I had a great time at the first annual Mid-West Teacher Blogger Meet Up this weekend in Chicago! It was so fun to meet all these ladies! My wonderful husband made a weekend of it with me and our 5 month old while G & G watched the older two. It was a nice little getaway for us. We started our trip on Friday morning, after dropping off the kiddos, we headed to Michigan City for a little shopping at the outlet mall. We ended up spending most of the day there before driving the rest of the way to Schaumburg where we had dinner at Joe's Crab Shack and settled in for the night at our hotel. Saturday morning we got up and headed to IKEA!

We spent about 3 hours going through the entire store and my sweet little guy sleep the entire time! He's such a good baby :) I found some great organization systems for my homeschooling materials which was exciting. I should have taken a picture of our car as it was pretty loaded down by the end of our trip ;) I must say the hubby did a pretty amazing job of packing it! 

Next, it was off to Lakeshore Learning for the Mid-West Teacher Blogger Meet Up! My husband dropped me off and watched the baby while I went to the meet up. Jameson from Lessons with Coffee (right) and Lindsey from Thriving in Third (left) planned the entire event. They did a fabulous job planning it from so far away (Iowa and Minnesota). Here (below) they are overseeing the event.

They planned a fun little introductory mini pencil glyph activity. Everyone also had to bring three of their favorite teaching items to share. One of the items I brought was a Bible because it is my favorite teaching tool and the most important thing I can teach my children is about Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. I shared that it can be easy to get caught up in our accomplishments with our blogs and TpT but we need to remember that this life is only a blink compared to eternity. If you are not sure where you will spend eternity don't wait until it's too late! Take the good person test here and make sure you read through to the end :) 

Next up was the goodie bags and door prizes and TONS of them! First, there were the goodie bags that Lindsey and Jameson put together that included a very generous gift from Krista Wallden from Creative Clips! Who doesn't LOVE her clipart?!!! Then came a goodie bag from Lakeshore Learning that included a teacher plan book, teacher mug and a math or reading game. They also gave us some great coupons including this 20% off coupon for our readers! We also all got a goodie bag from Creative Teaching Press with die-cut letters and numbers and a giant calendar and bulletin board. Can you see why our car was so loaded down?

After the meet-up several of us went out to dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse. The girls were so gracious to let me bring the hubby and 5 month old! Not to mention the hubby was a great sport for going with all of us women! I was also thankful for such a good baby that didn't make a peep the entire time!

Left front is Ana Bentin from Mrs. Bentin's Blackboard. Next to her is CaseyJane from Wiggling Scholars and behind her is Michelle from Teaching Ideas for those who Love to Teach. On the right in the front is me holding my baby :) and behind me is Jessica Plemons from Mrs. Plemons' Kindergarten. Behind her is Carrie from Table Talk with C & C.

Ana sat at a table with me and my hubby and we had a great time talking. She also has a 6 month old son at home. All of these ladies were so sweet! I just wish we had more time to get to know one another. It will be fun to meet-up again maybe next year at the TpT conference or the next Mid-West Teacher Blogger Meet Up in Minneapolis.

While we had a great time on our road trip to Chicago, it was great to come back home to Michigan! 

What does your school do to bring about awareness of disabilities? Did you know that October is National Disabilities Awareness Month? With a background in special education (undergrad in CI and Masters in LD), disability awareness is near and dear to my heart. I'd love to help you get a program started at your school so here are a few resources to get you started. First, if you haven't checked out my blog series, "Fear of the Unknown" yet, there is a treasure trove of information and resources from several special educators and it's all about disability awareness! You may need to scroll down a bit to get to the meat (as the last few posts were a giveaway). You can also check out this blog post that includes a freebie hop of special education resources (again scroll to the bottom of the post as the giveaway has expired). Here's a free resource I wrote about Famous People with Learning Disabilities.

I hope these resources will give you a great jumping off point to create your own disability awareness school-wide initiative. If you have more ideas or resources on this topic please share in the comments below!

Welcome to week 8 of Tips for Teachers! I'm thinking this may be my last week for a while as I'm running out of tips for ya'll! LOL! I also have some other ideas for blog posts that I'd like to share with you and don't have time for both. I hope you have enjoyed them and I really appreciate everyone who has linked up these last two months!

You might have one of these babies hanging up in your home to store all those plastic bags you get at the store but have you ever thought of hanging one up in your classroom? You never know when you might need a plastic bag. I found that I used a lot when I was teaching. They were great for when students cleaned out their desks or lockers and had TONS of junk to take home. I once had a student who found 8 sweatshirts in his locker and 10 spoons. His mom said, "So that's where all our spoons went!" Needless to say we used quite a few bags for his locker :) 

I think we used the most bags on the last day of school when everyone cleaned out their desks and lockers for the last time. You could hang this bag storage thingy (sorry I don't know the official name) on your wall (if allowed) or inside a cupboard door or on the inside (underneath) your desk.

Use timers to keep students on task (an oldie but a goodie tip). This is a good strategy to remember to use with students during center time rotations, independent work, free play time and more. I would often use these in my resource room setting with one student or a small group of students. I really like the Time Timers because of the red visual that disappears as the time decreases. Since many students are visual this can be a tremendous help (especially for students with Autism).  

Narrow your Google search by using +/- and quotation marks "". For example, if I'm looking for a big dog that doesn't shed and isn't black, I could type: dogs+large breeds -black "non-shedding". You can also find the definition of words by typing in Define: followed by the word you want defined (i.e. Define: Condensation). You can also use Google search box as a calculator. Just type in the problem you want solved and it will give you the answer. Convert units by typing in the number, unit, "into", and the unit you want to convert to (i.e. 1 cup into tsp).

Set high expectations for students. I always try to air on the side of high expectations for students. Some students need a little push to achieve more than they think they can. Your expectations should be reasonable but also stretch students to achieve. Work ethic is one of the most important qualities you can teach/instill. With the right combination of work ethic, drive/ambition, knowledge and tools students can achieve anything they set their mind to. Teach them that and they will build a confidence to do great things!

Shut off the T.V., close your computer and read a book or go to bed early! Spend quality time with your loved ones! A few years ago we decided to "get rid" of our T.V. (T.V. service). I thought it was going to be really hard to give up watching all my favorite shows and that I would be extremely bored. That was not the case at all! That is when I started this website and my TpT store and became a BSF children's leader. We have since gotten Apple T.V. (my hubby couldn't go without sports) but I rarely watch any. I challenge you to try going without T.V. for 21 days (they say that is how many days it takes to develop a habit) and see if you miss it! Who knows, you may just love it! Okay, now I'm going to take my own advice and go to bed, LOL! 

Please read the guidelines for linking up here first! Thanks!