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3rd day of Christmas

12 Days Daily 3
Today is a very joyful blog for me to write.  I am blogging tonight about

a very special friend, Kristin. She is my teeny tiny favorite lady!  I am

actually linking up with her blog and Hadar’s blog.  We are to discuss the

year in review! Kristen is a big part of my year. In January of 2012

a friend invited me to Pinterest for the 7th time. Finally, she called me

and said, “Listen Katie, this Pinterest thing is for you, just do it or I will

NEVER have coffee with you again.”  Well that got my attention….

So I accept her “invitation” which seems elitist and weird. I log on…


and my life changes….


right then and there…


I see snapshots of talented and amazing classrooms……


I “meet” people like Cara Carroll and Amy Lemons and Teri and Kristin.


These are some of the first blogs I read, stalk( stay up at night ). I

begin freaking out that teachers like this exist. Suddenly, I don’t feel so

alone. As silly as it sounds, I felt super alone in teaching. 


I have lots of cool talented staff friends, but I have learned to be careful of

other teachers. If your bulletin board is too good, people get pissed. 

 I had a teacher walk by one of my bulletin board and say.

 “Ugggg, you have too much time on your hands.”

How rude right!?! 

If you get too crazy, have too much fun with your students,

 and have too many parents requests,

well .....
 
then the POOP really hits the fan. 

So anyway, I am a little gun shy.
 
I cringe at times when I put up a great board, and I wanted to DIE when

my principal (MMC) talked about me in a staff meeting.

She was telling us why she honored parent requests for next year's teacher.

#1. She wants the parents to start off the year with the teacher they asked for. 
 
#2 If the parent "thinks" they don't want you as thier child's teacher,

then it is their loss. But she plans on sparing, us teachers, the pain of dealing with an

annoyed parent who wants their child in another class.  

......sounds great..... fine....... when is the meeting over?.......

........but then.........

she proceeded to say she “is overwhelmed with

parent requests for Katie (me). She is going to grant every single

request because she wants the parents to be happy.”
 
 
For one second…
 
that felt good….
 
awe a compliment…
.
and then I felt sick…
 
I was going to catch a “ration of __________” for this comment...

and I did.....
 
I became kind of introverted on my campus.  
 

But then pinterest was like a ray of light into my introverted little world

and these ladies made me want “to just be me”. There are hundreds of

AMAZE-BALLS (and kind of obsessed) teachers out there. Just like me.

In a bizarre way, all of this was validating.  Plus, everyone was SHaRinG!

I was beaming by February, buying a basic blog package in March, and

listing my first item on TpT in June.

I found that LOVE kindergarten blogger buddies. The stories of snot, shoe tying,

and such make me happy that I teach 1st, but confirms for me that 
 
someday…….
 
I will teach kinder……
 
Of course, I will need to take a Valium every day….
 
but I know I can do it (with the help of my kinder blogging buddies.)
 
I send my kinder peeps Puffy Heart Love, as Farley would say!
 
My favorite kinder teachers are Greg and Miss Kindergarten. They
 
amaze me and make me laugh!  Hadar (Miss Kinder) is like a momma
 
hen. She plans super star stuff for her students, and is amazing with her blogger
 
buddies. Greg is Mr. Kinder.  He makes me smile BiG TiMe! I am
 
blogging all about Greg tomorrow!
 

Along the way in 2012 I have learned many things the
 
 hard way

1. I’m the typo QUEEN. This causes me endless headaches. (I "probly" have 10 in this post.)

2. I don’t understand the most basic things about blogger code.

I thank my lucky stars for Michelle the 3am Teacher!
Photobucket
She just sat with me on the phone for over an hour centering all my sidebar images!

3. “Google it” is beyond helpful, but often over my head.

4. You can create the BEST units in the world, but until it gets on   

Pinterest… it goes No where, fast!

5. You have to have backup. Now this brings me to a little love note to

Kristin (Teeny Tiny).


This woman has my back. She has explained the most basic of things

like properly linking up to a linky party. She has encouraged me and has

helped me grow.  I love that she is my editing eyes. See #1. She is always

the first person I think of when I log into blogger.

What did Teeny Tiny do today?

She never disappoints!

EVER.

One of my favorite things about

her is that sometimes she starts her blog with a statement like,

“Nothing really happened today.”

Then 5,000 words later……..

I have laughed, cried, and had to take a potty break!

I AH-DOOR her. I really do. Thank you my sweet pal.
 
Kristin wants me to answer 12 questions for her linky party with Hadar.

 Here you go

1. Favorite Movie: Twilight Breaking Dawn 2 I loved freaking out during

the ending with all the other 12 year olds in the room.

2. TV Series: Real Housewives of Bev. Hills

3. Fav. Place to eat: Cafe' Allegro (Heaven & Good memories)

4. Favorite New Thing: Teachers Pay Teachers

5. Favorite gift: My ipad 2 no my laptop.... it's a tie.

6. Favorite Pin: Word Doctor by Cara Carroll

7. Favorite blog post: My current giveaway!

8. Favorite accomplishment:  Making the paper check club on TpT

9. Favorite Picture....
 
IMG_6760
from {this} blog post
 
10.  Favorite Memory: my son! Everything about him floods my mind when you say
 
"favorite memory"
 
11. Goal for 2013: Spend less time on the computer (fixing typos).

12. One little word to sum up the year: Faith
 
Good questions Kristin and Hadar!
 
 
Link back up with them (here) after you enter a few giveaways!
 
The BIG Giveaway is (here).
 
Today's giveaway is Mammals of the Woods.
 
Kristen spend days editing my Mammals of the Woods Pack. That is what
 
you win today if you comment below.  Her Eagle Eyes caught, every, little,
 
extra, comma. I, really, like, commas!

Read more{here}
This unit has differentiated fluency passages, art, activities, and 5 science tests!


Follow my blog and leave a Comment
 
1. Leave me the name you follow under
2. Email address (so I can email you if you win)
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