meomeoim

It's Tuesday again!  I don't know how the weeks keep passing by so quickly!  Let's hope that time slows down once my summer break starts!  :)  Anyway, thank you again for voting!  I really love to see what everyone is interested in and I appreciate the time to takes to vote and to comment!  Here is this week's winner... how to change the reading level of your Google search results! Here is the poll... with more than half of you voting for this topic!  If your topic didn't win, be sure to check back next week! Now, onto the tutorial!  This one is actually short and sweet, and it's so easy that your kids can do it themselves!  Now you can avoid sorting through websites that are way too difficult when your students do research projects!   You can download this tutorial as a PDF by clicking this picture! Note: This tutorial is hosted on Google Docs.  To save it from there, just open the file and click File > Download to save onto your computer! I selected this p

Thanks to everybody for their responses so far about the "blog event" I'm planning for this summer. I'm still working out the details of everything, but I really appreciate all the feedback. (If you're unfamiliar with what I am speaking about, check out my last blog: Calling All Bookbloggers & Readers. ) I'm trying to come up with a catchy title for the "event." I'll probably come up with like 80 really bad ones and whine to Eric about it, then he'll come up with one really awesome one. (Fun fact: Eric came up with the names for 3 of the Watersong books, as well as the name of our band, Fraggin Aardvarks. Well, kinda. Jim Henson actually came up with the name, but Eric was one the that decided we should use it.) Anyway, I'm thinking that the "event" will officially run from July 23rd until August 17th. That means I'll have 20 full days of fun event stuff (I'm keeping weekends open). But that's just for myself. I&

Though some of you may be on summer vacation, I'm just coming up towards the end of my school year.  This word family Prezi is the last one for the year!  Click the picture below to check out a fun Prezi for the -ay word family! Come next year, I'll be revamping some of my older Prezis to add animations and creating some new Prezis for other topics!  Until then, check out all of my other Prezis at the link below! And of course, head over to Manic Monday for some other great freebies!

As some of you may know, my newest book Wake comes out August 7th. So I was thinking that I wanted to do some fun stuff with book bloggers and readers over the course of July and August not only to get people excited about the new book but also to show appreciation for all the people who have worked so hard to make my life so awesome (namely, you guys). So here's my question: What are some things that you guys would consider fun? What would you like to see on my blog? And/or what would you like me to do on your blog? I'm considering and probably will do the more obvious things - like giveaways, interviews, etc. I also plan on reaching out to some other YA authors, and see if they would be interested in doing guest posts/giveaways, etc, on my blog. But really, I want to know what you want to see more of. After all, if I'm doing something for you, it would be best if I give you what you want. If you guys have any fun events or blog-iversary type things going on in the month

You guys know my good friend Jeffrey, right?  His author-y name is J. L. Bryan, and he wrote these amazing books about Jenny Pox and some other awesome books about fairies ( Songs of Magic) . Currently, he's having this event called Midsummer Dream Fair (although, it's really more of an Early-Summer Dream Fair, since the first day of summer was like 2 days ago. But "Early-Summer" has less of a Shakespearean/Puck connection). You can check out at the crazy stuff going on at the fair: here. Anyway, he's had tons of fun posts and giveaways and more things than you can shake a stick at (because your arm would get tired from shaking at so many things). Today he has a guest post from me , and it's a very fun interview, wherein I answer questions that nobody has asked me before (for true). Read: here . But I haven't even told you about the best part! Jeffrey is giving away unicorns! UNICORNS! Like super awesome amazing ones! Honest. So go on over, read some stu

It's Tuesday again... which means another Technology Tuesday post!  This week we'll learn how to take any picture that you want and make it into an icon on your computer! I love changing the pictures of my folders to a picture related to the content area!    Thanks again to everyone who voted!   Now here is the tutorial!  It starts with steps to do on both Mac and PC, then it splits off into directions for Mac and directions for PC.Here's the link for the icon converter website that is mentioned below: http://www.icoconverter.com/ You can download this tutorial as a PDF by clicking this picture! Note: This tutorial is hosted on Google Docs.  To save it from there, just open the file and click File > Download to save onto your computer!

It's that time again... time for another Prezi!  This is our second to last word family this year, so there will only be one more after this one (the -ay word family).  Click the picture to take you there! If you haven't seen my other Prezis yet, click the picture below to check them out!

Lullaby - the second book in the Watersong series - will be out November 27, 2012. It originally wasn't go to be out until February, but they're bumping up the schedule, so all the books will be coming out sooner. For those of you unfamiliar with Watersong, here's the description for Wake - the first book in the series: Beautiful. Fearless. Dangerous. They're the kind of girls you envy; the kind of girls you want to hate. Strangers in town for the summer, Penn, Thea, and Lexi have caught everyone's attention, including the eye of practical Harper. But it's her sister, Gemma, they've chosen to be part of their group. Sixteen-year-old Gemma seems to have it all - carefree, pretty, and falling in love with the boy next door. But her greatest passion has always been the water. She craves late night swims under the stars, where she can be alone yet belong to the sea. Lately she's had company. Penn, Thea, and Lexi spend their nights dancing, singing,

All of these Tuesdays are just flying by, and I'm excited to offer another Technology Tuesday post... How to Take a Video of Your Computer Screen!  This has been in the poll for a while and I'm very excited to finally blog about it! Now, if you're doing this on a Mac or a PC, you're going to need two different programs... so I wrote up a walk through for each program!  I'm posting the PC tutorial first, but if you're looking for the Mac tutorial, keep scrolling down! The PC tutorial requires the free program CamStudio, which you can download here . Now... onto the Mac tutorial! You can download this tutorial as a PDF by clicking this picture! Note: This tutorial is hosted on Google Docs.  To save it from there, just open the file and click File > Download to save onto your computer! For the next poll, I'm going to add the option to make your icons into pictures.  I use the icons for my folders for the different content areas just to make it a little cut

Oh my gosh. It's been way too long since I last blogged. But it's been with good reason. I didn't want to bore you. I am in full Batman mode at this point (with a bit of Captain America residue still hanging on from The Avengers ). That means all I want to talk about right now is Batman and how it's only 38 days until The Dark Knight Rises comes out and re-arranging action figures in my office. So I'm trying to spare you from my obsessive nature. It's really me being kind to you. But I do have news now that is unrelated to Batman that I want to share with you. The cover for Lullaby - book 2 in the Watersong series - is ready! I'm going to reveal it on my blog tomorrow, along with other fun info about the Watersong series. Wake - the first book - will be out August 7th, which I kinda can't believe it. Time has been going by CRAZY fast lately. It's one month to my birthday. I'll be 28 this year, which makes me all kinds of sad. I also have my 10 y

The winners for my 300 follower giveaway are Brandi at Success in Second Grade and Lori at Teaching with Love and Laughter !  Lori is one luck lady... she's actually won two of my giveaways in a row!  AND... she just reached 500 followers so she's having a giveaway of her own right now!  Congrats Lori!  And both Bradi and Lori have awesome blogs, so you should check them both out! Thank you everyone else for entering.  Lori and Brandi, I'll send your items right now!  Congratulations again!

Sarah over at Miss A's Kindergarten asked me if I had a blog button code and I actually didn't!  I played around with HTML to make my own, but I was messing up somewhere along the line.  Then, I found this awesome website: It does all of the HTML work for you... and you can even pick custom colors for your code box and text!  All you have to do is copy and paste the completed code to your blog!  Check mine out in the sidebar to see how it looks! Thanks to Sarah for inspiring me to do this! Everyone, please stop by her blog to show her some love... she also has Technology Tutorials (with videos!) so I know you'll love her!

In class lately, we've been working on the key words that tell us to add or subtract when we hear a word problem.  I made some cute posters for these and figured I'd share them in both color and black/white.  Each pair of posters is $1... and obviously much higher quality than the preview image below!  Click each of the pictures to check them out! On another note, how is it June already?  I know I'm a bit late on this one... but here is the Problem of the Day for June/July! If you want to read about the routine, head on over here .  Otherwise, the routine and everything you need to start it is included in the free TPT item!  Click either picture to download! Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you enjoy the new items!  I'm linking up with Manic Monday again... be sure to head there for other great free items!

Are you addicted to laminating?  (Aren't we all!?)  Have you ever wondered "How could I laminate an envelope?"  If so, this is the post for you!  The Technology Tuesday winner this week was "How to Laminate an Envelope!"   This poll was pretty exciting... it had a record 147 votes, and almost half of those votes (46%) were for how to laminate an envelope!  Thank you to everyone who stopped by and voted, I really appreciated it!  And that you also for your comments on my previous post, How to Print On Sentence Strips .  I really enjoy all of your sweet comments! I have to say, I made a silly mistake today!  When I laminated the envelope, I took a picture of it going into the laminator for the tutorial.  But of course, I must have forgotten to save the picture because it's nowhere on my phone!  Even being a "techie," I still make stupid mistakes occasionally! Without further delay, here it is! You can download this tutorial as a PDF by clicking this

Woohoo!  Somehow I didn't even realize that I hit 300, but obviously a giveaway is in order! This giveaway is going to be extra special, as you'll win ALL of the items in my TPT store! Here's a sneak preview of all of the items you can win! Remember, if you want to make an easy collage like this one, check out my Technology Tuesday post here ! Now... are you ready to enter?  You have SIX chances to win!   Here they are! Follow my blog and TPT store - leave one comment Leave a comment on one of my free items on TPT - leave one comment telling me which item you commented on. Check out my other blog posts and comment on one of them - leave one comments telling me which post you commented on. Vote for me for the 2012 Fascination Award for Tech Teacher here .  Votes are via G+1.  Leave me a comment letting me know what name you voted under. Blog about this giveaway - leave TWO comments giving me the link to the blog post. Be sure to leave your email on each post!  This contest