What a good day! It is always fun to come back to school after summer and see everyone!! I missed my teaching friends.

I am super excited about my new team this year! I have three additions to my second grade family and I couldn't be more proud. I made everyone a welcome back wreath! They were so muh fun and now we all have a common piece down our hall!!!!

I tried to match everyone's classroom theme as closely as I could! I used a wire wreath, 2 yards of each color tulle on the wreaths, decorative flowers, basic letters that I painted with acrylic paint and spray painted with glitter, and ribbons that I used to wrap around the wire wreath. All I had to do was cut the tulle in the size rectangles I wanted and then I tied them to it!! Cute, huh?

This year I have decided to try a new gradebook format!!! I found a free app that let's me keep my students info and grades all in one place!!

I hope that it will make it easier to put grades in quickly. I'll have to post back in a few weeks to let you know if I really like it or not! I plan to go in and try to set up the assignments as my standards! That way the overall grade avg for each assignment will be listed as their percentage for each standard. Below shows how I set it up for now (testing it out)!

I like that the app allows you to separate the subjects (see below). The downside right now is that for the free version you are only given 3 categories. But I believe you can add as many assignments within each category as you like.

Here is what the grading section looks like. I like that it lets you pull up one assignment and put in the prerequisites for it, then when you pull the assignment up to give grades all the students you've entered come up on one page. This way you don t have to click on each to student's profile to enter their grade. :)

So.... I'll guinea pig this one out and let you know if its amazing, so-so, or a fail. Check back soon!!!!

Can we just talk about how much I love vistaprint.com?!! Look at some of the cute things I've made on it this year! I try to keep my eyes and ears open for coupons.....and boy does vista print put out some great ones! Check groupon.com and retailmenot.com for sure. Also, if you're a member with vistaprint they send your coupons for free items almost weekly ! All you pay for I'd shipping! Check them out!

What a long week! I've been up at the school everyday!! I've gotten a great deal ready, but some is still super messy.

Thanks to my cousin Hannah who came and cleared some space in my floor by rehoming some of my supplies that were ready to move on.

Well, I'm posting some of the things I finally finished today!!

Here is my picnic bulletin board! I bought the background at Schoolbox!!! I love that it feels like outside! I had to order the gingham trim though.... couldn't find it anywhere!! I also cleaned up all the computer cords too, which took way too long. :(

For the clips on my board, I used wooden clothes pins and hot glued tacs on the back. Since I can never get things centered the first time, it was awesome to be able to move them around as needed without tearing up the background. I saw on Pinterest the idea of using hot glue on one tac, but it slipped around a lot.... Which led me to use two tacs to keep it stable.

I've been working hard this week trying to get my classroom together! I moved classrooms this year and have realized that I am a hoarder!!! Not of useful or great things.....no.....random things that I have no good use for! So I bit the bullet and have been throwing away and donating! In the midst of all the mayhem, I did get a few things hung up in the hallway today.  All three banners were made on VISTAPRINT.com (love this site)!  Groupon had a $17 for $70 worth of product AT the same time that RetailMeNot.com had a 50% off total order! So I got quite the deal!!  The stars banner correlates with the various second grade sight word lists. They add their name to each star once they've completed that list. The same goes for the math fluency banner. Yay!

So I know that it's taboo in the world of teachers at times to admit, but I can honestly say that I'm ready to get back in the swing of things! My school opens this week for all of us who are over acheivers (or like me who is so scattered that it takes an extra week to get my room together) to get in our rooms and get a head start! 

I'm changing my classroom theme this year.  It's all about picnics!  I've been working on new decorations that include lots of gingham, a little burlap, and sunflowers!!  I'll be posting more pictures the next few weeks as I get my room together.  To the left are some yard sale/good will baskets that I refurbished and my burlap door sign that I just painted my name on.

Let me know what you think about my new designs so far!  Also, anything you have any questions on how I crafted something, just comment!  Yay!