Champion

Today I had the privilege of seeing my best friend get married. It was BEAUTIFUL!  So super happy for them both.  I have lots of pictures to share...but I think that will have to wait until I get home and there is a bit faster internet.

I was driving to my parents house when Roar by Katy Perry came on. I love how she talks about being a Champion and you are going to hear me roar. This is when I decided I knew what my new word for next year is going to be! Champion!

This year my word was strength. I had strength in so many ways and now it is time to use that strength to be a Champion.

Champion (as defined by the dictionary) noun- a person who fights for or defends any person or cause

Now you might ask...why champion? I chose champion because I know that we are in a time of need where there needs to be champions. But, when I think of Champion I am reminded of the Rita Pierson: Every Kid Needs A Champion TEDtalk.

I will remind myself to be a Champion:
-for the students that need extra opportunities that they might not get at any other place
-for the teacher that needs that reminder that they are valued and worthwhile. That I understand that they have a tough job..but I notice the difference they make
-for the administrator that might not get that encouragement in other places to let them know they are on the right track no matter what a score is.
-for my friends and my family  that put up with me. They too need to know the importance and impact they have on my life.
-for the stranger that crosses my path. Every person has a value and a strength.
-for myself. I have strength,  compassion, influence and heart.

This year.. I will be a Champion for others and myself.  We have so many systems that are broken in so many ways. I will strive to be the person that stands up and and reminds those around me the importance of the contrabutions they make.

"A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead

Do you have a word of the year?

Library Lessons

This week I spent my time playing librarian for summer school.  I have had way too much fun in the library!

I wanted to share what I did with the kiddos.. because I think for a short 45 minute lesson they have had a good time (I know that I have!)

Kinder through second grade I read the story Good News Bad News by Jeff Mack.  This book is FANTASTIC! The students loved it and it was a great way to teach cause and effect.  During the lesson we talked about the characters, the setting, and what might happen next.

I showed students the Sock Puppets app

Students were then tasked with creating their own Good News Bad News using the Sock Puppet App. I was impressed in how creative the students got.

Not the best video production on my part, but the Good News Bad News was HILARIOUS!

Good News- we are in the studio today, Bad News- we don't know any jokes.  I still get a kick out of it!

For my third through fifth grade classes we worked on poetry.

I found this great post about Teaching Deeper Thinking with Poetry and she had a Freebie download at her Teacher Pay Teacher Store!  I loved the Victory poem that was in it.  For the first part of the lesson we analyzed the Victory poem and chatted about the different meanings behind it.  Students then were tasked with creating an I am Poem.  Super easy "I am" Poem website where you fill in the blanks.  I put this on the big screen and we did the first 6 lines.  After the poems were written students used the Chatterpix Kids app

Students took a selfie (which.. they seemed to love for some odd reason) and then read their poem.  Once finished they could add filters, stickers and text.  One thing that I do love about Chatterpix Kids- you can export to your camera roll (and then do some app smashing and add to another app like Thing Link)  I don't have any to share for this one, but I was very impressed in how open some of the kiddos were in creating their I am Poem.

Super fun times in the library.. I need to start planning for next week! (Oh, by the way.. my #summerofcreating is off to a great start!)

#summerofcreating Day 4!

I am loving my new camera...but I am not digging the strap. There are lots of tutorials out there for creating your own strap...but I decided to go simple. I found a tutorial here I found the materials at Micheals... but was pretty excited to find sad keychains that had the clasp and ring on it that I wanted. I looked at several different places for the infinity scarf. I ended up at the dollar spot of Target (was thankful I had Robin there helping me out!) Although the tutorial said one scarf.. I realized that was not going to be long enough. We combined 2 infinity scarves together. Downfall of that...now it is too long. After adding a few knots (and it still looks cute) it is the length that I like. Another plus.. now that the ring and clasp has been added to the camera I will be able to easily change out the straps. I see more camera straps in my future!

#summerofcreating Day 3 Chicken Spaghetti

Will this be a Pinterest fail.. or will it be good?

There are lots of recipes on Pinterest for Chicken Spaghetti, but I liked how this one looked

Recipe from website:

Chicken Spaghetti

2 cups cooked and shredded chicken

3 cups cooked spaghetti

4 oz. Velveeta (or more), melted

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can green chilies (or a can of tomatoes with green chilies)

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Mix all together, put in a greased 9x13 glass pan, add shredded cheddar cheese to the top and bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees (or until bubbly on top)

Now, let me preface this (in case you already didn't know) I don't cook. I am super lucky and married a Classically Trained Executive Chef.  But to go along with the #summerofcreating I knew that I wanted to throw recipes in there!

As you can tell.. I didn't have spaghetti.  Also, I ended up using this whole box of Veggie penne and added some elbow macaroni.  I also used Ro-Tel. Oh, and the cheese is not velveeta..but cheese whiz 

Other than that, I followed the recipe (but I used Mexican cheese on top of the pasta at the end)

Other than that.. I followed the recipe!

End Product

So, I will have to put this one as a Pinterest WIN! Even better.. I changed it up a bit and it was still tasty (my friend came over as my guinea pig.. and I told her I would buy pizza if it didn't work) We both ate 2 servings!

Are you doing anything fun for the summer? Is there a Pinterest Win or Pinterest Fail that you have done?  I can't wait until #summerofcreating Day 4!

Summer of Creating

Yay! I have officially finished another school year (well... still working at school..but it is summer school..so let's go with I have finished school!) It was a year of ups and downs and craziness, but I some how survived!

With the summer months upon us I have decided that I am going to dedicate this summer to Summer of Creating! Each day this month I will be creating something. It might be a blog post, it might be taking pictures  (with my new camera!), it might be Pinterest projects  (and Pinterest fails), it might be cooking. In otherwords I am going to create something EVERY DAY this summer!

I can't wait to share here on my blog or through Twitter and Instagram. Be looking for #summerofcreating

What are your plans for this summer? How do you plan to document?

ATPE Summit 2015

Are you a Texas Educator? Have you marked your calendar for ATPE Summit?

Educators have spent their year changing the lives of the various students that have walked in and out of their classrooms and schools.  With it being the end of the year educators are still working hard to make sure that their students have every opportunity to succeed and the Association of Texas Professional Educators is doing the same thing.

One of my favorite times of the year is the ATPE Summit.  This year the Summit takes place July 7th-10th in Austin, Texas.  It is important as professionals that we grow with other educators and professionals.  The ATPE Summit provides this opportunity.  ATPE provides a wealth of great keynotes, information, and even more importantly connections with other like minded people.

Although the information that I have learned at the Summit over the last 2 years is impressive, the most notable part of the Summit is the House of Delegates. The House of Delegates allows members of ATPE from across the state to have a voice.  This is a time where we can vote, discuss, and collaborate with what we would like for our lobbyist to work on during the year.  It is a chance for Texas educators to have a larger voice outside of the classroom.

My favorite part of ATPE?  Many times as we get frustrated at what is going on our professionalism is questioned.  ATPE continues to be professional in all matters and looks at all of the different views.  The Association helps educators and professionals see all sides of a story.

As educators we are constantly changing lives.  As legislators they are changing educators lives.  As ATPE members our well being is advocated for.  I look forward to the ATPE Summit.  I look forward to the Summit for collaborating with like minded educators, having a voice when often our voices seem to be lost, and making a difference for all educators.

Rocking The 80's- Teacher Appreciation Week

We celebrated Teacher Appreciation this year by going back to the 80's. (get ready for picture overload!)

Each day was a different 80's theme.  With the help of our administration and my over achiever partner in crime Mandy Madden.  With that, follow along with our week of totally rad good times.  I have linked some of the various websites that I found ideas from, but honestly I enjoyed using images.google.com more to search ideas and then recreate them myself.

Monday- Who you Going to Call? Elliott Teachers!
We pulled several of our Destination ImagiNation students and remade the Ghostbusters Theme Song. (I am an 80s movies fan anyway.. but it was SO much fun pulling out some of my faves!)

How did we make the costumes you ask? They are painter suits that you can find at Home Depot (and.. our Home Depot in Irving is the BEST!- We always take our DI kids to Home Depot and their staff is always the best with our kiddos)

Our awesome Ghostbusters

Check out our remake

Like, this video was way fun to make, but we had to give out goodies to start the week.

So our administrative team dressed up as Ghostbusters and passed out colossal cupcakes that Kroger had made (these are my FAVORITE cupcakes by the way-90 of these good things!) 

Tuesday- Back to the Future Breakfast

We asked each grade level to bring a different ie. kinder- juices, first grade- donuts and so on.  We set up the teacher lunch room with a large breakfast buffet. 

Bright table clothes and cut out eyes out of paper and taped on

Added various movie posters around the lunch room- but of course we had to add this to a corner!

Wednesday- Was a surprise! Staff was invited to wear their best 80s duds (and there were some great outfits!) The principals had lunch provided to us by food services catering. But that afternoon we had a staff meeting where at the very end our principal directed us to go to the gym because she was so disappointed that she had to show us what happened.  Before school let out (and with the great help of one of our awesome PTA volunteers Heather) we had decorated the gym to look like an 80s prom.  There were balloons everywhere, lots of snacks and drinks, 80s music and a photobooth.

Part of our Rocking Leadership team

Elliott Teacher of the Year through the years

Photobooth- backdrop is a bright green table cloth with 80s streamers on it.  Rubik's Cube made out of boxes covered in black paper and then construction paper.

Of course I didn't get pictures of the whole gym, but I do believe it turned out pretty awesome.

Thursday- This where the Pac-Mans came into play.  The giant Pac-Man began the game. Throughout the school there were 3 other Pac-Man ghosts (all of these were created out of post it notes by the awesome Madden) Coming from each ghost was a certain color of dots (those dots took forever to put up, but there was not a hallway wall that was untouched) Teachers were instructed to meet in their team leaders room for their conference period.  I then gave instructions to go a certain ghost and follow the dots. The dots led out a door and to a waiting car where our admin was waiting to take them to Sonic for drinks.  Thanks Josh Workman with Capitol Wealth Strategies for taking good care of us!

Friday- We offered a VIP Badge (new badge lanyard and nice acrylic badge holder) and a Rockstar VIP lunch.  

We started the day with remaking the Breakfast Club commercial

VIP Badges

26 pounds of brisket, corn, beans and bread

Thanks Eat_Catering_Service for the awesome lunch. Chef William always does a great job

So, the power went out during lunch- I continued serving- however, I am the worst meat cutter EVER.. and I don't really like brisket.. but I knew the staff liked it :)

We survived the week, and as soon as I left school on Friday Madden was already calling me about planning for next year (yes, we know our theme and we have ideas!)  What did you do for teacher appreciation?

A few extra pictures:

Filming our Breakfast Club remake

each Mixtape had a teachers name on it

My partner in crime!

Find more ideas at:
80's Costume Ideas
80's Party Guide
Host a Totally Awesome 80's Party