Yay for Friday!

I have been looking forward to Friday for all week for many reasons...visiting my boyfriend, listening to a book on cd in the car (really though, I can't wait), setting up my classroom, and my first Five for Friday AND Freebie Friday!

First things first. My classroom has an orange wall. It's one of our school colors so it's...festive.

 I must admit I was a bit shocked when I first saw it...but I am going to make it work! It helps that my "neon" color scheme has orange in it, so that will coordinate. It could be worse. I could not have a classroom!

Picture is slightly blurry due to the state of shock ;)

As I mentioned earlier, I am very (probably too much) excited about listening to a book on tape this morning. You see, I'm moving across the state (of Michigan...any fellow Michiganders out there?) for my job, so right now "setting up my classroom" involves a bit of a drive. One of my friends was talking about listening to a book on cd (I want to say "tape", but that's even more outdated!) on her drive - and it inspired me! I picked up "Shopgirl" from the library. It seemed like a fun, kind of mindless read listen...I'll let you know what I think.

I really like blogging. It hasn't even been a week but I'm already having so much fun with it...and I've discovered some awesome blogs in the process! Thank you to anyone who has reached out to me or introduced themselves!

I just started reading "The Revealers" by Doug Wilhelm. I'm really enjoying it so far, especially since it's from a 7th grader's perspective. Any insight I can get is helpful ;) I'd like to do some book reviews of summer reads so stay tuned for more updates!

Freebie time! Can my #5 be a freebie? I hope so!

My very first post was a freebie for a poster I made...you will quickly learn that I love making things for my classroom, especially posters. Since I'm on a neon kick I wanted to remake the "You Matter" poster I originally saw on Technology Rocks. Seriously. 

I loved her poster but needed it to match my classroom...perfectly...nope I'm not OCD at all.

So, here is the version I made; the chevron coordinates with my previous sign. I also made one in black and white just in case you're not on a neon frenzy too :)

Click on the picture to download it free from TpT:

Is anyone else moving for their teaching job? 

Does anyone out there have an orange wall too?!

p.s. - Love neon? Check out my Neon Chalkboard Genre Posters for middle school!

Supply Lists are like Christmas

Most of my summer mornings start off with a cup of coffee (that I have to warm up 4 times because I get distracted and it gets cold) and getting lost down Pinterest rabbit-holes...which leads me to open up 20 different tabs on my computer and ends with me comparing paper clip deals on Amazon. It's a wonderful thing, really.

But this morning I was very responsible and checked my school email first. The school supply list sent out to parents was e-mailed to me and seeing what my students would bring was a little bit LOT like Christmas.
I know I'm in the right profession if school supplies can make me giddy.
In all seriousness though, it was a relief to see what students would bring because I wasn't quite sure what I needed to buy myself.
Knowing that I will have expo markers and sticky notes just makes my heart happy :)

*insert third coffee warm-up

This supply talk reminds me of a picture I saw on Pinterest that made me laugh:

I love the 30 popcorn container part.

There is still SO much I need to do before the first day of school (and being a first-year teacher, I am probably unaware of half of it). But, I am making progress on the supply front!

I really would like to keep this blog centered around 7th Grade ELA (which doesn't seem too challenging, considering that is the grade I will be teaching...)

So, here are a few articles/links I found this morning while sipping cold coffee:

Teaching English to Tough Kids 
(because as much as I LOVE to curl up with a book, I realize all my students won't. At first.)

Five Ways to Use Memes to Connect with Students
I really want to start off the year with expectations/procedure meme-style. They're relevant to the students, funny, and they amuse me too :)

That cat one just kills me.

A lastly, here are a few new middle schools blogs I found...(it is also little bit like Christmas to come across an awesome ELA blog)

A Teacher's Treasure (really great INB foldable ideas and lots of freebies! I can see myself exploring this blog for a long time)

Mrs. Megan Ellis (this is where I first read about Article of the Week - I would love to do something similar in my classroom)

Are there any other awesome blogs that I should know about? How about any Pinterest finds?