The One Where I Wish You a Happy New Year

Well,  I'll admit that I did have pretty grandiose plans for my Christmas Break.  I was going to blog more. I was going to make several things for my TPT store, namely my January Math Journals.  I was going to actually get out the several posts flying around in my head.  But I didn't.  Oops.

What I did do though was have a fantastic, and relaxing, Christmas Break with my family. In the end that's better than my initial plans anyway.  Wouldn't you agree?  Posts will get written.  Items will get made.  Hopefully the January Math Journals will get done ASAP.  But until then I will continue to relax and enjoy my vacation.

Well, the entire 1 day I have left.  Yep, I return to school on Wednesday.  Yikes!  Has the break flown by that quickly already?  What will I do those first 3 days back?  Oh, I mean, I need to check my lesson plans.  No, just kidding, I do have a slight idea of what to do plans for those days when the kids are totally crazy and still all jazzed up on Christmas Break, toys, and candy.  

How has your break been?  Do you return on Wednesday?  Thursday?  Or are you super lucky, like my wife, and have all the way until next Monday?  Well, whenever you return I hope the remainder of your break is good.  I hope you've enjoyed the time away from the classroom and have rested, relaxed, and rejuvenated yourself so you're ready to greet all of those little faces when they return in January.

One half of the year is gone.  The 2nd half of the year is always so much fun as you begin to see the kids grow so quickly and they suddenly gain so much of the independence and skills you've been working on for the previous months.  

But I'm rambling a bit here.  Sorry.  Maybe it's the late hour.  I've got 20 minutes left until New Year's here.  Everyone else in the house is asleep.  I'm too stubborn though and always insist on staying up.  Then about 5 minutes later I turn in.  And again I'm rambling.

So, I think I'll just wish you a Happy New Year and sign off.  I hope that 2013 is awesome for you and you have a wonderful and blessed 2nd half of the school year!

The One About A Desk

My desk.  And an excuse to play with the panoramic feature on my iPhone!

Do you have a desk?  A table?  A landing spot?  I have to personally.  I know a lot of people are anti-desk, stating that a teacher should be up and about and around the classroom at all times.  Well, me (and my feet) slightly disagree with that notion.  See, I need a landing spot.  See how I italiscized that?  To stress the need.  A place to put my stuff.  A place to grade.  A place to organize, gather, sit, collect, hold, etc.  I think you get the picture.  

Now, I don't sit there all day.  I am up and about most of the time.  But if I am using the ELMO or grading or working one-on-one with a student, I'll be there.  That and, of course, on breaks.  See, you agree now don't you.  I'm sure most of you have a similar spot somewhere.  Mine is a table and student desk put together in an L-shape in the front of the room.  The location is crucial as my laptop must be connected to the ELMO and the SMART Board, both of which are in the front of the room.  See, yet another important need for a desk.  So, it's not a desk per say, but you get the picture.

I've had a lot of difference set ups over the year.  There was the ginormous (I kid you not) 6 foot by 4 foot metal monstrosity I had at one school.  It was huge!  But I loved it.  Do you know how many piles of stuff neatly organized stacks you can create on a desk that size?  I've also had a smaller wooden number, basic but it got the job done, a simple computer desk, and another art class-type table.  I have to admit, the ginormous beast aside, my latest arrangement is my favorite.  I'm a fan of the L-shape.  

I wish I could say that I was the most organized teacher out there.  Like some of the great blogs I follow.  But I don't like to lie.  Now, I'm not a mess, exactly.  I like to think of it as organized chaos.  Yeah, that's probably a good description.  But, I'll have you know, I know exactly where everything is and there is a method to my madness.  You know how it is.  You're busy.  There isn't always time to put it away neatly where you found it (despite the fact that you tell the kids that about every game, manipulative, and project they get into).  Sometimes you just need to put it down somewhere.   

There are times though, that it even gets to me and I must purge and reorganize.  With the Christmas season upon us I'm quickly getting there.  So, I've bared my soul, and desk here to you.  I hope you don't think less of me as a person or teacher.  I'm sure everyone has their dirty little classroom secret.  Like my closet, but that's a topic for another post!

So, what about you?  Desk?  No desk?  Everything neatly organized and aligned or creative piles?  I promise I won't judge you either!  It takes all kinds though!  :)  

Refurb & Reboot

*Disclaimer*  This post was written yesterday but before publishing our Internet went down!  All todays are technically yesterday and all tomorrows are technically today.  There, now that all of that is solved and a little more complicated: on with the post!  :)

Hey!

Welcome to my blog.

I better acquaint myself I'll start by giving you a (hopefully) brief history of this blog.  As you can tell from the left-hand sidebar this blog isn't new.  However, this is only the 3rd post.  Well, only the 3rd post of the new and improved blog!  Tada!  (That was supposed to be accompanied by fanfare, did that come through?)

See, I began blogging a few years ago personally and loved it.  You can find my personal blog here.  I loved it so much I decided to start a classroom blog.  My original plan was to have it be a communication tool between by students and I and the parents.  We'd share what we were doing in class.  We'd share pictures.  We'd share anything else we could think of.  Kind of a window into the classroom so to speak.  Every now and then I would come in with editorial/advice posts to talk to the parents.  Sounds great right?  I thought so too.  But, as I'm sure you know, life gets in the way and posting became irregular, defeating the purpose of the blog.  The following year I began it again, with a vow to do better.  And I did, for a while.  But then life got in the way again.  Once again I decided to start over, I mean 3rd time's a charm right?  Wrong.  Life really got in the way then and I shut the blog down altogether.

By now I was heavily into following teaching blogs and getting ideas from and inspired by other awesome teachers.  My mind's wheels began to turn again.  Maybe a resurrection was in store for my dearly beloved blog?  Then I joined Teachers Pay Teachers and got further involved in that world, loving every minute of it.  I made a firm decision this past summer to revamp and restart my blog.  Turning it into a teaching blog like so many of the greats out there that I follow (see blogroll on the left!).  Alas, life (and maybe a bit of laziness?) occurred and it was put off.  But now, my dear friends (if you're still with me), is the time!  To start anew.  To bring back the blog with its reinvented purpose!  Plus I'm home with a sick baby so I have the time.

So I deleted all of the old posts (save for the two you may have already noticed).  It was sad, but necessary to move forward.  I kept the other two because they were special to me.  One explains my obsession with frogs, my classroom's theme and the other is something I wrote a while back about grading.  I wrote this for parents and it got some great replies, here on the blog and in person.  My principal even emailed it out to all parents because she thought it was good, more good reviews.  Not to toot my own horn (woo woo) but to explain a bit.

So that brings us to the present day.  My hopes for this blog are to share my classroom, what we do, what we're about, and the fun and exciting things that happen on a daily basis.  I also hope to share the things I create at TPT with you.  There are so many great teaching blogs out there I modestly hope to add a little something to that world.  My personal life may slip in a bit, but we will see.

But enough about me, if you want to learn more head on over to my blog.  So, I hope you'll stay with me and that you enjoy it!    Let's go!