Thankful

Well thanksgiving is over...I'm sure I have 5 lbs or so to be thankful for :/

But on the bright side my ROAT gifts were a success!! RAOT you may ask...what's that?? Well I had been seeing so many people doing RAOK or Random Acts Of Kindness where they do random kind acts for people. One friend does this in celebration of her birthday. So my brain started turning and instead of doing the usual "days of thanks" that people post on their facebook or blog I decided to do RAOT or Random Acts Of Thanks.

 I found this awesome idea for everything in a jar on pinterest. I thought this was a perfect thanks for the people in my life who do so much for me!! 

Of course I had to tweak the idea a bit...but the result was AMAZING!!

I only did 4 jars and I did find out that after gathering all my items the jars were a little small =o but they were still cute!!

I did energy in a jar:

~white chocolate energy bar

~Taster's choice instant coffee

~Hershey's white chocolate hot cocoa

~Hershey's peppermint kisses

I also did pampering in a jar:

~Cocoa butter moisturizing lotion

~Vanilla bean body spray

~Blistex lip balm

~Cozy socks

~Hershey's peppermint kisses

Both of these jars fit the 4 people I wanted to thank the most!! The two energy in the jars were for my best friend Tara and my teacher's aide Patty. Tara goes and does everything in the school just like me. She is always there to listen and help me out whenever I need it in spite of all the work she has to do. And Patty certainly needs the energy because she is always there by my side helping me manage two grades!! The other two jars went to my best friend Lauren and the superintendent's secretary Paula. Paula has been there for me since I got the job. She always has a friendly smile on her face and lets me come into her office and vent my problems (and steal her candy :). Lauren is just the most giving person I've ever met. She's always willing to give her time and energy to help me out with anything. These two ladies deserved the extra pampering!!

All the ladies loved the jars and of course said I didn't have to...and I know that is why its fun. Giving thanks was never more fun!!

Now that Thanksgiving is over I'm looking forward to the next 3 weeks before Christmas even though they will be CRAZY busy!! I'm working hard to better prepare my lesson plans with fun interactive ideas and activities. So of course I'm pinterest surfing ;) and I found an awesome site!!

This idea for readers notebooks is exactly what I need. I'm now a faithful follower and probably a shopper at her store :) All in the name of becoming a better teacher!!

So I better stop blogging and get back to planning!!

YUM-EEE!!!

Ok I'm not much in the kitchen but my latest addiction to has inspired me to try more in the kitchen. And today's venture was definitely a winner winner chicken dinner!!! I made BBQ-Beer Chicken.

 

Sound delish?? It is I'm full of it right now :)

And it was soooo easy!!! I used a bag of frozen chicken (approx 3lbs), a bottle of Jack Daniels BBQ Sauce and a 12 oz can of beer. 

 

You could probably use your favorite BBQ sauce and beer. I used a keystone (cringe) it was the only beer left in the fridge.

Anyway I put all the ingredients in the crockpot and let it cook for about 4 hours. I put the chicken in frozen (I love LOVE this because I'm always forgetting to defrost :P). I also added some garlic powder and cayenne pepper. (Next time I think I might season it more...I'm a spicy girl ;)

After the chicken was cooked I removed each breast and shredded them, then added them back to the sauce.

 I let the shredded chicken soak for another couple of hours. Then I was stumped on how to eat it. I knew I could do the traditional chicken but I wanted something different. So I decided to back a potato and add it with a little cheese on top.

Talk about YUM-EEEEE!!!

I poured the extra sauce on top and OMG it was uh-MAZ-ing!!! I even baked a few more potatoes and shared with my friend and her daughters. She LOVED it (I think mostly because she didn't have to cook).

 

I'm totally proud of my first cooking venture and it will definitely be a repeat dish at my house!!

tweetering....ahem twittering

So I am bouncing back with a vengeance. I have completely thrown myself into 5th & 6th grade. It hasn't been easy trust me!!! Balancing both grades is a definite work-out for the brain but I'm getting back into the groove and LOVING it!

So yesterday, I found the coolest post on pinterest about twitter in the classroom. I really liked the idea and couldn't wait to see the what's and why's of how the teacher was using it. I was a little bummed to find there wasn't much, but the more the idea sat in my head the more I liked it. 

I don't know how many 11 & 12 year olds you been around but they like to talk an give you all kinds of random information. So of course a twitter board seemed like the perfect place for them to get it all out! Plus, I talked to them about social media and the responsibility that comes with it. The world is changing and I want them to understand all the new advances out there and how to use them the right way. 

So I "borrowed" ;) some sentence strips from my old classroom and had each child make up a username on the top corner. Then I laminated them and posted them on my cabinet (which was the only available space for all of them)

Of course I made up a "terms of usage" that everyone had to sign before they could start "tweeting". Because they were warned that using the board for negative purposes would result in losing their twitter account. After all the terms were signed we were up and running for tweeting....

I'm still not sure all of them 100% understand what it is because they kept calling it the tweetering board lol....but they couldn't wait to get started and were having a good time posting :)