OH NO!!!!!

I know.  I know.  Where have I been, right?  I have a really good excuse, honest.  My county went back to work on August 1st and I have been super busy not only with work but also because I lost my thumb drive with EVERYTHING on it.  Well, actually my almost three year old lost it...in Walmart....the day before school started back....never to be seen again.

Uh, yeah.  I felt like I had lost a family member.  I literally went through all the stages of grief in one day.  I did leave my number at Walmart in case it is ever turned in to lost and found, but really, I don't ever expect to see it again.

I usually save everything in two places, but our computer at home was getting full so I was only backing up on my work computer when I could.  Luckily I had backed up everything on my school computer only a few weeks before that, so not everything was totally lost. But many of the last minute things I had created for back to school are gone, gone, gone and I needed them, like the very next day.  I was so stressed that I got not one, but three fever blisters.

I have since recreated as much as I could, although I didn't have as much time to create as I did in the summer. And much of what was lost I had already printed so it wasn't as tragic as it could have been.  But I have learned my lesson.  I will make time to back up daily and we are going to invest in a larger hard drive.

I have been working on a post for about 3 weeks for you about last minute touch ups I've made to the Media Center.  Of course this came to a very abrupt halt with the whole lost thumb drive incident.  I am hoping to get it finished in the next few days so that you can see the finished product.

In the meantime, I have some good news for you.  Teachers Pay Teachers is having a Back to School Sale tomorrow and Monday and my store will be in the sale!  You can save 28% off of any of my 22 products.  The 17 free items are still free, of course.  So stop by my store tomorrow and do some shopping!

Many other teachers are also having a sale.  You can find out who by going to the Back to School TpT Sale with Blog Hoppin'.  You can even join in on the fun by linking up.  Check it out here and happy shopping!  =)

Get Inspired!

So I was needing a little motivation to get in the back to school mode and asked the fans on my A Teacher's Bag of Tricks facebook page (another little project of mine that keeps me busy) for some suggestions for inspirational quotes. They came up with some good ones and I made posters/signs out of them.  I thought I would share because everyone needs some inspiration from time to time.

You can get them at my TpT store for free by clicking here or on the picture above.  Hope you enjoy!  =) 

P.S. If you're curious about A Teacher's Bag of Tricks, you can check out my ATBOT website here.  It has tons of links to websites and web 2.0 tools for the classroom.

I'm on A Roll

If you've read my last few posts, you know I've been busy reading, but I've also been busy crossing off a few to do items off my summer to do list. Yay!

Here's what I've been up to...

I cleaned out and organized the file cabinet in my office, but I still felt it needed a little something, so I covered the drawers in some contact paper that I had left over from covering my desk top last year.  I think it came out well.

I even finally got around to labeling the drawers.  It only took me a year. LOL

Next, I worked on creating a memo board for my office.  My husband brought home some foam board he found in his new classroom and gave it to me.

So I went to Walmart and found some inexpensive fabric, ribbon, and some white pushpins to cover the board with.

I simply stapled the fabric to the back of the board, then cut and attached the ribbon in a criss-cross fashion.

I used 3M picture frame mounts to hang the finished board in my office.

And now I have a nice place to hang all the stuff that keeps me organized... instead of just taping everything to the wall, and it also hides that lovely yellow internet cord.  Below you can see the before picture.

My next project involved covering a dirty purple chair that I've had since like my third year of teaching.  Uh, yeah. I'm going into my fifteenth year, so I think it was time for a make over.  I don't have a great before picture of the entire chair, but here are the parts that needed the make over.

So I grabbed some fabric and a staple gun...

Took the back off both the top and bottom and covered it in the new fabric.

The top was more difficult to cover than the bottom because I had to staple gun into plastic. The bottom was wood.  So I bent and wasted a few staples.

But it was worth it.  

I think it's going to be my new favorite chair.  Love it!

And I also made a few more poster/signs to go along with the "rock star" theme. These are for bulletin boards and labels for bins.

You can get a copy of the CAFE sign above for FREE by clicking on the picture above or by clicking here.

I also have a version without the Rock Star kids on them. You can get that set here for FREE.

I still have to clean out/catalog the AV room as well as the Media Storage room.  And I'd like to get my office closet, bookcase, and desk organized.  Not to mention I have about 5 more sets of signs to make for different sections of the MC as well as cataloging some magazines that were cataloged incorrectly, so I still have a long way to go, but I feel like I've accomplished a lot this summer, and I got to enjoy my family, too. So all in all, it's been a good summer.  Hopefully I will feel ready to start in a few weeks because, ready or not, teachers come back officially August 1st.

Summer Reading, Part 2

Did you miss me?  I feel like I've been gone a month!  We took about a week and a half to visit family in Tennessee.  I hadn't seen my grandmother, mom, sister, and nieces in several months, so it was certainly nice to visit with them. Then I needed another week to rest from that vacation.  LOL

I took a few books with me on the trip and was able to finish a couple of them.

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First I read Storm Runners.  I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to get into it, but boy, was I wrong! This book was action-packed and kept me in suspense.  Just when I thought the action was about to die down, something else exciting happened.  I don't think I will have any problems "selling" this book to my boys.  I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

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Next, I read Floors.  I had started it earlier, but I just couldn't get into it.  The second time around, though, I really enjoyed it.  It was like a mystery and adventure story all rolled into one.  And it really did remind me of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  It was such a fun book to read that I think both boys and girls would enjoy it.

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Then I read Found.  This book is like a Back to the Future movie, but even better.  It starts off kind of like a mystery and then turns into a science fiction novel.  Loved it and I couldn't wait to start the next book, Sent.  

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I am about 80 pages away from finishing Sent.  While the first book was more of a science fiction/mystery this book was more of a history/science fiction book.  Now, I am not much of a history fan, but the storyline is so engrossing that I am eating up this book.  I have to get my hands on the next two books:

 

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Super exciting series!  I can see some book talks in my future!

Next on my list to read are

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The Genius Files, which I recently found out is also part one of three and

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The Car is another one I am having a hard time getting into, but maybe if I try it again, I'll be surprised.  You just never know.

*I'm an affiliate for things I've bought or used personally.  If you click through any referral links (if included), at no cost to you, I will earn a commission if you make a purchase.  Thank you for your support in this way.

Amazing Give Away

Hey friends!

Just a quick post to tell you about an amazing giveaway over on Erin Klein's blog, Kleinspiration.  She is celebrating 1,000 followers and as a thank you has put together a givea way with some of her friends and fellow bloggers.

This give away is unlike any I've ever seen.  You could win a set of autographed best selling books, a set of some really awesome software worth hundreds of dollars, OR 54 different TpT packs from various bloggers who have joined Erin in her celebration.  And you have 58 chances to enter and win.  Wow!

I have been a follower of Erin for about a year now and I can tell you honestly that she is fabulous.  She shares some great tech stuff that you can use in your classroom as well as reviews some software and other teaching products that you will love.  If you aren't following Erin, I highly suggest doing so. She is on facebook, Twitter , and Google +, so there are lots of ways to keep up with her.

If you are interested, hop on over to Kleinspiration, check out her giveaway as well as her other posts, and get signed up.  You will be inspired!

More Summer Projects

Can't believe the summer is half over!  Oh my, have I still got a lot to accomplish, but I have crossed a few things off my to do list, one of them being to create and upload more files to Teachers Pay Teachers (and now on Teacher's Dojo, too!)

After receiving a few request via email, here's what's I came up with:

I made "Rock Star" passes for classrooms. They include

Boys' Bathroom Pass

Girls Bathroom Pass

2 Hall Passes

2 Office Passes

Nurse Pass

Library Pass

You can get them here on TpT for $1.00.

Also available with a "zebra print" border.  Get those here for $1.00 on TpT.

I also made the "Read Like a Rock Star" bunting available for purchase by itself.  It comes in both an orange and white version.

It's $2.00 on TpT.  You can get it here.

I've also updated my Genre bookmarks pack:

This pack now includes 28 genres (previously 19).

This Genre Bookmark pack can be found HERE on Teacher's Dojo.

I have also created a set of 28 Genre Posters. Here are are a few examples:

And here are a few other examples:

You can get the entire pack of 28 genres, HERE on Teacher's Dojo.

And finally, I put all the genre goodies together in one big Genre Mega Pack:

This pack includes posters, secret symbols and bookmarks for 28 genres.  You can purchase this pack HERE on Teacher's Dojo.

Use the posters and bookmarks in this pack for a Genre of the Month program.  (You can read about my Genre of the Month program on this post.)  Hide the secret symbols in books for the genre you are highlighting to encourage students to check out and read those types of books and they can earn a prize.  The genres included in the pack are 

Adventure
Animal Fiction
Biography
Autobiography
Blog
Comedy
Drama
Essay
Fables
Fairy Tales
Folk Tale
Legend
Myth
Tall Tales
Fantasy
Graphic Novels
Historical Fiction
Mystery
Non-fiction
Informational Text
Fiction
Poetry
Realistic Fiction
Reference
Science Fiction
Speech
Traditional Literature
Travel

I've also made some new shelf markers to go with the "Rock Star" theme of the Media Center.

I used some free paint sticks from Wal-Mart, silver spray paint, some glitter paint, sealer and some glitter stars to create these babies.  Love how they turned out.

Then I broke out my embroidery machine and made a few improvements on some simple t-shirts so that I would have more school spirit shirts to wear.

Our mascot is a Wildcat so I made a paw print applique and added MES for Moreland Elementary School. Kinda cute.

I also made a shirt for my nine year old son who has been bugging me to make him one, complete with his name.

He wants to create an "arcade" in our garage and this would be his "work" shirt.  LOL

He came up with the name on his own and we designed the logo together. It was a nice mother/son project.

Now I just have to start cleaning and organizing again.  My house is in desperate need of cleaning and organizing, too.  Maybe I will get it all done before the summer is over.  I can hope, right?