Lucky Liebster Award

My TpT friends, Jackie at Room 213 and Sherri at Literary Sherri, nominated me for a Liebster Award for newbie bloggers.  It's an award that is given to bloggers by bloggers, and I'm psyched to be answering the 11 questions associated with the award.  So here goes...

1.  Why and how long ago did you start blogging?  
The blog you're reading this moment has been in existence since early 2014.  I started it to share ideas with middle school teachers.  However, I spent a couple of years blogging on a fun collaborative blog with my friends on Naptime Notebook.  It's a blog filled with crafts, recipes, travels, and lots of fun adventures.  You can read our most popular post about my son's Lego closet here.

2.  What is one word that sums up the heart of my blog? 
I'm breaking the rules here (such a rebel) and giving two words...MIDDLE SCHOOL.  My heart has always been in middle school, so it makes sense that my blog's heart would be there, too.

3.  Is there something you learned late in your blog journey that you wished you knew before?
Yes, when I first started blogging I never assigned "properties" to each of my images.  Now, when I have a blog image, I make sure to title it with key, searchable words and phrases.  

4.  What is your favorite pastime other than blogging?
I love home decorating and design!  


5.  How many hours a week do you dedicate to your blog?
Well, probably not enough hours.  I'd guess a couple.  However, I'm planning to post more often in the coming months...fingers crossed!


6.  What category of blog posts do you like the most?
Probably classroom management posts.  I love sharing ideas that have helped me to create a structured and super fun classroom. 

7.  Where does your blog inspiration come from?
Actually, a lot of my products in my TpT store inspire a blog post.  For instance, my love of infographics led to me creating an infographic product which led to a blog post confessing my love of infographics.

8.  Which of your posts are you most proud of?
This one...

9.  Is there a post you've been planning to do, but you've been postponing?
I have a running list of possible posts, but there's not a post that I'm necessarily avoiding or postponing...they're just in the que.

10.  What is your favorite aspect of blogging?
If you're a blogger, you already know this, but blogging can be a lot of work.  My favorite part is always pressing 'PUBLISH'.  It makes all the work seem totally worth it.  

11.  Which idea from my nominators' blogs would I like to try?

I'm nuts about Room 213's blog post about Getting More Engagement with a No-Hands Policy.  In it, she provides several ways to increase student attention during instruction.  It's a must-read!

Literary Sherri fulfills her namesake is this great post about simple ways to help struggling readers.  Check it to see how you can make resources more accessible for struggling readers.

Finally, I'd like to nominate the following blogs/bloggers for the Liebster Award:

Leaping Into Learning

Here's an Idea by Lucy S.

Brain Leaders and Learners

Art with Jenny K

Mrs. Beers Language Arts Class

Secondary Math Shop

Secondary Sara

Mrs. E Teaches Math

The Creative English Classroom

The Language Arts Classroom

The Education Highway

If you'd like to accept the Liebster Award, here are the next steps...
1.  Follow the blogger that nominated you.  Give a shout-out with a link back to this post.
2.  Answer the same 11 questions above.
3.  Nominate 11 blogs of your choice that each have fewer than 200 followers.
4.  Let your nominees know that they've been nominated and provide them with your link to a post so that they can accept it.
5.  Send your nominator a link to your post so that she can learn more about you as well!

Thanks for reading and especially for the nominations Jackie and Sherri!