Student Teacher Gifts - You survived your masters year!

At University of Mary Washington we have a very encouraging, caring education program. Not to mention it's what this school is known for! Undergrads in the Education Dept. decorate and fill "teacher pots" that are given to Master's Students in the Education program. It is a gift to them for their own classroom with a bunch of goodies to congratulate them on completing their student teaching/masters in education.

I graduate with my Bachelors in Psychology in 1 month!!!!! Then next year around this time I too will be completing my student teaching and graduating with my masters!  I can't wait for these new journeys!!

Here is the pot I created!

The black paint is chalk paint so I can write the teachers name on it - or they could write what they want on it!

I have made this for a friend of mine and this is how she uses her's in her classroom - take a look on The School Potato's blog! Scroll down to #2 Celebrations and Concerns!

Happy Monday!

SEUSStacular Celebration

One of my favorite days!

Dr. Seuss's birthday was on Saturday March 2nd - however as much as I LOVE being in the classroom with the kiddos... Saturdays the weekend is my time! In my practicum class with Kinders, we celebrated on Friday, starting the day off right with Green Eggs and Ham! All the kids tried it, I was surprised! I made a few things: a reading tote (for my Dr. Seuss books, of course), a Seuss shirt, and center activities!

~Seuss tote:
Oh iron ons. That about sums it up. I thought it would iron on with transparent background...luckily I learned otherwise on this tote instead of my red tshirt. My roommate suggested the idea to add a ribbon border to the iron on page, and to add some scrunched ruffle to the handles. I thought it ended up looking less of a disaster!






~Seuss shirt:

This is one of my favorite quotes! I have seen it on shirts, bags, walls, framed and I am sure many other places. I loved the way this turned out.









~Seuss Centers:

Patterns, Basic Addition, Ending Sounds Color

**I will post pictures of my center activities in a few days and maybe even give you some freebies!

DIY Teacher Organizer

It's been awhile FOREVER since I last posted. I was super busy with school, but thankfully I am in my last semester and it is more relaxed - finally! Here is one of the things I worked on while I was absent from the blogging world, a "teacher organizer" which have been all over Pinterest! I helped my mom make one for her new 3rd grade classroom back in August, and I saw one in my friend Alex's classroom...so I decided to make myself one!

I was also inspired by Molly from Lessons with Laughter and Tara from 4th Grade Frolics!

Here is mine! It was easy to make, I think it was because of the paint I used...I didn't need a primer! Less steps=better! I need to find cuter scrapbook paper though. Where do you find cute paper? Share in a comment!

Win It Wednesday from Monkee's!

Monkee's is a local boutique that sells the cutest clothes, shoes, jewelry, and other accessories. They just created a brand new blog, which you can visit here. To gain some followers on their new blog they created a contest for "Win It Wednesday!", see below for contest instructions. I hope I win - the prize is so cute!

 

This store cells my FAVORITE sandals...Jack Rogers. Expensive for a teachers budget-yes, BUT they offer a teacher's discount {i think} and they go with any outfit...okay maybe not gym clothes but you get the picture! Below are a pair that I bought from the store called "Jack Rogers Navajo Metallic Gold" which can be purchased from their website.

 

I also follow them on Facebook and Pinterest, where they share Outfits of the Day {OOTD} which I just love to look at. Here are a couple of my favorites!

 

Anyways, check them out and don't forget to enter their contest!

National Book Festival in D.C.

This years National Book Festival poster!

This weekend was the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C. on the National Mall. What a beautiful weekend it turned out to be, you couldn't have asked for better weather! I had heard about it from one of my education professors and was strongly encouraged to go AND my mom had also heard about it SO we went and made it an adventure. What an experience! It was packed and it was great to see all the {free!} resources they had to share to promote literacy for all ages. The author talks were interesting to hear, especially since one of the author's has two children at the school I work at! If you were lucky you could get autographed copies of children's picture books!! We were bummed when we found out we were missing Patricia Polacco on Sunday, she is one of my mom's favorite authors.

Inspiration

Can I just tell you how much I LOVE inspiring/motivating quotes and that I enjoy sharing them with everyone too!

 This is my quote journal that I purchased a some craft store when I was in highschool. I bought this because I kept writing down my favorite quotes on all these random pieces of paper and I wanted ONE place to keep them ALL.

As you can see, over the years I have added a lot - there are more on other pages but I figured you get the point! 

One of my education professors shared this quote with us in class, and then pointed out that he also signs the bottom of each email with it. Of course, I added it to my journal! I decided to make it and share it with ya'll to post on your desk, in your planner, on a bulletin board - anywhere!

Freebie!

"If it's free, it's for me!" 

 I love free things - don't you?!

Over the summer I worked at a summer camp where each week there was a new theme. I found a lot of my ideas from Pinterest and great bloggers like you! During space week I create this space journal for the kiddos to fill out everyday when we watched a short, age-level appropriate video. They'd write down important things they heard, and were able to draw their own picture. I'm bummed though - I can't find the picture of students' covers they decorated. They did a FANTASTIC job designing their covers making it look like outerspace. The picture above will have to do for now! 

As we teach our kiddos, "caring is sharing" - I firmly believe we need to remember to practice what we preach. I would like to share this document with you for your class! (This is my first time linking a picture to what I believe is called a GoogleDoc...hope it's free and accessible!)

PS-for some reason when I saved it as a PDF or uploaded the file onto GoogleDocs a small dash (open the document and you will see)...help anyone? :)

My First Post!

I finally made myself a blog! Now I can use Pinterest, and blogs as great procrastination tools! So long homework! (Just kidding..)
 

I am so excited to join the blogging world! I have been looking at some teaching blogs for a while and I finally decided to create my own! :) I had a blog once before, for a class in high school -it has been awhile, and let's be honest I wasn't that creative! I am excited to learn all the blogging tricks  and I wouldn't be able to do it without a little help from Teacher Blogging Basics.  A friend of mine, Alex,  has been blogging for awhile, she is now a 1st year teacher and off to a rockin' start! I have been following her blog, and she has GREAT ideas - she is such an inspiration to me!
 

I am currently pursuing my Bachelor's degree in Psychology at the University of Mary Washington, this is my last year (wahoo for being a senior!) As an undergrad, I am currently taking many education courses and practicum placements as well as my major requirements. After graduating, I will immediately go into the Master's Program to start my Master's of Elementary Education also at the University of Mary Washington. It is a 5 year accelerated program, which I will be very thankful for in the future! I can't wait to start my student teaching year!
 

I am excited to be a part of the blogging world now! If you have any ideas, tips, or suggestions I would greatly appreciate them! I can't wait to start posting and becoming a blogging expert like many of you all :)