Letter Board

The past couple of years I have seen SUPER cute letter boards all over my Facebook feed during the holidays.  For my birthday this last year I was gifted a Joann's gift card and was SO excited to finally purchase one of my own.  Okay, I lied.. I actually purchased 2. I purchased the tall one for in the kitchen and the smaller one for my office.  (I have since then purchased one more for school.. and the several different letters)

This is in reference to the Meat Loaf song I Would Do Anything for Love

This is the smaller one that will stay in my office. 

I am sure that there are tons of brands out there, but I am suing DCWV.  You can find it at Joann's and Michaels.  Each board came with 188 characters (I believe that these both came with white letters) I purchased a white board for school which came with black letters.  I discovered 2 things very quickly...
1. If I want to write longer quotes, I needed more than what came with the package.
2. I needed to keep them organized! That is a LOT of letters.

I found containers at Michaels in the jewelry section.  All of these are plastic pieces that pop into the main letter board.  Not only can you purchase letters, but you can also purchase words and icons.

The organizer for school.

All of the words that I have so far, this is something that I need to get organized better

All the various icons. I have them sorted by the different packets they came in.

I love this organizer! Although the boards came with white letters, I also purchased a pinkish set and also a mint set. I have these sorted by letters only.

The stash before it was completely organized.

Unboxing all the goodies that I ordered from Joann's that I couldn't find in the store. You can find the live Facebook video here.

I have spent at TON of time pinning different quotes that I would like to add to the letter board.  Now.. not all of them are school appropriate, see the one above about wine and dinner being a winner. I have 3 boards I have created.  One for ideas, one that I have completed, and ones that are school appropriate.  You can find my Pinterest board here.

I have purchased DCWV from Joann's both in the store and online.   They are also available at Michaels, Target and Amazon.

I am just found this cuteness from Heidi Swapp and will be checking to see if it will work on my letterboards that I have.

I plan to change the one in the kitchen weekly.  It is time consuming, but I have also enjoyed changing it out weekly.  The one my office, I probably will not change as often and will more than likely be more motivational (or about wine)

Do you have a letter board?  I am excited to use this in the library for advertisement for events, book quotes, or motivational quotes.

Beginning of the Year

I go back to school tomorrow!  One thing that I LOVE doing is putting treats in teachers boxes (Elliott peeps.. sorry that you now know what you are getting.. pretend to act surprised :) I do have something else up my sleeve though!)

This month I became a Stampin' Up demonstrator.  My amazing friend Elaine Plybon showed me all of her goodness... and I knew this was something that I would love! My word this year is Seek.  Part of my Seek is to Seek things that calm my brain and make me happy.  Crafting, upcycling, or creating makes my brain uber happy.  Yesterday I spent the morning making 150 bookmarks.

Now.. I did use Stampin' Up products, but I also used some Michaels items as well (I love that our local Michaels gives teacher discounts.. how can you go wrong with that!)  You can check out my Stampin' Up Website here.

I am going into my second year as a librarian..so what better goody to put in boxes than handmade bookmarks!  I am super addicted to globes, compasses, and maps right now.. I loved that the Going Far stamp set had the globe that I wanted (and with the word Explore!)

Finished Bookmark

all the materials

As, I said.. I did use some other materials than Stampin' Up, but OMG.. the Stampin' Up materials were AMAZING!  I loved how easy the stamp pads were to use along with the stamps themselves.

Quote Stamp from Michaels

Adhesive Rhinestones from Michaels 

Pacific Point stamp pad from Stampin' Up

Old Olive stamp pad from Stampin' Up

Daffodil Delight stamp pad from Stampin' Up

Going Far stamp set from Stampin' Up

Bookmarks from Michaels

I loved making them!  This summer has been one full of homework (only 2 more classes this fall semester and I graduate!), working on my 40x40 list and so much more.  Watch for blogs coming soon on 40x40 adventures!  What did you do this summer? What are your plans for the year?  

One of my other goals this year is to send birthday cards.  I can't WAIT to start making my own birthday cards!!

#iisdilearn

It has been awhile since I have blogged over here.  This Busy Bee has been uber busy in libraryland (well.. and 2 master classes.. Destination ImagiNation.. Girl Scouts.. and more) But, today was AWESOME! But... first up.. checkout my amazing new logo! Seriously.. Heck Awesome has taken such good care of me! I finally ordered new business cards and am planning on putting it on a jacket and bag too!

Today our district had a iLearn Digital Learning Day! Now, I won't lie when I woke up at 6am this morning my bright and cheery self was not all in for it! I LOVE learning.. but my brain has been so fried.  I knew it would be great.. but sometimes you still have to pump yourself up. 

IT WAS AMAZING!!! Yes, I am saying that much louder than I usually say things!

Of course there were a ton of people that made this amazing day possible (the whole Irving ISD Instructional Technology and Learning Resources Departments!).. but Carrie and Martiza did a great job making it happen.  there were over 40 sessions that were lead by fellow Irving ISD educators. Each session that I went to was relevant and had great information. I have added lots of Twitter links so you can go follow these awesome people.

I spent the first two sessions in the Collaboration Cafe.  It was participants choice.. sort of EdCampstyle.  I got to hang out with Luli and Dario who are both great ITS.  We talked (oh wait.. I listened and learned) about Doceri, Kahn Academy and Google Classroom.

3rd session that I was able to go to was all about BrainPOP. You guys know that I love BrainPOP! But seriously, have you seen the new updates? The Make a Movie is AMAZING! I can't wait to share this with my own teachers.  Already thinking about how I can implement this in the library!

Always love running into Arturo!

Sketchnotes from the BrainPOP session

I work with an awesome ITS (who I totally failed at getting a picture with!) and she has been using Seesaw and training teachers. I have seen her use it..and have been wanting to learn/use it more.. but you know there are ton of apps out there and there are only so many hours in a day.  I am super excited to finally sit down in a session and require myself to only pay attention to this app.  Angela and Karron had some great ideas how to use Seesaw in every type of classroom.  Y'all if you are a teacher and you are looking for the next great app.. you need to download and use Seesaw!

Ideas I had:

-Karron gave me the idea to use Seesaw during Bookfair to share books with parents.. SERIOUSLY!!!

-Angela gave some great ways to differentiate instruction for all types of learners.

-I would like to use Seesaw as exit tickets... but rather than creating separate classes for each class at school.. making a class for each grade level and the names be the classes university that they have for NEU.  

My brain is still percolating on how I can use this in the library.

My last session of the day was School Libraries: Learning Made Easy.

OMG! I have been in libraryland since August.. and let's face it.. I don't know anything! George and Kristi had so many great tips and tricks. Irving has a plethora of resources.. and I use a ton of them, but of course there are so many more.

Things I learned in this session:

-World Book has Dramatic Learning

-It is super important that when staff and student access the different digital resources.. they are doing so from the school webpage

-Novelist!!!

-Sorting our resources by grade level

-Britannica ImageQuest

-Saving lists

This list could go on.. and on.. and on.  I can't wait to share some of these with my own teachers to make their life easier.

George and Kristi had so many great tips and tricks!

Cool wall where participants could add puzzle pieces with what they learned throughout the day.  (My mentor librarian Renee rocks!)

Where you could add your Twitter handle

 I know I overused amazing.. and there are too many exclamation points, but seriously it was a great day of learning! I was able to connect with other educators and take away so many ideas that I can incorporate in the library.  I love library land, but I feel that my technology has not been as great as it could be, and this gave me a chance to only think tech and collaboration today.. which I haven't had a chance to do in awhile.  Want to see what I have been doing in libraryland.. head on over to Bee In the Bookends.  Thank you to all the people that made today such a successful day or learning.  I know that I walked away brimming with ideas (and I also know that I wasn't the only one.. go check out the #iisdilearn tweets)  Thanks of course to Patricia Alvarado for continually pushing Irving to great technology and digital resource ideas. Of course thanks to Dawn, Keith and Shane for supporting all of Irving!
What a great day!