WOW! 200 followers, linky party, and FREEBIE

Shut the front door....I have reached 200 followers!!!

Can you tell that I am so so excited!! Thank you for including me as a part of this teaching blog collaboration community. I truly feel so honored & blessed! So I am in cahoots with some fellow bloggers to bring you a B-I-G giveaway in a few days. I am hopeful to get everything set up & organized by Saturday, so keep on the look out. You won't want to miss this!

Today I'm linking up with Sheila from Sprinkle Teaching Magic for her linky party about our personal blog journey:

1. Why did you start blogging? Last summer, I entered the wonderful world of blogging. I took a technology course over the summer & was introduced to blogger and how to create my own blog. The first blog that I found was Cara's from The First Grade Parade and I was instantly hooked. However, I set up a classroom blog & not a collaborative teaching blog. I blog stalked for many months and then thought, "Why not set up my own blog? I have a lot to contribute to the blogging world." So a few months ago, I decided to create my own teaching blog and never looked back.

2.  What blogs do you stalk?  The question is which blogs DON'T I stalk!! I haven't counted, but I'm thinking I have about 200-300 blogs on my blog list. It makes for many long nights of blog stalking, but I find so many great ideas from everyone, so it's worth it. I frequent The First Grade Parade, The Inspired Apple, First Grade Fever, Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits, etc. Honestly, the list just goes on and on...

3. Blogging tips, tools, and great ideas you have learned along the way: Be encouraging to other bloggers. All bloggers like to receive positive love, myself included. I've made a lot of bloggy friends by taking a moment to leave encouraging comments about a product or an idea on their blogs. We are all here for a common reason: To share and collaborate together in order to be the best teachers that we can be. I think bloggers appreciate each and every comment that they receive!

Also I find that using Powerpoint to create my activities & units is just awesome. It is so easy to edit and insert clip art. I just love it to pieces.

4. Blogging and balance- I'm still exploring this one! With the number of blogs that I follow, it has been hard to balance it all lately. Then add the end of the school year to the mix & it becomes really interesting! I try to write a short post almost every day just to share a thought or idea. I have a 2 year old & a husband that requires most of my attention, so I try & wait until my daughter goes to bed to do most of my blogging! It works pretty well that way.

5. What are your blogging goals for the summer? My blogging goals are: Continue to find brilliant ideas from other bloggers, to continue to share! share! share!, and continue to put a lot of work and effort into my own blog to benefit my followers.

Tell us about your personal blogging journey! Go and link up with Sheila at Sprinkle Teaching Magic!

Last...here is a quick freebie that I whipped up. I know that most of you lucky ones are on summer vacation, but I still have 6 days left and tomorrow is Field Day! This is a certificate to print up and give to your students for participating in Field Day. If you are out of school, feel free to file it for next year!!

Click HERE to download!

Have a great evening friends!,