My Spring Resolutions (linky + printable)

Spring Break officially started for me yesterday with cleaning and decorating the living room.

If you are a regular reader of my blog you might know that I set seasonal resolutions and turn them into a printable.So this time my resolutions are not only because spring has sprung but also because I'm enjoying my Spring break so no reason to procrastinate:)

Brigid at Brigid's Daily Lesson Log is hosting a "Spring Break Bucket List Linky" so I decided to join the fun going on there and share my Spring Resolutions with my Blogger Colleagues.

So here's the list of my Spring Resolutions that I tried to make more achievable this time:)

You can have the template for free as a JPG file in case you are interested in filling in your own list.The flower graphics used in the printable are from http://www.dees-deelights.com.

I'm also linking up with Traci from The Bender Bunch

NEW YEAR BLOG SWAP by Simply Stavish

Today Mindi from Simply Stavish and I are swapping our blog posts and sharing with our New Year Resolutions.
We are both participating in the New Year Blog Swap hosted by A Grande Life and got matched up out of 26 bloggers to swap blog posts. 

With a new year, comes the desire to want to try new things and meet new people. I am excited to be participating in the New Year Blog Swap hosted by the lovely Steph of A Grande Life. 

One of the ideas behind the New Year Blog Swap is to get to know a blogger who is new to you. I immediately was drawn to Lusine's blog posts, particularly all the wonderful teaching printables. I'm a sucker for printables that I can use with my own children or my patients during speech therapy. 
 One of my many goals for 2013 is to improve my photography skills. Last year I set out to learn how to finally shoot in manual mode. After taking a four week class in February, I slowly improved my skills. I love shooting in manual mode, but have so much more to learn. Since the goal of "improve my photography skills" is so broad it's time to narrow down what I want to learn.

 1. Set my white balance before shooting- I purchased a gray card last spring and have yet to actually use it. I have watched several videos on how to set the white balance, but haven't taken the time to pick up my camera and do it! Instead, I spend countless minutes fixing the white balance with every single photo. I really could be saving myself a step in editing if I just learn.

 2. Take more photos of myself with the boys- I bought a new tripod last summer to take photos of a gorgeous sunflower field. I didn't even use it for the shoot, but have pulled it out a handful of times since. This year I want to learn how to take better photos of the boys and I together, using my tripod. This time with them is precious and we need more family photos together. Sadly we didn't even get one family photo of us during Christmas.

 3. Find a great location for sunset photos and learn how to take amazing sunset shots. 

 4. Complete Project 365, posting all my photos for the week to my blog. I am finding winter to be such a hard time to be inspired to take photos. The light in my house is not great and there isn't a whole lot of scenery around here in the winter. At least if it snowed a few times I could get some fun photos of the boys in the snow. Not to mention some great shots of the sights of DC covered with snow. Sigh...a girl can dream, right?

 I think those are more than enough photography skills for the new year. They should keep me plenty busy! Since I feel that a blog post isn't complete without at least one photo, here are a few of my boys over the past weekend. Xander, my oldest, will be four in just a month. It's hard to believe how fast time goes!
  Noah, my youngest, will be two in April. He has started using full sentences lately and it just makes me smile.  

Thanks for letting me crash your blog Lusine. It's great to mingle with other bloggers and I loved all of your new year blogging resolutions.

12 in '12 (Linky Party)

Hadar from Miss Kindergarten and Kristen from

A Teeny Tiny Teacher are throwing a second annual 

Linky Party.

All you have to do is think back at your favorites in 2012, add a few pictures and create a blog post sharing your favorite 12 things in 2012.What a fun way to remember the year,right? 

My 12 in '12

12. Favorite movie you watched:

''Skyfall'' was the first James Bond movie I ever watched and just loved it.
I loved the actor and loved the soundtrack too. It made me watch the previous 007 Agent film, "Casino Royale", too.

11. Favorite TV series:

I prefer more TV shows, and this year I discovered "The Voice" and just enjoy watching "The Voice" of different countries.

   

10. Favorite restaurant:
I don't go out much and don't have a favourite restaurant.
 I have a sweet tooth so I always prefer going to Cinnabon,Yogorino or Starbucks.

9. Favorite new thing you tried:

I started creating some simple clipart playing with the shapes.
I shared them on my Facebook fan page.

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8. Favorite gift you got:

Thanks to my husband and God I had the opportunity to travel to Spain for the first time.

It was the gift I had been dreaming of for 10 years.

7. Favorite thing you pinned:

Lots of them.Everything I pin is because I just love it.
Just have a look at my Pinterest Boards

6. Favorite blog post:

Really hard to choose but I loved my
Word Families wheels

 and My Seasonal Resolutions

5. Best accomplishment:

My Facebook Fan page and its followers.

4. Favorite picture:

I am mastering photography so have had a lot of cute photos recently.But I will choose the best family pic we've had since the birth of our son:)

3. Favorite memory:

 I don't wanna make you bored but IT IS my trip to Barcelona

2. Goal for 2013:

Try to accomplish some of my resolutions and keep doing what I love to do.

1. One Little Word:

Choose one word that you will focus on in 2013.
My word is "patience". I do need it both as a mother and as a teacher!

4 THINGS I AM GOING TO TRY FOR THE FIRST TIME

Ms. M  from Tales from a Kindergarten & First Grade ELL Teacher is hosting a very interesting Linky Party asking us the teachers( and not only) to share 4 things we're going to try for the first time in our class for the coming school year.

With so many ideas and inspiration coming from all the blogs I follow and from Pinterest I used to suffer for not being able to implement most of them in my lessons for 2 reasons

-the big number of students in class, ranging from 34-40

-teaching ESL only twice a week

1-So one of the biggest problems will be solved for the coming year.I am going to teach ESL 3 times a week.Can you imagine how many changes it implies?

-It means I will have time and make activities for all the holidays and implement all the ideas I have gathered for 4 years.

-It means I am going to finish the book instead of getting just to the half of it.

-It means my first graders are going to have copybooks besides workbooks.

2-The textbooks I have been teaching with have undergone some good changes I used to kind of complain about.They became more fun and engaging(phonics chants,more reading) and I am very excited to try them the coming year.

3-On the first day I am going to try an About Me activity with my 3rd graders which I am also going to repeat on the last day of school thus making it as part of an End of Year souvenir.


 4- And at last I am determined and ready to start the Birthday Routine I have been thinking of for a long time, something simple but yet memorable to make my students' birthdays much more special.

1o things I Saw On Pinterest (Linky Party)

I am 100% a PINTEREST girl,everything should be visually pleasng to the eye  even if there's a mess inside the drawers:)
As the summer vacations are around the corner, it's high time to highlight my teaching related top 10 pins that I am really determined to try and create during the summer vacations.
Amer from Adventures of a Third  Grade Teacher is hosting a pinterest inspired linky party so I am joining in.

1-Dry Erase Boards

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2-Teaching Adjectives and Character Traits ideas.

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3-DIY stamps

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4-Question Words and Exclamation Words posters 

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5- Teaching Emotions Idea + a song 

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6-DIY grade button display 

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7-Teacher Appreciation Gift Idea with a cute poem(would love to receive and give) 

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8- End of Year Student Gift Idea 

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9-First Day Photos 

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10-Father's Day frame

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I am also joining

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MY FAVOURITE FONTS (Linky Party)

If you read  my ABOUT ME page,you might know that I am obsessed with F.O.N.T.S.
I love creating cute printables using cute graphics and fonts (e.g. MY FAVOURITE QUOTES).It might take me 10 minutes to create a worksheet but half an hour to choose the font out of the tons of fonts I have:)

Natalie from Teachery Tidbits is hosting a Linky Party

My Favourite Fonts are numerous so at this post I will only focus on the ones I've been currently using in my blog and on my worksheets

1. Carribean's Treasure- I used this on my Blog Button

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2. Baroque Script - I always use it as my signature on my handouts

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3. Respective - I used it as my blog's Signature

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4. Escolar2, Cursif, Lilly I use these to make my students practice good handwriting

Escolar2 source

Cursif source

Lilly source

5. My Font isnt funky enough

Sue Ellen Francisco

Doctor Soos Bold

Designer Notes

are my current favourite handout fonts.

My font isn't funky enough source

Sue Ellen Francisco source

Doctor Soos Bold source

Designer Notes source

6. Sail and Pacifico

are ideal for awards

Pacifico source 

Sail source

But ... my current most favourite one is

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It's so recent that I didn't manage to make any worksheet or printable using it:)

BTW,

Thanks to some of the bloggers I have recently discovered wordmark.it 

which will from now and on help me save time when trying to choose the font.

Just type your word or the sentence and get a visual display with all the fonts 

available in your computer.

Have a look at mine here

MY SUMMER RESOLUTIONS + freebie

Haidar from http://www.miss-kindergarten.com/ , Teri from http://acupcakefortheteacher.blogspot.com and  April from http://www.amodernteacher.com/ are throwing a Summer Bucket List Linky Party

I had already planned to post my Summer Resolutions printable on the first of June but this Linky Party changed my plans.
So here I share with my top 10 Summer Resolutions concerning both my family and teaching!

1.If you have read my profile you might know that I speak Spanish and am in love with the Spanish culture so I'm super excited about my summer trip to Barcelona where my sister lives.

2.I am terribly afraid of heights and my husband has been trying to persuade me for years to take a cable car that takes you to the most sacred place in Beirut,to Harissa,so I have decided to surprise him this summer:)

3.Have started potty training my son together with the nursery though not yet very successful.Have to do this by the end of summer as he will start attending kindergarten from October.

4. I used to keep a diary jotting down the most interesting and memorable events and have so much fun reading it now.So this summer I want to go back to it.

5. My husband calls my laptop a labyrinth and claims one will never be able to find anything there.I am really determined to make all my folders and files super organized this summer.

6.What about my teaching files and papers it's a real challenge as I've been procrastinating for 2 years.This summer I am going to make this happen too!

7.I'm so much into blogging that can't do with only one blog.Have found a great free template and have some great ideas to put into my second blog.

8. I have already started this and have lost lots of weight in just 3 weeks.The secret is so simple:I started JUMPING A ROPE and cut down on some food ,especially bread and tried not to eat in the evenings.

9.I have been planning to make and publish a "Summer Activities"book for my students to have fun with during the summer vacations for 2 years.Have already got enough material to make it happen too!

10.I hate making a year lesson plan,just can't keep up to it and used to think that it's useless to do it.But I am starting to think that it can make my teaching much easier that's why I am going to do it.

I hope you kept reading and made it till the end to my longest ever post:)

And here's time for the free Summer Resolutions printable.

Fill it in with your Summer Resolutions and hang up at a visible place!:)

Download the PDF file below

MY SUMMER RESOLUTIONS (printable)

I'm linking up with

I would recommend you to check out 

all the freebies that teachers share there