It's been awhile...

It's almost been a month since my last post!! But lots has happened since then...

1. I got married!!!

On July 6, I tied the knot with my wonderful new husband Evan. It was such a perfect day. Everything was so wonderful and I am sad that it's all over. We were blessed with great family and friends surrounding us that day as well as beautiful weather.

2. Honeymooning in Paris!!!

Evan and I spent a week in Paris on our honeymoon. It was truly a special, romantic, whirlwind honeymoon. I now understand why a lot of couples go to resorts where they can lay around all day and rest. But we had a blast! Especially since it was France's Fête Nationale aka Bastille Days and this happened:

Amazing yes?

3. Back to Phoenix.

Boo on this one but I have SEI class next week and Evan has frogs to care for so it was kind of unavoidable.

4. Back to School...Soon.

School starts up on August 7 and I have a week of trainings and meetings and such beforehand. I'm excited to work in my room but not so much for hours of endless meetings. 

5. And I am now no longer a first year teacher! Woooo! Second year teacher over here! So in order to celebrate, I'm linking up with Latoya for her Let's Get Acquainted Linky Party!

So fresh from the mind of an old-new teacher, here we go!

Buy, beg, borrow and steal: Obviously, being a new teacher probably means that you don't have a lot of teacher things and supplies. But just because you don't have it, you don't necessarily have to buy it. Borrow it from someone who isn't using it/looking to give it a new home. Beg for things, "steal" ideas and make them yourselves. It's hard to look on Pinterest and see beautiful, perfectly matched classrooms with themes and coordinating library baskets. But that's ok. If I had been obsessed with matching things and making everything perfect, I probably wouldn't have had a paycheck for a month. My classroom definitely wasn't the cutest one on the block but it did its job.

Always remember why you chose teaching: So there were definitely many, many times where I would sit at my rainbow table, head in hands, asking out loud (to no one at all) what was I doing? Why did I pick this profession? It's too hard, annoying, difficult, time consuming, etc, etc. Then I would remember that I am a teacher because I want to help kids learn so they can go to college and be successful. And sometimes that would get me through the tough times (and when that didn't work, a martini or ice cream was a pretty good second option!). You can't forget why you are a teacher or else you'll get sucked into Doomsville USA.

Never stay too late: You've heard of some teachers being the first to arrive and the last to leave, but that's just not a feasible option. We're human. We need down time, time spent with family and friends and pets, time to rest, time to shop, time for you. And if you are always staying at school until 6:00 or 7:00, spend 30 minutes driving home, and then you have to make dinner and probably do more things for school, only to fall asleep at 9:00. I stayed at school late for the first few months or so of school, but once I got a better handle on things, I made it my goal to leave at 5:00. And then 4:30. And then 4:00. And I was much happier leaving at 4:00 than leaving at 6:00.

Find some great teacher friends: It's so important to develop a good support system at school. It's so much harder when you don't click with anyone. You have no one to cry to or talk to or snag ideas from. It can be hard to put yourself out there, but be friendly, polite, and kind to everyone! 

Make copies a week in advance: I used to make copies every morning. And every morning, there would be a line at the copiers. Especially since our copiers are very old and often one or both of them are broken. So I started making all my copies on Friday afternoon. Is it fun to be staying later on Fridays making copies? Nope.

But it makes the whole next week go so much smoother. Everything is all done and ready to go. 

Be true to yourself: Last year, I found myself and my opinions of things being easily swayed by other teachers. I felt that since they had so much more experience, education, years, etc. that they much have been right since I had just started off. But I finally realized that my education and my experiences were valid, worthwhile, and had truth to them. I remembered what I learned and what I felt was best for my kids and began to do things the way I felt would be best beneficial for my kids. I am still always open to new ideas and am willing to try new things, but I can also recognize when something just isn't me. 

Overall, your first year is hard. I can't even tell you how many people told me it'll get better next year. So here's hoping!

June Happenings

A lot has happened since my last post at then beginning of June.

Summer School
I taught a week of summer school for second graders going into third grade that focused solely on math, specifically mental math and math strategies. Which is hard for me since upon teaching summer school, I realized I don't have many mental math strategies. I always do the standard algorithm in my head and I just assumed that everyone did that. 
Nope. 
Hardly anyone does that. 
News to me.

Everyone has these super clever strategies that involve rounding, compensating, estimating, etc. 

I still like the standard algorithm though and will probably continue with it because I tried to use other strategies. Really tried. But I always got stuck somewhere in my head when using a clever strategy. 

But anyways, it was hard for me to teach mental math because I don't really do it the way we're supposed to be teaching kids. But we started off doing a mental math problem every day to get the kids' brains working. They would solve the problem in their head and then talk about how they solved it/the strategies they used with a friend. 

These two girls are discussing the strategies they used to solve the problem. Which sounds tricky. But the kids actually did a great job explaining what they did in their heads to get the answer. Obviously, first graders would need a lot more scaffolding to be able to successfully share. Because my kids' favorite strategy was "I did it in my head."

Then we would make a list with the strategies they used, starting with the most basic and going to the most sophisticated. The kiddos would then record their thinking in their math journals.

Next was a minilesson where we taught the kiddos some more strategies they could use besides counting on, which was by far the most popular (but least sophisticated) strategy. We taught them about making tens, doubles, and tens frames. The students would have time to practice the new strategies with the teacher, with partners, and independently.

Here we are working with part-part-whole mats and manipulating the cubes to make groups of tens.

We also made posters that we hung up around the room for the kids to look back to whenever they needed.

Last, we ended the day with centers that reinforced these skills. The kids loved centers since they were playing games and having fun.

All of that happened in the mornings. In the afternoons, the teachers had PD about how to teach math so it was more meaningful for students. We then took our new learnings and planned for the following day. I learned a lot from teaching summer school and I am super excited to take a lot so much of it back to first grade. Things that I definitely am going to incorporate are math journals, mental math time, and a math strategies/vocab wall. 

Phoenix --> Milwaukee

I also returned to Milwaukee on a red eye flight. Which was, of course, delayed. It wouldn't have been too bad except with the time change, I didn't arrive until 1:30 or something? Thankfully, I have wonderful parents who came to get me even though it was super late at night. Plus I feel bad about leaving Evan and Marlee. But with less than a month to go before wedding day, someone has to get this planning going. 

Wedding

Thankfully, Pinterest and Etsy have been amazing resources. What would I do without them? Here are some of my ideas/inspiration.

From Pinterest: Here

From Pinterest: Here

Etsy: Here

Ampersand: TJ Maxx

From Pinterest: Here

Busy days for sure! 

How I Became a Teacher

After reading Abby's post and with it being Teacher Appreciation Day/Week, I am writing about why and how I decided to become a teacher.

Like most kids growing up, I definitely wanted to be a teacher at many points during my life. But I also wanted to be a plethora of other things including a farmer (my sister and I had this whole plan to buy an old barn near our house...and then it got torn down), a librarian (because I wanted to scan and stamp books) and a fashion designer (since I am a fashionista). But I never really felt a true calling for anything or felt that I was destined to do anything. 

I was all set to enter college in Fall 2007 going in undecided and just working on some gen eds until I could figure things out. However, before I started college, I went to Nicaragua with my church on a mission trip to teach a combination of ESL and Vacation Bible School to residents of one of the poorest cities in the country. Two of my good friends were going too so I thought it would be a great time spent with friends. Boy was I wrong. It was a great time, but it was so much more than that. It changed my life.

While there, I developed a love of teaching and giving knowledge to people who don't have it and need it in order to be successful. 

All I wanted to do was help these wonderful people in any way that I could. And the best way for me to do that was to help them learn English. 

We did basic English words like days of the week, colors, numbers, and worked with Biblical stories. Everyone was so hungry to learn.

 I worked with kids and adults and they were some of the kindest, most grateful people I have ever met; they just wanted to learn and absorb everything that they could. Although I was only there for a week, I felt such a calling to pursue education and teaching when I got back to America.

So when I got back to Wisconsin and went to college orientation, instead of doing undecided majors sign up, I went to the School of Education with the pre-education majors. I signed up for classes and got information on applying to the School of Ed. 

After having a tough time with the first three semesters of college, both academically and emotionally, I got my act together and started being more successful and getting decent grades. I started volunteering at a local elementary school as well as joining Jumpstart through Americorps. Jumpstart is a program that sets of college students with preschool "buddies". These preschoolers are at risk for falling behind in kinder so we worked with them on beginning literacy skills.

My adorable Jstart Buddy Luv'ly!

And in the summer of 2009, I was accepted to the School of Ed!! I was so excited that pretty sure I acted like these people: 

I started in the program in Spring 2010, all pumped and ready to learn how to be a teacher! That semester was a rocky one though. I actually withdrew from the program for a day. We had been going on school visits and I just could not believe what I was seeing. I was shocked to see these poor kids learning in environments that were so boring and uninspiring. I felt that it wasn't for me at all and I dropped out of the program. Well, of course, God had other plans and the very next day on our very next school visit, I see an amazing teacher teaching fractions in such a way that was engaging and fun for students! So after frantically calling my advisor  I was able to withdraw my dropping of the program before it went through. 

I continued to go through the rest of the five semester program, having no doubts that I am meant to be a teacher.

I graduated from UW in Spring 2012 and luckily had a job teaching first grade in Phoenix after attending a job fair put on by my school. Evan and I moved down here and it's hard to believe that my first year of teaching is almost over!

Thanks to everyone who has helped me along the way. I have had lots of teachers from my elementary, middle, and high school teachers to college professors and TAs. Thank you also to my wonderful cooperating teachers who have shaped me into the teacher I am today. Thanks to the wonderful mentor teachers who have shown me the ropes of having my own classroom. 

With Teacher's Appreciation Week, thank you to teachers everywhere for working so hard for the needs of your students. For staying after school late, spending your own money so your students can have a little bit more, for what feels like herding cats, for smiling when you feel like screaming, and for everything else that you do. 

Just remember that although it doesn't always feel like it, you are making a difference in someone's life every day.

Thanks for all you do!

Let's Get Acquainted!

This is the first time I am linking up with Latonya at Flying into First Grade. 
I just love learning about other teachers and learning about their lives.
But that just could be that I am nosy. 

It is about nouns. My favorite person, place, thing, and animal.

Favorite Person: My wonderful fiancé Evan. 

He brings out the best in me. I can be a bit high strung, a bit emotional, a bit irrational, a bit impractical, and a bit a impatient. But he really grounds me and brings back to Earth on so many occasions. He can always make me laugh and we have such wonderful times together. And we are almost approaching double digit days until our wedding day. Yikesssss.

Place: It's a tie!
For nostalgic reasons, I have to pick Milwaukee. Moving away has made me realize that home is where your heart is and my heart is in Milwaukee. 

But my favorite city in the entire world is Paris. It just never gets old, and if I spoke French, I would love to live there for a bit.

Thing: Hmmm, tough one. I like a lot of things, but I'm not sure what my favorite thing would be. So I'll just list a few of my favorite things: Tivo (because I always fall asleep during my shows), good food, cozy homes, and my thrift store Fossil purse.

On the day I went thrifting with my sissy Melissa, I told her that I was hoping to find a brown cross body bag from Fossil. I had been looking at them for awhile but they are kind of pricey so I was hoping to find one at a thrift store. She looked at me like I was crazy, but low and behold, there it was! Pretty ironic, yes? 

Animal: I love my sweet dog Marlee. She can be annoying at times - like when she eats random things. To date, she has eaten Legos, socks, a towel, twist ties, paint chips, housing insulation, paper, and I'm sure other things that I don't even want to know. But just look at how adorable she is!!

Your turn! Go link up!

It's a New Week...

Yikes, I have been such a terrible blogger. But in my defense, I had the worst week of my (small) teaching career last week. I had meetings every day after school and two before school. I was just physically and emotionally so exhausted and overworked, and I have never looked forward to the weekend more than this one. 

This weekend was so nice and needed. For starters, I was able to sleep in BOTH days! Normally I can only manage to sleep in on Sunday, but I was so wiped out that I snoozed until 7:00 both days. So wonderful. And Evan and I went to the Arizona Audubon Center last night for this adorable Halloween activity. Granted it was aimed at kids, but still fun nonetheless. And we went to Culver's too! Culver's is one of my favorite places to eat. Their food tastes so yummy and it's a little bit of home since it originated in Wisconsin. And I got to talk to a dear friend whom I haven't been able to call in a long time. It was wonderful to hear her voice and since she's a teacher too, we spent our whole conversation talking about school! And wedding planning too! 
But the most important part of the weekend is that I feel rested and rejuvenated for a new week. Which is a good thing since I'm having my first formal observation tomorrow. Yikes!! I'm a little nervous, but I think it will go well since I'll be teaching writing and writing is my all time favorite thing to teach.

Well, here's hoping this week is better than last week :)

First Peek and I'm Linking Up!

Hello everyone!

So today was a big day for me in my teaching career: I had my very first day of new teacher training AND I got my keys, laptop, and student roster AND I got to see my classroom for the very first time! So exciting!!

Now I was a little apprehensive about this new teacher training business. When I was doing my student teaching, any small bit of professional development caused my head to ache and I would get very antsy and uneasy. However, today's training was so wonderful and applicable and engaging! I was shocked! We had three sessions: one about professional learning communities, one about poverty, and one on classroom community. I think that all of these topics will be so important as I begin my teaching journey and I am very glad to have been given so much information! I also got to meet the other new teachers at my school as well as the team leader for first grade and the principal and assistant principal (both of them are so nice!).

And my classroom! I am so pumped about it! It's a huge room with a walk-in closet and two huge large cabinets for storage. I definitely won't be short on storage! There is also a Smartboard and four computers that students can use. Of course I have no idea how I want to arrange it or where to even start actually. I plan on blog stalking to get some ideas about it. And I got to see my roster list although I'm trying to resist labeling everything as kids move around so who knows if that is my actual class list. But currently, I have 23 adorable firsties :)

View from the door - lots of space!!!

View from the back corner!

All the chairs and tables! And Evan poking around :P

Anddddd, I'm linking up! Amy over at Step into 2nd Grade is having a super fun linky about us! So...

1. I have been rocking pink neon toenails for over a year now. I just keep repainting them the same color since it's so bright and summery. I always get compliments on it and I adore it.

2. I love animals and for the longest time, I wanted to be a veterinarian. But then I discovered that math and science weren't really my thing so that was the end of that. I something wonder how my life would be if I hadn't given up so easily on it, but I am beyond happy with being a teacher.

3. Along those same lines, my perfect job does not exist. I would be a professional animal petter and go around petting and snuggling animals all day long.

4. I don't have any hidden talents. And I hate the question "What's your hidden talent?" because I have none.

5. I love to cook and bake. It's soothing for me. But I hate cleaning up and will often let dishes "soak" in the sink for days on end.

6. I am super cheap and not afraid to admit it. I hate spending money and avoid it at all costs unless it's a gift for someone else. But I usually try to get things on sale or use coupons. Or better, for free!

7. I am from Wisconsin, but I hate the Packers, the Brewers, beer, and cheese..well actually most dairy. The sports teams are because everyone treats them like they are so special. When the Packers played a perfect season except for the one game that actually mattered, everyone was devastated. I was celebrating. Beer, I just hate the taste and smell. And cheese is a texture thing. The worst is semi-melted cheese (like pizza cheese). If I get too much in my mouth, I start dry heaving. However, I love cheese fondue and string cheese. So kinda weird. I'm also not a fan of milk...unless it's chocolate. Yogurt I occasionally like. Ice cream is the only dairy food I always enjoy eating, and let's be honest, it shouldn't even be considered dairy.

8. I love to grocery shop. There's just something about being surrounded by food and planning meals. Although I always hate the bill at the end :(

9. When I was little, I really wanted to take horseback riding lessons. But there wasn't a stable near my house (darn you city living!) so I pretended my bike was a horse. And during my senior year of college, my dreams came true and I took riding lessons for one semester. But being on a college girl's budget, they were too expensive to continue taking. 

10. I have snoozed with a baby kangaroo. When I was in Australia, I volunteered at a kangaroo rescue facility that took in orphaned joeys. At night, since it gets so chilly, we had to take the joeys to bed with us to keep them warm. Pretty much one of the coolest things ever. 

Finally Here!!!

So we finally have made it to the Valley aka 1820 miles from Milwaukee aka Phoenix. The drive out here wasn't too terrible since there were two of us to "split" the driving (I say that Evan did more driving than me but oh well!). We left Milwaukee on Tuesday which was really difficult for me. I wasn't emotionally ready to make the jump and ended up crying a lot that day. It got a little better after stopping in Dubuque to visit some of best friends who just recently got married, but overall, it was a pretty bad/sad day. The drive itself was fairly uninspiring and long. But we made it today!!!! Yay!!! We're currently staying in Evan's aunt's house, which is located a bit north of Paradise Valley, until we can find an apartment closer to Tempe so Evan can easily get to ASU. Evan's aunt used to live in Phoenix, but recently moved to Wisconsin to be closer to Evan's grandpa. So we're borrowing her house so we didn't have to sign an apartment lease site unseen or stay in hotels until finding a place. Definitely really lucky! Although it is hot here, it's not all that bad as long as you're not doing any hard work outside. And by hard work, I mean unpacking a car full of stuff. We both felt like we were dying when we finished. After stocking up on groceries at the local Fry's and grabbing lunch at a cantina, Evan and I stopped at Target to get a few necessities. And of course, I have been reading about all the awesome Dollar Spot finds that teachers have been getting so of course that was my beeline. I think I got some pretty cool stuff!

I already have a few pocket charts, but couldn't resist a purple one! I got a yellow notebook to take with me to inservice next week. I seriously wish more companies would make more yellow things! It's always such a struggle to find. I also got some name labels for table spots and two pails for my sharp/unsharp pencils. My favorite thing I got were the puzzle pieces. I think on the first few days of school, I'm going to give each kid a piece to write their name and decorate and then we can put the puzzle together and hang it on the wall to show that we fit together even though we're all different!


And since I've been so busy this week, I haven't had time to accept an award from Jenny at Luckeyfrog's Lillypad (one of my favorite bloggers too!) It's the Versatile Blogger. Yay! So the rules for this award is that you have to pass it on and list 7 random facts about yourself. I'm going to pass it on to:
-Sandra at Sweet Times in First (who probably already got it but oh well)
-Teresa at 2nd grade Pig Pen
-Ashley at That's So Second Grade!
-Heather at The Busy Busy Hive
Now for the random facts about me:
1. When I was younger, my sister and I were going to buy an old red barn and become farmers together. Obviously, we decided against it...
2. I love playing board games - any board game - with anyone that will play with me.
3. My favorite color is yellow for two reasons: the first one is because it is such a happy and sunny color, and the second reason is because I feel like so many people ignore it for a more popular color such as pink or blue.
4. I love to cook and bake and am always excited for new recipes.
5. I love a good bargain, and will rarely buy anything full price. I also love thrifting and finding treasures in looked over locations.
6. I have traveled quite extensively for someone my age. My parents both love to travel and whether I liked it or not (I always did though of course!!) took me all over the place on family vacations. One of the most unique places I have been is Russia and Estonia!
7. Although I have been taking Spanish since the 6th grade, I'm still really terrible at speaking and it is one of my vows in life to get better at it. So hopefully living in Phoenix will help!

And I just linked up with the Newbie Blog Hop at Grade Three is the Place for Me! So if you're new to the blogging world, go and check it out!!

If you link up, there are a few questions about yourself to answer so bloggers can get to you know a little bit more! Here they are:

1. What state you are in

2.  your current teaching position

3.  your teaching experience

4.  when you started blogging

5.  share a blogging tip / blogging resource

So here are my answers! 
1. I'm from Wisconsin but just arrived in Phoenix, AZ today!
2. I am currently [going to be] a first grade teacher.
3. Pretty minimal; just student teaching and practica.
4. I started blogging a few weeks ago!
5. Always comment when you get freebies! It lets the teachers who worked so hard to make them know that they are appreciated!


Well that certainly was a super long post... thanks for sticking with me! Next week marks my first week of inservice! I'm a little nervous but mostly super excited! I hope everything is great since at my student teaching placement, I tended to loathe professional development. We'll see...

Welcome to My Blog!

Hello All!


So this is my very post, and I'm pretty nervous about it! I spent all last night working on making look nice, which took way longer than I thought it would so bear with me as I tweak it to make it look just right!
My name is Liz, and I just graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Elementary Education and a certificate in Gender and Women's Studies. So, needless to say, my very first year of teaching is just around the corner!

My lovely cohort and me on Graduation Day!!! (That's me in the back row, second from the right!)

As my blog name may suggest, I am not teaching in Madison, or even in Wisconsin, as there are certainly not many valleys around here. I am packing up my life here in Wisconsin in just a few short weeks, and moving across the country with my wonderful fiance to start a new adventure in Phoenix, Arizona. Evan will be starting graduate school at Arizona State University, studying conservation, and I will be teaching in a first grade classroom. It's kind of a huge leap to move so far away, but we thought long and hard about it, and everything about Phoenix for both of us just seemed so right. I fell in love with my new district at a career fair that I attended, and Evan really loved ASU so we think it's meant to be.

Evan and I are pretty excited to start a new adventure!

So, needless to say, packing up is NOT something that I am looking forward to nor is the 25+ hour car trip. But I am excited to have my own classroom next year and have a change of scenery as Wisconsin winters are not my favorite. I prefer nice, warm, sunny weather. I also love the color yellow, books, animals, and chai tea lattes! 


And what better way to start off a blog and a start of a new adventure than find out that I am a winner!!
Michelle over at Just Wild About Teaching emailed me today and informed me that I won a $20 gift certificate to Amazon! Which is great because I really love Amazon and I really want these books:

I've been reading some other bloggers who are doing book studies of these books, and they both seem like excellent resources to have!


Well, I have lots to do tonight - my best friend is getting married in just two days to her high school sweetheart...well technically less than that! So we're going out to dinner to celebrate my engagement and her almost-marriage!

So excited for Alyssa's wedding!!