I've Currently got a 5 for Friday post going!

I'm linking up to Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday, and my Number 1 is Farley's Currently!

Listening - I just finished up watching the season finale of The Hero. It's a reality show. When one contestant was asked what a hero is his answer was "an educator." Loved that part, but the final winner was super disappointing to me. Sigh. Moving on...

Loving - I finally started playing Candy Crush Saga and it is kind of addicting. There's nothing worse than waiting to get another life or a stinkin' ticket to move to the next set of levels... Also, I'm wrapping up my summer vacation this weekend... 

Thinking -  Even though school isn't back in session til the 20th, I have a weeklong workshop on teaching about energy at Penn State that I'm being paid to attend every day next week, all day long...and then it'll be back into the classroom to start setting up!

Wanting - I feel like I write down two things on my to-do list for every thing I cross off!

Needing - I have 12 years and now 6 grade levels worth of files on my computer...'nuff said?

B2S must haves - I've talked before about the need for a huge classroom library. I've been working on weeding out "older content" books and filling in with some 3rd/4th favorites this summer.

I use my document camera every single day, usually in several ways. I got it through donorschoose.org!

The biggest thing you need for back to school is a plan! I find it's better to plan twice the activities you think you need!

Number 2 - Followers, Blog & TpT

This week I saw my store followers shoot up! I'm just a few away from 400 TpT followers, and I just exceeded 400 bloglovin' followers! I'm so grateful and so excited to see both of these grow! I'd love to have more of you join me on instagram and facebook though! Click on my little social media buttons to head in the right direction! You wouldn't want to miss out on FB only sales or freebies, right?! And if you're not on instagram then you missed out on my recent picture of a hot blonde on the beach... Okay, it was me back in college for Throwback Thursday ;)

Number 3 - TV Marathons

In the summer I become a crazy night owl. I mean like going to bed when the sun comes up type night owl. Netflix isn't helping. I've watched literally 30 episodes of Mad Men in the last week. And I'm usually working on my computer, reading blogs, etc at the same time. How am I going to fit it all in starting next week?! 

Number 4 - Intern

In PA starting next year, college kids have to choose between being certified Pre-K through 4th (Elementary) OR 4th through 8th (Middle School). I think this is stupid. I'm certified Nursery through 6th grade, and while not all schools are this way, the majority of elementary schools here at K-5th and NOT departmentalized. So, for example, there are going to be a bunch of 5th grade teachers out there who are getting middle school degrees and specializing in social studies(or something else) who are going to student teach in middle schools, then have to teach math, reading, etc. with no preparation and no experience in elementary at all.

Anyway, because of this change I thought that I would not be able to have an intern this year because 5th grade teachers can't mentor elementary student teachers anymore. Then I got moved to 3rd/4th, but all the mentors/interns had already been paired up. Well, I was recently contacted by the head of the program with an opportunity to take an intern whose mentor has moved, and I'm super excited! I take mentoring super serious, but that's a post for another day!

Number 5

I just wanted to show off a TpT product if that's okay! I'm in a unique situation where I'm going to be teaching cursive to kids who have never learned it at all, and have kids who have a year of experience with it. I only want to put ONE alphabet up on my wall, and usually I'd put a cute cursive one up with a picture to match each letter. 

But then I figured, kids know what a Z is in 3rd grade. They know it goes /z/ like in zebra. But they may NOT be able to match it up to its cursive counterpart! So I made my combined alphabet! I've already printed and laminated one for my room! 

It's just $2.00 in my store! That's better than the two cans of pork and beans you could buy with that. They might both last 30 years, but you'll get more use out of the alphabet! And I threw in some nameplates I made too!