7.14.13 Sunday Smorgasbord!

Linking up with Fabulous in First for a Sunday smorgasbord post!  Randomness abounds...you've been warned. :)

1.)  Project for this week:

This came in the mail for me a couple of weeks ago:

I have skimmed it, but over the next couple of weeks I'm going to jump into it seriously and figure out how it's going to work for us this year.  I am DITCHING the basal spelling lists this year.  The textbook isn't Common Core aligned and I don't LOVE the stories in it.  We're also supposed to be getting Saxon phonics (which I know nothing about) but I am going to use WTW during our intervention block.  We'll see how that pans out.

Oh, and my mini-project for the week is to work on my word wall words.  I am not kidding when I say I have made new words EVERY YEAR.  I end up not liking the set I had the year before and I re-make them.  

2.)  I have one more week of grad school stuff left for the summer semester.    Cramming three classes into a month and a half is intense.  It was worth it because it means I'll graduate next December, but it also meant my summer was spent either in class or doing assignments for class.  I actually have a paper that I'm SUPPOSED to be writing right now, but I got a little sidetracked...as soon as I hit "Publish" I will go do it, promise!  I only have two weeks before work starts back up again, but we're taking next week as our family vacation.  We will be at the LAKE for a whole week!

This is Little Miss at the lake last week when we went for the Fourth-she loves it.  She takes after her daddy and is a little fish!  The best part is all that swimming wears her OUT and she sleeps so good.  We are going on vacay with my in-laws, including my sister-in-law and her adorable girls.  Can't wait!

3.) Since we're going away next week, that means this week I gotta get in my classroom and do some work.  The building is going to be open a couple of days and I'm going to try to get in there and get some things done.  The past couple of years I have scaled waayy back on how much time I spend getting ready.  I have been in the same room for 4 going on 5 years, so I pretty much have everything the way I like it.  I didn't even take posters off the wall when I left in May.  The main things on my to-do list are move the furniture back into place, get the computers hooked up (hate hate hate doing that), and take a little peek at my classroom library.  I am hoping that my co-teacher and I can meet up and knock these tasks out super quick so we can resume vacation mode for a little bit longer!

This has been kind of a weird summer...normally I have a whole stash of school goodies in a corner of my office ready to head into the classroom...this year I have bought almost nothing.  NOTHING.  One pack of neon sentence strips, the Words Their Way book, and the polka dot buckets I showed you last week.  I am trying really really hard to adopt the "less is more" approach...we are being furloughed again next year, I have to buy books for grad school, and Little Miss needs a fall wardrobe...and in years past I have spent waaayyy too much!  I will go buy 100 glue sticks next week (because that's the bare minimum I require) and a few boxes of crayons, but that's IT for this year.  

I do have first day of school plans done...I'll try to share later this week...we start school on a Thursday this year, so I only did the first two days.  I figure we will have to regroup once we see who shows up and what kind of a class we have this year!  (PLEASE let all the babies on my roll be sweet!!)

OK, that's it for tonight...I have a paper to write on text complexity.  OH, JOY!  I have my Coke Zero nearby and Pandora blasting away...here's hoping I get it knocked out quickly!