Hello Blog World

Hello! It's been a month and a few days! But so much has happened in that time! I went to (and survived, which is the most important part) New Teacher Orientation.

NTO = 6 days of grueling and non-interactive days where you sit at a student desk for 4-7 hours staring at your computer trying to develop your curriculum calendar. Only to learn on the last day that you need to make sure it matches/follows the other teachers of your content.

Teacher Week = meetings, meetings, meetings! Granted, we did get a LOT of time in our classrooms (moreso than I even got at the private school), but still quite the numerous amount of meetings.

Classroom Reveal Pictures - I will have to add these when I get home. I am currently sitting in the car at my sister's barn while she has her horseback lesson. Horses are not my thing, so I'll sit here draining my cell phone battery and data that just started for the two hours that she has her lesson!

First Week - I survived! It was quite the experience. I had kind of forgotten what it was like to have 19+ students in a classroom. I have 29 in my homeroom, 19 and 38 in my two 7th grade classes and 25 and 26 in my two 8th grade classes.

Now - We are two weeks in. We have a short week this week of only 3 days. I know probably 35% of their names, but I could pick out every one of them in a crowd. I definitely a face person. I am getting use to my crazy schedule. For now, 3 days a week I follow the 7th grade schedule and 2 days a week I follow the 8th grade schedule. It messes with the kids too because their classes flip flop. I'll get there...eventually!

I will update more soon. But this should hold for now.

First TPT Sale!

Yay! I had my first sale on TPT tonight. It's been kind of a cruddy day, so this was some wonderful news! Hopefully this was the first of many!

A Mini Vacation

Every year, my family goes to the Outer Banks, NC to go camping. I usually stay behind and work my summer job or watch my mom's home daycare. This year, I wasn't nannying and my mom closed for 2 weeks.

The first 5 days were fine. I got a lot done, I got to sort through my supplies, go to my classroom....it was great not being interrupted! But then I got bored. I had been kicking the idea around to go down and stay with them for a couple days. I wasn't sure though since I haven't been camping in maybe 6 years (even though it's something I had done every summer from the time I was an infant!). I decided around dinnertime that I was definitely going to make the trip. I packed up my little civic and made plans to leave early Thursday morning. 5am rolls around and Molly and I start heading south.We made it through Washington DC before the morning rush hour and through Richmond, VA after the morning rush hour. Good planning!

We stopped in Chesapeake, VA for gas and lunch at 10am. It's a great little town that allows us to skip a toll road. Then we continued on our way. We got to the Outer Banks around 11:30 and to the campground at 1pm.

A little collage of our trip. Yes, Molly is drinking water from a CFA cup. She wouldn't drink from her bowl. She's not big on traveling and this was only her second time since rescuing her that she's made this trip (and first time by herself - the last time she was with my parents dogs who showed her the ropes).

It was a nice little trip. It was only 5 days, but that was about all that I could handle. I'm not the camping girl I use to be. Monday morning I was up at 4:30, 5, 5:15, 5:35...you get the idea. So finally at 6:15 I decided Molly and would just get on the road. We left about that time and made it home by 3pm. There was a bit more traffic and I was fighting with the GPS on which route I was taking.

Here's some collage pictures of our trip.

 Molly - happy to not be in the car anymore, snuggling with her cousin Emma, and little did we know that the canvas covered bed would be her escape route!

 After I arrived, my sister and I took a walk on the beach. It was overcast, but totally worth it. The water was so clear.

 

We took Molly and Callie (her other cousin) over to the Pamlico Sound. It was her first time swimming and she loved it!

 

On Saturday, we tie dyed t-shirts. I'm a fan of the spiral...can you tell? They use soda ash to really make the colors bright. 

One of the best things about the Outer Banks - the sunsets. The top 2 pictures are from Saturday evening when I went up to the souvenir store in search of a magnet for my car. The bottom picture is the best one I got Sunday night.

 

Our ride home. She was much more relaxed having her bed in the front seat. Totally spoiled. She did freak out a little bit going over bridges with grates (top left), but otherwise did really well.

Now that that's over!

I got to drop off my bins that I so neatly packed in my classroom today. I was determined to do a little unpacking too (while I had the motivation), but then I realized that a lot of the previous teacher's things are still in there. I didn't want to deal with trying to figure out what stayed and what went so I cut my visit a little short.

So I think that's pretty much it. It's all the necessities, which of course is what is most important.

I still wish I had an idea on a theme to do for my room. I love looking at all the teacher blogs and Instagram accounts at the cutesy rooms. Does cutesy work in middle school? Does cutesy work for science? Hmm...I wish I could even think of a color scheme to go with. Something. Anything.

Mid-Summer Rush

I'm trying to enjoy my summer, but still do some things here and there for my new room. This past week, I posted on a local Facebook Yardsale page all of my elementary things I've collected over the past 8 years. They were flying off the page like....something. It was sort of difficult to keep up with.

I was on a roll, so I went over to my storage unit (where you put all your stuff after moving back home with your parents...again!) and grabbed my bins for my classroom. Organizing like crazy. It was a hot mess at first. But now, I've got 5 totes I'll be taking to my new classroom to drop off one day this week or next.

 What a mess!

 

 Then this happened...thumbtacks and paperclips everywhere!

I know, I know...I'm crazy for wanting to get in my room, but I learned my lesson after last year! As a new teacher, I know there's tons of meetings during Teacher Week - not to mention New Teacher Orientation that is 6 days long. I don't want to be pressed for time and I don't know how much time I'll have in my classroom. So my plan is to just drop things off and maybe start rearranging...something to last me until August.

There we go! All set!

Check out my classroom!

I stopped by my school after having lunch with M to see about checking out my classroom. I met the secretaries and they were happy to show me my room.

The right side of my room and my door.

The left side of my room (taken from the door)

Now I have to get myself organized! Everything at the end of the school year was just thrown into boxes!

Update!

So I'm finally a hired teacher (as of Thursday when I turned in all of my paperwork), but I'm so bored. Friends keep telling me to enjoy my summer, but how can I enjoy my summer when all I want to do is get in my classroom and set things up?

My Pinterest is overflowing with ideas. My room is overflowing with stuff. It's going to be a long and packed summer if this keeps up!

I'm still trying to figure this whole blog thing out. If anyone happens to stop by, I am open to ideas and helpful hints! :)