Kovescence of the Mind

Doodlebugs Teaching for Five for Friday is a perfect way to start getting back in the swing of things, so here are five things that have to do with education from my week.

If you follow me on Instagram, and you should, you saw this email came this week. I have been invited to present at miGoogle, our Michigan Google Conference.

I will be doing a longer session of a training I did for PD Without Borders.

I stumbled upon a blog post this week that I feel needs to be shared: 20 Ways to Enjoy Teaching. We can always use reminders on how to avoid the drama and focus on the students.

How do you help remember why you enjoy teaching?

Monday thru Wednesday of this week I attended the Assessment Now conference offered by Solution Tree. The brought all kinds of big-wigs in the areas of assessment and grading together. The highlight of the three days was getting hear Thomas Guskey speak as our closing keynote. Everything I have heard about him read of his work is true, and he lives what he says

He has the most soothing voice of any speaker.

I found a great Michigan Radio Broadcast from April that provides some food for thought.

We will pay for our lack of respect towards teachers

What do you think?

Be sure to enter my giveaway for some great teacher planner stickers. The original post is HERE

I have say that I am jealous of those of you have your classrooms all set up and ready to go. I am jealous because we have been under construction all summer (and even the end of last school year), and I have not been able to get into my classroom yet.

However, I am NOT jealous of those of you that have gone back to school already. We don't start here in Michigan until September 8th- the latest possible start date due to the latest day Labor Day can fall.

With that being said, I want to share my classroom not revealed with you. Last spring I had to pack up everything in my room, and here it is piled in the hallway. 10+ years of teaching in one pile. You might recognize my recovered office chair, my stool, and my file cabinet (which I was hoping to finish this summer but oh well) from last summer's classroom makeover. I was kind of proud to say my entire classroom fit into 15 boxes after 10+ years because it means I throw stuff away.

Here is what the inside looked like on my visit a few weeks ago.

My board was taken off because it is being replaced since at the end of last year it started popping off the wall. I am glad I am getting new carpet too; there were some pretty horrendous stains.

I also haven't been able to make trips into my classroom to drop off all the goodies I have collected this summer for what will be a reading corner. Here is the glorious pile in my basement-blocking the laundry room. At least dear hubby is patient about this pile; not that he uses the laundry room anyways.

Are any of you still not in school? Does anyone else not have their classroom ready yet?

Here is to enjoying the rest of summer; be sure to stop by my post from earlier this week HERE and win a set of teacher planner stickers.

I have fallen in love with my Erin Condren planner.

I haven't had a paper planner in years with my desk calendar at school and my smart phone. However, as I kept seeing these pop up on Instagram and in blog posts, I had to see what it was all about.

Now, I am super frugal, and I could not pay full price, so I used a referral link to get $10 off and bought one on sale. It made it very affordable. You can use my referral link HERE if you want to get a $10 off coupon.

I have had some people give me hard time about using a paper planner, but I continue for two reasons:

1) Writing out my to-do list helps commit it to memory better than typing it in my phone

2) Having a hard copy forces me to use it and therefore sit down to look at my week

This led me to explore some of the wonderful sticker sets I have seen on Etsy. Then I had a flash of inspiration for a Back to School Sticker set for teachers.

I have been working with Planner Press and Owl Plan With You to bring you some great teacher-planner stickers just in time for back to school.

I almost can't wait for school to start in order to use these Faculty Meeting Stickers. Be sure to order your own set now for your calendar or planner.

I also adore this set of round edged teacher-event stickers. I like that they fit over the boxes, so they stand out. They will also be perfect in my lesson plan book when I get that done.

If you prefer they fit exactly in your planner, there is also a set for that. Be sure to grab yours HERE.

Check out the sparkle on those Glitter Teacher Planner stickers! These are going to be perfect for my new desk calendar at school.

Everyone needs some Birthday Stickers. I have my brother, daughter, and mother all set up for November.

I think these Grading Flag Stickers are some of my favorites, and I may have to buy another set of them soon. The sheet comes with 25, but I think I need MORE as I am always behind.

I am giving away two fabulous prizes: a full set of Planner Press teacher stickers and a sample set of Owl Plan With You teacher stickers. These are perfect to get organized for back to school.

The best part is that while they fit Erin Condren planners, they would also jazz up any calendar, sanity saver, or lesson plan book.

Most of my weekend was spent in front of my sewing machine as it was raining, so my Monday Made It is a sewing bonanza.

My purse is now a happier place.

I made a little case for my ear buds that live in my purse. I am hoping this will prevent them from getting tangled. I used fusible batting to make it padded. When I make another one, I will make it about an inch bigger, so you aren't shoving as much to get them in.

Here is the pattern and directions I used: Dog Under Desk

The next item for my purse was a sleeve for my sun glasses. I don't carry a hard glasses case with me, although I have about a dozen in the closet from pairs of glasses. This means my sunglasses or my real glasses are thrown in my purse when they are not in use. This little beauty is perfect because it is padded and small enough for my purse.

It took a few tries to figure out how to sew the lining (I forgot to leave a hole to turn it right side out), but the end product has several of my friends drooling.

My patter came from Crazy Little Projects.

I love to throw my phone in my bag and go, which, according to dear hubby, is why the screen protector is always scratched. I used to have a neoprene sleeve, but my smart phone has out-grown it. I used a pattern from Brassy Apple to make one of my own.

If you want to add the flap, be sure to read the directions all the way through as it is easier to add before both sides are sewn together. I also have several requests for these: my mom's is first.

I adore my paper planner even if I am a techie who uses Google Calendar. A couple of people I work with were giving me a hard time about it. My response is that I use Google Calendar and Tasks, but the act of writing it out by hand commits it to memory, so I actually get more done: HELLO BRAIN RESEARCH!!! Plus it is so stinking CUTE

My last project is this pen holder for my planner. You can buy this great elastic at craft stores now. I wanted one that would hold my planner closed and snuggle a few of my Fixion Pens.

These directions can be found on Hello Creative.

If you adore dressing up your Erin Cronden like I do, be on the look out this week for a fabulous giveaway I am going live with this week that includes some sticker sets for your planner. If you don't know about these beauties, check them out with my referral link and get your own with a $10 discount.

I am now in desperate need of some more felt and zippers to make these beauties for my friends.

Be sure to following my Sewing Pinterest Board

Follow Sarah's board Sewing on Pinterest.

See some more great Monday Made It:

I am so glad I have started linking up again with Monday Made It because I actually got some projects done last week.

My first Made It is for my classroom. We are under construction, and I can't get in my room to set up, so I am making stuff at home for when I can get back in my room.

I snagged 4 small canvases from my daughter's collection. Yes, I asked her first. I drew different line patterns on each one, and painted them in my classroom colors: purple and green.

I'm not nearly the artist some people are, but they turned out cute. Then I ordered my first foll of vinyl for my Cricut. Why did I not buy this stuff years ago???? I cut READ out and stuck them on the canvases.

I haven't used my Cricut in probably a year, so here is a to a whole new set of projects with it!

I had some ribbon left from the classroom make over last year, so I added that to each canvas. They will hang on the wall in the new reading corner I am setting up in the fall.

My second Made It is for my house. I recently took down the old (from my childhood) fish curtain in our bathroom; the window is frosted but I wanted a curtain

I bought a yard of fabric and made a curtain for our bathroom. It amazes me how two pictures taken at the same time in the same room have such different coloring.

This past week I made a new freebie for my store.

I just added to my Teachers Pay Teacher Store that is just for bloggers and/or TPT Sellers. Any blogger could use this set of forms as I made the Excel and Google Doc Versions editable, so you can personalize it for your social media.

One version even has the growth formulas to show you what your increase in followers was from one month to the next.

There five versions of this document included in this file. Each digital sheet has enough space for two years worth of data, but you can always open a new blank copy. The PDF has space for 18 months worth of data.

PDF version on four pages to print out for those of you who would like to do it by hand.
An Excel version of the basic blog and seller statistics that can be edited to fit your needs.
A Google Sheets version of the basic blog and seller statistics that will open in your Google Drive and can be edited.
An Excel version of the blog and seller statistics that includes formulas to calculate growth each month.
A Google Sheets version of the blog and seller statistics that includes formulas to calculate growth each month and will open in your Google Drive and can be edited.