Back to School & Staying Organized

I've been bitten!...by the back to school bug, that is. You don't have to look at a calendar to know that it's already August. Just check out any social media sight and you'll instantly feel the Back to School Buzz! Teachers are prepping, planning, pinning and purchasing. Parents and students are shopping for supplies and everyone is trying to soak up as much freedom and summertime as they can before they head back. Here, in Wisconsin, we have one month left. However, there are many schools that are already back in session. Crazy!

To help out, the amazing folks at Teachers Pay Teachers are hosting their annual Back to School Sale August 4th and 5th and you better believe I am participating. My store is prepped and set to discount ALL of my products by 20%. As always, TpT is throwing in an additional % off with the promo code: BTS14 for a total of 28% off.

As a seller, I feel quite prepared. As a buyer, well...that's an entirely different story! My wishlist is full and my shopping cart is OVERFLOWING! Seriously, it's quite ridiculous! I really don't know how I'm going to narrow down my purchases and trust me - I have to! As much as I love supporting my fellow sellers, I also need to afford the house my husband and I are currently building. No worries though, I'll be dishing out the cha chings with the best of them!

I really hope you take a second to stop by my store. I'm sure your wishlist can't possibly be as long as mine! ;) If not, I have to tell you about my best selling item which is a Planner/Organizer Binder in Chalkboard & Brights. I have other designs, including a more ink-friendly version that includes 105 cover choices with matching binder spines. It's just that my Chalkboard & Brights was on the top 100 best selling products list for the past two weeks, so I've got lots of love in that one. My line of planners are packed full of organizational tools, lists, forms, calendars, lesson planning pages, CCSS for grades K-8, Special Education and intervention resources, and much more! They are also editable and you receive free updates every year. Who am I kidding, since I first posted this product, I've added over 100 pages. What can I say, I can't say no to customer requests!

 

 

Happy shopping!!!

on landing a dream job and staying organized this school year.

That's right, I did it! I got the JOB! No more day-to-day sub jobs. No more school hopping. No more INTERVIEWS! I got my dream job!

After my husband and I moved our little family back to our small, home town last June, I was very nervous about getting another full time teaching position. I didn't even know if I wanted to work in my hometown district, which I can't believe I'm even admitting to now. "Maybe it will be strange to teach the children of my old classmates", I thought. "Maybe it would be best to live here, and teach in a neighboring town", I had convinced myself.

Then the school year started and I got my first call to sub in the district. It only took that day to make me realize this is exactly where I want to be. This district, the one where I spent my 13 years as a student, myself, is small, but progressive. It produces amazing teachers and is filled with people who truly care about the education and future of children. The test scores are among the top in Wisconsin. The elementary school, where I will be teaching, is a fairly new building, has up-to-date technology and an AMAING principal and staff! Did I mention the school is only about a mile down the road from where we live? I have died and gone to heaven!

The biggest change is that I will be teaching 2nd Grade, when all of my full-time experience has been at the 5th Grade level. It makes no difference to me, however. I am SO excited to work with this age group and learn to be the best 2nd grade teacher I can be. I just don't know where to begin!!! Well, I know where to begin, but it's really hard to focus when I have so many ideas swarming through my brain. Luckily, I have a few weeks to get my classroom ready and brain prepared.

The first thing I plan to do over the next week, is get my Teacher Planner / Organizer printed and bound into a book. It literally will be my saving grace over the next 9 months. I've used a planner every year that I have taught and I don't know what I would do without it. This year, I updated the planner to include all of the Common Core Standards for each grade level (K - 5). Of course, I will only be putting the 2nd grade version in my planner. I just haven't decided on which theme I will use. As of right now, I have four in my TpT store. I'm also working on a Football themed planner right now. You can check them out by clicking on the cover pages below.

 

 

 

 

Here's to a well-organized school year!

created the ultimate teacher planner!

Well, I did it! I finally posted a newly improved Ultimate Teacher Planner on my TPT store. I'm extremely proud of this planner and if I had a classroom of my own this year (insert pathetic and sad sighing noise here), I would definitely have this printed out and in my teaching binder today!

This doesn't even represent everything included in my Ultimate Teacher Planner!

I will, however, be teaching as a substitute, so I can appreciate any teacher that uses the Substitute Teacher Information sheets that are included! The more detailed information you leave your sub, the better! :)



has entered her first giveaway!

As one of the newest members of TPT, or Teachers Pay Teachers (as if you didn't know the acronym - hey, I didn't two weeks ago)...I've been scouring page after blog after website in search of great, affordable clip art to use in my work.

So far, I have created all the materials I have on my TPT store using only the stock tools on either Word or PowerPoint. Don't get me wrong, the options on the newest version of Microsoft Office are abundant. With a little bit of playing around and some practice, one can produce some really spectacular work. Check out some example pages in my Monthly Calendar that I have for sale (can be purchased alone or included in my Teacher Planner). This was completely done using the tools and clip art in Microsoft Word.

However, I've been extremely interested in getting my hands on some of the fabulous clip art I've seen out there. I know most of it is fairly reasonable in price; a dollar here, three dollars there. But what you don't know about me, unless you've read about me (see above), is that I am currently not working. Do the math with me...

So you can only imagine how excited I was when I stumbled upon this clip art giveaway on Learning in Spain's Blog. NO WAY! Eleven amazing clip artists joining together to give away more than $40 worth of clip art sets! Of course I entered immediately. So as I keep my fingers crossed that I win (and yes, typing is very difficult to do with crossed fingers - go ahead, you know you want to try it) I encourage you to check it out and enter. Good luck to us all - especially me! ;)