Five for Friday.... or Saturday!

It's the end of our first week of school and I'm exhausted!  I heard other teachers talking about it too, so at least I'm not the only one!  I think having Back to School Night in the same week as the first full week of school is just a lot.

But - it's Saturday and that means I'm just a little late for Doodle Bug's 5 for Friday!

1.  Back to School Night

This was the first year that I didn't do a "presentation" at the start of every period.  I'm glad that I didn't because it's just too difficult with parents coming in and out the entire time.  I just had my power point presentation on auto as I worked my way through parents and answered questions.  Here's my instragram pic of my room.

2.  Donors Choose

On Friday my Donors Choose materials came!  I'm SO HAPPY that I got my project funded and my students can read The Hunger Games in a few weeks.  I'm super excited about the possibilities....  what other books are good for Middle School?  Percy Jackson?  I always try to find series so that I encourage my students to read the remaining books on their own.

3.  Baseball Fun

Some of our good friends invited us to the local baseball game Thursday night.  It was really good to get out and think of something else besides work!  And stay up past 9:30!!  My school report time is 7am, so I have to go to bed early if I want to be functional that early! 

4.  Grading

However, this weekend I get the joy of grading my students work for the first time.  I have about 3 assignments for 3 periods and it's a huge stack of work.  My math partner wants to send home progress reports for Monday, so that means I gotta get through ALL of it and put it into our online gradebook.  Ugh.  Fun, fun times.

5.  TpT Back to School Sale!

This week TpT finally announced their Back to School Sale!  I will most definitely be participating and I'm trying to make a few more items for the Sale!  The sale is Sunday and Monday - you can get up to 28% off your purchases by entering BTS13!!  Come and join the fun!  

This beautiful graphic is by Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs!  She's offering it as a free TpT download here!

Five for Friday - First Week of School Edition

This has been one crazy week.  Thank goodness it's time for...

Yes, it's Saturday, but I'm just happy I've found the energy to get it done!

1.  Not One but TWO FIRST DAYS of School

My darling boy started school on Monday.  I've been a bit of a wreck because he really never went to "preschool" - why should I send him when I have perfectly willing grandparents that want to spend time with him?  But, that means his "Classroom Behavior" probably isn't going to be spot on for a bit.  I'll be the first to tell you - the kid has ants in his pants!

Here he is on his first day.  He's been forcing the hubby and/or the grandparents to leave extra early for school.  He's been first at the gate for the past three days.

Then I went back to school and had my first day on Thursday.  This momma/teacher is TIRED.

2.  39 Kids!

I have 39 kids in my Language Arts class.  It's a packed house.  I'm just a smidge irritated with this because I only have 33 in my other LA class.  We can't seem to overcome the scheduling demons to balance this out?  I kinda hate it because you can't really "work" a room when you're constantly tripping over people and chair legs.

3.  Print?  Who needs to print stuff?!

Since I switched rooms over the summer, my laptop isn't connected to the printer in my room.  Yes, I could throw my stuff on a flash drive, boot up the other computers, log on, print my stuff, log off...  It sounds exhausting to me - what about you.  So, I will stoically wait until I can really just print my stuff.

4.  Room 312

Speaking of... I took all my pictures of my pretty sparkling room on Friday.  I just need to upload them to my computer and then you can enjoy my classroom set up.  I know that the blogging world needs more examples of Middle School classrooms.  Plus, I will do some NOW and THEN comparisons.  I remember the nastiness I walked into this May.

5.  Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

I am sleeping in tomorrow!  I think I have to in order to start regaining some sanity because it's 0 to 60mph on Monday with starting to train my class on academic procedures, academic discussions and more.  (Ugh!  The first three weeks are always such a pain.  I enjoy teaching when I can just get everyone WITH the PROGRAM!)

Also - it's my 2nd blog-a-versary in September.  I was thinking of hosting a fun giveaway.  Is there anyone out there that would like to participate??  Email me at freelauren21@gmail.com and let me know.

5 for Friday!

This week has simultaneously gone by super fast and really slow for me.  I always hit a point during the summer when I am sick of being at home and I start to go stir-crazy.  I think I hit it yesterday - my husband just looked at me and I knew.  Stir-crazy!

I just need to be busy!

But since it's Friday - I can link up with Doodle Bugs 5 for Friday!  Hooray!

1.  Legoland!

Tomorrow we are going to Legoland to celebrate Father's Day for my husband.  It's Star Wars day and if you knew Mr. Life in Middle School, well... it's a good present.  This is the man who pouted that we missed the life sized replica of an X-Wing in Times Square when we visited NY in March.  They unveiled it in May.  He was quite upset.  We've never been to Legoland so it will be interesting!

2.  A Boy and his Dog

I also spent the majority of my week watching my son and our new rescue dog, Natalie, play in our backyard.  My mom runs a rescue group in our area and both of our dogs are rescues from her.  Bailey is a small dog and my son really can't play with her too much.  When Natalie came in the house, it was perfect because they play all day.  Until...  my son tries to ride Natalie like a pony, or when she knocks him over.

"Mommy, Natalie is mean!"  or "Natalie kicked me!"  

Oh yeah, you obviously hate each other.

3.  Goal Pennant

I made this on Wednesday.  Was it Wednesday?  I never know what day it is when I'm not at work.  All I know is that it's June.  It's free at TPT!  Download it!  Follow me!

4.  Interactive Student Notebook

I'm still working at making some foldables that will go into my Interactive Student Notebook.  I've got Parts of Speech and Types of Sentences so far.  If only I could stay off of Pinterest long enough to really get work done, but I figure anything I do in June puts me ahead of the game!

5.  Hunger Games

So, I might have re-read the Hunger Games trilogy this week.

Technically, it was for work... but not really!  I just really enjoy that first book the most, then can't help myself from reading the rest.  The third book though...  Mockingjay...  should have been split into two books because I felt like the author tried to cram too much into her third "act."

That was my week!  How was yours?!  Don't forget to link up over at Doodle Bugs Teaching!

Five for Friday

I always want to participate in DoodleBug's Five for Friday - but I always forget!  So, I'm proud of myself that I actually remembered this week!

1.  10 Days Left 

Thank god.  I'm so done with this year.  It's not like my kids are bad (they're sweet, mostly) - it's just all the drama with our school that I'm totally O.V.E.R.  I am completely drained of always having to deal with everything.  Does anyone else think it's a little terrible that our Principal never told us Happy Teacher Appreciation Week?  I'm pretty sure he either (a) hates us or (b) can't be bothered?  Kinda a sad feeling, or maybe it's a man thing and he doesn't realize?  Anyway.  Summer vacation can't come fast enough!

2.  C02 Cars

My class finishes its elective year by making C02 cars.  I'm usually covered in sawdust from using woodshop tools and I make a lot of cars that are affectionally known as "doorstops."  So, it's soooo wonderful when someone is creative enough to make this:

Turkey Leg!  Too funny, right?

3.  Up-cycling my Ugly Cabinet

I have one of those white plastic organizational crate that probably every teacher has.  Mine was a hand-me-down when I moved into my class back in 2006.  It's old and kinda trashed.  I've debated about just throwing it away, but then I remembered this pin on Pinterest.

 and the one where you paper the inside of your plastic crate.

I couldn't paper the crate because mine had this weird handle lip thingy.  So... I decided to paint the inside instead!

My original.  This is ugly.

I had some acrylic paint in cute colors to use!

Improvement!

(almost) Final product!  The yellow needs another coat of paint, but I'm quite happy with my little 40 minute in class project!

4.  Saturday School

I have to go tomorrow.  I absolutely DO NOT WANT TO GO.  But I will.  Miss OCD Teach will be there suffering too.  I have a list that I have 23 kids tomorrow, which is a major improvement over the... 45 I had in April.

5.  GO KINGS GO!

Game 6 tonight, baby!  I will plant myself on my couch, make my next I Have... Who Has cards and watch my boys.

(PS:  That's Bob Miller the LA Kings long-time play-by-play announcer.  We love Bob!)

5 for Friday

Whew - what a week!  I'm just so glad it's Friday and here's the 5 for Friday that I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching.

{1.}  This week, for only having 4 days, felt insanely long.  Maybe it was because it was just one disaster after another!  My neighbors classroom was broken into and vandalized this week!  They didn't steal anything, just sprayed the fire extinguisher all over EVERYTHING and covering her books and tables with chemicals.  I've been lending her my classroom and whatever I can, because that just sucks.

{2.}  I am still in love with Edmodo.  It tells me who turns in things and who is still missing work.  That usually would take my TA an hour to sort through everything - Edmodo does it in seconds.  LOVE.

{3.} Hooray!  I was chosen by Classroom Friendly Supplies to review one of their sharpeners!

I have been wanting to review a sharpener for awhile now, but I've been waiting for when I passed 200-ish followers to email the owner.  I'm eagerly awaiting my sharpener in the mail!

{4.}  Today, I was busy working in my classroom trying to set up my 3-point lighting setups for shooting video in the upcoming weeks.  I love that I get to try and experiment with new things in my classroom.  I've also been busing googling Filming Resources to try and get my head around what I need to do.  (Hint:  It's a lot!)

{5.}  And finally... I'm so glad that I'm home and not at work because... it's raining!  I know the song goes, "it never rains in Southern California...but when it rains.... it pours...."  Or something like that and it's SO TRUE.  Our students are always nuts in the rain because it just doesn't happen all the time.  This California girl doesn't do well with cold/rainy/yucky weather.  I'm just not used to it!  

How was your week?  Join the linky over at Doodle Bugs!