Busy, busy, busy...

So I've been super busy trying to be a teacher extraordinaire and super mommy at the same time but I actually accomplished a few things!  First, I went to Target and got these things:

I'm mostly excited about the letter magnets to make this for my class.  SUPER CUTE, right?!  Then I went crazy over at Pinterest and started making a bunch of things:

A new clipchart to hopefully do this.  I found the original idea over at Clutter Free Classroom.

Hands On Math Center with added CMO's on the back to make it work for my school.  I downloaded these for free from Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade! 

My attempt at organization like this.

BEST idea EVER for keeping track of Reading Levels... This was just my attempt.  I tweeked it to work for the HM Reading Levels and AR colors that my school uses and then added DRA and Rigby equivalents.  I still need to add the velcro, too.

So, hopefully with a few (or a lot) more hours of classroom work, I will be set for an awesome year!!  =)

Possibly OCD??

So my classroom is being used for summer school this year which means I can't really do anything in there until summer school is finished.  This normally wouldn't be a problem for me because I normally do not have a job at this point in the year (I'm usually the victim of budget cuts and RIF notices).  But since I FINALLY got to keep the same school, same room, same grade-level (oh my!) this year, I'm anxious to be all that I can be in the classroom.  Since I was pregnant this past year and wasn't supposed to move a lot of furniture around, I just made due with the way things were originally placed in my room.  So since I can't physically move furniture in my room right now because of summer school, I decided to go totally OCD and measure and map out my room, draw it to scale, and make little scale sized paper furniture to figure out how I want my room layout to be.  Does that make me CRAAAAAAZAAAAAYYYYY???  Probably.  =)

So, what do all of you (again, like two people) do to figure out the layout of your room?  What kind of furniture/spaces are "Must Haves" in your class?  Can you tell me the musical reference I made in this post?  Lemme know!

Cootie Catchers from Ms. Male

Ms. Male over at "A Day in the Life of a Second Grade Teacher" is having a very very cool first giveaway!  Remember those "cootie catchers" that you used to make back in the day?  Personally, I had no idea that they had an official name - I just called them "those super cool paper thingies that you move with your fingers".  Anyway, cruise over to her blog and enter to win some very cool Cootie Catcher Resource Books and Incentive Packs from her sponsor Creative Teaching Press!  Can I get another link up in here please??  =)

HUGE Giveaway!

Okay, like I've said, I'm new to the whole blog world so I'm not very good at things yet.  That being said, Denise over at "Sunny Days in Second Grade" is having a HUMONGOUS giveaway to celebrate 400 followers (WOW!).  If you are the lucky winner you will get not one, not two, but - wait for it...  TWENY EIGHT free items from twenty eight awesome TPT stores!  I'm serious.  That's one free item from each store.  So rad, right?!  When I figure out how to "grab buttons" (he he he) I'll make this look pretty but for now just head over to her blog and enter to win!

My Cool Header!

No... I don't play women's soccer....  But I did make a rad header for this blog all by myself!  I can't take credit for it though.  I got all my help from this blog Makin' Cute Blogs and this free website Piknik!  It was super easy to make (in my opinion) an awesome personalized header all by myself.  And I'm a total beginner so you advanced bloggers could do some rad things I'm sure.  Go check it out!

No Place for Coloring...

Hi Everyone!  Right... all one of you.  And by "one" I mean, me reading this post in a couple minutes...   =)  I'm Sam and I'm starting up this Teacher Blog right about.... now.  I've been blog stalking for a while now and I lurk all over the internet for awesome teacher blogs and classroom ideas.  I'm just starting to blog on a regular basis and I'm definitely a straight up beginner with fancy blog stuff.

My plan for this blog is to share cool ideas I find (giving credit where it is due, of course) or awesome ideas/strategies that I might have, and share the occasional "Tale From the Trenches".  I love telling stories about my class since I usually have some interesting characters in there.  Names are with-held and replaced with oh-so-clever nicknames to maintain anonymity.

Tonight I thought I would start this blog off with an explanation of it's title.  "Rigorous Coloring".  What does it all meeeeeeeeeaaaaan???  Well, I've been all over my district.  Lots of us have due to budget cuts in California and an especially cautious district.  In five years I've been at four schools, had five principals, and taught 1st, Kinder, 1st, K-1, and 2nd grade.  Whew!  Anyway, a couple years ago I was placed at a Reading First school to teach a K-1 Combo (criminal, I tell you).  My principal ran a tight ship and was very concerned about the "rigor" in our classrooms.  Having never taught at a Reading First school before, it was a rude awakening to say the least.  No - you may not use anything that isn't Houghton Mifflin.  No - you may not stray from the script in your T.E. No - you may not color in your classroom.  WHAT?!  Yup.  One day I was pulled into my principal's office to be told, "I had to physically remove myself from your classroom today because I was so angry.  You had Kinder students coloring."  Annnnddddd....????  I explained to him that my students were completing a Houghton Mifflin worksheet that asked them to color the vowel with the short u sound before they were using a yellow crayon to highlight sight words in their Phonics Library with a partner after Buddy Reading.  They were then allowed to color the pictures in their Phonics Library as a May Do.  "Well, next time tear up that page and think up another activity because there is no place for coloring at this school."  Oooookay.

I did my time there.  One.  Day.  At.  A.  Time.  So here it is.  My "take that" to the farr away place where coloring is frowned upon.  Let's do this then.  Gonna get some good ideas and fun stories flowing through here.  I hope you come back for more and see how this blog grows!  =)