BIG NEWS!

I have some exciting news! On October 31^st, 2015 (My 26^th Birthday!) Elijah and I got ENGAGED!

Here’s the story…

       So all month long Elijah had been talking about having a big surprise for my birthday. I was so excited because whenever he says that, you can guarantee that it’s a big surprise. He doesn’t do anything halfway. So for the entire month, I was trying to guess what it was and Elijah just kept ignoring it and telling me that he wouldn’t ruin it. All he said was to pack certain items in a suitcase and take two days off of work. He said he would meet me at his place at ____ time. I had an inkling that we would be going to Mentone, which is really close to where he is originally from. WRONG. We get in the car and I start guessing the entire way. It took me a while to finally figure out we were headed to the mountains during the FALL! Oh my gosh it was beautiful! We finally arrived in Gatlinburg and the leaves were changing and the air was crisp and cool. But he wasn’t done yet. (Keep in mind that this was the day before my birthday.). When we get to Gatlinburg, I just assumed we would be staying in a hotel. NOPE. We start climbing a mountain and I suddenly realize we are staying in a CABIN! It was gorgeous! 

(The view from the DOUBLE balcony with a hot tub on it....we could've stayed forever.)

 (The view from the inside of the living room...it was already decorated for Christmas!)

We got there, went to dinner, and came right back to the cabin to enjoy the view from the balcony. It was awesome! 

The next morning, we got up and started talking about what we wanted to do that day. Elijah kept mentioning that he wanted to go hiking, and I was fine with that, but I really wanted to go explore downtown. So, that's exactly what we did.

 

(On the skylight...I was a little nervous!)

(On the top of the mountain!)

After a full day of exploring, we went back to the cabin, got all dressed up and we went to this amazing restaurant downtown and ate. I didn't know this until afterwards, but while we were getting ready, Elijah kept trying to get to his bag while I wasn't looking to snag the ring out of it. We were running late so I just kept waiting for him at the doorway watching him get ready. Evidently, I messed his grand plan up ha ha! We left and because it was Halloween, there was a ton of traffic so it took forever to get back to the cabin. I just assumed we would chill out and watch the extremely large television and play some games in the game room upstairs. When we got in the door, I kicked my shoes off and went outside to the porch where there were christmas lights hanging and making everything so beautiful. A minute later, Elijah joined me and we just stood out there looking out. At this point, he came up behind me and started asking me questions. "Are you sure you want to spend the rest of your birthdays with me?...Are you sure you want to live with me, etc.?" Just all these questions. I started to panic inside (if you know me then you know what I was thinking) that he was about to tell me that he couldn't continue on with me. 

Instead, he said "Well, I talked to your parents and they seemed to be ok with it, so I guess there's really only one person left to ask..." and then he popped the question! It was all I could do to nod my head yes between tears.

 

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Wonders Reading and the Quest for Better Grades

Hey ya’ll!

I know it’s been a while since I posted, and I apologize. It’s been super wild since school started back. We are in full swing with our student led conferences, which have been fantastic so far. I’ve had a couple of parents who missed their conference because they forgot all about it, but Learning in Wonderland had a great idea for that. She made stickers to remind students parents the day before their conference. Genius! It worked like magic. The survey that I made also helped me a lot with scheduling. It’s been great!

We’ve also begun our multiplication journey. It’s been crazy and wild, and we have been struggling to memorize the facts, but I am confident that we will master them!

On to the reason for my post though. My students this year, are really great readers. They have really adjusted well to the Wonder’s Reading Program. That being said, we still try to send some review for the kids. If you click on my TPT link, you’ll find a SCOOT game for U2W1 of the wonders program for 3^rd grade. I hope it helps you out! More lengthy post next time! I promise! (OH! Did I mention that it's FREE? It's just like the real test this week, but with a different story, which is A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon, ((Are you as obsessed as I am with this book?))I'll update you Friday when I know how they did.) 

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Fixed!

Blog header is fixed! Back to our normal programming! Thanks Yukari! = )

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Blog Header (Yikes!)

Hey ya'll. Just a quick update to let you know that I have no clue what's going on with my header but Yukari and I are on it! We are desperately trying to fix it. Thanks for your patience! = )

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Planning for Student Led Conferences

Hi friends!

Can I just say…is anyone else already counting down the days until the next holiday? Whoo! I have been so busy at school that I have barely had time to shut my eyes.

Anywhom...In case you didn’t already know, my school is in the process of becoming a “Lighthouse School” as part of the Leader in Me process with Stephen Covey’s foundation based on The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Instead of people, we are training kids in a kid friendly way to be leaders. This is our third year in the process. I have served on the lighthouse team since the beginning and I L-O-V-E it! We get to do so many fun things for the faculty and staff, but we also spend a lot of time planning mandatory activities as steps to becoming a “Lighthouse School”. We have done a LOT! However, we have decided that if we are going to do this, let’s do it right, and take our time to build the culture that creates a successful leadership atmosphere.

Each month we have WIGS (Wildly Important Goals) that we choose to complete. Some work, and some we may have to re-evaluate. Whatever the situation, you an almost guarantee that we are working on something important. October’s WIG is to have 100% participation in something called “Student Led Conferences” which is where a student leads the conference about their strengths and weaknesses academically/personally with their parent and the teacher present. I haven’t tried this yet, but I’ll let you know how it works in October. 

The Lighthouse Team decided that instead of just a few days to get every single parent into our school, we would designate an entire MONTH to get those parents in. That way, there are no excuses as to why you can’t come and see your child lead a conference and talk to you about what they need help in and what they are already great at.

Here is a video of a wonderful student led conference at another school (not ours). ---------à https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciS1qfQZlns

As such, I have developed a send home printable to help me plan for all these conferences. You can find it by clicking on my TPT store at the top of my blog. FYI: It’s a freebie!

My Plan: Send this page home and get feedback about when parents can come for a meeting, and then begin calling to set up those meetings in my calendar. I’ll update you on any kinks in the plan. In the meantime, enjoy your freebie and try to hang on to your sanity as we enter late September/October. 

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Teacher Week 2015: Tuesday-Make Ahead Meals

Hi ya’ll!

There’s a saying in the south: “We feed ‘em when we come in and we feed ‘em when they leave.” Namely, you should know by now that the reason a lot of us in the south are overweight (me!) is because just plain and simple we love to eat! The first thing that you should know about me is that I do NOT like to cook on the regular. I only like to make things for special occasions and then be told how good it is only to relate to the person that it “came from Pinterest”. Anyway, I wanted to share a recipe that is easy for me to make ahead on Sundays, and enjoy for a couple of days during the week. I call it “Cheesy Grits”, but Elijah says it’s old Cajun food. Whatever! To me it’s just something easy and delicious. It’s been in my families cookbook for a hot minute so I stole it from my mom. = )

Cheesy Grits

2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
1 cup stone-ground grits
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
Kosher salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper

To Cook Just…
In a medium or large skillet/saucepan, bring cream and milk to a simmer over medium heat. Whisk in grits and cook for 25 minutes. Stir often! (This is important! Mine get stuck frequently if I don’t do this.) Stir in cheese, salt, and pepper. Bacon wrapped shrimp is great with this recipe!

Because I really don’t like to cook, I don’t have any pictures of this. I’m not prepared. LOL! Instead, I’ll post a picture of my friends and I in New Orleans where we ate real Cajun shrimp and grits. YUM!

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#TeacherWeek2015

Hey ya’ll! I’m linking up with Blog Hoppin’ for #TeacherWeek2015. Here are my five fun facts about me!

1.       I was in a sorority in college. Delta Gamma represent! It was an amazing time in my life and I loved every second of it. I’ve met so many people thanks to this wonderful organization and I can’t say enough good things about it. Plus, I was never hazed or mistreated. Beat the stereotype ladies!

2.     I have family who lives near Chicago and I fell in love with the city when I was young. We’ve been going there since before I can remember to visit and I used to claim I was a “city girl”. Yep…Chicago made me hate being a “country girl”. Since then, I’ve changed “country” to “southern” which suits me just fine now! I embrace it! But way back when…I’d hide my accent from everyone!

3.     I’m a Batman fanatic. There I said it. I read the comics, watch every piece of cartoon/movie action I can get, and force my boyfriend to watch The Dark Knight over and over and over again. #admitted

4.     I’m Taylor Swift #obsessed. I’ve been to two concerts and sadly, missed out on tickets to the Nashville Show this year. It’s coming up soon and the closer it gets, the sadder I am. = (

5.     I’m the last “single” gal. Out of the group of three teachers who I graduated undergrad with, 2/3 of us are engaged/married. I’m excited to piece together the photos of each of us when we are all married in our bridal gowns, but until then, I’ll have photos of them in white and me in bridesmaid attire to treasure.

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Follow Me on Instagram!

Follow me on Instagram! Head on over to 

https://instagram.com/angela8931/ to find me! I post

 a lot of pictures from my school life and my 

personal life over there. = ) 

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Second Week Syndrome

If you’ve read my last few blog posts, then you know that my boyfriend Elijah and I have been working tirelessly to get his residency applications in and approved. Finally, there is a little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel that is medical school for us (I say us because…well…I feel like I should have an honorary degree. Right? Right.). This week we officially entered the last bits of his ERAS. He’s just waiting on the interviews to come in (fingers crossed). He’s finished just in time for his 29^th birthday on September 3^rd, which I have made plans to make special next week. On my end of things, I’ve been enjoying not being a student for a little while and putting my all into teaching. Sadly, my degree has not arrived in the mail yet, but my transcript made it to the board of education so that is a bright spot! = )

The second week of school has been…enlightening to say the least. First, let me say that typically I have a pretty positive attitude about my new students. This year is no different and they are sweet, sweet, sweet! Very well behaved. BUT… Today, we had a lesson on understanding the number line…it did not go over well at all. They can’t seem to understand that number lines can skip count. Which is key to understanding multiplication. Needless to say, I’m in panic mode. If I figure out a magical way to put the math skills in their brains, I’ll let you know. Today’s number has gotten a lot better and has improved a lot of those skills. It’s the little things. = )

Enough about math for now, let’s move on to the fun part. I’m about to start my annual “How to Blow a Bubble” writing unit, and in science we are making ecosystem “shoeboxes”. I’m hoping that by the end of the week, our writing will be good enough to publish for the hallway and that our shoeboxes will fill the hallway up with awesome work! Plus, maybe we will gain some procedural writing experience. = ) Pictures to come! Also, as soon as the blog design is finished I’ll do an official classroom reveal + an exciting giveaway! Stay tuned!

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