Liebster Award

I was so excited to view my comments to find out I have been nominated for a Liebster Award from Kaia at Kinder Colors!  The Liebster Award is for blogs with less than 200 followers in order to promote that blog, show appreciation, and hopefully draw more followers.

To accept the nomination you must:

1. Link back to the blog that nominated you

2. Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers

3. Answer the questions posted for you by your nominator

4. Share 11 random facts about yourself

5. Create 11 questions for your nominees

6. Contact your nominees and let them know you nominated them

I nominate the following bloggers:
1. The Pre-Kinder Life
2. Fun in ECSE
3. The Kinder"garden" Teacher
4. Preschool Wonders
5. Flip Flops, Polka Dots, and Pre-K

The answers to Kaia's questions:

1. What's the best teacher tip you've gotten?

Practice, practice, practice procedures at the beginning of the year and be consistent. This will save you lots of stress in the long run if students know what to do and how you expect it to be done. They are less likely to get off track or misbehave if you spend more time on procedures at the beginning of the year.

2. How long have you been blogging?
Less than a month...I am definitely very green at this!

3. What is your favorite blog to read (teacher or non-teacher)?
My favorite blog is Lola at Preschool Wonders. I will be teaching my first year of preschool this year and need all the help, advice, and inspiration I can get!

4. What teaching-related professional development book can you not live without?
This summer I began reading Literacy Center Stations: Making Centers Work by Debbie Diller, which is highly recommended by teachers and now I know why!!! This will save me so much time from creating NEW activities for students to do during Centers every week if I use the resources we already practice together as a whole class or in small group. If students are engaged in the activity and learn a lot from it, why not make it something they can continue to practice for several weeks or until they get bored? Providing several activities they can choose from will also help them from getting off track as well.

5. What is your favorite movie or book?
My favorite movie is A Walk to Remember with Mandy Moore and Shane West, based on the book by Nicholas Sparks. I read the book several years before the movie came out and fell in love with the book too! I don't watch it often because it makes me cry, but it has such a good message.

6. What is your favorite comfort food?
My favorite comfort food is definitely chicken fried chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes, corn and corn bread...half of my family is from the south. Enough said! :)

7. What do you do when you're not teaching or blogging?
I spend time with my husband and son Noah, who just turned a year old in June. I also love to read books and work on craft projects, but these tend to get pushed off to the side during the school year.

8. What's the best kid quote you've heard (or can remember)?
A conversation with one of my students during Field Day...

Me: What would you like to do next? Would you like to get your face painted?

Student: I would like to keep my body just the way it is!

9. What time does school start/end for you?
We start at 8:00 a.m. and are done with school at 3:06 p.m.

10. Do you go to school on the weekends?
Not unless I have to! I try to leave school by a set time every day, get my highest priorities done first, and leave the rest until the next school day.

11. What is your favorite school memory?
I became a teacher because I had a teacher in middle school that removed all of the desks from the classroom, laid pillows on the floor, and decorated the classroom with green tissue paper and vines for our study of Tarzan. This inspired me to think outside the box and create an experience for my students that is memorable!

11 random facts about me:
1. I was born in Germany on an Army base (military parents).
2. My husband and I are high school sweethearts.
3. My favorite time of the year is fall...a new beginning, the colors of the leaves, Halloween, Thanksgiving...I could keep going!
4. I am named after Ashley from Gone with the Wind.
5. My cats are named after Disney princesses...Nala and Aurora.
6. Before I got married my initials spelled ANT.
7. I am addicted to Turbo Kick (any Turbo Jam or Turbo ladies out there?!).
8. I love to watch cartoons and children's movies!
9. I am currently finishing the Guardians of Ga'Hoole series of books.
10. My favorite TV show is Grey's Anatomy!
11. I was on the pom pon squad in high school and love to dance but have never taken dance.

And here are my questions for my nominees:
1. How long have you been blogging and why did you start?
2. When do you get into your classroom for the first time in the summer?
3. If you were not a teacher, what would your career be?
4. What children's book is your favorite to teach with and why?
5. What is the most embarrassing teacher moment you have had?
6. If you could eat one food every day what would it be?
7. What is your favorite classroom theme you have had?
8. What is your favorite blog to read?
9. What is your favorite subject to teach?
10. What color would you use to describe your personality?
11. What professional development book would you recommend?

Thank you for the nomination and I look forward to learning more about my fellow bloggers!