The One Where I Tell You More

I love me a good linky party.  Amy over at Step into 2nd is hosting a Tell Me More Tell More.  It's a great way to get to know some new bloggy friends.

Here are few odd things about me.


#1 I'm a hog through and through.  Woo Pig Sooie!

#2 I recently took up the sport of golf.  My husband is my coach.  So far so good.

#3 I'm a nail biter.  I want to quit.  I almost have a full nail on every finger.  Once I have all ten, I'm getting a manicure.  I'm hoping a little nail polish will deter me from biting.  It's a hard habit to break.

#4 This is my 2nd blog.  I also blog at www.elainaweaver.blogspot.com about my daily life with my husband and our sweet furbaby, Liberty Belle.

#5 I played the clarinet from 6th to 12th grade.  Band Geek in the House!!

#6 As some of you have figured out by my post titles my all time favorite show is...

#7 I've recently decided to use twitter as another way to connect with fellow teachers.  Follow me at elainaann3.  Yes this is a bit of a lame attempt to get followers.  Don't judge.


#8 Snakes bring me to tears.  I'm terrified. Can't even look at a picture of one.  Keep them far far away.  Just because I'm a science teacher does not mean I automatically love all "critters"

#9 Watching Say Yes to the Dress makes me want to get married again (to my sweet husband) just so I can buy another wedding dress.  I would pick something very different this time around.

My original  pick...

Though I love that dress, today I would pick something more like this...

I love the fun feathery bottom.

#10 Lately I have been obsessed with this snack.  I eat it almost every day.

The One With Freebies

I have spent this week attending training to teach Pre AP English.  I have to admit that while I don't exactly enjoy spending my summer in workshops all day, this one has been very informative.  It is getting me all excited about teaching English this upcoming year.  I have several things that I want to share with you, but I'll try to do it in small chunks.

If you have been teaching ELA for several years, let me warn you: I'm new.  Everything is new, wonderful, and exciting to me.

The first thing I want to share is a website where you can get some free kits for your school.  Go to www.teachingtolerance.org.  From there click on teaching kits.  There are six different teaching kits and you can have all six of them for free.  At this point I can't really tell you how useful they are or aren't.  I just ordered my yesterday.  It takes 6 to 8 weeks for you to receive the kits.

If anyone has ordered and used these kits before, please let me know what you think about them.

The One With The New Stool

Last year I inherited an old wooden bar stool.  It was in good condition but wasn't very attractive.  At the end of this school year I sent it over to my cousin for a makeover.  She just sent me a picture of it and I absolutely love it.  It's bright and colorful.  It will fit in perfectly with what I'm going for this upcoming year.

Spring Break

I am on Spring Break this week and loving every minute of it. I stayed at school until 5:00 Friday so that I could leave with all papers graded. I do still have a small stack of quizzes to grade, but they won't take very long.

I didn't want a huge to do list hanging over my head. I have a couple of projects that I want to start working on. I have some time there though because we won't do them until after Benchmark.

I can't believe we only have 9 school days left until testing. We will definitely be doing some major reviewing and cramming in those 9 days. How do you prepare students for benchmark? What are some things you do?

A friend/coworker and I are taking a group of 7th and 8th graders to D.C. the week after benchmark for 4 days. To say we are all excited would be a huge understatement. We are counting down the days. We are traveling with Smithsonian Student Travel. Have you ever travelled with them? They have been fabulous to work with. If you ever decide you want to take a big trip like this, I recommend them.

Back to those projects.... A little sneak peak.

Science --> Picture a Wax Museum filled with Scientist who come to life. :) This will be the first year of doing this.

Math --> Major Budgeting project. Students learn how to calculate taxes and keep a monthly budget. I did this for the first time last year and it was a big hit!

The One With The Saved Email

I had a little situation today that I thought might benefit some of you. I learned in my first year of teaching that you should save emails. Unfortunately I learned the hard way.

I returned an email to a parent, but didn't save that email in my sent folder. Apparently the email got lost in cyberspace and never made it to the parent. That parent got very upset and went to my principal complaining that I was not communicating with her.

Thankfully I have a wonderful principal who believed me about sending the email. From that day on I started saving every email I sent.

It's also important to save emails people send you, especially those that are about an agreement.

I had a situation this week where I did not receive payment that I earned. A saved email was my rescue. It kept me from losing $100.

If you don't already, be sure to save all important emails. You never know when you might need them.

The One With the Outdoor Classroom

Well fellow teachers, I really did not mean to let an entire month pass us by without blogging. Things have just been crazy busy lately. I'm sure you know what that's like.

I often feel like I have to have some wonderful activity to share with you in order to post. I hope that is not the case as today I come to you with no real activity to share.

The weather where I live was absolutely gorgeous today. Though it is not officially spring for another twenty days, it could not have been more "spring like" outside today.

Most days I stay cooped up in my room working away. I go to the classroom next door to each lunch, but that's really the only time I leave my room. Today I had to go outside to help a coteacher for just a minute. As soon as I stepped outside I felt a strong desire to be outdoors instead of surrounded by the four walls of my room.

My last class of the day reaped the benefit of that desire. I gave instructions for the day as soon as they walked in and then we all headed outside to do our work. They loved it! Of course now they want to have class outside every day. :)

The One With The Questions

I'm excited to say that I've been tagged by the 24/7 teacher. I'll admit I'm a bit of a nerd and I love stuff like this.

Here are the rules:

*Post the rules.
*Post 12 fun facts about yourself in the post.
*Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged.
*Tag 12 people and link them on your post.
*Let them know you've tagged them



So here we go with those 12 fun facts.

1. Married to my best friend! He's the best.
2. Momma to two sweet dogs.
3. Obsessed with owls.
4. Love to read and am rediscovery a love for young adult novels as I read recommendations made by my students.
5. Scrapbooking is one of my favorite past times.
6. Dream of being a photographer.
7. Deathly afraid of snakes.
8. Cry every time I go to the dentist, even for a cleaning.
9. Have been mistaken for a student and a student-teacher by two different subs in the past week
10. Taylor Swift fan
11. Don't eat marinara sauce on my pizza.
12. Said all my life I would never teach the very two subjects I'm currently teaching and loving.


Now on to the questions asked of me by the 24/7 Teacher.

1. Favorite part of Monday? Hearing about what my students did over the weekend
2. Favorite part of Tuesday? Spending time at home with the husband. Tuesday seems to be the only day of the week we are both home all night.
3. Favorite part of Wednesday? Zumba class!
4. Favorite part of Thursday? Watching The Office with the husband
5. Favorite part of Friday? 3:15 :) I LOVE my job but I also look forward to time with the husband every weekend. Our weeks are normally pretty busy.
6. Favorite part of Saturday? Saturday morning breakfast runs with Liam Bailey (my puppy)
7. Favorite part of Sunday? Church & Sunday naps
8. Favorite part of Spring? Bright colors and skirts.
9. Favorite part of Summer? Finding great ideas and preparing for the upcoming school year
10. Favorite part of Fall? Razorback football
11. Favorite part of Winter? Scarfs & Hot Chocolate
12. Favorite part of your school day? Getting to brag on my students because they've succeeded at something that started as a struggle.


I'm supposed to tag 12 of you, but to be honest I don't know if I know 12 of you that haven't already been tagged. If you read this please consider yourself tagged and play along. Leave me a comment letting me know you are playing. I would love to get to know some of you better.

Here are your questions to answer.

1. Favorite TV Show?
2. Favorite TV or Movie Character?
3. Favorite Children's book?
4. Most unusual name of a student you've had?
5. One thing you couldn't live without in your classroom?
6. Dream vacation?
7. To go or eat in the restaurant?
8. Milkshake or Malt?
9. Facebook or Twitter?
10. Favorite band?
11. Sweet or Unsweet tea?
12.See a movie in theater or wait until it comes out on dvd?

The One With Pinterest

I thought I'd share a few ideas I found on pinterest for the classroom.