Back to School Goals and Easy Anchor Chart Redo

Last summer I was cruising Pinterest {no surprise} and I came across this idea for gluing tacks on the back of clothespins to hold my anchor charts up. I'm sure many of you have seen this same thing. I went to Joann's, found some fabric, mod podged it on the clothespins, and hot glued the tacks to the clothespin. Score! Well, I used them last year in my classroom {I really wish I could find the picture!}.

They were so cute...until the day the tacks started to separate from clothespin. Great. What was left? Ugly brass tacks holding up my anchor charts.

I decided to handle that this year! This past week, I took all those clothespins, tacks, and E6000 glue. Yeah I brought out the big guns. I reglued those bad boys back to the clothespins. This time I also attached two tacks to the back of the clothespin too. I'm hoping for better success this time! Only time will tell...

I'm also linking up today with I {heart} Recess for the Monthly Goals Back to School edition.

Here's mine!

Personal: Leave work by 5:00, eat better, and workout
Okay. Our school gets out at 4:30. That leaves me 30 minutes to get my stuff together and be out. Now that I have Avery I just don't have the time I used to have to be able to spend at the school! I know this is going to be challenging but I'm going to have to make good use of my time and not spend so much time socializing. {That's} going to be hard! Eat better and workout...hmmm. Eat better isn't too bad. I kind of ignore that over the summer and do an okay job during the school year. Working out is going to be the tricky part. Ugh. Just thinking of it makes me cringe. I'm going to do it though! I have to do it! I wrote it down...

Organization: I have a tendency of not wanting to grade written work until I absolutely have to. I {hate} grading essays. Especially those the kids give me at the beginning of the year before I've had a chance to cast my spell over them and brainwash them. This year, {because I'm writing it down- this is starting to be a problem ;) }I'm going to have those essays graded AND put in the grade book within a week. Yup. I said it. One week.

Planning: Mr. Bush wasn't thrilled about the price of the Erin Condren planner but I'm going to use it! It's going to be used to organize my life and help plan out my lessons. I'm going to use it for good and not to just show how unbelievably cute it is.

Professional: This year I'm going to reach out to students' parents even more to keep them in the loop and continue the communication. I feel like I've made a good start with what I discussed in the last blog post about connecting with them through Twitter and Instagram. I still think I can continue that and more.

Students: Our school has a 25 book campaign where each student's goal at the end of the year is to have read 25 books. It is so hard to get 8th graders excited, motivated, and keep them on track. I feel like last year when I was out on maternity leave for two months I really wasn't able to guide them the way I normally would have to achieving their goal. As a result, I'm sad to say many of mine didn't reach it. It really breaks my heart too. This year, I'm going to spend more time conferencing with them about their goals and what they need to do to reach their goals

Motto: My motto for the year is going to be "Take it one day at a time!" I think that's perfect for me and my students alike.

One more thing. Have you started following Life With Middle Schoolers on Facebook yet? Check it out! Have a great week everyone!

Progress is Good!

I never made it to Lowe's yesterday. Naptime yesterday didn't quite go as planned- the whole day. Scarlett O'Hara said it best, "Tomorrow is another day." Anyway, I went to Lowe's after BG's nap today (3 hours!!!) and picked up the Stack On Storage System Drawers. They were smaller than what I pictured in my mind but somehow relieved they were. As many people who have blogged about their Teacher Toolbox have done I knew I needed to spray paint it because the navy blue wasn't going to work for me.

BG and I ran some other errands somehow stopping at Dollar Tree, but being so overwhelmed and not really having anything in mind, and walking out empty-handed. On the way home, I started thinking I don't have the colors I needed to fix up the toolbox. My room is black and gold (yellow). Disappointed I continued home. I wasn't about to go back to Lowe's with the baby right then to browse for spray paint. Last week's accidental turn down Bourbon Street in New Orleans at 9 o'clock at night was enough questionable mom behavior. I don't need looks about the amount of spray paint I would buy. What can I say? I like the colors spray paint comes in!

We get home. Feed her. Change her. Put her down for another nap. Then the toolbox is all mine. I look and see what colors of spray paint I want. I have gold! Now mind you this is like metallic gold. This gold will not match my room. However, I can always repaint AND I'm pretty sure I can convince my middle schoolers it's a special supply box that they're not allowed in because it's a special color.

So, here's what I have so far. It's painted. I haven't done the labels yet. I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to do on those. Oh, be careful with spray paint. Don't remove any white doo hickey things from the nozzle. If you do your paint job will be really bad and paint will leak on your skin and you will begin to feel like a gold covered tin man from The Wizard of Oz. Just a friendly spray painting tip!

The {BIGGEST} news of the day is that I was browsing Pinterest after ruining dinner. What should I see?? Just that Erin Condren pinned my blog thanking me for supporting her!! WHAT?!!??!? I immediately jumped up from my chair, grabbed my planner (it was sitting right next to me) and screamed to my husband that Erin Condren pinned my blog while waving the planner around. He didn't really know what to say because he didn't understand. He also might have been slightly scared of me. Ugh. After I screamed an explanation to him in a voice I don't think I've ever used before. After I explained he was very proud. Just for kicks here is the pin. So excited!

It's a Sunday Smorgasbord!

Today I'm linking up with Michelle over at Fabulous in First for a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And that's exactly what's going to happen today!

I'm already a little bit scattered with ideas and I've been catching up on blogs, packing for this beach trip (packing the baby for the trip!), and thinking of things I want to do in my classroom next year. I don't think since I've been out of school my brain has stopped. Maybe this week while on vacation I can actually stop and enjoy the time with family and friends.

Bit #1: Tomorrow we leave from DFW and drive to New Orleans for the first leg of the trip. We'll spend the night in New Orleans and then continue to Pensacola, Florida the following day to {finally} get to spend some time on the white sandy beaches of Florida and in the emerald green water of the Gulf of Mexico. I know. Jealous right? If you have any ideas for what we should definitely not miss out on (with a 7 month old) let me know!

Bit #2: She has arrived! {Cue trumpeters} My Erin Condren planner is finally here. In my previous post I forgot to mention I also got a matching iPad case...yeah. It's beautiful. Gorgeous. Everything I wanted. I've already spent yesterday filling in the calendar and taking pictures to make all my friends envious. I already feel organized. I won't stay in that place, but it's nice to start there :) Here she is. This picture definitely doesn't do it justice.

Bit #3: I've seen a lot of people blogging about what they're going to be doing in their classroom next year. I'm going to be honest. I have no idea. I know that I want to keep my gold and black theme (our school colors). I know I want to redo the labels on my bins in my library. Anything beyond that and I'm clueless. I think one reason is because I'm starting a literary magazine at our school but not sure if I'm getting a class to get my staff from or if I'm going to have a club. That makes it hard in figuring out exactly what I'm doing. I also only know that I'm teaching 8th grade Language Arts. I'm not sure how many sections or what else is going to be added. And so I wait. I continue to gather ideas. I add them to my Pinterest boards. My mind might just explode!

I guess that's about it. I probably won't be blogging this week. We'll play catch up when I get back! Have a great week!

An Erin Condren Giveaway! What?!

Tori over at Tori's Teacher Tips is doing an $50 Erin Condren Giveaway.

Now I've blogged before about how I'm waiting for my Erin Condren planner. I think this is a fantastic giveaway! The teacher planner if you haven't had a chance to check it out is full of pages that only a teacher could appreciate. And did I tell you about the options? The personalization? The choices?? I think it took me two days just to decide what all I wanted to include. Go on over to Tori's Teacher Tips and take a look at all the pictures she has of her planner and get in on that giveaway!