Welcome Friends! I interrupt your perusal of this post I wrote two years ago, to explain..... I am sharing it today because the sentiments expressed still ring true on the eve of my Teacher Work Day and Open House 2016.  "Real school" with my new group of second graders begins Tuesday.   Maybe you are also poised to begin your new journey with a mix of excitement and trepidation.  Last year was not an easy one for me, and it has taken a lot of rest to rejuvenate myself and be ready for this one.  I go forward with hope and determination though, and you should too!  I hope the positive spirit of my reflections help you do so!  It might even help you to write some "letters to yourself" that you can return to when the beginning of a new week blues set in next! I am setting aside household chores and a stack of papers to be graded to just BE THANKFUL on this foggy Sunday morning!  I've been AWOL from my blog for approximately 11 days and must feed...

Whew! I made it through 21 fairly stressful days of school and I am still standing!  How are you holding up?   I attribute my survival to lots of coffee, great support from my co-teachers and aides, and the attitude that finding the humor in all situations will see you through! So..... after a lengthy absence from the blogging world and in order to celebrate all of the above, I thought I'd link up with DoodleBugs for ... I must admit that I haven't taking many pictures of our learning space or projects over that past three weeks, but I did finally get my classroom blog up and running!  Courtney at  Blogs Fit for a Queen was my designer, and I am just tickled about how it turned out!  Take a peek {HERE}! I also finished and uploaded some new creations in time for fall, which is my favorite season, and I hope these FREEBIES will help you work "smarter not harder" in the coming weeks! Some of my best blogger budd...

Hello from this long-lost blogger!   Know that I have missed writing here desperately but my life and time has been monopolized by all things school-related!  My new crew in Room #2 has seven days under our belt, and we will return tomorrow for four more!     I took advantage of this holiday weekend though to make something I needed for my classroom and am debuting it here for YOU as a long overdue token of my appreciation!  But first, I must explain how it came to be..... Ladies and gentleman, drum roll please....       For those of you who use JOURNEYS as your Reading series and MATH IN FOCUS as your Math series, you know that both come with a large amount of materials that can be overwhelming to sort through and set up for easy reference and use in your lessons.  What I thought was going to work once the children came, was not as "user-friendly" as I'd hoped, nor was it aesthetically pleasing enough for the mini-Martha Stewart in my soul.  I ju...