Currently May

I seriously can't get things done on time! It's May 3rd and I'm just now getting to linking up with Farley for this month's Currently! Aside from that, I can't believe that it's already May and we have one month until school is out! Excited for a break and also looking forward to finishing up my first year as a Literacy Coach. Anyways, without further delay...here's what's up with me this month!

Listening to....What Does the Fox Say?

Okay, do you know this song? If you teach school, you have to! It all started out during our Chiberia winter. We had to get creative with indoor recess. (When I say we, I mean our classroom teachers, namely Jennie B!) Anyways, she and her coteacher had their kids doing Just Dance during indoor recess. So, I saw them doing this dance one day:

And then, well it became a thing, and then we had a talent show and so it ended up being the Grand Finale and I love, Love, LOVED it!!

As you can see, the fox now holds a special place in my heart, and so do all those third graders and their awesome teachers!

Loving....Twitter!
Twitter is so amazing. As a blogger, I find Twitter to be a blog on the go and...as Literacy Coach who is in and out of various classrooms all week, I always have my phone and snap pictures of the work I see kids doing. Then, they go into instagram and then off to the Twitterverse. My district is 1:1 and so lots of our teachers are on Twitter. It's so cool to see what's going on in all the classrooms across the district and also show off the great things that are happening at Emerson.

Regular school events in our district are even more amazing now, thanks to Twitter and our awesome tech team. As I mentinoed above, our talent show was on Thursday, and we had a Tweet Deck set up, with live tweets put up on a screen throughout the show. As parents and teachers watched, they tweeted about what  they thought, which was then posted up on a screen for all to share. All you need  is a hashtag! I love the Tweet Deck! If you're on Twitter, go check out our hash tag #RAWRS2014 to see what everyone was saying! Here's a sample....

This is just the tip of the iceberg, though. I follow lots of professional educators who always post great articles, like this one that says teachers dominate Twitter. (I had no idea!) So so awesome.

Follow me @BigTimeLiteracy!

Thinking....about the Kentucky Derby and the hat I'm going to wear today?

I'm meeting some friends out this afternoon to watch the Kentucky Derby and the place we're going is having a "Best Hat" contest. I love accessories! I would like to say I'm going to pull off something like this:

but yeah, probably not. So I'll be sure to post a pic next week with what I end up with!

Wanting....my new blog design to be finished!

I know, it's a process and I'm taking my time with Kassie at Designs by Kassie, but I'm so excited for the big reveal! Here's a little hint: I built the whole theme around the Chicago flag:

Soon, my friends....soon! I'm so so excited!

Needing....to get down to business in the exercise department!

I need you all to tell me things so I will feel the motivation to get to exercising - maybe run around the block a few times? I have a 5K coming up in about a month and a mud run in two months and I seriously haven't really done much of anything, including go to a yoga class that I've been paying for for the last 5 weeks and not attending.

Mostly, I've been blaming it on the weather (it's still so cold and rainy here in Chicago) but it's also hard to go after working a long day. All I want to do is come home, write, watch some TV, relax and unwind. But, I can do it! Anyone else fall into similar habits?

Surprise....Literacy Without Worksheets!

This blog caught my attention because I love the name of it - Literacy can and should be done without workbook pages or random, meaningless worksheets!

But, this blog is more than just a name - her blog design is so clean and cute and she posts great stuff - like inspirational quotes, and I loved her Somebody Wanted But So Then freebie she posted a few weeks ago. So, make sure you run over to Literacy Without Worksheets and check out Bridget's blog!

That's all for me here at BigTime Literacy! Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week and I'm going to join in a blog hop with some other fabulous bloggers! We'll have some giveaways so don't forget to stop back by!

Have a great weekend!