August Currently

Hey All,

Twice in two months! Woo hoo (baby steps, people)!

I promise that I have the best intentions of being a better blogger once I have some time to get some school schtuff schtarted. ;)

Without further adieu, let's get to this month's currently:

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Listening: So the dog is no longer wagging his tail (he was trying to get me to rub his tummy, the big suck, but it seems he gave up! Other than that, it's pretty quiet in the house. Hubs and I are just sitting. Usually I have the TV on but I'm content.

Loving: I agreed (when summer was just a distant dream) to work for my mom for two weeks when one of her employees went on holidays. Something came up, and two weeks turned into 3 and a bit. I am so excited to be almost done (6 more days, people!) so that I can enjoy a bit of time to myself before I can get back into my room and start full-on school mode.

Thinking: I really did want to have a bunch of stuff done and be super productive this summer. We have been productive, but more so in fixing some stuff up around the house etc. and not so much on the school front.

Wanting: So I am a total nerd and have been super jealous of all the classroom pics that I've been seeing on Instagram (side note: follow me @applesowlsmochas)... I totally wish that I could get some things done in my room, too! I've been thinking a lot about how I want to set things up, I'd like to see if things will actually fit where I want to put them!

Needing: So I was totally trying to turn a new leaf when it comes to preparedness...and I printed a bunch of new decor things at the end of the year so that I could use school ink instead of home ink. I know that I brought them home (I took them out once in an almost attempt to cut some), but they are nowhere to be found. Sigh. I hope that they didn't make it into the recycle bin!

And, lastly, our 1st day: The school will be open officially starting on August 18 for teachers to come in and organize, etc. Then our first day is the day after Labour Day--Sept. 2 (Divisional PD day), Sept. 3 is a school-based admin day, and Sept. 4 is the first day with kidlets!


Anyway, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading! Have a great day!

July Currently

Hello Again,

Look at me, being all bloggy! I'm linking up with Farley over at:

for the July Currently! Without further ado:

Listening: It is definitely crazy how creative people are when they try to cross/send things over the border. I get nervous crossing when I haven't  done anything wrong! I could never be a smuggler!

Loving: This is the first summer I've taken off in the 7 years I've been teaching. I'm pretty excited, even though I don't really have any plans. Trying to convince the hubs to take a road trip to the States next week, but so far, no luck.

Thinking: My house has definitely been neglected the last couple of weeks as I worked to finish report cards and end of year stuff (Sidenote: I'm so excited that I don't have to write 100 reports [20 classroom + Phys. Ed.] next year!).

Wanting: I hate cleaning. :) And ohmigoodness if you could see my poor, waterlogged plants! I feel so bad for them. Just swimming :(

Needing: Our plan is to sell our house this summer. We are looking for some more space and a bigger yard for the fur baby to run around. But in order to do that, we have to stop being a teacher hoarder (me) and a regular hoarder-lite (hubs). He denies that he has lots of stuff, but I know the truth!! :)

4th Plans: Well, it's my friend's birthday, so I may call him in Ireland to wish him well. Other than that, just a regular Friday. Today is Canada Day, so happy 147th birthday to my beautiful country! No big plans today either....too rainy and yuck to go do much. So it looks like it's house cleaning for me! Sigh.

Have a great day, everyone!

OhMyWord! I Blogged!

Hello, Stranger Peeps!

It has been foreva! Like, literally, almost forever! I'm going to put this in print so that (hopefully) it comes true: 2014-2015 is going to be the year when Dawn actually blogs. For reals. Hopefully you can help hold me to it. I am sooo bad. So a bit of a recap of what's gone on...

I started teaching back at my favourite school, this time in a Kinder/Gym position. Not necessarily my forte, but I very much enjoyed it. Some A lot of changes happened at school this year, almost half of our professional staff is leaving or moving into new positions. So I'm teaching Grade 3 next year. I'm excited to be in my very own classroom (not filled with someone else's stuff), and not having to share with anyone, as well as working full-time (and full-time classroom). Plus it is the room of a good friend who left for another position at a different school, which means that it's an open spot that could become mine if everything goes well this year.

Also a plus, I know all of my kids (they were in Kinder the first year I taught at the school) and I taught them Phys. Ed. all year. No need to learn any names! :)

I'm super excited for this new chapter, and for a work-free summer! I am helping out at my mom's store for two weeks, but other than that I'm free!

Here's to a summer of fun (and blogging)! Thanks for reading!

Take care,

SLANT Box Reveal

Hey Again,

Today I wanted to talk a bit about my SLANT box. If you don't know about SLANT boxes, you can read about it here:

Thanks to Jameson over at Lessons with Coffee for dreaming up this awesome idea and sharing it with the rest of us!

For August, I was linked up with the awesome Lola over at:

and Debbie from Teise's Tidbits

It was nice to get to know these two educators over the month of August! The theme for August was "These are a few of my favourite things"

Lola did a great job of finding some awesome things for me! I hope Debbie enjoyed the things I picked out for her!

Here's how my box arrived...

 

Exciting!

And here are all the great contents:

 

Some cute pencils, lip balm, owl post-its, a Starbucks card, and a super cute mug with my initial on it!

The best part? The mug totally matches my new planner (this is a crummy pic, but you can see the patterns)! 

I highly recommend signing up for a SLANT box! September is closed already, but October is coming up.

Have a great Sunday, everyone!

Currently September...and an Update

Hello peeps!

If you're still around reading this lovely little blog, thanks!

I know I've been an awful blogger this summer (or a nonexistent one)! I promise, I do have a plan to be better this year! To start off this better blogging year, I'm linking up with Farley at Oh Boy, 4th Grade for the first Currently of the school year.

As well, I have a couple of posts coming up...my slant box reveal (if you haven't seen the pictures on instagram yet) and a blog award I was given (yay)!

 

Listening:  I admit, I'm a sucker for some reality TV. Other than Big Brother, one of my faves is The Great Food Truck Race on Food Network. Also, Cutthroat Kitchen.   :)

Loving: I'm glad that Hubs and I got to spend some time together this weekend, before things get extra crazy, even though part of it was me getting very angry at the computer for not printing my labels properly!

Thinking?Wanting: Two sides of the same thing: Thinking about all the stuff that I'm sure I'm forgetting, or needing to plan, or wanting to do before school starts "for realsies" on Thursday.

Needing: My poor Hubs is so done with all the "kindercrap" :) that is in my living room. So I need to get some of it out and my house back to normal.

and for me: Even though things are super stressful with another grade level change, and teaching gym part-time, I really want to work on a balance, and not be worried and focused just on school this year. The second one is a fitness goal for myself. Years ago, when I was finishing up my first university degree, I spent part of a summer in Quebec City doing a French program. Since we flew there, we didn't have a car for the six weeks we were there, so we walked everywhere. I lost so much weight without even trying. I would love to be able to get back into walking (and, as a plus, doggie gets more exercise, too)!

Well, that's it for me. I'll be back later this week with my slant box reveal and first day of school pics!

Have a great (what's left of) Labour Day Weekend, everybody!

Booking Across Canada

Hey Everyone,

This week I'm linking up with Mrs. D at Reading with Mrs. D for her "Booking Across Canada" linky party. One of the books from Manitoba that I thought of showcasing was  "Ruby's Hope" by Hannah Taylor.

However, there are already so many great resources to go with this book associated with the Ladybug Foundation that I didn't think there was much I could add.

So instead, I chose another Canadian book, "If You're Not from the Prairie..." by David Bouchard.

Although the author is writing about his experience growing up in Saskatchewan, it resonates for those across Manitoba as well. Plus, the illustrations by Henry Ripplinger are fantastic.


What I put together for this book is a poetry frame for students to fill out using the form that Bouchard uses in the book. Students can choose their community or a place that is special to them to create the poem.

It's available here:

"If You're Not from the Prairie" Writing Form


Hope that it is useful for you! You can also get students to illustrate their poems using Ripplinger's images as a guide.

Have a great day!

Announcement and a Design Change

Hey All,


The announcement and the design change sort of go together...so, first, it's official! I got a job at the school I was talking about earlier! :)

The only thing is that it's not the grade 3 job I applied for...I'm teaching kindergarten!

I was pretty nervous at first, I trained as a Middle Years teacher, and over the past few years have taught everything from 3-7. It was a little overwhelming at first, thinking about what a day would look like with my kinders, but over the past couple days it's become more exciting.

Now I'm mostly nervous about the first day. But I'm sure it'll be great.

So that's the reason for the design change. Thanks to Dreamlike Magic for the template!

Pretty soon I will be a "Middle Years Girl in an Early Years World"!



Thanks for reading!