Five on Friday-June 20th

This has been my first full week of summer vacation and I have been relishing in the stress free life of not setting an alarm. We had an out of town weekend LAX tourney for my oldest last weekend so I felt like vacation finally started on Monday.  I've taken a little break from social media while I decompressed from the end of the school year craziness and stress.  I have so much more fun setting my room up for back to school than taking everything down and packing it away for summer.  My first week has been great mix of productive and relaxing.  I've read three books and enjoy watching episodes of Friends now that there's not much new to watch on TV.  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for this week's Five on Friday.

My first hour kids.  Had the largest class size ever of 34 students, but they were awesome and we got three chapters further in the 8th grade curriculum than last year.  Woo Hoo!

Love this corner.  The table is where my small group mini lessons go down.

This was  what my teacher area looked like at the end of the year as I was ready to pack up.  See the piles everywhere?  Keeping it real for you.

Finally found letters I loved for my teacher desk.  I'll be ready for next year!

Last day of school Goodbye Graffiti Wall

If you look very closely on the right you may be able to see the Golden Rectangle my 8 yo made after he watched Donald Duck in Mathemagicland two times while I was busy packing up my room.

I came home after my last day of school spent packing up my room, to find this beautiful arrangement had been dropped off by one of my students.  It definitely made my day!

I promise to get back in the swing of things with blogging this summer.  This past school year was such a great year with so many successes, but to be honest it just kicked my butt.  I rarely had the energy to blog about the awesome things happening in my classroom.  I am hoping to spend more time this summer posting about what worked and what needs improvement with my Math Workshop, maybe do a few more posts about our curriculum Carnegie Learning, my summer PD which involves lots of professional reading, and lots more.  For those of you wanting to connect about Carnegie, Math Workshop, or anything else you see on the blog shoot me an email.  If it's something more involved than an email can cover I'd be more than happy to schedule a Google Hangout this summer.

Monday Made It

It is officially my first Monday of summer break.  My last day of school was last Thursday.  I went from school to my youngest son's BB practice and then middle son's BB game.  We finally picked up Subway for dinner at 8:45 PM.  All I really wanted to do was chill on the patio with a drink and my latest issue of US Weekly.

Friday was a whirlwind of laundry, baking, and packing for yet another weekend LAX tourney.  This was in Verona for the Boys U15 Central Championship.  It was a long fun weekend, but I am glad that today I feel like I am FINALLY on summer break.

Today has been more laundry, dishes, and cleaning.  The house has suffered some serious neglect the past few weeks of school and it's time to get it all clean and organized.  Believe when I say this will be a summer long project.  Needless to say I have not had a spare moment to do anything creative and crafty the past several weeks, but I do have some things to share from this year.

I am linking up with  4th Grade Frolics for here Monday Made it link up.  I never got around to posting my finished decorated teacher desk last school year so I thought I would share it today. It really did not look as wrinkled IRL as it appears in the photo below.  Next year I will use chalkboard contact paper before I put the border and decorations up.  I bought some last year, but never paid attention to how ridiculously small the roll I bought was.  It wasn't even big enough to cover this small area.  I ended up ordering another roll from a different vendor and paid attention to the size.  It was a much better deal!

I ended up buying a kidney shaped table to use for small groups in my classroom.  My plan is to place that table where my desk was this year and put my desk against the wall where my computer table was.  Not sure where this will leave my cute desk decoration if it faces the wall. but I will figure out somewhere in my classroom to use the letters of my name.

I am hoping this post is the start of getting myself back on track with blogging this summer.  I did so many wonderful things in my classroom this year and hope to share lots of them with you this summer.

Currently June

I cannot believe that I only blogged once in May and that was my currently post. I am linking up with Farley for her June Currently

Listening:  My boys argue.  It's currently the soundtrack to my life.  What can I say?!

Loving:  That as of this Friday I am a free woman for the summer. For the first time in MANY MANY summers I do not have any formal training/grad classes/meetings to attend.  I need this summer time to regroup and focus on myself and my own family.  I deserve it and don't feel one bit guilty.

Thinking:  This is crunch time where I typically start to panic about everything that needs to be done to get my room organized and packed up.  By now I usually would have started spending many hours in the evening going back to school working on my room, however, this year my oldest son plays on the JV LAX team and he usually has three games on weeknights and my younger two play select BB that also have games during the week.  Needless to say due to the busyness of BB and LAX my extra time at school has been limited to working during the two hours my oldest two son's have LAX practice (which happens to be at my school).  The good news is that I am not feeling that crazy overwhelming, like I have been living at school the last month feeling.  The bad news is I'm not sure I'm as on track as I should be.  I want to enjoy these last days with my students and not start packing anything away until after school this Friday.  My students do not like when I start undecorating the classroom, many start to get sad or unfocused.

Wanting:  Some perfect gorgeous, not to hot summer weather.  I was at a LAX tourney all day Saturday and it was in the mid 80s which is a little warm for my blood.  I don't know how you southerners survive summer.  I can't stand it being that hot.  I know you don't understand how we stand the frigid winters, but we come inside and snuggle around a blazing fire with some hot chocolate.  Who wants to sit around in air conditioning all summer long?  Not me.

Needing:  I want to enjoy my last days with my students.  I have had another awesome school year and I have so many wonderful students I will dearly miss.  I want to spend the next week building more positive memories with them of how much fun 7th grade was!

Summer Bucket List:
1) Get house organized.  This is always on my list, forever and ever and never really gets finished.  We will see if this summer is any different.

2)  Get healthy.  I must start working out again this summer.  No excuses.  I also am looking forward to a summer of clean and healthy eating.  I love healthy food and summer is the perfect time to focus on the great fruits and veggies that are abundant everywhere.

3)  Have fun.  This is the first summer in years that I have no school related plans and I am thrilled.  I need a break to spend time having some fun and enjoying my boys who will be in 10th, 7th , and 3rd <sob> grade next year.  They are growing up so fast and I need to cherish these days.  I also need to have some fun for myself.  I spend all my time driving my boys around and watching their sports.  I want to do some fun things for myself.  I want to make sure I get together this summer with some of my friends that I don't get to see enough during my busy school year.  The theme of this summer is fun.