Family, Peek at My Week and a Tieks Update

First and most importantly, this is the first weekend in 6 weeks that my husband, daughter and I have all been home instead of traveling to weddings and back home for ill grandparents/a death in the family. My husband's grandmother passed away just over a week ago. She was a 6th grade teacher for more than 30 years. Three of her four children became teachers, and of all of the grandchildren 5 of them became teachers of which at least 4-5 of their spouses are also teachers...crazy! But this woman was a great inspiration. I was lucky enough to get a phone call from her a week before she passed wishing Ben and I a happy anniversary. She will be missed greatly! My husband's grandfather is suffering from cancer as well and we hope to have him in our lives as long as comfortably possible. A vet of WWII and a community staple from back where we grew up in NY.

Recently, I have been seeing a few of my favorite bloggers posting visual lesson plans. They were of great help to me in the first few week of teaching 1st grade! I decided that I would begin to partake in this great linky party thrown each week by Mrs. Wills Kindergarten. 

I think this is just another AMAZING blog world idea! I can't even imagine what teachers from 20-30 years ago would have thought about all these new ways to share ideas. My favorite part about the visual plans is that when I teach first grade again, I can look at my visual plans and remember where I got everything. Click on the plans above to be brought to the Google Doc where you can click on the TpT items. Next week my goal will be to include my guided reading plans and my literacy/math stations. 

***UPDATE on Tieks: I have had my tieks for a week now and I can say that they are stretching! I wore band aids on the backs of my heals for 3-4 days, and a band aid on the top of my foot near my big toe (which I am still wearing). Not sure if they are just not stretched enough or my feet just need to get used to them. Thank goodness they turned out to be a fit for me! Not sure what I would have done with a worn pair of to small Tieks... My best advice for anyone wanting to order this shoes....order two sizes and wear them around the house to see which pair fits best.