2012 Best and Brightest Linky Party!

One of my favorite parts of blogging is being able to look back and reflect on my year, both personally and in my classroom.  Christina over at Bunting, Books and Bainbridge {love her!} has created a linky party to share brag about blogging in 2012.  P.S. is it really almost 2013?!

One of the BEST things I did this year was continue to blog.  I know, that sounds weird.  I tend to start projects, but not follow through with them.  I started blogging in the end of 2011 and the best thing I did in 2012 was to keep up with it!  I have learned so much from other bloggers and feel so encouraged by this wonderful community.  Continuing to blog this year has also led to a TpT store, a TN store, a Facebook page, Twitter account and an Instagram account {smilinginsecondgrade}.  Love, loving social media this year!

The post I love the BEST is my Open House post.  Open House is just a few {hectic} days into our school year and I never feel as prepared as I want to be.  This year, through the help of some wonderful bloggers and Pinterest, I had the best Open House yet!  I was so proud to show it off!

My most popular post this year was Time-Out Tuesday and Some Dancing.  I shared a dance that my co-teacher came up with to teach the students how to subtract with and without regrouping.  It made it's way onto Pinterest and has been my most popular post ever since! 

The BEST news I shared

The BEST product I created this year were my Writing Journal Prompts.  As soon as I made them, I declared it my favorite product (really, check it out here)!  There are 12 calendars with writing prompts for every school day - over 300 writing prompts!  It has also become my best seller in my store.

The BEST freebie I created were my Word Wall Games.  There are four different games to help students become well-acquainted with the classroom Word Wall.  I like to play them at snack time!  Learn more about them here.

Some of the BRIGHTEST new bloggy friends I've made are 

Holly from Crisscross Applesauce in First Grade

Corinna from Surfin' Through Second

Nicole from Teaching With Style

Jen from The Teachers' Cauldron

Thanks ladies!