SO THANKFUL AND HERE COME THE HOLIDAYS!

Hello all!  I am so sorry that I have been neglecting my blog, but happy to say I have been working and playing hard!  This past summer was really tough for my family and I, but thankfully things are looking much better and I can return to some fun passions like blogging.  I have always been reading other blogs and getting great ideas as well as buying amazing things on TpT.  That didn't stop! I just didn't have the extra energy to post on my own blog.  I will also admit that I feel less motivated to post because I don't sell on TpT. It seems that many of my favorite blogs are written by creative and hard working teachers who sell great units on TpT.  I'm just not ready for that, nor talented in that way.

Anyway...I hope to post weekly and share some ideas and things that I am doing in my classroom.  So many changes at my school that it is very overwhelming, but exciting!

Here are a few of the newset things I am doing:

• I am using Aimsweb for benchmark assessments and just starting to progress monitor several of my low babies.  Lots of work, but so meaningful!
• I have 2 ipads in my room now and I am loving apps like Reading Raven, Teach Me Kindergarten, Monkey Math and ABCMOUSE.com
• I am using ABCMOUSE.com in the classroom and have sent invites to my students so they can use it at home.  What an awesome site!
• I am doing Debbie Diller style Literacy Workstations.  My students work in pairs and I love it for the most part.  They are getting much more independent and I am ready to begin Guided Reading and small group work.
• I used Sign-up Genius for conference sign-ups and I loved it and so did my parents!
• We just got on board with Gmail as a district and that was a big change.
• New principal, new kinder partner (we still share a classroom and do AM/PM) 30 students
• Our District is beginning to put pressure on us for beginning Common Core (I know we are behind!)
• Rumors have begun that we will be adopting Treasures for next year and I am both scared and excited. (any thoughts on Treasures would be greatly appreciated!)

So much new stuff and yet I am loving my class and my job!

I just got a new Windows 8 laptop with a touchscreen so I can do my assessments on the go.  It is really cool!!!!

Well, thanks for reading my post and I hope to get back into posting photos and such soon.  I use so many wonderful products from bloggers and I hope to share links to their work.