Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Award Season (continued!)


‘Tis the season for awards, I guess! Along with the Liebster Award, I was also nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award by Kimberlee at  Two Fulbright Hugs! Thanks so much for finding me and giving me this award, Kimberlee. Go check out her blog; it’s full of super cute ideas!
Here are the rules to receive the award.
1      1.      Thank the blogger who nominated you and include a link to their site.
2      2.      Include the award image in your post.
3      3.      Give 7 random facts about yourself.
4      4.      Nominate 15 other bloggers for the award and include a link to their site.
5      5.      Let other bloggers know they’ve been nominated!

Ok… 7 random facts about myself.
1      1.      I’ve played the flute since 5th grade. I also play all sorts of wooden flutes, pennywhistles, and recorders.
2      2.      I teach at the school I attended from K-12th grade and graduated from. I also get to teach with some of my teachers, including my dad!
3      3.      I LOVE Disneyland.
4      4.      Along with teaching, I coach volleyball (which is fun!) but my real love is basketball.
5      5.      I’m married to my first and only boyfriend and we just celebrated our 2nd anniversary. I’m so blessed to have found my Prince Charming the first time around!
6      6.      I LOVE theater/ musicals and have been in several plays including Peter Pan and Arsenic and Old Lace!
7      7.      I’m about to start my 4th year teaching 2nd grade… the best grade ever!!

Now I get to share the love and pass on this award to some ladies with adorable blogs. Boy is it hard to find blogs who haven’t received this award! After a great deal of searching and blog stalking, these are the blogs I’m giving this award to. (Sorry, I couldn’t find 15!)


















Take some time and check out these inspiring blogs!

Award Season



Wow, it seems like it’s been forever since I posted on here! I’ve been super busy getting my room ready for school. I’ve decided to make my bulletin boards and classroom decoratives this year instead of buying them (since I can’t find much to go with my candy theme and because it’s so fun to make it myself) so it’s a slow process designing, printing, cutting out, laminating, cutting out again, and then hanging on the wall. Progress is definitely being made on my room and I’ll post pictures when I actually finish a project. I’m such a multi-tasker that I tend to work on 17 projects at once, which means nothing is actually fully finished right now. J



I received another award, this time from Cyndi at Lacy’s Letters! This award recognizes blogs with less than 200 followers.



Thanks so much for the award, Cyndi! Go check out her blog!


To receive the award, here are the rules…
1           1.    Copy and paste this award to your blog.
           2. Thank the giver and link back to them.
3         3. Reveal 5 other bloggers and link back to them.

I’ve decided to pass on this award to these bloggers…








Seriously, go check out their super cute blogs!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Achoo! and July's Currently


Sniff. Sniff. Achoo. Ughh… The signs and sounds of allergies. This week I’ve been thinking a lot about dealing with allergies and more specifically food allergies in the classroom. Next year I know I will have one boy in my class who has an anaphylactic allergy to peanuts. So scary!!

Anyway, after going to the allergist myself I found that out that after eating anything I want for 25 years, I’m allergic to wheat, dairy, and corn. Fortunately, the allergies are mild but still it’s a big adjustment for me reading every label and asking what’s in everything I eat. Perhaps this is God’s way of helping me prepare for the little “peanut boy” who will be in my class this next year.

This past week I’ve been thinking of different processes and procedures that I do in my classroom that will have to be adjusted to accommodate for him and any others that have specific food allergies. For example, I definitely need to be more aware and more careful with having the students wash their hands, being careful not to touch things after they have eaten, and being on top of making sure the students are not sharing food. Since I’ve never had students with severe allergies before, the food sharing didn’t bother me. Naively, I didn’t want to discourage the sharing spirit and attitude that I so want my students to have but I realized that through this, students can learn and work on other character traits. For example, by having a student with such a severe food allergy who cannot come in contact peanuts, who can’t come in contact with people who have touched or eaten peanuts, or who even cannot come in contact with a food that is handled or made in a facility where peanuts are also made, students can learn to be aware of other kids’ needs (unselfishness). They can also learn about giving up certain things in order to be a help to others and how to be content and grateful with what they’ve been given in their lunch, rather than trying to trade and share snacks with others.
Even though I am nervous about the responsibility of having to carry an epi-pen with me all the time, it’ll be a good learning experience for me and my students. 

If you have any advice about dealing with food allergies in the classroom, what works for you, procedures your school follows, or anything like that, please share your ideas!  

I’m linking up with Farley from Oh’ Boy 4th Grade for the July Currently linky party!



Here’s what I’m doing currently…


I’ve been listening to Poulenc’s flute sonata a bunch because next week I’m working at a band camp where I have to perform a piece for a faculty recital. Considering I haven’t performed a classical piece since high school, I’m super nervous!

I LOVE Pinterest. Seriously, I’m addicted! It’s such a wonderful resource for teachers! There are so many ideas and resources out there that I had no idea about until I discovered the world of Pinterest.

Well, I already discussed the allergy thing and I mentioned last month that I really want to go to Disneyland. It doesn’t look like that’s going to happen this summer since we’re trying to buy a car but maybe for fall break!

Laundry is something that I really need to do but I don’t want to!! The things I should do, I don’t want to, and the things that I really don’t need to do are the things I end up doing. Oh well. Such is life.

My all-time favorite read aloud is Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel! It’s just so fun to hear and read all those silly sounding words!
My “go-to” book for all things teacher related is the The First Days of School by Harry K. Wong. This was a required read and college and I re-read it every summer to get ready for the new school year. It’s basically a teacher’s handbook to surviving the first days of school.

Thanks for reading!