Meet the Teacher {Linky}

I hope you are having an amazing Monday! I have decided to join in on the fun with Falling into First for her "Meet the Teacher" Linky! Yes, I have an awesome new tab at the top where you can read about me as well, but I love doing linky parties SO…why not! 

Hey there! My name is Megan and I am a first grade teacher from Nebraska. I am a 25 year old creator, teacher, blogger and fiancé!  I have been teaching for 4 glorious years and I couldn't be happier!  My very first teaching job took me away from the city and to a lovely farming community straight north of my home town. My first year I taught First Grade, but missed being close to home. At the end of my first year I received the opportunity to move back to my home and district that I grew up in to teach 4th grade.  Needless to say, 4th was a HUGE change that I loved, but I missed my adorable firsties. Now, I have been teaching First grade for 2 years in my hometown and I'm lovin' every minute of it! 

This coming June I will be marrying the man of my dreams!  So far, this year has been a little crazy between planning a wedding and planning for school, but it has been so much fun…and a bit exhausting.  My fiancé is one of my greatest supporters when it comes to teaching.  I can always count on him to lend a helping hand when it comes to a crazy DIY project, grading papers, cutting lamination or simply making me laugh after a rough day. I am so very blessed to be able to spend the rest of my life with this man and I can't wait! 

My fiancé and I have this furry child and we love him to death! This is our one-year old ,miniature schnauzer, Kyle. Yes, his name is Kyle…we named him this because we find it humorous to chase our dog down the street shouting his name and having our neighbors think we are shouting at a "real" child.  We may have an odd sense of humor, but it makes it a little easier to laugh with this fur ball decides to take off.  If you follow me on Instagram you have probably seen my MANY posts of this furry face (mainly on the weekends or on breaks).  He is a pretty cool schnauz with an awesome beard/mustache combo and I love him very much! 

Now for the…...

These are a few of my favorite things…

My furry child, the color blue, Chinese food, yoga, Starbucks, sleeping in, new picture books, the new car smell, being spontaneous, Pinterest, blogging, creating, teaching, laughing, Eeyore, cows, dogs, zebras, reading, dark chocolate, The Hunger Games….I could probably go on and on, but we can stop there for now! 

If you weren't a teacher, what would you want to be?

IF I weren't a Teacher, I would probably work at the Humane Society and spend all day long with dogs! I would probably end up bringing most of them home with me and becoming a crazy dog lady :) 

Three little words that describe you.

Honest. Fun. Spontaneous    I like to call it how I see it.

Finish the sentence, "______, said no teacher EVER!"

"Oh, I'm so glad that you brought all of your other children to Parent Teacher Conferences to let them destroy my classroom while we try and talk about the child you didn't bring."

It's your Birthday and you get to invite one person {Dead or Alive} to the party. Who are you inviting? 

I would definitely be inviting Jennifer Lawrence! Who wouldn't want to hang with her?!

If someone wrote a book about your life, what would be the title?

"The Life Story of a People McNugget…and other stuff"…haha…I really have no clue! 

You get to pick one superpower. What is it?

hmmm…this is a hard one.  All I can think of is Harry Potter and those aren't superpowers….soooooo….I would have to pick invisibility. 

What's your favorite quote or saying?

I have quite a few that I love, but here is one of my favorite education quotes:

“I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child humanized or dehumanized.”- Dr. Hiam Ginott

If you had to sing one song on American Idol, what would it be?

I would probably have to sing Norah Jones "Don't know why"….love that song! 

Are you a Morning Person or a Nigh Owl?

I am a TOTAL Night Owl! I can only function in the mornings if I have had a decent amount of coffee and if it is after 10 a.m. 

What's your favorite resource that YOU'VE created in your TPT shop?

I absolutely love my "That's a Fact Jack" Math Centers and my Guided Reading Essentials pack. These two products make my life so much easier when it comes to my classroom! 

Share something that we may not know about you!

Well, I'm pretty much an open book, but…

I guess that some of you may not know that I DID NOT grow up on a farm. I am from Eastern Nebraska (very close to Omaha) and I grew up in a city, with electricity and more than one stop light. Honestly, you would be amazed by the questions I get asked about being from Nebraska! Also, you can go into almost any local establishment in Lincoln, Nebraska on game day and scream "Gooo Biiiig Reeeed" and be answered by a loud "Go Big Red" from almost all surrounding Husker fans. 

Well folks, that's me in a nutshell. I hope you enjoyed this post and come back for more! 

Thanks for stoppin' by! 

Five for Friday...Giveaway winner announced!

Happy Friday!  Congratulations on surviving another long work week and reaching your weekend...WOOOHOO!! I'm even happier to have you here to kick off your weekend with my FIVE FOR FRIDAY! 

Let's get this party started!

PHEW! I don't know about you, but this week was a whirl wind for me.  We all know that around this time everyone is on edge due to those darn wonderful tests we all enjoy taking so much! Schedules are turned upside down and our nerves shoot through the roof!  I am known to carry stress around to the point of breaking out in hives ( it's really quite attractive....and itchy) unless I find a way to manage it. Well, I have tried going to the gym to run on the hamster wheel (aka: treadmill), tried classes at my local YMCA and even tried enjoying the bright outdoors. Needless to say, it just didn't work for me. I would get into the groove of going and then become exceedingly bored with my monotonous  routine and I would end up quitting.  

After a few months of frustration my mother talked me into going to a Jazzercise class with her.  I had nothing to lose, so I went and....I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!  I have finally found an "exercise program" that I might actually stick to, plus who doesn't like to go dance it out after a long day?!  If you have never tried Jazzercise I think you should AT LEAST try it once, like I said, you've got nothing to lose! 

I made a spontaneous trip into the big city of Omaha for a little fun.  My friend Lynn and I decided to stop at Francesca's. I'm not big into clothes shopping but,  I love going there simply because they have some of the cutest little knick-knack things to decorate with.  While Lynn dove into the clothing racks, I decided to wander around and looking at the wall decor.  I found some really cute signs with sayings of love and being fearless...and then I saw it. There I stood in my bright pink Batman t-shirt and Batman headband when the world decides to throw me a little bit of irony.... 

It was almost like it was meant to be.....

I saw this brilliant wall sign that I definitely will be purchasing in the near future. I LOVE Batman and this sign would just make my life complete.  

If you follow me on Instagram you probably saw this lovely post of my Math Workshop signs. 

My teaching partner and I are in the process of prepping our Math Workshop for next year and we were tired of our boring index card rotation board.  Since I love to create I immediately created these adorable little tags! I even made my teaching partner her own clip-art avatar (is that what they are called?).  After posting this photo on Facebook and Instagram I got quite a few questions asking when these would be up for sale. Well folks, you're in luck, because I have them ready for you right now!  Here is my most recent product on TPT ...

my "Math Workshop Essentials" and it's EDITABLE!  Click the image above to take you to my TPT and check it out for yourself! 

Now for the exciting news!  This week I held my very first Giveaway! It was very exciting and I am very grateful for those of you that took part in supporting my Facebook page and TPT store.  Quite a few of you entered the giveaway, but there can only be ONE Winner! 

DRUMROLL, PLEASE.....

AND THE WINNER IS.......

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations, Stephanie!  You're the LUCKY winner of my K-2 Dolch Bundle BANG game! Thank you to all that participated! Be sure to follow my blog and Facebook for upcoming freebies, products and giveaways! 

This year I have been working really hard on becoming a more efficient Guided Reading Teacher. I used to really struggle with planning reading every week until I read Jan Richardson's book. Holy cow...it is a life-saver! Now,  Guided Reading is my favorite subject to plan, but it takes me FOREVER to get done. As you can see, it also takes up a good portion of my table to plan as well.  Does anyone else love Guided Reading? If you have not read Jan Richardson's book on Guided Reading it is wonderful! Her formats are simply to follow and I love all of word work ideas she gives you in the back of the book! 

Well folks, I need to continue planning my guided reading groups and cleaning off my table before it gets completely lost under all of my stuff! I hope you have a wonderful weekend! 

Thanks for stoppin' by!