Teachers Don't Work in the Summer...Hah!

All year long I applaud fog delays and snow days.  I anxiously await Christmas Break and Spring Break.  The counting down to summer starts in April.  There is something about the thought "I don't have to go to work today." that sets my heart yearning.  Yet, I probably have been at school 20 of the 30 summer break days so far!  Not only that, there have been other teachers in the building with me (one of the reasons I have to go in so much because I never get anything done because I am too busy gabbing having great pedagogical discussions.)

Princess has been tutoring in my classroom so I often head over there with her trying to get ready for the summer special needs preschool I teach (starts in a week...yikes...quit talking and get working.)  Princess and I and another teacher wrote a grant that was selected by our state department so we have been meeting with that team.  I am on the RTI committee....there is another meeting.  Last week we had four days of training.

Seriously though I might complain, I love the school in the summer.  I love the time and the freedom to dream, plan and create.  I love the darkened hall ways and the smell of new paint and cleaning fluids.  I love having time to talk with the custodians.  I always feel like during the year all I do is ask them to do something for me.  I love coming in in flip flops and shorts.  I even love the challenge of being encouraged to shake things up.

This past week we had four days of Quality Learning training.  If you have never had this training, you should check it out here.  I first went to this training four years ago when our superintendent took a group of us to West Virginia.  I have to tell you, it turned my philosophy of education upside down (I knew it needed shaking up...just didn't know how.)  Our Super for the last three summers has hosted the four day training in our school district and made it free to teachers and gave us a stipend.  I decided to go again for a refresher this year and I am glad I did. 

Quality Learning is about changing the system so students are fully and actively engaged.  The teacher is more of a coach.  David Langford gives you a lot of tools to use and lots of challenges to look at why you do things and what the real impact on your students is.  The first time I went, I came home and implemented a few things, but time and ease of the familiar had me falling back into the old "tried and true" system.  I am determined this year to take what I am doing now and expand it further.  You will probably hear me reference QL a few times this year.  Princess also went to the training.  She was a bit overwhelmed, but she has an awesome third grade team and each one of them was there.  They do quite a bit of QL systems and they have everything ready to go for her.  (and she thought she was done with teacher school!)

So even though it is the end of June, I still haven't let go of school.   There is an invisible thread pulling me back and I can't seem to cut it.

Queen Pea

Book Pals- Pete the Cat

  We have just made our second book pal and we are in love.  If you haven't read the picture book series Pete the Cat  by Eric Litwin and illustrated by James Dean, you are missing out.  To get an idea, click on the books and rock away.  Just imagine a class of first graders singing away...you will fall in love too.

    We knew we wanted to create Pete, but weren't sure we what to do about shoes.  We thought we might find infant shoes at a thrift store, but no luck.  Then we found these at Marshall's.  Perfect!

   We dug some blue fabric out of the fabric scrap box.  It was a little dark, but we thought it would work.  Queen Pea just cut it out by eyeballing it.  She is so good, she only had to re-cut the head twice.  The eyes and nose were from felt and the mouth and eyebrows were black floss.  My job was the stuffing the body.  I love the final result.

  Now there is a third book out.  Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons.  I am trying to get the Queen to make a coat with four buttons, but she says I can't have everything.  Sometimes mothers are so mean!

Princess Kay

Book Pals - Fancy Nancy

I was an avid reader as a kid and being a teacher just gives me an excuse to buy books. For the last three years, I have been collecting books for my future classroom. Goodwill has been my best resource. My class library numbers close to 500 now. The Queen says I have to stop, but who can pass up a copy of The Watsons Go to Birmingham -1963 when it is lying there begging to be read and loved. Besides looking for books, I have been on the lookout for plush book characters for my favorite books. You can buy them, but my bank account cannot handle the prices. My current favorite picture book is Fancy Nancy.

I think that Fancy Nancy is what I was as a child. I loved nothing better than dressing up in as many ruffles and bows as I could pile on. As a teacher, I love Fancy Nancy for her wonderful way of choosing extraordinary words to say ordinary things. So of course the first character I wanted was Nancy.

Amazon Version $33.00

Queen Pea was sure we could create Fancy Nancy ourselves. She bought these dolls at Goodwill for 25 cents each.

We took the legs off one doll and attached them to another. We took purple tulle and hot glued on a dress. Then we accessorized. Beads, ribbon, jewels and a boa (a ribbon that we gathered). The glasses are made from craft foam and colored cellophane. Everything we used was from our craft junk drawer. I love the final product.

Total cost...50 cents! Stayed tuned for our next book pal project...Pete the Cat.

Princess Kay

P.S. News on the job front. I will be teaching third grade next year. Woohoo!

The Beginning of It All

And so it starts...we have decided to try our hand at a teaching blog. We did a home decor/thrift/crafts sort of blog this year and did alright. We were featured once :) followed by a few and had a few comments. The truth was we did not have time to teach, come home and make incredible masterpieces and post, link and post some more. Soon our posts became further and further apart. Plus, we often found ourselves on Pinterest more drawn to the classroom pins surfing through a sea of teaching blogs. So now we change tracks and wade into the world of teaching blogs.

So let us introduce ourselves. Since every blogger seems to refer to themselves with a cute nickname, we will too. Let's refer to me as the Queen because after all I have spent 25 years in a classroom. I am a speech pathologist who is in love love love with the school setting...and yes I spent 7 years in the clinical setting - left when it became more about swallowing (ick!) and less about my peds patients. I also spent three years working as an autism consultant. (my favorite kind of student!) I love special education with my whole heart and hate "two times a week for twenty minutes" with every fiber of my being. I currently work in a rural school district serving students K-12 along with a wonderful speech assistant (We'll call her Lady A because she is also a Pinterest lovin' Dollar Store shoppin' fanatic and I am sure we will refer to her often.)

Princess K is my daughter and the other half of my creative brain. She recently finished a dual degree in special education and elementary education. (Mind you she was determined when she entered college she was not going to be a teacher...hah!) She is looking for a job and is in the interview process (One of her favorite interview questions: A student comes to you and says, "My dad says a tomato is a fruit, but I say it is a vegetable." How do you respond? Gotta love Teacher Perceiver interviews!) She is passionate about anything retro or vintage. Frank Sinatra plays regularly on her record player (no typo...she listens to vinyl) She also is an avid thrift store shopper who has gotten me hooked as well. I don't think she wears anything that costs over $4 dollars (and somehow she looks amazing.) She avoids "teacher clothes" with the same fervor other people avoid the bubonic plague.

We both love technology, funny things student say and creativity in the classroom. Our goal for this blog is to share all of what we find, create or stumble upon. Our final promise is that this will be the longest post we do that does not have pictures. We know at the end of a long day with the royal subjects (I've got to stay with my princess theme.) you only want to skim and look. Therefore, we will try to stay away from long winded stories, detailed explanations and long winded diatribes (although with everyone and their brother weighing in on educational reform, that might be a bit hard.)

So here is too a long reign! (Princess K always accuses me of taking a theme too far.)

Queen Pea (and Princess Kay)