Busiest Week Ever (& Skippyjon Jones!)

Okay, maybe not ever, but this will most likely be the busiest week of my summer...

Tomorrow morning I begin a 2 week course / workshop on Common Core math at one of the local universities.  It was offered to up to 30 3rd through 5th grade teachers in two local school districts, plus the Catholic diocese.  I'll have 4 of of coworkers there, so I think it'll be nice to have some familiar faces there and people that know how things go in my building.  This thing lasts all day, Monday through Friday, for the next two weeks!  I've been such a slug on many of these summer days, so getting back into a routine of getting up early and functioning all day is going to be rough!  I'm sure some naps may be in order when I get home!

Why am I doing this?  Several reasons...  I'll admit that the fact that I am getting paid to go to this thing is a huge factor for me.  (I had planned to do a summer school program, but that was super disorganized and I decided not to be a part of that and still wanted a little extra income to boost my savings.)  I'm also getting 3 credit hours, which is great since I'm trying to get to MS+12 on the payscale in the next couple years.  (I feel like an over achiever sometimes when I consider that I never even planned to get my Master's back in the day.)  In addition to those more selfish reasons, I'm also interested in learning as much about Common Core in the next couple years as we inch toward those standards.  (K-2 is moving to CC standards this year, but the upper grades are still going by state standards since those are the assessments we'll be taking...  We'll go through the CC training that the lower grades have already gone through at the end of this coming school year.)

On top of all of this, one of my good friends and former roommate is getting married next Saturday!  I'm super excited for the wedding and for all of the good friends coming to town!  (Two of my besties will be here!  Yay!)  My evenings from Wednesday on will be consumed with wedding-related events and hanging out with my friends!  It kinda stinks that everything falls at the same week in the summer, but oh well, that's how life goes sometimes!

Okay, I'm rambling...  Bear with me. 

I'm easing my way into school shopping mode, though I haven't made any purchases yet for my own classroom.  I was hoping Target would have some of the goodies I've been seeing on the blogs in their dollar section, but as of last night there wasn't anything new yet.  Their school supply department in the back of the store was setup, but no great sales or anything yet either.

Has anyone found any super sweet deals on school stuff yet?  I know it's still early in the game, but I like getting stuff done early.

I popped into Kohl's because I got one of those $10 cards in the mail and after no luck shopping for a dress I didn't need, I spotted the most recent Kohl's Cares display at the front of the store.  (These are the $5 books and stuffed animals where the money goes to charity.)  I don't go to Kohl's a ton anymore, but most of the time when I've seen the books they've been more classic books like Dr. Seuss or Eric Carle.  Right now they have Skippyjon Jones!  My store had 4 books and a variety of animals.  I have a couple of those books, but they're a little below 3rd grade.  (Plus I know the kids and teachers in the lower grades read them, so I don't want to repeat too much.)  I called up my aunt who teaches 1st and he had me pick up one of the books and a stuffed Skippyjon Jones.  She's great at doing cute voices during read alouds and her 1st graders love when she has puppets and stuffed animals to go along with the books.  

Here are the links to the ones they have online...  Everything is only $5 each and the books are nice hardbacks!

• Skippyjon Jones
• Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones
• Skippyjon Jones Lost in Space
• Skippyjon Jones in the Doghouse
• Skippyjon Jones Class Action

Here's an Instagram pic of my little guy I picked up:  http://instagram.com/p/Mz4z0NS2e1/?ref=nf

(For some reason my phone pics aren't loading to Blogger like they're supposed to.)  

I'll try to post some updates this week if I have time.  I'm also hoping to start hitting some back to school sales and I can post some haul pics of the goodies I find.  Let me know in the comments if you've had any successful school shopping yet!  

Happy Sunday!