Liebster Award and The Horrible Blogger I've Become

Hello there! I have officially accepted that I, Mrs. Grisham, have been pretty horrible at blogging the past 2 months. I have tons of ideas and things to share and if there was a machine that would magically, or scientifically, take all my thoughts and upload them onto a blog without me having to do any work, I'd be a blogging master!! But since I am busy and somewhat lazy, this is not the case. My online to-do list finally required more than one page so I buckled down today and got some stuff done!

Despite my horrible habits the past few months, a few super sweet teacher-bloggers have nominated me for the Liebster Award; an award for new bloggers who are just getting started. Oh my goodness!! Thank you so much to My Life at the Pencil Sharpener, LisaTeachr, and The Owl Teacher. The online teaching community has been so welcoming and getting encouragement from others helps me tremendously!! Thank you so much for the award and I can't wait to share more about myself and pass on the love to some other new bloggers I've been learning and growing with.

                               1. Why and how long ago did you start blogging? 

I blogged personally for a few years, but just couldn't find my niche. I was an avid Teachers Pay Teachers shopper for a few years and this past summer, about 4 months ago, decided to become a seller. I noticed many of the top sellers had blogs so I shut down my personal blog and transitioned to this blog. I am loving it so far! I've met so many other great teachers, am learning ways to improve my practice every day, and I love getting to share my work with others.

                      2. What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why? 
Fun! I love teaching because I get to have fun every day. I want to bring fun and creativity into as many minutes of my students day as I can. I think many teachers have this desire to infuse fun into learning and so I love sharing my fun ideas with others. I get paid back ten-fold in the fun ideas they share with me! Fun learning=engaged students!

                  3. Is there something you learned late in your blogging journey you                                                              wished you knew before?
I'm still pretty new to this journey, but I knew  how powerful networking was when I first started. I'm learning new things all the time from others and could have cut down a lot on my work load if I would have started reaching out earlier. I also seriously wish I had code skills. It's one of my goals to become more fluent is posting and altering html code.

                     4. What is your favorite past time other than blogging? 
Well, I love teaching. Other than that I love being outside. Kayaking is my favorite sport, but I also love hiking. Books, trashy reality tv, and good food are all some of my favorite things too! Oh, and that really handsome man with a beard sitting on the couch next to me :)

                  5. How many hours per week do you dedicate to your blog? 
Please see aforementioned admission of how horrible I am at this. My blogging schedule is definitely still in it's random phase. My goal is 1-2 hours a week. One day!

                      6. What category of blog posts do you enjoy the most?
I love posts with creative ideas that will bring excitement and learning into my classroom without a ton of money or prep work. I also love organization ideas, because who couldn't use a little more organization in the classroom,and book posts sharing new books and how they can be used as mentor texts. I love LOVE food blogs!

                              7. Where does your blog inspiration come from? 
Amy Lemons! She is my favorite! Her classroom ideas are always so cute. She shares ideas that are related to her products, but she also shares tons of free, easy to implement ideas too! I love how real and down-to-Earth she is and how comfortable she is to share news about her family; it's fun to watch her daughter grow up!

                      8. Which post that you've written are you most proud of?
Honestly, all of them. For me I'm simply proud when I've polished and posted something. I have about 10 un-finished posts so the finishing is the accomplishment, lol. 

              9. Is there any post you have been planning to do, but have 
                                             postponing it for a while now?
See above posts, about ten. I have ideas about how I run Reading Workshop and Word Work in my classroom, my classroom economy system, three craftivities we've done so far this year, Dia de Los Muertos stuff,  so many! They all win see their day in the sun though, one day :)

                                10. What is your favorite aspect of blogging?
I love talking and collaborating and I think it is amazing that this platform allows me to do that with people from all over the world. How cool is that!!

              11. Which recipe, project, or idea on my blog would you be 
                                                  most likely to try yourself?
I really like how The Owl Teacher uses the differentiated Monster Math Program as I'm looking for a quick and easy-to-implement daily fact practice method. LisaTeachr has so many ideas I can't even pick a favorite! She is so much more techy in her classroom and I hope to become like that in the future and I do really admire her ability to post quality content so frequently. I'm going to use My Life at the Pencil Sharpeners Writers Workshop launch book idea next week!! We've launched Writer's Workshop already, but I love a good book suggestion!

Wooo, I love sharing! Now here are my nominations to pass the love along! 

1. Jan Hayden: Smiling in Second
2. Grade 2 Happenings
3. Growing Smart Readers
4. The Cutesy Teacher
5. T is for Teaching
6. Life is Everyday Choices

Now its your turn (nominated bloggers) to participate - here are the official "rules" for accepting:

1.)   In your post link back to the blogger who nominated you as a thank you and "shout out".

2.)  Answer the 11 questions given to you (the ones I answered above)

3.)  Nominate 11 blogs that have less than 200 followers each. Provide them with 11 questions (listed above) to have them answer.

4.)  Let your nominees know they've been nominated and provide them with a link back to your post so they can accept.

5.)  Send your nominator a link to your post so s/he can learn more about you as well. (you can just put your post link in the comments below)