#NashTeacherBash...Where Blogging Besties Meet

According to Instagram there are over 100 pictures with the tag #NashTeacherBash.  

I'm surprised there's not a million more, because my cheeks are still hurting from smiling so much.

In one of my last blog posts I talked about how much blog meet-ups rejuvenate your spirit as a teacher and this was no exception.  Before I tell you all about the trip I gotta stop and say a big THANK YOU to those that made this meet up possible.

 Host and Hostess
Lawren (Teaching is a Royal Adventure), Greg (Kindergarten Smorgasboard), Dana (Common to the Core), Alexandria (Classroom Action with Ms. Jackson),Cindy (Exploring is Elementary), Latoya (Flying into First Grade)
Aside from sponsors the meet up wouldn't have happened with out the hard-work from the wonderful hostess and host!  Those Tennessee teachers sure do know how to show this Indy girl how to have a real good time.  

Thanks so much for the generosity of all the sponsors.

DID YOU SEE THAT?!  

GoNoodle and ESGI both had a big part in making our meet up such a great time.  Both companies really love teachers and seriously blessed us! Check them out as well as those below!

#TeacherSwag

Some other sponsors include:

Scentos

Creative Teaching Press 

TPT

Remind

Euerka

Tallahassee Sunday

Teaching In The Tongass

Graphics From The Pond

Polka Dots and Pals

Digi By Amy

Scholastic

A Plus Images

Educents

Friday:

The adventure started with me driving Ciera (Adventures of Room 129) and Brenda (Primary Inspired) all the way from Indianapolis.  

No worries guys... we had lots of jams and snacks to keep us entertained.  There may or may not have been broadway blared on the way to Tennessee.  

Sorry again Brenda!

We rushed down to Nashville just in time to make it to a Nashville Sounds baseball game.  

Now.. don't ask me what the score was for that game because we were simply too busy talking with one another.
#bloggersgonnagab
Seriously guys... we talked about everything under the sun.
And speaking of sun, it was a really sunny afternoon so I was really glad that GoNoodle provided some sweet shades for us to rock! We made it onto the Jumbo-Tron because looked so cool... or because we had the silliest dance moves.  Who knows?!   All I know is that I loved every minute of making new friends and ending our night with some breathtaking fireworks.

Thanks Greg for "coordinating" that.

Saturday:

Look at that face!  Can you tell I could hardly contain my excitement for the next day of the meet up?  I was definitely the first one up in our room.  Despite being a little tired it ended up working in my favor. I mean, I got a bit of extra time to work on this mop of hair on my head.


We made our way over to Atamology for the official meet up.  Talk about the cutest venue ever!  Super hipster.  Right up my alley.  Minus the basement having no AC in their basement.  It was a packed house when everyone showed up.  Over 60 bloggers showed up to eat, laugh, take pictures, and talk.

SOO MUCH SOUTHERN FOOD!

GoNoodle went above and beyond as sponsors by buying all of us delicious lunch from Jim 'N Nick's BBQ.   Just so you know I'm not one for southern food but I like me some country cooking.  Especially the pulled chicken bbq, mac & cheese, and cheesy cornbread.  Lemonade and cookies were also a nice touch.  There was even some sweet southern servers who totally rocked the event by serving us and even climbing on an unsturdy chair taking the official meet up photo!

Some of my best friends in life I have met through blogging and TPT.

Amy (Math, Science, and Social Studies Oh My!), Me, Ciera (Adventures of Room 129), and Brenda (Primary Inspired)

One of the best part of meet ups is making and seeing blogger besties.  There were SOOO many pictures taken and friends made.

Just a few of the wonderful women in the picture above...

Stacy Simpson (Simpson's Superstars) and I making faces after several photobombs occured.

Mary... my favorite person I met all day.

The girls from All Ya'll (Aka: my Texas Sisters) and Lawren.

A blogging bestie picture with THE TPT banner, Ciera, and Brenda.

All Ya'll Girls again, Emily (A Neighborhood Kindergarten), and Megan from Mrs. Wheeler's First 

Grade,
 I even got to meet my future blog designer Kristen from Chalk and Apples.  Seriously you guys this girl is amazing with blogs but even more wonderful in person.
 She was giving this bride to be all sorts of wedding planning tips.

 I totally bonded with The Brown Bag Teacher over her awesome prize from Hatch Show Print and mutual love for Mumford and Sons.  Good taste in music transends state borders!

Why yes that is me posing with Smorgie and Mr. Greg from Kindergaren Smorgasboard.  
Are you jealous?!
Those two are the coolest people I've ever met!

Finally before we had used up all phone memory on pictures there was prize drawings.  I found out there are many methods to getting chosen.
I'll stick with my #pickme.  Totally helped me snag this awesome Scrabble Bulletin Board set from Eureka

After winning a giveaway and walking away with so much swag the girls and I headed back to our hotel room.  Can you say nap time needed?!  Post relaxation and cool down we made our way back to Nashville to have dinner as a big group.  Despite being "accidentally" left behind we made it to a delicious Mexican restaurant.

Shout out to the restaurant  Chuys for seating 27+ teachers in 15 minutes.  Ciera and I managed to snag a table outside two of our lovely hosts Alexandria (Classroom Action with Ms. Jackson), and Latoya (Flying into First Grade).

We ended up wrapping up our night at the breathtaking Opryland Hotel.  Basically all beauty of being outside with the blessings of air conditioning and escalators.  Seriously guys. It was beautiful!  After a bit of a walk we all settled down outside of a restaurant called The Library.
#colormeshocked I know...
Teachers hanging out in "The Library"

After several more photo opportunities this tired teacher had to call it a night.

Sunday:
The next morning we met for one last meal in this beautiful plantation home that hosts my new favorite restaurant Monell's Manor.

Seriously... 

I could be a Tennessee teacher in a heartbeat 

if that mean I get to eat this kinda food for breakfast regularly.

I'd also not fit into my wedding dress...

Check out the beautiful Mrs. Mohr at her Instagram.  Pressure her to drink the blogger Kool-Aid and join our ranks! ;)

So much laughter filled the room and of course more pictures were taken.  

I was blessed to meet new blogger and Instagram friends.  It was quite sad saying our goodbyes to these people I'd only met 3 days prior.

 I'll take the words out of the mouth of my friends Ciera and Brenda.
"It's remarkable how quickly you bond with these people.  It's because you're surrounded by people who have the same passion and love for what you do (Teaching, TPT, Blogging, whatever).  You truly become friends even when you don't see each other all the time."

I'll leave you with one last photo from me and the KinderGlitter Girls.

BYE YA'LL

End of the Year... in GIFs and Pictures

Yeah that's me right now... except I'm sipping Starbucks and don't get into a firey crash.  

#spoileralert #whohasn'tseenzoolander 

It's summer break for me...  but I still wanted to share all the fun stuff that happened on those days leading to the end of the year.

First and foremost my class was counting down the days just as hard as I was.  Thanks to Ciera, one of my lovely coworkers and fellow blogger, our team was doing and End Of The Year ABC countdown.  I'm not sure who enjoy it more the kids or the teachers.  For example one of them was Future Day.  Our kids came in wearing different outfits about their future.  I had one of my reading students copy our teaching badge and wear a dress shirt over jeans.  That kid is going places.  Another day was Soak Up the Sun Day, which basically meant we got to have a picnic for lunch with our kids.  I loved creating special moments with this group and that was definitely one of them.  

But, to be real with you... not all of the end of the year is that pretty.

Kids go absolutely crazy at the end of the year and let's face it... you're exhausted.
But you HAVE TO fight the urge to not go absolutely mental.


I honestly think I survived because of chapter books and teaching outside of the box.  

In my reading class devoured the book Frindle. If you teach 3-5 grade and haven't read it to/or with your class, GO OUT AND GET A COPY NOW.  

Aside from the normal book study activities my kids were invested in book talks and responding to the text in various ways.  They even began to enjoy learning vocabulary with much more enthusiasm than they'd had before.  Oh my goodness they were so so so sad when the story ended.  I felt so bad that there isn't a series related to this story that I knew we had to do something special.  

On my last class with my reading kids we gathered all together and I told them, "I need their signatures on something so I could always remember them.  Here let me get you something to write with.  Here everyone can have their own FRINDLE to sign this with."  

And yes if you're a fan of Frindle you know exactly what they said without prompting.
"3, 2, 1 FRINDLE"

But I still had a couple more weeks with my homeroom class!  14 days of controlled chaos??
What do you do when it's the end of the year, the kids are antsy and you've already completed standardized testing?  You teach outside of the box of course!

• Reviewing reading/math concepts with board games.  They have no idea they're still learning and applying their knowledge in order to play.
• Write, Pass, Write, Read.  During writing we would take our journal time to a more interactive level we began to write as groups.  One person would start with a story and write for an allotted time on a timer.  When the bell went off they had to pass to the next person to be completed.  Best writing my kids have ever done.  
• Candy as manipulatives.  Introducing probability to 3rd grade can be extreme.  We used M&Ms (on M-Day) to explore probability in real life.  
  

On our last day it was quite bittersweet to say goodbye to this group.  

These kids have grown so much in the year that I have been blessed to work with them.  Tears and hugs were shared among all of them!  

I'll leave you with a toast and a question.

Here's looking at you kid.

So now it's your turn... what did you do to end out the year?  

Cheers to all you teachers sticking it out and making a difference one kid at a time. Enjoy your summer.

Spring Teacher Blogger Meet-Up: The Best Weekend to Be A Blogger!

Two weeks ago, a group of almost 100 teachers figuratively literally flooded the small town of French Lick, Indiana.  I got to spend the weekend with some of my closest friends (and meeting new ones) who have the same passion for teaching, creating, and blogging.  And I walked away with tips, tricks, and some AWESOME  teacher swag!

Friday
 First and formost, how many people can say they work with one of their closest teaching and blogging buddy?!  For weeks Ciera, from Adventures of Room 129, and I had been counting down the days before this meet up.  As soon as the bell dismissed our kids, we hopped in her car and began the 3hr trek from Indianapolis.  We were so excited, we only made a single pit stop on the entire trip and that was to pick up the wonderful Brenda from Primary Inspired.  The drive down was spent mainly buzzing about how excited we were to get to see all of our old friends from last year and stalk blog crushes meet new friends.  Especially getting to know my final roomie Brandy from Firstie Kidoodles.

Check out the rooms and amenities this place has.  It's seriously amazing inside and out! http://www.frenchlick.com/hotels/frenchlick#

Beautiful right?!
From there we took a trolley over to the West Baden Hotel to see the "Light Show".

The night ended with us getting asked to leave because we were talking and laughing so much.
We even got to use Greg from Kindergarten Smorgasbord's selfie stick.

Saturday
After some much needed rest and errand running we got to go in and get a sneak peek at all the hardwork that  went into this meet up!

The room was decorated with adorable poms, personalized name tags, and stationary all thanks to School Girl Style!

(Aka: the best teacher/wedding decor company ever.)


The afternoon started out with lunch and introductions, which make this gal become Nervous Nelly, but somehow I persevered!  After everyone had been introduced it was time for our teacher tool swap.  So much fun!  Check out my last post if you wanna know what I got!  Coolest part was I even ran into another blogger that I'd been collaberatively blogging with for months!
Absolutely loved meeting and getting to know Debbi from 3rd Grade Pad.

One of my favorite parts was when we broke off into 3 sessions for small table discussions.
I was lucky enough to listen to veteran teacher bloggers give advice about teaching, blogging, and how to balance both!  Like I said earlier it's so refreshing being surrounded by people who are as passionate as you are.

Before I go any further I've really got to give a major shout out to the two ladies that made this weekend possible!

Holly Ehle  from Mrs. Ehle's Kindergarten Connection and Brittany Banister from  Mrs. Banister's Kindergarten Kids really out did themselves.  Can you say awesome??!  How about breathtaking??!  These women really worked their tails off organizing, facilitating, and running such a fun weekend.

While I'm doing shout outs, I've got to say so many thanks to all the companies that were able to donate/sponsor gifts and door prizes for us teachers.  I actually was moved by how generous and thoughtful this was!

 Thank you to our amazing sponsors:
* TPT (TeachersPayTeachers.com)
* GoNoodle
* SDE (Staff Staff Development for Educators)
* Lakeshore Learning Materials
* Scentos (Love these markers!)
* Creative Teaching Press
* Sit Spots
* Scentsy - Ciera Harris
* Orgami Owl - Brenda Hart Frady and Corporate office
* Tallahassee Sunday
* Erin Condren (EVERYONE GOT A PLANNER!!!!!)

*Vera Bradley (EVERYONE GOT A BAG!!!!!)
* Schoolgirl Style
* ESGI
* Hue Animation Studio
* Claire Marie Designs
* Brain Pop
* Seat Sack
* Younique by Dana

Want some TEACHER SWAG of your own?  Keep reading!

Now you're probably thinking we had already had enough fun... but the meet up wasn't over yet!  

We all put on our pajamas, t-shirts, and slippers to have the most EPIC and memorable teacher sleepover ever.

It actually had it's own hashtag.
I'm pretty sure we blew up instagram with #gonoodleteacherdanceparty

Thanks TPTand GoNoodle for sponsoring our fun!!

There was pizza and brownies, crafts and games, and of course TPT and GoNoodle activities.  We chose our own Champ and rocked out to our students favorite songs and brain breaks.  If you haven't
Yours truly is officially famous and made an appearance fumbling the dance moves to my favorite GoNoodle Brainbreak Pop-see-ko by Kangaroo Krew.

 My absolute favorite part of the sleepover events?  Being silly and having fun with some of my most favorite people ever.  I mean... who doesn't like photobooth props?  Or posing with your blogging besties?

Check out my buddy Amy from Math, Science, and Social Studies Oh My!

Absolutely adored meeting these Texan teachers. Lisa and Amy from All Y'all Need

The epic night concluded on a slightly inspirational and encouraging note. Many of us didn't want this encouraging feeling and attitude to end so we anonymously received buddies to send notes and presents of encouragement to throughout the year.  

Amy from Math, Science, and Social Studies Oh My!, Brandy from Firstie Kidoodles, Nicole from All Things Apple in 2nd, Brenda from Primary Inspired, Jenny from Luckey Frogs Lilypad, ME, and of course Ciera from Adventures of Room 129

Sunday
Like all good things our Spring Teacher Meet Up had to come to an end.  But not before we all met up for brunch in the morning to exchange hugs, emails, and promises to come back again next year.  If you're ever questioning whether it's worth it to go to a blogger meet up... check out the rest of our stories on this linky.

   

     

rel='nofollow' href="http://new.inlinkz.com/luwpview.php?id=508317" title="click to view in an external page.">An InLinkz Link-up

   

And since you may not have been there...

We’re giving away THREE Swag Bags!

Three people are going to win their own Spring Teacher Blogger Swag Bags!  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Teachers Don't Need Capes to Be Heroes

"Teaching is the profession that creates all other professions." 

Where would you be today without your favorite teacher?  You know, the one who believed in you.  The one who didn't give up on you.  Even when you pushed them away and gave them all the reasons to not want to help you...  Where would you be without your teacher hero?  I'm scared to think about how different my life would have been had I not had the wonderful and inspiring teachers I had most of my school career.   But one in particular will always stand out.  

When I was in fifth grade, I was as awkward as it gets.  Braces, series of unfortunate fashion choices, awful short hair cut.... (Mental pictures will just have to do...) It was a time of uncertainty and insecurity.  It didn't help that 5th grade was our first year out of elementary school, when cool and uncool become EXTREMELY transparent.  As you can guess from my description earlier, I was not part of the cool crowd.    I was teased all the time, and I didn't have any friends.   My emotions got the best of my studies. I began to not care about my grades or organization.  I didn't care about participation or completing any work.  I was even hiding my progress reports that showed my declining grades.

My teacher hero stopped my downward spiral with one comment.  

"YOU ARE TOO SMART TO BE ACTING LIKE THIS."  

She kept me after class one day and made me clean out my desk.  We went through every single paper and she showed me that it wasn't a question of how smart I was.  It was a question of how bad I wanted to succeed.  

She also listened to my story.  I unleashed all the feelings I'd been holding in all year and she just listened.  

When I was done we made a plan to help me with organization and helped keep me accountable for things.  

By the end of the year I'd turned things completely around.  I was getting As and Bs instead of Cs and Ds.  When it came time for the end of the year awards she saved my award for last.  With tears in her eyes she announced that the last award went to someone who had to learn this lesson the hard way but never gave up.  She gave me the perseverance award.  I gave her a gigantic hug and walked away proudly.  

It has taken me over 11 years of school and 4 years of my own experience with teaching to really comprehend how much of an impact she made on me that year.  

What if:

She'd ignored my signs of help?

She'd let me keep slipping by with awful grades?

She'd not listened to my side of the story?

She'd not given me a plan of action and kept me accountable?

Would I be the woman... no the teacher I am today?!

Thank you for spending your precious free time and own money to make your room and class a more engaging place for learning.

Thank you for pursuing higher ed and professional development because you want to be the best at your profession.
Thank you for giving that parent a positive phone call that makes their day because you praised their child.  
Thank you for sharing and working collaboratively with your coworkers to ensure all kids get a wonderful education.

Thank you for coming in when you're feeling under the weather sub plans are nearly rigorous or motivating as yours are.

Thank you for your joy and excitement that you bring to learning.
Thank you for loving each and every student... even the ones that ask for it in the most unloving ways.
Thank you for your hugs, high fives, and words of praise to kids who don't always get it at home.

Thank you for believing in all of your students... 

because you never know which of your students could grow up one day to be just like you!

Teachers Pay Teachers is thanking all teachers today, and I am too!  In my store, Ride Away With Mrs. Ridgway, items are 20% off, but even more exciting news you can save an extra 10% in any store when you type in the code HEROES at the check out.  

Make sure you take the time to thank your teacher hero!  Share your inspiration because teachers sometimes need to be reminded about just how wonderful they truly are.