Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland in SoCal {A Blog Hop!}

Welcome to sunny and chilly California and my blog! I am so happy to have you here! There are big things in store for Research and Play in 2015, and I'm excited for the chance to share that with y'all! But first, here's a little about me: Tennessean at heart, former Coloradan, and recently transplanted Californian, dog mom of 2, fifth year of teaching (almost all in kindergarten), doing life with a rocket scientist. This is my first winter in SoCal! And it is WAY COLDER than I expected! But at least it doesn't look like winter outside...

This was taken down the road in El Segundo. I was driving home from school, and I just pulled over and stared for a minute, not quite believing what my new normal looks like! Still weirds me out sometimes!
I am looking forward to spending my first full year in California. This year feels like it's going to be a very good one, and I'm going to try my best to make it that way! I'm usually awful at creating resolutions and seeing them through. This year, I've instead decided to have goals. Goals feel more 'real' and doable. And I think a goal is something you can continuously work on! I want to feel successful this year, so my goals are really simple yet meaningful to me. So here they are!

Be courageous, don't give up. No matter if I think something will take a long time, require a lot of effort, cause me some stress, or be slightly inconvenient! I don't want to give up on things when the going gets tough, because I've been known to do that more times than not.

Be positive and assume positive intent. It's so easy to be negative, isn't it? But it feels so much better to look at the actions of others in a positive light. So I'm going to try to be positive with myself (confidence), positive with my outlooks (things aren't as bad as they seem!), and assume positive intent with others. We're all in this together!

Be intentional with my words and actions. My previous principal used to always say "be intentional." With your words, actions, lesson plans, responsibilities, personal life, classroom environment. I felt such a connection to that because it felt so obvious but was also so tricky at the same time! I think that will be the one goal that will be the hardest to achieve.

I'm working on being more intentional with the things that I give to my students for practice, so I've been intentionally creating some new things for my students and hopefully other people's students! One of the creations I started working on during winter break was my Winter Phonics and Math Packet for TpT. Click on the photo below to grab it or click here!

If you'd like a little sample of my packet, click here to grab your freebie or click on the image below!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and come back soon! Don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin, click the link on the sidebar! Now, check out the super creative Kristen at Easy Teaching Tools for her wintry post!


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