Currently January

Hey there! I'm linking up with Farley for the January Currently!

Listening

My husband has been working on our basement for nearly a year now. He's down there right now and I'm listening to the sweet tunes that he has on. He's finally to the point where he is just doing some finishing touches as we wait for carpet and cabinets, so hopefully this long journey will be over soon.

Loving

If you've been here before, you may have noticed that my blog looks quite a bit different! Back in October, I went to a blogger meet-up and got lots of super cute blogging business cards. I decided I needed my own, too! I realized that I wanted to bright and fun design for my business cards. After I finished them, I decided to redesign my blog to match. I also love that I was able to fit a tab along the navigation bar for Design, so everything is in one place for now. Much more simple.

Thinking

Besides working on blogging more frequently, I want to branch out further into the world of TPT. I don't have too much freedom in my classroom to add lots of extra resources, so I've been brainstorming what I can create for my room and how I can expand on it for others. My fingers are crossed that I'll figure something out.

Wanting

I love my students, but I love breaks too! I've read four books over break so far and am working on the fifth. I've spent lots of time with family and friends, and I've been able to take some much needed R&R time now that I'm finished with my masters program (yay!). It won't be terrible to go back, but I wouldn't complain if our break was extended.

Needing

My lesson plans are done. They just need to actually be typed out. I meant to do this earlier in break, but I was so eager to leave school on that last day that I left my hand-written lesson plans in my classroom. I'll need to head over there tomorrow or this weekend to get them so that everything is all ready. Luckily, all my copies are done and such.

Yes, Maybe, Wish

I know that a lot of people make goals about weight loss, and I do have a goal like that, but I have trouble committing. The one goal that I have which I am certain that I WILL accomplish is that I will become better with blogging this year! Sarah from Shutters and Scribbles and I made a list of over 50 potential blogging topics. That's not even including potential posts about new designs I've done or TPT products that I've made (if I ever get started with that). I have set myself up to post at least a blog a week, and I'm excited about that. 

I'd love to write a book. For the past seven years or so in November, I have participated in National Novel Writing Month but it's always been difficult because of my undergrad or masters classes. I've always wanted to write. Now that I'm done with all that, I'm hoping that I'll have time to sit down and write some stories, even if they are just short ones - hopefully even outside of November!

This year, I'd also love to take some trips this summer. We went on one vacation last summer, which was wonderful, but teaching summer school took up the majority of my summer. I'm hoping that we can do a weekend getaway or two to somewhere fun. Plus, I'm really hoping that I make it to Vegas this summer!

Happy 2015!

Refocusing

I’ve been working a lot on my blog lately. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m working on redesigning it right now. Something about the design process is exciting to me. Soon, I’ll need to find someone else who needs their blog redesigned to keep the excitement going.

Today, as I sat down and mentally prepared myself to get started – you all know how that goes, I’m sure… even exciting things can sometimes be daunting – I first decided to check out my Bloglovin feed. There were a number of updates and I sifted through them, marking several as read even though I didn’t even both to click on them. Then, I reached one from Lindsey at Thriving In Third, someone who I have actually met, that got me thinking.

Lindsey blogged this week about the heavy focus that bloggers place on product promotion. I couldn’t agree more. As I go through my feed each week, many of those that I automatically mark as read are teacher bloggers who I know are simply posting to sell products – ones that I know won’t apply to me because they are a different grade level.

As a result, I headed back to my Bloglovin feed and started to unfollow those blogs that, week after week, I mark as read without reading. There were only a handful actually. As I looked at the remaining blogs – about 60 – I realized that for many of those, I had no idea why I had begun following them in the first place. I ended up going through and unfollowing even more people who I didn't regularly visit their blog. I am now down to following 29 blogs. I still have a few that I think I should maybe unfollow, but I’ll let them stay for now.

As I continue as a blogger and a reader, I hope to remember Lindsey’s post. I hope that as  I create each new blog post, I emphasize  content – what happened in my room that week, what worked, what I need help with – rather than promoting products. I hope that as I visit new blogs, I remember to try to make a connection with that teacher through comments, rather than just being a silent reader. Will links to TPT products be posted? Perhaps. But I hope to remember that it should not be the focus of the blog post.

As I sit here writing this post, I’m reflecting on why I decided a few years ago to begin a blog and why I've continued doing so now. Like Lindsey, I was attracted by the idea of a community of teachers. As I consider what would make me feel successful in my blogging endeavors, I imagine having a tight group of blogging buddies like some others have come to find. 

What about you? What are you hoping to get out of blogging? Is your goal to make it as a blogger with thousands of followers or are you looking for the community? Of course, they don’t need to be mutually exclusive, but what is your main focus?

Reader Bookmarks

At our school, we have moved away from Guided Reading and now have daily Small Reading Groups. From what I understand of it, the ideas are somewhat similar, except that the Small Reading Groups are supposed to be entirely focused on the skills that we are learning during Whole Group rather than skills that we have determined that the students need to progress as readers.

During Small Reading Groups, our team flex groups, so in my room, I have our advanced readers. These readers generally have mastered the Whole Group skills and are ready to expand on them, or are in need of higher level instruction to push them further.

A large part of Small Reading Groups is Close Reads. Nicole from Teaching With Style! blogged this week about a note taking bookmark that she uses for Close Reads. I loved the idea of having dual purpose bookmarks that the students can use as they read.  This idea is also perfect for a lot of the reading strategies and skills that we use with our reading series.

     

Click on the images above to visit my TPT store and grab these bookmarks. I'll be adding more formats as I continue through the year so that my students can use these for all sorts of reading!

November Currently

I feel like if I at least put up the month's Currently, I'm still blogging. No matter how little blogging takes place outside of that!

So here it is!

Listening

Another quiet day here at the house. Silence is golden.

Loving

It's been a wonderful PJ type of morning. The husband is out hunting with friends, so me and the dog are enjoying the morning. It'll have to end soon though. Unfortunately, I can't spend all day sitting around.

Thinking

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be rolling out a new blog design soon - as in by the end of the year. I already made business cards for the new design which should be arriving in the mail shortly. I need to work on some of the odds and ends for the online design before I am ready to make it active. I'm excited for it though. It's a bit more cutesy that what I have now.

Wanting

We'll be leaving soon for some good ol' family time. Nothing wrong with that, except that I've also spent Friday and Saturday with family, so I'm kind of all family'd out. I can't just make an excuse to get out of it though, so hopefully we won't need to be there all day.

Needing

Have you heard of or done NaNoWriMo? I believe that this is the seventh year that I have participated. I've never won. November is, at least for me, a terrible month to write a book because I am always so stinkin' busy. But I pretend that I will each year anyway. I expect another loss this year again, but I will keep trying anyway. I haven't even come up with an idea this year, though, so my expectations are pretty low.

Reading

Kin of related - hopefully I'll be reading nothing. If I actually come up with an idea for writing, that will in theory take up all my time. I'll only have time to read grad school books and work emails.

That's where I am - in a nutshell. What's going on with you?

Sunday Scoop

Hey there! I'm here following the wonderful Midwest Blogger Meetup held by Jameson at Lessons with Coffee and Lindsey at Thriving in Third. Seriously, it was wonderful and it was great to meet some other bloggers from close and far! Pictures to come later this week, hopefully. I'm already excited for 2015 in Minneapolis! 

It's Sunday, though, and that means it's time for The Sunday Scoop! I love this link-up! It's super fun and easy! Visit the Teaching Trio by clicking the graphic below and you can link up too!

Need to Do

We had a School Improvement Day and one of the topics was creating daily outcomes. The way our reading series is set up, it focuses more on weekly outcomes. Our team worked really hard to figure out how to customize these on a daily level. Now I get the fantastic job of typing all 30 or so up so that we can post them each day.

Center activities have kind of been pushed to the back burner with all the other lovely things that need to be done each week. I need to make the kids activities for this week, but I also want to work to figure out how I can further customize them to meet the needs of my kiddos and keep them engaged because right now ... that's not always the case. I'm convinced some of them see it as busy work.

Last - today is the last day of my current grad school class. Tomorrow I'll start a new class which will be my last one before I graduate! I'm super excited that I'm almost finished!

Hope to Do

As I mentioned, we did a whole bunch of work on our lesson outcomes/objectives. My team does everything together, including writing our actual lesson plans. Our ideas about outcomes shifted as we continued through the week, and, as a result, my Monday plans look totally different (visually) than my Friday plans. Everything is there, but it's driving me a little nuts that they aren't all perfectly similar.

My family has seen some major changes this past year and we're still trying to figure out exactly how to function. Lately, my mom, sister, and one of my brothers have been getting together quite often for some good ol' family time. Last week we went shopping and had lunch. Yesterday we meet for lunch and dinner. Today we're supposed to be going to see a movie - if I can leave the house. It'll probably become a bit much at some point, but my husband is in the middle of finishing a basement and hunting season, so for now, it's fun to have something to do that isn't school!

Happy to Do

Unfortunately, this little linky is always on a Sunday and as a result, my Happy to Do is more often than not going to be watch Once Upon a Time! It's probably my favorite show that I watch all week!

What are you up to today? Is your Sunday all about school or do you have time to do other things?

The Sunday Scoop

I will get better at updating this - for myself at the very least! I'm back with another Sunday Scoop. I wish I had time to update on other things. I only have 2 1/2 more months of grad school, so at the very least, I hope to be back in January with regular updates!

Anywho - here's what's up with me this weekend.

Clearly, I have too much to do. It was a rough week last week, so I'm doing a little catch up. Luckily, I have some fantastic TV premieres tonight to motivate me to get everything done quickly. I almost put Once Upon A Time down in my MUST do because no matter what time I get everything else done, I will watch that show before I go to bed!

How's your fall lineup looking? Are you so thankful like I am that TV shows are back on?

Until next time!

The Sunday Scoop

I don't know about you, but linky parties really help me make sure that I am blogging. Without them, I don't know if I would ever post anything! I like to think that I would, but I haven't seen the evidence of that yet. Luckily there are so many fantastic link-ups to choose from.

Today, I'm connecting with Teaching Trio to fill everyone in on The Sunday Scoop! This link up seemed perfect since I have a whole bunch to do and am not quite motivated to start. I love to do lists, so this is right up my alley!

Perhaps you see a theme emerging? Lots of school stuff to do, but all I want to do is hang out with my cute puppy. He isn't making it easy either as he keeps falling asleep (and looking adorable) right next to me!

I suppose now that I have this to do list of sorts, though, I should try to resist the cuteness and actually get some work done! What's the scoop with you this weekend? Head on over and link up!