Blog Re-Design!

I can hardly believe it myself but I have actually created the title image for this blog! It definitely took a while to get what I wanted, but thanks to Scrappin Doodles' clipart I purchased my blog is now complete! :)

I'm happier than a possum eatin' briars! Now it's time for bed as our county has scheduled staff development days tomorrow {and Friday} for a reading program being implemented. I'm excited to see all my co-workers! I have missed our 2nd grade team and am looking forward to catching up with them!

Travel the World Starter Kit

I have finished my Travel the World Starter Kit!! I plan to use this the first week of school as I introduce my Traveling the World in 2nd Grade class theme! I am SOO excited to be using this theme and heavily implementing social studies into my lessons!!!

I purchased passports from Oriental Trading for only $6.25 for a dozen! That is an EPIC deal that I couldn't pass up. I am in the process of creating my own passports just in case I don't like these from OT but nonetheless I know my kiddos will LOVE having their own passport!

My plan is to travel to many other countries where I will "stamp" each student's passport with AVERY address label stickers I have created for each country. They actually look very much like the passport stamps for those countries but are my own creations. I will upload the stamps within the units as I make them!

Did I mention that I am excited??? I'm most excited because the school I teach at is a Title I school- meaning that over 60% of our students are on free or reduced lunch. Don't let that make a stereotype in your head for these children though. They are just as full of love and laughter as all the other kiddos in the world! I wouldn't trade em' for anything! :) I share that tidbit of info though because the majority of my students haven't traveled far from NC, if at all. I'm not saying that all of them have never been to another state, or country rather, however the majority have not traveled far outside of North Carolina. I hope this unit will help open their eyes to how amazingly wonderful the world and its cultures are! God certainly gave us a beautiful world and I want to do whatever I can to help my little kiddos experience it in my classroom!

I hope my kids will love this unit and I hope that you do too! If you'd like to purchase my starter kit it's on my TpT page.

Here is the link :) http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Travel-the-World-Starter-Kit-802499

On a less important note,
I am in the process of getting a blog face lift! WOOHOO!!! I will soon have a fancy blog designed by Honey Bunch Blog Design! It's the little things folks :) I hope that you will find it pleasing to the eye and full of helpful info! I can't wait for the finished product!!! Woop Woop!!

Happy Wednesday friends! :)
-Amy

New Item on TpT!

I finally figured out how to create awesome products using Mac's version of powerpoint called Keynote! I absolutely love using that program and would recommend it over powerpoint any day. It's very user friendly and it cut down the amount of time I would have spent formatting and such. Not to mention it's as easy as pudding pie to create a PDF. 

Okay enough about Keynote....

I am very excited about this new poster set with the writing process for my classroom. My hope is to have it up on my wall tomorrow in my classroom...but we will see how that goes! :)

I have been looking for a writing process poster set all summer and had no luck finding one with the wording or design I wanted so I created my own! Here is a picture of the demo which just displays the posters on a much smaller scale in one image. 

I used terms directly relative to the 2nd grade Common Core Standards. I added a Teacher Conference page because I will be having one to one time with about 3-4 kids per day at school. This poster will hang separately in my room beside the others because when I conference with the kids they will be in different stages of the writing process.

I will be laminating these posters and attaching a ribbon from the first (brainstorm) poster to the last (publish) vertically. I will then be putting my students' names on clothespins and attaching them to the first poster where they will move their clothespin through the process as their writing is in the process of publishing. 

This will be a great way for me to not only see how my students are doing but it will also help the kids to stick with a topic. I believe that if they see the goal at hand "publish" then they will be more motivated to finish a writing piece. 

I am excited about this product! If you'd like to see it check out my TpT page by clicking HERE! :)

I hope that you have a great Tuesday night and Wednesday! 

TpT Uploads and a BEAR!!!

I just finished uploading my new products to TeachersPayTeachers.com- WOOHOO!

I am proud to announce that after many hard hours I have compiled all of the ELA and Math vocabulary words in 2nd grade for my word wall! There are over 100 vocab words all aligned to the 2nd grade common core. Each card has the standard on the bottom right hand corner for easy reference. It's coded just like the NC CC states on the curriculum. I am excited to have this project finished and am glad to be able to offer it to you! 

Here is just a little preview:

If you'd like to purchase this item it is $3.00 for ELA and $3.00 for the Math - OR you could purchase them both together in one set for $5.00. I made them pretty simple because that is how I like my word wall. I have found that the cards with pictures are distracting from the text and they force the creator to shrink the size of the word on the card therefore making it hard to read across the room. 

Feel free to check out my TeachersPayTeachers page and search for Amy Lunceford to find my products - OR click here :)

I will post pictures of these in my classroom once I am able to get in there and make them! Thanks for reading! :)

On a non school note...there was just a 500 pound black bear in my back yard!!!! YIKES! That is no joke, friends! My neighbor texted me saying "Bear Alert!" and it was looking at her in her front window! The bear was on her porch!!!! I would have fainted!! haha 

Whew...needless to say it's been an interesting night! My yellow lab dog named Sanka was acting all scared and strange about 5 minutes before she texted me meaning only one thing....he must have seen that bear too!! Whew, I am thankful for God's protection!! Thankful He sends angel armies to protect us!

That's what I get for living in these Blue Ridge Mountains! :) 

Moral Monday- GO!

After much trial and error I figured out how to personalize the background of my blog! I used a great site called Hot Bliggity Blog. They have tons of really cute and eclectic designs to choose from. I would highly recommend! Once you choose a design the site gives directions on how to apply it to blogger which was an added bonus!

Okay enough of the blog background rant...

I am really excited to announce that my mother and I will be attending Moral Monday to be a part of the movement to change the NC General Assembly's attitude towards public education. It is beyond heartbreaking what they are doing to us public school teachers in NC. An educator certainly has to be "called to teach in North Carolina" as we are now the 51st (including Puerto Rico) State in the USA of the worst paying jobs for teachers- that hurt to type. It hurts to hear that those in the Capital forgot that if it weren't for us teachers they would never have made it to the seat they are in now.

Here are just a few things that they are doing to us teachers:
1- laid off teacher's assistants which directly affects our differentiation (meeting the needs of our students)
2- took away tenure (career status) for public school teachers
3- will no longer be paying us for having a masters degree...seriously? what other profession doesn't honor the desire to be a life long learner by getting a masters degree?
4- cap size of classes removed therefor making teachers job even harder to meet the needs of our students

I am not saying that everyone in NC Capital building is crazy and "out to get us". However, I am saying that those who spoke so boldly and highly of public education in NC before the election are not putting their words into actions. Quite frankly we seem to be going backwards. I could teach in a neighboring state and make 10,000 dollars more a year- that's the worst of it. That is why I say that you have to be "called to teach in NC" to stay and put up with all of this.

As a result of all this nonsense, I am choosing to be a part of a movement called Moral Monday. I encourage you to look it up if you are an educator in NC as you might want to be involved in this as well. My Mama and I will be there in support of public education. My mother is a teacher assistant in another county here in NC and her position went from full time to part time- no benefits, pay cut even more, and will result in her being stretched so thin between teachers her time seems pointless. Her school had 10 assistants...now they have one and a half (my mama is the half position).- it's beyond sad.

With all of this said, I can confidently say that even though the General Assembly seems to be demolishing public education- they will not demolish my desire and passion to teach in my county. I wouldn't want to teach at any other school nor county. I know that my God has me here for a reason and I am confident that He will make things right in my state regarding public education. Things might have to get worse before they get better but I know that my God is sovereign and will take care of me and my family.

Put NC on your prayer list as a lot of heart changes are needed in our Capital. I am thankful for my amazing school and county where they support us as educators and are trying to do all they can to make teaching what it should be with the little we are given. We will persevere through this and things will get brighter soon- if anything I will get to meet my new sweet 2nd graders in a few weeks! That alone is worth all the mess we are putting up with.

New to the Blogging Life

I am very much new to this whole blogging thing but am looking forward to the journey! I have been following quite a few bloggers specifically elementary teachers for the past few months. I find their pages insightful and encouraging both of which I hope you'll find mine to be.

My hopes is that you will enjoy reading and seeing some ideas for you to use in your classroom as well as marvel at the work of my fantastic students (that I haven't met yet but cannot wait to squeeze). My plan is to post their projects as well as my created resources on here for others to see and check out on my very much "under construction" Teachers Pay Teachers page....did I mention it's under construction? :)

I also hope that you will enjoy some freebies every once in a while when I learn how to post them onto my page! Remember...I am new at this whole blogging thing!

I will tell you that I am working on vocabulary cards for my word wall that are all 2nd Grade Common Core aligned! They are simple yet straight from the CC standards and they even include the standard at the bottom right hand side of the card! I am pretty excited about them and their cute font and design. I will be sure to post a link on here when they are finished!

Well...I hope that you have a fantastic week this week! I am visiting a sweet sweet friend tomorrow then my awesome family is coming to visit Luke and I on Wednesday. With that said I probably won't be posting anything in the next couple days but who knows?