Teacher Week '13: Let's Talk About ME Monday...

 

I teach first grade in Illinois - right off of the Mississppi River. I have 19 students this year...shhh!  This is the least amount of students EVER!  This is my 9th year building young minds! I have taught first grade, second grade, and fifth grade.

 

I have been married for 17 years!  My husband and I started dating 20 years ago this summer!  We have 2 amazing children.  Chase is going to be a junior and Emily will be a sophomore - yes...in high school!

 

I am a sales Advisor for lia sophia jewelry!  I love their jewelry and hope to gain more clients! It is so much fun to visit with the girls!  If you have never heard of lia sophia, I would be happy to introduce it to you!

I am a soccer FREAK!  FC Barcelona is my FaVoRiTe team!! Other than where my children play! ;) Both of my children play in high school - my daughter goes to a private high school because my husband coaches there ;)

I LOVE Vampire Diaries, Game of Thrones, and have just started to watch True Blood!  I am a fan of the Bachelor/Bachelorette AND {heart} The Voice! Adam Lavine...that is all!

 

I am watching soccer right now!  FREAK!  A game I DVRd this last week!

I love to read! JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood is my favorite series - very racy; but I love them! I also loved Harry Potter and Hunger Games.  I am also a fan of Christian Grey...shh...I feel like I should whisper this.

 

On long road trips, we make up words to our favorite songs. Usually about McDonald's French Fries - yum they are so good, especially with ice cream!

Today I found a milkweed plant with an egg on it's leaf.  We are studying butterflies in room 9 now. :)  It hatched tonight! This is a new adventure for me and my students!

 

 Finally, I stay up way to late and wake up very early!  I love sitting in my classroom when the kids are gone and reflecting about the day and I love when the pencils are all sharpened!

 

That is all...

Happy Teaching,

Jessica

My First Week Back...EXHAUSTED!

School has officially started! It was a busy week!  Getting to know the students and teaching them rules and routines.  I am so very lucky to have 19 wonderful new Littles! I KNOW only 19 - I will not say that too loud. 

My week began with some sad news! I want to take this moment to remember my grandmother, Wilma Clements. She was an amazing woman.  She was one of the strongest ladies I know! 27 years ago this awesome lady saved my mom and sisters. She was the grandmother of my heart and the happiest memories from my childhood are with her in them! I will miss her very much, but I know she will always watch over me and keep me strong!

I am busy putting together Leadership Binder information for the team to preview. Check back on Monday...I have decided to join a Link Party...

Happy Teaching,
Jessica

Classroom Photos Part 2

 Here are my lockers...I purchased this cutie-pie branch at K-Mart for $10 - it came with a bunch of owls; but I really only wanted the branch.  I gave the rest of the owls to our librarian - she will put them to good use. I use sheet protectors taped to the lockers to display student work! The cute birds are clip art I got from JW Illustrations, printed on cardstock and hard laminated them.  I use Name Labels for their lockers and at the end of the year, we use them to put on their take home bags.

 Here are the many faces of my door. On the outside, I have the 7 habits listed with a tree.  Students get to give Leader Leaves to each other when they show leadership and the leaf gets put onto the tree. At the end of the year, our tree will be full of leaves!  The inside had my Star of the Week - I downloaded a package for FREE from Susan Moran on TPT and the framed page came with it!  I laminated it, took the glass out of the frame, 3M'd the back and presto!  It doorway is framed by a curtain I purchased at Lowe's for $7. I know...it is super cute! I Gorilla Glue-d the curtain rod to the wall...which is conrete and will sand right off! My mentor and friend gave me this idea - the curtain will be a backdrop to photos of students - genius!

 I {heart} sharp pencils! That is all!! I got the cute buckets from the Target $ spot!

More photos to come as the year progresses!  If you like my blog, follow me on Bloglovin! My button is at the left of this page. :)

Happy Teaching,

Jessica

"ALL-DAY-er"

Teachers had to report to school on Thursday, Aug.1.  Not so bad!  We got to work in our rooms to get ready for the year...I was planning on getting all of my copies sorted (I sent my masters downtown to be copied for the first month of school - two weeks ago!). They still had not arrived.  I called and left a message with the gal who does all the copying. I found out yesterday morning that the delivery guy was off for the last few days...so after our District Meeting in the morning, I went to pick them up myself! So glad I did!! Upon returning to school, I sat in a meeting for Empowerment (our school is in year two of The Leader In Me) until about 4PM. I decided to get my copies organized...I forgot how much work this really is! Here is what my classroom looked like after I took everything out of the box...YIKES!

 

With students coming on MONDAY! I couldn't leave this! Luckily, there were some AWESOME teachers that were planning an ALL-NIGHTER to get things ready. I decided to stay two more hours...yeah right! As all of you know, when copies come some things need to be stapled, 3-hole punched, laminated for sturdiness, cut into books, folded, put into binders etc.  My husband offered to come and help, but I said "You don't need to, it will only take me about an hour." Love him...the hour turned into 5!  I had forgotten how much time this takes! I wish I would have had him come out.  Plus, the school's laminating machine takes FOREVER to heat up.  I dropped my small cutting board and broke it...grr. So happy to sit in my partner teacher's room and use hers.

Today I am going to RELAX and spend time with the Family! Happy Teaching,

Jessica