Sunday Salutations

Happy Sunday! I swear this weekend went by so fast! Although yesterday I spent most of it finishing up some products, starting a new product, and transferring files over to Dropbox after several of my buddies have had file scares. Like their external hard drives die on them and their flash drives corrupt!

I'm already working on a Christmas product. I think this one will be a ton of fun! And I'm also part of Little Lovely Leaders 500 follower giveaway, so go enter! You have a chance to win any one item from my store and amazing prizes from 31 other people!

I also finished up my product swap post for Saturday. I swapped TpT products with another blogger buddy. You won't want to miss that either!

My life right now is going to be consumed with the auction. It's in 2 weeks! It's a Hawaiian themed auction. We have 3 silent tables and they are named Maui, Kauai, and Oahu. Each table will have their own color and theme: yellow, teal, and pink (actually Cha cha). And the dining room will be "under the ocean".

Each table will have 3 glass votive holders filled with sand and a candle. And then either shells or a lei around them. I think that will be cute!  And all of us volunteers/workers will be wearing a lei so you know that we work the auction.

I had one dress in mind that I wore my senior year in high school, but it doesn't quite fit yet. However, I did find another dress in the back of my closet that is Liz Claiborne and if fits perfect! I'll have to post pics later!

Oh here's my latest creation:

It's at my TpT store and my TN store for just $3 and it's 28 pages of posters, wrtiting, and a book. I even wrote a poem about pumpkins!

1

Host and Questions

Oh what a day! I had some pretty awesome 4th graders. Tomorrow we have no specials so I was going to do some planning after school today since I have over an hour after duty, but that got changed. I spent my hour doing conference stuff instead. As in so many kids have siblings in other classes, that all teachers met together and they shouted out names of siblings/teachers and we shouted out times we had available. Kind of chaotic and took an hour. So tomorrow morning I'll have to whip out whatever since I have no specials. Two days in the same class can be awesome or bad, but awesome in this case :)


So what's my title today mean? We teach 35-40 minutes each day ESOL or SLD if they are learning Spanish/Russian/Rosetta Stone language lol. My class was reviewing how to engage and hold a conversation and the difference between open ended questions vs. yes/no questions.

I told them I used this in high school on the newspaper staff. And then I decided to go for it 100%. I told them the Ms. T show was going live in 2 minutes and be prepared to be a guest getting asked questions. They were so excited! They counted down and said "You're live Ms. T!"

So I started off using the sentence frames the ESOL program provided. And it came out to be something like this:

"Good afternoon everyone! I am your host today. My name is Ms. T and this is The Talk of The School, my show about all things school! My first guest today is ____________."

Then I'd introduce the guest, ask for a warm welcome, and ask an open ended question. Then they also learned about follow-up questions so I did that too. At the end of my show, I thanked them all for tuning in. Oh and did I mention my microphone was a paintbrush? They may have thought I was nuts, but they had fun and were learning. And I bet they'll be able to tell you what an open-ended question is vs. a yes/no question :)

2

Brain Breaks

Well, as I found out this year, I won't always have specials all the time anymore subbing. Bummer! So how will I start breaking up those long times? Free time? Recess? Perhaps, but I think I'll be doing Brain Breaks!

So now I'm on the hunt for brain breaks on Pinterest and on blogs!

I've got a Pinterest board going for Brain Breaks.

I'm obsessed with Koo Koo Kangroo videos!

My favorite of their videos? No Crust.

                                   
                  Just Dance Kids are great too! Here's my fave:
                 
              

Ok, so videos are great, but if you are like me, youtube is blocked to everyone but teachers. So what to do?

Well you could get tips from Rachel Lynette at Minds In Bloom.

Or head over to Flipping For First Grade:

Or to Keep Calm and Teach On:

I even saw my Quick Time Fillers repinned as a Brain Break! Though they are not exercises, they are a sort of break!

What do you do for Brain Breaks?

0

Time Out Tuesday

I haven't done Time Out Tuesday in foreverrrrrr!

I didn't work today but I met up with one of my besties for some auction talk since I'm in charge of decor. I'm so excited about it, but kind of stressing since we haven't really done anything and it's in about 4 weeks!

Our theme is Hawaiian Luau. We just finalized our decoration styles, our silent auction table themes, and the dining room decor. I've got my work cut out for me! Or should I say Cricuted out for me? My Cricut and I will be seeing a lot of each other soon!

I plan on cutting out fish, turtles, palm trees, tiki heads, surf boards, and hibiscus flowers out of it.

We met over coffee and since her birthday is Friday, I paid for her drink. She was so happy! And I was enjoying my tall skinny latte :)

How does this all tie in to TOT? We sat there and talked about other things besides the auction. Sitting there, sipping coffee with a great friend, and people watching, it just showed me that sometimes we need to take a moment for ourselves.

I've been stressing about the auction, and subbing, and finding a full time job. I'm glad I didn't get called in today because this me and her time over coffee was like a burst of fresh air.

Background courtesy The 3 AM Teacher. Coffee cup: Clker.com

2

Cloud Art

Oh Mondays...how I despise thee! And top it off with subbing in a class with no specials today and a few toughies? Well I earned my money today!

I'm a busy lady this week! I have nothing scheduled yet tomorrow, but that can always change. And then I've got ELD/Resource Wednesday and I'm in 4th grade Thursday and Friday.

So last week I got to sub in a 1st grade class and we got to do cloud art. Oh I loved it!!! First I read Little Cloud by Eric Carle.


Then we took blue construction paper, three blobs of white paint (about a size of a dime each) and took straws and blew! Then we wrote a sentence using the frame, "My little cloud changed into a _______."

Teacher example :) Not mine, the regular teacher!

My little cloud changed into a fish.

I so see the chicken! And a heart?

My little cloud changed into a duck. 

It was fun listening to them help each other and hear things like "Well if you rotate it this way it looks like  mouse, but turn it the other way and it looks like a flower." Hehe. We ended up with ducks, chickens, fish, a mermaid, balloons, a bear, flowers, cars, a helicopter, and a few other things!

So much fun!

6

Impromptu Meet Up and Winners!

Amazing! So I was at a grapestomping festival yesterday and it was beautiful weather! I was happy because my fave band from Germany was playing and I was eating my sauerkraut and bratwurst too. The owner's wife makes the best sauerkraut!

Anyway, a friend wanted to dance with me so I'm dancing, when up comes a lady with a pic on her phone of me on FB and then we discovered we 'knew' each other. Other bloggers!

She is Teacher Laura!

And then she took me over to meet her sister who is Third Grade al Dente!

When I introduced myself to Michelle, I told her my name and there was a pause, and I was like, "You know, Journey of a Substitute Teacher?" It was so cool to meet bloggers that I feel like I 'know'. Maybe we'll meet up again, I know I'd love to chat longer!

And my winners from my giveaway are!

You'll be getting an e-mail ladies!

3

Fall Blog Hop

I'm part of Teaching My 3's fall blog hop!

So I'm sharing a freebie I whipped up!  A poem created by yours truly, with pictures and without and also a fall themed writing paper, lined or dot lined!

                                                                CLICK HERE! or the leaf :)

Enjoy!

<div align="center"><a href="http://teachingmy3.blogspot.com/2012/09/fall-blog-hop.html" title="Teaching My 3"><img src="http://i1146.photobucket.com/albums/o527/hlpharris/fall-blog-hop_zpsc925475e.png" alt="Teaching My 3" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

2

Peace Out Baby!

Today is the International Day of Peace. Did you know that? I didn't but I subbed for 2 classes today and they informed me. So we did some peace related things their teacher had left.

I read :
                                                                     
The kids loved the part where it says peace is pizza!

So the kids all came up with ideas of what peace is and wrote them in their journals and drew a picture.
Some of my faves:
*Peace is love.
*Peace is being friends.
*Peace is my family.
*Peace is helping others.
*Peace is closing my eyes.
*Peace is loving others.
*Peace is giving money to those that need it.
*Peace is following your dreams.

Oh and did I mention, these were 2nd graders?

Peace is my class getting to watch a video for a half hour :)

Have a great weekend friends! Peace out!

2

Mini-Me!

So besides packages, I absolutely love buying clipart. I'm addicted. You all know I love Michelle at The 3 AM Teacher ,KPM Doodles, Graphics From The Pond, and Melonheadz.

So how cool is it that I BECAME clipart? Here I am...she is... lol

Aren't I cute?!?!?!

1) Suitcase: I travel

2) Books: I love to read

3) Apron and cupcake: I love baking and cooking

4) German flag: I'm 1/2 German

4) I love the colors blue and green :)

Nikki at Melonheadz  is AH-MAZING ! And a breeze to work with. I can't stop looking looking at her/me :)

3

I Love Packages!

Oh I love packages! I love shopping in general!

I had a package last week with my new t-shirt...

Mine is grey though. Love it! And I got it from TBA.

Then I had a package when I got home today with my new planner from Paper Coterie. Oh my love! It is gorgeous! And I got to customize a lot of it and with the $40 coupon I had for being a new person, I only had to pay $7 in shipping. That's it! I heard they have deals a lot though, so I can't wait to see what else I need lol.

The cover. I picked the quote. And the pic of course!

I picked the quote and my name. The left I picked and it says "This belongs to Ms. T"

   The month, with notes on the side. Then after the month is  place to write your favorite moments, funny things, grateful for, rambling and to-do list. It does this after each month. I LOVE IT! And the front cover has a plastic flap and there's a bookmark too and the pages are sturdy! Now I feel like I can get my life even more organized and put sub jobs, TPT stuff, and blogging ideas in it. Yay!

Oh and the sale is still on if you are a first time buyer $40 off. But hurry, it ends 9/23. The code is: Welcome2012.

2

Sunday, Football, and Back To School Blues Giveaway

Happy Sunday everyone! My parents are in Seattle for the Dallas Cowboys vs. Seattle Seahawks game. My dad texted me saying that he says more Cowboys fans than Seahawks and he's happy! I feel bad because I think he caught his cold from me :( Sorry dad, but sharing is caring right? Lol.

That fundraiser I posted about yesterday? All kinds of amazing! It's now a total of over $170 worth in products (probably closer to $200 now since more were added) and in 24 hours, the donations are at around $4,812!!!! Isn't that amazing?!?!? That'll help Tiffany pay some bills and buy groceries for sure...and the fundraiser will be going on for a week or two.

I've been working my fingers all weekend on some new products!

One is a literacy pack for K-1. Students can practice spelling and letter recognition with 'cereal' pieces. Even better, put these in bowls and students have to use a spoon to get pieces out and spell!

TpT store and TN store

And my other item, Boo-tiful Writing: Writing prompts and templates!

TpT store and TN Store

These are both $3 in my store. But I'm going to do a giveaway right now with Rafflecopter for your chance to win either one! I'll set up two separate rafflecopters so you can choose to enter either one or both! I'll call it "Beat The Back To School Blues" lol.

You have all week to enter!

**Ooops sorry, changed it so it starts now and not tomorrow lol. *** a Rafflecopter giveaway a Rafflecopter giveaway

19