Thursday, November 6, 2014

November Bilingual Blog Hop

It's November... That means my birthday is near (November 7th!), pumpkin pie, and soon... and the 30 days of thankfulness on social media will be starting.

I haven't ever participated in one of those 30 days things, but when I read them they do make me take a second and think about all that I am thankful for.

Well, the theme of this Bilingual Blog Hop is things that we are thankful for, so...

My top 3...

1.  My awesome family...  I couldn't imagine life without them... actually, I could... it would really stink.  So... I am very thankful that I have them.

2.  My awesome students and their families.  I am smack dab in the middle of parent-teacher conference week and I can't rave enough about the group of kids and families that I have... I am already dreading the end of the year!  I love them so much!!

3.  My blogging buddies and the TpT world.  So much has changed and I have learned a lot since I encountered Teachers Pay Teachers a couple of years ago.  I just wanted to stop and think about that for a minute... Being a bilingual teacher can feel like you're on an island, but just through these outlets I have found so many other bilingual, dual language, ESL teachers and it has been so awesome to connect, share resources, and talk to people with the same problems, interests, etc.  It's pretty cool!

Well, quickly before you leave, I wanted to offer a freebie... Not Thanksgiving themed, but definitely something that I am thankful for.  We have working our little bottoms off in Room 109A on 10 less and 10 more... and I am proud to say my students get it!!  I have heard the stress of other teachers trying to teach this concept using a hundreds grid so I hope this freebie can help you out!



Now on to the next blog on the hop...School en casa




Monday, November 3, 2014

Midwest Blogger Meet-Up

Phew!  Finally sitting down at a computer, avoiding the report cards that I need to be working on, and blogging about an awesome blogger meet up I went to a couple of weekends ago!

So October 18th was the first ever Midwest Bloggers Meet-Up hosted by Jameson at Lessons with Coffee and Lindsey at Thriving in Third...  and I have to say, it was by far the best blogger meet up I have ever attended!

I will let the pictures show off the awesome time that we had...

I was nervous when I showed up at Lakeshore Learning Store in Palentine, IL... because through out all of this blogging/TpT journey I have found out that I am more of an introvert and meeting new people at the beginning freaks me out.  Well, that being said, I ended up sitting  at a table with the most awesome group of women!  I got to meet Cretia, Nicole (Beginnings with Baer), Tasia (Great Minds Teach Alike), Michelle (Teaching Ideas for Those Who Love Teaching) and Kristin (Teaching in a Nutshell).  A special shout out to Cretia for the selfie... she teaches in the same district as I do... how cool is that?!

We got to make a name plate for our classrooms using a cute little glyph that Jameson and Lindsey came up with.  It was so nice having an ice breaker... and how cute is my pencil!  Love!


Thank you Jessica (from Mrs. Plemon's Kindergarten) for helping me out with some of the pics that I didn't get!  The picture above shows how much swag we got... I am in awe of the generosity of Lakeshore Learning and Creative Teaching Press; they gave us so many things for our classrooms.  My students definitely loved the new games for our English centers!


This was such an awesome afternoon. I made some new bloggy friends and had a great time! Even though we are semi-local, hubby and I ended up making it a night away and had an awesome night afterwards!  Next year the meet-up is going to be in St. Paul, MN and I cannot wait!  Hubby and I have already decided to make it a family vacation and we are finally going to visit Mall of America, too!