Currently

So, I am on summer vacation and am loving it but my mind is focused on my essay for regional. I am so blessed to be able to have continued this journey and I truly want to be able to express all that is in my heart about this amazing profession that I am so extremely proud to be a part of. I have read and reread  the parts that I have written and tend to be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to this type of assignment, simply because I want to make sure that my thoughts are expressed well. 

But, now I need to take a break (reminds me of chucking the assignments for my kiddos!) 

Thank you to my sweet bloggy friend, Farley from Oh Boy Fourth Grade,

for this super fun linky party and much needed distraction :)

You aren't going to believe this!!!

A few months ago, I shared how lucky I am to be the Teacher of the Year for the 2011-2012 school year. It has been an amazing and memorable school year and last week I was able to attend the Lamar Classroom Teachers Association Teacher of the Year Banquet for my school district. It was a beautiful event and I was so happy to have my loving family, my amazing daughter and my dear friends there to share in that special night. I received a gorgeous etched glass apple with my name and recognition on it and an official document from our Texas State Representative declaring our dedication to the field of education. So cool!! I was so excited as I stood there receiving this great honor! I was clapping and watching the my loved ones at the table waving and clapping (my sweet baby girl was 'over the moon' with excitement). I didn't even realize what happened next.....

They announced the District Elementary Teacher of the Year. Well, I was so excited. I was clapping and looking around, just dying to see who this fabulous teacher was!! That's when the gentleman next to me, tapped me and said "Aren't you from Huggins Elementary?" I politely shook my head yes, slightly wondering why he was asking. he looked at me and said......."that's you they are calling!!" 

I have been named the District Elementary Teacher of the Year for Lamar Consolidated Independent School District!!

I am still amazed that they picked me. It is an incredible honor and I promise to represent my school and my district with great pride! 

So, what's the next step? Well, for the next week or so I will be dedicating myself to writing an essay for Region 4 that expresses my sincere love of what I am so lucky to do each and everyday....to touch the lives of children through education, compassion and love.

You know it's summer when.....

It's Summer Vacation!!! Another wonderful year as come to an end and my wonderful and hard working students are off to enjoy some well deserved rest and relaxation!! It has been an AMAZING school year (I HAVE BIG NEWS...) and it has been such an honor to have my great group if second graders this year! Now all the books have been collected, stations and supplies are packed away safely and thoughts of new and innovative ideas for the new school year begin to swirl in your head...but, I REALLY know it's summer vacation when....

YES!!! No alarm clock has to be one of my favorite things about summer!! I am so grateful that when I wake up in the morning and the sun is brightly shining in the sky!! 

Another reason that I love summer would have to be 

  

These last few weeks have been super busy! I am 

really, really, really 

looking forward to being able to blog more often and share some great resources!!

I have joined in with my sweet blog friend Jeanne at 

is having a fun little linky all about the glorious signs of summer!
 So, how do you know it's summer vacation?? Join in or leave me a comment!! I can't wait to find out!!

 HAPPY SUMMER EVERYONE!!

Teacher Appreciation Jackpot Surprise!!!

It's almost time!!! 

The Teacher Appreciation Jackpot is just hours away and I can't wait to tell you which product I have added to the jackpot!

Drum roll please.....

TAH DAH!!!

And Don't forget about the Teacher Appreciation Jackpot blog hop!!

But wait! It gets even better!!

Another awesome blog hop! Check out Mrs. Will's Kindergarten and follow along with additional bloggers that are having sales! I will be hosting a sale of everything in my store!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!

Teacher Appreciation Jackpot!!

Teacher Appreciation Week is coming and I have to admit.....I have known about a big, HUGE, ENORMOUS surprise that I FINALLY get to share with all of you!!!

It's the most AMAZING blog hop that you can have ever imagined! Over 130 bloggers have come together to show just how much we 

LOVE and APPRECIATE

everything you do to touch the lives of so many children each and everyday.

We have all agreed to give away one of our products from our Teachers Pay Teachers store. Each gift is valued between $3-$8 and will be available to you for FREE! That is estimated to be about $600 in free products for you! 

My product will be....

I hope you enjoy it!!

Our blog hop has been organized into grade level groups to help find all the wonderful freebies you could ever need!! Thank you so much to April, Laura and Adrianne for all your hard work and making this such an amazing event!!

PK - Grade 2 - April McNair on A Modern Teacher

Grades 3 - 6 - Laura Candler on Corkboard Connections

Grades 7 - 12 - Adrianne Meldrum on The Tutor House

A Little More Nonfiction Fun!!

My students and I have now wrapped up our nonfiction unit! They learned so much and have become such in depth thinkers! I LOVE to hear their connections to what they are reading and the conversations that are going on in my classroom. I love that my students have meet the challenge to a more rigorous curriculum and are having meaningful interactions with text. I AM ONE HAPPY TEACHER!!! 

A super fun activity that  my students adored was an interview. As a class, we reviewed how to write a question and modeled our questions around those that were found in the biographies that they had read and Internet resources that they had used to complete research on an American President. We created a flip chart with several questions that they had created. 

Once the questions were written, we talked about how to organize our paper. We reviewed many biographies to create an organizer where they could write questions to ask their friend. The kiddos decided that they would use these questions as subtitles in their writing to help their readers find and understand information about their classmates. I was so impressed with them and totally got the teacher goose bumps as they took over the conversation about their books...they truly applied their knowledge!!

Once the class made plans for organizing their writing, they had the choice to use this organizer or to create this in their writer's notebook.

Once the class had made plans for organizing their writing, they used the following form to write their final rough draft on the following form:

These turned out wonderful and the kids had the best time writing them and sharing their writing with their classmates. One of the best parts of this assignment were the "photographs" that they drew of their friends in the text box provided in the final draft form. They were so adorable!!!

Hope you enjoy this! 

We have started with poetry and all I can say is.....SO MUCH FUN!!!

I will post more about that very soon!! :)

Nonfiction Note Taking and Writing

This past nine weeks, my little darlings had a WONDERFUL time exploring the world of nonfiction reading and writing. We have a great textbook adoption that has a variety of nonfiction selections. Has we moved our way through this super exciting genre, I thought it would be a great opportunity to for my students to begin note taking to help keep track of the important details. Here are a couple of graphic organizers that we used to jot down our thoughts:

Note Taking Form

 

Nonfiction Circle Map

 The kiddos read their stories and others that complimented the given topics (weather books, biographies on African American inventors and U.S. Presidents) and then took notes or added to the notes that they had already gathered. This made for an awesome prewriting activity as well!! Before the students used their notes to write their 5 page books, they worked with a partner and shared their notes verbally with them....retelling what they had read as they were planning their books!!

My little ones then used this stationary:

to write about their topics.My students also used this page to create their table of contents with the corresponding page number.

The next step to our fabulous 5 page books was to make a cover that included our title, cover illustration and author's name. On the inside cover, the kiddos wrote a dedication, publishing information and a copyright date.

Then, it was time to share our hard work with our classmates! They were so proud of their books and learned so much along the way!