Favorite Things about July

As I'm trying to think back over the month and pick my favorite things, it's easier to think of all the negative things rather than the good. This has not been the greatest month for us, but I don't want to focus on that.

 

Here are my favorite things from the month of July:

1. I've gained new followers! I've done several link ups this month as well as continued to stay active with my posting and commenting. I've also swapped buttons with some new people. I hope my blog will continue to grow and thank you if you're a follower (old or new) of my blog.

2. Meeting our new neighbors. We live in seminary student housing. In December and May, the majority of the people moved out of our apartment building. It was pretty lonely. In the past month, several new couples have moved in. We've been able to meet them and have dinner with some of them. I hope to continue to build a friendship with them.

 

3.  Meeting my new class. The beginning of the year is not my favorite time. You have to spend so much time teaching rules and expectations. You're not in the routine. However, I did enjoy getting a new class. It's also great to be at a school more than one year. I'm able to see my students from last year as they walk down the hall to their 5th grade class. My new class is sweet and I look forward to teaching them the rest of the year.

 

 4. Taking the boat out. Lee borrowed his parent's boat for the summer/fall. This month we went out a couple of times. I really enjoy going out on the water and just enjoying the beauty of nature.

5. Our anniversary was the 17th. Lee and I have been married for 2 years now. In honor of our anniversary, I wrote 4 blogs: How Do You Know?, 2 Years Ago, 10 Things I've Learned in Our 2 Years of Marriage, and Meet the Mr. Last year, we went to Disney World for our anniversary. This year we're hoping to take a trip to the mountains in the fall. On our actual anniversary, we went to the movies.

It's almost August! Where has the year gone? What were your favorite things about July?

Psalm 27

I love when you're going through an experience in your life and you open up your Bible to read and the passage you read speaks to your situation. This happened to me Friday.

As some of you know, Lee has had worsening stomach problems for the past year and a half. We have made countless ER visits. He has had several hospital stays. He has had test after test that has shown nothing. He is going to one of the best GI clinics in the country. They have told us he has Visceral Hypersensitivity which is basically what they diagnose you with when they can't find anything else wrong. It simply means the nerves around his stomach are too sensitive. Normal things can be interpreted as pain. They are treating him the same way they normally treat this condition and it's not really working for Lee. His doctor is at a loss and wants him to have a second opinion. So, Lee has an appointment Wednesday with a doctor that is internationally known for dealing with these kinds of stomach issues. We are praying that he can help us. These problems have taken a toll on us physically, mentally, spiritually, financially, and any other way you can think of. It's gotten to the point where we can't even make plans to do something because they might get cancelled because he's having pain. I often feel like I'm living with a ticking time bomb. I'm just waiting for him to have another episode. It's tiring and stressful, but we're trying to make the best of it and trust God through it all.

 

So, Friday Lee and I opened our Bibles to read Psalm 27 together and it really spoke to me with all that we're going through. I hope it speaks to you too.

The Lord is my light and my salvation —
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

 When the wicked advance against me
    to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes
    who will stumble and fall.  

 Though an army besiege me,
    my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
    even then I will be confident.

One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple. 

 For in the day of trouble
    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
    and set me high upon a rock.

Then my head will be exalted
    above the enemies who surround me;
at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;
    I will sing and make music to the Lord.

 Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
    be merciful to me and answer me.  

 My heart says of you, “Seek his face! ”
    Your face, Lord, I will seek. 

 Do not hide your face from me,
    do not turn your servant away in anger;
    you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
    God my Savior.  

 Though my father and mother forsake me,
    the Lord will receive me. 

 Teach me your way, Lord;
    lead me in a straight path
    because of my oppressors.  

 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
    for false witnesses rise up against me,
    spouting malicious accusations.

  I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.  

 Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord.

My Friday {in pictures}

Happy Friday everyone!

I thought I'd share my day with you through pictures.

*Note: My pictures are not the best quality because I took them with my phone and I don't have a fancy phone*

Fridays always equal tests. I try to grade them at school when I can so I don't have so many to grade at home.

I also usually try to give a lot of independent work on Fridays. Call me lazy or call me a genius because it gives me time to grade papers.

The Pandora classical station is my friend at school. I love to have music playing while they work.

We had to eat lunch in the classroom today because it's an early release day. I don't like not getting my lunch break. :(

On early release days, we have to have meetings all afternoon. The PTA provided us with yummy snacks-on Class of 2011 plates.

I worked on my class website during one of the meetings.

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings

Packed up and ready to head home with my basket full of papers to grade.

Christmas in July

I love Christmastime! There are so many wonderful things that only happen or you only do at Christmas.

Since there are only 151 days until Christmas and it is SO hot and miserable outside, I figured why don't I write a post with a list of my favorite things about Christmas.

Christmas movies

I love watching Christmas movies. 

 

Christmas crafts

With Pinterest, you can get excited for Christmas all year long. I have a nice Pinterest board full of Christmas craft ideas. I did many of my Pinterest projects last year and look forward to more this year.

The Grinch

I love the Grinch. The movie. The book. The character. 

Christmas songs

I have a whole playlist on my ipod dedicated to Christmas songs. 

 

Baking

Christmas is the perfect excuse to bake lots and lots of yummy goodies.

Giving

I love giving gifts to my loved ones. I also love giving to organizations such as the Angel Trees and Operation Christmas Child. Giving to others fills my heart with joy.

 

Decorating

I love to decorate for Christmas, but I don't like taking it down. I'm the type of person who likes my Christmas decorations up from the day after Thanksgiving to the first or second day of the new year.

 Celebrating the birth of my Savior

My life would be hopeless without Jesus Christ. Christmas is the holiday where we celebrate His birth.

I'm especially looking forward to Christmas this year because I have a new family tradition that I want to start.

What's your favorite things about Christmas?

More Pinterest Inspired Classroom

Before my school year started, I posted a blog about my Pinterest Inspired Classroom. It quickly became one of my most popular posts. 

I love finding ideas from other teachers and I love having Pinterest as a way to share and find these ideas. I feel like my catch phrase for this school year is "I saw this idea on Pinterest..."

*realized*conversations* -who edits these things?

So, I am now going on my 3rd week of this new school year. I know that if you're a teacher reading this, you probably have not started the new school year yet. Starting the new school year in July is one of the downsides of being at a year round school, but on the upside...I'm 6 weeks away from a break!

I thought I would share with you some more of my Pinterest Inspired ideas and let you know how they're working for me. 

I saw this idea shortly before school started. I have always wanted a way to have calendar work for older grades like they do for the younger grades. I think this is a great way to practice number sense every day. You'd be surprised at how many kids have such a problem with basic number sense.

 

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You can buy this at Teacher's Pay Teachers, so here's my version that I downloaded and laminated. If I could change one thing, I would have just put them in page protectors rather than laminating them because the dry erase marker doesn't come off my laminating stuff too easily.

I have enjoyed using the idea of being a bucket filler in my classroom. Last year I had a bulletin board set up during the first half of the year for students to write bucket fillers to one another. I saw this idea on Pinterest and decided to give this a try this year.

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The students are always real excited to fill buckets at the beginning of the year, but it always dies off as the year goes on. I need to find a way to keep them filling buckets all year long. Here's my version.
 

I saw this idea on Pinterest for displaying student's work. I thought it was fun because it is relevant to the world outside of school.

Here's my version. This was so easy to make.
 

I found this idea on Pinterest and read the article and watched this teacher's videos. He has some very interesting ideas about using music as a classroom management tool. I thought it was worth giving it a try. I spent a lot of time on a website he links downloading music and I downloaded a few songs from itunes. 

 

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This has worked beautifully for me. The kids transition so quickly because they know they only have until the end of the song to do it. They're still not perfect at it. There's still some kids scrambling at the end of the song, but it makes them move fast. The music gives them something to relate the time frame to rather than saying "you have one minute to clean up." I don't have to say anything. I just start a song and they know what to do. I also play a fun song at the beginning of the day and the end of the day.

I saw this idea on Pinterest several months ago. A couple of the other 4th grade teachers also came across notebooking while they were on the internet.

 

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Our whole 4th grade team is using notebooking for science and social studies. I like that we're all doing it so that we can share ideas and resources. So far, we've only done social studies and I really like it. It gives the students more to do and more ways to express their learning. It will also be a great tool for me to determine their grades in these 2 subjects. Here are some of my students' notebooks.

World Map & geography terms flip book

Title page showing the 3 regions of NC

Another student's title page showing the 3 regions of NC

NC map and chart to fill in for each regions

The last thing I'm going to share with you that I found on Pinterest is this idea for data notebooks.

 

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I love this website because this teacher shares her files that she made for her students' notebooks. I have used data notebooks before, but not very effectively. This year I wanted to use them as a communication tool with the parents as well as a way for the students to see their growth. I am also having my students create 2 goals every quarter. I think the parents like this idea so far and it's too early for the students to really see the benefit of it. Here's some pictures from the data notebooks I put together for my students.

On the first day of school, they got a cover page to color.

This note to the parents is in the front followed by a place for them to sign each week.

Every quarter I am going to have my students make 2 SMART goals.

There are charts for fluency as well as different subjects' tests.

They spend some time reflecting on their week.

This folder is given to us by the school to send home notes, graded papers, etc.

If you're a teacher, good luck on your upcoming school year!

Want to follow me on Pinterest?

 pinterest.com/mdhall88

Thanks for reading!