Five for Sunday

Darn, I missed Five for Friday again!  Well, I guess I'll just have to call this post Five for Sunday.  Doesn't quite have the same ring to it, but it will do.

Houston Blogger Meet-Up

It was so nice to get together with some of the bloggers in the Houston area.  This was our second meet-up and it was a true pleasure to see teachers I had met before and make new connections.  The best part is putting faces and voices to blogs and words!  Here is who was there:

L to R

Kelly from Koonces Korner

Lindsay from My Life as a Third Grade Teacher

Sandy from Fearless in Fifth 

L to R

Barbara from The Corner on Character

Megan from I Teach. What's Your Super Power?

Kelli at Teaching and Laughing

L to R

Kristin from Teach 'n Tex

Juan from Teaching 3rd with Mr. G.

Diane from Teaching with Moxie (me!)

If you are able to make it, I hope you will join us the next time!

July Goals

I'm hooking up with Jess at I {Heart} Recess to list my July goals.  Awww, summertime.  It's so glorious!

End of the Year Gift

Isn't this the cutest?  This was the a gift from my students at the end of the year.  My room mom made a "student" bouquet with pictures of each student in the middle of each flower.  On the back of each flower is a clothes pin to which she attached a gift card.  The best part is that I get to keep it as a reminder of my wonderful class.  Precious!

It's Official!  My son is an Aggie!

I recently spent two days attending college orientation with my son.  He is attending the branch of Texas A & M that focuses on ocean-related majors.  The branch is located in Galveston and he will be pursuing Marine Technology Engineering.   Who can beat the combination of college with the ocean nearby?   I am so excited for him!.  

Cruise Ship Sighting

Look what strolled in the harbor while we were in Galveston.  Remember the Carnival Triumph?  Apparently passage is very inexpensive right now.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Are you out there Followers? It's me, Moxie!

Click here to follow Moxie!

I'm having difficulty with a math problem.  With Google Reader, I have 385 followers and I love every one of them.  With Bloglovin',  I have 275 followers (as of this moment).   That means, as of Mon., July 1st, I will potentially lose 110 followers.  Someone get me some tissues because I'm about to cry a river!

Seriously, I hope that you will continue to follow my blog via Bloglovin'.  I have so much more I want to share with you and you are the reason my blog exists!  Each time I get a new follower, it is like getting a pat of encouragement.  I can't thank you enough for all of your encouragement.  

And don't forget to enter my Bloglovin' Giveaway!  

You could win a $20 Gift Certificate to TPT and a choice of an item from my TPT Store.  Yippee!

Gotta go!  I'm on a mission to make sure I'm following all my favorite blogs and there are a lot of them!

Bloglovin' Linky Party

Hi fabulous followers!!

You have probably heard by now that Google Reader is going away on.  Well, Google Reader may be going away, but I don't want YOU to go away, so I hope that you will consider following Teaching With Moxie on bloglovin'!  Change can be hard...so we thought a bunch of us bloggers thought we might sweeten it up for you a little bit!

We are doing a giveaway for all of our fabulous followers that take the leap and switch over to bloglovin'.  You may have already switched over!  In that case, this will be an easy entry!

If you have not yet switched or are not following our blog through bloglovin, then there are a few easy steps to follow.  You can go to our sidebar (that's the column on the right over there that shows our followers) and you can click the button that says "Follow this Blog with bloglovin".  Or, you can go into the Rafflecopter below and click the link in the first entry, and that will take you to "Teaching With Moxie" on bloglovin.

You will need to set up an account with bloglovin' so that you can follow us.  Please be sure to leave your bloglovin' username in the Rafflecopter entry.

If you want to go ahead and move all of the blogs you follow from Google over, you can go to this link and it will take you through the super easy steps.  BUT, please go to our bloglovin link and make sure that you are following us through bloglovin.  To be sure, make sure that the blue button at the top of our bloglovin page has been clicked (it should be gray with the word following- if it's blue, please click it to follow!)

So, if you follow me by bloglovin, please enter my giveaway!!  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Huge Savings on Books!

Recently, I discovered a website that can save you a TON of money.  Naturally, I have to blog about it!

Over the next few days, I will be attending college orientation with my son.  I'm so excited for him.  College was one of the best times of my life.

One thing that hasn't changed is the requirement to purchase textbooks.  Textbooks are an expense that is easy for parents to forget.  New textbooks can cost between $200 to $500  a semester. But I've discovered a website that I think is going to help our pocketbook.  It's called Campus Book Rentals.  I was sold when I looked up one of the textbooks he needs.  To buy it new would cost us $179. But it is only $38 to rent it this fall.  That will save us $141!  That is a lot of money!

Then I realized I can use it myself!  For example, I recently wanted to purchase the book, Guiding Readers and Writers.   The price tag for the book is $54.  Steep!  So I decided to rented it and saved $25.00.

Added bonuses:  

• No fee to use service
• Free shipping - both ways 
• Full refund within 30 days of rental - in case you drop the class
• Highlight and annotate as if you own it
• Options to extend your rental period

The icing on the cake is Campus Book Rentals' "Making a Difference Program".  It is a partnership with Operation Smile, a charity near and dear to my heart.  Operations Smile performs life changing cleft lip and palate repair surgeries on children whose families could not afford it.  For the past three years, Campus Book Rentals has committed to performing 1,000 cleft repairs each year.   WOW!

I hope that this will help you save money now, or in the future!

Birthday Freebie!

I love any reason to celebrate and today I have a good one.  It's my birthday!  Many dread their birthday as we get older, but I'm a "the glass is half full" kind of gal.  I love celebrating another year of being happy, healthy, and blessed.  

I would love if you would celebrate with me by visiting my TPT Store and picking up my Birthday FREEBIE.  It is the "Forgotten Homework Binder".

This is a ready-to-go binder for students to record missing homework.  It instantly creates a record that will help you keep tract of whose homework is missing and why it wasn't completed on time.  It also helps keep track of when or if the homework is completed.  Recording it adds a measure of accountability for the student. I recommend copying one sheet for each student so the record can be used to discuss students responsibility during parent conferences.  

Hurry on by as it is only free on my birthday!

Enjoy today and every day to its fullest!  

A Cure for Randomness

Happy First Day of Summer!  Most of the things I have on my mind today are random.  I wanted to write a post today, but I couldn't seem to congeal the randomness.  Then, it dawned on me! I'll join Doodle Bugs Teaching's.... 

Here we go!  

I finally got my Erin Condren planner!  It's beautiful and I love it.  I ordered it during her Teacher Appreciation sale as I really liked her updated version of it.  

However, this is not the first one I received.  Let's just say that the first one I got must have been a reject that slipped by the quality control person.   I was disappointed.  But, I wrote an email and explained its faults.  Within hours, they wrote me back and said:

What more could I ask for?  That's awesome customer service!  I've already started filling it up and love how colorful it is.  No one could possibly understand the joy of a new planner but another teacher!

    

I am having so much fun with my Facebook page!  My favorite thing is searching for and posting a teaching-related cartoon, meme, or current event.  Of course, timing is everything.  It is always my goal to choose something that will strike a chord and go viral.  Here are a few of my successes.  Together, they have been viewed by over 60,000 people!  Amazing!  Click HERE to follow me on Facebook and join the fun!

I'm looking for advice.  I will be teaching Language Arts next year for the first time in y-e-a-r-s!  I'd like to do some reading over the summer that might help me in the classroom this year.  Do you have any suggestions?  There are so many books from which to choose. Which do you think should be my first priority?   Here are a few I'm thinking about.

 

Prior to June 13, 2013, Texas teachers were taking a legal risk to express any specific type of holiday wishes within a school.  Students would say to me, "Merry Christmas!", "Happy Hanukkah!", or "Eid Mubarak!", and the only thing we could say in return was "Happy Holidays!".  It seemed so silly!  School is a place of inclusion.  I was always careful and toed the line.  But, it made me very uncomfortable.  

Well, I'm proud to say that the Texas State Legislature passed a bill, which was signed by Gov. Perry, that protects Christmas and other holiday celebrations in Texas public schools from legal challenges.   Gov. Perry said, "It's a shame that a bill like this...is required, but I'm glad that we're standing up for religious freedom. Religious freedom does not mean freedom from religion."  Amen to that!

Well, if you made it this far, I'm thinking a reward is in order!  If you do one of the following 4 things, you could win your choice of item from my TPT store.  

1.  Do you have an Erin Condren planner?  Comment and let me know which one you got.

2.  Follow my Facebook Page and comment to let me know you did.

3.  Comment with advice about which Language Arts books I should read this summer.

4.  Comment about what you did on your first day of summer.

I will choose a winner with the random number generator at 11 pm CST tonight.  If you don't have a blog, please make sure I have a way to contact you.  Good luck!

Totally Summer-ized!

I just got back spending a week with my husband's family in New England.  We had a wonderful time.  We left just five days after I finished school because we discovered some awesome airfares.      We usually go on vacation in July, so this was very different for us.  But, I gotta tell you, it was one of the best things I've ever done to separate myself from the school year and get into Summer-mode!  I believe this will become an annual tradition for me!

Speaking of vacation, we visited the most beautiful places!   First we were in Boston.  Then we spent a few days at Wells Beach in Maine.  We drove into the mountains of Maine to the Rangely Lake.  There were many stretches of road that said to watch out for moose!  We visited the family farm in central Massachusetts (it will be 100 years old next year!) and the family quarry where my sons got a lesson on making asphalt.  Then we headed down to Connecticut to visit our wonderful friends and their three boys.  And we had to go to Stew Leonard's in Danbury.  I miss that place.  It is a grocery shopping experience and little kids love it.  We went through Sandy Hook in Newtown, but just seeing the signs brought tears to my eyes.  Heavy sigh.  It was a whirlwind trip, but we had a terrific time.  

I was reading blogs while I was gone, and I made a note to be sure I hooked up with my friend's, Kristen's at Teach 'n Tex, PMA (Positive Mental Attitude) Wednesday.  

Her linky celebrates the philosophy that "success is achieved by those who try and keep trying with a positive mental attitude."

So true!  So I am sharing one of my favorite reminders that helps me keep positive, even during the times when I am nearly biting my tongue off!  The tiny words below say, "Rise above it!"  It has taken me YEARS to ignore provocation.  With age comes wisdom and I've finally learned that taking the high road is always the best way to travel.   And by doing so, I believe that it allows the provocateur to reflect on their words, not mine.  

One last thought about positive energy.....

As I was in New England this week, I couldn't help noticing the number of women that were wearing this distinctive set of bracelets.  I finally asked my husband's cousin's wife, what is the significance of the bracelets I see everyone wearing?  Well, the bracelets are called "Alexi and Ani" and each one has its own "positive energy" message.  

So, my husband's cousin's wife (Thank you, Debbie!) bought me my first one.  It is a Pineapple which symbolizes warmth and friendship.  It is also a well-know symbol of welcoming and a safe return in New England.  Now I am hooked!  So, for my birthday present to myself (my birthday is Saturday) I bought 4 more:

Apple:  symbol of insight, wisdom, and teacher
Path of Life (Infinity Symbol): strength, motivation, & knowledge
Mother Mary (The Miraculous Medal): grace, compassion & hope
Initial "D":  to celebrate me!

Here is my collection of Positive Energy!  I love it!

All of the Alex and Ani bangles are made of recycled metal and are Made in America with love!  If you have Alex and Ani bracelets or decide to get one, please share which ones you have.  The Apple is $5 off until the end of June!  

Sending positive energy your way!

Math Mentor Text Linky!

Hello friends!  I am linking up with Collaboration Cuties for their Math "Must Read Mentor Text" Linky Party.  

The challenge is, which book?  There are so many to choose from.  I love linking literature to math, especially when it helps children think about a concept in a different way.  One of the best examples of this is "How Big is a Foot?" by Rolf Myller.

We start our customary measurement unit with Shel Silverstein's poem, "One Inch Tall".  

One Inch Tall by Shel Silverstein

If you were only one inch tall, you'd ride a worm to school.

The teardrop of a crying ant would be your swimming pool.

A crumb of cake would be a feast

And last you seven days at least,

A flea would be a frightening beast

If you were one inch tall.

If you were only one inch tall, you'd walk beneath the door,

And it would take about a month to get down to the store.

A bit of fluff would be your bed,

You'd swing upon a spider's thread,

And wear a thimble on your head

If you were one inch tall.

You'd surf across the kitchen sink upon a stick of gum.

You couldn't hug your mama, you'd just have to hug her thumb.

You'd run from people's feet in fright,

To move a pen would take all night,

(This poem took fourteen years to write--

'Cause I'm just one inch tall).

We have a great time brainstorming what life would be like if we were one inch tall.  Then, on a square inch piece of paper, the students draw a head-to-toe self portrait.  Then, they draw a scene of what they could do if they were one inch tall.  So fun!

Next we read "How Big is a Foot?"  The question is a good one.  And the story tries to answer the question, but the answer is not perfectly clear.  It depends upon answers to other questions like "How big is the bed?", "How big is the King's foot?", and "How big is the foot of a small apprentice carpenter?" 

The story really makes you think about how to solve this problem. And it naturally leads you to conclude how important it was to standardize measurement.  

We then take our shoes off and trace our feet on construction paper.  The students decorate their feet.  

  

I randomly choose one foot and we map out the Queen's bed with masking tape.  Pretending to be the Queen, with my crown, I attempt to lie in the bed.  Of course I don't fit! Next we measure how many feet it would take to make the Queen (me!) a bed.  

The final part of the lesson is gluing each foot onto construction paper and drawing a straight line to represent a standard foot.  They measure their "foot" and label it's length.  For example:
Avery's foot = 6 inches.  To take it a step further, you could graph the foot lengths of all the students in your class!

I love this lesson!  I hope you will to!