Liebster Award #2

I am SO excited to have been nominated for the Liebster award for the second year in a row! This year I was nominated by Meg over at Tales and Teacherisms. I'm hopeful that next year I will have too many followers to be nominated for the award since nominations need to have less than 200 followers on their blog!

The Liebster is great to get traffic to newer blogs so great posts that might normally not have many views will get view and then hopefully followers!

Here's the deal with Liebster... I answer 11 questions so you can get to know me a little better, then I choose 11 bloggers to nominate whose blogs I love!

So here are the questions...
1. Why and how long ago did you start blogging?
Originally this blog was an undergrad assignment I started back in 2009. It was for a reading instruction class and we had to read books and review them, providing resources, activities, etc. The blog then kind of went to the wayside until last year when I was in my 2nd year of teaching and decided to expanded it to a lot more than just book reviews.

2. What 1 word sums up the heart of your blog and why?
SHARING because just about everything I post on my blog I share with my grade level partners and other colleagues and of course by posting I'm sharing with all my cyber-teacher-colleagues!

3. Is there something you learned late in your blog journey that you wished you knew before?
I hate to steal Meg's but I have to agree that link-ups are SUCH a huge way to spread your blog to more readers and I only started linking up in the past year or so. Some of my favs are...

4. What is your favorite past time other than blogging?
Well obviously teaching... haha! But other than that, I'm a runner (hence the blog name) I don't compete much at all anymore but I ran competitively middle school through college and running/working out remains a big part of my lifestyle. I also spend A LOT of my time on the beach (in the summer anyway) because we live a mile from the beach, so that's a big part of my life too.

5. How many hours do you dedicate a week to your blog?
This funny makes me laugh because I was nominated for this award last week and am just now finally writing the post about it. This week is not typical (conferences!) as I spent hardly any time on the blog at all. Normally (during the school year), I spend a few hours between Sunday and Monday night getting 2-3 posts ready for the week. In the summer I try to blog every other day or so.

6. What category of blog post do you enjoy the most?
Also have to steal Meg's here... FREEBIES! I especially love posts where the blogger posts about how they used the freebie in their classroom too because it helps me to envision how I'll use it! (Check out some of my freebies below... I need to update this page to include them all!)

7. Where does your blog inspiration come from?
Things that either make my kids smile in my room or are super effective in helping them learn or helping them to make smart choices in the classroom.

8. Which post have you written that you are most proud of?
I am really proud of all the Whole Brain Wednesday posts I've been writing over this school year. WBT has become an integral part of my teaching life (as in I probably couldn't survive a day without it!) and I love sharing the strategies with others.

9. Is there any post you've been planning on doing but have been postponing for a while?
Not really. Once in a while I'll start a Whole Brain post and it takes me a few weeks to get back to it because I want to try whatever the strategy is out for a little longer in my classroom, but right now I don't have anything on the back burner.

10. What is your favorite thing about blogging?
Connecting with other teachers! It's beyond awesome when a teacher likes my ideas or tells me they are going to use an idea I had in the classroom!

11. What recipe, project or idea on my blog would you most likely try yourself?
I love the Monday Made Its from Meg... like recovered pillows for example... that would be super awesome for my mix-matched & somewhat gross pillows in our classroom library!


Now that you know a little more about me & my blog, here are the nominees...

1. Emily at Munchkins Inc.
2. Sarah at Frampton's Fundamentals
3. Briana at Sun, Sand & Second Grade
4. Kandice at Time Two Teach
5. Amber at Peppy Zesty Teacherista
6. Miss B. at Butterflying Through Teaching
7. The Magic of Teaching
8. Pixie Ann at Growing Little Learners
9. Stella at My Kindergarden Blog
10. Katie at Teaching Voracious Learners
11. Alexis at Laugh Eat Learn


Here are the rules for the nominees...
1. In your post, be sure to link back to your nominator as a shout out & a thank you!
2. Answer the 11 questions given to you (the ones I answered above)
3. Nominate 11 blogs of your choice who have less than 200 followers. Provide them with 11 questions or ask them to answer the questions above.
4. Let your nominees know they've been nominated and provide them with a link to your post so that they can accept.
5. Send your nominator the link to your post, so they can learn more about you... leave it in the comments below!
 And that's it!... so excited to learn more about my nominees!