August Currently and Five for Friday and a Freebie!

It's officially August. I have conflicted feelings about August, with my birthday yesterday, moving to our new apartment on Monday, and my Dad visiting on Wednesday I'm excited. Then there's school starting, it's my first official year so I'm both excited and nervous. I have so much to do between packing and back to school preparations. August also means the return of Farley's Currently and Five for Friday!

listening: Sabrina has been my guilty pleasure this summer. :-)

loving: My hubby gave me the most beautiful bracelet from Catholic Bling for my birthday yesterday!

thinking: This one is pretty self-explanatory with school starting before I know it. My school to-do list is a mile long. Plus, I have to finishing packing and cleaning our apartment for our move on Monday.

wanting: We're super excited about our new apartment! I just wish we could skip all the grunt work that needs to happen in order to move in.

needing: I seriously need to buy shoes! I only have one new pair to start off the school year. Eek! 

B2s must haves: 

1. Have you tried out the new Pilot Frixion Pens? They are amazing! They come in multiple colors, and they are erasable! 

2. Last year I had the Erin Condren planner and loved it. This year I decided to upgrade to the teaching planner and I'm not regreting it. I'm most excited for the pages and pages of student checklists to help keep me on top of all my students paperwork. 

3. This year I'm finding the majority of my back to school purchases to be organizing solutions. I find organizing to be a huge challenge and anything I can find to help is worth it.

1. Printables!

This week I opened up my Teachers Pay Teachers store! My first freebie is up, click on the link to get it. I've had so much fun playing around with Photoshop this week. I have some more printables in the work, I'll post on here when I've uploaded them to my store. I would love it if you'd leave a comment if you like my How We Go Home Clip chart. 

I can't wait to get this printed out and up in my classroom!

2. Shopping

I scored some really good deals at the LOFT this week during a shopping trip with one of my teaching buddies! 

 3. Birthday

I celebrated my birthday yesterday with my hubby. We ate so much tasty food and found a great Vietnamese restaurant.

4. Books

I discovered Half-Price Books yesterday. I need to find the time to go back to look for more books for my classroom.

5. Classroom Supplies!

The Read Aloud Handbook

I discovered The Read-Aloud Handbook (7th edition) by Jim Trelease through Vanessa over at Pre-K Pages. 

I just finished Chapter 2, and I have already come away with a tremendous amount of knowledge that I will forever take with me as an educator, and eventually as a parent.

Jim Trelease includes the following research, "In 1985 the national Commission on Reading (out of the U.S. Department of Education) declared: "Reading aloud to children is the most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading."

There is research and anecdotes to impress the importance of read-alouds, and there is a huge read-aloud treasury to use as a guide to finding books to read-aloud to the children in your life.

I keep finding myself sharing the research and anecdotes I have just read with my husband. I  already believe that everyone who teaches and definitely EVERY parent should read this book.

In Chapter 2, there is a section "What About Reading to Children with Special Needs." In the words of the two personal narratives, my heart was captured by how reading aloud to children with special needs can impact their development so dramatically.

I had done read alouds with my third and fourth graders while I was student teaching. I had the opportunity to read two of Kate Dicamillo's novels The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane and The Tale of Despereaux. Now as I am about to start my first full year of teaching Preschool Special Education, I have a renewed commitment to making read alouds a priority in my classroom.

I wanted to share with you this visual created by Vanessa Pre-K Pages of 10 Wordless Picture Books.

Happy Reading!

Lots of Love

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

I'm using the day off to check things off my to-do list. It's definitely starting to be the busy time of year with ARDs and assessments.

When I wasn't busy trying to get caught up on ARD paperwork, I created a new token board system.  I will  be completing a lot of assessments in the next couple months,  and I will need a good motivator to get my little ones to work.

So, thanks in part to: 

Here is what I created (sorry for the glare): 

The hearts are from Kady Did Doodles and the stars are clip art. One of these days I will figure out how to post it for others to use, especially if there's interest.

I also made a Valentine's Day themed file folder game using the hearts. I heart great freebie finds!

I've still got to make the motivator choice PECs, but most of the pictures I need are on my classroom camera. Oh well, more work for another day.

On non-school related topics, this three-day weekend was much-needed. I enjoyed spending as much time as possible with my husband. We enjoyed a trip into the city and great food. After my hubby comment that I needed at new purse, my current Vera bag has seen better days. I'm now enjoying the search for a new handbag, apparently I need a nice sophisticated one.

My dream purse, if I had no budget, would be the MARC BY MARC JACOBS 'Classic Q - Natasha' Crossbody Flap Bag in Cinnamon Stick.

But for now I dream, and add purses to my wishlist for my hubs to buy for me! :-)

Wishing everyone a great week!

Stacy

A new year and a new start

As 2012 came to a close, I reflected on what areas of my life needed improvement. What I came to recognize is that I need to practice the art of reflection. I learned during my student teaching that reflection is a critical part of being a teacher. After taking my current teaching position I have thought many times about my need to reflex but hadn't found a way to incorporate it into my life. I'm turning to a blog to help make me accountable to this process in order to better myself as a teacher.

I'm a new teacher, although I've been out of college now since 2009. I started wanting to teach in Elementary school, I even student taught in 3rd and 4th grade, and graduated with a degree in Elementary Education. But that's not the path God created for me. God finally led me to a place where I would become a Pre-K Special Education teacher.

Never in my whole life did I ever consider this as a career path, but I'm so glad that God led me to this place. The past few months have been an amazing journey of growth, discovery, and a huge run-in with the first year teaching crud. (Yes, I was sick for over a month and a half. No one said this would be easy).

Going forward I plan to post updates once a week, probably on Fridays, to chronicle the learning explorations going on in my classroom and reflections on my teaching.

I hope this post is the start of many new explorations. Thanks for stopping by!

Allons-y!

~Stacy
Pre-K Explorer