The One With The Summer To Do List

Summer break has officially started. 

I spent three days earlier this week working on common core units for 5th grade Math.  Though I still have a long ways to go, I'm off to a good start.  

Elementary is a whole new world to me.  Bulletin Boards in the hallway.  Holiday parties.  Homeroom.  

I've given my new coworkers a few good laughs with my middle school minded thoughts.  

Speaking of new coworkers.  They are so nice & helpful.  And they go on and on about what a great school QES is to work for.  

I'm still mourning the loss of my HG fam, but I'm excited about this new adventure.

I was able to see my new classroom this week.  It's a complete blank canvas.

I'll admit I was a bit disappointed when I first saw it.  I don't know what I was expecting.  My classroom is always blank when I start working on it.

The teacher who was previously in this room showed me some pictures of how she had it set up last year.  

The pictures restored my faith that the room can be cute once I add some color.

I cannot wait to get in there and start adding color and making it my own with lots of owls and chevron.

It hit me last night that some elementary teachers change their theme every year.  Since I will be teaching 5th and 6th grade, therefore have the same students twice in a row, I will want to change my theme.  

My mind is already on what I would like to do next.  

My mind is also thinking about a hundred other things.  I've been trying to mentally put together my summer to do list.  So far it looks like this.

1. Finish units for 5th grade.

2.  6th grade units

3. Give filing cabinets a make over

4. Repurpose a piece of furniture for my classroom - Have no idea what I want or need, but I still want to do it. Ha!

I'm sure it will grow as summer goes on.  

What is on your summer to do list?

The One With The Bucket List

Summer Vacation has officially started!  Yay!  I still cannot get over how quickly this year as gone by.  I dare say it has been the best year of my 6 year teaching career.  I have truly enjoyed this group of students.  I even enjoyed teaching Math this year.  We tried something new with Science that I think worked very well.  So in a way the end of this school year is bittersweet. 

I thought I would join the summer bucket list fun now that I'm on summer break.  My list always seems to be a mile long.  My brain starts thinking about the next year in April.  I have a huge list of ideas before school ever even ends.  Pinterest has not helped.  There are so many great ideas on there.


With no further ado, in no particular order here is my summer bucket list.


1.  The biggest thing on my list is preparing for next year.  Since I'm making a change in content areas I have my work cut out for me.  I like to be prepared with a general overview of what my year will look like before school starts.  I don't always have detailed lesson plans for the whole year, but I like to have general plans for the year.


2. There will be lots of scrapbooking. I have several projects that I would like to finish. The project I want to do first though is a scrapbook for my sweet Liam Bailey. He ran away over 2 months ago. He miss him so much. I've been meaning to do a scrapbook for him and our other dog since we first got her 5 years ago. With him being gone, it just seems the perfect time to do it.

3.  I love the bunting hanging from the ceiling with the pom poms in this picture.  One of my goals is to make my own for my classroom.



4.  Reading great books is always on my summer bucket list.  This year my reading list is slightly different as I'm reading young adult and teen novels.  I cannot wait to get paid to discuss books with my students all year.  Can you say Dream Job?!?

5. I have been drooling over the Erin Condren teacher planners since discovering them.  They aren't cheap though so I am thinking about making my own planner/binder with all my important information in one place. 

6.  I want to clean and organize our home this summer.  I'm thinking a little bit at a time.  It's a big job and I do better with small chunks.  Same goes for my classroom.  I have stuff that was there when I started teaching at the school.  It's good stuff that I don't want to let go of, but I'm not using it so it needs to go.

7.  Last but not least is to label all of the books in my classroom library with their AR level and points.