Exactly one year ago today...I started writin' on this blog

Exactly one year ago today...I started writin' on this blog.

Happy ONE YEAR Blogiversary to me.
Are you singin'?
Should I blow out some candles?
Do I need to make a wish?

One year ago...I had no idea what I was gettin' myself into.

I didn't know that I would make friends with people around the world.

I didn't know that I would grow tremendously as a teacher.

I didn't know that I would learn so much.

I didn't know that my brain would be non-stop thinkin'.

I didn't know people would actually read what I wrote.

I didn't know that I was funny...okay well maybe that's an 

exaggeration...I've always known I was funny.

Yes, I'm braggin'...

I'm goin' to link up with Angela from The Teacher's Desk 6 for
Throwback Thursday, Nick from
Sweet Rhyme-Pure Reason for Back to the Archive and
The Teaching Tribune for Throwback Thursday.

 

Anyways...I'm goin' to throw it back to my very first post...

You can read it here.

Readin' that first post was bittersweet for me...
as I typed that, I was sittin' in my Nitty's livin' room
and now as I type this...I am sittin' in my parents livin'
room after returnin' from her memorial dinner.
It was beautiful...pictures to come on Saturday.
Oh...how much my life has changed in one year.
At the end of the day...I'm truly blessed and I'm thankful.
150 posts later(Yes...it's 150 today too!)
Again....150 posts later,
I know Nitty would be proud of me.
I'm proud of me.

Y'all know how much I love linky parties.
That's my jam.
So...I thought it only appropriate that I do
some reflectin' and think about some
tips and tricks that I wish I I would've known
on my first day of bloggin'.
I'm linkin' up with Teaching Trio
for Technology Thursday since bloggin' is technology.

I'd like to say THANK YOU to
Jessica at Ideas by Jivey for her Techy Tips and
Megan from I Teach. What's Your Superpower? for her
Blog, Baby, Blog series.
These posts have been the best help with Technology
and hopefully, their suggestions will have the same impact on you.
If you don't follow them...you should.

I'm nowhere as tech savvy as these two ladies, but I do have
a couple of tips that might be worth your while.

Even if it takes you a week...reply.
There's a reason you're bloggin'...you've got somethin' to say.
Am I right?
You want to be heard.
You want someone to read what you have written.
If you don't reply...you aren't makin' connections and
basically...you are tellin' the person that took their precious
time to read your blog and comment...
that they aren't important enough for you to take your time
to read what they have written and reply.
That's rude.
Don't be rude.
Be courteous.
Reply.
Most bloggers like to reply via email.
If you reply to someone's comment on your own blog...
not through email, but on your actual blog,
there's a chance people are not goin' to come back to your
blog to see your comment.
That's just the way it goes.
Which leads into the next tip...

This is a tricky one.
Some of you probably have no idea that you are even
considered a no-reply blogger and that's okay, but
now's the time to fix that.
Read here and here.
It will make more sense.

Want to know the fastest way to lose followers?
Only postin' about items you have in your store.
It's true.
If I follow a blog that ONLY writes about their products
on TpT, TN, or Educents....BOOM....I'm clickin'
UNFOLLOW.
Sorry...I'm not sorry.

This is the one that just about sends me over the edge.
I read a lot of blogs and I like to reply to what I'm readin'.
See above.
It takes me twice as long to go through blogs when I'm
sittin' fightin' with my keyboard over whether or not
I've typed the capthca phrase, word verification, no robot thing...
whatever it is...appropriately.
Sometimes it's itty-bitty numbers that I can barely see
and other times it's make-believe words with squiggly letters.
I gave up tryin' to reply on my phone or ipad.
Please for my sanity, fix this.
This will help you here.
I bet by followin' the instructions you will
be helpin' to lower many peoples' blood pressure.
Consider it a Random Act of Kindness.

Everyone that I have ever come into contact with in the bloggy world
is super helpful.  Don't be afraid to ask for help if you don't know somethin'.
Need help?  I'm here for you, buddy.
Here's my email: butterflialisun@gmail.com
I don't know everything and I won't ever pretend to, BUT...
I can guarantee if you ask me a question and I don't know the answer,
I will do everything in my power to find someone who does.
I have some super smart bloggy friends.

I hope that some of these Tips & Tricks are helpful to you.
I'm seriously glad I was able to reflect...one year later.
With that bein' said...
I'm goin' to also link up with my sweet friend
Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for
Positive Thinking Thursday.

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Happy Thursday, friends!
Make sure if you eat a piece of cake to celebrate
my blogiversary...that you eat a bite or two for me too!

Technology Thursday...Throwback Thursday...Positive Thinking Thursday

It's Thursday, so there is a lot goin' on in the bloggy world.

I'm linkin' up with Teaching Trio for Technology Thursday,

The Teacher's Desk 6 for Throwback Thursday,

I'm throwin' this back to last August...right before school started.

Today I am linkin' up again for "Tune into Technology Linky: QR Codes" 

with Kristin at iTeach 1:1 as well as 

Alyin and Amanda at Learning to the Core.  

I'm super duper sad this is the last one of the summer. 

 I have LOVED readin' how everyone else uses technology 

in their real lives and in the classroom.

                                      

Let me start off by sayin' I came to school today

 because the cleaner dude is at my house

 (don't judge...I'm highly allergic to dust...plus, it's so worth the money!) 

 When I walked in, I saw the dreaded "spot".  

The place that appears about twice a year on the carpet 

between mine and my bestie's room.  

"THE AIR CONDITION' LEAK"!  UGH...I thought

 I would be super smart and leave up my bookshelves with books on them. 

 You know, less work for the Fall return...I'm dumb.  

Enough about that.  Let's get to the good stuff: QR codes.  

I've dabbled a little in makin' my own,

 but sometimes I prefer buyin' other people's QR task card packets on TpT. 

 I figure it saves me time and I'm supportin' someone else. 

The kids really do enjoy them or maybe it's just that they like 

to get ahold of my cell phone to use the app.  

I also love findin' QR codes when I'm out and about. 

 It's like a little scavenger hunt.

Two years ago, my district outfitted all of the classrooms with

 new technology with the help of the community, 

votin' for a half cent sales tax increase. 

 YAHOO!  I love me some technology!  

The district decided that they would like to video tape 

some of the teachers & students usin' the new technology.  

The first two videos have NOTHING to do with QR codes, 

BUT the district made QR codes for these videos and put them on posters 

all around the community for people to see.  

Pretty neat to just walk up to a poster, scan it, and BOOM

 you're watchin' a video of a classroom sayin' "Thank You".  

The last video DOES have to do with QR codes and 

shows how the students are usin' them in a third grade classroom.

Video one: Me and my sweet little rockstars that I taught for THREE years. 

I sure do miss them. 

They were sponges when it came to introducin' somethin' new with tech. 

***I posted this when I didn't have a lot of followers.  

Now I actually have people read my blog.

If you ever wondered what I look and sound like...now is your chance.

I give you permission to laugh because I think I sound so WEIRD!***

Video two: My bestie with her group of kids that she will be startin' her third year

with these babies. It's been fun watchin' them grow and learn as digital citizens. 

Video three: My other podmate and bestie usin' technology and QR Codes. 

It was Pajama Day that day...please excuse some of the outfits.

                                          This is the product from the above video.                                            

                                      

Last year, my Video three bestie also started out the year 

with the students writin' their "All About Me", drawin' a self-portrait, 

and addin' a QR code.  

I think I will also start out my first week with this activity.

Overall, I WILL be makin' more of an effort for my students 

to be makin' QR codes this year. I have a techie GENIUS in my class 

that writes code for a hobby. 

I can pretty much guarantee that he will help me teach everyone else 

how to make QR codes or I can ask my pod besties. 

If I was really smart, I would've made the videos into QR codes! Haha

Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for Positive Thinking Thursday.

Source
This was sent to me courtesy of my bestie, ACH.

My positive thinkin' is...
everyone should have a buddy that they
send Pinterest pins to.
When I say send Pinterest pins...I mean you should flood
their inbox with "So and so has sent you a pin on Pinterest".
You should send so many that all they will see in their email
are these notifications.
My besties and I often do this late at night to one another.
When I wake up in the mornin', I'm instantly smilin'
because they've packed enough humorous pins in my inbox
to at least make me a happy mornin' person for five minutes.
If they are really funny it might be ten.
Just depends on which side of the bed I've woken up on.
Everyone needs a lil' laughter...don't ya think?
If you don't have a bestie to send funny pins to,
you can send them to me!

I'll leave you with another positive thought...

My mama is cookin' THREE pounds of bacon right now for 

us to take on our trip this weekend!!!

I'm flippin' out...my belly is growlin' for this

and I'm pretty sure my eyeballs just popped out of my head!

Don't know how much I love BACON?

Read here!

Happy Thursday, friends! 

Technology Thursday...Thursday Throwback...Positive Thinking Thursday...Teacher Tip Thursday

Today I'm linkin' up with
The Teaching Tribune for Teacher Tip Thursday,
Teaching Trio for Technology Thursday,
Angela from The Teacher's Desk 6 for Throwback Thursday,
Nick from Sweet Rhyme & Pure Reason for Back to the Archive
and last, but certainly not least...
Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for Positive Thinking Thursday.

First things first...

I have to tell myself this every single day of my life.

Family first.

Go home...it will still be there tomorrow.

Agreed?

I'm goin' to do a techy throwback again to somethin' that I think
would benefit every grade level.

& 

&

The Hour of Code is COMIN' BACK

for Computer Science Education Week

Mark your calendars for December 8th through the 14th, 2014.

I know this is a long way away, but you DON'T want to miss this!

My technology throwback:

The Hour of Code

I got an email from Donors Choose at the end of October titled "The Hour of Code is coming".  I quickly read through it and then saved it in my inbox.  Several days later, my Admin said we needed to watch a short video about "The Hour of Code" that our District wanted us to watch.  The next day our mornin' announcements had a video that had music and the words "The Hour of Code is coming in 32 days".  The kids were all askin'...."What is the Hour of Code?"  BOOM...it was everywhere!

So, I got onto Computer Science Education Week's website with the help of my pod bestie, J.R., to find a short video to entice the kids even more.

So...what does this even mean you might be askin'...
  

Basically, durin' Computer Science Education Week, we will spend at least one hour writin' code in our classroom.   My students and I will choose from a variety of one hour tutorials in order to participate.  I've read that no prior experience seems to be needed and it states that computers are optional.

Read here to find out more about the Hour of Code.

Here are some more places to find info:

Computer Science Education Week

Code.org
(sign up on Code.org to get a coupon for 10GB storage on Dropbox for
organizin' an Hour of Code in your classroom)

Edsurge

Gettingsmart
Scratch
(Accordin' to the tech genius in my class...this is the BEST site ever for kids to program their own games and animations.  I truly value his opinion.  He has gotten several of my kids hooked on this site.)
Code Academy
Khan Academy-Computer programming
CodeHS
10 places where anyone can learn to code
Hopscotch

I'm definitely intrigued and will be doin' some more research on the Hour of Code to pick out exactly what we will be doin' durin' the week.

Is anyone else participatin' in this?

Read about and see how we used the Hour of Code in my classroom...here.
I PROMISE YOU...You want to do this with your kids!!!

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My sweet friend Laura from Learning, Lessons, and Life was talkin'

about movie theater popcorn the other day and it got me thinkin' about

how much I LOVE POPCORN.

My other sweet friend AMC from Elementary AMC has also 

been subjected to havin' to hear about my obsession with 

movie theater popcorn.  She probably wishes I would just get up 

off my couch already and go get some. 

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Surely I'm not the only one that does this???

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WHAAAAAAAT?!

How have I gone my whole life without knowin' there was such a

thing as National Popcorn Day? 

It occurs on January 19th.

You need to write this in your calendar too...RIGHT NOW...
you seriously aren't movin' fast enough...we CAN'T miss this!

This is almost...almost...as excitin' as the Hour of Code comin' back.

Happy Thursday, friends!

Technology Thursday & Positive Thinking Thursday...

Hello, Thursday!

Made it to Cali safe and sound.
I might hang out in my pajamas all day and not even
feel guilty about that!

Today I'm linkin' up with Teaching Trio for Technology Thursday.

I'm goin' to do a throwback to somethin' that I used this year with my fifthies.

A WONDERful technology project...

What a WONDERful Wednesday!

Can you guess what you are about to read about?

I have no doubt you guessed it right away.

I have been waitin' for the perfect time to share this and today is THE day!

I have posted before about how we used the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio 

in our class...here.

I had a plan to end our read aloud with a project to persuade 

our Superintendent to read the book.

Writin' was not enough. 

We needed some technology to really get our point across.

I began by havin' my students pick out which technology pieces they would 

like to incorporate into their project.

They brainstormed and chose which group they would like to be in.

1) Powerpoint

2) QR Codes

3) Stop Motion Animation

4) Writing of Play and Acting
5)Videotaping of Play

The students worked hard in their groups(with little to no direction from me)
 and had lots of discussions
on what needed to be changed.
I'm serious...this was all from their genius brains...not mine.
Once everyone had completed their task
(this took a few weeks because we continued with our normal routines
and fit this in when we had some extra moments)
I took all of their work and dropped it into a Prezi.
I had never used Prezi before, so it took some gettin' used to, but
I'M SO GLAD I USED IT!
Prezi is visually appealin' and once you get the hang of it,
you really can do so much.
We integrated things such as YouTube, iMovie, MyCreate, and QR Codes.

We sent the Prezi to the Superintendent and guess what?!
He loved it!
He came out to our school to let us know we did indeed persuade
him to read Wonder.
He let us know it might take him a little bit, but we assured him
it was worth however long it takes him.
How very sweet and kind of him to take time out of his busy
schedule to thank my kids!
Awesomeness for sure!

Check out our Prezi:


We hope you enjoyed our WONDERful project.

I'm also linkin' up with my sweet friend, Jennifer, from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

for Positive Thinking Thursday.

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So blessed to be able to have a career that allows me to spend

such a long period of time with my family this summer.

I love my family to the moon and back.

Have you entered to win my 500 Follower Giveaway

for a $50 Amazon Gift Card?

Fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter to win.

This ends on June 17th. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Happy Thursday, friends!

Positive Thinking Thursday...Buzzfeed for the win...

It's almost Friday...it's almost Friday!

YAY!

Time to link up with my sweet buddy Jennifer
from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

for Positive Thinking Thursday.

Over two million people on Facebook follow Buzzfeed.  

I'm one of them. 

They posted a link for

23 People You Know Are Dead.

I seriously CANNOT stop laughin'. 

I have gone back over the 23 pictures and gifs...multiple times.

SO FUNNY!
I'm just goin' to share a couple of my favorites.
You seriously need to check out the link to the rest.

You know he's dead.
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That little girl? Dead.
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If these don't make you laugh...
there might be somethin' wrong with you!

Happy Thursday, friends!
Stay positive!

Positive Thinking Thursday & May 2014 Goals...

Hello, May.

You snuck up on me and now

I feel like you are flyin' by.

It's time to make some new goals for May and 

knock them out of the park.

I'm linkin' up with one of my best bloggy buddies, A,

from The Babbling Box for May 2014 Goals.

First...I'm reflectin' on my
April Goals: 

1. Get my fishin' license renewed.

It expires in two days.

Last time I went fishin' (see above)

I got checked by F.W.C.

I don't know what the penalty is if you don't have one,

but I don't want to find out.

I don't think I'd like the smell of fishy jail.
Fail.  I haven't been fishin' lately, so I am sure 
I will procrastinate until the next time we go fishin'.

2. Juice at least three out of five work mornin's.

The stress of state testin' made me start 

shovelin' junk back into my mouth.

I didn't even feel bad about it.

I bought a Nutri Bullet last night.

It's time to get back on track.
Just found out tonight that my dad may have
Type 2 Diabetes.
That can be genetic.
I don't want that.
Success and fail. 
I was doin' really awesome, but
Teacher Appreciation Week happened
and I have fallen off the wagon again.

3. Get more Google Friend Connect followers.
I have 112 followers on there, but 400+ on Bloglovin'.
My Type-A personality is gettin' the best of me on this.
It truly bugs me.
It needs to match better.
Anyone want to be my friend?
Pretty please with cherries on top?!
LOL!
If so, click the blue "Join this Site" button
on the right side of my blog.
It looks like this...

Success.  I have 7 new friends.

Thank you!

If you are new...you're still welcome to join in my

Google Friend Connect party.

4. Keep workin' on my Project Life binder.

Last month I bought one of these and I LOVE it.

I had so many pictures waitin' to be thrown in an album

and more that needed to be printed.

I just love the simplicity and uniqueness of this

form of scrapbookin'/journalin'.

I used a 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby to get the 

Midnight Edition of cards and a 40% off coupon at Michael's to 

get pages and the binder.

Then...I went back to get some pens and the punch to round

the edges of my pictures.

So far, my Project Life binder  is a hodge podge

of the past four years of my life.

Pictures are in...now I need to go back and write on the cards.

Thank you to Kelly at A View Into My Classroom

for bein' my inspiration for this.

Still workin' on this.  

I keep takin' more pictures...so I need to keep printin'.

5. Stay positive in the upcomin' weeks.

Do not let the stress overtake me.

We survived state testin'.

Now the end of the year stress is startin' to set in.

There is somethin' every single day on my calendar

until the end of the year.

I know I'm not the only one...that helps!

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May Goals: 

1.  Bargain hunt for a plane ticket to CA.

I'm headin' out to see my family and Nitty 

for at least a month, if not longer.

I am so ready to see them and I know they're 

ready for me to be there with them.

Family time is healthy for the soul.

Any suggestions on best websites to use?

2.  Write "Thank You" notes to my kids and parents

for all the thoughtful cards and treats I have received

for Teacher Appreciation Week.  I also would like

my kids to write a "Thank You" to our fabulous 

presenters we had for Junior Achievement Day.

I really enjoy this program.

3. Find a new pair of rain boots.

I just ordered a monogrammed rain jacket

from The Pink Monogram and

I need a new pair or matchin' boots.

Last week we had some awful rain and runnin' through 

ginormous rain puddles, water was pourin' into my current boots.

The point of rain boots is to keep your feet dry...not sloshy!

4.  Survive an overnight field trip to Sea World with 

eighty 5th graders and parents.

We are leavin' at 2 a.m., drivin' through the wee hours to Orlando,

spendin' all day at the park and sleepin' 

OVERNIGHT

in the sea turtle habitat.

We'll do an activity the next mornin' and head back home.

My only major concern...I can't shower...

which means 5th graders

can't shower either.

Enough said.

5. Continue to stay positive through the end of the year.

I seriously get worked up over every lil' thing lately.

I need to RELAX!

So...I'm joinin' up with Jennifer from 

Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for 

Positive Thinking Thursday.

My past two posts about nappin' and bacon have been funny...

or at least I thought so.  

I'm goin' serious today.

Hope ya'll will still love me.

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Happy Thursday, friends!