Behind Before I Even Get To Start

I report back to school August 9th... And I am panicking!!! Why? Because I haven't been able to step foot in my classroom yet! The floors are still not finished... This news caused my stomach to knot up and my insomnia to flare up ( ok maybe I'm being a little dramatic) NOT! You see I'm usually in my room a full two weeks before I see anyone else in my building there and this will not be the case this year...and that frightens me...I am a TALKER, so this means I won't get near enough accomplished when I go back and everyone else is there too! Is anyone else facing this issue? Lol! I am behind... When am I not? When is any teacher not just a little behind? It'll be ok...it will get done. No pictures in this post, but I am making a strong promise to do better about that this year! I am not a very great blogger, but I'd like to be when I'm NOT so behind;) -Mrs. Ille :)

Currently...I FINALLY figured it out!!!!

Gee Whiz....I generally think that I am pretty techy...ok semi-techy but this about ate my lunch trying to get this thing done on my MAC....anywho...I did it...Here is my "Currently"

Come join in on the fun
Click HERE


LaKeta

A Day In The Life...

A Day in My Life... I thought this would be a lot of fun to participate in, so here goes!





5:45- Dumb alarm clock goes off... Ugh! I hit the snooze until 6:10...

6:10{ish} I stumble out of bed and turn on my Kuerig {puffy heart Adore this machine!} make a bowl of Quaker oats to go along with my heavenly cup of coffee goodness...

6:20 sit on the couch to eat breakfast, watch the news, and surf Pinterest;)

6:30-6:35 begin getting my self together

6:50-6:55 wake up Chloe and Seth... They beg for 5-10 more minutes... Wonder where they get that from....dumb alarm clock ;)

7:45- scramble out the door... Lucky for me I seriously live about 6-7 blocks from our school... Pre-K -12 is all on one campus.

7:50- walk in the 4th grade building and say a happy "good morning!" to my fellow 4th grade teachers

8:05-8:10 Students arrive

8:15-8:20 pledge of allegiance/ moment of silence observed

8:20-9:00 daily independent reading time

9:00-9:45 Activity

9:45-11:00 Math Time

11:00-11:20 Skills time (focusing on Drops in the Bucket or handwriting)

11:30-12:20 Lunch / Recess. Monday so it's my duty day...the teacher I'm paired with and I rotate so one week it's cafeteria and playground duty and the next week it's just playground:)

12:25-12:30 bathroom breaks and diffusing any embers brought in from recess;)

12:30-1:15 Spelling/language arts

1:20-2:30 Reading Time

2:30-3:00 Science/social studies. I rotate these two subjects... Or at least I try! My school is adamant that we focus more on math and reading than anything else:(

3:00 clean up, pack up, stack up

3:10 students dismissed

3:20-4:30 can't always account for this time... But I try to make good use of it... Cleaning up or maybe just grading papers or prepping for tomorrow.

4:30-5:00 I try to be home most days by this time if not earlier so my personal children don't feel as though they live at school;). Go for a walk...still working out hard as part of my 2012 resolutions!!!

5:30{ish} start making supper Yay!Cale is home right now so he takes Seth to basketball practice...Chloe stays home with me;)


6:30 eats upper with the family... The entire family at the dining room table... I try to have at least 4-5 sit down meals a week... The hubs works in the oil field so he isn't home on any kind of consistent basis.

7:00 clean up,showers, etc. get ready for the next day...

8:00 tv time, Pinterest, blog reading, reading a book time

10:30-11:00 try to be in bed before 11:00 but my night owl habits don't always cooperate;)




LaKeta

Da Plan...

So week two of the clutter free classroom decluttering project... This week's assignment was to list the rules/plan for decluttering...

1. I WILL get rid of multiple copies of paper items.

2. Sort through the MASSIVE amounts of professional books I have accumulated in the 8 years I've been teaching...give away the majority...I know that my Most used resource is the Internet. I'm also going to quit buying these books...it's like a sickness!

3. Start small, so I don't get overwhelmed and QUIT;)

4. Put things up when I get them out

5. De-binder some of my books and use the bookbinder to save space...

6. JUST DO IT!!!!

I am also plannning to follow the rules on the cute freebie Jodi posted earli in the week to help me be a successful organizer... I want to be a recovered shover/piler.

I haven't purchased anything to help with removing the clutter, but I stashed a few copy paper boxes and a couple of empty milk crates in my room...I'm really thinking a box of HEFTY trash bags are going to do the most magic in my room;) winks!!!


Happy Weekend!

LaKeta

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Wowzers!!!! I Have My Work Cut Out For Me

So I am "trying" to participate in the Clutter Free Classroom's Organization PROJECT...and I'm already BEHIND!!! EEEEKKKK!!!!

The first part of the challenge was to take pics{Oh Em Gee} of your CLUTTER and MASS CHAOS in your classroom...Welp! I was in no shortage of finding that... I won't apologize for my mess, but I will for the cellphone pics;)

Front Corner : Library Area...OOOPPPS the hanging reindeer my son made when he was in Kindergarten that I hang up each year is STILL up...I did take this down TODAY!

I have 27 students this year, so it feels like desks and chairs are everyWHERE!

The whiteboard I use to teach on...turn in trays and graded paper return system...also board games, extra crayons, glue, scissors, etc.....and more desks and chairs!!!

The back corner...I brought this dresser in to store more JUNK....not really sure I am digging it on this back wall...it does do a nice job of being a catchall though;)

GULP! My extremely messy desk, and shelf area...I AM SUCH A PILER!!!!

And apparently I am a SHOVER too...look inside these drawers...I shove stuff in that I don't want to see anymore...please tell me I am NOT the only person who does this!!!

So I definitely have my work cut out for me....not sure when this ORGANIZATION is going to take place....but I certainly need it to happen...maybe the desk fairy will swing by and take care of it for me??? winks!!!


LaKeta


Join me and get clutter free:)

My Top Three Reasons To Get Organized in Twenty-12

When I saw The Clutter Free Classroom's upcoming project about organizing the chaos of my classroom I was super stoked! I go back to school Wednesday and will be snapping my pics to participate. But tonight I wanted to list my 3 main reasons for getting organized.

1. More FAMILY time
2. Organization eliminates stress
3. To set an example for my students

If you haven't heard about this challenge head over to www.clutterfreeclassroom.blogspot.com and check it out!

A Few Pics of the First Couple of Weeks

Cannot believe that tomorrow is the beginning of our 3rd week of school! I have a great group of kiddos this year...27 kiddos to be EXACT! I've never  had that big of a class before...17 boys and 10 girls and I LOVE them to pieces ALREADY!!!

Thought I'd share a few pics of some of my room and a couple of things we've been up to...

The first is the chalkboard I created from an old easel that was headed to the dump...I rescued this sweet lil piece and now it sits outside my classroom door ready to welcome the kids and their parents. It will also be posted with reminders as the year goes on!

The next two pics are our "Self-Portraits" the idea came from a pin on pinterest...one of my team teachers found it and we decided to tweak it for our 4th graders...the students created their self portraits from construction papers...kind of layering the colors they needed to create these mega cute self images:) They completed an "All About Me" sheet and attached them to their creations.

I made the cute little chalkboard clothespins after seeing a post here. My classroom is the old high school computer lab, so it is MASSIVE, but has tons of metal poles on the walls...I decided to create "clotheslines" between the poles to display student work and the clips were the perfect touch for them:)

The next picture is my birthday board!!! I am IN L <3 VE with how it turned out!!!! I bought a frame at Hobby Lobby for $3 and spray painted it Ocean Breeze...added wire to the back of the frame with my staple gun and found the cute little birthday months poster at a local teacher store...laminated the pieces and clipped them on with some clothespins.  After we created our line plot of birthdays I transfered the information to the months and the little board sits next to another Pinterest inspired creation...balloons on Pixie Stixs...4th graders totally love the getting to choose their pixie stix on their birthday:)