Long time, No See!

I have been on a very long blogging break - a little over a year to be specific! Remember about a year ago when I was dreaming about my classroom? I was doing my best to get as many interviews as possible. They were hard to come by, but I did go on a few. 

After a summer of interviewing, and waiting, and dreaming of my perfect classroom I was actually offered two jobs! I was ecstatic - totally on cloud 9. I took a Kindergarten position at Forest Ridge in College Station, where I completed my student teaching and worked as the library assistant in the prior year. 

the day i signed my contract

As soon as my contract was signed, I shared the good news and began moving in! 

From then I worked at school every day that I could and I was having a ball! 

Here is the video from just before meet the teacher. 

 When the year began, I started a classroom blog for parents and family to follow along with our classroom happenings. I wasn't great about posting but I am so glad to have the memories that I did record. 

Now I am getting ready to begin my second year in Kindergarten and couldn't feel more blessed. I absolutely love my job and feel so lucky to get to to do what I do!

100th Day!

Today was our 100th day of school! Pretty remarkable, but even more remarkable is that we only have 77 days left! We did our best to celebrate it up good. 

 I saw first graders today and they all came in with their cutie patootie hats!  

Each class worked on contributing to a list of 100 things that 1st graders know. 

We got all kinds of good input. 

They have learned lots of stuff...

that snakes don't blink

that contractions can say two words with just one

that bats poop 

and my favorite:

paper can cut you

I am working on rewriting the list to hang in the hallway!

 Although these silly celebrations are for the kids, they sure are  fun for me too! 

Any reason to celebrate is a good one!

Debbie Diller

Yesterday I went to a Debbie Diller workshop! 

If you don't know who she is then you must not be a teacher! 

She knows alot about education and has many great ideas. 

She wrote this book

 

and this one... 

and this one...

and this one...

 

and the one that we were talking about today...

Click on those books to see their Amazon listings. 

See, there's me with my book! 

I was lucky that I got to go because there were so many teachers wanting to attend the training. So glad that I got the privilege. Someday when I have a classroom, I will be more than ready! :) 

School Days

To be honest, today was a hard day. I woke up feeling like I didn't get good rest. But I got my hair into a sock bun and headed to school.

 Of course I planned to sing a library song with my classes today... that takes lots of energy. (making a cheesy song fun, isn't always easy) So I did it... I sang the song with all 6 classes today. Some made fun of it, and some liked it. It was worth it! 

I really enjoyed hearing the kids get the 

hang of the song and sing it on their own. 

But I have to admit, I took a few break throughout the day to go over and take a few deep breaths of the French lavender coming from the Scentsty! It's the little things that make a difference! 

I was so ready for PJ's by the end of the school day but this week I have promised my kids at lunch that on Friday (tomorrow) I will give an award to the best behaved class. So I had a project to complete!

I'm loving how the Golden Lunch Tray turned out! 

Hopefully the kids will covet it and use their very best manners in hopes of attaining it!

 We will see! 

Now that the tray is ready I can rest at ease! 

Hoping for a quick and easy Friday! Then woo hoo, weekend! :) 

I love the library

When I was assigned to the position of library assistant, I had no idea what that entailed. It wasn't a position I even knew was available so I hadn't thought much about what it would be like. It was just one day during staff development that I found out that they library is one of the places I would be working. From there I was trained by our librarian, Christy, on the ins and outs of the school library.

After 8 weeks of helping in the library, I've fallen in love.

I love the library cards

 I love... well like (most days) shelving books.  Clean shelving carts are so satisfying!

I love the dewey decimal system... and trying to explain it to children

And I especially love who I work with! 

Library Assistant was not the position I had imagined for myself right now, but things are panning out to be just fine. I feel like I'm in a good spot for right now and look forward to more time in the library! Who knows... maybe I'll grow up to be a librarian! :) 

Lunch Duty

Part of my new job at the school is to serve as a lunch monitor for 35 minutes each day. It's fun to see kids from different grade levels all socializing and enjoying themselves as they eat their lunch. However, there is one thing during lunch duty that I could do without...

Mandarin Orange single packs. There are not many children, if any at all that are able to open these on their own and the syrup tends to overflow from the cup each and every time I open one. Can anyone relate? I guess since this is my biggest problem today, I'm doing alright!

Unfortunately these are quite popular lunch box additions so for now I suppose the madarin orange saga continues...

Look who's employed!

After much job hunting this summer, I finally was offered a job as an instructional assistant here in College Station! Woo hoo! 

I will be working in the school library as well as helping with first grade readers. I'm really excited about where I'm at and what I'm doing! 

Next week I begin classes at A&M again, this time working toward a masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction! It's going to be a busy semester but I'm anxious to get started! 

I want a classroom!

Still on the hunt for a job and I can't stop dreaming of a classroom of my own! 

Source: 1canoe2.com via Caitlin on Pinterest

Source: familyfun.go.com via Caitlin on Pinterest

Source: ohdeedoh.com via Caitlin on Pinterest

Cupcakes and Rock Collections

Lately it seems like I've just been on a creation spree!

It feels good to release all this pent up creativity!

(I'm a poet and I didn't even know it!)

Tonight I was focusing my creations on things for school... I haven't created very many lesson plans in a timely manner (as I should be doing) but I think I've been up to better! :)

So tomorrow is a very special little girl's birthday and

I was excited to make a special treat for us to celebrate!

It didn't turn out exactly as pictured in the book,

but I'm pretty sure she'll like them!

These little crocodiles should have teeth... but frankly, I'm tired. I think it'll be okay.

My other project for this evening was this:

We are going to be talking about rocks over the next few weeks. I felt like this would be a great way to get to the kids excited about this small unit... having their very own rock collection in a compartmentalized container! :)

Although these really were no work at all, I was proud of myself for recycling 15 egg cartons all from our house.

They care about me...

After our hard afternoon at yesterday, I received two apology letters from students this morning. Both of their parents mentioned that they had written the letters with their own initiative. I really hate that they felt so guilty. But hopefully after writing their letters, they felt better!

( I'm sorry for being rude to you. I promise it won't happen again.)

(Dear Hollar I'm never do it again)

Their hearts are so sweet and innocent.

So to get things off on a nice note today, we began with a fun little activity that I was pretty excited about doing with the kids. First we read Annie and The Wild Animals, then we made "corn cakes" just like Annie does in the story. I planned to snap a few pictures of the process but it turned out that my supervisor stopped by for the lesson. I'm glad that she was there to see an activity that the kids were so excited to be a part of but I felt like pulling out my camera might take away from my evaluation. However, Tressie did get some great shots of the kids mixing their recipe. Here are a few that she got today (without any innocent faces, of course!)

I really enjoyed baking with the kids. Their enthusiasm for the little things really is quite a beautiful thing to see! :) We had a fun day today and were all friends again!

Here are the observation notes from my supervisor:

Also... more progress today with my veggies:

Look who's student teaching!

That's right! I'm in my final semester as an undergrad at A&M! ....which means I am student teaching each day, full time. I truly love it. I love going to school! I have completed two weeks thus far and feel like they have gone really well. I am with the same kiddos as last semester (Kindergarten)!

I am totally in love with each and every one of them. I have already realized that I have some work to do in the sensitivity department. I tend to think about these children ALL the time now. It's difficult for me not to think about their wellbeing even when they aren't with me. I'm sure over time I will learn to accept that I can do what I'm given the opportunity to do... which is make an impact while they are with me, and be at peace knowing there are areas in which I cannot help. My roommate, Lauren, received the gift of a beautiful rock etched with the serenity prayer that hangs in our living room. It has caught my eye quite a few times lately. This prayer is certainly something I think about when it comes to the kids and each of their situations. I'm sure that this is something most all teachers can relate to.

I have no doubt that I am in the right place for me. There are certainly challenges but I am having a blast meeting those challenges and learning new things each day!

Me llamo Ms. Hollar

So just after I've posted about how precious my dog is to me, I realize.... he has no where to go for spring break! My plans include going to Lubbock for the latter half of the week and all my close friends plan to be out of town as well! I've been desperately searching on craigslist for a dog sitter here in College Station or even in Houston (since that's where I'm flying out of). I do have a a few ideas but really nothing is good enough for my angel dog... he needs the best. I think I'll probably have to settle. But hopefully I'll figure out somewhere for him to go soon!

So yesterday I finished my z-pack. It's definitely helped but I am still sneezing all the time! It's so annoying. But I am definitely better than I have been.

I have had these flowers since last Thursday and today when I got up, I was like "wow... those smell really good". So, I must be less congested some to notice their fragrance!

So for my "Technology in the Classroom" class, we had to create a podcast that we could use in the classroom. Basically, just a audio recording that students could use individually for learning or that the teacher could play to the class as a whole. I decided to do a short Spanish lesson. Chelsie has been taking Spanish classes for the past two semesters so I asked her to help me with the assignment and she ever so graciously did! So we got the whole recording done, complete with conversations between the two of us. Then I wanted to add music to the beginning and end. And I was like I have to have something in my iTunes that sounds like Spanish music... I searched and found nothing... I was like what am I going to use? And Chelsie says "I have Johnny Cash." lol ...And I think it worked perfectly! Here it is:

I also had to add in the picture of me with vaquero!