May Currently....oooohhh "Surprise"!

It's been a lil' while since I've gotten to link up 

with the super sweet Farley from Oh Boy' Fourth Grade.

It's the first of the month which means May Currently.

listening: I'm listenin' to the T.V.  Nashville was finally back on last

night and I just had to find out what was goin' on.

loving: I splurged on myself today.  I went into town to a cute

lil' shop, Plum Delightful, to scoop up a Mariana necklace

and pair of earrings that I have been eyeballin'. 

They've also got a really neat Facebook page called

Plum Last Call. 

I want EVERYTHING on there!

 It's goin' to match

perfectly with my crystal dot bracelet from Mindy Mae's Market.

thinking: What in the world am I goin' to wear to the Talladega

Nascar race this weekend?  I've never been to race...so this should

be interestin' for sure. 

Go #11 Denny Hamlin!

wanting: Many of my besties like to go to a place in Troy, Alabama

called Sikes and Kohn's Country Mall.  They always scoop up 

cute stuff there, so I want to go too. (Insert whiny voice!)

Now....how am I gonna convince the three dudes in the car

that the two chicks just HAVE to go shoppin' on the way?

needing: If you follow me on Instagram, you know I sent 

some flowers to my Nitty (my 92 year old grandma), 

my Mommy & Daddy this week.

My Nitty is under the weather...super sad face.  

I normally spend several weeks 

in the summer with her in Georgia, but this year 

I will be goin' out to California to see her instead.

I need to figure out which day I'm goin' since we get out of 

school on June 6th. 

I'm so ready to see my family.  

I haven't seen them since January...so I miss them terribly.

I NEED to be with them!

My Nitty doesn't like gettin' her picture taken, but I just

had to share...isn't she cute?

surprise: I'm braggin' about my new bloggy friend, Cassie from 

Funky in Fourth.  I happened upon her blog and left her a comment 

not too long ago.  When she replied, I couldn't help but notice

her middle name in her email address.

It's the SAME as mine.....LEA!

How fantabulous is that? 

Fun fact....did you know "lea" means "meadow"?

Go meet my new friend Cassie Lea and give her some love!

I know I already posted once today for my Positive Thinking Thursday

about BACON, but I couldn't miss May's Currently.

Be sure to head on over to Farley's blog and check

out the other Currentlys.

She has switched things up a lil' this month...so read carefully.

Happy Thursday again, friends! 

Mmm....BACON....Positive Thinking Thursday...

It's Thursday, time to link up with my 

sweet friend Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

for Positive Thinking Thursday.

This linky makes me smile.

I love readin' everyones' positive thoughts.
I've been in a silly mood lately...so I'm takin' the funny route again.

Do you know my hilarious friend Matt Sutton from

Digital: Divide & Conquer?

If not...go follow him...NOW!

This post was an inspiration from a comment that

he left on my last Positive Thinking Thursday post. 

One little word was all it took to know what I was goin' to write about...

BACON!

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*I have VERY positive thoughts about bacon.

If you are a herbivore, I apologize to you and allow you to 

exit this post; I promise I won't even judge you.

If you are a carnivore...KEEP READIN'...

Mmm...BACON!

(My friend A from The Babbling Box is lovin' this right

now...guaranteed! She appreciates bacon just as much 

as I do.  She even has a place by her home that 

has a basket of bacon as an appetizer....jealous!  

I'm pretty sure our instant bond revolved around bacon)

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*Truth!

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*This guy makes me laugh every time I see him.

Even more so when it involves bacon.

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*True story.

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*This is so me!

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*No need to make lemonade...eat bacon instead!

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*I added somethin' educational...are you proud?

I really need to order this shirt.

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*Totally usin' this one in my class.

My kids would get a kick out of this.

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*Okay herbivores, if you're still here...admit it...you laughed!

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*Now this is a book I'd like to read!

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I heart bacon.

That is all.

I hope this made a few of you smile.

If not, you can blame it all on Matt for givin' me the idea!

Happy Thursday, friends!

Stay positive.

Pesky passwords...what's a girl to do?

I'm so glad I have Tuesdays to help me get over Mondays.
Thank you to my sweet BBB Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper
for hostin' Tried It Tuesday each week.
Tuesdays make me smile.

 

Tried it Awesomeness #1: Pesky Passwords
Does anyone else live in a district that makes

you change your password every 45 days

to access your school accounts?

(That sounded awfully Hunger Games-ish)

Anyways...I'm one of those people that 

is a creature of habit.

I don't deal well with change...so I'm sure you 

can only imagine my frustration when I get the 

notification that I must once AGAIN change 

my password.

I mean I know it's all for our protection and stuff, but

protection from what exactly?

Our internet is already like Fort Knox...

I'm sure we're safe from the creepers on the outside.

Ain't nobody gettin' in my interwebs to hijack

my lesson plans. 

If they do...they are nuts...

I'd totally give those things up for free.

If you're like me, you probably have a billion passwords

and a poor memory that can't remember them all.

What's a girl to do to manage those pesky passwords?

I've written them down and hidden them from burglars...

and myself.

I've emailed myself and dropped them in secret folders...

that I can't find.

You name it...I've tried it.

I finally found somethin' that worked for me.

Typin' them in a table on a Microsoft Publisher document.

I can quickly change a password and save it.

I started storin' this document on my thumb drive,

and my external hard drive.

 Only problem, I switched to a Mac and I don't have

Publisher when I'm at home.

This doesn't work for me. 

So...I created a Microsoft Powerpoint instead.
Super easy!

Read about how I have the kids store their passwords here.

 I'm always paranoid I'm goin' to lose my thumb drive...so I
guard it with my life and treat it like it's a one of a kind jewel.

Tried it Awesomeness #2: Olaf from Frozen
The more drawin's that Rob adds on Art for Kids,
the more excited my kids get.
One of his newest ones is Olaf from Frozen.
My kids were all over this.
We grabbed our 3rd grade buddies to watch Frozen and
draw Olaf one of the
days after testin'.
(Yes, every child sang!)
Perfect stress reliever!

Don't you just love Olaf?

Congratulations to 

AMC from Looking from Third to Fourth

and Emily from I Love My Classroom

for each of their 1,000 followers.

So excited for them reachin' this huge milestone!

I absolutely love readin' their blogs and checkin' out their

wonderful ideas.
Be sure to hop on over to their blogs to
enter for your chance to win some fabulous prizes.

Happy Tuesday, friends!

Did someone say, "1,000 Follower Celebration"?

Did someone say, "1,000 Follower Celebration"?

Why yes, yes they did!

Congratulations to 

AMC from Looking from Third to Fourth

and Emily from I Love My Classroom

for each of their 1,000 followers.

So excited for them reachin' this huge milestone!

I absolutely love readin' their blogs and checkin' out their

wonderful ideas.

AMC and Emily have teamed up with a ton of spectacular bloggers to celebrate.

I'm super duper honored to be a part of this awesomeness.

Don't sleep on this...go check out what they've got

goin' on to thank YOU, their fabulous followers.

Not already a follower?

No problem; you can go follow them now

and enter for your chance to win some amazin' prizes!

Happy Monday, friends!

Quixey and Pocket...Tried it Tuesday

Hey y'all!

I'm poppin' in quickly to say hey to you and to link up with 

my super sweet BBB Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper for

Tried it Tuesday.

A few weeks ago the Tech Department

in my district had a Techshare.

I was bummed I wasn't able to attend, but

they were kind enough to email the presentation

to everyone in the district.

I'm so glad because they shared many things 

that I was not previously familiar with.

Tried It #1: Quixey

Quixey is a search engine for apps.

You can choose your platform that you are searchin' for.

Android, iPhone, iPad, Windows Phone, Blackberry

Here is what Quixey looks like.

 Just type in the word of an app you are lookin' for.

Your options will pop up.

I really like the ability to search all the 

platforms in one place.

This is especially helpful when askin' students to add

apps to their devices since they might each have a different

type of device.

Tried It #2:  Pocket

Pocket almost reminds me of a Pinterest...

only it's safer for kids.

You have the ability to save items to read for later 

and nobody has to see it, but you.

Or...you can share it with your students

instead of Pinterest(anyone else worry about the things 

that might pop up on Pinterest when you log on?)

I love my friends and their someecards...they make me 

laugh hysterically, but let's face it...they aren't school appropriate.

I don't want to give my kids any ideas that it's okay 

to browse through Pinterest without parent permission.

This is why I think Pocket is a great resource.

Plus, it's available on

Android, iPhone, iPad, and Kindle Fire.

Here's a short video about Pocket.

You should definitely check these sites out! 

So far...me likey!

Have you checked out Classroom "App"lications over at

Teaching Tales Along the Yellow Brick Road?

Christy has a great collection of blog posts 

that she and some other fabulous teacher bloggers

have written about how they

are utilizin' iPads in the classroom.

Be sure to spend some time browsin' through there.

Happy Tuesday, friends...only one more day of testin' after today.

Positive Thinking Thursday...nap time!

Hello, Thursday! 

Time to link up with my friend Jennifer 

from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

for Positive Thinking Thursday.

I need all the positivity I can get this week.

It has been a super long week of testin'.

Only two more days left next week...that's a positive.

I'm super good at always findin' the negative in every situation, so

this linky is perfect for me to get grounded

and try to look at the sunny side up instead.

What could be more positive than takin' naps?

I dedicate this post to my other favorite Ali from

Teaching Powered by Caffeine.

She is the only person I know that appreciates

the true art and power of nap takin'!

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Admit it...you laughed!

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See...I knew there was a reason I loved to nap.

I feel smarter already.

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Who knew?

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Don't judge!

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Why yes...yes, I absolutely DO have what it takes!

Anyone else up for this challenge?

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I seriously need one of these in my life.

For real...how fun would this be?

It would be fantabulous to use for the nap challenge.

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It's true...I do!

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Take a nap...I promise it will make you feel better.

Happy Thursday, friends!

Stay positive!

My students HIT me...Spark Student Motivation Saturday

Hello, Saturday! 

Today I'm joinin' my sweet BBB Joanne from

Head Over Heels for Teaching for 

Spark Student Motivation Saturdays.

I was ready for this week to be O-V-E-R!

My poor kids deserved this weekend to have a break from me.

They have worked so hard the past several weeks.

They needed some F-U-N to get them 

through the next few weeks.

It was a MUST to spark some student motivation 

before the dreaded state testin'.

What could be more fun than peggin' your teacher 

with water balloons?

Yep...that's right...

I promised my kids that if they gave me their full attention

this week and practiced all of the test strategies I have

taught them, they could then peg me with water balloons.

Turnabout is fair play though...teachers also work super duper

hard durin' state testin'.

So...WATER BALLOON FIGHT!

Got these at Dollar General.  $4 a pack.

I didn't fill up all of them...I still have plenty left.

This took a while to do because the nozzle that was included

in the bag did not fit the sink at school. 

I was soakin' wet before we even made it outside.

The girls gettin' ready...they look a lil' scared.

Not the boys...they are ready for action!

Of course we had to take a selfie.

Ruuuuuuuuuuuun!

The kids let me get each of them individually.

Then...BOMBS AWAY! 

They all got ME at the SAME time.

Let's just say...some of them have unbelievable aim.

They all helped clean up the tiny pieces and are

already beggin' me for us to do this again before the end

of the year.

They will just have to wait and see.

I also asked parents to send in snacks so we could 

have a ROCK the FCAT grazin' party.

The idea behind this...eat all day and be merry!

I have a feelin' my kids are goin' to knock this test out...

just like they knocked me out with the water balloons!

That's okay...it's just water and I know this will be

a day my kids will remember for a long time to come.

Happy Saturday, friends!