TAG! You're It!

Amy over at The Resource(ful) Room! tagged me.

1. You must post the rules.
2. Post 12 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged.
4. Tag 12 people and link them on your post.
5. Let them know you've tagged them!

12 Fun Facts about me...

1. I graduated Salutatorian from high school...missed Valedictorian by 1/5 (yep, one-fifth!) point.
2. I was talked into entering a beauty contest by my two best friends in seventh grade. I won, BBF #1 won first runner-up, BBF#2 won second runner-up. :)
3. I have been married 28 years June 2012.
4. My darling hubby and I brought our bouncing baby boy home from the hospital on our fifth anniversary! He is our fabulous 22-year-old son who is an assistant manager at Publix and got darling hubby a part-time job (after his welding job was sold out to Mexico...again!).
5. We have three dogs...ever heard of a three dog night? It's that every night at our house!
6. I am now in my sixth year teaching second grade.
7. I have taught PreK, K, first, second, third, and fourth grades as well as third through fifth graders in Art and adults working towards GED totalling 23 years!
8. I love to read and write. I have three children's books on the back burner...can't wait to get at least one published!
9. Walking our doggies in the woods is a favorite form of exercise for darling hubby, son, and me.
10. The school where I teach earned the Bronze Award last year in the state of Georgia for 95% meeting and exceeding on the CRCT! Whoop!Whoop!
11. I bought my friend's $49,000.00 Cadillac (she was going to trade it in for $3,000.) for $3500. It is an awesome car and I was so thankful to have it to drive to Texas when my uncle died and we went to his funeral. 
12. I live next door to my parents and 1/2 mile from my brother. I thank God every day for the days I have with my family..parents, hubby & son, brother & his family, and mother-in-love.

Questions from Amy 1 - What's your favorite season? Spring is my favorite because everything seems so positive...flowers blooming, vacation looming...
2 - What's your favorite book? The Bible is my all-time favorite...so much love there! My favorite work of fiction is Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. She's awesome! I also love the Atonement Child.

3 - What's your favorite TV show? I'd have to say CSI Miami.

4 - How do you celebrate March is reading month? We read all day on March 2 (if it's a school day) or the closest day to it. We also celebrate our reading achievements with our AR program.

5 - Do you live close to your school (work)? I travel about 10 minutes over the river and through the woods to get to school.

6 - What's your favorite thing to teach? My favorite thing to teach is writing. I love the six traits...recently bought the Trait Crate from Scholastic. It's awesome! Songs for the traits which I copied and shared with my little friends for their poetry notebooks. They love singing together to learn information.

7 - How do you track student progress? Our EIP teachers do Probe and Maze to track fluency and comprehension. I use the AR program as well as Guided Reading. I am loving me some Second Grade Word Work by Hope King at 2nd Grade Shenanigans . It's awesome for tracking and teaching spelling and reading. Parents are loving the pretest and the two spelling test options and I'm loving being able to see exactly where my little readers are needing remediation. My school/county is all about pre/post tests for Math.

8 - How do you use technology in the classroom? I have a computer with four stations as well as a Promethean board. I'd love to have some MP3 players ... maybe someday.

9 - Do you use Accelerated Reader? YES! How do you reward kids for points if you do? My students receive a new pencil of their choice from my collection and a ring pop to eat in class when they earn their first five points. For each ten point milestone, they get something out of my huge treasure chest (it's an old trunk). I have a friend who works at the General Dollar who calls me when things go on clearance. I can get some stuff for $0.05. They also donate to me sometimes. :) My school also has AR celebrations each quarter. The first and third quarters are rather low-key. The end of first semester is a grade level planned activity. We had game rotations. The children LOVED it. The grand finale comes in May. We have a Luau with the blow-up slides and bounce houses, water games, loads of fun stuff to do, and snowcones and snacks. It's an all day event!

10 - Do you play sports? what? My only sport currently is blogging! ;) I walk my dogs...

11 - How much time do you spend doing your hair each morning? That's a day by day thing for me. On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, I probably spend 10 minutes with drying and styling. My hair is naturally very straight. Drying it with a little styling gel makes it lie down quickly. Wednesday and Friday are dress down days, so it's a baseball cap for me on warm days. On cool days, I have an assortment of hats from which I choose an appropriately matching one.

12 - Whats your favorite memory from high school? WOW! I suppose my favorite memory from high school would be winning Student Government President, being chosen STAR student for having the highest SAT scores in my class, or graduating Salutatorian and receiving 2 scholarships for college.
People I'm Tagging...

1. Becky at 2nd Grade Rocks!

2. Hope at 2nd Grade Shenanigans

3. Fern at Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas

4. Jess at Rambling about Reading

5. Mary at Pitner's Potpourri

6. Heather at Heather's Heart

7. Kelli at Castles and Crayons

8. K. Mo at Falmingo Fabulous

9. Ginger at Ginger Snaps

10. Erin at Kleinspiration

11. Kim at Konecny's Star Talk

12. Kristen at Ladybug's Teacher Files

Questions for those I've tagged...

1. How did you decide to become a teacher?

2. Did you marry your high school sweetheart?

3. Where would you choose to retire and why?

4. What is your favorite cook-at-home meal?

5. Do you have a teacher "bestie" with whom you plan? Tell about him/her if so.

6. What is your pet peeve?

7. Does your team share everything or do you have some "stingy" teamies?

8. What is one of the funniest stories you can tell about your teaching experiences?

9. Have you ever run into your garage door? (I personally--not my car--did this last week one morning before school and slammed myself to the ground...OUCH!)

10. Do you have pets? What kind and how many?

11. Are you an early bird or a night owl?

12. Where is the most exotic place you've ever been?