Award!

It was nice to wake up to an email this morning that I was chosen as one of the Top 30 Blogs for Teachers by TopTeachingColleges.com!!!

Here is their post about it!  Exciting stuff!!

And the pretty award!  Thank you to all my readers who read my posts!!

What a Week!

Now that my vacation is just about over... (OMG I have to teach next Monday!) this past week just flew by at warp speed.  This is a quick rundown of the week I had!

Monday:  Went into work, started putting up bulletin boards and trying to remember where I put everything in my new classroom.

Tuesday:  My district offered a professional development day, so I dragged my butt out of bed and headed off to that.  I really enjoyed "50 Ways to End your Lecture" by Grace Dearborn.  Her company http://www.consciousteaching.com/  has a bunch of cool ideas that they featured.  My favorite?  Show a picture of what you're expecting the students to do.  They had their model's in their book - "Picture This!"

Wednesday:  I went BACK into work again, got more room stuff accomplished.  I had tutoring at 3pm with my nice 6th grade student and then off to my roller hockey game at 8pm.

Thursday:  My brother was super excited about the LA Kings (Stanley Cup Champs!!) and the merch sale they were having.  So I was in downtown LA by 7:30am.  (Ew.)

Friday:  Even though I swore I wouldn't go... I ended up BACK at work again.  My AP had to talk to me about a few ideas she had for next year.  Then, I zoomed back home, cleaned up the house and had a few people over for the Olympics Opening Ceremony.

Saturday:  My son had a birthday party to go to and it was at a farm.  Fun times, but HOT!

There he is... front and center and being Mr. Chatty.  It was kinda awesome when they went into the sheep pen and the goat that was in there tried to eat the hats off the kids' heads! Haha!

Sunday:  Liam wants to go swimming again (all the time!) and I have to hit up Lakeshore for the last few bulletin board items I need.  I might as well laminate a few things while I'm there too.  Whew.  I'm tired from this week!

Seriously.  Busy busy.  In the middle of all of this, I was awarded the Versatile Blogger Award by the lovely Jen at Teaching and Tech!  Thank you!  I have received this award in the past, but thank you again for the wonderful mention!

It's a Shout Out...

::singing:: ...with Kevin and Ralph....  ::nomoresinging!::

Thank you to Mallory over at 6th Grade All-Stars for passing on the Liebster Award to me!

It's for blogs that have LESS than 200 followers (sigh!) and that deserve more attention (oh yeah!)

So, to pass this along, I'm going to pass it to:

Laura - Will Grade for Coffee  (In fact, that's Miss I'm Engaged Laura! Congrats!) while she is under 200 people!  Seriously, she went from 100 to 200 in a blink!  (Jealous!)

Jena - Caught in the Middle who is another Middle School blogging buddy! :)  Yes!  This is my award and I can pass it to my friends!

Oh and I highly doubt that anyone can guess what my Title Heading song is from because it's NOT educational and highly... um... politically incorrect, but if you know it... comment the show in the comments and I'll send you one of my $1.00 items from my TN/TPT store for freeeeeee!  (giggling at home)

Blog Award!!

So, imagine my surprise that I've been nominated for another blog award.  Hooray!

Here are the rules to pass the award on:

1.  Thank the person nominating you and link back to their blog:

Thank you Lisa from Mrs. Tilmon's Says...  I'm so grateful you thought of me!

2.  Nominate 5 Blogs to pass the award on to...

Here are my choices -

Finding Joy in 6th Grade

to the square inch

A Middle School Survival Guide

Math-n-Spire

3.  Post the Award on your blog...  

Check!

4.  Make sure everyone (yeah that means you!) checks out what these FABULOUS blogs offer!

Finding Joy in 6th Grade

to the square inch

A Middle School Survival Guide

Math-N-Spire

Coming up...  I finally join the Clutter-Free Classroom linky party with Organizing my Classroom!  Check back soon for tons of pictures of my bare walled, messy classroom!  (Remember, I moved TWICE this year!  Be kind! Haha)

Blog Award!

Thanks to Michelle over at Making it as a Middle School Teacher awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award!  Wow!  This is my second blogging award that's been passed on to me.  The first was the Sunshine Blogger Award from Mor over at A Teacher's Treasure (which I was too lame to pass on!).

So, in order to accept the award, I have to follow these rules:


The rules of this award:

1. Thank the person who nominated you with a link back to them.  (Thank you again, Michelle!)
2. Tell 7 things about yourself  
3. Pass this on to 15 newly discovered blogs and let them know they've received an award!  

7 Things About Me:

1. I am a hockey FANATIC.  I grew up playing roller hockey (this is Southern California), met my husband on the hockey rink (he's a goalie) and now have our hockey kiddo to follow our traditions.
2. On the same vein, I am a LA KINGS fan til the very bitter end.  
3. I'm super clumsy.  I frequently trip over my own feet, walk into walls, desks, people...  It's a curse.
4. I love to be organized... but only in my classroom and in my office.  The rest of my house is a disaster.
5. I'm a pen horder.  I have so many pens of different types that I had to get a bigger pencil pouch to carry them all.
6. I'm addicted to watching TV.
7. I cannot sing or dance.  My husband laughs himself silly when I play Just Dance for Xbox 360.

15 New Blogs I'm Sharing This With!  (Okay, some aren't "New," but I think they should be recognized!)

1. Lessons Learned
2. Jack of All Trades
3. Secondary Solutions
4. Caught in the Middle
5. The Teaching Bank
6. Ladybug's Teacher Files
7. The Wise Guys Teaching Resources
8. Cardigans and Curriculum
9. A Teaching Life
10. Tales of Frogs and Cupcakes
11. 5th Grade Fun!
12. To the square inch
13. The Lesson Guide
14. ?
15. ?

(Sorry, I couldn't find all 15!  That's a lot of blogs!)