Summer 2k14

It's been a crazy year! It's been a long while since I've posted a real post on my poor bloggy! Now that summer is here, I'll have more time to post and update about this past school year.

One thing that was consuming my life for the past couple of months is getting nationally board certified. I decided to take this year to apply and submit my portfolio since I had a student intern and I had many friends that decided to pursue it as well. Getting together the national board portfolio is probably one of the hardest things I've had to do in my career. Part of it was my fault - old college Christine showed up and I ended up waiting longer than I should have to get started. And since I started later than planned, I was getting flustered with the EOG/EOC prep, tutoring after school, and end of year norms. It definitely became a lot to handle. But in the end, I ended up finishing in time (thank you NCDPI for providing 3 free days!) and I was able to dedicated 110% of my time and concentration on prepping my kids for these EOY tests. My last step is to take the national board tests this Saturday and then I'll have to play the waiting game until November to see if I received it or not. Fingers crossed!

Now that summer is here, my mind is racing with all of the ideas I want to implement next year. My brain never stops thinking! I'm super excited because I will still be in 8th grade next year, but even more so because I will only be teaching math!!! This makes me so incredibly happy! This past year, I felt so overwhelmed because I moved to 8th grade from 7th grade and had to learn 3 new curriculums and learn how to teach all of them to the best of my ability (Math I, Math II, Science, and 8th Grade Math). Having 4 preps stressed me out to the max and by the end of the year I was exhausted. I felt like I was stretched too thin. With next year and me only having to teach math, I can focus on just 2 preps instead of 4. I am hoping that since I am focused on less, my students will be able to achieve more and I won't be running around like a crazy person!

Lastly, I want to set some goals for myself for the summer. I am hoping that I will be able to complete most of these. I am already off to a bad start since I just spent the last four days binging on Scandal!

Goals for Summer 2k14:

Work out (switch gyms, lap swim)
Eat better (oops)
Create and post a TPT item in my store at least once a day
Blog more
Join a linky party with other blogs
Plan my 8th grade math class
Plan my Foundations of Math II class
Think of ways to improve the way my classroom runs
Think of better interventions (resources, time for math interventions)
Revamp data collection
Continue to stalk teacher blogs for amazing ideas
Try not to spend too much money on school supplies when back to school sales start (yeah right!)

Welcome to Interactive Notebooking - Our Personalized Textbook Session!

Thank you for attending Interactive Notebooking - Our Personalized Textbook!

To download a copy of today's Interactive Notebook powerpoint, click here!

Please feel free to send a message or email us if you have any questions! Email addresses for Heather and Christine are provided on the back of your agenda. :-)

Liebster Award!

It's been a while since I've been up here (sorry poor bloggy!). School has been so crazy lately - especially the past two weeks. You can tell that it is spring time...the kiddos are definitely being testy!! This is our last week before a very much needed Spring Break!

After such a trying week, I was super excited to hear that I had been nominated for a Liebster Award by Heather over at Smack Dab in the Middle! The Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers that have less than two hundred followers. Thanks so much for the nomination!

Now for my part...Questions and Answers

1. What grade do you teach? What grades have you taught? How long have you been teaching?

I currently teach 8th grade at my former middle school. I've taught 7th and 8th race since I started teaching. This is my fifth year teaching!

2. What book do you read to your class each year without fail?

I teach 8th grade math and science, so I totally feel bad for saying I don't read them any books. Does reading out of my interactive notebook count?

3. If you weren't a teacher, what would you be doing?

Probably learning how to cook. Or making purchasing and hoarding school supplies a profession!

4. What's one thing you're just dying to buy for your classroom?

This questions is perfect since I was just thinking about this today! I'm dying to buy a french press for my classroom. Since giving up soda, I've been relying on coffee for caffeine and am now addicted!!

5. What's your non-teaching guilty pleasure?

Celebrity gossip/news! But this comes in handy when I play QuizUp on my iPad! Haha!

6. Favorite book that is not teaching related?

Oh this is a difficult one since everything I read is teaching related. I would have to say the third book of the Fifty Shades Trilogy. Now before you think I'm weird, I just love the love story between Christian and Anastasia and am a sucker for happy endings!

7. What's one thing on your bucket list?

Learning how to play a stringed instruments! Either a violin or a cello!

8. Favorite restaurant?

Any restaurant that has Asian food and SUSHI!

9. Who would play you in a movie about your life?

Has to be Sandra Oh! I love her on Grey's!

10. What's one thing you could eat everyday?

Avocado!! Yum!!

11. What inspired you to begin blogging?

My favorite thing about being a teacher is being able to learn and share with other teachers. Whether it is best practices in the classroom or just sharing a good story with on another. When I started to discover teacher blogs over the summer (researching interactive notebooks), I instantly became hooked! Everyone in the blog community are so helpful and it's good to know that other teachers from around the US and in other countries go through similar ordeals.


11 Random Facts about Me:

1. When I was in college, I changed my major 3 times (all in education).
2. When I first went to college, I was a Music Education major.
3. My parents own a martial arts gym, and I grew up learning it. 
4. I have this weird thing about microwaves. I can't stop the microwave on an odd number. Always has to be an even number!
5. I have a HUGE obsession with school supplies. I have an addiction and my friends love making fun of me about it!
6. I own every single The Sims game, stuff pack, and expansion pack since Sims 1. Love the game - unfortunately, summer is the only time I get to play!
7. I'm a workaholic. I am constantly working on some kind of school work, whether it's researching online, re-analyzing common core standards, finding new resources, or creating new things. My mind is constantly on work!
8. I hate cleaning at home but LOVE cleaning my desk area in my classroom. For some reason, rearranging my desk supplies gives me excitement.
9. Speaking of excitement, if I'm feeling unmotivated to grade papers or plan, I always go out to the store and buy a pack of new markers or pens (see, I do have an addiction!) There is something about a new pack of markers or pens to get you going!
10. I am an apple gal! All electronics that I own are all apple products! I finally saved enough to purchase a MacBook Pro a couple of years ago. I'll never go back to anything else!
11. I love anything polka dots and chevron!

Phew! Now that you know a little about me, here are my nominations for the Liebster Award! Check them out - they're awesome!!

Math Made Gr8

Square Root of Negative One Teach Math

Algebrainiac

MathyCathy

Middle School Math Mania

Here are the rules -

1. Link back to my blog as the one who nominated you.
2. Nominate five blogs who have less than two hundred followers.
3. Answer the questions posted above.
4. Share eleven random facts about yourself.
5. Contact your nominees to let them know they have been nominated!

I look forward to seeing your responses! Happy Sunday Everyone!!

Data Trackers!

Short and sweet post!

It has taken me some time, but I have finally put together my data trackers for 8th grade common core math standards! I am excited because 1) I have started to use these in my own classroom and my students love seeing their growth on a daily/weekly basis and 2) this is the first big product that I have put for sale in my store. Hope you check it out and enjoy! I have Math I and Math II trackers coming soon! I am also planning to work on 6th and 7th grade maths in the near future! :-) Check it out at my store!

Mini Milestone!

I am excited to announce that I have hit a mini milestone down at teacherspayteachers! To celebrate, all items in my store are 10% off. Sale will last until Thursday! Go check out some cool stuff!! :-)

TPT Store

So this is the new year...

Not quite, but I love Death Cab for Cutie and always think of this song around New Years. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! This Christmas break has been a very restful one. In fact, this is the first time I haven't worked on school work in forever. This shall change as it gets closer to school time.

Anywho, I wanted to post a couple things. One thing I wanted to mention were new years resolutions. The past couple years, I didn't make any but I decided to this year. To name a few...

• Cut back on working on school work at home.
• Work out more (I definitely have to stick to this since our school is going to start the biggest loser competition)
• Eat better.
• Blog more.
• Post more products on my TPT store.
• Get a better handle on Math I, Math II, and Science in terms of grading, planning, finding resources, etc...
• Be more organized!

I figured if I had a handful of resolutions, I'm more likely to accomplish at least one, right? I guess we shall see!

Speaking of new products, I recently posted a new product in my TPT store on inequalities. Included in the download are interactive notebook foldables for both one and two step inequalities, word problem templates, examples, and pictures. Here are some pics of my notebook:

Possible Christmas gift?

I've been thinking about purchasing a color laser printer for myself for Christmas. I've been researching online, but there are so many to choose from! Anyone reading this have or have used a color laser printer? If so, what do you recommend? Thanks and HAPPY HOLIDAYS! :-)