A Former New Jerseyian

This post isn't school related at all but just wanted to let my readers know that most of my family and friends live in NJ and are going through a very rough time with this hurricane.

The last I spoke to my best friend, she and her family were being evacuated.  Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

I know you have probably seen tons of pictures but some of these really hit close to my heart and it truly is heartbreaking to see....:(




Street I used to drive on.


I just hope all my friends and family are safe!!

Forever and a Day

It has been way too long but I am going to keep this one short and sweet.
I had one of my students' parents from last year send me an e-mail of what one of my favorite kiddos and what he wrote in his school journal.
Take a looksie..



I think this almost brought me to tears because although I'm happy teaching, I know in my heart that I just love teaching the little ones. But we shall see where the road takes me.

Okay, I'm still at school and I have a bazillion things to do and blogging shouldn't be one of them!

Bloggin' Cause I Can

I haven't blogged in forever and a half so I figured I'd get a quick post in before I call it a night. Yes, it's almost 9 and yes, I believe that is a great time to go to bed!

Well, for most of you that don't know or haven't read in a while, I was turned into an ESL/Bilingual Teacher the first week of school.  Let's just say my life has been hectic to say the least.

It wasn't ideal (for me) but after all they're kids and they're great kids at that.  They've grown on me.  I think I'm just so used to little first graders who think every word you say is gold, third graders are in that in-between phase.  They still enjoy learning yet are testing to see what they can get away with. Well, I'm tough but I'm nice.  Tough love I guess you can call it.

I think they appreciate that I can make them laugh when I start randomly bursting into song, take for example, one child left my Daily 5 markers on their desk and didn't clean them up. So I started singing, "Who left the makers out, whooo whoooo whooooo..." Get it? Like "Who Let the Dogs Out?" Yes, I did that. They totally got a kick out of it. I'm so goofy sometimes.

So what's it like teaching a bilingual/ESL class. Well it's not easy. I have to make TONS of accommodations and making sure I'm teaching in English and in Spanish and making sure my Bilingual kiddos don't start writing in English when they're not supposed to. Expect in math and science because that's just plain old English time.  Language arts instruction is tons of fun, no, not really.

I currently have eight different reading groups. Yes, you read correctly, 8.  Their reading levels are all over the place and I have two groups who are in Spanish reading groups who I sort of blotched together based on their ISIP Spanish scores.  My English reading groups are off to a great start, I have paired them up by their DRA level and they are coming along nicely.  I love teaching reading, I swear I could teach reading strategies all day! Hmm, perhaps I see reading specialist in my future? It's honestly, something I've been thinking about. I'm very passionate about it, so we shall see where the road takes me.

Have I mentioned I don't have any textbooks! HA! Thank goodness for online editions of the textbooks and TE's, I wouldn't know what I would do.  I think you'd really have to come into my classroom to fully understand how exhausting one day of teaching truly is.  But I love it!

Let's see, as far as my personal life goes, okay you've got to be kidding me, what personal life?  Teaching has taken over my life, especially since I feel like a first year all over again.  But nothing special is going on, it's actually quite depressing. I come home, do some planning, grade papers, go online for a bit, then clonk out.  I think I need to join some kind of fitness class just to get me out and meet people. I've become a hermit crap, it's quite pathetic. :(  Okay, I'm done complaining.

Well, I think that catches me up for tonight. If you're reading have a great evening!

¡Hola!

Happy Monday blog world!  It was a great three day weekend and I think I'm ready to start teaching.  Yes, I think I can, I think I can.  Anyway, I promised to post pictures of my classroom but I was so gosh darn tired this past week that blogging was the last thing on my mind.  It was a crazy first week of school, but I survived.

I went from having six students to seventeen.  They changed my bilingual program a bit. So while I still am considered a bilingual teacher, I must teach all subjects in English.  When I work in small group with my bilingual students then I can speak in Spanish. Make sense? If you're still confused leave me a comment and I'll clarify.  I was upset at first but it's just one of those things I have to deal with.

Okay enough blabbing, here are some pictures of my room. Keep in mind some things have changed...

My WW is bigger now. We aren't doing a traditional spelling program at my school this year.

My pathetic library. I need more books! Actually I do have a bit more than the ones seen here.

The orange still lives on....lol.

This curtain is no longer up. The rod is broken so I will replace it soon. I think?

Kiddos doing Daily 5. That's when I was at six!

So we're not supposed to teach math in whole group anymore and I'm okay with that.  I did however, have no clue how to do math stations. I figured it would be an easy task since Daily 5 is pretty simple and straightforward. Well no, it took me an entire weekend to figure out what I was going to do. Call me dumb but I am a planner and I don't stop until things go smoothly.  Well I picked up Debbie Diller's Math Station book and she suggested not having more than two students to a group. Two is a good number because there's less room for chaos, and I don't do chaos.  I did make one group three, but that will be changing daily based on when I'll be meeting with certain kiddos.  I attached velcro to the back so it makes it easy to move things around.  There it is on the bottom.  The stations were really easy to create (okay some I bought at the teacher store, but they were cheap). I will be adding and taking away some as the year goes on but for right now this works. :)

Okay, time for me to get some sleep.  I have 17 third graders to teach! 

Goodnight!!!!!

If You Give a Teacher a Classroom She'll Want....

To go crazy! I just love that blog title. I tried to think of something creative and fun for today's short and sweet post.  Most of you do know Laura Numeroff's books, right?? They are fab!  I also feel like most of those characters because once I start one task, I don't finish it and head on over to another, ha ha!  Which leads me to...

A sneak peak of my classroom!!!  I have a before and after, a picture of the wall color to say R.I.P orange, and my cute little teacher desk (which I never sit at).  I just have to thank my friend B, my mom, pinterest, and all you blogger friends out there. I was so inspired this year to really make my room my own. Okay here you go...I will try and post more pictures this week..there's a ton!! I'm just too tired to upload.  Oh yea, I don't have desks yet but they will be coming in this week or come next Monday, we'll all be standing. ;)

Night bloggers and readers :)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

My title clearly states how I'm feeling right now.  I'm stressed, nervous, anxious...yea it's the start of the school year.

So yesterday was the beginning of our new hire PD. It was great, met my other new faculty members, whom are the sweetest people in the world! I also made a bilingual buddy with the fourth grade teacher. She and I are thisclose now! :)

I don't think I mentioned that the principal that hired me took another elementary principal position at another district a few weeks ago, so I was nervous about meeting the new principal. Well let me tell you, this woman is phenomenal. She has a pretty amazing résumé, is bilingual and was a bilingual teacher back in the day.  One new teacher knows her from her previous school and said she fought for the bilingual program at her school when the district didn't want to. 

At a mini-meeting today she told us a little bit about herself and said the bottom line is that she is there for children, parents, faculty and staff. She's not one to hide in her office, she loves getting to know the families and all the children's names because that's just the type of person she is.  She also said that from Monday-Thursday she has lunch with the kids so they can feel comfortable around her. Seriously, how wonderful is that?! I am very much looking forward to working under her wing and learning more from her. :)

I also met with my bilingual coordinators today and I left with a headache. That was only a meet and greet. We meet for two full days next week and I'm already getting anxiety over it. So-many-rules, it's driving me crazy!!!!! But this is what I wanted and this is what I have to deal with.  

I know once I meet the students everything will be great and I'll be in the zone and they are all that matters. I just get myself so worked up and freak out. I need to relax!

Well, I just needed to vent a little and I feel a little better now.  Night bloggers and blog readers.

Dear Neglected Blog...

Why hello there lovely blog friends! I have been away from my little blog for almost three weeks now!! Sorry!!

I went wayyyy out of town for a few days two weeks ago (long story that I'll get to another day) and ever since I got back, I've been going teacher crazy. You teachers know what I mean...cutting, laminating, worrying, trying to put my room together, etc.

When I got back from my mini-vacay, I was surprised to find my room was clutter free!!! Remember my room was the "dump room" so you can just image what it looked like and it was also Cheeto orange (yuck).

Well as you all know I painted with a friend from my old school (ex-prince charming) yes we broke up, but we decided it would be best for both of since we are both headed in two completely different directions. Anyway, no hard feelings and we remain buddies. :)

So he helped me paint my room and it turned out to be beautiful once everything was all clear and I started hanging stuff on my walls.  I do have to give a special thank you to my amazing and wonderful mother who has put up with my temper tantrums, I mean "Moody Judy" behavior while trying to figure out how to put my classroom together. I am very Type A, everything needs to be perfect or else! Oh you know you're the same way!

Well for the most part my room is close to being finished, I just need desks!! LOL! I also need some last minute touch ups here and there.  I don't want to take/post pictures until it is completely finished and I'm satisfied with it. I will say this, my vice principal walked into my room and her jaw dropped.  She said I did an amazing job and she's so glad she found me! She even told my mom how lucky they were to have me on their faculty!

I got a Silhouette Cameo!!! If you don't already have one, then you need to get one. I know they're a bit pricey even with a teacher discount but I so recommend getting one. I was able to get mine a bit cheaper than the teacher discount on Amazon but you have to watch the prices and make sure you calculate the shipping and all that good stuff. Everything I made is at school so I have no goodies to show you.

Okay, I think that catches me up for now. I'll be posting pictures very soon!! :) Night!