Tag!

I am so glad Allyce over at Teaching and Life: At the Beach tagged me.  I finally finished my LPs, although my ADD got the best of me.  I tried...really tried hard not to finish them and instead check out Facebook and Pinterest a bazillion times.  But alas, I finished them.  I certainly haven't finished all the crap I included in them, like shapes to cut out and what not, but I'll get to it!

I was going to work on our new bathroom sign in/out system.  BUT, I left all of my pockets at school!  Ahh, I was so upset!  The hubby told me to just relax and do them tomorrow, but there is no way I'll be doing them tomorrow!  Here's a sneak peak:

Here's what's going on in 3B:

• Some of us like to write our name all fancy in the bathroom (like in all dots). 
• Some of us like to not write our name at all.
• And some of us like to write other students names.

It just annoys me.  So, I took down our sign in/sign out sheet and they will now have sticks to move on the cabinet.  FYI: I added paper and border to the other side in case your OCD is going crazy looking at that picture!

So anyways, this is why I'm glad I saw Allyce tagged me so I could distract myself from being upset at leaving the pocket charts at school.  So, here's how it goes:

1. You must post the rules.
2. Post 12 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged.
4. Tag 12 people and link them on your post.
5. Let them know you've tagged them!

12 Fun Facts About Me!
1.  I collect rocks.  I've been collecting them since I was a kid and I have some pretty awesome ones if I do say so myself!  When I was younger, my sister threw away a lot of my rock collection because it was in a shoebox (my storage system at the time).  I give her a hard time about it to this day.  Oh, and when we went to Atlanta for our 1 year anniversary we went to Stone Mountain.  I picked up lots of pieces of granite even while they were warning us to get off the mountain due to an electrical storm...
2.  I have been with my husband since we were freshmen in high school...about 11 1/2 years! 
3.  I am a directions whiz.  You will not get lost with me.  I even recognize places I went to as a kid.  When my dad's old boss had a kid, they took me to visit the baby.  I must've been like 8 or 9 maybe?  Now I live out in the area they live and I recognized their turn off and everything when I was driving one day.  My mom couldn't believe it.  I had the NYC subway system figured out in like a day...well at least the trains we frequented...I also fell in love with NYC when we were there and I would LOVE to go back one day.
4.  I am an old woman!  In reality, I'm 25, but I have little to no desire to go out and am quite content spending my weekends at home.  I'm also in bed early, but that has a lot to do with when I get up...
5.  I lived in the same house for all of my life.  My parents have lived in the house since the 70s and still live there!
6.  I have a HUGE family!  Seriously.  My dad is one of 9.  I am the youngest grandchild (# 31 I believe)Here's a picture from my grandmother's 95th birthday party.

This is the grandchildren and their spouses.

This is just the grandchildren (no spouses).  We are in order of age with the oldest grandchild being in the top right corner and the youngest (me) in the silver shirt next to my grandmother.  If you counted, yes, there are only 24.  Some have passed away and some couldn't make it.

These are the great grands (and this has grown since then!).  It's funny that some of the great grands are older than me, even though I'm a generation ahead of them.

7.  I am such a nerd/dork.  You may not see it if I'm not totally comfortable with you, but if you're in my family...watch out!

8.  I love T.V.  I always have.  I'm quite content to sit on the couch and watch TV and be on the computer all day.

9.  I was bald as a baby.  Like, until I was 2.  You wouldn't be able to tell now with my thick, curly hair. 

10.  I used to be a dancer.  I went to an arts infused elementary school.  Actually, the middle school I went to was an arts middle school and my major was dance.  Unfortunately, I didn't like the dance teachers I had in later years and a lot of the kids were pretty mean so I ended up switching to a "regular" school for high school.

11.  I'm allergic to pretty much everything.  I knew I was allergic to pollen, but I went to an allergist a few years ago and they did the whole back prick thingy.  Their words when they came back to check on the results:  "Wow, you're lit up like a Christmas Tree."  Yeahhh

12.  I am a dog lover.  Gizmo is 13 years old!  I actually think it might be safe to say I like dogs better than most people.  Is that bad?!

Here's Allyce's Questions:

1) What technology do you wish you could have in your classroom?  I have a SMARTBoard, but I would really like the SMART Response clickers.  Or iPads (which some schools in our district have).

2) What is your favorite grade to teach?  I've only taught 5th and 3rd.  The each have their pro's and con's, but I'd definitely go with 3rd.

3) Do you eat in your staff room?  HA!  I WISH!  We have to eat lunch with our kids.  And we only have 20 minutes for lunch.  So, that means basically by the time I've heated my lunch and shoveled it into my mouth, it's time to go.

4) How many elementary schools are in your district?  Oh boy Allyce...I had to look it up!  We have 53!

5) What is your favorite way to spend a day off?  Either getting things done around the house or doing absolutely nothing!

6) Where do you go when you need to think? Or just completely relax.  I don't really go anywhere...I just do what I normally do (get on the computer and watch TV) and usually go to bed early.

7) Do you use standards based grading at your school?  Yes...we aren't supposed to assess anything that is not standards based.

8) What is your FAVORITE dessert?  I cannot possibly pick just one!  Lately though, I've been loving ice cream sundaes with all the fixins (I use frozen yogurt instead of ice cream)

9) What is your guilty pleasure tv show?  I love reality TV:  Anything Kardashian, Real Housewives of NJ, Real Housewives of OC, Millionaire Matchmaker, Storage Wars, Pawn Stars, etc.

10) Do you play a sport?  No.  I used to be a cheerleader (ever since I was like 2 and a mascot!).  Yeah yeah, some of you don't consider that a sport, but it definitely kept me in shape!  I also used to be a runner.

11) Pets?  Gizmo!  He is seriously the best dog ever!  He is 13 but you'd never guess it!

12) What is your very favorite childrens book?  I really like The Lorax because of the message behind it (and I'm super stoked it's going to be a movie!)

Here are my questions:

1. What state do you live in?
2. Do you collect anything?
3. What is your favorite color?
4. Do you do anything work related on the weekend?
5. What is your favorite food?
6. How long is your commute to work?
7. If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money?
8. How do you spend your time when you're relaxing?
9. How many weddings have you been in?
10. What is your favorite place you've visited?
11. If you weren't a teacher, what would you be?
12. Kids...do you have any?  How many do you have/want?

I'm tagging these people (apologies if you've already been tagged!):

Ginger at Ginger Snaps

Amber at Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher

Debbie at Second Grade Swamp Stories

Haley at Following Optimism

Barbara from The Corner on Character

Sarah at Waiting on the Butterflies

Staci at Let's Teach Something in Kindergarten 

Heather at Loose Shoelaces

Delighted at First Grade Delight

Meg at Third Grade in the First State

Staci aka Ms. Squirrels at Going Nutty

Dee at First Impressions