Wishful Wednesdays..

As I sit here at home trying to scratch off items on my ever growing to do list all I can see is mini piles of teacher goods, EVERYWHERE. My poor living room is currently overtaken by my teacher life.

 Currently spread out across the room: laminator, laminating film, sentence strips, markers, test papers, printer, card-stock,  teacher bag, ziplock bags, teacher books... Seriously, all I can think is how much I would LOVE a beautiful office, organized with my OCD categorizing skills (Lots of storage), with a large table for all of the craftivites a teacher makes,  ALL devoted to my teaching hobby obsession and styled perfectly by moi. It will be complete with every teaching crafty necessity I could possibly think of! Ugh. Wishful thinking! 

Here are a few teacher office inspirations:

  

*Insert Pottery Barn Lust here*

A girl can dream! 

Even though I do not currently have this dream office, I am currently crushing on these teacher tools:

1. This pencil pouch. Honestly, I am obsessed with it. I take it everywhere I go. Three pouches and its small. 

Be honest.. you know you want one.

2. In the Pouch is my Favorite Pens: Fine Tip Flair Pens, Sharp Writer Pencils, White-Out and my new current fav pens to write in my planner... Foray Style-mark Fine Tip Pens. Perfect for writing in small places. 

3. Crayola Poster Markers. Don't get me wrong, I love my Mr. Sketch Markers but these poster markers are awesome! They are perfect for writing on chart paper and creating adorable anchor charts! Plus, the colors are so vibrant on paper. Love. 

4. Personalized Notebook from CVS (probably one of my favorite stores. Kid you not. I love me some ExtraCare Bucks). 

5. My Laminator and Card-stock

6. Clipboard with storage. Need I say more?

7. Paper Pro Stapler (Ms. T introduce me this this bad boy. Best stapler to use in the classroom!)

8. My gorgeous new teacher planner thanks to Erin Condren. Officially obsessed. It is definitely pricey, but worth the money. Well, at least to me. 

What are you currently wishing for?

Happy Wednesday!

There are three good reasons to be a teacher...

June, July, and August. 

Ha! Just Kidding! However, as the summer comes to an end I'm sure we can all agree on that statement! Even though whoever said the quote lives in a dream world where summer break lasts for three months!

This is what I walked into Monday morning. Blah. 

Yep. Its been a long three days... and I am still not done. 

My glue gun and I are at war right now, and by the look of my hands... I think the glue gun is winning. 

Ms. Simoneaux - 0, Glue Gun - 1 

My goodies from Mardel came in yesterday! Thank the lord!

The border I bought... overboard, yes. Spent too much? Yes. 

Things that make me smile, even just for a while...

Really though, I passed these up last time due to my budget but this time around Mr. Sketch 18 pack was calling my name. Buy me, buy me! So I did just that.

 The Time Tracker for small groups...after four years of needing a timer, I finally got one. It is about time.

The following item I am not even sure what exactly it is or why I bought it. Ha. However, for five dollars I was hoping that it would be worth the purchase.

I haven't listened to the CD but I "think" it is something that could be used in the listening station. It also came with the books below.

I will be posting pictures of my classroom as tomorrow! 

It's all starting...

This is such a bitter sweet time of year... excited for the upcoming school year, sad to leave behind my summer social life. Ha.

Seriously though... look at my last few posts compared to the school year posts. The changes are coming... where the school hobby obsession takes over my life! This years goal: balance without killing myself trying to fit it ALL in! 

Now on to new teacher purchases (am I the only one that starts getting a lil' anxiety with all of the teacher purchases I make, ugh)While spending time away from home... the highlight of my day: Wal-Mart trip. Woo hoo. Anyways, while wandering around the Wal-Mart what did I find... the Scotch Thermal Laminator. It was the last one and I caved. I just... needed it. Right? Yep. In the cart it goes. Happy girl. 

  I also, stocked up on the necessities: new glue gun, card stock, post-its, scissors, binder, glue, posters... let the making of classroom decorations begin. 

 Also, remember I told you in a previous post that my BF bought my class some books while in NYC. These are the two books! They are adorable! Can't wait to read them to my kiddos! 

Now, on to the online shopping. This is where a problem can occur, am I right ladies? Its just a few clicks and done, new teacher stuff at your door in a week. I have had to make sure I am on a budget and I will not spend over. Fingers crossed. 

I found a lot of cute borders to go with my new rockstar room over at the website www.mardel.com. My new room will be filled with neon colors and zebra. I have been eyeing this rolling cart for OVER a year now. When I saw it was on sale. Click, in the cart. (Apparently, they were having a sale on Thursday... I'm not sure if this is a regular event or not but you cannot beat %20 off).

I also finally bought the Time Tracker I have been wanting. Most timers annoy me but I really like this one (saw it in ma girl Ms. Thomas' classroom). It's been on my wish-list so I clicked it and scored that too! 

Question: What all is on your Wish-List that you finally caved and bought?

Teacher/ Lakeshore Purchases

While in Houston for the Debbie Diller Conference, Ms. Thomas suggested we go to Lakeshore. Seriously? Bad Idea! Thanks a lot Ffi. We both gave ourselves a budget... and yet still went over. I just CANNOT pass up a teacher sale. I am weak. 

However, I did good and put things back that I did not need at this exact moment and they were not on sale. I am a recovering from an obsession with shopping...these things take time. Anyways, I got a school planner which is perfect. It even has to do list pages throughout, we all know I love a list.  As you can see I bought the Blends and Digraphs Work Center. It came with cards and foam letters. I figured this would be great to incorporate in one of my workstations and it was on sale for $23.00. I had to get it. 

I also purchased this new Vera Bradley notebook. I have an obsession with notebooks. I like to write down my lists, teacher ideas, and to do's in something cute. Can you blame me? It makes me happy.

At the Debbie Diller Conference she gave us these book bags from Really Good Stuff. I'm thinking about getting these for small groups next year. Do any of you use them? Is it worth the money? 

 Lastly, I told you I won the $25.00 gift card from Lakeshore from Primary Graffiti. After trying to figure out what to buy with the money, I finally decided upon the Teacher organizer. I love all things organization and this is purely for the teacher. I figured I would never splurge for something for myself otherwise, so I might as well do it with my gift card. Therefore, when Lakeshore did their end of the year promo code for 20% off, I just had to go ahead and get the Teacher Organizer. I think the grand total for my purchase was $17.00. Can't beat that! 

I love getting packages at the door...

Yay! It's so pretty! I know I am going to love it.