Let's Celebrate! 1/3/15

I'm joining Ruth Ayres to celebrate some things from the past week.  Please visit her blog to read other celebrations.

Sometimes it's hard to take a look back at your week to find things to celebrate when only a few exciting things happened.  My first celebration is a huge one though!!!

1. Ohio State beating Alabama to go to the National Championship!!!  Wow! What a game! I am still somewhat in shock that we are going to the National Championship. This team has faced much adversity this season. It is evident they have worked real hard as a team to get where they are. Congrats to them! No matter the outcome of the game, I will be proud of them!

2. Ringing in the New Year with my little family. In the past, we usually go to a friend's house to ring in the New Year. This year we just stayed home. It was actually very nice to be snuggled on the couch together as the ball dropped.

3. Much needed rest. This past week I have gotten some much needed rest. It is nice to clear my head over Christmas break so I can come back to school with a fresh perspective and a relaxed mental state. I have been able to get some much needed organizing done and I am feeling good about going back to school next week.

Hopefully, you can look back at your week and find some things to celebrate as well! Happy New Year!

#nerdlution15

This year I am going to participate in Nerdlution. Last year was the first year for it and I watched from afar on Twitter. Nerdlution is 50 days long and each person sets his/her own goal/s. My goals for #nerdlution15 are the following:

1. Drink more water. I am terrible about consuming liquids. I can go a whole meal without drinking anything. I need to be much better about this, especially with working out like I do. My goal is to get in 4 big glasses a day. 

2. Run 3 days a week. I have been slacking with my running and I need to pick up the pace. I'm not going to worry about distance right now.  I just want to get back in the habit of running multiple times a week. Distance can come later. 

3. Read my devotions at least 5 days a week. I would love to say I am going to do this every day, but I am afraid I would fail. 

4. Read at least one chapter book every week. I have been in training to be a Literacy Collaborative intermediate coach and my reading has taken a hit with all I have to do. I think one chapter book a week can be manageable with all the other demands. 

Hopefully, on February 19, the last of the 50 days, I can say I was successful with all of these goals! Good luck with your goals!

2015-Looking Forward

I was going to look back at my goals for 2014 to see how I fared, but realized if I have to look back at them to refresh my memory on what they were, I probably didn't fare as well as I would have liked. So rather than looking back, I'm going to look forward. The only reflection I am going to have is that I know I need to do better.

Thinking about the new year, my goals for 2015 will be centered around faith, personal, and professional. 

Faith

I enjoy going to church but too often see Sunday spent in my classroom. My goal is to get to church at least two times a month. This will take some better organizing and time management on my part so school doesn't get in the way. 

I also want to be better about reading my devotional. It doesn't take more than a few minutes to read, but somehow it always gets pushed off to the side. I need to do it first thing in the morning or put it on my bedside table to read it before I go to bed. 

Personal

Health is always a big thing with me. I did better about getting to the gym last year, despite a setback in February with a stress fracture. I did well with getting in a workout before school. I like working out at this time because I am not taking away from family time in the evening. 

My goal is to get to the gym at least 4 days a week.  I am also setting a running goal with this. I will run three times a week and will participate in 5 races this year. One of those races must be longer than a 5k. 

My eating habits also need an adjustment. I have found myself snacking more on things that I shouldn't be snacking on. I am going to start the year with a cleanse and continue with cleaner eating. I need to get back into juicing. I need healthier snacks. I need to drink more water. I need to commit two days a week to meatless eating. 

Professional

This year brought many changes for me professionally. I am currently going through training at OSU to be a Literacy Collaborative intermediate literacy coach. This has been quite a busy journey for me. It's all good, but so time consuming! Because of all the time spent with this program, my reading has not been up to par this year. So my first goal is to read six professional books this year. I usually strive for one a month, but this just hasn't been manageable throughout the training. I also want to read at least one chapter book a week. If I get in more great, if it's only one, that's fine, too. 

I need to get back into blogging more consistently! My goal is to blog once a week. I am hoping this becomes more than once a week, but I also need to be realistic. I often think, "I should blog about that!" but it rarely becomes a reality. 

Well, it seems as if I have a lot of goals for myself. Hopefully I will be better about follow-through since none of them are unrealistic. Here's to a New Year!!!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/8

I'm linking up with Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers to share my reading this past week.

It was only a three day school week for me last week.  So you would think that I would have been able to read a lot!  Nope!  I had to catch myself up on yard work and house work that I have neglected during the first few weeks back at school.

I did manage to finish two chapter books this week:

Sabotaged by Margaret Peterson Haddix (#3 in The Missing series)

Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus by Tom Angleberger (last book in the Origami Yoda series)

I also read the following picture books:

Fireflies! by Julie Brinkloe

The Popcorn Book by Tomie de Paola

This week I plan to read the following chapter book:

What are you reading?

Celebrate! Sept. 6

Thanks to Ruth Ayres at DiscoverPlayBuild for this Saturday tradition.

I am back to celebrate a few things this week!

1. I have to start by celebrating the opening of college football and by beloved Buckeyes!  The game last Saturday against Navy was a nail-biter in the first half.  Thank goodness we figured things out the second half!  I do have to say that rooting against Navy somehow made me feel a little unpatriotic!  So I tried not to be too vocal against Navy!  Tonight we play Virginia Tech.  Go Bucks!

 2. I need to celebrate the ladies in this picture (plus one who was cut out)!  These ladies are training to be intermediate literacy coaches through Literacy Collaborative along with me.  This school year is a training year for us.  In the picture, we are participating in online learning with OSU.  I am grateful for what each of these wonderful ladies brings to the picture.

3.  Our community has started the "Let's Read 20" initiative.  The idea is parents will read for 20 minutes a day with their children starting at birth.  All the schools in the county and city are participating and working together on this.  This week, my district had a Battle of the Books with another district in the county.  Students were to bring in new or gently used books to be distributed to kids throughout the county.  My school collected over 1600 books!  The winning district will be announced at the football game tonight between the two schools.

4. I am celebrating the Popcorn Festival in our town and the Popcorn Parade.  Jacob was in the parade along with his fellow cub scouts.  I also have to celebrate all the greasy, fried food you can get at the festival! It's one of the few times of the year I allow myself to indulge in this type of food!  Bring on the fried veggies!

What are you celebrating?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? 9/1/14

I'm linking up with Teach Mentor Texts and Unleashing Readers to share my reading this past week.

This week I only managed to finish one chapter book!  It has just been a busy, tiring, second week of school!

I finished Athena the Wise  by Joan Holub, which is the 5th book in the Goddess Girls series. 

 

My read alouds this week include the following:

 

Peppe the Lamplighter  by Elisa Bartone

 

A Day's Work  by Eve Bunting

 

True Heart by Marissa Moss

 

The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco

 

Chicken Sunday by Patricia Polacco

 

I am currently reading two chapter books:

Sabotaged  by Margaret Peterson Haddix (3rd in The Missing series)

 

Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus by Tom Angleberger

 

What are you reading?



First Day of School

The first day of school.

Wow!  So exhausting!

Hard to sleep the night before.  I'm awake every few hours.  Too many thoughts running through my head:
Do I have everything ready?
Are extra materials handy for any possible new students?
Is there anything that needs to be copied?
Do I have enough planned for the day?
What if I oversleep?

At 4:30 my alarm pulls me out of my sleep.  I get ready and head to the gym.  During my workout I'm able to get focused and get some good thinking done.

Go home, get ready for school, kiss my son goodbye.  He doesn't start school for another week.

Make it to school and finish some last minute things.  Then finally, they arrive!  And it's a school supply frenzy!!

It's a great class with great personalities.  Morning goes smoothly.  When it's time to focus on reading in the afternoon I am feeling quite at ease.  I read The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires to the class.  We talk about the importance of persistence and not giving up when things get difficult.

And then I introduce my classroom library.  I talk about how it is organized and do a few unintentional book talks.  I have hands in the air from students wanting to know if they can read a book before I am even halfway done.  This.  This is what I love.  I love kids getting excited to read.  I love talking books with kids.

I have a feeling this class isn't going to disappoint me.