I know I am completely biased, but I think my students are just THE BEST kids in the world!

You can keep up with our day-to-day classroom happenings by following our social media accounts - @tweetingtopdogs on Twitter and @topdogkids on Instagram! You can also follow our brand spankin new district hashtags #WFPSlearns and #WFPSchools. The kids post some really great content about what we are learning and up to! Here's a sneak peek at some of the pictures our IG page! Be sure to scroll all the way down for individual pictures of each of my kids!

One of us is a real Bison fan - can you guess who? :)

Lucas is a hugger and a big fan of duck lips in pictures! :)

Adelei has just the biggest, sweetest heart! She requested an early morning #selfie the second day of school!

AJ found me at the Sheyenne Mustangs football game!

Adelei

A.J.

Audrina

Lexi

Ava

Ava

Jeremiah

Jack

Liam

Branton

Layton

Keaton

Landon

Spencer

Aubrie

Kylie

Lucas

Sam

I am so incredibly lucky and honored to be working with a fabulous little company called Creative Teaching Press this year! They have completely decked out my bulletin boards and you get to have a sneak peek right here, right now!

A full classroom reveal with a periscope is coming soon... hopefully next weekend! I do not have any traditional seating this year in my classroom, and I do not have a seating plan or assigned seats. Kids make choices each day about where they will do their best learning. One week into school, I could never go back! It is my goal to continually revitalize learning and the classroom environment. I want our classroom to look more like a cozy Starbucks for kids, and less like a traditional classroom.  If you've never checked out my amazingly talented friend Erin Klein's website Kleinspiration, I won't be offended if you leave my page and go check it out right now. She is a classroom design guru, and my inspiration!

I'm working with my editors at EdSurge, and my next article will be all about 21st century classroom design and flexible seating. Stay tuned for that article to be published sometime in September!

Here are some fun pictures featuring some of the awesomeness CTP sent me! :)

I LOVE the paint chip border and I paired it with everything!, including this red scalloped border. Both come from the Painted Palette design line.

Here is the paint chip border with a purple scalloped border! I'm loving the layered effect.

These calendar numbers are perfect for me! Super low maintenance and I won't have to swap them out each month - just move them to the next space! :) They are from the Chalk it Up! design line.

This board is my favorite! I paired the lime green scalloped border with the paint chip border on a black tablecloth!  It's so much cheaper than fabric and it looks really nice! The social media header is perfect for my kids too! They hashtag all sorts of stuff on our social media accounts - @tweetingtopdogs on Twitter and @topdogkids on Instagram!

Here's a peek from a little farther back at the layered borders. This is just inside the door when you walk in the classroom.  I bought the huge chalkboard at Hobby Lobby and wrote the saying on it myself. I think it is PERFECT for our classroom!

Here's a peek at all the scalloped borders they sent me! I'll be using the other for hallway displays of kid work!

They also sent me this goodness and we will be using it for our Genius Hour Wonder Wall! Stay tuned!

Thank you so much CTP for hooking us up this! You make our classroom bright and inviting, and a place where kids love to learn! A few things they are sending me were backordered, so I'll post more on those amazing things when I get them! Stay tuned for a full classroom reveal soon! To see more ideas about how to use CTP products in your classroom, continue along our Exclusive Blogger hop to Mrs. Price's Kindergators!

Greg Smedley and I have launched a new monthly show and podcast we host using Google Hangouts (#gregandkayla) and on our first show, Greg got up on his soapbox and talked about how the conversation circling education on the news and social media is often negative. This is so sad, because we all know as educators that incredible big things and small things are happening in our schools every single day. We are on the front lines of amazingness each and every day. It's time to stop being ignored. Let's share that stuff out! As teachers, we need to stick together, lift each other up, and SHARE what we are doing. We are all in this to improve the lives of KIDS!

Well, George Couros challenges schools to post awesome things happening in school to school hashtags, which is where we got the idea. He is sort of a brilliant genius. Go follow him right now on Twitter @gcouros if you haven't yet. Greg and I thought about his challenge, and racked our brains for  a lonnnnnng time about what we could do globally to unite us all as educators.

Enter....#happyclassrooms.  

If all of the followers on my social media accounts shared just positive ONE thing to the #happyclassrooms hashtag daily, the impact would be huge... like tens of thousands of posts in just one day HUGE! Multiply that by one week, one month, or one year. Combine that with Greg's followers and we are talking tens of thousands of posts each day! Now, combine that with the thousands of teacher friends you all have! Do you see how awesome and easy this will be? It's time to multiply our presence on social media and take over the conversation.


So, let's do it! Can you help us out? Here's your challenge. Each day post on thing to your social media accounts (IG, Twitter, Facebook, whatever!) that shows happy kids in a happy classroom! Show the amazing learning, engagement, and motivation happening! Show the determination and grit that happens each day in schools. Share it all out! Disclaimer: do not actually posts pictures of kids faces if you don't have parent permission yet. PLEASE make sure you user hashtag #happyclassrooms, so other teachers around the world can see it all too! We are thrilled that some of our #aussieED friends have already joined in on our campaign. It's going global and blowing up social media. This school year, keep sharing it all out! It's time to own the conversation happening about education.

Please spread this mission to your education friends, but more importantly, share to our hashtag.

#happyclassrooms
#happyclassrooms
#happyclassrooms
#happyclassrooms