I think I'm finally rested and ready to give blogging another shot after a 4 year break, ha! :) In all seriousness, I had such high hopes of keeping up with blogging regularly, but life happens and I put it on the back burner.  Since 2012, I've gone from teaching 4th and 5th grade at a suburban elementary school to teaching 5th and 6th grade at an elementary school in Chicago.  This year, I made a giant leap down to kindergarten and second grade and could not be happier to once again be in early primary.  Since the beginning of the year, I've added students in 1st, 3rd and 4th grade and we're having a blast in room 219!!  I have a *much* larger classroom this year which has allowed me the space to bring back a lot of my great teaching tools that I've had in storage for the last year.  That includes my books!! I hated having my 1,000+ classroom library in storage!  Books are meant to be read and reread and reread again! :o)  My caseload this year is a lot different than the past few years and I've been adding in a ton of DIY projects which I have the sudden urge to share here.  I've recently started to explore social media and the online community of teachers and am in constant awe of the way ideas are now shared.  It's amazing how easy it is to connect to teachers all over the country (and world!).  It's left me inspired to be the best teacher I can be.  My hope is that some teachers (or moms! or dads! or siblings! or OT's! or anyone!) can find something here that will be useful in their own lives.  Enjoy!

- Miss Fizzlepatrick