Long time no blog! :)

Hi Blogging friends!

I thought that I'd catch you up with the reasoning for my absence...

I have been packing up all of this...

Believe it or not- but I had already been working for 1-2 weeks packing things up BEFORE I took this photo!

And I have been taking things home, re-organizing and bringing only about 1/2 of my stuff to here...

There is not a single thing in this room.  Just the way I like it! 

You probably used your deducting skills to figure out that I got a new job!  It is VERY bittersweet.  I LOVED my old district, the staff (my family), parents, kids etc. but I disliked the LONG drive!  My new district is 30-35 minutes closer!  Not only that- but I have met MANY of my new colleagues and they are AMAZING!  :)  I'm sad but super excited for this new opportunity.

It sure is tough dropping everything that you know and go to feel like a first year teacher again!  I will still be teaching first grade but almost all of the curriculum is new to me and they are a MAC school!  I have NEVER used a MAC a day in my life but have always heard great things about them, and I am eager to learn.  I ran across this website that has been very useful: http://myfirstmac.com/  This site is AMAZING!  It has cheat sheets for everything and a table comparing functions on PCs and MACS.

I have been going through my 6 years of teacher stuff and sorting it by trash, sell, store or bring.  It is quite embarrassing how much I have accumulated and spent on teaching stuff in just 6 years!  If you are in the central Ohio area, I'm having a teacher yard sale next weekend... so come and get all kinds of goodies!

I'm not allowed to bring my plastic Sterilite organizers that I used for EVERYTHING in my old classroom so I had to come up with something new.  I enlisted my wonderful friend Kristin to help me.  This is what we came up with...

I have since separated these babies more into different cabinets.  1.  Art/ kid supplies 2.  Teacher Items.

These boxes were purchased at the dollar store and was I ever impressed with the quality!  The lids actually snap on!  I swear lately I have been disappointed with the dollar store boxes for the past few years... but these were an amazing buy!  (I don't know why I expect so much when they are ONLY $1)  :)

I also went through my classroom store tub, recess toys and separated items into these tubs as well.  If you have a dollar store near you- head on out and get the tubs with the red lids!  The white lids are okay- but the red lids hold on much better.  :)

I also have been working slowly on my common core to do list.  I have finished these since my latest blogging post:

This is a pass chart that I am going to use next year.  Each of my kiddos will have a clothes pin with their name on it and they will move it when they leave them room.  I am going to hang this by the door so that I can grab it when we have a fire drill.  Yeah, I realize this isn't common core related.  :)

This has first grade CC Phonological Awareness and Phonics Assessments

.  There are 4 of each assessment plus recording sheets and skill cards.  I will probably end up writing newsletters to go with each just like I wrote for math.  I just wanted to at least get out my assessments first so I can start writing more lessons and activities.  I always start with assessments and then move to the fun stuff!  :)

Once I get to a point that I feel "ready" for summer.  I only need about 3-5 hours to sit down to finish these two items.

This only really needs about 30 minutes to go!  It is a fun set of worksheets using goldfish crackers that covers many common core standards.  Some people who purchased my similar Marshmallow Madness product said that they have copied all of the activities and left bags of marshmallows for a substitute to complete with the students. 

This is my common core writing item that has about 4-5 hours of work to go!  I have writing rubrics for each of the common core writing genres.  I have practice papers for the genres, picture book/ model; text recommendations, posters etc.  I have been working on this slowly for a few months.  I hope to finish BEFORE August!  :)   

With tradition, as I post new items to TPT I also give them away to some lovely little readers of my blog.  :)  The first 5 people to comment with their email will receive the pass chart and phonological awareness and phonics assessments for FREE!  :)

Have a wonderful weekend!  I hope to "stop by soon" and maybe update you with  more organizational tidbits that I'm finding or to tell you that I finally finished some of my works in progress!