Five for Friday August 7

Hi everyone!
What a busy week! I'm here to check in with the Five for Friday link party! I love this link party because it's simple enough for me to participate and it motivates me to actually make a post!

Sometimes I think about writing a post so much that I think that I wrote it... but then I actually don't. Does anyone else do that?!
Anyway, here are my five things for this week!

1. Periscope
I finally mustered the courage to do my first periscope today. My stomach is still fluttery from it. It actually wasn't so bad, but I know I totally forgot to introduce myself and to tell people where they can contact me if they have more comments from the replay... AND my broadcast wouldn't end even though I pushed the button 100 times. I actually had to just turn my phone off to make it stop. SHEESH. I think I could do more though. I really want to use it to share how I do things in my classroom. Sometimes it's so much easier to just show you than try to write it out in a blog post or with pictures. Maybe I'll even #flipthecamera... though I feel like the selfie camera angle makes me look 1000x worse than a regular camera for some reason. Anyone else feel that way? I feel like I need a phone stand that's like 2 feet above my head or something. I also have a giant Note 4 and selfie angle is just so awkward, and if I'm reading comments it looks like I'm looking down at your feet.
I'm still so shocked that 45 friends were watching my periscope live. Thank you if you were part of it, and thank you if you saw the replay, and thank you if you shared it with friends. Getting those little hearts on the screen really makes my real heart happy :)

2. Closets
I went to school every day this week. I know I probably should enjoy my summer a bit more, but I'm super eager to clean out my closets. I spent a few days just taking things out, throwing things away, and putting things in a donate pile. I was so proud of myself that I actually got rid of things! I am so guilty of constantly thinking "what if I need this someday?!" Here are a few pictures of the finished closets!

This is my teacher mentor text closet. After redoing my classroom library, I wanted a safe place to keep all of my mentor texts. I made spiffy new labels for them (you may find them in my TpT store at some point soon) and made sure most of the boxes were the same. Some of my old labels are taped on really well with shipping tape... and I couldn't change out the bins, but overall they're all the same, yay! (OCD)

This is my craft supply closet. It still looks a bit messy, but it's so much better than it was. I pulled out tons of junk I'll never used and reorganized the playdoh tools. I also gave felt its own box. I'm also seeing that I'm missing 2 labels on my shoeboxes... ¬_¬

This one totally doesn't look that great, but again it's way better than it was. The big blue and clear bags I use to store all of my bulletin board stuffs. I have a different bag for each subject area and I just slip things into there. I switch out a few of my bulletin boards based on the season, so it's nice to have easy access to my scarecrows in the fall and snowmen in the winter. I cleaned out a bunch of old games I had collected from various garage sales and freebies on the staff table... some of them were so old and outdated, and I knew I would never use them. I keep my pocket charts in the big bin on the bottom. The file crate holds all my little bulletin board accents and things like my library labels and other small decor/organization things. It's getting pretty full :(
I have one more closet to do... the dreaded... MATH CLOSET! It's a hot mess, fo real. I'll have to take a before and after picture when I do it! Stay tuned!

3. It's Worth It Box
Ever since I saw Miss DeCarbo's periscope about her "It's Worth It" box (you can read more about it on her blog, here), I've wanted to make one of my own. I love the idea of having a safe place to keep all those little notes and love letters from kids and parents. I also liked the idea of having a cute little box in my room. I found a great treasure chest at Ross! I can't wait to start filling it with all my goodies I have at school.

So cute, right? I couldn't resist.

4. Costco Rugs
During my periscope today, I shared my classroom library rug. It's from Costco and it was $15. Yes. $15 for a cute and colorful classroom rug! You can't beat that! I was at Costco today and they still have them:

They come in different fun prints:

I have the space one because I love outerspace!

If you're looking for a fun way to add some color to your space, try a fun rug!! :)

5. Good feelings and Inspiration
This last week I've been spending lots of time watching periscopes, and I feel like the theme for this week was a mixture of Just Do It and Be Happy Doing It and Spread the Love. I love watching Sheila Jane Teaching. She is so spunky and motivating and inspirational and funny. One of the first scopes I watched from her was when she was going through her old Little Mermaid backpack. I love picturing Sheila Jane with her pink Ariel hat on ;) Leave me a comment if you love Sheila Jane too!! If you don't follow her, you should! I also love watching Angie and Ashley! Angie's scope about being embarrassed about being a teacher blogger or periscoper really spoke to me. I'm totally the type of person that will run and hide if I see someone I know at the grocery store. I'm intimidated by the thought of someone I know reading my blog or watching a periscope, or following my instagram. Watching all of these teacher periscopers talk about feeling the same way really helped motivate me and inspire me. We're all doing this to help each other. We shouldn't let people shame us for working hard and really caring about what we do! Teachers unite!

Sorry if I rambled on! I'm trying to get this post in before it's not Friday anymore, ha! If you happened to see my Periscope today, please feel free to message me any questions or comments you have! My social media contacts are on the right sidebar.
Thanks for reading and sticking with me!

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on your 1st periscope! I bet it went great, but I know how scary it feels! I have yet to delve into that world. :)

    Good luck with all things Back to School!
    -Liz
    TheHappyTeacher

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    1. Thanks, Liz! I loved reading your post too, those banners from Target are awesome!!!!

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  2. Love it! I'm hitting up costco!

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  3. Hi Kaia!

    Just doing a little blog stalking on this Monday evening! I absolutely LOVE Sheila Jane. When I first saw her on Periscope I thought she was just over the top, but after a few more of her scopes I was hooked, lol! So glad we've connected:) Remember you can always delete your broadcast if you don't like it, you could also do a practice one using facetime or something (I've done that).
    -Amanda
    School Days Simplified

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