You may remember me telling you about my amazing weekend with other mostly Indiana bloggers in French Lick two weeks ago.  We decided one of the things we wanted to do was have a blog hop, so you could get to know the bloggers that met up there! There are over 20 of us participating and we each have something to share with you, some tips to pass along, and some important information about a giveaway we are having along with our blog hop!

One of the things we did at the Blogger Meet-up was to have a Teacher Tool gift exchange…I got one of my most favorite things….

The Quietest Classroom Pencil Sharpener!!It is one of my most favorite things in my classroom…and I don’t feel like I’m on high alert when the kiddos use it!  They can totally use this sharpener by themselves, its quiet, and I can move it where it needs to be!!

I also just found out that they now have a sharpener that will sharpen the “fat” My First Ticonderoga Pencils!! Perfect for those of us K teachers that are using those pencils–so I just ordered one of those. 🙂

Click here or any of the other links above to get one for yourself at Classroom Friendly Supplies. 🙂

Next, I want to share with you some new things that I learned from other bloggers at the Meet-up:

1) Phonto is my new favorite app on my iPhone!!!  It lets me add text right to my pictures and then publishes them to Instagram with just a few taps!  You have to download it now.  I’ll wait…seriously….go!!

2) I was also reminded of the importance of using Instagram to help followers get to know me on a more personal level.  After all, I am not a robot typing these posts! LOL! You can follow me on Instagram by clicking on the camera on the right.

3) I am guilty of this…but no more!!  Every time I take a picture on my camera, it assigns it a number and I just happily insert it into my blog post without a second thought…but what happens once that picture gets pinned on Pinterest?  There’s no way to search for it…how many times have you searched for IMG7994 on Pinterest—yeah…me either!  So by naming your pictures (yes…it takes 1/2 a second more!), my pictures will come up in a search, helping more pinners get back here to reading my ramblings. 🙂

I’m also going to work on figuring out how to insert a watermark on my blog posts and see about getting one of those cute little signatures at the bottom of my posts. 🙂  Everything is different about blogging over here in WordPress.com land. 🙂

As if all the goodies we received at the meet-up weren’t enough…there were several generous companies donated prizes to put in a raffle for each one of the bloggers…

My prize arrived today…These are all from Creative Teaching Press!!  I am SOOO excited about them and since I’m currently addicted to chevron…well…this helped to feed my addiction!! 🙂

Check out this cute Apple Appeal bulletin board set!!  LOVE those chevron apples and LOVE the hexagons (another one of my favorites!!)

Do you see how cute chevron and hexagons are together?  These calendar numbers will be great for sequencing numbers and I can’t wait to use the labels on my book bins!! 🙂

Oh my word…check out the yellow (the pack is actually multicolored) chevron pockets!!  They are at least 5×7 sized!!  I think I’ll put some “What to do when I’m finished activities” in them!  There are chevron name plates and even stickers!!! 🙂I had to show these labels again…just can’t get over how cute they are!! 🙂

Okay, so on to the giveaway…

ONE person is going to win all these prizes (and MORE!!!). All you have to do is enter when you see the Rafflecopter!   It’s hidden on one of our blogs and when you find it, just follow the directions to answer.

Now hop on over to Nicole Swisher’s Blog…All Things Apple in 2nd to see her teacher tool, prize, tips, and to enter into the giveaway again! 🙂