Hello Mrs Sykes

So... several weeks ago I had the amazing pleasure of getting together with some of my NC Teacher Blogger friends.  Since I've been napping   slacking off  busy, this is the first chance I've had to share!  Enjoy!! NC Bloggers!  :) We met at Logan's Roadhouse in Garner - the kind of place you should put your peanut shells on the floor.  Really.  (I think we were all nervous about leaving a mess, so all our peanut shells ended up wadded into napkins!!) So. Much. Fun!  The place was rockin' - possibly due to the fact that everyone else there was going to the Miranda Lambert concert...  Our waiter thought we were celebrating a birthday, since we brought door prizes!  :) For your free Keep Calm and Shine On Labels, click here.  Seriously, this was such a fun group of ladies - we swapped blogging tips, teaching stories (including my Beginning Teacher Story - Fire and Broken Bones ), and got to know each other better. ...

I don't know about y'all, but I am super duper jealous of the blogger meet ups that have been happening over the summer.  If you teach in Central NC and want to join us, email me or comment below so I can send out invites.  No blogging experience necessary - all teachers are welcome to join us as we chat about teacher things.  Not sure what teacher things are?  Here are a few examples: Cheap school supplies;  Teachers Pay Teachers;  Beginning a new school year; Wedding plans (since a couple of attendees are getting married very soon!) How lovely it is to spend more than 4 minutes eating a meal, (with an adult beverage, too!) {source}   Interested?  We will be going to a restaurant at White Oak Crossing in Garner, NC if you want to Google Map it.  Hope to see you August 24!!  :)   Here's a link to the event on Facebook.

Wow!  What a fun time I had at our first NC Bloggers Meet Up.  I met some a-maz-ing people, and we had a great time!  Randi from Teach it With Class organized it, and she is just all sorts of awesome.  We talked for more than 2 hours about blogs, our schools, blogs, our districts, blogs, our students, blogs, well... you get the idea.  :) One of the best things about blogging is that the blogging community is so friendly.  Teacher bloggers ARE teachers, so they are probably helpful and positive (unless you tell us we can vent for a sec with the door closed!!  just sayin'), and the vibe from the blogger group was supportive.  We had a super time at the Mexican  Restaurant; a few of us even enjoyed a beverage, good food, good company, fun. Before I left, my hubby asked me if I was really about to go meet some people I had only chatted with online for dinner.  I realized that sounded pretty bad, but I assured him they weren't all strang...

I was thinking about some of my first year stories last night at the NC Bloggers Meet-Up, and I just had to share... In January, 1998, I started mid year in a small school in rural Eastern NC teaching a 2nd/3rd grade combo.  We had 99% free/reduced lunch, and the school had been taken over by the state... I did my best, and I loved each of the students as amazing, unique, and creative individuals. My first year was filled with challenges; I had a runner (Where did he go?  He ran away from school?  Really?), a biter, several kids whose parents I saw selling stuff on the street corner by school daily, state representatives evaluating my teaching, an inexperienced principal, and a group of students who had home situations that made us cry most days.  I still love those kids!!  <3 One day I walked into my room from a meeting and my students were complaining that someone must have burned popcorn.  I thought nothing of it until I saw the flames.  O...