Liebster Award Nomination

I am thrilled to say that my little blog has been nominated for the Liebster Award!  This is an award for new bloggers who have less than 200 followers but who have great content and potential.

I was nominated by two bloggers - Christina at Christina's Kinder Blossoms and Joya at Live.Love.Serve.Teach - thank you both for your nominations!

As part of being nominated I have to answer the following 11 questions and then nominate 11 blogs with less than 200 followers.

1.  Why and how long ago did you start blogging?
I love reading posts on all of the different teaching blogs that are out there and they have helped me gain so many ideas for my classroom that I wanted to do the same for others.  Also, a little selfishly, I wanted to get more traffic to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.   I just started my blog this summer (2014).

2.  What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why?
Reality is the word that I would have to pick...and the word that is the main reason that I have such a hard time finding things to blog about.  When I went into teaching I had so many wonderful ideas about what it would consist of.  Then, reality set in and I realized that there is a lot more that goes in to teaching than I ever thought.  I love reading about the cute centers and units that so many teachers are able to do in their classrooms, but the reality of it all is that I do not have the time nor the ability to do those things in my room.  Also, with Common Core as a new reality in many states, and barely any materials for the lower grades, I wanted to provide a blog that gave other teachers in this same position ideas and resources that have helped me along the way. 

3.  Is there something you learned late in your blog journey you wished you knew before?  Write down every.single.idea.  Yea, it sounds simple and obvious - but I would be driving home from school thinking about this great blog post I could do.  By the time I actually got around to writing it, the idea was long gone.  So now I have note cards everywhere that are covered with ideas to blog about! 

4.  What is your favorite past time other than blogging?    
Reading and running.  I love finding a good book and curling up with it.  I get so caught up in the story and feel that each character is a part of my life.  I also love running.  I am terrible at it.  Probably the slowest runner that has ever actually considered themselves a runner.  I get passed by power walkers...yea, I am that slow.  And I have such a love/hate relationship with running.  I hate it when I am getting ready to go, I hate it when I am running, and I hate it the next day when my muscles ache.  But I love the feeling I get when I run a little farther and a little faster.  And I love the feeling of exhaustion afterwards - no room for worrying about lesson plans, what my observation scores were, how much I still need to do to prep for the next day - nope...no room to worry about anything.  

5.  How many hours per week do you dedicate to your blog?
Not enough.  I have a very hard time finding things to write about that other bloggers want to read about (in my mind).  That is one of my goals - to dedicate more time to my blog and to get better at actually posting!  

6.  What category of blog posts do you enjoy the most? 
I love teaching phonics, creating resources for phonics and posting about phonics.  I also love reading about what other teachers do with phonics.  One of my current obsessions is interactive notebooks!  I also enjoy posting about organization in the classroom.  I love finding new ways to organize the countless materials that we have as teachers.

7.  Where does your blog inspiration come from?
 My classroom and my students.  I love what I do and I love the students that I work with.  They are the ones that keep me inspired (and give me things to write about) .

8.  Which post that you've written are you most proud of?
One of my favorite posts (because of how much it has helped me this year) is about how I organized my unit materials {here}.  I love this method so much that I am currently in the process of storing my reading, math and language materials the same way.

9.  Is there any post you've been planning to do but have been postponing it for awhile now?
 Well, if you looked at my note cards full of ideas there are a million different ones!  I had been postponing posting about the phonics books that I have been working on but finally got around to it in my Five for Friday post {here} - it is number 5! 

10.  What is your favorite aspect of blogging?
Being able to document everything happening in my classroom.  I like being able to go back and look at my earlier posts.  I can't wait until a few years go by and I am able to look back at some of my first couple of posts!  It is almost like a diary of everything that happens in my classroom and I love that it is all written down.

11.  Which recipe, project, or idea on my blog would you be most likely to try yourself? Considering that I was nominated by two fabulous bloggers here are the two ideas from their blogs that I would like to try:

From Live.Love.Serve.Teach I can't wait to try the Splat game for rhyming.  I have a few students this year who struggle with motivation - and any type of game I can find helps with this.  I know that they would absolutely love this game!!
  
From Christina's Kinder Blossoms I am loving the Pinch Cards idea and can't wait to try this with my students!  We use dry erase boards so much that they start to lose their luster.  I think that these pinch cards would be a great way to throw in something new and exciting. 

Now it's time for the nominations!
 
 1.  Zoe at Oh the Little Wonders
 2.  Paige at Paiges of Learning
 3.  Kristin & Lindsey at 2 Literacy Teachers 
 4.  Whitney at First Grade Round-up
 5.  Kelly at Lattes and Lunchrooms
 6.  Allie at The Positive Teacher
 7.  Abbie at Steppin' up the First Grade
 8.  Allyson at Going Strong in Second Grade
 9.  Jasmine at The Dots of Teaching
10.  Ana at Mrs. Bentin's Blackboard
11.  Ashley and Jana at We Heart 1st 
 

I hope the nomination brings you more followers and readers (and I hope I only nominated blogs that qualify - I checked and triple checked!).  I enjoy reading your blogs and connecting with you!

Now that you've been nominated 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 or have them answer the questions above.

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