Monday Morning Inspiration: Create your own hoops!

Here's to creating your own hoops!

You can see a larger image here.

Have a great week!

Anti-bullying "Stand Up" Video

I am so very proud of my school for pulling this together! After being inspired by some other anti-bullying films, our P.B.I.S Committee challenged our school to make our own video.  The students in each classroom decided on a positive 3-word anti-bullying slogan and then picked a creative way to present it.  My class voted on "Embrace Your Personality!" and you can see how they decided to show that at the 5:00 mark.  :-) 

You can see a quick glimpse of me at 4:15 - I'm the teacher in the middle behind the huge "We Will Listen" sign.
How does your school deal with bullying?

Fun Friday: Procrastination Humor!

I thought these were pretty funny since I've been known to be a bit of a procrastinator from time to time. (Ahem.  Okay.... a lot of times - but I'm working on it!)

These are from Mental Floss and geared toward college students, but just replace "Study" with "Write Report Card Comments!" or "Grade Narrative Essays!" or "Finish Running Records!" and the essence is still the same.  :-)

I'm not immune to griping about grading. (Instead of actually grading!)

Ugh...I only pulled one Allnighter as a teacher. And it wasn't because I procrastinated, it was because I was up all night with a sick child.  Never want to do THAT again. 

And then there is Netflix.....the Ultimate Procrastinators Dream. 

Hmm..maybe I'll just watch one more episode of Mad Men before bed.....   :-)
How have you conquered procrastination?  (Or have you?)

Monday Morning Inspiration: "This Is Water"

Truly - this video is worth the 9 1/2 minutes of your time today.  It's a brief film that brings to life part of the famous 2005 "This is Water" commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace at Kenyon College that year. "Deciding how to see it" is a critical part of keeping perspective as an educator, but as Wallace says, remembering to do that day in and day out is challenging.


Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!!  

I hope you are all enjoying some relaxation and time with family today. 

I am spending the day with my husband, Paul, and our two sweet daughters who gave me this gorgeous rose bush. I am trying to develop a green thumb and plant some perennials this year, so this is the next big step for me. Roses scare me a little (and it's not just the thorns!)

My girls have also been making me cards and pictures all week and bringing me bouquets of dandelions.

My 4 year-old drew this portrait of me.  I am the 6-fingered woman! With one rocking blue belly button! LOL!!

My 6 year-old made this one in Kindergarten class. It's a picture of us gardening.  Of course, the poem made me cry...  Mostly because it is the exact same poem that my own kindergarten teacher used for a Mother's Day craft over 30 years ago. It makes me think of this quote:

Later this afternoon my Mom is coming over with my Dad and brother to have Pulled Pork with Dinosaur BBQ Sauce, Wegmans' Penne & Mozzarella Pasta Salad,  and Salt Potatoes. A very Central New York summer dinner!  

 Have a fantastic day!!

Mother's Day Craft: Survival Kit Freebie

On Friday, I helped my class make "Mother's Day Survival Kits" to take home. It was a fun, relaxing project to do during the last 20 minutes of the week when the kids are just antsy to get out of school. (And me, too!)

Discovering some dusty glass canning jars in my garage last week was the inspiration for this "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" project. I tailored the list to mainly include supplies I already had on hand, so most everything was free or easily found at the Dollar Store. Here is what I used:

• Hearts (the students cut these themselves from construction paper and personalized them with a message)
• Paperclips (used some of those little ones I don't like)
• Erasers ($1 for 40 at Dollar Tree)
• Snickers (a bag of mini Snickers was only a couple bucks)
• Rubber Bands (had a million of those just sitting in my desk)
• Tissue (no problem getting those - just sitting on our counter...)
• Life Savers (Dollar Tree....)
• Toothpick (leftover in my cabinets at home from a party)
• Cotton Balls (used some of my stash from home)
• Seeds ($1 for 4 packs at Dollar Tree)
• Puzzle Piece (used a puzzle with some pieces from our beginning of the year team builders)

And....Viola!  A cute, thoughtful Mother's Day gift!  Altogether it cost about $12 - not too bad. And I repurposed a bunch of ribbon I had laying around, so that worked out well, too. Then I typed up a colorful message explaining the "survival" use for each object. I had wanted to make them into a card, but then the font was too tiny to read.  So we scrolled them up instead.

Super cute!

You can download a copy of the "Survival Kit" page right here.
(I know it's probably too late for this year's Mother's Day - but you can always Pin It for next year!)

Now I'm stumped for what to do for Father's Day that will be on par with this.  Any ideas??

End of the Year Student Gifts {Freebie}

I am so excited about doing this project again this June!  My students last year just loved them - and I loved seeing their smiles when they saw all the compliments directed their way.  Plus, this end-of-the-year student gift is not only budget-friendly, but meaningful - perfect!

Instructions:

 1. Give each student a copy of the class roster and a Positive Attributes sheet. (You can also use the Class List form included in the free download below – just change “Student” to the names in your class.)

2. Ask your students to write down one positive trait, adjective, or attribute for each person in the class. You can also include other staff as well, such as teaching assistants, student teachers, aides, special education staff, parent volunteers, etc.

3. Collect the papers and create a Wordle for each person at http://www.wordle.net. Type the student’s name in many times so it is the largest word, and then add the other attributes. The more times an attribute is added, the larger that word will be. Experiment with the font, layout, and colors. (I preferred the half horizontal/half vertical option, with "wild" colors. Also - the black background looks great on the computer, but will really eat up your ink, so I opted for white.)

4. Print a colorful Wordle for each student and frame it. (They had a ton at my local Dollar Store.)

Tips:

*Don’t reveal the purpose of the exercise – it makes the surprise at the end of the year better!

*Discussing the definition of a trait, quality, or attribute ahead of time helps. I encouraged my students to use their own ideas but had the Positive Attributes sheet as a reference in case they got stuck.

*This can also be done as a carousel walk, where each student puts their name at the top of their paper and then they rotate to each student’s sheet adding a word. This does make it easier to input the words. However, I was concerned that they would be influenced by what others wrote before them. It also wouldn't really be anonymous and they might not give an honest response.

FREE Download - Wordle Student Gift Guide

Take a look!

 

 

It was so much fun playing with different fonts, layouts, and colors to create a look unique to each student.  I hope this resource helps you have a fantastic end to your school year!