TWT Celebration - Day 3

I wanted to do something different than I have the past few days... I wanted to give each of you a gift as my way of saying Thank you to each and everyone of you for everything you have done for me in the last year.

I can't say it enough... I am a better teacher today because of you. I know that each time I visit your blog, I become even better than I am today.

While you are reading this post, I am probably in an interview for Exemplary Student Teacher of the Year. I passed the first round and am one of five representing my university. There are 12 open positions...

I am here because of you. You took the time out of your day to write a post that taught me more than I ever learned in a textbook. You took the time to create products that inspire me. You took the time to answer my questions. For that, I will be forever grateful!

Today only... (or until I remember to take them off of "free status").... I have placed all the Birthday Items in my store as free! For this celebration I created...

a calendar and boggle set! I use this in my classroom for many, many different things and I have a whole collection of ones that I have created. This summer, I am releasing my math wall center which will utilize the new format of calendar cards.

a picture prompt set! 30 different prompts... hopefully enough to cover every one of your kiddos birthdays in class. This meets the standards and allows your students to have fun writing. Add it to each individual student's journal as a way to remember a friend's birthday or collect them and send them home with the birthday child!

I also have a birthday fun pack which includes math and literacy review, posters, and stationary. I love this set and am planning on adding a bunch more to it when I have more time. I designed it specifically with my ELL students in mind and also to provide the birthday child with some alternate work for the day.

and who could forget my birthday balloons!

So stop in at the store my bff created and see what magic she has woven. Not only did she build the store but she edited all of the pages, made a new credits page, and created the beautiful covers and graphics for each one. Thanks Lorrea!

All of the products are available free only at the new TWT store. I am hoping that I found some time to upload these to TpT and TN prior to this going live but no guarantees. I have quite a few new products that are only here for now as this is the only place Lorrea has had access to. =) Guess once finals are done I need to get busy!

Moving Freebies

As part of my New Year plan to be more organized, 

I have decided to remove my freebies from TpT & TN 

and move them all to google docs! 

WHY?? 

I want it to be easy to access these items in a single click.

It takes a lot of time to upload products to TN & TpT,
this means I can create more.

When I figure out the link to my google docs page,
you will be able to access all of them at one time.
This means you can get more freebies faster!

We all win!

You can read more about this great idea at

A Bug and A Wish, A Walk and A Wave

Read more about Giant Children and 

its great poetry collection!

My Whole Brain Teaching Introductory Set!

I so need to spend some time each month studying

this amazing way to teach!

Speaking of Amazing-ness... 

My Conscious Discipline Star!

I have more freebies available but I will share those and their links in another post another day. I hope you enjoy a look at these past blog posts and freebies! 

A new artist & FREE Clip art

One of the many things that I love about working with Erika over at Honey Bunch Blog Designs is meeting so many great new people. One person I recently met and became friends with is Dina over at Peachi Designs.

Dina is such a sweetheart. When she found out I was a teacher, she asked "what do teachers need?" My response, high-quality clip art at a low price. AND GUESS WHAT?? Dina listened! She is starting a whole line of clip art and other items for teachers!

Isn't this cute?? 

These little guys are from a bigger set of cute Christmas Clip art. We call my youngest son "bear" for a variety of reasons. Each day he seems to grow more into the name. When I saw these, it instantly reminded me of him.

Guess what??

You can get these guys for free right now at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Just click on their cuteness and it will take you there!

She also sent me her hall passes. This was her first teacher-made product that she sells on Etsy. And yeppers.... it is current available in my TpT store for free! Click on it for your copy. 

Dina is also the one we use for more realistic looking avatars. Kind of like a Melonheadz but not as cartoony. You can see her avatars all over the place and she is currently working on one of me. Perhaps my Melonheadz Me and my Avatar Me should pose one day for a photo! =) 

When you get a moment, head on over and check out her brand new website!! She also sells on etsy and has a facebook page.  Drop her a note and let her know what else teachers need. =) 

The Enriched Teacher

Life for me has been chaotic since I was laid off in 2010. Cancer, adoption, unemployment, career changing, and bankruptcy are a few words I would use to describe my life. In short... chaos.

As I continue to clean up the mess left behind from an unstable economy... I have begun to view things differently. I started searching for ways to be economy-proofed. I never wanted to be here again and then I discovered a great site for teachers and well just anyone!

I asked the author of this blog if he would be our guest speaker and he agreed! I hope you enjoy his wisdom as much as I do!

How to Create Money Saving Habits That Actually Work

This is a guest post by Steven Daar from the Teacher Retirement Help blog, a site that has been featured  by CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, Yahoo News, & Morningstar.

Have you looked at your savings & checking accounts and wondered where your paycheck went? What about the last 3, 5, 10 (or more!) years worth of paychecks?

Did you resolve to change your spending habits to save more money? Did it work?

Alright, that’s enough questions for now. Changing your lifestyle is a very difficult thing to do and it is why so many people struggle with saving money or exercising more or eliminating a long term habit.

It’s why the vast majority of New Year’s resolutions don’t last beyond Martin Luther King Day. Think about how you probably went about trying to save money: looking at where you spend a lot of money and try to eliminate that expense as much as possible.

You see many so-called “Money Experts” give advice that talks about extreme cutting of discretionary spending. They’ll tell you to participate in the “No Restaurant Challenge” where you don’t dine out for a whole month. Or even more extreme, they recommend an intense limiting the number of times dining at a restaurant for perpetuity (which for those of us who like eating at restaurants, just can’t be done).

The problem with the “No Restaurant Challenge” is that some days you don’t feel like cooking, there are special occasions or dates with friends or loved ones that shouldn’t be missed. But more importantly, let’s say you eat at a restaurant twice a week so 8 times each month.

Even if you complete the challenge, you save the expense of 8 restaurant meals. What happens after that month? You’ll probably feel pretty good about accomplishing something and then go back to your old spending and dining habits.

What if instead of depriving yourself completely for a month, what if you simply kept track of how many times you dined out and made sure you never dined out more than 7 times per month? You don’t have to deny yourself of the pleasure of being cooked for and waited on AND eating out 1 less time per month saves you the expense of 12 restaurant meals.

That is 50% more savings than the “No Restaurant Challenge”. As you get comfortable with dining out a little less, you can reduce your limit to 6 times per month. That would be saving the expense of 24 restaurant meals per year.

Assuming you’re only paying for yourself and spend $20 per visit, that is an extra $480 each year……and a whole lot more if you have a whole family dining out or spend more than $20 per meal on average.

This doesn’t just apply to dining out at restaurants, you can use this in a whole ton of different areas: Entertainment, Clothing, Night Life, or whatever it is you find yourself spending money on regularly.

This is just the tip of the savings iceberg! If you would like to get a copy of the Enriched Teacher Guide with 5 more insanely practical money saving tips that are focused on saving you as much money as possible with as little effort……

Then Click Here To Get Your FREE Copy of the Enriched Teacher Guide!

Words and Numbers - Halloween FREEBIES!

Today is the last day of our week of Halloween Freebies! If you missed it, please link up with our linky party to share your great freebies!

Due to my surprise move, I did not have time to make you all the freebies I was planning on but I am still working on them and will have them ready for next year!! =) Instead I would like to share with you 2 more freebies from a sweet friend of mine, Megan!

If you have been following my blog for awhile, you know how much I love sight word lists. They are so easy to use and so easy to assess. Two of my favorite things! What could be better than lists decorated for Halloween.

She also created this "eye" mixed math practice. My son LOVES anything to do with body parts so this would be perfect!

Creepy Things - FREEBIE

Ahhh... or week is almost done only 2 more days of Free Halloween fun! Are you almost done planning for the holiday next week?

EEK! Spiders! Since I live in Arizona... I have a first hand acquaintance with the black widow. I just wish she would choose to live somewhere else than my garage! GROSS!

Thankfully, Jen at The Teacher's Cauldron has friendly spiders in her classroom!

This is a great fun spelling activity for Halloween and best of all... It's free. She includes 2 different versions in the download.

The day after Halloween, the kids are hyped on sugar and are not quite over the excitement of the holiday. For this reason, I like to continue activities throughout the week. So while we may not be reading ghost stories... creepy crawlies are a perfect thing to study instead. It helps them burn off that holiday excitement while moving forward!

Aren't these ghosts adorable? This matching game is free from Miss V's Busy Bees. I used them this past week with my kiddos and had them spell out their spelling words with them. They loved it! I am thinking of using it for a boggle game next week. So many uses for things...

Stop by tomorrow for the final day of Halloween Freebie Week!

Phantom Ghost Town - FREEBIE

Today's freebie is one that I discovered over a year ago and just had to share!  

I have been striving for years to teach my children that holidays are more about more than what you can receive, it is about what you can give to others. Giving selflessly without expecting anything return is a skill that seems to be disappearing.

To get a copy of their poem check out their blog post from last year called Halloween Printable Fun!

I am planning on doing this at home with my children and at school! This means that I will need to prepare and leave 4 treats. However, I am actually going to make 6. My sister's in law live in another neighborhood close by and I plan on leaving this at their doors. I may even make more and take it over to my other 2 sister's in law and my bff. I will just spread the love around the city. 

I am so excited for a new twist on this holiday. I am planning on starting tonight..... Please leave me a comment if you are planning to join in. 

Stop in tomorrow for another Halloween Freebie! 

More on the saga from home.... 

We made the hard choice to move to a new area. The schools here are horrible and I have been warned about the black hole in our school system. I have heard from 3 different teachers on 3 different occasions that the schools are known to give bad reviews to teachers looking to move to other districts to avoid them being hired away. So with hubby being laid off next week (or so rumor has it), it is time to cut our loses and run. 

If I go MIA... send someone to find me. I will be the one buried under a pile of boxes.

Halloween Stories - FREEBIE

Welcome to my eerily fantastic day 2 of Halloween Freebies! I am so excited about this week and so happy so many of you agreed to share your own freebies with me.

I love books as most of you know. So what could be better than Halloween Book Freebies!

Check out this free vocabulary worksheet on bats!

Jen over at The Teacher's Cauldron created this to go with the book Stellaluna. Love that story!

Diving into learning has this cute pumpkin counting book available for free!It would be great for PK and K! It would have been an awesome resource for my adventures in Kindergarten time!

We have been busy here reading some of our favorite Halloween books. So I created a few different story maps to go along with any Halloween book. To see what we are reading simply visit my Amazon store and check out the books for October list!

Stop by tomorrow for more Halloween Freebies!

In other news....

An error with my financial aid has resulted in a change in my schedule. So instead of graduating in May... it has been delayed to December. Instead of doing my student teaching in January... I will do it in August. In stead of being a finalist for Student Teacher of the Year... I had to drop out of the running. I made it to the final selection!!! Bummed does not begin to cover my thoughts on this but it is what it is. 

Halloween FREEBIE week - Linky Party

So many of you enjoyed my election freebies week but I got a couple emails asking why I waited to invite you all to join in with me at the end of the week. Sooo... this week I am starting off with the linky part!

On another note... is blogger playing tricks on you? I have had posts disappear that I know were published as they showed up on my social media sites. I have had schedule posts not posts and have scheduled posts disappear. Right now I am trying to recreate some of the posts I had for you so please bear with me as I get caught up... again. I will add the freebie to this post again as soon as I take more screen shots.

Today's freebie is... Halloween Stationary! This is similar to the set I gave away for use with the election. This item is only available through TpT at the moment. I am hoping to find time to get it uploaded to TN as well.

See... I can learn new tricks! =)

2012 Presidential Election FREEBIE - Linky Party

I thought and thought and thought until I felt like the old Pooh bear I was so fond of as a child.

It kinda looked like this. Only I'm human and my Piggy is a puppy!

Yet I kept coming back to the same idea. My inspiration comes from all of you and the things you do everyday in classrooms around the country (and world)! You all come up with so many freebies that I know you have to have some for the election somewhere!

Sooooo..... LINK up! 

I can't wait to see all of the amazing freebies you have to share.  

Feel free to grab my button and share this linky party with your followers. As the election draws closer, we are all starting to plan what to do for November 6!

Election Graphic Organizers -- FREEBIE

Day 3... are you all having as much fun as I am? I truly love sharing resources and ideas with all of you. I can't wait for grad school to be over so that I will have more time for blog stalking! I miss my blog stalking time!

Today's freebie is similar to that of yesterdays. Extra resources to have on hand just in case you should need them. These would go great with my Election packet to aid in the writing prompts.

Two more days of election freebies... wonder what tomorrow shall bring??

Presidential Election Writing - FREEBIE

Yesterday, I discovered that I cannot list an item for free on Teacher's Notebook and later change the item to a paid one. Sooooooo.... I am gonna be listing the items for free ONLY on Teachers Pay Teachers. Sorry if this is a disappointment to anyone.

So today's freebie... is more stationary! I never seem to have enough or a wide enough variety. When I teach I often find myself giving students unplanned work depending upon the responses I receive in class. It's one of the reasons I like to have a lot of variety available. This way I am ALWAYS prepared.

This set includes 9 pages..  3 different design and 3 different graphics. This way you can use it for anything your heart desires this week!

2012 Presidential Election - FREEBIE

As the Presidential Election draws closer my son's have begun to ask more and more questions. While their teachers are trying their best, the information available on how to teach about the Presidential Election is limited.

Soooo... I set out last week to create a packet that could used for both of their classrooms.

This packet has 40 pages of activities! It includes a complete lesson via Interactive Student Notebook pages on democracy, voting, the president, political parties, and more. There are 2 different types of student notebook pages. One is more of a "worksheet" that my kids still put into their notebooks. The other page is my actual lesson. I am planning on creating a PowerPoint to go with it just no time to do so yet!

In addition there are writing prompts, word work, sight words, graphic organizers, and even materials to hold your own polls either as a classroom or a school.

I have had a few people ask if my items are aligned to the Common Core. I forget to state this but yes... every item I created is aligned to standards. That is how I was trained in Grad School so it is automatic to me. All items have to also be related to the real world.

So... I wanted a few other items as well but I wanted to get this in stores for all of you. However, I am nearing 700 followers (YIPPEEE!) And thought it was time for some fun!

Are you ready for today's freebie?? One of my most popular products are my series of Picture Prompts. These are great for early finishers, guest teachers, and literacy centers. I have also been known to use them with my ladybug as morning work.

I created this set just for the election. It is free until I remember to change it and then it will be available for sale for $2. So get it while ya can! =)

Check-in tomorrow for more great election-themed freebies! If you have an election freebie you would like me to share this week, please leave me a comment with you email address below.