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Friday, September 25, 2015

Take a Second to Peek into 2nd Grade - Week 1


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Hey friends!  Today I'm really excited to be joining Katie from Pop Into Primary for her Take a Second to Peek into 2nd blog series.  Each week there will be a new featured blogger that you won't want to miss.  Each blogger will be sharing a little about themselves and will also be putting one of their products on sale for two days.

I'm super excited because the first featured blogger is .... Stephanie from The Learning Chambers!

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I've also picked one of my favorite products and it will be on sale September 25th and 26th only.  My reading response flap journals are so much fun and a great way to have your students respond to the books that they are reading independently.  It's one of my students' favorite reading activities.


They are also differentiated because your students can use whatever book they are reading at the time.  They also include two different styles of writing lines.  You can click on the cover image to check them out in my store.


Thanks so much for reading all about Stephanie from The Learning Chambers!

Friday, July 31, 2015

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Sunday, July 5, 2015

TPT Seller Challenge Week #3: Make Your Masterpiece

I can't believe it is already week 3 of this wonderful challenge! This challenge has been such a motivator for me to really work on my products. It has also allowed me to explore my personal seller style as well. I feel like this is one thing I have really struggled with and I haven't been able to really my "seller style".

This week has been especially difficult lets start at the beginning...

Last week we (my boyfriend and I) were supposed to move into our new apartment. We had everything all set and were so excited. I mean who wouldn't be excited to live seriously 10ish miles from DISNEY WORLD! Anyways...we arrived and were told our apartment was no longer available......wait wait wait "what did you say Mr. leasing consultant man!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Basically the company said "we called" and "cancelled" our apartment. They had no written proof of this and refused to pull phone records..said it would be to complicated because the call volume was so large. Well little did they know I am a teacher and and organization freak. Collected all of my documents and showed that there was NO WAY we called and cancelled as our phone records never showed us calling and there were no emails exchanged. To move this long story on...they had already leased our apartment, weren't very forgiving, made us feel like complete dummy's and that this was our fault. They ended up offering us the following...

Move into a 2/2 instead of a 1/1 till the middle of September. THEN...move into a 1/1 that would be on a second floor versus a 1st floor. Well who wants to live out of boxes and move again in 3 months ish time. Not us, and especially at the beginning of the school year! No thank you! They would also offer us a small money compensation but we weren't having it. I was a mess and so thankful for this wonderful man I have to calm me down ( I wonder sometimes how he still puts up with me after 4 years!).

We had no where to go except our cars and moving truck and all our family out of state...We took a chance and headed to the apartment complex next door we had previously viewed but it wasn't our first choice. LUCKILY  they had an apartment ready for the next day but were so so kind to allow us to move in immediately. We couldn't believe what we were hearing and that we had something! We got the truck unloaded and began another antagonizing process, transferring all our services from our non-existent apartment to the apartment we weren't planning on....here came more bad news. No wifi till Thursday (6 days later!) This wouldn't do for me, hello I have blog posts planned and teachery things to do sir! Well there was nothing we could do so I had to make do. At least I had a roof over my head right.

Anyways this really (I mean really) postponed my Week Three Challenge Plans! On top of this Wednesday I left for Michigan to visit my family and I wasn't sure when I would have time to work. Well luckily I found time today so here is my Masterpiece!


I present to you a math interactive notebook for HMH Go Math! Chapter 1. (Any other Go Math! users out there?) This past year my kiddos loved interactive notebooks. Not only that their test scores increased so much as well and who wouldn't be happy about that :) So I decided this summer I would make some interactive notebooks that followed our Go Math! series more closely. I think these will be perfect for my kiddos this year.

Now this set here is aligned to the Florida Math Standards, but don't fret Common Core friends, yours is coming soon! This set should be posted soon, again it has been a long week and I am in Michigan vacationing till the 17th. Once it is posted I plan on doing a blog post that goes a little deeper into how to set up the notebooks and what the pages should look like. I also am almost done with Chapter 2 so that should also be posted soon as well. I plan on doing a fun little flash sale on these babies so follow my social media sites to stay up to date!

Well again I have ranted....I need to work on that!

Have a Cheerful Week!

Meghan

Monday, June 22, 2015

TPT Challenge Week 2: Dare to Dream :)

Today started week two in the TPT challenge that I have taken part of. Even though I am EXTREMELY NEW to this whole Teacher pay teacher world I have already seen the effect of this community and I am loving it. I started this blog awhile ago but haven't kept up on it recently. This is probably because it looks so boring (I mean who wants to look at this!). However this challenge has given me the confidence to jump in head first and make a decision I have been tossing and turning over for awhile....

I am getting a new Blog Design thanks to Gabby's Classrooms!


I am so excited for the end of August! I know she will do a wonderful job and that this will really help my store/brand.

Anyways..back on track 


1. Pay off my student loans: HOLY COW! I want to cry every time I see the amount. I knew going to college I would have a huge amount of debt coming out but yikes. I am only a year out of school and have a long way to go but I am hoping that by starting a TPT business this will help to pay these off.

2. Success: I am a new teacher, just finished my first year. I have always wanted to be a teacher and I have a huge fear of not being successful at this career I have invested a lot into. Not only do I want to be successful as a teacher but also as a seller. Again I have this big fear of failing and doing this has been a dream of mine for a year now. I want to be successful with this. I would love for when I have children that I could be a stay at home mom doing this as my income. I know it will take time a patience but with hard work anything is possible.

3. Grow my business: I am having a hard time with this one. My Instagram page is slowly starting to get some interest but I haven't seen much progress else where. It's discouraging but again I know it will come with time. I am working on posting more but I still am unsure what to post. I hope by the end of this year (Dec. 2015) to have gained more attraction to my different social media outlets and have made some progress within my store. 

I just wanted to say a quick thanks to all the fabulous bloggers hosting this. It has really given me the boost I need to dive head first into this! Thank you PeppyZestyTeacherista Third in Hollywood Teach Create Motivate and Sparkling in Second

Have a Cheerful Day :)

Meghan

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Table Organization HELP!

SUMMER!! (Insert Olafs yell)

Wow I don't think I have ever appreciated summer more than as a teacher. Worked hard all school year and now get time to relax and get ready again for a new batch of kiddos and.....

A NEW SCHOOL!

Yup, thats right. I made the decision to transfer to a new school in my district. The main reason behind this was just to be closer to home. Gotta watch the miles on my car so this move should help. I am very excited. I met my new team and they already seem awesome and so helpful!

So when talking about this new school I have a lot of changes that will be happening for my classroom. At my old school I had one of the largest classrooms in the school. At this new school my classroom size will be cut in half :( Sad but I'm still a new teacher a don't have a lot to fill up such a large space (I know this will change!)

Anyways I'm in a predicament and hopefully I will get some views on this and some help. I no longer have desks! Instead I have tables! I am excited and nervous. I have no I idea how to pursue tables. My first thought was table caddies. I had these as supply caddies last year. They worked but I didn't like how messy they got and my OCD would take over and ya...



So I have the same shape currently and enough for each table. But as we all know they don't always hold a lot. If I didn't use them for each table then I would find another way to use them. However I did find this.



Now I have the teacher toolbox for myself that is similar and I LOVE IT! My kids loved it. They weren't supposed to touch it unless I asked for them to grab something. They knew right where everything was a had to read the labels (added bonus?) So thanks to Ladybug Teacher Files I found she does this for each table. I will only have 3-4 tables of kiddos and thought this would be perfect. All the supplies I think they will need are right there, so less time having to go to get supplies out, or passing out highlighters to everyone. This also allows more supplies to be held here. The students are also going to have the 3 drawer roll carts so this could be another addition to that or is it to much? I'm just not sure. I feel like for my sanity this would be much better but I don't want it to be to much for my little second graders. Any advice would be appreciated :)

Well I'm off to the pool and working on packing. We move in a week!

Have a Cheerful Day :)
Meghan




Sunday, May 17, 2015

That Time of Year

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Whew! What a week.... even as a new teacher I knew the end of the week would be busy but WOW! This week we had our end of year testing for K-3. The kids were so patient it was awesome. We tested 4 days this week and it was intense. The poor kiddos were falling asleep by 2:45, but they were troopers.

This week though its back to business. We have to finish up our last journeys unit and last Go Math unit in the next two weeks. Crazy to think my first year ends in 12 days. These 12 days are going to fly by but I am determined to make them great. This Friday we have our end of the year field trip to LEGOLAND! The kids are beyond excited (and have been behaving better than ever!) I think I might be more excited than them. While most of us have never been to LEGOLAND I am just excited to see all the cool things the master-builders have built (ya I know the terminology).

Just to inform you all I worked for a marketing company for a summer promoting LEGO products, and it made me love the company. So going to LEGOLAND is making me giddy inside. I have been preparing all weekend to hopefully make the trip run smoothly and take the kiddos to the areas they are the most interested in.

On top of LEGOLAND to conclude this weekend I have some important visitors coming on Tuesday to observe me for a prospective job. This school has everything and more I want in a school. The coolest thing is the principal lived in Grand Rapids Michigan. I love knowing that someone knows where I come from and how great of a school GVSU was! I am hoping for great news by the end of the week. I am praying to the man above and preparing like crazy. I am determined to make this an amazing visit.

Speaking of which, I need to get going on lesson planning!

Have a cheerful week ;)

Meghan

Saturday, May 9, 2015

About Me

Hi! My name is Meghan. I'm a new teacher and blogger. I am a current Florida resident living next to my favorite place in the world...Walt Disney World! Any one who knows me will tell you that I am crazy for anything Disney. Heck my favorite movie is The Little Mermaid. This year I actually met Ariel with my best friend :) Can you say life made!

Anyways, while I do currently live in Florida I hail from the great state of Michigan. My family currently lives in Traverse City (the cherry capital). Traverse City is probably the most beautiful city in the summer and in the fall. While I miss my family dearly I am following my dream of being a teacher and that led me to Florida!

We, my boyfriend and I, moved here last July and are very happy here (especially with no snow!) We live in Orlando and adopted an adorable kitten in February named Mason. Poor guy was found in a dumpster and we are so glad we could give him a home :)

Back to why we came to Florida (I can get sidetracked easily). I received my first teaching job here last summer and packed up and moved. Michigan is extremely hard to get teaching jobs in especially as a new teacher so I knew I would have to look elsewhere. I currently teach in a very rough area at a title 1 school and teach 2nd graders. Boy do they keep me on my toes! Even though my job is very challenging the reward of teaching in this climate is so amazing. I know I am making a difference each day.

Well thats enough about me.... I am sure I will update this later :)