Vince bought me a Pony!

Here she is! A 1966 Ford Mustang Coupe.

Well, this is a cool way to upcycle something!

While I am sure there are other creative individuals out there doing this or similar activities, I just wanted to comment on this one today.

I subscribe to the Ideal Bite which provides information about how to be 'greener'. Usually what I dislike is that they will promote the purchasing of 'green' products. Now, I know that if I had to buy something to replace a completely worn out item, I would buy used or upcycled items. I just don't believe that every 'green' product marketed is necessary.

Okay, that said, onto today's Ideal Bite! Belts. Everyone needs a belt and if I had to replace mine, I love the idea of one that use to be something else! This company, Alchemy Goods, is based in Seattle. Their slogan is "turning useless into useful"! They make belts, wallets, bags, purses and other items out of old bike inner tubes and old seatbelts. Cool, huh?

Thank you Sonic!

I never thought I would be thanking a fast food restaurant for anything!

Sonic is currently running a promotion called Limeades for Learning. During this promotion, Sonic will fund $500,000 worth of projects on DonorsChoose.org.

Most of you know that I have been working with DonorsChoose.org since last year. I have set up five different math and social studies projects and have been truly blessed to have received funding for all of those projects! Three were last year, and I received reference books on religion and mythology as well as a series of individual Math games. Recently many of you helped me to get my Document Camera project funded (which is a WONDERFUL addition to my lessons. Thanks!)
My most recent project was another series of group math games focusing on Probability and Algebra.

I had registered as a Sonic Teacher and was busily promoting the Sonic program in my classes and within my circle of friends. Well to my pleasant surprise, my Math project was funded last Friday! YAY!

The way this Sonic program works is that each drink has a code on the side of it, sort of like the Subway Scrabble or McDonalds Monopoly games. Folks can take these Sonic codes and go to Limeadesforlearning.com and vote for their favorite project. My Math project received 82 votes and we were funded! Since Sonic is giving away $100,000 each week, I was really excited to see that my project squeezed in!

My current pending project is for a series of Ancient World Maps. I would love for my students to be able to see and understand what the areas looked like during the time periods we are studying, as opposed to what they look like now. They would also benefit from seeing the actual names of the ancient civilizations and empires on the maps!

So, Thank You Sonic.
And, Thank You to everyone who has voted for a project, will vote for a project, has donated to a project or will donate in the future! The education of our children is a community effort. Together we can achieve greatness!

What I am doing when I should be doing something other than what I am doing!

These are the four finished Sun Bonnet Sue blocks I am making for a lady here in town. There are 20 blocks all together, and I have finished all but the sleeves and bonnets on the remaining 16. Of course, I have several other projects of my own pending, and a project for a lady in California!


This is the floor of my studio bathroom, I use it to rinse out and dry the Drink Pouches that I send to Terracycle. My classroom earns $0.02 for each one! Of course this is just a small portion of what is occupying the room! Just another activity to keep me busy. These represent all of the efforts I take to recycle items in my little town.


Finally, a photo of the lone Silica Gel pack that I did not send to my sister! It represents the efforts that we take to reuse as many items as possible! I even have my friends at the thrift store saving these!

Rewards!

For many years now, I have belonged to MyPoints (www.mypoints.com), which is a site where you can earn points for shopping on-line, as well as for reading email advertisements. Over the years, I have earned many gift certificates for shopping for items I would have bought anyway.

So, the point here is that I recently earned a $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com and went shopping for some items I needed in school. I found several puzzles that worked on spatial skills and a set of math blocks that I need, as well as a few math books. Unfortunately, the total came to over $50. Darn.

So, I put everything on hold to think on my purchases a while.

Then I paid my credit card bill and realized that I earned reward points on that card! What is really cool is that when I purchase items on-line through MyPoints, and use this credit card, I earn reward points through two programs!! Yay!

So, I redeemed some points and got another $50 Amazon gift certificate.

Today, I went back to Amazon and reworked my shopping cart. My puzzles, books and blocks should be arriving soon! Yay!

All ready for the new school year!

This is the front corner of my classroom...please note the NEW signs that tell my students that they MUST SHOW THEIR WORK. That pertains to Math class. Some of the students show their work, they usually get the correct answer, and if not, I can help them figure out what they are missing. Some don't have to show their work and still get the correct answer...but they will have to change their methods for a while in class this year. Most of the students don't show their work and really should.



This is one of my NEW bulletin boards:

The board will be interactive. There will be math problems written on the leaves. Students must solve the problems on the leaves each week. There will be 10 problems each week. This board will remain up for the first 6 weeks of school. Then I will change it to one of 4 others that I created.
When I say created...I did not think up the ideas! I just tweaked them and created them in fabric as opposed to just paper. The backgrounds and tree are fabric, the rest is laminated cardstock.
The tree canopy is buttoned on (with really nifty leaf shaped buttons!) and is reversible so that I can create the "Spring into Math" bulletin board in the spring!


This is the back wall of my classroom...it is floor to ceiling shelves! I love the storage space!
My first year, Vince added some shelves on the left side so the students could stack their books in specific areas. Just to the right of these stacked books are the new paper organizers Vince built for me this year!

A close up of the paper organizers for this year!



And last but never least, here is where we collect items that are recycled in our classroom! Of course, I do have a bin for plastics and aluminum cans, as well as crates for paper!

Above the recycling center are the two previous years' "Time Capsules". At the end of the year, each student creates a mini time capsule that we seal in a box for each class. I also include all of the discipline slips they received, drawings and cards they made, and other items of interest for that class. When they graduate high school, the intention is to invite each class back to open up their time capsule and reminisce!

Carrabba Mushroom Farm??

Whenever it rains, we get lots of things growing around here. Of course the grass grows, the trees grow, the garden grows.....but we also get MUSHROOMS!!
There are white ones, yellow ones, orange ones, brown ones, grey ones, even one that looked purple! They are all over our property! The dogs like to chow down on them whenever they are out in the yard, so we have to keep the dogs penned in whenever we have a crop growing (the dogs tend to throw up---no other serious problems, thankfully) We don't want the dogs to eat the mushrooms, but it is impossible to prevent that when they go out where the shrooms are growing!!!