Five For Friday ~ June 27th - Michelle

    It's time for the weekly link-up- Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching. Fire for Friday is a weekly linky party where you post 5 random things from the past week. Then you go back to Doodle Bugs and link up! Head on over to Doodle Bugs, Grab the Button, and get in on the fun! 

What an amazing week!! I have been enjoying the beautiful sights and sounds of New Orleans for the Reading, Writing, Math, and More Conference. I will get back to that in just a minute!

I'm going to start back at the beginning of my week (even though that seems forever ago) !  My classroom is FINALLY getting a much needed paint job. I moved into this room last year and didn't get a chance to make it over. I believe it was last painted in the late 80's. You know...when burgundy and baby blue were the IT combination! I snapped a quick pic as I was starting!

The front wall was this dark burgundy....and yes that is a brown chalkboard. So my room is a work in progress this summer. It is getting a total overhaul!! The big dark wall is GONE!

One word...RAIN! It has rained and stormed every day this week! It has caused quite a few interesting situations as well as laughs! Tracy and I made our way to New Orleans on Tuesday. First stop....

the hotel dryer!!! During our layover in Chicago there were some really bad storms and our luggage must have been sitting out when it started. Needless to say our suitcases were soaked....all the way through. 

So as I stated earlier, we are currently enjoying beautiful New Orleans! It has been such an amazing trip spending so much time with my dearest friend and exploring our passion for teaching!! The sights were gorgeous (as long as you could ignore the storm clouds) and the food was unbelievable!! Tracy and I have made many memories and had lots of laughs throughout the week!

 My brain is currently bursting with new ideas from this years SDE Reading, Writing, Math, & More Conference. 

I started off the conference getting to hear some wonderful things from Amanda Nickerson of One Extra Degree. She had a session on how she uses close reading and applies it in her classroom. I have some things marked to add to my curriculum next school year. I will keep you posted on how it works out!

Jeromie Heath was presenting on Scientific Inquiry. His passion for teaching was contagious. He really expanded my thinking on how to step back and let the students catch their own mistakes without our corrections. I may have to duct tape my mouth....but I am going to try soooo hard to give more of these opportunities in my classroom.

There were many other wonderful presentations from how to use improv to creating on iPads. I can't wait to start tweaking many of my own lessons when I get home!

     Last but not least...I can't wait to get home to these sweet faces!!!

 We are praying for safe travels with NO delays!! Cross your fingers!!

 - Michelle