Slim Down Saturday

Oops...I skipped a week!  But I'm ready to link up up Teaching with a Touch of Pixie Dust's Slim Down Saturday this week.

Things have been crazy busy.  I haven't blogged in forever.  Which totally goes against my goals!  But one thing that I have stuck to is entering my food into My Fitness Pal.

This app is a HUGE help to me.  I love food.  Greasy, cheesy, filled with sour cream food.  Using this app has really helped me stop over-eating and eating such unhealthy things.  I used to eat a Chick-fil-A breakfast every morning!  Now I realize how much of my daily calories that takes up, so it doesn't happen often.  Oatmeal is just fine, thank you very much! Haha!

Here's my Slim Down Saturday update:

Wahoo!!!!!!  I've lost 10 pounds!  I weighed myself for the first time since January 1st this morning.  (Well, at 11:00 when I woke up! Haha!)  I was so excited that I called my boyfriend, mom, dad, best friend, and accidentally sent a text to the soccer association board!

I can't weigh myself every morning.  1) It can be discouraging.  2) I'm not a morning person, and I can't remember anything before I've had some caffeine and a shower.  But this morning I remembered!  And it was so exciting.

What I know has helped has been faithful entering into My Fitness Pal.  Yesterday, my team ordered food for lunch.  So I ate a lite breakfast and used all my calories for the yummy, cheesy, sour cream laden quesadillas and the delicious tortilla chips and salsa! Just that meal alone was 1300 calories!  So I had a VERY lite dinner and managed to just barely go over my calorie goal.  It's just about planning.  Which I have never done.

I definitely need to work out.  Still haven't done it.  I did walk the dogs on Monday, but working out after school is just not possible right now.  Until soccer registration is over (I'm the registrar), I just don't have any time at night.  This is when I wish I was a morning person so I could get up and do it in the mornings!  But it already takes multiple alarms for me to get up from school.  My goal is to get better at forcing myself to workout!!!

Water is growing on me. Yesterday, I bought a Brita water pitcher to try to cut down on the empty water bottles.  I still drink Diet Dr. Pepper, but with a water in between each!  Hey, it's something!

How is everyone else doing?  I'm so excited to be on this journey with everyone!

The Real Teachers of Blog County

Just the thought of this linky made me laugh, cringe, cry, and start blushing!  Haha!

We, as teachers, work so hard to make sure that our students don't realize we aren't as organized as we urge them to be.  At least I know that I do.  Not to say that I don't leave things out on my desk, or that I didn't get to school early to make sure my room was super clean before my observation today!

But behind all the awesome activities, stations, and task cards, I am hiding a secret from my kiddos. This:

Here you can see the labeled file folders that was my attempt at organization.  I can not guarantee that those labels actually describe what is in them!

One can't have too many baggies, right?!?!?!

They are all shoved in my filing cabinet.  Piled on top of each other.  I have no idea where anything is, just that they are somewhere in there.  *cringe*  Layers upon layers of baggies, laminated stations, and task cards on rings.

I admit it.  I need help.  My grand plan is to get tubs for each of our units.  Hopefully sometime in the near future.  Definitely before next school year.  I think.  :)

To see others secret stashes, head over to Second Grade is Out of This World!

Slim Down Saturday

Time to link up with Teaching with a Touch of Pixie Dust for Slim Down Saturdays!

This week was full of eye-openers for me!  Here we go:

Gains/Losses from this week:

I decided not to weigh myself each week.  Instead, I'm going to do it every two weeks.  That way there is less chance of me getting discouraged.  It's always been really easy for me to get discouraged, so I want to lessen the chances!

Positives:

Water....so not as tasty as Diet Dr. Pepper.  But I did it!  I made myself drink two bottles a day.  It was really hard some days, but water is starting to grow on me.

I also started logging all my food in My Fitness Pal.  Wow!  What an eye-opener!  I never knew how bad butter was!  Haha!  MFP really does help me keep track of my calories, while also letting me know the fat/carb/protein levels each day.  I've done really good the majority of the week at staying under or at the calorie goal.  Wednesday I had a meeting at a Mexican restaurant, so I didn't do so well that day!  :)

But, overall, I feel a whole lot better just from one week!

Something to do better:

I need to stick to my exercise plan.  Some days it is so hard to come home after working all day and want to work out.  But I need to do better.  This cold weather isn't helping either!  My favorite workout is walking my dogs (I have two 80-lb dogs, so it is a super fast walk!)  With 30 degree temps, we can't do that.  But no excuses.  I need to do better.

Goal for next week:

I'm going to up my water intake to 3 bottles each day.  My recycling people are probably wondering what's going on!  Haha!  My students will definitely be getting more bathroom breaks as my water intake increases...they will love it!

Saying for the week:

Keep it up.  That's what I tell myself every day.  I'm super proud that I've been watching the calorie intake, and I'm even proud that I worked out the two days that I did.  Keep it up!  Keep going!  Keep striving for better!  

Have a great weekend and remember to stay focused!  We've got this ladies!!!

Five for Friday!

Oh my goodness!  Can you believe another week has already gone by?  It seemed so fast!  It's time to link up with Doodle Bugs for a Five for Friday linky......Wahoo!

1. Task Card Fun!

I can't rave enough about Teaching with a Mountain View's products.  Love, love, love!  Today we did the first set of Dividing Fractions with Visual Models Task Cards.  Usually, the students do a Scoot activity, but I saw directions to Footloose on a Middle School Math Moments activity that we are using in a few weeks, and decided to try it out.  We had a shortened schedule today, so it ended up working perfectly with the 16 task cards that we used!

My students LOVED today's class!

2.  Seriously, weather?!?!

What is with this cold front?  It is just not fair to be stuck inside all day!  If Mother Nature were a teacher, she'd never make it cold!  Haha!  Good thing that I have plenty of firewood so I can stay warm and toasty!

3.  Sharpie Flip Chart Markers

OMG, how did I never hear about this amazing markers?  I ordered some over Christmas break from Amazon, along with flip chart paper.  I decided that I needed to up my teacher-game and make anchor charts (don't know how I didn't know about those either!)  Needless to say.....

They are amazing!!!!  (I don't know why it looks like I'm eating the box in the second one....)

4. Anchor Charts

With the help of my awesome new markers, I dove into making anchor charts as soon as we got back from break.  I knew my students would need constant examples of multiplying and dividing fractions up in the room.  Here are my first few anchor charts:

Remember, this is my first week at it.  Hopefully (fingers crossed) I'll get better at them soon!  

5. Soccer Clipart Cuteness

I recently signed on to be the registrar of our city's soccer association.  Whew, it is a job!  Well, I need a binder to keep organized (because I'm a binder person.)  And every binder needs a cute cover. Duh!  Haha!

I purchased Creative Clips Soccer Kids clipart and downloaded the freebie Soccer Frame from Kayla Hubbard.  And, voila!  This cuteness happened:

:) Cute binder covers make me happy!!!

I hope everyone had a great week!  This weekend is going to be full of rest and relaxation for me.  I'm tired from the two weeks of no alarms!!!  Have a great weekend!!!

Favorite Things Linky: January

Love this linky from Teaching Trio!  They are helping everyone share a few of their favorite things, so head on over and see what everyone is loving right now!

I am sharing my favorite three things for school during the month of January.  So here I go!

1. Whimsy Clips Winter Clipart

Everyone knows that Whimsy Clips makes the most absolutely perfect clipart!  I have the Winter Sports, Winter Owls, Winter, and Winter Kids sets.  Let me tell you, if you don't have them, get them!  Haha!

With so much going on at school this month, the clipart I have makes the parent flyers and newsletters stand out and look amazing.  I'm on a committee for our Winter Wonderland Dinner Theater, and the lead teacher sent us a flyer to review before we sent it home....yuck!  It was in Word with ugly clipart.  No thank you!  So I made it over, and, voila!  Super cute informational flyer to parents!  Not to mention, the clipart helped make my Winter Math Stations adorable!

You get to the Whimsy Clips store here.

2. Teaching with a Mountain View's Multiplying and Dividing Fractions Task Cards

This is the first year for 5th grade students in Texas to have to learn multiplying and dividing fractions with unit numbers.  And my students just started.  Yesterday.  To say that I stressed out over these concepts would be putting it mildly.

Thank goodness I found these two amazing products!

We used cards 1-16 in a SCOOT activity today, and my students loved it!  Over 90% of my students earned a 100!  Not only did they get to show how much they know, but they had a blast doing it. Anytime I can use an activity where they work in partners and have to move around, I'm in!

These sets are a lifesaver for me because I can focus on making sure I am teaching it correctly (since it's my first time ever!) without having to worry about making an engaging activity for my students. This is a huge relief!  Definitely a favorite!

3. My North Face Coat and Gloves

One thing about January.....IT'S COLD!  Yesterday, it was 57 degrees, and I walked my dogs after school.  Then that cold front came in!  Brrrrrrr!  

I have outside duty after school for about 15 - 20 minutes.  Today, the wind chill was in the 20s with a strong wind.  (Remember, I live in Texas.  I'm used to sweating because it's stifling hot!)  Thank goodness for my North Face coat and gloves.  They keep me toasty warm while I help the littles get in their cars.

What are your favorite things for these cold winter months at school?

Don't forget to check out the linky to see everyone's favs!

Adding and Subtracting Fractions Scoot

Ok, so, last night I couldn't sleep.  At all.  I had a wonderful break, relaxed alot, and got ahead with planning.  But last night, all I could think about was....Will they remember how to add and subtract fractions?????????????????

And the verdict is......

YES!!!!!!

Wahoo!  Ladies and gentlemen, it was AWESOME!  

They were rocking it!  Definitely made up for the whole having to wake up before the sun comes up! Haha!

Before the break, the students did an Add/Subtract Scoot that I made.  I just alternated the cards, so I ended up with two sets of a mixture of addition and subtraction of fractions.  They did really well on the activity before the break.  Today, after a quick review, they worked on the second set of cards in partners.

They worked super hard on each card.  Some desks had two cards on them.  This let me have two sets of cards going on in the room.

All the hands went up when I was picking students to work out problems on the board!  Happy teacher right here!  

You can grab the Scoot cards, which also include a word problem set, here.

I hope everyone has a great week back to school!  I'm off to bed....that 5:30 alarm is brutal!!! :)

Sunday Scoop

It's time for another Sunday Scoop with Teaching Trio!  The last one before I return to school after this glorious two week break!

Here's how my Sunday is looking:

I have to...

So I've had so much fun over this Christmas break.  After some blog-stalking, I realized that I need anchor charts to hang in my room!  They are just too beneficial for the students for me to not have them.  In comes.....Amazon!  I ordered the paper and sharpie markers for them.  This has just added to the pile of other stuff I bought!  

 

There is a huge pile next to my door of things for me to load up and take to school.  Now just to get there early tomorrow to get everything ready....

This is going to be a busy week, so I have to finish my laundry.  I'm super good at getting everything washed, dried, folded, and hung up.  I'm super bad at putting everything up.  I just leave it in the laundry room.  Ugh.

This week starts me trying to get healthier.  So I have to get excited about it.  I love being unhealthy....I mean, besides the part of getting fatter and clothes not fitting!  I got on My Fitness Pal to help track my calorie intake and make me more aware of what I'm eating.  If you're on there, add me!  annakgreen

I hope to...

It's going to be a cooooold week here in Texas.  So I need to find all my super warm winter clothes and figure out what I'm going to wear this week!

Each Friday, I give my students homework that is due the next Friday.  I haven't had to make it for a few weeks now, so I'm a little rusty!  It's something I want to get done today.

I'm happy to...

OMG...how did I never watch Reign before?  I love this show!  Netflix, you are amazing.  Only 4 more episodes in Season One.  And Downton Abbey starts tonight.....oh the noble classes!!!

Have a wonderful week back to school everyone!

Slim Down Saturday

Let me tell you, Slim Down Saturdays could not have come at a better time.  I weighed myself for the first time in months.  Ugh.  So I'm going to use Slim Down Saturdays as a way to keep me accountable.  Thank you Teaching with a Touch of Pixie Dust!

Here's my Slim Down Saturday for today:

Ultimate Goal...

40 pounds would be nice.  Really, 50 would be perfect.  But I'm going to go with 40 pounds.  There is a whole rack of pants that WILL look awesome on me WHEN I lose that 40 pounds.

Plus, that will help me be healthier.  Less panting and sweating after just a little bit of physical activity.

Gain/Loss and Total...

Nothing yet.  I haven't really started.  Not enough to want to weigh myself!  My plans start on Monday.

Positives...

I have created an exercise plan and meal plan for this week.  This is something that I definitely want to keep up with.  

My boyfriend is the healthy eater.  It's all about protein, low carbs, good fats, blah, blah, blah.  I have no idea how to even start.  He's all "we can substitute Greek yogurt for sour cream in chicken enchiladas and use gluten free tortillas..."  What?!?!  Haha!  So we plan the meals together.  So he can go buy the meats and veggies fresh that day.

Something to do better...

This is where the exercise plan comes in.  I REALLY have to get over not wanting to get sweaty.  After working out, my hair looks like I just showered.  But I have to deal.  An exercise plan will help me deal.  If it is planned, on my calendar, than I am way better able to cope.  I'm a planner.  And I stick to plans.  So having a written plan is a must!

Goal for next week...

I need to start a love affair with water.  Right now, it's with Diet Dr. Pepper.  Seriously, I drink probably 6 cans of DDP a day, at least.  With maybe 1/4 bottle of water.  Clearly, I need to work on the water drinking.  

So my goal is to drink two bottles of water each day next week.  Hopefully, that will help me ween myself off of so much caffeine and begin my love of water.

One quote...

I just keep telling myself that I can do this.  I'm kind of like the Little Engine that Could.  Except it's "I know I can, I know I can," on repeat.  

I can't wait to write some good news on the blog for next week!  

Here's to supporting each other on our 2015 healthy journey!

Five for Friday!

Wahoo!  Five for Friday is back!  It's so exciting, and will help me get back into the swing of my 2015 blogging!  So here we go!

I've had so much fun over the past few weeks, so let's get started!

Happy New Year!!!

It's 2015!  The time for resolutions, a fresh beginning, or a continuation of all the great things of 2014.  We had fun celebrating with friends to ring in the new year.

 Isn't he such a cutie?  Definitely want to keep him for 2015!

Work, Work, Work!

This Christmas break, I've been working to try to get ahead.  Everyone know that the Spring is stressful enough.  It's time for the testing season crunch.  So, I'm trying to make it a little easier on myself.  Hey, I've already planned through February 11th!  Woot woot!

These beauties are going to help me through the month of January!  Here's the links to all those goodies, and the first two are Freebies!

Mrs. C's Classroom

Middle School Moments

Teaching with a Mountain View

Teaching with a Mountain View

Love My Niece!

Obviously, everyone thinks that their niece is the best.  But, sorry, mine is.  It's just a fact! :) Haha!  She sure does make everything fun!  We took her to Santaland and had a blast!

There was a lot of dancing in the car while we looked at all the lights.  This place is pretty cool if you ever are in Tyler, TX around Christmas time!

Back to Work...

One other thing I have to get done by Monday is making a Jeopardy game.  I have a PowerPoint template that I've always used, but it doesn't let the students keep track of their score.  So I am doing that, and so are some students instead of working out the problems.  

I saw this post on my Facebook News Feed and am excited to try this out!

Doesn't this sound cool?!?!  Has anyone ever done it before?  I'm curious to know if it is pretty easy to make and use it in the classroom.

Three More Days!

Only three more days until it's back to school!  I'm going to spend it relaxing, finishing up some work, and hanging out with my family.

My fur babies!

Last day of TWD Marathon!

How are you going to enjoy the last few days of break?  Any fun plans?

Here's to a Fabulous '15!