High Five for Friday

Hello hello! It's Friday again and I thought what better way to celebrate than with another high five post? Here are the highlights from my week in picture form:

1) I got my butt into gear and started working out again. Watching HBO's "Girls" while on the elliptical definitely makes the time go by quicker ;)

2) This was my first week of planning and teaching full time. Oh my. Lets just say this was also the first week I started drinking coffee. Also, notice the fabulous mug.

3) Our kiddos got a visit from K9s for Warriors, a group in St. John's county that trains service dogs for veterans with PTSD. Check out the work they're doing here.

4) The 3 UF interns had our last seminar with our supervisor Thursday at Caps On The Water in St. Augustine. We ended up staying and chatting over sangria for over 3 hrs as the sun set over the intracoastal. Absolutely stunning. Can't believe our time together is almost over!

5) My uncle graduated with his masters degree in business today! The whole family was able to make it to UNF and watch him walk, even if it meant leaving school at lunchtime. So proud of him!

So that was my week. I'm looking forward to relaxing some this weekend before teaching full time again next week. Weekend, here I come!

And So It Begins

Boy did I have a case of the Monday's this morning. I had a fantastic bachelorette weekend with Lexi, our bride-to-be, and the other fabulous bridesmaids/MOH, where we slept in late, got our nails done, dressed up for dinner, laughed way too much, and saw Taylor Swift sing her heart out. It was hard coming back. Trust me.

SO MUCH RED
PS: Slutty brownies were a hit

Countdown clock says 6 weeks until I move to Memphis and 5 more weeks of my internship. Eeek! Today was my first day taking over the classroom and I taught all day, minus a half hour math lesson (I'm easing my way in). I would definitely say the hardest part was all the planning. The more you plan, the less you have to worry about later!

6 Weeks. Cue panic.

We're starting to learn a little bit about literature circles and the kids were SO EXCITED. They actually thanked me when I announced it. Lol I guess it's all in how you phrase it and saying "I thought I would reward you for working so hard by letting you do literature circles the last 6 weeks of school. But if you don't want to, we can go back to what we know." They jumped at it!

We're teaching jobs this week. Today was "Super Summarizer"

I'm going to try a jigsaw lesson tomorrow and cut out these cute little briefcases out of construction paper for the kids to write their "expert" facts on. I'll let you know how it goes!

Hoping this rain stops so we can get some outdoor recess time. Our kiddos are so tired of being cooped up inside and so. am. I. Here's hoping Tuesday is less gloomy than today was!

High Five for Friday

High five for Friday you guys! We made it through FCAT week, which is glorious! I wanted to try an idea I saw on this blog here. Here are 5 of my favorite pictures from this week. It pretty much captures what went down:

1) Sabre woke me up every morning last weekend because I was home alone and he was being a good guard dog. What a sweet boy =]

2) I started quilting my mom's Mother's Day quilt. No spoiler here- she picked out the fabric and has been watching me waiting for it to be finished! 

3) My mom ordered Toms that were too small so I get them! Granted, I had to buy her new ones online, but still, aren't they cute?!

4) I found out I'm going to teach the last FIVE weeks of my internship instead of the last FOUR. Cue frantic lesson planning!!! Ahhhhhh!!!

5) I made Slutty Brownies for the bachelorette party I'm headed to this weekend. That would be a layer of cookie dough, a layer of oreos, and then a layer of brownie. OH MY GOSH. Can you handle it?

So I'm taking my slutty brownies and my giant bottle of wine and headed to Tampa for mani/pedis, laying out by the pool, girl talk, and the Taylor Swift concert! Perfect cap to FCAT week =]

Playing Catch-Up

Hey everybody, I'm sorry I've been MIA the last 3 weeks! We had spring break and I went to Tampa for Roxanne's wedding (check out her blog here) and then to New Orleans to visit Casey, my bestie from high school. It was such a great spring break and EXACTLY what the doctor ordered.

Beautiful wedding!

Teacher friends =]

Casey and I in New Orleans

Being tourists

We ate our way through the city- naturally.

Then we had Monday, April 1st as an inservice day and I was only at school Tuesday and Wednesday before I got hit with a stomach bug and had to stay home two more days. I really wanted to be careful though, because I did NOT want to give my kids any germs right before FCAT. 

This week we just reviewed everything we needed to, covered up all of our bulletin boards, signs, and books (basically everything but the brick wall) with giant sheets of paper (no cheating here!), and rearranged the room for our big test next week. 

We are so looking forward to getting past this test! I feel confident in my kids and I know they'll do great! We also have a respectable pile of snack food piling up that families have brought in for the afternoons of the FCAT. I think with all this hard work, our kiddos definitely deserve some Cheez-its and Disney movies ;)

In internship news, I had my FINAL observation on Wednesday! That makes 11, in case you were wondering. To give you a comparison, the other interns at my school (from UNF) do 4. Let that sink in. The only thing I have left is an informal observation by my supervisor and a principal observation. I'm going to do both of these during the month of May when I'm teaching full-time. At least I'll be prepared for the 6 observations I need per year in Tennessee! Bring it on.

Invasion of the Baby Chicks

Ladies and Gentlemen. It happened. We have been invaded. Our classroom was invaded by baby chicks this week!

So sweet and innocent! Don't trust them!!

You won't believe these little rascals. On Tuesday, they trashed our room, spreading notebooks, pens, and paper all over the place! They left little pieces of plastic, green grass behind and a note on the board: IOTBC. They also left tiny pieces of paper with IOTBC on them. Don't you worry, our kids were on the case! They spent the day trying to figure out what IOTBC stood for and collecting their clues.

Wednesday morning, we came into the classroom and saw the baby chicks' latest attack:

Sneaky little things 

They got me, too!

Yes. They tied yarn all around our desks and chairs! They even got me and my mentor teacher! As our kids pointed out, there must be a lot of them to get all that done. Our new clues were little chocolate eggs, more IOTBC slips of paper, a note on the board saying IOTBC, more green grass, and these little prints on some of the desks:

Hmmmm a new clue....

Our kids collected the clues, wrote them all down, and started hypothesizing suspects and what to do next. They thought IOTBC stood for It's Only The Beginning, Children (which, frankly, sounds terrifying). The kids figured whoever it was had to be small to get through our locked door. They thought maybe it was the Easter bunny (with the holiday just around the corner). Another guess was a leprechaun (with St. Patrick's day just this past weekend). The yarn made them think of spiders, and the wild card guess was poor Mr. O'Keefe, the teacher down the hall. According to the kids, he's been "suspicious" lately because he's been coming in our room with technology questions. Poor, unsuspecting Mr. O'Keefe. Our "clue club" put together some questions for our attackers and left them around the room:

My favorite is E. How scary is a creature that is all of the above??

Thursday morning, we saw our attackers faces! Baby chicks! Each student had a baby chick waiting for them, along with a nest of green grass, jelly beans, and a chocolate egg. IOTBC has been solved. One of the students even figured out it stood for Invasion of the Baby Chicks! What an adventure. We'll have to apologize to Mr. O'Keefe for the false accusation, even though some students are still slightly suspicious...

Baby chicks for the win!

After the big morning, we also had coconut cupcakes that I made for the class, a little spring surprise =]

Yum

Also, if you didn't hear on FB, I was offered a job with Achievement School District! You can check them out here. More details to come, but it looks like they want me in 4th grade so I am beyond excited to start preparing for my own 4th grade class next year! Snaps for fourth grade, you guys! To celebrate, my mentor teacher and the teacher next door got me a cake and a pretty notebook. I'm so lucky to have them and will be asking a million questions as I prepare for next year =]

Double yum

So pretty!

So we are officially on Spring Break! I'll be headed to Tampa tomorrow for a cohort wedding and am laying low until then. It feels so good to not have to be anywhere!! Hope you're having a great Friday =]

Spring (Break) Fever

Two more days! Two more days! Not sure who's more excited about spring break- me or the kids?! Hehe I'm so used to having spring break the first week of March at UF so I'm a bit overdue for a break. At least it'll be warmer this year =]

Today was class picture day and I got to be in it! This class is so special to me and I hope I can get a copy of the picture to take with me to Memphis! Speaking of Memphis, I passed both of my praxis tests (one middle school and one elementary), had a phone interview with Gestalt and a phone interview with KIPP, was turned down by KIPP (sad), and had a video interview with Achievement School District. So now I'm waiting to hear back from the other two interviews. That's the latest update.

You know how we've been focusing on leadership and the 7 Habits by Covey? Well we had this great big Leadership Expo a couple weeks ago and it was so fun! We stayed after school and the kids and parents came in around 6. They had a tour (led by the 5th graders) of the different habits in different rooms and then came into our classroom to check out their science projects and talk with us. I love getting to talk with their parents and getting to know them all better. They've all been so sweet and welcoming to me! I have been so incredibly lucky this year =]

Look how cute these are! 7 Habits-themed-snacks! The administration made them for our last faculty meeting. 7 Habits are everywhere =]

7 Habits snack pack explanation

Yum!

This weekend, I'll be heading to Tampa to celebrate a friend's wedding with some of my cohort girls, and then I'll have a couple days at home before (attempting) to go to New Orleans to visit my high school bestie. This is my THIRD attempt since September to get out there. So please ward off any hurricanes or flu virus' that look like they're coming my way!

And Now For Some Good News

You made it through Wednesday! Congratulations, just 2 days left until the weekend. How am I doing, you ask? Y'all are so sweet. I'm doing GREAT actually. Let me show you in pictures how everything's been lining up juuuuuuuust right.

Yay!

Got an email for a phone interview with Gestalt Community Schools (a charter school in Memphis). I actually had that interview today and I think it went well! I was cool, calm and collected. This would be for elementary, so K or 1st. The tiny ones scare me, but they make up for it in precious things they say. On to the next picture:

Yay!

Got an email for a phone interview with KIPP (another charter school in Memphis!) This interview is Friday afternoon. Again, their elementary is just K and 1st, but there's also their middle school, which has 5th and 6th. Maybe? Who knows. Next picture!

Yay!

I passed all of my Florida Certification exams. Now I just have to finish these pesky classes UF wants me to take. Two more classes and three more months of an internship before I can apply for certification (which will promptly be transferred to Tennessee, thank you very much).

And finally, though I don't have a picture to go with it, my mentor teacher said I could take over the classroom for the month of May- basically the last 4 weeks I'm there! It'll be after FCAT so pressure is off and we can experiment with some new lesson ideas. I'm just excited to completely take over! It was one part of the old style of interning I regretted not having.

Sigh. So yes, it's all coming together. Remind me of this when it inevitably all feels like it's falling apart ;)