need at the drop of hat! I always set my room up to have a pretty open area, but never really got it figured out... Here's some inspiration:

Regan Tunstall

Everything always seems just so functional in Reagan's classrooms! :)

 

Deanna Jump 

Open, simple, students can easily move around, lots of room for learning games, etc...  Deanna has a wonderful organization packet that is filled with awesome ideas on how to organize your whole classroom, but my big takeaway was organizing my rolling cart!  Check it out HERE.

Palm tree directions found HERE

 For me, space was limited and I just couldn't 'see' where to functionally place a writing wall/area in my classroom. SO, I used a folding back board! My area was not very functional.  It worked, but not the way I wanted.

Here are some much better examples on how to successfully impelment a writing station...

I absolutely love Deedee's Writing Station packet. 

It is perfect for building confidence in your emerging readers/writers.

 

Simple and all the materials are stored under the table! 

I could spend hours looking though other teachers classroom photos to find ideas to use and implement in my own classroom.

Now you can, too!

Click either link below to see how thousands of other teachers have designed their classrooms.

 

 

Teacher Week with Blog Hoppin

I always love this time of year when everyone is partaking in fun linky parties! I look forward to Blog Hoppin's B2S Teacher Week every year!

I always meet new fun and exciting people :)

Since I participate each year, some of these facts may not be new to you. I tried to find s-o-m-e-t-h-i-n-g new!

 

 

 

The movie, Doc Hollywood, was filmed in my very small hometown of Micanopy. I got to meet Michael J. Fox and Woody Harrilson! (I'll have to snag a copy of the pictures when I go back to my parents house) We also got to watch many of the scenes being filmed, which I loved getting to see all the behind-the-scenes fun!  Which leads me to my next fact....

I orginally went to college to earn a degree in Television Productions.  I wanted to be a part of every aspect of the news/journalism.  My dream job, at the time, was to be a technical director. They are the people yelling in the head phone at the camera men and switching between camera shots. They are the 'eyes' of the show. I liked having that control. I lost interest half way through my second year and, using my gut instincts, I transferred to a new school and enrolled into the education field. Never looking back. 

I just recently started using essential oils and they have become a huge part of our lives. Game changer! Plus they smell delicious!! :) 

 

I cheered all through my entire childhood and all the way through high school. We competed a lot. I loved it.  Often miss competitions. I also like to watch Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders on CMT and pretend that I'm one of them! ha

I LOVE lima beans. Weird, I know. I can literally eat a whole can of them...as a snack. Something about the bland texture of those little guys.

I also can eat cans of black olives for any meal.

And top it off with a chocolate chip cookie.

Be sure to stop by Blog Hoppin to join in on the fun!