A Walk Down Memory Lane

 

  

We were so excited when we go back from the Spring Teacher Blogger Meetup, that we blogged about our trip right away!  We are newbies to the blogging world, and we didn’t realize a linky party was coming up about the meetup!  We kept hearing everyone say something about a linky party, so we had to Google to figure out what exactly it was!  Yes, that’s how new we are to this.  So if you want to check out all the exciting things we did and learned while at the Spring Teacher Blogger Meetup, then click on the picture below read all about it! 

Did you see all of our teacher swag we got while we were there???  I mean it was unbelievable at the amount of give-a-ways and door prizes that were given!  If you want a chance to win the teacher swag, then click on the picture below to enter the drawing!  

This will take you to a blog with the Rafflecopter drawing at the bottom of her post.  

Again, we are newbies, and we don't have a clue how to do this Rafflecopter thing!   
I see lots of YouTube and Google in our future! Blogging is definitely a learning process!

As we have said over and over again, the most important thing we left French Lick, IN with is friendships!  It was truly astonishing at how welcomed we were by other teachers.  It was definitely an experience we will never forget!

Check out the links below from all of the AWESOME teachers who were also at the Spring Teacher Blogger Meetup!  

Two Hoots and a Holler

Hoot #1

This week we finally topped 200 likes on our Facebook page.  This means the world to us!  Our goal is to collaborate with and help out as many people as we can, and we are off to a great start! 

Hoot #2

Today we survived our field trip to the Orpheum Theater of Memphis!  We headed off with 125 kindergarteners (6 kindergarten classes)  to downtown Memphis to see a play called “Feet Don’t Fail Me Now”.  If you ever come to Memphis, you must go see the Orpheum!  It is gorgeous, and we are so grateful that we could give our children the opportunity to have the “Orpheum Experience”!

This Week’s Holler

This week we would like to recognize the girls from All Ya’llNeed, Amy and Lisa…we missed out on meeting the 3^rd partner from this blog.  While we were at the Spring Teacher Blogger Meetup, these two girls helped us out so much!  We are very glad we got to meet them!!  Also, their blog is AWESOME!  If you haven’t checked it out, then you should hop on over to see all of the great ideas! 

 

*Fonts used in this blog post are by KB Fonts

Teacher Tool Swap Gifts

We are so excited to share with you the gifts we received at the Spring Teacher Blogger Meetup!  We have to say that the Teacher Tool Swap was a great idea!  There were a lot of cool things that were swapped, and there were a lot of things that we never even knew existed! (ex: Scentos Dry Erase Markers, Frixion Erasable Pens, Scentos Marker Holder, Etc.)  We are excited to see and learn about everyone's gift! 

At the Teach Tool Swap I ended up with Mr. Greg's, from The Kindergarten Smorgasboard, favorite teacher tool.  I was so excited when I opened it up to find not one, but FOUR of his infamous GLUE SPONGES!!!  As soon as I got back to school on Monday, I showed my kiddos my prize.  They could hardly wait to get to work just so they could use their new glue sponges!  If you  have never heard of glue sponges or want to know how to make them, then click on the picture below to go to his blog post on how to make them.

Thanks Mr. Greg!!  Ms. Jodi's Rockstars think your glue sponges ROCK!

I suggest making just a few to allow students to learn how to share.  I have 24 students and 4 glue sponges, they share these so well.  Now I hear the best manners coming from my Rockstars when they are gluing just because they don't want to miss out on using the glue sponges.  I do plan on making more, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.  

At the Teach Tool Swap, I landed Mrs. Suzanne's, from Mrs. St. Johns Small Wonders, teaching tool!  It was a group of six plastic containers to  put by my tables to collect the never ending trash that students create.  My students have truly enjoyed having their own can for their group!  Thank you, Mrs. Suzanne, Ms. Jamie's Jitterbugs love their gift!

An InLinkz Link-up

Two Hoots and a Holler

On the long drive home from French Lick, IN, we were discussing our blog and what all we needed to do when we got home.  So, Jamie started naming stuff off and Jodi whipped out her paper and pen…and What do ya know?  By the time we entered Arkansas our list was made!  One thing we have decided to do is “Two Hoots and a Holler” on our blog every week.  “Two Hoots and a Holler” will come out on Thursdays.  It will highlight two special moments in our week and give a special shout out to someone who has done something spectacular!   We are so pumped and excited about everything we learned this weekend at the Spring Teacher Blogger Meetup!  Neither one of us could hardly sleep from all of the excitement!  We both were so ready to blog, but we needed to let it all sink in before we could even begin!  This weekend was SO amazing, there is NO WAY we can give only 2 hoots and 1 holler, and there is NO WAY we can wait until Thursday!   

This week’s 2 hoots:

1.   We are in a desperate search for this little doohickey thing called a “Selfie Stick” that connects to your phone by Bluetooth!  We looked at every truck stop on our way home.  Every blogger needs one of these!  Thanks to Greg at The KindergartenSmorgasboard for the photography tip!

Check out this pic taken with the Selfie Stick! 

2.  We made so many new friends!  We are grateful for all of the love and laughter that was shared this weekend.

And a holler…(no way to narrow it down to one, its a long list!

Just a few of the GREAT friends we made!

First off, let us say how awesome Holly Ehle and Brittany Banister are for getting everything organized!  The creativity, and passion they have for teaching, sharing with other teachers, and blogging definitely showed at this meetup.  Words cannot express how grateful we are to you both.  Every teacher there was a great inspiration to us, and every one of you were so encouraging.  We were welcomed by everyone with open arms.  We are very new to the blogging scene.  We have never explored this side of our teaching career, and we were not sure what to expect.  The only thing we had to compare this to was conferences and professional development courses.  It was SO different from that!  It was SO much MORE than we could have ever imagined!  It was SO extraordinary to see over 100 teachers together and truly collaborating!  It was AWESOME to say the least!  Not only did we get to meet a lot of great teachers, we actually made friends with them and hung out swapping ideas and sharing stories.  And the GIVEAWAYS!!!  OH MY!!!  It was unbelievable at the amount of support given by Erin Condren, GoNoodle, Scentos, Creative Teaching Press, Lakeshore Learning, Teachers Pay Teachers, Scentsy, Younique, Vera Bradley, Tallahassee Sunday, ESGI Software, BrainPop, HUE (document cameras), School Girl Style, Seat Sack Company….hope I didn’t leave anyone out, there were SO MANY supporters!! 

Here is all of our Teacher Swag we got this weekend from all of the amazing sponsors!

We could just go on and on about this weekend! The things we learned this weekend from the meetup were right on spot.  If you EVER get a chance to go to a teacher blogger meetup, we highly recommend going!

Spring Blogger Meetup

We are so excited to be a part of the 2nd annual Spring Blogger Meetup in French Lick, Indiana this weekend. We will be surrounded by tons of teachers who have inspired us and encouraged us along our teaching journey! What an honor!!! We might be a little "star struck" when we meet them because we look up to them sooooo much!! And to be able to ask them questions, learn from them, and hopefully inspire others is more than we could have ever imagined!! This is a huge step for the Glitter Girls!! We are truly blessed to take part in this opportunity.  This is definitely our year to advance and sparkle!

Oh and another little tid bit of interesting info....the French Lick Hotel we are staying at is famous because it is said to be haunted!! This could make for an exciting pajama party!! If you know Jodi, she loves to pull pranks and joke around....never know what she will have up her sleeve this weekend!! HA! HA! HA!

If you aren't able to attend this year, then no worries...social media will be blowing up with all of the highlights!  Follow all the events on blogs, instagram, and Facebook.
#sparkle #advance #springteacherbloggermeetup2015

It's finally done!!  Whew!  I never really thought creating units would be easy, but I really thought that it would not be this hard!  It has gotten easier, and I am hoping it gets easier the more units we create.  I just feel like we are missing something!  Is there a secret out there that we don't know about?  How does everyone else seem to complete their units so quickly?  Please share any and all information you may have!!  We are just starting out, and I know it is all a learning experience.  So with all of that being said, go check out our spring unit on our TPT store!  Thanks for all of the continued support, patience, and help from everyone!