There are a few more hours left in 2014 and I feel so blessed.  My daughter tried to make it til midnight, but was asleep by 8:30.  Now I'm trying to squeeze in this post while watching some NYE entertainment on TV, which makes me feel very old since I don't know who half of these people are!

Anyway, it's a great time to link up with Farley for the start of another year of Currently!

Listening: Like I said above, I have on Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve and I'm also flipping through some of the other networks' shows and I feel so old because I don't know anyone performing!

Loving: These 2 weeks with my daughter have been fabulous.  We've been spending time making memories whether that's going some place or cuddling at home.

Thinking: This ties into what I'm loving.  My life may not be where I envisioned it has a child, but I'm where I'm supposed to be and happy to be here.  God has been so good to me!

Wanting: I love college football, but I hate this break between the last regular season/conference championship games and the new playoffs.  I can't wait to watch the 2 semi-finals tomorrow.  I'm pulling for Oregon to go all the way!

Needing: I've had 3 weeks off and it's been wonderful, but I really need to plan what I'm teaching on Monday!  I'm being observed on Friday and I have an idea of what I'll be covering but I really want to map out my long term plans for the next few months.

Yes: I will be getting healthy and fit.  I'm following the Shred eating plan and using walking and Piyo for exercise.

Maybe: I need to get back into creating and posting.  I've made things for my class, but haven't posted anything new in a while.  I'd like to post at least 1 new product every month.

I wish: I'd love to buy a house/townhouse/condo, but I don't see that happening soon.

Happy New Year everyone and make sure you head over to Farley's blog to see everyone's posts!

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Brandi

I know it's a little late to be posting this, but Christmas is my favorite time of the year and I love celebrating at home and at school.  Here are some of the things I did this year to celebrate!

School:
We started by applying to be an elf

Once we were all elf-approved, we made sock snowmen.  I was inspired by this pin:

 

and used the directions from Reagan's blog

Here's one that my kiddo's made:

Sorry I only took one pic.  Here's how we "wrapped" them along with our snowman soup. 

We also made Christmas cards using Jenny K's Pop Art Coloring Pages.  These were so much fun and turned out so cute!

Home:

My daughter and I made sock snowmen as well:

I wanted to make a holiday snow globe and I tried, but it didn't turn out that well because I didn't use a glass jar.  But my daughter loves it and that's what's important.

We made gingerbread houses

and a cookie plate for Santa

I love that she loves crafting.  It gives us a chance to make memories and keepsakes together.  Did you do any fun crafts or projects for Christmas this year?  If you need some ideas to pin for next year, you can check out my Christmas board on Pinterest.

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Brandi

Blogging 2 days in a row...I can't believe it!  Yesterday I wrote down my goals and resolutions for the year.  You can read the details {HERE}.  Today I'm linking up with Primary Powers for their One Word Resolutions Linky.

Last year my one word was FAITH.  I continue to see God's hand in my life and have grown to turn to Him first when I need comfort, guidance, strength, or anything.  This year my focus is on me and my family and in order to do that I need to invest!

This year I will invest in myself physically, emotionally, and financially.  I will also invest more time with my family and resolve to make memories by being together.

What's your one word for the year?  I love reading about people's goals and how they plan to achieve them!

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Brandi

It's the end of the year which means resolutions and goal setting.  My two major resolutions/goals deal with my health/fitness and finances so I'm linking up with Gina at Teaching with a Touch of Pixie Dust and Jessica at Second Grade Nest to share my goals.

My goal this year in terms of eating is to follow Dr. Ian Smith's Shred diet plan.  I have done Dr. Ian's Extreme Fat Smash and lost weight, but I need to be able to follow a lifestyle plan that will help me make good choices that I can sustain from here on out.  For my exercise, I will be starting Chalene Johnson's PiYo and continuing with Leslie Sansone's walking DVD's.  I plan to link up with Gina weekly to share my progress on this journey.

Now on to Jessica's 2015 Resolutions Linky:

I want to go to the TPT conference this summer.  I read such wonderful posts about it and would love to meet up with some of the people I've connected with on this blogging and creating journey.

I feel like this is the year of me.  I have a lot of things that I will be accomplishing this year in my personal life.  The biggest is going to be losing weight and getting rid of debt.  I have a goal to lose 86 lbs.  I know it may take a while, but every day I plan to take a step in the right direction until I've met this goal.  I also will be paying off my car this year.  I plan to cut back on some frivolous things and put every extra little bit toward this loan so I can be debt free!

READ!!! I bought myself a Kindle for Christmas and have been reading for pleasure over the break. I want to continue doing this because I love reading and I know that it sets a great example for my daughter.

My first round of 3 weeks no cheats.  I will be pushing myself at the start of this year to be dedicated to my fitness and eating plan.  I have been very motivated by some fabulous bloggers and Instagrammers who have lost weight and I want to be a success right along with them.

Like my quote above says, "Dreams don't work unless you do", I'm off to plan and turn these dreams into a reality!

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Brandi

I can't believe that it's been 3 months since I blogged!  I hope I still have a few readers out there.  I thought I'd link up with Farley for December's Currently:

I absolutely love this time of year...from Halloween to the New Year!  Christmas music brings memories of family, friends, and traditions, and I'm excited to make new memories each year with my daughter.

Our last day with the kiddos is this Friday.  I feel like there's so much I still want to do, but am excited to have 3 weeks off soon!

On Black Friday I bought myself a new Kindle.  One of the things that I really want to do more of is read for pleasure, so I had been eyeing the basic Kindle for a while and got it for less than I originally planned which is always a win.  Now I just need a case for it to take it one the go!

I am almost done with all of my Christmas shopping!  All I have left is a few gift cards, which makes me very happy.  Will be able to spend the time off before Christmas enjoying myself instead of rushing around to get last minute things.

Finally, I'm giving my teammates pampering in a jar gifts.  I saw it on Pinterest and thought it was so cute!  I'll post pictures when I'm done.  Here's my inspiration:

So if you're still out there reading this, I'd love to hear from you!

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Brandi

One of the easiest ways for me to get back into the blogging routine is to join a great linky party.  So I'm linking up with 2 today.

First up is a new one from the Teaching Trio.

I love getting to know bloggers on a personal and professional level and this linky is a fun way to do that.

Have to do:

My daughter turns 6 in 2 weeks (boy time flies) and I need to order her cake this week.  Laundry is boring but a necessity.  Prepping lunches for my daughter and I is something that I'm really trying to stick to this year.  For one, I don't want to always be rushing in the morning.  Also, I want to make sure that we don't get into a rut eating the same thing everyday!

Hope to do:

My church is starting a class on the Bible in 90 days.  Unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to make the class, but I downloaded the reading plan and am excited to begin this journey.  I know that it's going to be intense, but I'm looking forward to hearing what God has to say to me in these 90 days.  Has anyone done this challenge?

I also want to get ahead in lesson planning.  So far I have ELA, and Social Studies planned for the next few weeks.  I need to get math, ELD, and writing done.

Happy to do:

I woke up this morning and reminded my daughter that today is Grandparents' Day and she was so excited to do something for them.  She has given them lots of extra hugs and kisses and "let them" watch a movie with her.  We're headed out to dinner as soon as she comes home from the park with my dad....such a blessing!

Next up is Mrs. Laffin's Laughings Peek at my Week

This week will be my first full week since adding 4 new students last week and 3 more just for math.  We had to make a combo class so I got some extra 3rd graders (I still only have 22 kids so I'm not complaining).  They've transitioned well, but we spent time last week getting to know each other and reviewing routines.  This week we'll be hitting the ground running.

Math:
We're still learning multiplication.  This week will be spent introducing the commutative and distributive properties.  My kiddos have a good understanding of the meaning of multiplication so I'm hoping these lessons are easily accessible for them.

ELA:
We're introducing informational writing as a response to the 2 texts we've been reading.  My kiddos wrote a short paragraph last week so I could see where they're at in their writing life.  I'm excited to begin actual instruction in writing.  We'll also continue to practice close reading.  The curriculum that we're using (EngageNY) is somewhat repetitive in close reading, but the kiddos are grasping the steps and purpose so I'm hoping to start releasing the process soon.

Social Studies:
We're currently studying geography and this week we'll be looking at the 4 regions of California.  My kiddos love working on their lapbook and thanks to our Nancy Fetzer lecture notes, have a great overview of the topic.

Word Study:
This will be our first week with differentiated word study.  We spent the last 2 weeks using a simple list just to introduce word sorts.  This will be my first year following Words Their Way and so far I'm loving it.  I have 3 groups which I'm hoping isn't too hard to manage.

Reader's Workshop:
Like I said above, my district is using EngageNY for ELA, but we were previous all about balanced literacy.  I went to a fabulous training this summer about balanced literacy and I am all about Reader's Workshop.  This week, we're looking at different types of fiction and nonfiction as well as reasons readers abandon books.

I still have to plan ELD so I can't share what we're doing there, but I'm looking forward to a great week!  Off to dinner to celebrate my fabulous parents for being such great grandparents!  Have a great week!

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Brandi

I'm slowly getting back into a school routine.  I love linking up with Holly to share what's working in my classroom and at home.

This week I wanted to share how I use my clip chart with Class Dojo.  We use a clip chart school-wide and I had never used one before beginning at this school in January.  Over the summer I had time to think about how I could use this management tool with Class Dojo, which I love.  Here's what I came up with:

In this picture you can see my clip chart.  I have somewhat of a sports theme going in my classroom and I decided to make my clip chart line up with that.  All the kids start at "Game Time" and can move up or down for there (pretty standard clip chart).

At the end of the day, if they end up on MVP, they get to add a sticker to their clip.  I just use these foam stickers that I found in one of my cabinets.

Also at the end of the day, I have my clip chart monitor tell me who clipped up to what level.  Here is where Class Dojo comes in!

I've blogged about Class Dojo a few times which you can read HERE and you can click on the Dojo picture above to go directly to the site.

Getting back to what I do.  When the clip chart monitor reads me the numbers from the clips that have moved up or down, I simply go into Class Dojo and award points.  I've added the behaviors of clip up on the positive side and clip down on the negative sive.  If they get up to MVP, they earn 3 Dojo points, All-Star is worth 2 Dojo points, and Score is worth 1 Dojo point.  If they end the day under Game Time, they lose Dojo points.  Ending on Foul means they lose 1 point, Strikeout loses 2 points, and benched loses 3 points.  My students earn rewards and reward tags for every 10 Dojo points.

So far this system is working great for me and my kiddos.  I'm supporting the school wide behavior plan while also making it my own.  Do you use Class Dojo and/or a clip chart?  How's your behavior management plan working for you?

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Brandi

It's week three for me with the kiddos.  Last Wednesday, we were told that the district said our numbers were too low so there would need to be combo classes.  This had all of us stressed.  On Friday we found out that it's going to be a 3/4 combo.  I won't be teaching it, but I will be getting 4 more students.  Can't complain since that will only bring me up to 22, but I'll be spending some time this week reteaching rules and procedures in depth.

Math:
I plan to take this week to introduce math games.  I really want to use the Guided Math approach after reading Laney Sammons' book this summer, but I've been struggling with doing that while using the EngageNY curriculum.  With the addition of my 4 new friends, I thought this would be a great time to introduce some multiplication games so I can better implement Guided Math in the future.
Language Arts:
We're also using the EngageNY language arts curriculum.  This week we'll be reviewing close reading and answering text-dependent questions.
Reader's Workshop:
I spend an hour in the morning using the EngageNY curriculum, but I also want my kids to be reading just right books that interest them, so I also do reader's workshop in the afternoon.  This week we're focusing on genre.
Writing:
We're beginning the year with informational writing, so I'm tying it into our social studies curriculum.  I will be using Nancy Fetzer to help my kiddos become better writers.  I love that there are hand motions to help with the structure of writing as well as a variety of ways to front load information if needed (which my kiddos do).
Social Studies:
We're going to be looking at the physical features of California's geography.  We'll be making a lapbook for this unit and I can't wait to share it when we're done!

This is the earliest I've ever started school and can't believe that September is here!  That means it's time for Currently!

Lifetime movies always get me over the weekend.  There's usually a theme and all the movies are either good or really bad that you have to watch!  Loving that my baby is a kindergartner and is so happy.  Here she is on the first day of school last week:

I love living in southern California, but I'm over sweating all the time...it ain't pretty! I'm looking forward to crisp, cool (not cold!) fall weather!  Finally, for my 3 trips, I'd love to go to Paris...such a romantic city, the Bahamas...everyone says it's so beautiful and so much fun, and any cruise!  Maybe one day I'll take a cruise to the Bahamas and get these 2 bucket list items checked off!

Finally, I was blessed to be contacted by The Mailbox to host a giveaway a while ago.  Here are the winners:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Brandi

This time of year I always make the commitment to blog, but then life happens and it doesn't happen.  We've been in school for 2 weeks so I'm finally getting around to posting my classroom pictures.  I will have to say that this is one of my favorite classroom set ups ever!  I love the colors and how everything turned out!

 These 2 pictures are of my whiteboard (that I hardly ever write on).  I used magnetic borders from Lakeshore to frame it.  I have my hand signals display, homework club, calendar, WBT posters, schedule, and objectives posted right now.

 Here is my Calendar Math board.  I use dry-erase pockets to put 8 different review activities each day.  I plan to do a full post on this soon, because it is one of my favorite parts of the day!

 I am using this display to focus on math vocabulary.  I picked up 3rd grade math word wall cards from Teaching and Tapas and use the clothespins to display them.  At the bottom I have Math It Up, which is like boggle but with numbers.  I picked those up from Teacher on the Loose.

 This is my writing wall.  I used glitter clothespins which don't show up here, but they're a cute purple color!  I also picked up some writing posters from Lakeshore on a recent shopping trip with former colleagues....I love going there with other teachers!

 Here is my Jiji display and my sports themed clip chart.  Above the clip chart is the Hall of Fame.  I will be putting all retired clips there....this seems like another blog post to explain how I use my clip chart with Class Dojo!

In the back of my room I have these cabinets with floral green contact paper...not my cup of tea, but it's already done.  Above the cabinets I have my "We Believe" classroom expectations.  On the cabinets, I decided to go with a portable word wall.

Here is where my kiddos will keep their reward tags.  So far they have loved earning them!

My classroom library!  I love the bins from the Dollar Tree!  I have my baskets labeled by guided reading level and used labels from Ladybugs Teacher Files.  The black bulletin board above it is for anchor charts.  I wanted to have a central place for students to always be able to find information.  It looks great with the charts hung up (they hide the wrinkles!).

This is my door (I only have 1 since I'm in a portable).  I made the "In Our Classroom" display that's been going around Pinterest for the last few years.

 Here are 2 of my tables that are hiding a ton of junk!  We got new math and language arts curriculum that came with a ton of stuff.  It's almost all hiding under here!  Along with extra books for my classroom library.

 

  

These 2 are pictures of my desk area.  On the side of the cabinet I have our classroom jobs and on the front are the rules are rewards.  Last year I made a bunting with my name on it and I've finally put it on my desk!  Up in the corner I have my display for my kiddos' birthdays.

These final shots show how the desks were set up on the first day, and this last one is of most of the room taken from the door.

Well, there's my classroom in a nutshell!  Now that school is started I'm hoping to get into the swing of blogging about content.  How's the year going for you if you've started?

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Brandi