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Snow Days...

Hello!

I feel like January has been kind of a wash for me. We have had FOUR cold days so far, I got sick right when we got back from break, and winter has kind of just started...I'm not gonna lie, I worry that this is going to become like the book Life as We Knew It!

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time off, and when we have had school it's been business as usual, despite all of the beginning of the semester testing and what not. It's been amazing having four day weekends, because I find myself really looking forward to going to work, and getting things done around the house!

See how serene, organized, and put together this looks? That's how I always want to feel, which is why I think we should just always work Wednesday through Friday and go to school year round, with a few vacations sprinkled in at winter, spring, and summertime. Who's with me!?


Speaking of the house, my purges have been going pretty well! I cleaned out 3 HUGE bags of clothes to send to a friend, a ton of shoes that are going to my mom, and the hubster also cleaned out a bunch of bags of clothes to go to goodwill. We have the closet looking great, and my husband actually said our bedroom and bathroom looked like a hotel room when he got home today :)

Please ignore our ironing board. If it isn't in the bedroom, it just doesn't happen.

Loving all the Teal!! I got this little drawer at Target a few days ago.

All my summer clothes are in the two teal bins on the top shelf since most of my clothing is interchangeable.

Loving my TIEKS! I swear they are still the most comfortable shoes EVER. Hubster got me a navy pair for Christmas, so now I have an even number :)

No...I don't own that much tiffany, but the box tops and bottoms make great dividers!

Scarves and belts

I installed tap lights on the side so I could see my clothing options better!


I actually took the time to photograph EVERY item of clothing and shoes I own to put into Closet +, and it's like I'm living Clueless now. This has been an obsession for a long time. Now I have my iPad in my closet, and I can create outfits. It's a dream!

This was me before:

Me now!

Here's the link to the app I use!

This quarter we are focusing on the following in my classes, and I'm excited to post some pictures and information on the activities we do as we go along...

8th Grade Language Arts 1: Making Inferences using Flowers for Algernon, and then Argumentative Writing

7th Grade Language Arts 1 (Reading): Drawing Conclusions using Poetry and Fact and Opinion using Non-Fiction

7th Grade Language Arts 2 (Writing): Writing Poetry (aka my favorite writing unit EVER!) Check out my unit on TpT! 

So I really want to gather my thoughts on the Writer's Workshop before I shared it with you, and get some of the data from the survey the students took to share as well. That will need to wait :)

There are 98 pictures uploading to share with you all, but here are a few from WAY back in December, just so you can see what happened before break. I have A LOT of catching up to do, and I am making it my mission to share more with you all, even though the musical auditions (Guys and Dolls, Jr!) are starting next week and things are about to get cray-cray!

Before break ended, I did my annual Hot Chocolate Challenge, where students have to have good behavior the two weeks prior to break and then I bring in hot chocolate for their silent reading day. I write Hot Chocolate for each period and erase a letter if they are too loud, off task, homework isn't done, etc... Sometimes even walking over to the words stops them in their tracks. Works like a charm. Every time. :) (Though a few groups got close to not getting it this year.)





To start, I rearranged my classroom for groups. I don't usually do this, but it's been working out, and I feel like there is a lot of room now to move between the students!

Here is my nook :)

I angled my desk out. I thought I wouldn't use my desk this year, but with all of the papers and everything it just wasn't feasible. 

Bookshelves were moved to create more of a reading "nook"


These two areas haven't changed much, they work!

Other side of the room. I like the open space created by moving the bookshelves away from the garage door.



Here's my lunch from In n' Out in Dallas. I'm still dreaming about it...I'm so jealous of all you west coasters. :)



And...I leave you with this. I'm sorry I put this up in December. This is all my fault. 



Comments

  1. Your Clueless closet cracks me up. I was in love with that idea back in the 90s! I love the hot chocolate idea. I've seen if on a few blogs, and someone gave her kiddos mini marshmallows based on the number of AR points they earned or number of books they read. I want find a way to add in that component so they are working for something on an individual level too!

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