Finally, something to TWEET about!

I've been told that my new school is somewhat competitive when it comes to hallway bulletin boards, and every teacher is assigned to two 8'x4' boards (one vertical and one horizontal). So you could imagine how apprehensive I've been about this (I know, ridiculous, right?) I want to make sure mine measures up, but nothing cute or interesting was coming to me (even after a good while of searching on Pinterest and other blogs). Our grade-level theme is "Explore Third Grade" so I want to incorporate that of course. Also, I want my boards to be welcoming to new students. While "researching" I came across plenty of underwater, jungle, and beach themes, but I wanted mine to be original (kind of an oxymoron when you think about it: researching other bulletin board themes to come up with my own "original" idea). Then, while texting back-and-forth with my sister, it hit me! I'll make a bulletin board that mimics a Twitter page! So I narrowed my research and finally found a few pins that were inspirational. Then I set out to design my board on paper first (of course, inserting place holders and descriptions instead of actual content)...and here is what I came up with! Please note that not everything is to scale:

As for my other board, I'm still "researching."

What do teacher's do in the summer?

Many people believe that teachers completely take a break from all things school-related during the summer. NOT TRUE! I love using my summer to re-organize, plan, and prepare for the coming school year. This year, since I am moving to a new school and district, my summer is even more valuable. Here is a short list of my summer to-do's: organize my new classroom (I have to wait until floors are finished), create and update a class blog/website that will be a valuable communication tool between my students' parents and me, create a welcome newsletter and other important beginning of the year tools, design my bulletin boards (for some reason, this is a daunting task for me), study my new curriculum guides, and research other ideas/strategies (using of course Pinterest, educational websites, and other grade-level blogs). Well, so much for summer "break." Let the fun begin!