Currently September

Two days in a row of blogging! BIG smile from me 
:-D

Although it is already 6 days into September here is Currently {LOVE Farley & so glad I got to meet her this summer!}

Loving~I am so thrilled to be learning so many things this year!!  I have been learning from so many great sources as well~

I LOVE Twitter for connecting & learning...you can find me at @thankfulndw...I am learning more & more about Google, Google Classroom, & everything Google...here is my very first Google Slides presentation that I used this week for our Back to School Night~my daughter did all of the transitions & then taught me how to do it...




...Periscope has so many great tips & things that educators are sharing about...if you haven't found SimpleK12.com yet, go check it out!...they offer FREE webinars & I have learned so much from those webinars!...Instagram, yes Instagram>>that is where I found the GoNoodle poster that inspired me to make these posters for my room!...

...I am learning from podcasts...& always find great ideas on Pinterest....in addition to the things in the collage, I am learning how to use our new interactive projector, more about Symbaloo {working on becoming a Certified Symbaloo Educator}, want to learn about Plickers {I have printed the cards out & have the app}

Thinking~how very blessed I am by the people in my community...our area frequently gets a bad rap...I live in the High Desert in Southern California...but the people here are wonderful!!

5 years ago a local business www.victorvillemotors.com started a program to encourage attendance at school...they gave away a car to a high school student who had perfect attendance...every year they have increased the program...Year 1~1 car to a high school student with perfect attendance; Year 2~2 cars to 2 high school students with perfect attendance;Year 3~same as before plus they paid tax & license for the students & added a car for a teacher!; Year 4~added a 2nd teacher car; Year 5~now they have added It's a Gas to Support Class & are giving a car to a classified employee!!  

WOW!!! They have many other businesses that help support the program too...they give LOTS of other prizes away too!!!  How totally AWESOME to have a community so vested in our schools & making a REAL difference in the lives of our young people!!! Just look at the stats from the different years of their program!!!!

I think the other things on Currently speak for themselves, so off to link up!!

Yes, I am Finally Posting!! Two Linkies~June Currently{yes, I know it is the 17th} &TpT Seller's Challenge Week One

Wow, over a month since I have blogged & now it is a week since school ended...So much has been going on...I guess I will start with June's Currently...

I am glad it is summer and there should be more time to focus on blogging, planning & creating {finishing} things for TpT...I have really been trying to prioritize things & for the last month school {grading/recording, report cards, end of the year stuff...} & family have taken 1st place so now I finally have time to do this :-) ...I have missed blogging & there is a lot that I want to share...for summer lovin' I put several things for family time & I have already started with some of this!

If you have a bowling alley in your community & you have children you may want to check out kidsbowlfree.com ...with this program your kids can bowl 2 games per day EVERY day this summer {that your bowling alley is open} & you can add on adult family members for a very small fee!  We have already gone bowling twice this week!...also if you have a Cinemark theater near you check out their Summer Movie Clubhouse...they have kids movies for just a dollar twice a week throughout the summer!

I began this post DAYS ago...I am really trying to make sure I am putting 'First Things First' {Habit 3} & focus on my family so this post is being finished now...I have joined the TPT Seller's Challenge:

#TpTSellerChallenge

Here is week one of TpT Seller's Challenge:
                             BEFORE:

                              AFTER:

I have much more I want to share, praying for balancing life & not having my family feel neglected with too much time at the computer!!

  My newly titled "Fact Family Houses" {Was Fabulous Fact Houses} is now on sale; click on the picture above.  I am looking to growth this summer; through this challenge & sharing more with you!

5{PLUS} for Fraturday {Currently May; Leader in Me Visit; Some Sadness for our Family; Color!; Inspirations & Bonus~TpT Sale; GoNoodle Plus; Pop See Ko; Birthdays!}

There has been so much going on in my life in the last few weeks!  I have been so busy there hasn't been much time for blogging!  I am excited about so many things I want to share with you; I hope you will gain something from this post even if it is just a smile! :)  I let Blair Turner know that she should expect to be mentioned SEVERAL times in this post! {along with some of my favorite online people!}

click above to go to the 5 for Friday link up

Click above to go to the Currently link up!

I am so VERY excited that our school is moving forward with becoming a Leader In Me School!!! Today I had the privilege to visit  a middle school that is a Leader In Me School.  I went to Lakeview Leadership Academy with three other teachers from my site. 

I walked past these windows & immediately knew I had seen Kimberly Geswein Fonts! {I went back to take these pictures!}  I am a part of a Facebook group devoted to her fonts & the fonts of 2 other font designers & this was the first time I had spotted her fonts in the 'real world'...okay it was still in education, but not at my site! ;-)

The 2 skinny pictures are poles with quotes from their students & the 3 bottom right pictures are in the student restrooms.  The students explained to us that there had been issues with the restrooms and students vandalizing them so they decided to paint them.  They are in the process of transforming all of the restrooms in the school.

We were able to see some fantastic things that the students were doing.  They were using Chromebooks & Google Classroom, having robotics contests & races, and shooting off rockets they made.  The 8th grade had just finished reading The Hunger Games & they were having their own Hunger Games...they had 4 Districts with Tributes competing in PE like games they created & the students in  crowd were the Sponsors.  All of the students we met & saw were polite, composed, & engaged!

Such an inspiring, motivating, & joyful day...we can't wait to see our students develop the leadership skills these fine young people have!! Thank you Lakeview Leadership Academy!

We had a very sad day on Monday...we lost our hyper, loving, excited, energetic pup...unfortunate accident in the driveway...it has been sad for all of us including our other dogs. :-(

Several years ago I started doing Language Arts Journals/Notebooks & Math Journals/Notebooks

...they began because I had been making Anchor Charts, but pretty soon there is no more wall space available & I wanted the students to have what we had done as a resources for later...so what you see below is from one of my Journals/Notebooks which I would show on the doc cam as I was writing it & the students would copy into their own Journals/Notebooks with colored pencil or crayon...

I like them using the colored pencils better than crayon....BUT...a classroom full of colored pencils...YUCK!!!...pencil sharpeners HATE colored pencils {at least for me GREEN are the WORST!!} The saying on my picture below kept echoing through my head...the picture is a photo I took of my notepad from the fabulous Blair Turner~{she now has a 'Very Busy Box' full of all kinds of goodies...click on the title to check it out for yourself!  It made me smile when I received my April {her 1st} box...her May boxes sold out in a matter of just an hour or so, but I am looking forward to my June & July boxes!!}

Look what I found at the 99 Cent Only store!!! A set of 5 colored ballpoint pens!! Whoo Hooo!!!  I have threatened my kids good that if they mess with my labels or are using my pens for things other than what I tell them to use them for, they can use boring pencil when we are using COLOR!! {my class is set up into 5 table groups of 6 which are label by color and number; these pens are at the green table & will be shared by the #3 & #4 seat students} 

 I had previously posted about putting inspirational quotes up in our school workroom {note date on the first picture}...the new picture shows some of the goodies I have added this last week.  Links are included below.

Starting at the left: you can find this at Thoughts From the Pond {I love all of the wonderful 'Thoughts From the Pond' by Mel}; Dendrite Quote as usual, I am WAAAAY behind, but there has been a Book Study on the book Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites {click on their button to see} 

& I am only on chapter 3, but this line stuck out and I made this printable for myself & anyone else who would like it...if the Google Drive link doesn't work, please let me know!...a close up so you can see it better;

Blair Turner had a great post titled 'Real Life Isn't Always Laminated~Celebrate the Struggle'  I really appreciated this quote!  It is so hard not to compare ourselves & to be so hard on ourselves...NONE of us is perfect & in this online world we don't know the whole story...{this is my THIRD day working on this post!...some bloggers my crank out multiple posts a week, but I am a slow poke...doing all the pictures, setting up the links takes me FOREVER!} anyway she ended the post with these words & I was inspired to make the printable for her, for me, & anyone else who would like it!

& finally, a quote Blair shared...I am challenging you to search her store & site to find it for yourself because I would REALLY like to hit the 'Publish' button before I leave for church this morning!!!! 

Sorry, but 5 isn't enough for this post!...I probably should end it here, but I will be a quick as I can about these last few items...it is Mother's Day & I want to focus on my kids!!!!

I had wanted to have some projects complete for the TpT sale, but that just didn't happen, but I did make some great purchases!!! 1st...I did it I took a leap of faith & bought Kimberly Geswein's Lifetime License since it is going up June 1st...

and these great items!!!

all links provided!!!! the research paper by Erin Cobb, I'm Lovin Lit I had already purchased, I just bought licences for my teammates!

& Whoo Hoo!!! we have GoNoodle Plus thanks to donations from my class!!!

Speaking of GoNoodle, here's a picture that has not been worked on in Picmonkey maybe it will be replaced later but...

Note that both GoNoodle & Koo Koo Kangaroo favorited my tweet!!! My students LOVED that!!!

I am going to end with some non~Picmonkey pictures...we have had several birthdays in the last week, including me turning the big 5~0!!

And FINALLY....Happy Mother's Day to you all!!! I am truly blessed to be the mother of these 3 amazing kids!