Teacher Morale

So, going back to school is always a big bummer for me.  While I have been working really hard on my classroom and materials all summer, having to follow a regular schedule and wear dress pants really stinks.  I remember my first year of teaching.  It was at about 3:15 on the very first day with students, after I had jumped over months of hurdles to get this job, that I thought, "Holy Cannoli Batman, this is why teachers quit after one year."  I was exhausted, lost, and I had no idea what I was doing.  Then, I had a wonderful teacher mentor who put brownies in my box and told me I could do it.  Surprisingly, that is all it took and I powered on.  Five years later, I am the brownie baker and full-time teacher cheerleader.

So, for the first day of school, we put treats in the boxes of all of our new teachers.  We also hand-delivered one to our over-worked, super-loved guidance counselor!

The biggest surprise of this whole story is that I got the original idea from Pinterest, but my dad came up with the final detail for it - way to go Dad!  Getting touch with your inner-crafty :)

Without further ado, 7Up Lifting Ways to Start Your First Week of School...

A Treat In The Mailbox Makes A Happy Tuesday!

How cute is that!

Graduate School Sends Me To Therapy

... Or maybe public school is putting the final nail in my coffin!  I am reading a book for my Ed.S. class on Saturday that is talking about putting in priorities.  I was with them through the first grueling chapter.  Then, I got to chapter 2.  And it became glaringly apparent that these wonderful individuals have never stepped a piggy into a public school during the day.  A scheduled parent conference does NOT count! 

The authors are talking about scheduling tasks and if it isn't scheduled it isn't urgent.  HA!  No one got  a request for a lesson plan at 11:00 (for Friday's lesson) that was due by 3:15 in their time that was tied to their paycheck.  Think closely about merit pay teachers!

I lost a little respect... which is a real bummer since I have another 247 pages to read.  I'll post some pictures tomorrow hopefully :)

Where Have I Been?

Where have I been the last two weeks you ask? 

I have been crazy busy with the first two weeks of school, graduate school, and all of life other gifts.  Oh, and teaching six classes of sixth grade science of little Einstein's... like this one!

That's right - your hypothesis is to "ask your mom"!  All I wanted was any temperature to try baking!  Some of my little babies are a little behind the sixth grade curve ball.  We have spend 4 days on the Scientific Method and this is what I get!  Back to the drawing board - tomorrow is technology evolution - woot woot!

These children haven't kept me from all my crafts - I have made a ton of things to be posted in the next few weeks: passy clips, hooter hiders, a shirt, kitchen towel bag and more!

Tiny Clipboards

One of my 12443662 jobs at school this year is being a part of the mentoring team!  I love helping new teachers get settled and answering all those questions that are lingering (it wasn't that long ago that I was new- sniff, sniff).
So, we decided to make an awesome craft for our new teachers to say welcome and it will be okay!  While Jessica, leadership team boss, and I were scrolling pinterest (surprise) we saw these super cute clipboards.  They are really easy to make, we thought.  Then we found out that Chili's no longer carries coasters - WHAT?!?!? Can you believe it?  Anyways, Jessica got put on making our own coaster duty which was a 4x4 square of cardboard with rounded colors. 
We added a 4x4 square of scrapbook paper on the front with double sided adhesive.  Then, we added a glammed up medium size binder clip.  Some has "scrapbook flowers" and some had a little ribbon hot glued on them.  The binder clip held on a new pack of sticky notes!  They turned out super cute and even the boys were faintly excited about it! 
The really good part - pictures!
 Check them out!

The "Finished" Pile!

Set up for the new teachers - owls, footballs, stripes and houndstooth - oh my!

The Fabulous Mrs. White modeling how the tiny clipboard is to be used!

I just love this cute little thing!  What do you think? 
And PS.... it is 100% recycled products - that's right - A FREE CRAFT!  Hooray!

O-Fish-Ally Back To School

Today was the first day of school and the children were in full force.  I have never been so thankful for a half-day of school.   I am absolutely EXHAUSTED!

But of course, the school year is not complete with out some back to school crafts!  I work with the best team members on a little island in our school - Team Langland Represent!  So, I wanted to make something for our little group that celebrates us and what do teachers want more than school supplies... snacks! 

Goldfish all around!

Nothing says "life is good" like treats in the mail room!

Whole Grain Goldfishes ... so cute!  I just wish I had a fishbowl

Everyone seemed to love them and the best part, there are still some left over for tomorrow!  And, I'll give the nod to pinterest for this fabulous idea!

Meet Frank

School is back in session and while I am excited, I am also mourning the loss of my summer vacation.  I can't believe there will be little faces in my classroom in just a few days. 
If you don't teach, let me let you in on a little secret... we teachers are never satisfied with our classrooms.  Something is always changing and growing in the classroom and we need new goodies to amuse our students.  This year, most of the new things in my room have come from pinterest including my new friend Frank.
Frank's task is to collect answers to my extra credit brain bender of the week.  I think he is just precious. What do you think?

The best part about Frank?  He cost me just $1.67 for the wiggly eyes.  He is a kleenex box wrapped in kraft paper - I used the inside of a roll of wrapping paper.  They don't use tubes any more... cheapskates.  His teeth are made from poster board using a scrapbooking punch and his dots are yard sale dots I colored red.

He says "Give me your extra credit and no one gets hurt!"

Just one new goody for back to school!  Extra credit if you can answer me this:
Jenny has cats and dogs for pets.  All of her pets are cats except for one.  All of her pets are dogs except for one.  How many cats and dogs does Jenny have?  **Remember to think like a 6th grader!**

Crayon Wreath with Research Paper Flowers

I have been crafting again and finished a crayon wreath which are all the rage in blog-land.  Mine is going to my classroom to jazz up an empty door.  I keep seeing all these cute flower rosettes to add a little spiff to these wreaths and I'm not going to lie... I can't get mine to look right!  It seemed to easy to be true...  So, after like 12 yards of fabric twirled up and a 1 inch flower, I decided to try a paper flower. 

Now, any flower wouldn't do and I am in the school spirit - going back to teaching next week and starting another round of graduate school soon.  The one thing I am never short of is research articles.  Some are great and some are ... well ... not.  I ended up punching them out with a paper punch and gluing them to a posterboard circle.  I love the way they turned out!  I used buttons to make the insides pop and curled the edges with a pencil. 

My tiny rosette and paper flowers!

Hanging on my craft room door

I really love the way it turned out and the whole thing turned out for less than $5!  Only the crayons and wreath form are new and the crayons were on sale for 25 cents at Kroger - woot woot!

Field Day

On Tuesday, we had field day and awards day for the end of school!  It was a super special day and I have some great pictures to share... Don't those tie-die shirts look good?

Decorating Shirts! Go Yellow Dragons!

And then we went to awards!

The Auditorium does not lend itself to high quality pictures!

No pictures of the awards, I was handing them out!  But, these are our African Drummers at school who came to serenade the sixth graders.  They were in awe and I know my kids cannot wait to be 7th and 8th grade drummers!

Then... FIELD DAY!

The whole gang!

Egg-on-a-spoon!

Egg-on-a-spoon Relay

Put on those pants!

Clothes Relay!

Longest Hula Hooper

Wheelbarrow Race aka Push your friends face into the grass relay

Wheelbarrow Quitters

100 Yard Dash - with the Eastern State champion runner

My Team!  Go Yellow Dragons!

Over-Under Sponge Relay and the event directly before I got a bucket of water on my head!

It was a wonderful experience and the kids loved it!  Their behavior was spectacularly good and they had a great time!  Definitely want to do it again next year!

I LOVE my Job!

And you can tell because I spent my weekend making projects for my kids!  That's right... tie-die-ing (sp?) and making bean bags all for FIELD DAY!  It might be really fun or it might be eternally miserable.  I'll report back tomorrow!
Until then, these pictures will have to do! This is an abbreviated picture tutorial on how to tie-die a t-shirt a single color!

STEP 1: Put rubber bands on t-shirts in any pattern you want.  I did 17 shirts... in total, we did 65ish shirts as a group!

STEP 2: Put die into a large bucket - if you are not dying in the washing machine.  This is a kitty litter bucket!

STEP 2 - PART 2: Stir well.  May I recommend a garden stake.

STEP 3: Dump in your t-shirts.  A morsel of experienced wisdom.  I put in all of my dye and half of my t-shirts.  The second half came out much lighter than the first half.  I might recommend dumping them all in at first for the initial coloring and then giving each an additional fifteen minutes (ish) of soaking time.  Stir t-shirts, allowing each to be colored completely.  Use gloves to prevent hand coloration.  Use well-fitting gloves to prevent all coloration.  I had about a gallon of water in my glove when I was finished... and yellow fingernails.  

STEP 4: Shoot the breeze with your co-workers while the t-shirts soak.

STEP 5: Remove the shirts and lay out to dry... I do not have any pictures, because at this exact moment in time, our 95* sunny day began to be overcast and rainy.  So, I will post pictures of the finished shirts tomorrow... hopefully on children!  They turned out super awesome!

I'll be happy to answer any questions about my meager tie-dying experience!

My second weekend craft was these sweet bean bags for the beanbag toss!

I think they turned out really cute - especially with this polka-dotted fabric from the Hobby Lobby!

Soooooo Close!

... and not just to the last day of school - although there are 5 1/2 more days!  Not that I am counting.

But, my fingers are crippled and my eyes are blurry... because my bath mat is almost done!  I don't have any pictures - I was up until after 1 last night working.  I just need a little more fabric and about 2 hours and it will be completed!

Get excited... I think you'll see a picture by Friday!

Kelp Forest

Since TCAP's are over, I get to teach whatever I want.  I have already taught my sixth graders everything they need to know - supposedly.  So, we are studying the environment.  Last week, we talked about endangered animals.  This week, we are studying the ocean.  And what is more perfect than the kelp forest when we talk about the ocean!
So, we checked out the live webcams at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.  The live feed is from 7-7 Pacific time, but it is awesome.  They have several feeds, the kelp forest, penguins, and the actual Monterrey Bay.  Check it out here!  It is pretty mesmerizing!
So, I was inspired to create my own kelp forest with the help of my 75 closest friends.  I gave them each 10 foot by 2 foot (approximately) pieces of bulletin board paper and told them to create a piece of kelp and surrounding animals.  I hung them from the ceiling with hangers.  The pictures don't really do it justice... but this is what I've got. 

The best part is it hides the huge pile of stuff in the corner!  Even my kids were impressed - not an easy task.  We are also watching the movie Oceans by DisneyNature.  I've only seen the first fifteen minutes (five times) but it is really good!  I highly recommend it - and Mom, you can stream it on NetFlix!