We are on fall break. We get two weeks. What this really means for me is lots of PD, and catching up on all the things in the "I'll get a round tuit" pile".
The piles have started going down and yes that includes grading (LOL). But now there are digital piles - the ones you can't see and they are sneaky little suckers. They hide blatantly right in the open like they can't be tamed. Well I'll tell ya. "I gots me a whip!"
Now, I am from Oklahoma so I could have gone cowgirl, but honestly if I really think about the things I do on a daily basis I am going to just stand up and proclaim right now "I'm Wonder Woman!" I wear a lot more clothes though. Especially today the wind was blowing and it went from 89 degrees yesterday to 35 with the wind chill factor this morning. BRRRR! I am pretty sure some people made some bank on the wind today.
Let me tell you about my day. I got up at 4:19 a.m. this morning. Why? You may ask. Because it's fall break and I have things to do!!! First thing I do for myself to awake up my brain, feel connected, feel celebrated, celebrate my peers, build my confidence, get inspired, and create is to "play" in the Edmodo Hub. Really, it does even more for me but I don't want to sound unrealistic. Now I realize for many this may seem like work, but for me it is pretty much entertainment. Actually, I am writing this blog which I have been trying to get inspired to do for weeks because of a Hub challenge. I just have not been able to pull it out of me. As you can probably deduce - I am super jazzed and finally feel inspired to write. For me, writing is like painting or any other kind of art - you need inspiration, time and some privacy to collect and organize your thoughts. I played in the Hub until 6 when my husband and the dog got up. Montana - our dog, not my husband is pretty hilarious. As you can see from the photo he has an inquiring mind. I am sure he gets that from me. Had coffee with my husband, chatted and prayed before I left. We have been trying to take time to do that. The day just goes better.
Next I headed over to Harry's (an appliance store) to "dumpster dive. I have their permission and it's just for cardboard boxes for the school garden so don't get grossed out (LOL). Appliance stores have the best cardboard. For those who like good cardboard you know what I mean. It is super big, flat and mostly free from tape and staples so it goes down quick. We have about a quarter acre garden so we need a lot of cardboard. It is going down to hopefully prevent the weeds from growing up. We are going to put wood chips on top.
After that I head over to a school who had a bunch of garden bricks left from a project and they are donating them to to our garden. Awesome right?! A volunteer and the students went over and picked up around two hundred a few weeks ago. There are hundreds left. Yesterday I got 50 and put them in the back of my van. This morning I picked up another 50, headed over to school and laid them out near where the students are going to build new sections of the garden. The time was now around 8:30a.m. in the morning.
I headed inside to my room and got another jump on those piles of "around tuit's". I kind of work in circles, so I put a load of clothes in the washer, put up dishes, cleaned the tables, hole punched time cards so they would be ready for the students when they come back. I graded they timecards from last week, posted grades, put labels on binders and broke down cardboard. I stopped by the library and the librarian is resetting the library in sections of genres - I am so excited about it! The student council members were helping her relabel books and work on the project for breast cancer when we get back. They needed a glue gun so I went through my things and loaned them one. : ) Had to take off and head to a meeting for our afterschool program from 10-12 noon. The meeting went great. Lots of brainstorming. There were students their sharing their opinions. I feel like student voice is very important. Tomorrow we meet again to create the organizational things everyone agreed on today. It should be good. At 12:13 I headed back across town to a luncheon meeting at with my service learning teacher partner at the school that donated the bricks. Lunch was great, we debriefed about out past two days activities and of course were excited about the outcomes that end in student success. At 1:10 I headed back across their campus to get another 50 bricks. Then I headed back across campus to meet with their Youth Advisory Council as a guest speaker. The youth council is having a canned food drive and I explained to them what students in poverty go through each day. I tried to help them think about what it might be like to be homeless and hungry.
Their teacher had been inspired by a Padlet I created for our 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance. She searched online to learn how to use the online tool and then I helped her finalize it so she could share with her students and they could use Padlet as an accountability and reflection tool for their food drive. I left there at 1:50 to head back to school for a meeting with a garden volunteer at 2p.m. She showed up close to 3p.m. with a donation of plants and flowers for the garden. We took a quick walk around the garden. I thought bunnies were eating our greens and it turns out there are cabbage worms scarfing down out greens. Well, not anymore! They have been found out! I wrapped up things in my room and headed to UCO. I am conducting research about the relationship between student motivations and learning styles. It also has something to do with gamification which I got my first taste of on Edmodo from a class I took with Christi Collins.
I was supposed to be ready to go to conduct research in a specific classroom management class at 4:30. I was there at 4:25 and started to pass out the resources to students so I would be ready to go at 4:30. At 4:27 a lady walked in who I didn't recognize. I asked her if she was the professor and guess what? I was in the wrong room and building! I looked at my schedule and was supposed to be in a building across campus. The professor in the room texted the professor across campus I was on my way and I ran (walked fast - too old to run like that : )) across campus. The professor had a technology situation so I was fine. After she solved the problem she gave the floor to me and I conducted my research. It went well. I was supposed to drop off a research kit to my professor in her office by 5p.m. At 5:03 I made it to her office and alas - everyone was gone so now it has to be delivered by 8a.m. in the morning. Thankfully I live nearby so I was home by 5:20 which is quite early. When school is in session I haven't been getting home until 7p.m. When I got home my husband was at the gym so I pet Montana for a moment and of course thought I would see what was happening on Edmodo: ). This is when I writing this blog. My husband got home around 6 so I had to put my writing aside. I warmed up some dinner for us, we ate and I cleaned up. He took a shower and I wrote a bit more and then it had to go to the side again as he rented "The Pirates of the Caribbean" to watch for fun. The movie ended around 9. It was a pretty good show. I would recommended it. I took a shower and hit the hay (so to speak).
It was a good day: )
