The Road to the White House – A Virtual Field Trip

The third and final presidential debate is coming to town in just over a month. With the first debate this week I thought I'd pass on a great resource for teaching about the debate process in the classroom.

 

(Click here for link)

My class was fortunate enough to get to participate in the "Road to the White House" program at Lynn University in person.

  

(I might be a little partial. The handsome Irishman interviewed in that clip is my husband.)

The university has posted his “The Road to the White House – A Virtual Field Trip” for 3rd & 4th Grade on their website. It includes lesson plans, printables, and ideas for teaching about debates in the classroom. He has even linked it to Common Core Standards. It is worth checking out!

Seat Sacks for Under $1

I saw this link on Pinterest last year and loved the idea. I bought a few to use at my reading table and they worked well. As much as I love Home Depot though, I was not crazy about the orange logo in the middle.

This summer I bought a class set for 77 cents each.



Then I consulted my mom and grandmother for ideas. Most people would have come up with a plan first. I like to pretend I live on the edge. (Just kidding!)

I ‘d thought about covering it in fabric. I thought about spray paint. In the end I used acrylic paint and painters tape. It was in my (non-existent) budget.



It took 3 coats of dark blue to cover the logo. I also bought stampers from Michaels and added accent polka dots.



I had 20 of these things spread out all over the room and went around assembly style stamping each color.



Here is a finished product in front of my inspiration scrapbook paper. I love the polka dots!



I’m happy with how they came. I’d had this project on my to do list for months!



The seat sack is just the right size to hold the student’s independent reading book and other small items. They are usually lower on the chair because some of the students didn’t care for the knot of the apron to sit at the top of the chair against their backs.



We have to stack the chairs at the end of the day, but it is easy to slide the empty apron seat sack into the desk for the next day. I’ll count this one as a success!

Taking it Seriously

I have a REALLY long idea list saved on Evernote with blog ideas. (Many mentioned in the post below!)  I'm going to give it a go and try to post at least once a week. Wish me luck!

Too much!

I told myself I was only going to work in my classroom for an hour or two. Then one of my friends walked by and I was showing her all the projects I have started. She kindly asked if I thought I would get it all done in time.

Hmmm.

I hope so! After that I decided that cleaning the house could wait. My hour or two in the classroom has turned into 5 hours. I am staying until the end of nap time at day care and picking up the kids early to have fun for the afternoon. On the plus side I have almost finished my Home Depot Apron seat sacks. I have pictures almost ready to post. I'm happy with how it has turned out!

Other projects I've started:

• Replaced fabric on boards with flat sheets so that all are the same color. (One down, three to go. As it turns out this is going to require a bulletin board shuffle. I'm recruiting help. Those suckers are heavy!)
• Decided to use the fitted sheet to make no sew curtains. (One done, three to go. Need to buy two more tension rods and problem solve how to add a curtain to the back door)
• Replaced cabinet doors with white board doors (I finally got the boards cut to size and just need to buy the handles and add felt pieces to the back. I love the way they are going to look. This will be a blog post of its own...someday!)
• Painted old clothespins and sticks (Saw cute ones covered in scrapbook paper on Pinterest and had left over paint. I thought I'd try it, but now I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them!)
• Started a "Monster Point" goal sheet for students to track their points from Class Dojo. (Still a work in progress. I love ClassDojo and am still trying to figure out how to make it work in place of the old clip chart. I'm thinking of something with graphing and goals and reflection. We'll see how it goes!)

The biggest thing left to do if paint furniture. I acquired a huge cabinet over the summer but it is a yucky mess. I need to make a date with some goo gone and paint and mod podge. The contact paper on my bookshelves has disintegrated over the last 8 or so years. It is going to take an electric sander and more paint. I know I'll be happy when it is done, but I'm still avoiding!

Oh, and I participated in a webinar this morning. You'd think I was looking for things to do. I'd tried out NearPod this summer with my summer school kids and was impressed. They are offering it again on Wednesday and Thursday.

I also registered for EdmodoCon 2012. My students LOVED Edmodo last year. I tried it out late in the year and am looking for ideas on how to do even more. It looks like it should be informative.

My sister-in-law arrives from Ireland tonight. I'm looking forward to spending time with her and the kids. Now if I could only I could get past the crazy to do list running through my head!

Where to start?

I am one of those people who will avoid starting something until I am ready to do it just right. I had a couple of hours this afternoon to work on my to do list.

1. Start a teaching blog. (Check)
2. Paint the second coat of chalkboard paint on the reading table. (Check)

Considering it has taken me months to finally get that second coat of paint on I thought I better not dwell too much on what to write for my first blog post! In time I plan to share pictures and such, but today I am going to focus on my to do list and enjoying time to be productive!

Summer school is over for the day and naptime at my kids' day care ends in an hour. I think there are still another couple of projects calling my name...