Workin' It: Back to School

Hey ladies!

It's a Workin' It Wednesday today with Erika and Shay. 

The second Wednesday of each month these ladies share a new topic. 

If you're interested in the topics so far this year or ones to comes, check out the graphic below.

This month we're sharing: 

Ready for Back to School!

I'm a teacher, so I'm all over this topic.

I don't have children yet, and I'm sure life is way more hectic when you're a teacher and have kids to get ready, but for now I'm prepping myself and my classroom.

The whole summer is part of my preparation for myself.
At the end of the school year I'm just drained.
I love it, but I need a break, and that's exactly what I do.

I don't live and teach in the same community, so once the school year is out I don't see anyone until the school year starts again with the exception of some co-workers who I see at lunch dates throughout the summer.
It's nice to just enjoy life.
I turn off my alarm.
I sleep in; I stay up late; I read books for myself; I don't worry about what I need to do for tomorrow.
We enjoy vacations, and I really live up the almost three months of freedom because once school starts I know that I will need to do a million different things and won't take the time to do stuff for me.

So after I have a mental break I do a little shopping for myself.
Here are a few new purchases I made over the summer for myself:

I'm always cold, so a cream jean jacket was a must.
I'm still looking for a regular denim one.

The beginning of the year is so hot when you don't have air conditioning, so I'm going to try out some skirts.

I was in dire need of new black pants and found some that fit without at belt at JCrew.
Hello Winnie Pant!!

Some new black shoes!

Now on to the big part.
Prepping my classroom!!
I read new books all summer long.
This summer I've been reading lots of Holocaust books and books that go with my theme for the year-Overcoming Adversity!

Here are a few that I enjoyed:

I love having the time to try out new books.

I've made a few fixes to activities that I did last year, and I've added some new pins to my Back to School and Bulletin Boards on Pinterest.
Check me out @beabout on Pinterest.

Last week I got my classroom all set and ready to go.

I moved my bookshelves around this year, so it's still a work in progress.
I also got a library scanner system that will allow me to simply scan a book and check it out for a student.

Some new and more middle schoolish posters.
I have an extra bookshelf, so it ended up here.
There are random things on it.
I really need to make it look better, but for now it's there.

Read, Revise, Edit Board
This is left from last year.
I challenge students to find errors in books, newspapers, emails, magazines, tv, snap a picture and send it to me.
It's embarrassing at how careless we are with checking over our work!
I love this real world application!

So I've rested, shopped and decorated. 

Now, I've got to finalize my plans for the first two days, and then I'm set. 

The next two weeks I will be having a Back 2 School Series Linkup. 

If you're a teacher or would enjoy blogging about teacher topics, make your post and linkup. 

I'm excited to read how everyone else prepares for Back to School. 

I'm sure there are a lot of parents who are SO excited. 

Let the year begin!