November 22, 2021 – Today’s 3 things: Nestle Tollhouse Chocolate chip cookies and now that I live by myself I actually get to eat some; I am grateful for the wonderful woman who came to clean my apartment today. I treated myself to a professional cleaning before the holidays and it was worth every penny; I am grateful for Biofreeze on my aching back after a 14 hour work day. #choosejoy #3things #gratitude
June 24, 2016
Kissing the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle in Cork, Ireland
June 20, 2015 – Day 5 of the Britannia with Education First Tours.
Blarney Castle: The grounds were gorgeous and green and views from the top, well, gorgeous.
We climbed to the top of the castle and had to lie down and hang out backwards over an opening with quite a drop. For this gal terrified of heights – the climb alone could have prevented the experience, but I prevailed. Then this nonsense. I did it, though – and that would be another item to mark off of the bucket list.
The day was warm and sunny as we strolled through the park. Of course, the best part of the day was that I got to share it with my son… Too much? Yea – that was rather corny – or was it Blarney?
As the day ended and we rode the bus to our next destination, I gathered all of the maps and brochures and my colored pens and recorded the event in my trip SMASH Book.
Off to the Rock of Cashel!
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Thanks, Kelly Gallagher, for the Book Club!
Year after year I have struggled with reluctant readers in my classroom. I try and try to support outside reading and despise the read a book take a test option. I want so badly to ignite a love of reading in each and every student. I think I finally figured it out.
My students this year participated in a weekly book club (held in class). They had to prepare for each meeting by doing the following:
After the meeting they had to write a half page reflection about the discussions. I love using the Writer’s Notebook for all of these assignments.
Some groups were clearly more excited about reading than others – but they all did the reading. This was just one of four classes and they were all begging me to do the project again. They kept up with assignments, came prepared for discussions, and spoke passionately about their opinions. They annotated their reading and were ready with evidence when they had to explain themselves. Did some skip out on the work and only pretend – I am sure they did (I could probably tell you names) but I definitely had more meaningful reading than I have ever had before.
One of the hardest assignments for them was the artistic rendering – create something from nothing – inspired by the book. They could take any component of the story to find inspiration to create ANYTHING. They just did not know what to do with this kind of freedom. I said art and most of them heard pencil drawing.
But then, some of them were very original – from dressing in costume as one of the characters, to baking a fresh rhubarb pie!
We are getting ready to embark on another round of Book Club. I learned a lot from the last go ’round that I will implement. I will let you know how it goes, so check back!
And remember – smart people read!
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When I had my Etsy Shop (Miss Elaineous) I sold many memory boxes…they were so fun to make! I used an unfinished wooden box from Michael’s Crafts to start. I would decoupage the outside and the inside – leaving the inside side walls of box and lid bare and natural. Inside, I would put an embellished journal and an original paper bag photo album every time. Other items were usually jars of some sort to hold trinkets or souvenirs of some sort. This one was for a honeymoon couple. The jar pictured was for sand from the beach.
I wish I still had time to work on projects like this. I loved working on that shop and its contents. Maybe some day I will return to it.
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