Getting Them Reading

As you know, I have been tutoring this semester, and the emphasis is on reading. I have really enjoyed my time doing it, but there have definitely been discouraging days as well. If a student does not want to read, how do you get them to do it? One day my student was not interested in reading the book at all, and I was desperately trying to think of something to keep him engaged. I came up with a game that has turned into his favorite thing, and I wanted to share it!

My student and I take turns finding sentences in a book and reading them to each other. The trick is we leave out one of the words, and instead say, "blank." Then the other has to try and figure out what the missing word is.

For example, if we were using this book(which I found at Goodwill for only $.89! Goodwill book shopping is my favorite thing to do!) we would randomly find a page and select a sentence.

I love when it takes a while to find a good sentence because then my student is reading without even realizing it! Here on this page, I could use the sentence, "The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his 'blank' with the back of his hand." The word I left out would be mouth.

Sometimes they get it right on the first try, but most of the time we give clues. We can tell each other when a guess is very close. Often this is using good use of synonyms, which I love. Or I will repeat the sentence and encourage using context clues. Sometimes we use a whiteboard to show how many letters.

I got this whiteboard at the dollar store and it was the best dollar ever spent. Students like using this far more than paper and it is much easier to erase and use over again. We will write blanks for the letters of the word.

Sometimes if the word is difficult to figure out we will give the first letter or even the last letter.

Usually with all the clues we give, we figure out the word. But if we can't figure it out, the other person gets a point. Because what fun is a game without points and a winner?!

I'm losing :( But he's reading, so I am one happy camper!

My StitchFix-#1

So recently I discovered StitchFix, thanks to Kinder-craze. You can find her post here. Basically, it's an amazing service that allows someone to shop for you, send you items to try on in your own home, and keep or send back items you choose. You pay $20 as a styling fee each month, but if you buy any items at all, that money is taken out of your total cost. You fill out a taste profile, and can even connect the stylist to your Pinterest account and set up a board specifically for them to use as inspiration. You receive five items each month. These items are based on the sizes, styles, needs, colors, and cost that you entered in the taste profile. The box comes with a letter from your stylist, the items, cards for each item on how to style it, and a UPS bag for free returns. After you have tried them on and made your decisions, you can pay for them through your account or send them back. Added bonus, if you buy all the items from the box you save an additional 25% off your order. Of course, this can also be explained on their website here.

Now for me, I have my own reasons why I love StitchFix:
1. First of all, I am a horrible shopper. I hate trying on clothes all day, especially when they aren't even the right size anyway.
2. I can never visualize how I would wear the thing, so I put back so many great items that I realize only later were in fact great.
3. I never take the time to look through racks or stores to find what is good, I definitely judge a store by the 2 outfits on the mannequins in the window.
4. I want to be more adventurous with my clothing, but am not always sure how to do so.

So, with all that in mind, I signed up for my first box in February! I was so very pleased with what I got.

Here's the letter from the stylist explaining why she chose what she chose.

I just love opening boxes, look how pretty it is!

Here are my things from February:

I will say, I sent back a black shirt that I thought would be too low for anything I would use it for. And I sent back a brown bag that I wasn't in love with. But here's what I kept, and how I styled it.(with my own clothes, from my own closet, in my own room!)

I loved how this jacket fit, especially with an adjustable waist.

I was so surprised how well these jeans fit! They are a great, flexible color as well.

This was my favorite!! I love the versatility of gray/black. The sleeve length is perfect. And for me, the best thing is how the shirt falls at my hips. It is a flattering fit for me, and I was so thankful for the opportunity to find that out.

Also, for fun, here's all three items I kept from my February box.

I loved my box so much, I immediately signed up to receive another! Like I said, this was my February box, so I will try and hopefully will be much faster with adding my March box for you all to see.

Snack Time-Greek Yogurt Blueberries

You may have caught on by now that I am a snacker. So, to help I try and make sure the snacks I have in my house are healthy options. Here is my current obsession that I love!

Only 2 ingredients, so we are off to a great start! I love the Simply Balanced brand from Target, especially when I want something fresh and healthy.

I laid out parchment paper first so they would easily remove when they were done.

You simply roll the blueberries through the yogurt and lay them out to freeze!

(since these berries were rather small, I would have 2-5 berries in each cluster. Other times I have done it with only one blueberry at a time.)

For this batch I used vanilla greek yogurt, but I have heard blueberry is good as well.

Throw it in the freezer for about 2 hours.

ENJOY! They are seriously great, I love them and eat way too many of them.

Try them! Or tell me what combinations of fruit and yogurt flavors you try so I can try them as well! :)

Skinny Cupcakes

So I have a bit of a weakness for cupcakes, cakes, sweets, frosting, that kind of thing. So when I saw on pinterest a "skinny cupcake" I had to try it for myself! Now I followed the recipe given on another blog and all the credit goes to Six Sisters' Stuff, you can find the post here.

For the cake all you add together is the funfetti cake mix and a can of sprite zero.

I could not find a can anywhere, so I made do with this 2 liter. A can is about 12 ounces.

It was sort of weird mixing these together, it just was not what I was used to, but it turned out really well!

Now I have a cupcake maker, so I just popped them in here. I do 6 at a time for 10 minutes.

Here they are cooling before I frosted them.

For the "frosting" the recipe calls for fat free cool whip and 1.5 ounces fat free vanilla jello instant pudding. Here is what I could find at the grocery store.

I also discovered it would have been helpful to wait until the cool whip was no longer frozen. I think I added more jello mix than I needed because it was hard to tell what the texture would be when it was still slightly frozen.

Here is my finished product! So super easy to make, and only 110 calories each!

February Fashions

I want to start by saying that I by no means consider myself a fashionista or anything of the sort! However, when I realized I would need to wear "teacher clothes" (that's what I call them, others may use the terms professional, or nice, or normal even) everyday of the week in only a couple short years I knew I would need to start updating my wardrobe starting now. This semester I get to go into a school twice a week and it has been the perfect opportunity for me to start building a teacher-wardrobe! I also have really enjoyed other blogs with teacher clothes and many pinterest boards with the same theme. It has helped me just to see the idea and then figure out how I can also build my wardrobe. And that is why I will be sharing these. I simply want to share :)

The first key item I added to my collection was a pair of black boots. It is winter and I do not like wearing shoes without socks! Maybe I am the only one, but my feet get cold so fast. So I knew boots would be the best to be both warm and professional.

Here's my month so far!

Shirt: Vanity

Pants: Target

Boots: Maurices

Scarf: Wal-Mart 

Sweater: Target

Pants: Target

Boots: Maurices

Scarf: TJMaxx

Sweater: Target

Pants: Target

Boots: Maurices

Scarf: TJMaxx

Sweater: Vanity

Pants: Target

Boots: Maurices

Scarf: TJMaxx

Sweater: Target

Pants: Target

Boots: Maurices

For now anyway, I like to just keep it simple! Boots and scarves are perfect for the winter months in cold schools and walking through piles of snow to get there. I also am a poor college student with a poor college student's budget, so simple is perfect! But sometimes I try a little harder...

This is one of my favorite and most versatile pieces I have. Of course I can match it with pearl earrings but because of the touch of silver, it goes with silver earrings as well.

These bangles I bought a few years ago. The whole set has so many colors in it, but I am able to wear just the colors I want depending on the outfit that day.

I'm excited to build my collection of "teacher clothes" :)

Project-Reading Prompts

This semester I have the opportunity to tutor an elementary aged student in literacy. I have so enjoyed it so far, and am getting very excited to actually put what I'm learning into practice. A child said to me this week that reading at school is so hard, but reading at home is so easy. I thought how true that statement was. When we "have" to do something it is always so much more difficult than if we choose to do something. Even when it is the same thing! And let's face it, being stuck in any place all day can drain you, especially when it is a classroom. So I wanted to find a way to work on reading skills and fluency; preferably without boring him or causing him to lose interest in reading! (What a horrible, horrible thought!)

I was looking on TeachersPayTeachers and finding lots of ideas for different prompts, or games, or activities to do to help with reading. I fell across some guided reading prompts that were absolutely perfect from Shelley Gray. 

First I printed them. This is "2 per page" so they are smaller.

After I cut them all out, I "laminated" them just using some packing tape that I already had.

I wanted some type of container to keep them all together in. I remembered a box I already had that might be perfect.

This was actually a candy box! I got a candy gift from SugarWish, which is kind of a neat site if you want to check it out. Here are my cinnamon hearts!

I put my little cards right on in there and they fit great! (How cute is the inside of that box?!)

Then on the lid, I covered the logo with a label of mine from my Erin Condren Life Planner! (that is a whole other story, and you can find that here.)

Pretty sweet, right? I like to have the student pull a card from a shuffled pile and do whatever it says. It adds variety and I don't have to think so hard to think of questions to ask every single time. Sometimes it asks the student to find a noun in the book, or to find out who the illustrator is, or to make a text-to-world connection. Some of these I will do in the middle of reading, and other times I will have the student write the answer in a journal at the end of our time. I love using it so far, and today my student stayed after the time I said we were done, because he had not found an adjective on his page yet! Ahh, it makes my heart soar when that happens :)

Life Planner

Every semester I cannot wait to get all my syllabi together and fill in my calendar. Is that just me? I love to organize and plan, and I can't live without my calendar. So when I saw Erin Condren's life planner it was love at first sight!

I have to give credit to Lessons with Laughter for introducing me to this wonderful gem. Erin Condren has great teacher lesson planners as well, and I had to stop myself from buying one, since I won't be teaching until next year. It was tempting anyway. But the life planner is amazing! Instead of telling you, I'll just show you. You can see for yourself here on Erin Condren's site under the planners&books tab.

This was very hard for me to slow down and take pictures as I opened it! I just wanted to rip right into it and see it.

Isn't it so pretty?!

This little goodie was free with my purchase. It included a sample of her new body butter and the little pouch. I now use the pouch for my markers and post it notes!

There she is!! Look how pretty my name is, it has never looked better. The name and date were free, but you can also add a photo for a charge. There are also different styles for the cover, this one was just my favorite.

There are so many inspirational quotes throughout the book.

Now for me, this is my favorite part. This I use multiple times a day! Along the left side I write my goals for week. (I think every week so far my goal has been to go to the gym and I haven't yet! Oops!) I already filled in all my homework for the semester. Each week I plan my meals out along the bottom section. As I plan my meals, I also write a grocery list along the left too. It's perfect!

There are lots of blank pages in the back, both lined and not. I have not used these yet, but I am planning on keeping track of each class's grades on the pages.

In the back are a TON of stickers! There's an entire sheet of birthday stickers. This sheet pictured includes "game!", "day off!", "hair appt.", "dentist appt.", "sale!", "doc appt.", "concert!", "mani/pedi", "party!", and "vacation!". They just make it look so cute and colorful when you use them.

Also in the back, (in the resealable pocket!) are gift tags and stickers. Some already have my name on them and others are left blank.

On the last page are the calendars for the next 2 years for planning events ahead.

So that's my baby!! I would be lying if I said I hadn't hugged it...it's just so pretty! 

Here's my week and how I've used it so far. I always like to have a post it note with a verse that has stuck out to me on it. And now I have a little note for blog ideas too! :)