Good Copy Song

I'm a little obsessed with all things Taylor Swift at the moment, so with writing the Punctuating Song, thought I'd take a stab at turning a Taylor Swift fav into a song about writing.  I love it, and have been singing it all weekend, can't wait to teach the kiddos tomorrow!

Here are the lyrics:

Here is a link to the original video, I found it easier to listen to Taylor singing in the background when I started learning it:

And here is a karaoke version to use in the classroom:

Here is the link to download my song lyrics for "Good Copy":

Good Copy lyrics

Punc-tu-a-ting! Song

Soooo I've been doing some YouTube stalking of The Ron Clark Academy lately, and combine that with reading Kim Bearden's book, "Crash Course", and following every one of their teachers on Instagram, watching Hope, Adam and Kim's Periscopes and watching The Ron Clark Story, I guess you could say I'm a little obsessed ;)

And with all the inspiration I decided to try my hand at song writing - partly because I was on Pinterest looking up teaching punctuation ideas, and came across this cute Australian video called punctuation with kung fu fighting.  Now, I immediately thought of the song and went - "Hold up - that would totally work!" They were getting these tiny people to punch the air for full stops and so on, but I knew I could make it into a song.

So I copied the lyrics into PowerPoint, and inserted a text box to the right of it and as I listened to the song on YouTube, I started to play around with the lyrics until they reflected what I've been trying to teach my 2nd graders.  I know, there are always kids who will NEVER remember periods - it's the bane of every teacher's existence - I used to joke I was going to get one hand tattooed with "Capitals" and the other with "Periods" so I could just hold up my hands.  But it's still early in the year, and any effort is worth a shot.

So anywho, here are my lyrics:

Here is the video with lyrics and vocals to get a sense of how to sing it:

And here is a karaoke version, which is what I will use in class to sing along to:

To download my lyrics click here:

Punc-tu-a-ting! Song

Ahhhh!!! New Job

Ok, so first - I have decided I want to blog this year.  I know, I know - I said this when I started the blog, then I skipped a whole school year (2013/2014).  But I have an excuse - (don't I always?) - last school year I wasn't teaching.  Partly because I wanted a break, (I figured most female teachers my age where taking maternity leave and since THAT wasn't happening...), partly because I wanted to come back to the island, and partly because my dad had cancer (Cancer free now!) and partly because I'm just to lazy to work too hard at getting a teaching job.

So, last year I worked at a high school as an aide in the Special Ed department, which was pretty cool.  Except the money was much, much smaller than what I was making as a teacher, so I had to supplement by tutoring high school students after school for hours.  So here I thought it would be a year "off", and it ended up taking more of my time than teaching five grades at once did.  Sigh.

This year, I was determined to go back to teaching.  So I applied.  And I applied.  And I applied.  I even interviewed.  Then I turned down jobs. "WHAT???" you ask?  Well, I thought I would be offered better ones.  And ones with more pay.  I don't plan on working 2 jobs this year.  Of course the teacher strike in the public school system didn't help with finding a job.

And wouldn't you know it, but Friday, five days ago, I was hired.  HALLELUJAH!!!!!  Of course, it was August 22nd, and school starts September 2nd.  Not a lot of time.

So Friday, to get ready, I shopped.  What else did you think I would do?  I went to Michael's 3 times.  Staples once.  I went clothes shopping.  More shopping.  And more.  Until I was shopped out.

Saturday I packed.  Luckily, I hadn't really unpacked since moving the year before since I lived with my brother this past year and wasn't teaching, but it still took all day.

Sunday picked up the trailer from U-Haul and packed it with the help of family and friends, I knew they were good for something ;)  

And Monday I drove.  Took the ferry to the mainland.  Drove for hours.  Drove all day.  Finally arrived at a hotel.  Yeah, the school is about a day trip away from the island.  And I don't have a place to live yet.  And I have an over-a-hundred-pound-dog.  She's staying in doggy day care during the daytime.

Tuesday I went into school and met everyone, we were in meetings till 2, then I started setting up my class. Then I picked up the dog, looked at 2 houses, walked the dog, got back to the hotel, looked at my list of stuff to do for school, worked on that for hours, fell asleep, woke at 2am, looked back at teacher blogs/Pinterest/TPT, and here I am.  4:45, waiting for the alarm to ring.

Welp, that's about it.  Except that I have a grade 2 class of 22 students, the classroom was used as storage last year (already took out the piano), and it's a mess.  I am a little too.  But it's ok.  There's still six more days until the kiddies come.  Though I have to find a place to live.  And move there.  But whatever.

Here's some pics:

from the road

empty classroom

with my boxes thrown in

so much in the cupboards to go through - but there is a bathroom!

Extra boards!

starting to get set up

my reading corner - so far...

using a Jungle theme this year

Finally Moved

Yes, I am finally back on the island and it is so nice to be home!  I got all my stuff moved into the storage closet at my sister and brother's house Sunday and even returned the U-haul before closing time.  It was so nice to be able to go out for dinner, run to Wal-Mart for some things I needed and get frozen yogurt for a treat - it`s amazing to have all this so close to home!
Anyways, Monday was Canada Day and my birthday, so my sister and I walked the dogs then had a nice lunch and wandered through downtown Victoria, which was pretty busy, but it was nice just to stretch the legs after the insane traveling on the weekend.  We found out Tuesday there were terrorists at the Parliament Buildings when we were there dropping bomb bags around the grass - don't even know what to think of that!
Since then, I've been relaxing, applying for jobs, doing phone interviews, got my eyes checked and ordered contacts, got groceries, and took the dog on hikes everyday.  I don't know what it is, but it's so nice being able to go out in the woods and hike up hills and really feel my quads working.
And now it's Friday and I've decided that I should really start making some more products to sell on my TPT store and finish up the lot I had begun a month ago.  After all, it may be my main source of income come September ;)