MIA

The last few months have been the craziest I have ever experienced. In case you haven't noticed--I've been pretty much absent from the blog here. I haven't had any time to do anything crafty, or pretty much anything that doesn't deal with my classroom or an iPad.

Exactly four months ago, our school was presented with an opportunity of a lifetime....and I took a chartered ride on this.

 A couple weeks later, after the School Board voted to approve, we got the okay to tell our students that they would each be receiving their own iPad. The kids already had an idea of what was going on, as rumors were flying throughout the community. I wanted to do something a little fun, so I took a big box, put an empty iPad box with a note inside and wrapped it. We had been talking about Inferences, so we made guesses about what was inside the box. It was pretty fun to watch them read the note inside the box. The most exciting thing for the kids, is that they would get to take them home.

I spent the next several weeks (months--it felt like a year!!), helping get everything ready--and learning a lot about how servers, and highly technical things that make it possible for all the technology to run work. I inventoried all the iPads, MacBooks, iMacs, Apple TVs, TVs,....everything that came in to the school---I've touched it. We had a classroom where we had everything, and it was quite a site to see that many iPads in one place. Oh....and I removed (and inventoried) about 140 computers that were removed from our building (that was a PAIN)--I love computers that are All-in-One. I've helped teachers learn how to deal with this new technology--and how it will change the way they teach. I've researched hundreds of apps. I've also synced my students' iPads and deleted all their work (they were NOT happy with me)

I've been exhausted!!

I've learned!!!

I am SO Grateful!!

I am Excited to Teach!!!

 The best day came the week before Thanksgiving (my last day with a student teacher). We were finally ready to hand out the iPads. I was able to pass out iPads to every classroom---one of the best days I've ever had. We have video footage of kids so excited, they're bouncing. Handing iPads to kids who've never touched them made all the work worth it. Of course, my lucky students have to get some perks, and they were the first students in the school to get theirs:) 

It's been tiring and exhausting, but this is something I believe will make a difference in my classroom and in schools. It is a tool that I can, just like I might use fraction manipulatives to teach math. Students have more ownership ownership of their learning. Sitting and listening to a teacher talk, doesn't work for most students any more. If you come and visit my classroom, students are showing what they've learned. They know how to find an answer to something they don't know---and they'll actually do it too. They are excited about learning--and that says a LOT!!

On December 14, we had our official ribbon cutting. We had a lot of media and dignitaries in attendance. My students did GREAT!!! They kept asking me why I was so nervous. They each had an app that we'd been using in class, which they showed and explained to our visitors (which more than doubled our class size). I was NERVOUS--these were important people and we needed to show that this is something that would be good for other schools as well. 

I had to do my second TV interview (thankfully I didn't sound near as stupid!)

I visited with legislators and the lieutenant governor about why this is a good thing and what kids need.

Part of this process is the responsibility to have visitors come to our school and see how it is actually implemented in real classrooms. We took a classroom that isn't currently being used and created a conference room. One of my coworkers and I decorated the room (funny---because I am not a decorator). She came up with most of the ideas--I did the manual labor--and made sure it all got done.

This is a quote, which we thought was appropriate for this process. Notice--the bottom row is spaced too far down:( 

Note: Putting vinyl on cinder block wall is a PAIN!!

this is a collection of fun "schoolish" things. The printing is a Norman Rockwell--the girl is sitting outside the Principal's office with a black eye. I love it!!

This is our biggest conversation piece of the room. No one has entered when I've been in there, that hasn't come over to this wall and had a good laugh. We chose a student from every class and had them draw a picture of their teacher. So FUN!! It's amazing how perfectly some of them drew their teacher.

Here is me--sporting some really chunky highlights, and BROWN eyes?? Funny thing is I was in the room when she was drawing it. I was teaching them how to color the eyes and said, "So if my eyes were brown, I would color this part brown:)"

So--that's where I've been for the past four months. I am hoping that it will calm down now that the initial part is over (crossing my fingers!) But, if I'm absent, know that I am learning a lot about Macs, servers, syncing, and learning how to teach all over because--it is DIFFERENT with iPads. A good different though.

Caring and Sharing tree

Thank you to everyone who helped with this tree. It turned out really cute and we couldn't have done it with out everyones help.

Thankful

For the past twelve weeks, I have a student teacher. It has definitely been a learning experience. It has given me time to help ready the school for iPads. So..I want her to know that I appreciate what she has done. This Friday is her last day, so I snuck into library this week and had the students do a few things for her. This cute Thankful frame has notes that each students wrote to her. It is something that she can still use in her home after she reads the notes.

For the witches ball I had Cinda come over and paint the girls nails and they loved it. We also let them each decorate a witches hat, they turned out pretty cute and then we took pictures of each of them in there hat. Most of the girls wanted to just go outside and play.

Because it was right after school we had food ready for them to eat. We had these cute cupcakes that looked like a witch fell into the pot, the pots were really hard to find. The feet are printed from Kara's party and the legs are colored straws.

I made the pretzel broomsticks, I didn't eat one but Ash said they were a little soggy from sitting. They probably only sat there for less than one hour.

I had a few other games but they really just wanted to be outside and play without us. We did play the candy bar game but instead of gloves we had them put witch fingers on. They loved that also.

I think Megan was pretty excited about the whole thing and all the girls had a lot of fun.

Another decoration that I found on this website was a wreath that seemed really easy and cheap. It was just that, easy, my girls loved helping with it, even the five year old, and cheap, I had everything I needed to make it at home. This is a halloween wreath. I used a pool noodle and duck tape to make the wreath and then I used a two black garbage bags and cut them to tie around the wreath. The girls did most of the tying, I just had to fill in the extra spaces that were to close together. After we were done with that part I stretched the garbage bag to make it look older and stringy. I just had to make sure and not pull to hard or the bag would tear all the way off.

This year I did another Halloween party for Megan and her friends. I found off of Kara's party ideas a cute Witches ball party. She had lots of pictures and printables that you could buy so we went with that. I had one week to get the invitations out and have the party ready. One of the really cute things that she did was a witches dress, she bought one at the thrift store and dyed it black, so we looked and were lucky enought to find a wedding dress at DI. I dyed it using two bottles of the Rit dye and it turned it purple. Purple was not the color I was looking for so next I bought a couple of can of the cheap Walmart paint and spray painted it black. The purple was still in the dress but for the most part it was black. I also borrowed a dress form from grandma and there I had the cutest decoration for outside my door. The old broken door also came from grandma, it added a lot for the dress to lean up against.

Color Run: Boise

Yesterday, Merlynn and I did one of the funnest, craziest things I've done in a while. We did the Color Run and what a blast it was. It was a 5K---Happy to say that we finished it---under and hour!!!--without falling down--or getting trampled (what a relief)
Let me show you the craziness...in pictures..

1---Here we are gettin ready to go get in line....(notice how white an clean we are!)

 2--Look at ALL these people. There were a LOT of people.

 3--Here is proof that we actually ran.

 4-- Here we are at the BLUE Color Station. There were four color stations throughout the race. As you went through the station they threw color at you. It was a colored powder.

5--Here we are at hte finish line--Notice the color!!

 

 

6--At the end they had a color celebration. It was SOO Cool. Here is a picture from the back. When you register for the race you get a packet of color to use at the celebration. They count down and everyone throws their color packet in the air.  When you are in the middle--it is pure chaos. We did it twice actually--you have powder raining down on you everywhere. This is where the color was intense. I swear the person behind me just dumped their color packet on my head...

 



7. Here we are after the celebration--Notice all the color now!! And my hair--GREEN. I am still washing the green out of it.

 

8. It was a new experience..and we can't wait to do it again next year with more people.

 

 

Twinkie Mummies

 

I needed to try these out for my next teacher treat so decided to do a little treat basket for my neighbor who lets my kids play at her house ALL the time. They are twinkies dipped in white chocolate and then drizzled over to look like mummies. They were really easy to do but a little time consuming. I can't wait to do 35 of them.

Halloween wood crafts

Halloween is quickly approaching, so I decided I better get my Halloween decorations made. I bought at...The Wood Connections (big surprise, huh!). I've had them since July I think, I just haven't had time to do them. The spiderweb was really easy and quick to do. I think it turned out pretty cute.

 

 Now these little monster guys--ADOBORABLE. But---they were quite a pain to complete. They have a lot of little details. But, not that they are finished, they were worth it. They just make me kinda laugh.I'm sure they will be a big hit in my classroom.

I "Moustache You a Question"

Wow!! It's been a while--but I've been plenty busy. It's hard to believe we have only been in school for one month. And what a month it has been!!! I didn't really want to follow our school wide theme outside my classroom this year, so I just did something fun. And it was a HIT! Moustaches are a pretty big deal right now. So--when I was at The Wood Connection, I bought a wooden moustache, which I then used  to take pictures of my kids with. They LOVED this. I had them write an I AM poem to go with their picture. I made a super cute sign to hang above it that said ... "I Moustache you a Question...Who Are You?" Then, at the end of the day with their papers to go home to their parents, I had cut out a moustache which I slid onto a striped green paper straw---again--they loved it. Who knew all it would take was a straw and some black paper cut into the shape of a moustache. Here are my pictures--it's in the hallway= terrible lighting= awful pictures--but you can get the idea.

Jewelry Holder from a frame

When I was at The Wood Connection, they had take one of their fun frames and made it into a jewelry holder. I thought it was so cute. For Relief Society this past week, we made several things to donate to the Christmas Council and this was one of them. My mom made the frames, we put wire in them, then rounded up a bunch of miscellaneous knobs, which we spray painted. I think it turned out pretty cute. You could hand earrings on the wire and necklaces off the knobs.

PIllows

To kind of make everything work together we had my mom make some pillows to go on the bed. I got a few ideas from the internet and also just from looking around at other pillows in the store. The flower one is the one found off the internet, I am not sure which site. My mom just made one big ruffle and then kept turning it until it made a flower. The one with the ribbon I saw in Target and really like it. The pillows match the entire room and make it look really cute. On one of the walls we added this and I love how it turned out, now if I can keep her from playing with it and knocking it of the ceiling. Next up it the other wall and the super cool closet organizer.

Paint Color

Like I said the paint colors came from the skirt that she loved to wear. I knew that I would like to paint her room turquoise but I didn't really know what her comforter would look like. So first thing we did was actually pick out the bedding, we bought it at Target. I then went to Pro Paint and had them match the color and they had this really cool tool that they stamped on the skirt and then it told them which one was closes to the color from there I picked the one I liked best. I really like how this turned out but I should mention here that I wanted to paint the closet white. I didn't feel like investing a lot more in to the room but I did as I was told and went with the pink and I am so glad I did, it really added a ton to the room. Another thing of importance is that we had only one week to get this done and that was the week of fair so not only were we redoing a bedroom, but Megan was busy with her sheep at the fair. We also got rid of the ugly green carpet, that was also worth the investment.

New Project

I have decided that when ever I want to do a project if I am going to tell Ashley and Steve I better plan on it being bigger than what I had in mind. This is one of those projects, I was just going to paint the wall and add a closet organizer, and it turned into much more than that. This is the closet with everything shoved in it anywhere. I might add that this is Ashlynn's room and she can't seem to keep it very clean. I decided that if we added a few nice things it would help give her a place for everything. This is the nice ugly green carpet and the wall color that we originally painted when we moved into the house. On top of this nice look, imagine popcorn ceiling. These are the colors that I picked for the room, found from a skirt that she wears all the time. I actually took this skirt into Propaint and had them match the color.

Olympic Games

This year we decided that our girls were old enought to understand and appreciate the olympics a little bit. So to help them we held our own Olympics, and let the girls plan the games. They had a lot of fun, even making medals for each of us to wear when we finished and event. We made this torch from a tall glass at the dollar store and a little bit of tissue paper and a napkin. It turned out really cute and they loved marching around with it. I got the idea of a a blog but can't remember which one.