Five for Friday {July 25}

This Friday {my last of summer} I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.

Here goes...

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know I spent the last week in Ohio with my family for our family reunion. I had a great time with my family and they even funded my donor's choose project. I will be receiving the complete elementary math manipulative library plus some common core math practice cards! Woohoo! Two projects funded in one summer! *dances*

At the reunion, each family was able to have a mini photo shoot. Check out this picture of me, Grandma {who never smiles in pics}, and my niece. How much trouble are we in with this little girl??

In Atlanta each year Kroger does a teacher giveaway. I sent texts and social media posts only to miss it myself because I was setting up my classroom. They ran out 2 hours earlier! But it's all good, I was able to go to Kids in Need which is an organization that collects materials from donors throughout the city for a FREE teacher store. We are able to get notebooks, pencils, folders, office supplies and so much more!

                                 

In addition to the demands of teaching, I bartend on the side and we had an AMAZING concert where I work. I am a huge fan of R&B and we had some R&B greats on the stage! Keith Sweat, Dru Hill, 112, Joe, Silk and a few others. If you know R&B you know that was an epic concert. My voice was hoarse the entire day on Thursday! SOOOOOOO much fun!

 I've spent the last two days working in my classroom. It took me forever to get my set up figured out. This will be my first year in 1st grade and the first year with a large room! I'm so used to small rooms I went back and forth a hundred times. Lol. The room is still a mess but the general set up is coming along. I'm not posting any pics yet because again it's still a hot mess!!

So I kinda don't have a 5 but I just love this linky so much and since summer is over I'll do a mini recap. Although my only time at the beach was for my birthday in May, I had a great summer. Going to the WBT conference, ISTE conference, and visiting my family kept me busy. I plan to spend my weekend working {at the bar}, and a little bit of printing and laminating but also relaxing and getting ready for pre-planning week. Au Revoir Summer time!

Be sure to link up to share your 5 randoms from the week! Toodles :)

Back to School Goals Linky

I am linking up with Jess at I heart Recess for the Back to School Goals Linky. I have about two more weeks of summer break and three more until school starts so it is definitely time for me to start getting things in gear.

Last year reflection...



Well looking at last year's goals I did not do so well with my goals. Last year was a tough year and honestly all I could focus on was maintaining sanity.

This year's goals I tried to keep simple so they are easier to attain and possibly surpass. Here are my goals for the 2014-2015 school year.

{Personal} I have done much better about exercising and eating better in the past several months. I joined a challenge which caused me to lose 7 lbs. and work out daily. My goal is to begin adding a morning work at least once per week which is going to be tooooough. Totally an anti-waking-before-I-have-to type person. But I was able to accomplish this once and it felt great! Slowly but surely.

Meal prep is also key. You've heard the saying abs are made in the kitchen and I'm trying to get at least a 2 pack. HA HA. If you guys ever check the #mealprepmondays hashtag on instagram you will see how the pros do it. I'm working to get to that point.

{Organization} Last year I was more organized than ever before but this year I am taking it to another level. I'll be honest and admit I'm like a 75% organized person. There are some things I need meticulously placed and others I put by the wayside. Through inventive storage and labeling I am hoping to reach 100%.

{Planning} I think writing will be the easiest subject to stay ahead. We use Thinking Maps:Write from the Beginning at our school which is a writing program based on Thinking Maps which makes planning easy because there's steps for mini-lessons, practice etc. 2 weeks ahead on writing will give me a chance to focus on reading and math plans.

{Professional} I have the pleasure of working with some truly awesome people that are truly stuck in their ways and oppose change. lol. I am hoping that through presenting some of my strategies I can help them embrace change. Here's hoping....

{Students} After a summer of awesome conferences, [WBT & ISTE] it is my goal to use what I've learned to get my students more involved in their own learning. I can't wait to use TEACH-OKAY, technology and notebooks with my firsties.

{Motto} An oldie but goodie but absolutely what I am going by this year. I am hoping that through maintaining organization, planning ahead, and making my students more accountable I will surely be working smarter!

Thanks for reading my goals. Link up to share yours!

Top 3 Takeways and Memories from ISTE 2014

For the past week, I've had visitors from Sunday to Sunday and now I finally have time to blog about my first experience at ISTE 2014 last weekend. ISTE was nothing short of invigorating. A couple weeks ago, I went to the whole brain teaching conference and was blown away and now I'm all WBT + Tech Tools = Sweet 1st Grade Classroom!

If any of you have ever been ISTE then you can attest to how massive and overwhelming it is! ISTE was here in Atlanta this year {super convenient for me}, and it took over the entire Georgia World Congress Center. From the hundreds of sessions, playgrounds, and the ginormous EXPO hall it was nearly impossible to see and do it all! I'm going to share my top 3 takeaways from ISTE in order to commemorate and recap my experience.

Tech Centers

My favorite session, and the one in which I feel I learned the most was actually my first one with Nancye Black. She led a session on technology centers and showed how to differentiate for primary and intermediate. The centers she discussed were movie making, blogging, digital storytelling, voice recording, desktop publishing and presentations. During the session, I thought of a ton of ways I could incorporate each session since we will have 4 computers, 1 android tablet and 2 iPods in the classroom! {whoop} Nancye also led another session I attended about writing which introduced me to storyjumper.com and my story maker! Exciting stuff people!

                                                                   
The poster sessions were also great! Each day they had different presenters with posters sharing their technology infused ideas, lessons and activities. Some of my favorite posters were using ipads with guided reading and flipping a kindergarten classroom. I was also able to have some quick conversations with both the teachers and received some really great advice. The networking I was able to do at ISTE was definitely a major takeaway as well. I even set up an opportunity to video conference with another first grade class this year! Awesome!

 The expo hall was surely memorable and where I had the most fun! Visiting the different exhibitors and seeing the technology they had to offer. My favorite exhibitor had to be Class Flow becaaaaauuuuseee I was able to watch in action with students from the Ron Clark Academy and Ron Clark himself! Loved it! {Posted a video on my Instagram}

Lots of goodies and freebiess, giveaways and raffles as well! I was a winner twice! I won a free subscription to science4us.com and a mobile hotspot. If you follow me on Instagram you might have seen this pics!

Overall, ISTE 2014 was one of the most exciting professional experiences I've ever had. It made me more excited about my passion for using technology and I look forward to ISTE 2015!

Here's a flipagram of my experience!