I am so excited to be linking up with Ashley and Angie again this month to be linking up for #2getherwearebetter to share all about things that we LOVE!!  In no specific order I am going to share with you five of my favorite things that I LOVE!!

There are many things I LOVE!  It's amazing how many things you say that you LOVE and it's hard to break it down to just five, but I picked my favorite 5 to share with each of you!  I hope that you enjoy finding out more about each of these!

I started bullet journaling this year, and you can read more about my plans for my bullet journal here. I am LOVING it!  One of my favorite things about it just might be my flair pen and washi party I have every time it is time to write in my journal.  I love that I am able to reflect on my day, plan out my future, and see my growth.  I love that all of my ideas are in one place, and that I am able to see how they are changing, evolving and helping me become the teacher, mom and wife I want to be!!

I know you know who these two women are!!  They are AMAZING!!  These two talented ladies are some of the first teachers I was able to meet thanks to the fantastic TPT world!!  Ashley is one of the most organized teachers I know, and has amazing energy!!  She always fuels my dreams, and helps me know that I can do all that I set out to achieve!!  Angie has a heart of gold, cares deeply for her family, and is so thoughtful! I LOVE watching Angie's weekly scopes because she continues to inspire my math block!!  Both of these ladies are so inspiring and continue to inspire me daily!  If you do not follow them yet, I cannot share enough how much you need to!  Both of them give me so much to be excited about and I can't wait until the next time I can see them and hug them!!

I have been LOVING my interactive lessons!  We have been engaged in lessons, working away in our interactive notebooks and working with hands on activities.  My students love their notebooks, and know exactly what to do to make sure that they are learning their new skills, practicing what they ache learned, and showing me what they know!  I am so happy that we don't have days full of worksheets, but are able to get up, move around the room, and have fun while we learn.

My bloggy besties are some of my favorite people!  These three ladies are AMAZING!!  I talk with these ladies DAILY!!  They inspire me, keep me motivated, encourage me, pray for me, and LOVE me!  I am so thankful for TPT that they brought these ladies into my life!  Jennifer, Ashlyn and Caitlin are amazing teachers that I know would do anything for me if I asked!  Ladies, I am forever in debt to you, and couldn't imagine my life without you!  Can you believe that we live so close, and without TPT we might never have met!?!

The final thing I love and one of the most important in my life is my family!!  I have some of the most supportive parents IN THE WORLD!  They love and support me in every venture I go on!  They are willing to do anything to help me, including taking extra trips to the Dollar Tree, Target, Walmart, Michaels, Hobby Lobby or anywhere else we might find amazing teaching supplies!  Plus, my parents, and my in-laws, take care of my sweet babies!  My precious Bubs and Princess are the light of my life, and I am so thankful that I am their mama!  My biggest fan, even if I forget it sometimes, is my husband!!  He is so supportive of my TPT venture, and I couldn't be more happy with where we are.  We are continuing to improve our marriage every day!  Who said that just because you were married you don't have to date any more!?  I am so thankful that he continues to support me, love me and date me!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Cassandra

Happy New Year!

2016 is going to be an AMAZING year!  I am so excited for what it brings!  Guess what time of the month it is too, it is #2getherwearebetter!!  I love linking up with Ashley and Angie!  They have some amazing ideas, and they are so inspiring!  So before I even begin, THANK YOU ladies!  Thank you for inspiring me, thank you for being amazing friends, and thank you for being you!!  #beyou

I have some BIG plans for 2016!!  I am so excited to work hard this year and to continue to put out some AMAZING things for YOU this year!

Over break I have started writing down my goals because I know that without writing them down I won't accomplish them!  Have you heard of bullet journaling yet!?!  I found it last week, and I might have become a little excited about it!  So excited that I started a NEW notebook/journal/planner all about my TPT life!!

Do you love this new planner!?!  I am SOOO excited for it!!  Thanks to my amazing friend Ashlyn I got it at her favorites thing party in December!  I was so excited to pick it up!!  I love that it is durable, and perfect because it has a weekly lay out, and a monthly layout.  Plus it has some pages in the front that I am not going to use so I used some washi tape over them and made my goals!!

My little notebook is the TPT notebook they gave us in Vegas last year!  It is perfect because it is small, easy to carry, and will fit in my purse!!  This year I want to keep track of things and make sure that I am reaching my goals.  I set up pages so I could check my stats from the past couple of years.  I then wrote down my goals for the year in a different color so that way I would be able to compare them!

One of the pages I am most excited about are my monthly pages!  On these pages I am going to write out the blog posts I am going to write for the month.  On the pages after this I am going to write down my daily to do lists, and the things that I take care of.  I am SOOO excited about how this is going to keep me on track, and keep me going.

One of my big goals is to be able to attend the TPT conference again this year.  It was SOOO fun last year!!  I am super excited to make it to Orlando this year too!  I am so excited to see so many of my amazing friends again this summer and to meet some new ones.  Rachel and Brooke I'm coming for you ladies!!  <3

Here is some inspiration to share with you!  I have started this board to get some more great ideas on how to keep my planner organized this year and to make sure I keep up with my goals this year!

Follow Mrs 3rd Grade's board Planning 2016 on Pinterest.

Please make sure you check out the other amazing posts about all of their plans and goals for the new year!  Make sure to link up and share your goals and plans for the year too!  Feel free to leave me a comment if you have an idea of something you would like to see from me this year!!  I would LOVE to connect with you!!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Cassandra

I LOVE everything about Christmas!!  I LOVE even more that I am able to share my excitement with my students and get them excited about Christmas as well.

This month I am linking up with Ashley and Angie again to bring you another great month full of awesome ideas to use in the next three weeks.  I LOVE everything about #2getherwearebetter and these two ladies bring us so content and awesome information weekly!!

There are so many awesome things I LOVE about Christmas!!

Our elf comes and spends the three weeks of Christmas with us!  We love having him around, and the kids enjoy seeing everywhere that he pops up!  We also do some awesome writing projects where our students write about what kind of adventure they would go on with our elf.  They love getting to know our elf, seeing where she will be hiding the next day, and doing whatever tasks she gives us!  Some days she leaves us gifts, and other days she helps us remember to do nice things for others!

Another one of my favorite traditions with my class is to take pictures in fun places!!  Last year I had an AWESOME parent who drew this snow globe for me!  She also built me a fireplace!!  We used both of these set ups to take fun pictures in front of!  Then I sent home these pictures as part of our Christmas presents.  The kids loved them, and their parents loved them even more!!

For more great ideas be sure to check out these other awesome posts to see what everyone else is up to this month!  I am POSITIVE you will find some great ideas!!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Cassandra

I am back again this month, linking up with Ashley and Angie to bring you another month of the wonderful #2getherwearebetter linky party!!!  I am SOOOO excited for this month, since it is ALL ABOUT MATH!!!

Math is my FAVORITE subject to teach!!  I was so excited when we split third grade this year, and I got a teaching partner FOR THE FIRST TIME! EVER!!  To make it even better, she agreed to teach the reading side of things so I could teach MATH!!

Do you have a math cupboard like this!?  I am slowly going through this stuff and GETTING rid of it!  I have too much, and too many things that just sit there and aren't getting used!  I know I need to give these to classrooms who will use them!

This is where the magic happens!  Just kidding, but this is the area I use for my small group work area.  I LOVE it because it has plenty of room for about four students to sit with me.  Plus I am able to use the white board right next to the table if I need to.  I can also keep many resources close by so that way I don't have to go looking for things.

Now on to the good stuff!  Keeping your students engaged!!  One of my favorite ways to do this is by having them write on their desks or the tables!  This keeps them excited about what they are doing, and keeps them motivated to work hard.  We talk about how it is a tool, and using the expo markers aren't for doodling, drawing or playing.  They know that it is a privilege to write on their desks, and that they won't be able to write on their desks if they can't use the tools correctly.  I make sure to use a color that they aren't using, and I use them as my marker to go around and make corrections, offer suggestions, or mark correct answers.  By doing this it helps me to know what problems they are working on, and where they are.

Another way I keep my students engaged is by getting them UP and MOVING!!  I don't have them stay in one place for too long so that way their bodies are moving.  My students are ACTIVE, and they need the movement.  By doing this I don't have to take as many brain breaks during math either, since they are moving around the classroom and getting their wiggles out working on partner work, games or small group activities.

Another way to keep my students engaged is to have them play partner games!  This way they can keep each other accountable, practice their skills, and have fun at the same time.  This is a center they go to every week, most of the time twice a week.  I mix up who they are going to the center with as well so that they are working with other students in different ability ranges and they can go from being the teacher, to the student, to the competition.  I also join in playing games with my kids to keep them on their toes.  On the days I say I am going to join the games they actually don't pick a partner, or hope that they are paired with me! I love this because it not only helps me continue to assess the students, but also helps build that relationship!

I LOVE to get my students working together!  On the 100th day of school last year we came up with 100 ways to write 100!!!  It was so fun, the kids loved racing up to the board to add their post it notes to the board.  I love finding ways to do things like this so that way they work together, and are pushed to think outside the box.

I blogged in August about other ways I keep my students engaged, hands on and worksheet free!  You can check it out here!!

Don't forget to check out my amazing linky hosts Angie and Ashley!!

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Cassandra

I am so excited to finally reveal to you my classroom!  It has for sure been a work in progress, and something that I have been working on since the middle of July when I was able to move into my room!  I shared some sneak peeks for you about my bulletin boards last month with Ashley and Angie, but today you get to see it all!!

I am going to share my before pictures with you so that way you can see how far I came this summer!!  I had to move rooms, and I gained a teaching partner this year!!

These are both panoramic pictures I took before school started and before I had fully settled into my room!  I didn't have everything set up yet, and I was trying to figure out where things would go.

This bookcase I tried to throw away, and when I first walked into my room they had just put all of the desks in the center of the room.  My janitors didn't want to carry the bookcase downstairs, so instead they decided to paint it for me!!  It now looks AMAZING!!

I am LOVING my Thankful For wall again this year!!  We work on these thankful cards every week! On Friday mornings the students get a new thankful card, and they record one thing that they are thankful for.  Then they hang them back up on the wall, and at the end of the year they'll take it home!

I'm excited to be using Angie's Brag Tags this year for my students!  Only having 11 students left me plenty of room to have them hanging right below our white board in the front of the room.  

I LOVE my student work display area as well!!  It is lower to the ground this year, and makes it super easy to change the work frequently!!  My students made these self portraits on the first day of school!

Since I am not teaching reading this year I only have a small reading area in my room.  I wanted to make sure to highlight some non fiction books that my students should check out.  We also use this board to write our homework down so that way they can fill out their planners.

 I LOVE my new math corner!!!  I use this kidney table to teach my small group lessons, and it's great because we can use the table to write on!!  Plus I have some storage right next to the table where I can store my task cards, expo markers, or all sorts of other materials I need.  This wall will be great to highlight important information that they need to continue to work on.

Do you notice this "new" math manipulative storage area!?!  Yes, it's the cabinet from earlier in the post that was brown!!  My custodians spray painted it for me to match the rest of my room!!  We used the same colors on picture frames, and clothespins around the room!!  I love this area because the students know exactly where to get their manipulatives they need for their work.

This is now my view from the back of the room towards the front!!  I love all of the alternative seating I have, and that I don't require my students to always sit in their desk!!

Please make sure you show off your classroom too!  Feel free to link up below, and check out these other AMAZING teachers to see what they have to share!!

You can also check out my classroom reveals with the Blog Hoppin' ladies!!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Cassandra

I am so excited to be linking up with Ashley and Angie to bring you a sneak peek into my classroom and to show off my bulletin boards to you today!!  I am going to wait until next month to do my full classroom reveal, but wanted to give you a little peak into my new room!!

This year I changed out my colors a little!  I have a teaching partner, and we decided we wanted our rooms to be similar since we were going to be switching kids!!  I went from having a bright blue and pink room, to now a bright blue and green room with POPS of PINK!!  I LOVE it!!!

I moved rooms this year, so that meant I was starting over!  This was perfect for my boards because it gave me time to think about what I wanted them to look like!  This year I decided to use all BLACK backgrounds for my boards!!  This went perfectly with our chalkboard theme we were using!!

It also gave me a chance to use some awesome BRIGHT borders that I found!!  I also was able to use some of my favorites from Creative Teaching Press!!  I mixed in chalkboard, new colors and my old chevron!  These awesome pink borders I picked up at Target AFTER the back to school sale last year!  I was so excited to use them this year!

This year we have limited wall room in the hallway.  To take advantage of what we have we decided to put a big black tablecloth on the wall, and then border it with matching borders from our rooms.  I am excited for this display, and we have big plans for our first day of school pictures here!!  Stay tuned!!

This isn't exactly a bulletin board, but I LOVE this area, and want to share how I display my student work.  I LOVE using these place mats!!  I picked them up at Dollar Tree a few years ago.  I have been using them every since and they are holding up great!!  This year I painted some pink ones blue, so I'm anxious to see how those hold up!

I put the display lower this year so that way it would be easier to change their work more frequently!

Right now both of my main boards are just plain black with borders!  I'm excited to be finishing them up in the next few days and I promise to share more about them soon!!  I am looking forward to using my math board to display important vocabulary words, helpful information, and great visuals.

I am very excited to use this board to help anchor my students learning for our science and social studies units!  I am only teaching math, science and social studies in my room this year.  I saw a great idea from The Blessed Teacher about her anchor board!!

My final board is my FAVORITE board in my room!  This is my THANKFUL board!!  I love this board because I give my students a chance every Thursday to record one thing that they are thankful for.  Right now it is very blank since we don't start school until the 12th!  I can't wait to show you what they look like later in the year once they start sharing what they are thankful for!!

Check out some other amazing bulletin board ideas here!!  You can link up with your own amazing ideas too!!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Cassandra

Today I am linking up with my amazing friends Ashley and Angie to bring you this month's #2getherwearebetter post all about Classroom Improvements!!

I am excited for this month's link up because this is exactly what I have been thinking about!!  I am always looking for ways to improve not only my classroom, but myself as well!  I know that I am not a perfect teacher, and I know that I have new things to learn!

I had the joy of getting to move into a new to me room this year!  I have taught at the same school since 2008, and have taught third grade since then.  I am just moving down the hall, as we switched around some classrooms.  I moved all of my stuff into a different classroom on the last day of school, but hadn't been able to get into my NEW room until TUESDAY!!  Yes, as in TWO DAYS AGO!!  Needless to say I was there on Tuesday for 8 hours just moving stuff into my new room!  I did start to get some things set up, but not too much!  One of the things that I want to work on this year is making sure that this area stays CLEAN!!  I downsized my teacher desk AGAIN this year!!  I hate my desk taking up so much room, when I hardly ever work there!  Plus, my students are allowed to use my computer as we only have one other desktop computer in the room!  I need to make sure I keep it clean so they aren't pushing things aside, or leaning over things to work.  I had to leave Tuesday, and this is not clean yet, but it is the beginning!

I was debating getting rid of this piece!  I don't know for sure what I am going to use it for yet, but our maintenance guys said they would paint it for me if I didn't get rid of it, so I agreed!  I went out and bought them the spray paint I wanted, and they said they would paint it!  We'll see how it turns out, and I'm excited to figure out how to use it!  What would you use it for?!  I'm really confused on what to do with that really big hole on the left where there are no shelves?!

My thankful board was really high last year, and students couldn't check out what they were thankful for.  I also had to take down and hang their thankful cards EVERY WEEK last year!  That took SO MUCH TIME!!  This is the only board that I did on Tuesday, because it is my favorite!  I am not done with it yet!  This year I am going to spray paint their hooks as well, so they match of course!!  Then I will put up their hooks, and my signs to go on the board as well!  I can't wait to share this board with them in August and learn what they are thankful for!!

These were SUPER high last year too!  As in so high I had to climb on top of my really high stool to be able to take things off or put things up!  I am debating where I am going to display their work this year, but I know that I want it lower so it is not as hard for me to display their work.  I think that if I had it lower then I would be more likely to change it more often!!

We have Saxon text books, but I am not a FAN.  To be honest, I really don't like it at all. Sure, it does a great job spiraling, but it gives students no time to master ANYTHING, and yes there are word problems, but there is NO DEPTH!!  I know some people are big fans of Saxon, and I respect your opinion, but I am not a fan.  I try desperately to supplement as much as possible!  I'm excited because this year I will have TWO math classes of 14 students so I know I will be able to do so much more with them!  I can't wait to start working on this to figure out how I can push these kids and make them dive deeper!!

Last year I started working on some science and social studies interactive notebooks!  I know that this is something that I want to continue to work on.  The units I did where the students had their notebooks to go with the lessons they did so much better on assessments!  They were engaged, paying attention, and writing!  They wanted to know what was going on, and they were excited.  The lessons where we didn't get to write in their notebooks I was talking to a wall!  I am also excited because from reading Teaching with Intention, Mindsets in the Classroom, and Learn Like a Pirate, I have so many more ideas on how to run science and social studies this year too!!

Finally, and the most important to me, I want to make sure that in every lesson I teach, and every thing I do that my students know that God LOVES them.  I am very blessed to work in a school where I am able to share this with my students.  I don't want to teach it in religion in the morning, and then not talk about it for the rest of the day.  I NEED to make sure that I am more intentional about bringing religion into the other subject areas, and that I encourage my students to dig deep when we pray!

You won't want to miss out on what these other amazing bloggers are sharing on how they are going to make improvements this next year!!  Thank you for taking the time to read through my post!!  I hope that you are inspired to go and think about how you can make improvements too!  Feel free to link up below, but make sure to check out our amazing hosts, Ashley and Angie!!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Cassandra