Mrs. Tina's Tots

 Here we are again. The last few years have been....whew. I don't even have words to describe them. I stopped doing a lot, as did everyone, the last couple of years to only concentrate on my work, and my family. I had so many personal and professional changes happen I completely lost myself in the noise.  Not anymore.  Now. I write. I start using this space again, because I realized in the last 2+ years I gave up all the creative outlets I once had. I let fear and anxiety creep in and I slowly got less and less happy. Then I remembered and realized as I have so many times before. You choose to be happy. It's a choice. Even when things are hard, you can choose to be happy. Please don't get me wrong it is easier at some times than others, but since it doesn't look like things in education as a whole are going to get any easier for a while, it's time to get to work. It's time to be creative, and live life to the fullest.  And write.  It's time to pick this crea

"You will have one hour to get what you need out of the building to continue teaching until April 17th, maybe longer." This is the message I received from my administration on Friday. It took my breath for a minute because it was the first time I had seen my reality in print. April 17th. Four weeks from now. Granted one week is spring break and I wouldn't be working anyway, but one week, that's all I needed to recharge and get ready to have the best end of the year ever. Four weeks...now that's too much. And it was going to be the best end of year ever, not because I had spent the last 2 months planning special things throughout the last month and a half of school, which I had, but because of my kids. You see, this year I have the  class. Everyone once in a while as a teacher you get a class that just gels so perfectly together that it's nothing short of magic. The kids all get along, they make each other laugh, they get my jokes, and they are abs

Well, I found a job! Whew. Last month I was hired as a 5th grade teacher in a wonderful school. After meeting with my principal and team a few times I don't think I could have been placed in a more perfect place if I had handpicked the school myself. Not only is everyone kind and helpful; it also aligns to my own teaching pedagogically. When you move to a new school you kinda have to go with the flow until you prove yourself. No big shifts away from the curriculum, not a lot of new activities, etc. I was prepared for it, and for being told what and how to do things. However, their pedagogy aligns so much with my own that it is going to be an almost seamless transition, or so it seems. With that said my team and I are going to be doing classroom Book-A-Day, and so I went off to Barnes and Noble to see what new books I wanted to add to my collection this year. I found a ton of really cute books, and I thought I would share them with you in case you hadn't heard of them either.

Transition. That word has been echoing through my heart and my mind since June when I first sat down to plan for this school year. I was finishing graduate school in December. Finally. For the second time. I was looking forward to having time to relax a little more, spend more time with my family, and take back over my share of the household responsibilities that my husband had been doing. Then we found out that my husband had gotten excepted into a program at a college that was working in tandem with a local hospital. He had quite the acceptance process to make it through, and it was truly an answer to our prayers that he was accepted this year. That word rang a little louder in my head each time another commitment would come up with either of our programs. Being in school at the same time as your spouse is a special kind of something, and has turned us into expert strategists. Every time I would see a cool idea online (that was cool, but could also be taught effectively in a simpl

Hey friends!! Just wanted to drop in to let you all know that I have picked topics for my social studies units this year!! I just wanted to start off by saying how disappointed I am in the Arkansas state social studies standards! They are so vague, broad, and redundant it's ridiculous. I'm all for teachers having more of a say in what topics they cover, but I don't want to teach something that the teacher before me previously covered thoroughly. (Yes I know that's where vertical and horizontal alignment come in, but in my tiny school there is very little of that, unfortunately) There is also no need to have basically the same standard from K-6th. I liked our old standards much, much better. They were more defined, but still broad enough I could pick my topics. I also learned that from K-8th grade there is only one standard on the Civil War, and one standard on both of the World Wars. That seems crazy to me. Anyway....I'm sure there could be a lot of debate on our

Hello friends!! I am bound and determined to keep my blogging going during this school year. I usually blog a few times during the summer, and then the school year hits and before I know it's May again! Sound familiar??!! So I thought I'd start this year off by sharing how I set up the first part of the school year. Now that I've been teaching this grade level for 2 years, I am getting more confident about sharing what we have been doing.  But first, I want to share with you my situation because it is a little bit different than most teachers, and it will help you make sense of my schedule a little more. I teach at a small Title I school. We are actually consolidated with a school about 10 miles away, but we kept our building. We are a K-5 campus, but we do have 3 and 4 year old Pre-k program that share our grounds.  I teach fourth and fifth grade ELA and social studies. I have fourth grade until lunch, and then fifth grade until the end of the day. Fourth grade is my hom