100 Followers Giveaway!

I am happy to announce that I am having a giveaway in honor of the 100+ peeps out there following my blog! For those of you who are newer to Flamingo Fabulous, I have been bedazzling sneakers ever since I had some rather extensive surgeries on both my feet some years ago so I would have something snazzy to wear to work. The kids love them and apparently so do other teachers. I've been making them for other people ever since! I won't post all the pictures, but here is the most recent pair I made for a colleague using their school mascot. To see more pictures click on the shoes link at the top of this page.

The winner of this giveaway will receive a pair of one-of-a-kind custom shoes for themselves or someone special (I also do children's shoes). Here are three ways to enter. Please leave separate comments for each entry.

MANDATORY:

*Be a follower of my blog and post a comment telling me so. If you have your own blog leave a link in the comment so I can follow you too!

*I will only ship to US mailing addresses.

Optional:

*Blog about my giveaway and leave a comment with the link.

*Follow me on Pinterest and leave a comment telling me.

I will choose a winner using Random.org on Friday Oct. 21, 2011 and announce the winner on Saturday.

Grab the Giveaway Button and share the news with friends!

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Why I do this...

     Today was Rough. And no that's not a typo... it was so Rough the word needed a capital R. Sticky fingers was putting on quite a show today! I was also told by my principal that she wants to move one of my old kids back into my room because the parent is riding her about every little thing. I'm not all that excited about that either. I'm finally getting routines in place and the class has been really bonding since the group has sized-down.

Anyways, this post is not about what brings me down. This post is about what lifts me up.

     Maybe after the kind of day I had calling parents for a 1-month-into-school-check-in wasn't the best idea. But I had recently finished my reading assessments and wanted to make sure every parent knew where their child stood from the get-go. After leaving about 12 messages on answering machines I finally got a real voice-- the parent of a student who's older brother I had 2 years ago. And boy am I glad that mom answered. I proceeded to tell her that her son is reading one year above grade level and she reacted as if she had won the lottery! We joked that she was just as surprised when I gave a similar call two years ago about her older son. And that's when she gave me the biggest drop in my bucket a teacher could ask for. She said,

"You know, I've always attributed my son's (the older) love of reading to you. That's when I saw him begin to use books to travel to distant lands and times."


     It did my heart good to hear her talk about books that way. It seems people don't talk like that anymore. If all I do with my life is teach kids how to love books, then I will have led a full and happy life. Thank God for parents and children who remind us why we choose this life. :)

And for no reason other than to share what I did this week, here are some shoes I made for a good friend. Their mascot is the Timber wolf.

Random Updates and News

So this post may be a bit schizophrenic but bear with me... I've got a storm of thoughts bubbling around in my brain and have to get them out.

Literacy Lessons Updates:
So today was day two of Literacy Lessons and we discussed the various forms of assessments we would be using on a regular basis with our struggling readers. If you're not familiar with Literacy Lessons, it was created by Marie Clay, a Reading Recovery guru. Basically we will be working one on one with two struggling readers for 30 mins (each) a day on top of all my regular teaching duties. The reading team will really have to step up with sub coverage and whatever it takes to make sure these kids get their individual time every day because we will be working with students who have not responded to multiple and various reading interventions. Literacy Lessons has its own rules and regulations separate from Reading Recovery so I will be a certified instructor at the end of the year. I know the logistics are tough but I am so excited to be a part of this! Tomorrow my assignment is to kidnap (not really don't have a heart attack) two kiddos and practice the testing procedures. Here are the cute gifts I made to give them as a thanks for using their brain over their summer vacation. I stole from was inspired by about 5 million posts on Pinterest (like this one) and recreated it myself.

For the little girl I'm testing:

For the little man I'm testing:

Classroom Updates:
So today I worked in the room for about an hour and managed to sort the boxes by subject. I am OCD when it comes to room organization and there is nothing that IRKS me more than thinking I have found the perfect spot for something and then finding another box a few days later with more of the same item and not having room to store it all together. Today I started unpacking all my miscellaneous "office supplies" like post-its, index cards, and pens. I didn't get any pics today but there's not much progress to see. I'll snap some photos tomorrow.

Fun Crafty News:
I just finished making Mrs. Shepherd's Dr. Seuss shoes for winning my Sneaky Giveaway! I'll try to mail them out tomorrow :) Here is a SNEAKer Peak!

 A favorite Dr. Seuss quote.

The famous last word of the Lorax.

And the winner is....

Shoe-tastic Reminder!

Click HERE to enter!

and here are some other shoes I've designed...

I wear these in the Spring while I'm reading Charlotte's Web to the class.

My kids are always obsessed with hearing stories about my cats :P. And since they can't come to school, I wear these when I have a funny story to share about kitty mischief.

ENTER! ENTER! ENTER!

Two-Post Tuesday

I know posting twice in one day is considered bad blog manners but I can't resist sharing the news .....


I am ready for my first official giveaway! Yay! I can hear everyone in blog-land cheering uncontrollably  :). And it's a good one, I promise.

Remember these?

And these?

If not, then check out this post and then come back quickly and enter my giveaway! One lucky winner will win a brand new pair of custom-designed super fabulous shoes! Why?

I teach at a fairly large school but ALL the kids know me as "the one with the shoes." (Apparently everyone else teaches barefoot). I want to give someone else the opportunity to be "the one with the shoes" because it really puts some pep into your step when you know your little piggies are stylin'!
If you're not into them or your dress code doesn't allow these kicks, I can also design a pair for a lucky child in your life. Here is a pair I made for a teammate's niece. Can you tell she likes horses?

HOW TO ENTER:

Please leave a separate comment for each entry for a total of 5 possible entries.

*Be a follower of my blog (one entry)

*Put my button on your blog (one entry)

*Blog about my giveaway (two entries, two comments)
And leave a link to your page so I can follow you too if I don't already!

*Add me to your blog roll (one entry)

I will pick one lucky winner on Friday, August 5th using Random.org. That gives you plenty of time to get the word out there!

Cool Kicks

I've had multiple surguries on both my feet so I always wear sneakers to school. Now no matter how dressy the outfit gets--sneakers. Last summer I decided to use this as a creative outlet and this is what happened...