Happy transitions

What a crazy couple of days it's been. Moving back to Louisiana, transitioning, and coming home to find my apartment at 95 degrees. Two hours after turning on the AC after being off all summer it was still 96 degrees. Something was definitely up. Not okay. Mom and I slept in a hotel Sunday night.

Monday was professional development at work. I was so happy to see everyone. (Below you can see my classroom portable) I feel good about the school year and about how I'm handling my transition back to Louisiana in general. The mind is a powerful thing and I have decided to no allow mine to hate Louisiana and to make the very best of what may be my last year teaching and in a rural parish.

On a different note the girls (my future roomies) and I met with our new landlord and saw our future home. Y'all, this house is incredible and it is such a blessing that he is allowing us to live there. I promise pictures of the house are coming. I don't want to show anything until I am certain I am living there. As in, when my things start moving in. A little bit about the home though, it was built in the 1910's and is historical to the area and pretty sure the state. Imagine a beautiful white southern home with a gorgeous porch, a porch swing, and all of its amazingness inside.

After the meeting with the landlord  my AC was fixed. Just a little rust hit the fan, nothing to worry about. Today I will hopefully be able to talk to my current landlord about vacating my apartment. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm a little sad to leave. I have so many first-year memories in that apartment and I will miss my neighbor. I want to make it a point to visit her.

Alright, let's hope for productivity today. Meetings about to start so I will leave y'all with one last announcement:

This girl has purchased her flight to SEATTLE for Labor Day weekend. I cannot wait. I have always wanted to visit the pacific northwest and I'm already doing research of places to possibly visit ;)

Apparently this place has awesome drinks (strong ones) with awesome sandwiches 

I am so lucky that my friend Lisa from high school has invited me to go. I thought, why not?! I had a United Airlines voucher to use and the flight was super cheap and I get to fly from the airport in Alexandria. Lisa moved out there with her husband who is currently away in Afghanistan. I'm sad I won't get to meet the wonderful man in her life, but insanely excited to catch up with her and talk about photography and life!!

Check out her blog, she's doing amazing things.
Lisaveephoto.blogspot.com

Anyone else going through crazy transitions this week?

Even though it took an hour to book, I finally booked my flight to Seattle!

P-4, my portable classroom where I teach high school Spanish

¡Soy súper estrella!

Y'all, I am a MACHINE.  I have continued to be as productive as possible.  Now I just need to pack...oops.  I think I will wake up semi-early and wash and pack.  I'd like to accomplish driving at least to Houston tomorrow.

But, let's focus on the positive shall we?  Here is what I got done today:

My student behavior tracker for my "behavior" clipboard.
I blurred the names for the safety of my students

• Labels for Clipboards
• Printing Behavior Trackers
• Editing, printing, and laminating behavior trackers for desks
• Cutting, pipe cleaning, and beading laminated trackers
• Creating & Printing Tardy Log
• Creating & Printing Bathroom Log
• Saving Attendance Log PDFs for printing when I have black ink
• Printing copies of syllabi, parent letter, parent survey, student surveys, and investment plan
• Printing copy of student goals survey

Awesome, awesome, awesome! Let's take a look at some of these beauties...

How cute are these Student Surveys I created for my Spanish II classes?
Yes, I got the idea from Pinterest, but I jazzed it up.
Don't worry, Spanish I gets the English version.

For my "Tardy" Clipboard & "Bathroom" Clipboard

I'm most proud of this product! These are my individual desk behavior trackers.

The product above is what I laminated and cut out today.  After cutting them out I used a thumb tack to poke two holes where a pipe cleaner would run through with a bead.  The bead slides up and down based on students' behavior.  I spent a good hour doing all of that, but it was kind of fun.  I ended up making 36.  I like to keep extras on hand.  This goes along with the tracker I am using for my clipboard except this is to give students a personal visual (taped to their desk) of where they stand as far as their behavior grade goes for the day.  Students start off with 10 behavior points and begin losing them as they get infractions.  As you can see above, if it gets as far as a referral they lose two days worth of points.  I got this idea from a GNO (Greater New Orleans) corps member.  I'm super excited to use this system with my students.  I think it will extremely beneficial for my students with behavior problems.

Random side note: how fabulous do these look below? Sephora's current birthday gift for members is a Fresh Mini Lip Duo.  You get two mini lip balms, one with a tint (rosé) and a clear one.  Both smell wonderfully, look trés chic, and are really moisturizing.

Thanks Sephora for the awesome birthday gift! 

I hope all my productivity pays off when I have other things to do as I get back to Louisiana.  I'm excited to take a look at my very possibly future home.  Word on the street is that it's gorgeous! Don't tell my future roommates, but I also got us these...

I'm just really excited to live in a house (hopefully)

Next on my to-do list: purchase a flight to Seattle/Tacoma, Washington.  Not kidding. More on that later, right Lisa?  I'm going to go reward myself with a self given mani/pedi.

How was your Friday? 

PS. If you're a teacher and would like more information on any of the above feel free to leave me a comment and we can talk about it.  

A productive Thursday

Good news! I finally updated that About Me section of the blog.  I just need to do the Frequently Asked Questions.  Anyone have any burning questions about my life? Feel free to comment, anonymously or revealing your identify.  Either way, I will do my best to answer them.

Working on posters for my classroom

This teacher feels accomplished right now.  Check out all that productivity up there!  I have been slaving er working hard to accomplish as much as I can before heading back to Louisiana.  I officially start work on Monday, and I must use my time wisely.  I'd rather get as much done now and focus on refining lesson plans and my classroom later.  

So far I have:

• Made my syllabus for Spanish I & II
• Completed and edited my Management Plan
• Completed and edited my Investment Plan
• Completed not edited my semester Unit Plans Calendar for Spanish II
• Started my semester Unit Plans Calendar for Spanish I
• Created, printed, cut, and glued labels
• Labeled bins 

I know my students are in high school, but believe me, they need this behavior system

To Finish:

• Editing Unit 1 Test for Spanish I
• Editing Unit 1 Test for Spanish II
• Rules & Procedures first week of school quizzes 
• Labeling Clipboards
• Creating & Printing tardy sheet, bathroom pass log
• Creating & Printing bathroom passes
• Printing Behavior Trackers 
• Creating Absent Binder

I'm sure there's other things to add to the list, but I think a lot of the most important stuff is completed.  I feel like I have a solid foundation.

I went on a little shopping spree to save, save, $ave the big bucks.  I plan to get reimbursed with my Spanish class fund when I go back to work, but I still try to save money considering the few resources my school provides.  I hit but the Dollar Tree and came out with 10 of those awesome white bins you see below, 3 bins with lids, 48 grading pens, three packs of stickers (yes, my high schoolers love them),  and four posters for less than $30.  Can you believe that?! What a steal! 

Don't these look beautifully organized already?

Larger bins without lids will be for four different things: turning in work, receiving graded work, homework, and late work
The smaller shoe box bins are for classroom supplies such as markers, grading pens, and glue sticks

The first year of teaching is a lot of survival and focusing on what the hell you're doing and whether you're even qualified to be responsible for individuals that are double your size (in my case).  This year, I plan to focus on all the things I wasn't able to see, mostly because they were above the ocean surface and I was having trouble staying afloat.  Organizing my classroom better, managing my students and their behavior better, helping my students organize themselves, holding them accountable and more responsible.  

Now, I feel lighter, stronger, productive, and I think I deserve a good hour of television.  

How do you stay organized?  

If you're a teacher, what are your organization tips and/or goals?