October Currently

The year is going by so quickly! By the time my birthday comes around (7 October) I know that the year is almost done. So nuts! A new month means a new awesome template from Farley for Currently. Love them.

 

Listening - I came across the band Walk off the Earth when they did a cameo in a tv show called The Listener. Loved the music, so looked them up. My favourite song by them is this one:

Loving - It is Saturday night on the last weekend of the Spring school holidays. Only Sunday left, then back to work. I've had an awesome break, and I'll write a bit more about it in my (late) Five for Friday post.

Thinking - Term 4 is 11 weeks, which means I only have my preps for 11 more weeks. They have made huge progress this year, but there are still things I want to do with them. Term 4 also includes the school swimming program, report writing, and lots of Christmas/end of year stuff - it's a busy term!

Wanting - I went away these holidays and before I left I made sure I cleaned out the fridge (I was gone for 6 nights). I got home two days ago and I still haven't done the groceries. I have basically no food left in the house...

Needing - I am the report coordinator at school and I have a bit of work to do to get everything up and running for the other teachers to get their reports done. Lots of admin hours coming up.

Treat - It's my birthday on Tuesday so I'm going to put my entire TpT store on SALE! 20% off everything starting tomorrow (5th October), and ending on Wednesday 8th October. Grab a bargain!

Now, go link up with Farley! And read the other Currently posts.

Currently for September

Wow! It's September. The year has flown by. It's so lovely to see the Spring weather has arrived along with September. Today is beautiful and sunny!

Here is my Currently image to link up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade. I love the images she creates for the backgrounds of the Currently link-ups!

 

Listening - I couldn't decide what to listen to, so I've got all 1037 albums on shuffle (I can't figure out how to find out how many songs I've got...). It's awesome listening to some older songs that I wouldn't really think to play.

Loving - today's weather is just gorgeous. Beautiful blues skies.

Thinking - I'm going to Sydney with a friend during the school holidays. I'm so excited. The last time I was in Sydney was when I was 14 (13 years ago). Haven't booked anything yet, so better get onto it.

Wanting - At my school the teaching units are by grade levels - so the 5/6s are a unit, the 3/4s are a unit, the 1/2s are a unit and the preps are a unit. Only, I'm the only prep teacher. So I don't have other people to plan with, teach with or collaborate regularly with. I'm really missing that at the moment. The planning time that the 1/2s have together is when I have my students, so I can't even go and sit in on the their meetings.

Needing - We do lots of fun things during the week that I'd love to share, but I forget to take photos.

3 trips - There are so many places I've been that I'd like to visit again (like England, Sweden and Italy), but these are three places I've never been to. I've always wanted to go to Canada, probably based in part on how much Canadian TV I like, and I've got some extended family who live there. I've been to the North Island in New Zealand, but not the south. Again, I've got family there and I'd love to visit them. There are so many places in the US that I'd love to visit (San Fran, Chicago, New York, New Orleans, etc etc) that I've clumped them together. Ideally, I'd love to spend 6 months or so in the US on a road trip, but that's a far off dream.

Currently June

I'm linking up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade for the June Currently!

Listening: Winter is here. The heater is on and so is my electric blanket.
Loving: The long weekend has come at the perfect time - reports will be done (mostly) tomorrow and my formal assessment for this term is done!
Thinking: I'm the reports co-ordinator at my school which means I handle the computer set ups and the printing of reports. Tomorrow is our final print!! Very excited.
Wanting: Things have been very busy lately and I'm definitely going to enjoy the three day weekend.
Needing: This year will be the first time my school has run Student Led Conferences and I need to get my preps organised for it.
Summer Bucket List: Well, Winter Bucket List actually. Our holidays are three and a bit weeks away, but on the last Tuesday of this term I'm getting my wisdom teeth taken out!! So the start of my holidays will be all soup and sleep, and I'm moving back in with my mum for that week so I'll have lots of mum-support!! Love it.

Currently May

I'm linking to Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for her monthly Currently linkup. Currently for May...

To explain.
Listening: It is about 9 degrees celsius here tonight, so I have the heater on. And my electric blanket is warming up my bed for me. Winter is coming!
Loving: I have the end of a cold, and it was a huge week at work this week, so a sleep in tomorrow sounds amazing.
Thinking: I am the reports coordinator for my school, and reports are due in about 6 weeks, so I have report writing on the brain.
Wanting: This year my school is starting Student Led Conferences. I have never done one before. I've been reading all of the blog posts I can find on the topic, but other tips would be amazing!
Needing: I have had a present sitting on my desk for about two months waiting to be posted to a very good friend of mine who lives in England. I've known her for 14 years!!
Surprise: I just connected up with Lauren Kuhn of Love, Laughter, and Learning in Prep  on Instagram after reading her blog for ages. I love her Stirring Up Fun! product on TpT. It's free and it has recipes for different sensory concoctions - awesome!

Thanks, Farley, for an awesome linkup!!

Whoops, March went by quickly!

Boy, did March speed on by! We finished off Term 1 and I'm now on two weeks of holidays - fantastic. I thought I'd play catch-up by doing a Currently, Five for Friday and general update type of post all at the same time. And on my To Do list for these holidays is to post a bit more and maybe start a Facebook page to go with this blog. I'm heaps better at posting to Instagram than I am posting on the Blog, so if you like some of the stuff I put on the blog then you should also follow me on Instagram!

Currently - linked up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade

 My neighbours are quite close to me and today I can hear them banging around in the kitchen as they cook something that smells delicious - jealous!
I'm an Australian teacher, so we have just finished Term 1, and now have two weeks of holidays!
One of my best girlfriends, who I've been friends with for fourteen years, lives in the UK at the moment and she sent me a very sweet parcel this week. I miss her.
I have heaps on my holiday To Do list, including things related to work, home and blogging/TpT.
New week grocery shop needs to happen soon - the fridge/cupboard are very bare.
These are my work hours generally. The kids come 9-3.30pm. We finish up on the Friday before Christmas.

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To celebrate the Very Hungry Caterpillars 45th Anniversary, I organised for a whole school art project at a lunchtime event, giving all students and teachers the opportunity to add a piece of artwork to a canvas. My mum stenciled the Very Hungry Caterpillar across eight canvases, then the school used Posca paint textas to add something that you would find in the garden with a caterpillar. Here is our final piece!!

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When we learned the letter Oo a couple of weeks ago my students made this awesome Ocean mural.

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I had a student teacher for the past two weeks. He was the first student teacher I've had who actually had to teach. And it was eye-opening and awesome for me! It really made me reflect on what I do, how I do it and why I do it. I had to coach him in behaviour management and lesson planning, which really made my think about how I do it. I also learned a lot about my class by being able to just watch them doing their work, while someone else managed the activity. I was really careful to give my student teacher lots of space to teach and manage the class. I remember that it was often frustrating when the supervising teacher stepped in over and over again; it felt like they didn't trust you. So I sat at my desk, kept an eye on things, and got some assessment done. Win win!

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I finished reading Veronica Roth's Divergent series last week - love it!! Now I'm reading Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. I haven't seen the movie yet, so I thought I'd read the book during my holidays, then see the movie when it's available. I'm really enjoying the book so far.

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The last week of term was a bit strange this year because Easter falls on the last weekend of our holidays, so it felt weird doing Easter activities knowing that Easter was still two weeks away. But we did a little bit anyway. My school had an Easter Had Parade (love the effort our families put into it!!) and on the last day my class spent two hours working on an Easter Booklet of fun activities (just things I found online). It was a nice way to wind down on the last day of term.

Phew, this is a big post!! I'm planning to post a few things about my classroom/teaching etc. It's nice to share what you do in the classroom with other people.

Time to catch up and Five for Friday and March Currently

I haven't blogged in a very long time. It was week three the last time I blogged, and we are about to go in to week 7 this week!! Phew, the time has flown. I have had a few new roles at school which I've been getting my head around, and I've been sick which is absolutely no fun. But I'm back, and I'm going to keep on trying to post more often! Starting with a link-up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.

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After I have taught a few letters we have a week of revision, and that week was last week. We revised six letters (s m a t p c). I decided to really push my term 1 preps during the revision week to see what they could do - and I was really impressed! They had to sort images by initial sounds, draw pictures of things starting with the sounds we have learnt, practiced their handwriting of the six letters, and (the hardest of all) identify and record the initial sound for different words. This is the one that stumped quite a few of them, which I knew it would, but some of my preps totally blew me away! They were doing exactly what I had taught them to do: say the word, say it slowly, listen to the sound, check which letter makes that sound, record what you hear. It was so exciting!!

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I had my first sick day this week, and I didn't give my class any warning about it. But they were totally fine!! We talked about it the day after and they told me what they did while I was away, and we talked about what they had learned. It was a relief to see that my preppies are settled enough that a surprise CRT (sub teacher) day was totally fine.

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My sister has started selling Arbonne products, and she gave me a mini makeover today. It was fun, and I looked pretty! Haha... I'm the sort of person who slaps on a bit of tinted moisturiser and a hint of mascara and heads out the door. So I was a bit more girly for a change!

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I am currently obsessed with two TV shows. The Block (Australian renovation show) and Bitten (Canadian werewolves). Love them both! And room reveals are on tonight for The Block!

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I am also obsessed with a book trilogy. Yep, I am finally on the bandwagon of loving Divergent by Veronica Roth. I read Divergent in three days, and am now on to Insurgent. Love it!!

And here is my March Currently from Oh' Boy 4th Grade.

Here is my new phone case. It is an image from my favourite book The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. If you haven't read the book you should!! This picture is shown without the detail of the elephant draw initially and it looks like a hat, but once the details are filled in you can see that it is a snake that has eaten an elephant. It is all about perspective and having the right information. I love it!!

Currently for February

This is my first time linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her Currently link-up.

Listening: It is about 35 degrees Celsius where I live in Victoria, Australia today. I spent the morning hanging out with my mum at the cinema, but now I'm at home with the air-con on.
Loving: One of my favourite things about being a teacher is getting to know a new class of students!
Thinking: I have a very long list of "to-do's".
Wanting: I much prefer to rug up in the cooler weather, than have to try to stay cool when it's hot.
Needing: I have a few new subjects this year and I still haven't made the new visual timetable cards for them; it's on my to-do list.
Truths: You can probably guess by now that I don't like hot weather. And I am most definitely a newbie blogger.
Fib: I hate olives! Yuck!!

I have nearly finished next week's planner. Mine isn't a fancy visual planner, but it has all of the info on it that I need. Here is what Reading looks like this week:

It is very text heavy, and I think I need to look at how I can make it simpler. But that's a project for a different day.

Have a great week!!