September and Football Season!

School has been going pretty well. We're getting into the swing of things! I try not to let the stress get to me and take it one day at a time but by Friday I'm wiped! I've been living for my weekends which have been busy spending time with my family. We've had lots of birthday, wedding, and K-State football celebrations. A few weekends ago we went to Kansas City to celebrate my nephew, Carter's fourth birthday!

 

My little superhero.

My baby nephew, Miles.

My cousin, Heath, married his beautiful wife, Darice, the same day!

The most important boys in my life. My pops and brothers.

My new Wednesday lunch dates. It has been a blessing in disguise getting a job in Junction City because I get to see my Grandma so much more.

The Graham grandkids all grown up.

My biggest supporters when it comes to surviving teaching! They get to hear it all. Love them to pieces.

Happy 22nd to my brother Austin!

LOVE K-State Football season!

First Few Days of School!

The kiddos first half day was last Wednesday! It was an exciting and exhausting half of a week. I absolutely love the school that I'm a part of and really enjoyed meeting the kids. It's so fun to finally share all of my hardwork with them.
We did a lot of get to know you activities and practiced procedures. It was awesome to have the Smartboard in my room. I created a slideshow to go through with the students as learned about one another. I'm really looking forward to learning more about the Smartboard :). I look at it that if the technology interests me then it's going to engage the students also.
I bought a ton of writing prompts from TeacherPayTeacher that are common core aligned. The students answered the prompt of what they wanted to be when they grew up. They did awesome! It was so fun to read and to watch the students try their best on their handwriting. We always filled out and colored "Guess Who" sheets which we'll continue to share and go through this week before we put them in the hallway. They are very colorful and fun for the kids to answer.
I'm trying to reflect and think of things that worked and didn't work to reference to in the years to come but am drawing a blank. We are going to begin our curriculum tomorrow and at first I thought it was too soon but now I'm looking forward to getting into a routine with the kids along with practicing and modeling the expectations and procedures of the classroom and school. Hand in hand.
Most of all, I love the collaborating and family support I have found at my school. I'm able to collaborate with the other second grade teacher daily and she has really taken me under her wing and shared her ideas with me. My mentor is awesome and is going to really help me with my reading this week since she was the second grade teacher in my room last year. I'm just feeling very happy with how things have worked out in life! Phill Robertson says it best...

"Following Jesus has been a blast. The Lord has blessed me mightily. It is what makes me happy, happy, happy." - Phil Robertson

Beaver Lake and My Classroom!

Last Tuesday I started my New Teacher Inductions. We had a week of training and today was my first day in the building in service and working in our rooms. To say the least, I'm overwhelmed!! So much information and so many things to do that most people never know we do! Although I came home really stressed out and got ahold of my top five people to complain to; I am so happy to be in the school and district that I'm in. I have already learned so much and I have found an amazing support team in my school. :) I couldn't be happier!
I was lucky that my principal let me in before my family vacation this summer to Beaver Lake, Arkansas!

It was a week filled with nothing but anchoring in a cove and relaxing with the family! A few of my favorite pictures and highlights of the trip...

My Mom planned the whole vacation and I can't say it enough; this woman is my rock. I have no idea what I'd do without her. I can only hope to be the woman she is today :)

My family. So grateful that my parents can still go on vacation together.

We shared another awesome vacation together.

KC Grahams are always tons of fun plus give me the two cutest nephews.

We had a ghost tour of the a haunted hotel, The Crescent.

Last but not least; Rambo. My very favorite pup. 

Now for my classroom, some before and after pictures! I've added a lot more since then but haven't taken pictures yet. 

I never thought I would walk into a classroom with SO much stuff!

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CAFE board, schedule pocket chart, and behavior punch cards.

The one thing I worried about in college was having books in my classroom. I have SO many books now between Mrs. P, the classroom, and my own.

Classroom library; now I have a rug in that space.

The kids' book tubs.

Before

My desk area :)

Word Wall and what I'm thinking will be the word work station.

Don't let the old school closet door fool you; it holds A LOT of stuff!

 

After I organized and all of this stuff comes with the room.

How many sticky notes I had! I never thought. I'm grateful; do not get me wrong but it was overwhelming to organize!

My small group instruction.

I'm hoping I remember the outlet of blogging during this hectic year! It will give me a source to reflect whether it's private or public posts. In a week from today I meet my first group of kiddos! :)

Beginning of July :)

Yesterday I got the keys to my first classroom! I'm so excited and SO happy I will be able to get in there before next Friday. I know I'd be making checklists my entire vacation if I only had two days between receiving the keys and leaving for Beaver Lake. Now I have a whole week. :) I'm letting myself relax this weekend because my cousin, Taylor, is getting married to Kierstin.

We started off the celebration last night with a family BBQ. We swam at my Mom's house and my nephews are seriously little fish! They all love the water.

Jaden isn't even two and fearlessly jumps into the pool without his life jacket. He watches his big brothers ALL of the time and wants to be just like them.

These are for you Katie (since you're the only person I know who looks at my blog ;)) A look into a mother's life of three crazy boys.

It was a perfect night and it was nice getting to hang out and see everyone.
The rehearsal dinner is tonight and wedding tomorrow; followed by the reception AND a brunch on Sunday. My family obviously likes to celebrate marriages and being able to get together.

 The beautiful couple! So happy for them and so glad I was able to celebrate it with them.

Mr. and Mrs. Kuhn 

So proud of Taylor!

Future Classroom!

These are pictures I had taken of my future classroom last year :)

 And now I've seen my future classroom empty. :)

Can't wait to start making it my own room :)

Organizing All of My Teacher "Stuff"

Have to show off my Erin Condren teacher planner. Loooove it.

I have already started to accumulate a lot of things for my classroom next year. I was lucky to have Mrs. P give me a lot of things she used in her classroom after she retired. Including her classroom library. (It's funny because having a big classroom library was something I was worried about having. Now I have my own books, her books, and a classroom library that comes with the classroom. So many books!)

Everything I was getting/creating/buying was outgrowing sitting behind our bedroom door. Plus it stressed me out to have it all there anyways. 

Luckily, Momma Linda let me use part of her storage room to starting organizing my classroom library and store my "stuff" there. At the beginning of the summer; I attempted to sort through and organize my classroom library. 

In my student teaching classroom; the books were on a bookshelf. The students were free to read them and keep them in their desks during free time. She kept some books that are more popular in a basket above the bookshelf; the students could read these books during free time but weren't to be kept in their desks. 

When I was able to observe at Lee and Sheridan; I started thinking about organizing the books in tubs.

My teaching partner at Sheridan's classroom library.

How a second grade teacher arranges her book baskets. She book has a number on it corresponding with which basket it should be in.

So I went with baskets. But it was A LOT of books. I just told myself that having these books organized to go into the classroom will make it easier to organize the books that are already in the classroom.

A work in progress.

Last week I organized the posters I have for bulletin boards. These are all posters that Mrs. P gave to me so a big thank you to her. I'm debating if I want to store my poetry posters the same way.

Again, all things from Mrs. P!

My Mom had an extra plastic closet hanger so I hole punched each poster and hooked it onto the bar.

Trying to organize all of the posters! And again, I know there are a lot of posters that come with the classroom I'll be in next year.

All finished :)

Slowly but surely, I'll take over the entire storage room :)

 Ready to get some of this stuff into my classroom!