Who has time to put on makeup?

Who has time to put on make up?

The most important question is: should I invest financially in Mally makeup or take my chances at the  drug store. I often jam out the house to get to work early so I can leave early (on time) to be dance/soccer mom alongside soccer/dance dad. We divide and conquer. So, hair brushed,cute outfit,neat makeup don't always happen a few things have made me appear more put together though. They are pixie cut,stitch fix and mally makeup. 

Mally makeup is the best for a couple of reasons. First, off the quality of the products is top notch, these are not drug store quality palettes. I have nothing against drug store make up it is great and the right price point for a teAcher salary. However, since I grew up with brothers very little of my life as a teen or child revolved around make up. So, my skill level in application of make up is very small. I stumbled upon Mally when I was watching a shopping channel. Soundtrack in my head while watching" put your make up on, gets your nails done, grow your hair, run the extra mile keep it slim. Do they like you?" Collie Caillait, yeah, save your money you don't need pricey make up. Mally ,Mally her personality is contagiously she is an excellent sales person, but also she did not have peaches and cream skin, she was an Asian caramel color. I too have a caramel color and find it hard to believe the color  advice of the peaches and cream folks. Sometimes lipgloss/lipstick is completely lost on my skin tone. Then I saw things like this.

Yes, completed organized color kits from Eyes, to brow ,to cheeks ,to lips . Whoa no hunting and pecking through tons of products then applying them like clowns le up. I thought it is worth a shot. Bozo was a clown not a teacher. It was more than my normal make up budget however the product is so good it has lasted for much longer than normal  drugstore makeup  and looked a ton better as well. I bought a kit it lasted almost the entire school year. I replenished over the summer with some fresh summer colors. Mally is really on point with today working woman. I just bought a new kit to create a smokey eye but I don't know how to apply a smokey eye. Well, Mally took care of me and my no make up knowledge by giving me instruction book and labels on the back of the palette in case I forget which I will.

Thank you Mally, I was able to follow the guide and walk out the door 15 minutes later looking put together with my smokey eye. I felt finally like my face and makeup represented who I am on the inside I waked into work the next day with my Mally make up and this  Soundtrack " Say what you wannabe say and let the words fall out,Honestly I wanna see us be brave." Not that I am not brave on no bake up days but this was a fun day. Now,I have not received a dime from Mally this is just my tip to teachers/ moms. Oh, did I forget to mention it lasts throughout the day without making me look like Ricky raccoon because Ricky raccoon is not a teacher. When I come home from soccer and my glamourus folding chair I still look pretty good. So, if you can try it Mally is a time saver and a brain saver( because I have no more space in my brain to learn make up application techniques) Yes, Mally is worth every penny.

Happy  workday mornings!

Who is Michael Haggerty?

I first remembered it from watching a Teach Like A Champion video on joyful learning. Mr. Davis Joy Factor. It was a video with a kindergarten teacher reviewing phonics and phonemics with kinders in a quick joyful way using a flip chart. I was curious about the flip chart. Found out it  might beMichael Haggerty. So, I went on line downloaded the samples and fell in love.  Soundtrack in my head" Darling I will be lovin you till were seventy" Ed Shearan 

Well, he is the creator of this amazing Phonemic Awareness Curriculum, Literacy Resources. So, at the beginning of this year I was faced with a group of lovely little learners. However, many of my lovelys had very limited reading skills. Research time, re design curriculum time.  Soundtrack in my head" Reunited and it feels so good." but not really that good, me and my excel file/planner are not Besties.

I needed to really redesign my small group work because it was not going to meet their needs. I was not going to give them a choice, they just were going to have to decode during small group building up their accuracy was top priority. I also had a large group of English Learners who just were not hearing the English sounds, meaning I need to hit some phonemic awareness hard.

How on earth can I do this without giving them work that looked like kindergarten stuff. Michael Haggerty to the rescue. He developed this amazing Phonemic awareness program for kinders, English learners and Second grade intervention what rewind that is right Second grade intervention.


The design is totally teacher friendly/ mom. I have 2 very active little girls and I wake up early get to work early so I can leave early and drive them around town, soccer, dance etc... It is organized day by day and divided into areas like syllabication, segmenting, onset and rime, it spirals. YES!.  I just call my group back and run through the lesson activities quickly. It is all verbal so no copies needed. Subs and helpers can do it to with little training/explanation.

The lesson that really opened my eyes and made me stick to this was the compound word lesson. Where I say" cupcake" if I take off the cup and add pan what word does it make? Wowzer, the groans the silence, the looking up into the air for answers. Not one of my little lovelys had any idea. I used a little hand motions. Still nothing! I finally gave them the answer. In fact I had to give them all the answers for 2 days. Then they started to get it Whew! but the element was removed from the curriculum plans, they were so relieved. Spiral remember a week or so later it came back and they were grumbling" This one is so hard" but they did so much better.



Now, I also paired this with seriously focusing on integrating Word Studies into our daily plans. I then began to do more research and found Orton-Gillingham which helped them again!! but that's another blog post.


The Results these guys are still struggling with spelling and reading but this last week I really slowed down the spelling test for them and asked them to listen closely to each sound I was saying and they were hearing. It was amazing I saw an instant increase in their scores I really have only one little guy who still has not shown the progress I wish for him so I will really focus on him. All the others, after the prompt" I am going to say the word again look at what you wrote and listen to what I say?" they would go Ohhh! I am missing an l, or that right I hear and r in words like drive (where that r is hard to hear)  Now, That's what I am Talking about!!! Who is Michael Haggerty? A really smart guy who has really helped my kids bridge the gap in their reading and writing. T