Must-Have Monday

Everyone loves a good link-up! And, I'm no exception! I'm excited for this week's link-up from the ladies at Freebielicious. Each day brings a new theme with their link-up. How fun!

I hate to admit it, but I am fairly high-maintenance picky neurotic particular about certain things in life. And, the items in my must-have list are definitely among them.

So, what are my teacher must-haves? 

Let's face it: everything in this picture is definitely a luxury and not a necessity. BUT, without them, say goodbye to Miss Fancy Pants and say hellooooo to Miss Grumpy Pants!

Coke in a Styrofoam Cup

Remember that particular thing we discussed? Well, here you go, folks: Exhibit A in the case of my neurotic tendencies. I am very discriminatory when it comes to beverages. If I ask for a Coke, and your answer is, "Is Pepsi okay?" -- the answer is always a resounding, "No, Pepsi is not okay." Yikes. Anyway -- my top must-have is a Coke Zero with a splash of Cherry Coke in a styrofoam cup. I wish I was kidding about my drink order. But, I am not. 

Lucky for me, the gas station closest to school offers a punch card. Every seventh drink is free. Yippee! That's a DEAL! (can you hear my eyes rolling?)

Wireless Mouse

I love my Logitech wireless mouse. The first thing to love is that it doesn't cause any unsavory cords hanging out on your desk. The best thing, though, is that I can carry this bad boy around the classroom with me as we discuss anything on the projection screen. I love using Everyday Math's eTools feature, which allows me to use virtual manipulatives for the whole class to work with together. I can do this from anywhere in the room, thanks to my trusty wireless friend. The engagement factor goes through the roof when I hand off my wireless mouse to a student to control. 

There's an On-Off switch, so the battery doesn't die as quickly. But, truthfully, I forget to switch mine to Off most nights, and the battery still lasts an incredibly long time - several months. You can find these just about anywhere: Target, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc. The one pictured happens to be from Target. They usually run between $10-$20. 

Teacher-Only Writing Utensils

Most of my classroom's components are there solely because they make our learning environment better for the students. But, there is one cup of materials that is off-limits to my six-year-old friends: my teacher-only writing utensils. I will very, very, very, very rarely ever accept writing with anything but these three things: 

1. Sharpie Pens

2. Flair Pens

3. Papermate Sharpwriter Pencils

What are YOUR teacher must-haves? Link up or check out other teachers' must-haves here! 

#PeriscopeTeachers - Scope it Out!

Hi, friends!

I've spent my day sharing and learning at my district's educational technology conference. I cannot wait to share with you my presentation, as well as fantastic ideas and resources that I learned from others. I will have to save all of that goodness for another time, though.

TODAY, I'm thrilled to share with you an upcoming #periscopeteachers opportunity! I was at dinner with my best gal Whitney from The Crazy Schoolteacher, and we were raving about Periscope! We are absolutely loving it. I have to be honest with you and tell you how refreshing it is to see real teachers with real lives: no makeup, messy houses, crazy hair and all!

We took advantage of both of us being in the same zip code and broadcasted our first Periscope together! We had a BLAST. Here's the obligatory selfie that followed:

Well, from our conversation stemmed a fabulous idea to host a Periscope challenge each week. We want teachers to share about the everyday essentials in their classrooms. Every Tuesday, we'll share the topic for the week, and we'll also broadcast about that topic. Then, we're asking YOU to broadcast about that topic, too! Fun, huh? Yes. The answer is YES, it's fun!

We're calling this challenge Scope it Out. Shoutout to Jenny from Luckeyfrog's Lilypad for helping us with a catchy name!

The first topic will start July 27. That means that if you haven't figured out Periscope yet, you have 12 days to play! I promise you won't be disappointed. To stay up-to-date with the fun, make sure you follow both Whitney and I on...

PERISCOPE  

& INSTAGRAM!

@missfancypantsteaching

@thecrazyschoolteacher

While you're playing on Periscope, check out Sheila Jane Teaching's fantastic Periscope link-up! She has a collection of phenomenal educators to check out on Periscope! 

That's all from me for now! I cannot wait to see all of your Periscopes each week!

Five for Friday

Well, well, well - here we are again! Fridays have a lot less appeal in the summer than they do during the school year. I've come to the very real truth about how quickly my summer is dwindling. There is still so much to do! Oh, jeez.

To calm myself down, here's a quick look back at my week! I'll remind myself how much fun I've had this summer and that all of that school business will be there waiting when I'm ready to tackle it.

I started the week with a dinner hosted by four of my loveliest friends. We celebrated my birthday a few days early because of travel schedules and whatnot. If it's my birthday, you can be certain that there were chips and salsa, as well as Minion balloons involved. And, of course, the cupcakes weren't anything to complain about - seriously, pink lemonade cupcake. Yes, please. 

Speaking of Minions - their new movie was released today! So, naturally, like every soon-to-be-27-year-old, I just haaaaaad to see it the night before for its opening! What could be better? In this movie, my very favorite yellow friends are in England. Yes, Minions in London. Uh, hello.

Here's our creepy back of the dark movie theater selfie! 

I've tried really hard this summer to tend to Kristen's needs, rather than Miss Cannady's needs (let's face it, if you're a teacher, you have at least two personas: you and you as a teacher - I sometimes have a difficult time separating the two!). Anyway, I've been cleaning and organizing every corner of my apartment. A couple of weeks ago, I successfully cleared out and sorted my pantry. But, the labels I wanted for my spices were at school, and I kept forgetting to grab them whenever I was there. Well, this week, I finally remembered! Yay! I'm very pleased with how they turned out. I'm convinced that a KG font and a mason jar can fix most of the world's problems. 

Nordstrom's Anniversary Sale started. 

You know what? Nevermind. Let's not talk about it.

And, with all of the #tptvegas15 and #teachersNOTinvegas and #fomo action happening this week, I totally jumped on the Periscope bandwagon. Okay, friends - I'm in love. My head is spinning with ideas for the classroom! Seriously - so excited. The possibilities are endless. Ice cream social! Meet the Teacher! Pen pals! Book buddies! Science experiments! Recess fun! Oh, my heavens - what an exciting new tool for teachers. Yay! 

This is my "professional" account - I plan to keep my classroom account separate and more protected in terms of viewers. You know - safety first :) 

I am sure that I will have a lot of posts throughout the school year about this! Stay tuned! 

How was your week? Link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching and let us know!