A Peek at my Week 8*25*14.. EEK I'm Scared!

It's that time again... and I don't know exactly how I feel about it. Mostly because I'm feeling anxious about leaving Hudson, but I know I'm not the first to do it. I'm just sad that I feel like I'm going to miss so much when I'm gone without him. My goals this year include being more organized with home and school especially with planning.  I want to plan more meals ahead of time, make sure we have groceries for lunches and snacks, and not make little piles around the house or the classroom to have to clean up later. I want to plan my blog posts ahead of time as much as I can so I can still keep up on that as well. I really want to be 100% at school when I'm there, but then equally 100% at home when I'm home. So if I'm absent for a little while, you know that I'm adjusting and balancing.   With that being said... 

I'm linking up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her weekly linky 'A Peek at my Week' where everyone shares their plans for the week ahead.  

As you can see I've started filling in my planner....

I'm sure it will be much more full as the week goes on- but here's the plan. 

Monday: I don't have to go to school but my husband does. The plan is to get organized for the week ahead. Pick out clothes for the week, clean the house, go grocery shopping, prep some meals and lunches and play with Hudson of course!

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As I prepare to leave my little monkey... I am thinking of the above quote. I will be the teacher each day that I wish for him to have when he gets old enough for school. Continue doing what I have been doing, and take each day for what it is.  And BE HAPPY!

Tuesday: My first day back for meetings at school. I'm excited but also super anxious about getting out of the house. Luckily for us, my mom will be watching Hudson on Tuesday at our house. So it really won't be a time issue or anything. I just need to get my butt out the door. We don't have to worry about taking him to daycare until the following week. Even then my mom will be watching him 2 days at the house (until their new house is finished being built...) Then he will have to travel all 5 days.  

Wednesday: Big district welcome back. It's always nice to get together as a district. We always have some sort of speaker or presentation that kicks the year off. There have been some really great ones in the past, so I'm excited for what is to come this year. My husband is off Wednesday-Friday so he'll be home, and hopefully bring me a sweet little lunch date one day!

Thursday: Teacher Work Day and Open House/ Meet the Teacher Night. My main goal, is to just get my room ready. Oh ya, and get the paperwork for families ready. I'm already nervous and super excite to meet everyone. I know the kids are too....but meeting parents always make me nervous at first! First impressions are so important. 

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Friday: Flex Day that I will be working to prepare and then leave it all there for the long weekend before the big day. My goal is to be all set and ready to go by when I leave on Friday so I can just enjoy!!!

Here's the plan...

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Although I am nervous I am also very excited to meet my new group of kids and start 'real life' as my maternity leave ends. Here goes nothing!!!  

Hope everyone who is back at school already has a great week. 

Back in Business- 5 For Friday 8*8*14

Happy Friday! I've been absent all week.... my computer crashed, and I decided to take a few days off to get my butt in gear and actually get some things school related accomplished. I'm happy to report that my hubby was able to fix everything THANK GOD!.... but it was pretty scary for awhile. I did a back-up immediately so hopefully if my trusty computer decides it is in fact on it's last leg...I will have what I need.  So I'm back again and in full swing for the weekend and hopefully the next week ahead. Here's what I've been up to this week. I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the Five for Friday Linky!! :) Happy weekend!

Well I finally did it.... I ordered an Erin Condren life planner. I wasn't going to, but after opening up my teacher bag from last year.... 

It. Had. To. Happen!!!  

No seriously! I had a calender for home, work, Google calendar, and a pretty one that I made from Snapfish for the house that I stole and took to school. 

I just had to get everything together in one spot, especially now that I'm going to have Hudson to worry about. Man let me tell you, an almost 4 month old has quite the social calendar!

No but seriously.. 

I love it! 

I went for the life planner this year and used washi tape to break apart the weeks. The idea came from a fellow blogger Stephanie from 3rd Grade Thoughts. She posts pictures on Instagram all of the time of her awesome planners, and has also blogged about using them. I really loved her ideas...be sure to check them out! I have separated my week into 3 sections.

One for School.

One for Home.

And any extras that I need to keep track of.  

My week isn't very full right now, but when I'm back at school I'm looking forward to having everything in one spot to reference!

This week I had a first.... I went to an edcamp. Anyone ever been?

I had a great time meeting up with some colleagues from work and also meeting other educators from the area.  I went to a session that talked about using math workstations that I can't stop thinking about. 

I am really looking to doing my math block like that this year. 

Wish me luck...I will be sure to share my journey..... Be on the lookout!

Because I have no a ton of free time I decided to give my classroom a new look this year. I also really wanted to get it up and running. I have never been this late on getting it setup. I really have not been feeling productive at all. I needed to get some stuff done. 

I just needed a change. 

So I figured now was the best time to do it. 

So I found myself at the craft store buying fabric.

The plan was to use this fabric for my bulletin boards..... 

I couldn't!

Why, you ask? Well the blue fabrics made me feel like I was going to get sick when my husband put them up. True story! Like dizzy sick... Ugh! I guess I didn't think of that when I purchased it. So only three boards are half done because I don't have any borders to match my new colors.  

So that leads me to the next picture:

I went to my classroom. 

This is what it looked like when I got there.

This is still what it looks like now.

I was frustrated about my bulletin boards.

I got nothing done. 

Sad-face.

On a slightly happier note.. I did finish a product that I'm really excited about! 

A 180 Day Writing Prompt Book

I've had smaller versions in the past, but they were falling apart, so I wanted to make new ones for this school year. I decided to make one large one! This book has 180 different writing prompts to use in your classroom for the whole year.  

I made it into a book to put in the writing center, 

but you can use it for whole class journal time too. 

Prompts cover a wide variety of subjects and also cover different genre's of writing. There are narrative, persuasive, creative, story starters, character education prompts, how to writing and more.  

I've put mine together as a book with a binding machine, but you could easily hole punch the pages and put it together with three rings too! I plan on making 3 or so for the classroom to put in the writing center for Daily 5 writing time. I was so excited to get this done, as it has been weighing on my mind for awhile. It feels good!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend! :) Thanks for stopping by!