Congratulations to Mrs. Biel!

We are so proud to announce that Mrs. Biel received the Teacher of the Year award for Swift School this year!  

As you can see from the blog, she definitely deserves it!  She is constantly planning fun activities for our classroom, looking for new ideas and making hands-on centers to reinforce skills.  She definitely doesn't let time or money get in the way of a good idea or lesson!  I couldn't think of anyone more creative or energetic than her!  I had to put together a little something to explain Mrs. Biel to some of you who don't know her...

Here is a little "Get to Know Mrs. Biel" trivia for you...

She is married to her high school sweetheart, Justin.

Her husband is also a teacher.

She has four kids (8, 5, 4, and almost 2) and two dogs- am I leaving out any other creatures?

She loves themes of any kind, and religiously plans parties and events based on themes.

She loves to color coordinate things and has no tolerance for things that don't match.

She is slightly OCD when it comes to hanging things, cutting things out and designing bulletin boards.

Did I mention she loves to party plan? (You can find some of her past party pictures on this pinterest board

She loves to shop (and not just for herself, she especially loves gift giving!).

She always, always, always finds the best deals- if you need anything ask her and she will know where to find it and for the cheapest price!

She is great at accessorizing.

She is a great teacher and an even more amazing friend!

Apparently this puts her in the running for Atlantic County teacher of the year, not sure how it works but fingers crossed! :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We hope everyone had a great holiday break and a happy new year!   As excited as we are to be back it always feels like breaks go too fast.  Unfortunately, Santa brought many families the flu this year which also doesn't make for a very, fun or productive week off! Hope everyone is recovering or didn't have to experience that terrible thing :)

To ring in the new year (and to make coming back to school a little more fun) we hosted a New Year's party to welcome the students back.  Mrs. Biel bought ice cream for the class, we had blow horns, New Years party hats and all sorts of fun props!  We counted down and watched the ball drop on our smartboard to welcome 2013!

We read a story called "Un-Happy New Year Emma" by James Stevenson.  

In the story, Emma resolves to be kinder to the witches Dolores and Lavinia and their resolution is to make her more miserable than they have ever made her before.  It was a perfect way to introduce the meaning of a resolution.  We discussed good and bad examples of resolutions.  We listed some of the better choices on the board, and the students were asked to pick three resolutions that they wanted to make for 2013.  We hung them out in the hallway with our new years display...

We can't wait to see what 2013 has in store, it might just be our best year yet!  Keep checking back :)