Blog Hoppin Teacher Week 2016

     Last week was Blog Hoppin's teacher week. I look forward to this every year because I love learning about and getting new ideas from other teachers.

Meet Me Monday 

     My relationship with Jesus is the most important thing to me. I am in awe when I think about how He has changed my life. I still have so far to go to be like Him but praise God He's not finished with me yet! 

     My husband and I have known each other thirteen years and been married for ten. We met at the church we attended for the last thirteen years. We switched churches a couple of months ago, and it was just what our family needed for all of us to grow in our relationships with Christ. We have two sons together who are 7 and 10. Our older son is the people pleaser and our younger son is the unpredictable one. They are both sweet boys with big hearts who love to have fun. My step son is 15. He is learning to drive and is in band at the high school he attends. He has an excellent work ethic, and I'm so very proud of him. 

     I teach two classes of 2nd grade ELA and social studies. I usually have 35-38 students total between the two classes. 

     I am a huge Alabama Crimson Tide fan. We got rid of cable and the dvr a couple of years ago, so Saturday's activities revolve around the Tide's game schedule. My dad and his family are from Alabama, so I was raised a Bama fan. Of course I'm raising my boys to be fans too! 

     I love reading, white chocolate mochas, and Sonci Vanilla Cokes when I haven't given up sodas. Ha, ha!

Teaching Tuesday

     One of my very favorite lessons is to introduce adjectives using skittles. Skittles give the students so many different descriptive words to use. And of course we eat our skittles because it helps us think of more adjectives. 

Where I Work Wednesday 

     This is my cozy lil classroom. I teach at a local charter school that use to be a church. Our classrooms are tiny. But we make it work. We learn about cooperation and self control because we are all literally on top of each other all the time. I have become even more organized and very creative with how I use my space. 

Threads Thursday 

     I wear lots of cotton dresses with blingy flip flops when it's warm and tall boots when it's cold. I like to wear a lot of black and bright colors. These days I'm buying all my clothes from The Zig Zag Stripe. It's a local boutique, and she has a website. She is my size. It's nice to have cute, comfortable clothes that do not accentuate my problem areas. And to be able to tell how something will likely fit me once it has arrived on my doorstep is a huge bonus!

Friends Friday 

     I am blessed to have had many teacher friends I have loved working with over the past 12 years. These are two of my recent favorites. We are all at different schools this year, and I miss them so much. I'm so glad we can make time to see each other still. 

     You can hop on over to Blog Hoppin and read more recap posts from the week. 

Teacher Week-Five Fun Facts About Me!

     Yay! It's teacher week. I look forward to reading all about everyone during teacher week each year. Without further adieu, here's five fun facts about me.

1. My faith and my family are the most important things to me. We have busy soaking up all the time we can with my Grandpa and brother while they are in town.

2. This is my eleventh year teaching. I'm not sure how that can be since it feels like I graduated with my certification yesterday, but teaching is my passion and I love it more and more each year.

3. I love to read! My friend and co-worker, Krissi Dallas, is writing this amazing series of book called The Phantom Island series. They are young adult fiction, and a good, clean, fun read. I just love them.! She currently has four published, and is writing the fifth one now. They are great if you're looking for fun, easy read. You can purchase them on Amazon.

4. My life verse is I Thessalonians 5:16-18.

"Rejoice always;

Pray continually.

Give thanks in all circumstances; 

for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus."

5. I love Alabama Crimson Tide football! I'm so glad football season starts this weekend! Roll Tide!

Head on over to BlogHoppin to link up and read everyone's fun facts. 

A Little Bit About Me...

For Every Time, There is a Season

    On the last day of school, I went in to my principal's office and resigned my position. That is one of the hardest things I have done. I helped opened Hobbs Williams under my former principal Mrs. Nunez. I really thought when I came to Hobbs I would be there forever. I had told my husband one day people will say, "Oh Mrs. Shaw's been in F104 forever...like 30 years!". My plan, however, was not God's plan.
 
    I am taking a position at UME Preparatory Academy. I will be teaching 1st grade science and 4th grade math on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I get to be at home with my little one on Monday, Wednesday, Friday! UME is based on university education model and is designed to prepare students to be successful in college beginning in kindergarten and going all the way through high school. Every step of this process, we have seen God's hand and watched Him work out all the details for us in His time. This is truly the best of both worlds for me: I get to do what I love and am passionate about AND be at home more with my boys.

    I will continue to blog here during the school year. I have also started a new blog Chit Chat with Mrs. Shaw. That blog is where I'll be blogging this summer, updating about my teachers pay teachers store, participating in linky parties, etc. I hope you'll follow both blogs.

    My co-worker Mrs. Riner teaches 3rd grade at Hobbs. I met her when I was student teaching and our classes have been reading buddies for the past 7 years. On the last day of school, she brought her kids down for a final reading buddy session. I told Robin I had resigned my position. She let me go tell a couple of other people that I wanted to hear it from me. When I came back, I found this on my whiteboard:

    Some of the 3rd graders who signed my board had been my kindergartners the very first year Hobbs was open. The last day I walked out of my empty classroom, I just couldn't bear to erase it. I'm moving on to a new season of life, but very grateful for the memories and lesson learned from season that's ending.

First Week of School

  We had an awesome first week of school! We had no tears, but lots of sleepy eyes by the end of the day (including mine!). Besides learning rules and procedures about how our school and classroom work, we worked on the difference between capital and lowercase letters, how the alphabet and our names are in a certain order. Letters together make words. We worked on name puzzles and drawing a picture of our faces and writing our names. We also explored math manipulatives, our calendar and days of the week. We learned how to wash our hands and about recycling. Here's a few pictures from our week:

Here's a picture of Lucas and I with Logan on the first day of school-can't believe my oldest baby is in kindergarten!

My Family

I am so excited to get to know your child and your family this year. I thought I would start by sharing a little bit about mine. I am married to Joshua and we have two sons together, Logan Elijah and Lucas Elisha. Logan is 5 and Lucas is 2. Logan is attending kindergarten at Hobbs Williams Elementary this year! I have a stepson Justin who is 10. Justin lives in Weatherford with my in-laws and will be in 5th grade this year. Joshua is a store manager for Walgreens and we met at our church Inglewood Baptist in Grand Prairie where we still attend. We both help with Extended Teaching Care once every seven weeks on Sunday mornings and I lead a small group of 7th and 8th grade girls on Wednesday nights. My favorite leisure activities are spending time with my family, serving at church, reading, and shopping. Below I made a digital photo book so you can see pictures of my family. I'm am so excited about the new school year and having your child in my class.

Create your own photo album