#MyFavFriday - New Year!

This month, I'm participating in a blog challenge called Blaugust.  To see the list of participating blogs, click on the logo above. I would encourage to you please cheer on our participants with either a tweet or a comment on their blog during this month. It can be hard to blog on a daily (or even regular) schedule! :)  If you would like to join the blogging challenge, you can still sign-up anytime!

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Whew... first week is done!!  Today was our first day with students and to say that I'm *exhausted* is an understatement.  But it was a GREAT day and I'm super excited about this year.

I'm also excited for the return of #MyFavFriday, which is my attempt to reflect on the week in a positive manner that helps me really remember my "why" - as the One Good Thing blog points not, not every day is a good day, but there's something good in every day.  MyFavFriday is similar, but it's a weekly reflection about my favorite moments of the week.  If you would like to join in, feel free - it's probably my favorite blog post of the week as it helps me go into the weekend with a positive attitude. :)

So on to this week's favorites!

My Favorite #Made4Math:

These DIY pencil pouches (made from a zipper bag and duct tape) wasn't my actual #Made4Math post this week, but they are my favorite new thing I made for my classroom! :)

It took me about an hour to make 8 of them, but I just love how they turned out.  Next week will be our first table bucket time, so we'll see how they hold up to teenagers.  But, it can't be any worse than the snack size baggies I had before, right? :)



My Favorite Surprise of the Week:

Yesterday was a challenging day.  Around 2:30pm, a rainstorm came in and by 4pm, it was a massive storm that caused the power to go out in the entire town I teach in.  Thankfully our building has emergency lights and my laptop battery was charged, so I was able to stay and work and wait out the storm before venturing out for my 25 mile commute and to run some errands.

When I finally got home, hubby told me that I had received some mail and I found this lovely card and ladybug bookmarks from a dear friend.  It was so thoughtful of her to send me a quick note of encouragement to start the year and it really meant a lot to me.  Maybe someday I'll be with it enough to be more like her :)   #adultinggoals

My Favorite First Day Activity:

For many years, I have done the Kristen Gilbert activity that @approx_normal (Hedge) and I came up with years ago based on the book Numbers behind Numb3rs.  Every year, I contemplate doing a different activity and every year, I end up falling back on Gilbert because it's one of those activities that the students remember all year long and refer back to in the end of year survey. 

Some groups really got into it this year with some great noticings and wonderings and even some good questions on their exit tickets! :) 


My Favorite Exit Ticket Comment:

However, my absolute favorite exit ticket comment of the day came from this one...

Their exit ticket today was to answer 2 of 3 prompts (Something you learned, something you are looking forward to, A question you have) and I truly loved this student's answer to prompt #2

This kiddo might just be a kindred spirit - pretty notebooks do make a lot of things better, right? :)  Add in some cool fonts and some Flair pens and I'm in! :)



What were your favorite moments of the week? :)