Moving Day

It’s here, it’s here! Moving day has finally arrived! With a flood of emotions and building anticipation I can’t believe it is finally moving day. There is so much to look forward to. New places to discover, foods to try, and languages to learn. Even better, I will get the chance to experience some of these new things with my family as they travel with me for my first week in Barcelona. While it’s a bit nerve wracking, I am thrilled to be living out a life long dream of living abroad. Besides the excitement of day to day life […]

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Pack Your Patience

In order to move you need to have an endless supply of patience. You need it to stand in endless lines, while working through confusing paperwork, waiting for responses, waiting until it’s time to complete the next step in the process, and most importantly patience with yourself as you navigate uncharted waters. Luckily I have had the best support a girl could ask for though the whole process. In fact, I can’t begin to imagine anyone who chooses to move to another country totally on their own with no one there to guide and answer a thousand questions. My school […]

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New Adventures in Barcelona, Spain

This has been years in the making. Anyone who knows me has without a doubt at one time or another heard me prattle on about how one day I wanted to live abroad. It’s one thing to talk and dream about one day strolling cobblestone streets everyday heading to a local coffee shop in a quaint European town, it’s quite another thing to actually do something about it. But here I am, doing something about it. I still can’t quite believe I will be moving this August to Barcelona, Spain to teach at the American School of Barcelona. I will […]

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Summer Classroom Furniture Finds

I know it is still July and I should be lounging around, thinking about anything but school, but this is when I get most excited about school. With the summer ahead of me I have time for new classroom projects, researching new ideas and scouring Pinterest and Instagram for inspiration for next year. First project of the summer was transforming three discarded book shelves from dingy, sad, hand printed shelves into a teal dream. A little wash and paint goes a long way. I can’t believe my luck that my mum came across these beauties for free at her school. […]

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Travel and STEM Lessons

Traveling sparks inspiration for classroom lessons long after my suitcases are put away and pictures have been posted on Instagram. Sometimes the ideas come as I begin to investigate new curriculum. Other times it is a comment from a student that reminds me of somewhere I have been. Or sometimes it is just a connection to a story we are reading. But if I’m being honest, recently my inspiration has been spurred on each time someone discovers one of my products on TeachersPayTeachers. There is something exciting when another teacher (ones I don’t even know!) think lessons I have created […]

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Searching for Matter One Country At A Time 

Another year, another chance to show students the world. I am lucky our social studies curriculum is the seven continents so intergrating pictures from my travels is practically a must do!  This year I have taken the opportunity to weave in travel with science as I cover matter. Last year I made an iMovie on states of matter around the world as a model for students. This year I am adding to that through introductory lessons on solid, liquid and gas with PowerPoints. Each PowerPoint focuses on one state of matter and asks students to identify examples of that state […]

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Teach Like Finland: My Summer Pick for PD Reading 

Summer is right around the corner. Exactly one week from today in fact, summer will officially start for me. And while it will be hard to pry myself from my classroom and promise not to return until at least the end of July, I am looking forward to several big events and lots of recharging for another year. One thing summer means to me is more time for reading. I have a stack of fun read books along with several “teacher” books I am looking to tackle. All I need now is the time to actually read them. Top on […]

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Flexible Seating Update

Well, it has been almost a full school year with flexible seating and wow, what a difference! As with anything I have made changes and tweaked things along the way to make the seating work best for our classroom. It has been interesting to see what seats students gravitate toward, and how different seats are popular for different activities. Here are a few things I have learned using flexible seating this year. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having different options for students. More options for seating means more happy students. I truly believe students are better able to focus and get […]

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Explore North America

To kick off our continent exploration unit students first got set up with some papers and a place to store them. Just like for Holidays Around the World from December, I gave students a manila folder so they could decorate it and use it for storage. Stowed inside to start were a blank world map and reading packet. With those things situated we were ready to begin! Love the look of this resource? Check out my blog post Seven Continent Exploration for a link to the TpT store where I found it. I thought it would be best to start with the continent […]

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Sagrada Familía- Classroom Connection 

Happy Friday! Before we jump into another weekend I thought I’d share a fun travel teachable moment from this week in my classroom. I could not have asked for a better connection to my recent trip to Spain. This past weekend in the Sunday Boston Globe, there was an article in the travel section about La Sagrada Familía. Thanks to my mum and dad (who still reads a print paper these days?!) I was made aware of this perfect connection to my recent trip to Spain. Thanks mum! Big color pictures of the famous basilica and a short article filled an […]

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