Proud to be an Indiana Blogger & Getting Acquainted!

I’ve been meaning to jump into a few linky parties for awhile now. I love the chance to get to know other bloggers! :)

First of all is Latoya’s Let’s Get Acquainted linky.

For this one, you write about one thing you like that starts with each of your initials. Here goes!

J is for Journeys.

I love traveling! I haven’t done as much as I’d like, but I really enjoy getting to see the different kinds of nature in different areas. This is a picture of me horseback riding through the Garden of the Gods in Colorado. The ultimate travel goal? Visiting the rainforest in Costa Rica!

A is for Animals (especially Amphibians)!

I have always loved animals. Frogs are my favorite (as you can see in the photos of my frog-themed classroom), and I collect them. My students always find me little frog things, and it’s adorable. I love all animals, though- especially my doggies!

G is for Green Bay Packers.

I’m from Indiana, but my mom’s side of the family is all from Wisconsin so I was born and raised a Packers fan. My husband is a Bengals fan, so between the two of us, we watch football all Sunday, every Sunday. We may or may not have camped out at B-Dubs for 8 hours straight… multiple times. My favorite player retired this year, but I’m a Cheesehead through and through!

I also had to link up as an Indiana blogger :)

U.S. and Canadian bloggers, you can link up here at Fifth in the Middle!

One more note while I’m here… for those of you who are new followers, you might have missed a few freebies and posts from around this time last year! Click each photo to check it out.

- A lesson I plan on bringing out next week, when we’re back in school… Symmetry is Egg-Citing! (So excited!)

- An interactive spring measurement freebie for these great hoppers I found at Target last year (or origami frogs!)

- A freebie collection of measurement songs to help with remembering conversions.

I hope you found something useful! :)

Managing Library Books- Easily!

I love my specials teachers. My kids go to music, art, gym, and library each week.

This sign from Ladybug's Teacher Files. My room is slowly being taken over by her products :)

Library is sometimes tricky because in a half hour, kids need to return or renew books, learn from a lesson, and pick out and check out new books. Our librarian has terrific parent volunteers that help with checking books in and out while she teaches, but she also has some great management ideas that make it all run smoothly.

Each class has a rolling cart labeled with the class name.



I slide this under a table during the week and pull it forward on library day, complete with a bright sign (just construction paper folded over with some tape to slide over the handle) to help kids remember to turn in their library books on Thursdays.




Easy peasy.



If someone wants to renew a book, they can tape this little note next to the barcode. (Another teacher showed me this- brilliant!)



Our class librarian brings the books down just after the announcements, so a parent volunteer can start checking books in even before our library time.

It’s seamless! We also have lunch bins like the one below for lunch boxes to be easily toted to the lunchroom (since our kids go straight from recess to lunch) and easily toted back to the room by our Lunch Bin Movers.



I love that people at my school have come up with such great solutions to “stuff” problems! Do you have anything like this to make your daily routines more convenient?

How to Create a Facebook Page for Your Teaching Blog

I wanted to start a Facebook page to go along with my blog and store, and this is what came up.



Aaaaah! Too many options.
 
Luckily, I could eliminate everything on the bottom... but any of the top 3 *could* make sense for a teacher blogger/ seller. So what do you do?

Since I thought someone else might go through this same confusion, I thought I'd post about how I started a Facebook page for my blog and TpT store.

Like any self-respecting blogger with a question, I googled it. And thankfully, I found a blog post that broke things down for me. Anne has a fantastic chart explaining what types of information you can add for each type of page. (I would love to post her chart here, but that doesn't seem fair, so please click over to her blog to see it!)

One of the main differences about a local business page is that it mostly lets you give information for a physical address (hours, location address, etc.)- and of course, I don't have a physical store. It doesn't really make sense for me, then.

Now I'm down to two options. I looked carefully at what fell under "Basic Info"- what someone could see initially on the home page, without clicking for more information. A Brand or Product page will let me give an "About" description on the home page- which is important to me.

But on the other side, the Company page would give me the option of adding my email in the contact information, which I would really like to have.

All things considered... I think Brand or Product is the better fit. I'll just have to add my email in somewhere else!

I chose website as the category, and then put the name of my blog.



From there, they walk you through choosing a profile picture, writing a description, and linking websites to your page. (I chose my blog, TpT store, and Pinterest.)

Once you have this, they walk you through the parts of the page, which I found really helpful. It shows how to use the page with little pop-ups. (So if you aren't too Facebook-savvy, they will help you!)



Another thing I really like is that I chose to create this page while logged in to my personal Facebook account. Now, the two are linked- but they show me at the top of the page that I'm "being" Luckeyfrog's Lilypad right now, and I can click to change to my personal account. I like that I won't have to log in and out to post on my personal profile or my blog profile.



So, now you'll have an Admin panel. This is only because you're the "admin" of this page. This way, the notifications, messages, and likes are all in one place.




It looks pretty simple from here!

A few quick tweaks, and now I can refer you straight to facebook.com/LuckeyfrogsLilypad!

Annnd there's one thing off the to- do list for Spring Break! Looking forward to interacting with some of you more :)

P.S.- I also added a "Follow By Email" button to the side when I updated my blog design, so if you'd like to get an email every time I write a new post, be sure to sign up over there!

P.P.S.- 500 Follower Giveaway coming up soon... (let me know if you want to help! :)