Another Completion!

See what happens when I don't have to plan lessons or stress over a paper?! I also decided to finally go through with this next project after having a chat with DeRock, my favorite art teacher. Whenever we hang out, I always feel like doing something super awesome. Someday maybe we will do a little flea market action...

In all honesty I've been drinking a lot of soda and planning these awesome do-dadds for awhile (technical term...hope it didn't throw you : ) I've been trying to figure out how to attach bottle caps together and still manage to put on an earring hook. Problem solved with a little visit to the wal-mart. Found some bobbins for sewing. They fit perfectly in between. And of course one can not live without gorilla glue. Its just the most amazing thing humans can invent...

...and voila! Instant super recycled and cool...

Best of all, they are not too heavy. Something I learned was important after trying to make earrings out of old vinyl records. This foresight I have to attribute to my cousin Jen. I never would have thought of that aspect without her!

P.S. Sorry Heather...I know you are appalled at the lack of quality of my phone pictures. : )

JDRF Hope Ball 2010

My sister was able to speak at the Hope Gala last night and she put together a great slideshow and explained how Diabetes affects our family. Take a look:

Thus ends the school year...

As there are one and a half days left to the school year (can I get an AMEN?!) I will begin my catalog of events and activities that keep me busy in the summer. I still have no cable or internet at my house. The latter of the two is very painful while the first just gives me time without distraction to actually DO. So I will start my summer blog slightly early with a picture of the bracelet I made from recycled tabs. I drank all of the soda involved in the making of this bracelet. I am very proud of it, partly because I know they are making them for money at the antique shop and...I finally did it! I said, pssshhhh I could make that, I'm not buying it. AND I MADE IT! You have no idea how many times I've made that statement to no avail. I am also proud of myself because my sister did buy one. Hahaha. I win : )

Here it is:

Come on...Remember..."Divided We Fall?"

Alright ladies and gentlemen,








I am quite tired of this "Teacher's are saints" platform that teachers are using in response to the campaign to reform Education (again...ugh). So what? I don't think reasonable people will disagree. Let's move on.





Part of the issue here is not an attack on teachers it is our willingness to be baited into a ridiculous argument over who is better. Rather than continue such a pointless argument on whatever forum you are choosing (be it facebook, myspace, email chains, blogs, etc.) we should be rallying with each other and with politicians to fix the real problem. Our students, our children, our future... they are disrespectful, ungrateful, and uneducated. This, of course is based on an overview of children rather than a case by case basis. I think parents, teachers, community members and police officers can agree on this generalization.

Let's make a plan.

Remember, we are the adults. Remember Abraham Lincoln: "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." Let's unite against accepted mediocrity, disrespect, and misinformation.

Next Year...

Okay, its nearing the end...of the year. So, of course, as the "reflective teacher" (pats self on back), I am looking at what happened this year, what to change, what to keep, what I like.

Next year I am going to be doing math AND science as part of a two man team (high five Josh!) I am glad I have had a couple of years to just get a handle on Math. This will make two subjects (technically three and a half as everyone must teach reading and a small period called advisory) easier to manage next year. I am very excited about what I have accomplished. I have incorporated blogs, my class is in the middle of creating a review wiki (which can be seen at http://www.wikispaces.com/), I have done several webquests, and other interactive lessons which may or may not include technology.

I fully anticipate using wiki's and blog's again. I really like the idea of using these things for intereactive computer lessons and review. I hope I can also use it for Science also!

Wish me LUCK!

I knew it. That was the longest two days of lessons I've ever experienced. I've never seen cabin fever at that level before. Yikes!

Nostalgia

It happens every year about this time. I am looking at my students report cards as they take their final PSSA test. I know tomorrow I will go back to pulling my hair out each class period at the things my students seem to forget so easily, but for right now in my quiet little classroom, I'm so proud of the things these students do accomplish with all of those extra things they have to deal with now that I didn't have to when I was little.

I see the improvements in grades on the report cards and I know they have learned. Maybe I have done something for them. I can't help but hope that when they look back when they are in that crazy big and scary middle school, they think they liked it better here in this small school where I knew everything about them and could answer their questions just by looking at the expressions on their faces. I helped these guys grow up a little this year. I'm proud of them.