Sunrise in New York

When I was living in New York, I started working on the Thimbleberries block of the month quilt.

The year was 2005.

The program used 12 blocks to make 2 lap quilts. I finished the first set of blocks to make the 'Sunrise' quilt and since I was still in NY at the time, the name of the quilt became "Sunrise in New York". Only the top was put together.

Its sister quilt (Sunset), which I finished in Tennessee, became "Sunset in Tennessee".

I moved to Tennessee in the end of 2005.

Sunset in Tennessee was machine quilted by another quilter for me and finished in 2006.

Sunrise in New York was partially machine quilted by me. I finished the label and the binding and then I planned to hand quilt the 6 large blocks myself. I usually have one quilt that I am hand quilting, so I can work on my skills.

Here is the finished quilt:


Here is a shot of the label I put on the quilt when I finished the machine quilting of the sashing and borders.


Please note the date of March, 2006. Yes, I know it is now March 2010. Yes, it seems to have taken me 4 years to hand quilt 6 blocks.

All I can say is that I enjoyed the journey!

Surface Area

Teaching Math is truly a challenge. While I like Math, I know that not everyone else does. Especially 6th graders!

Last week we learned how to calculate the Area of squares, rectangles, triangles and circles. We had to learn all of these new FORMULAS !!! (You remember these: A = lw, A = 1/2 bh, A = r²⁾

Some of the kids got the hang of this right away, others were just trying too hard. I told them that sometimes you have to just accept things on faith, other times you have to look for a deeper meaning.

Just accept these formulas on faith. They are right and they will work.

I managed to get this through to the kids and we moved onto formulas for calculating Surface Area this week.

I started with showing them how you can take a three-dimensional figure and flatten it out into a net. This is one for a square pyramid:
To find the surface area for a square pyramid, you just find the area of all of the flat shapes: one square and 4 triangles.

The formula is based on the formulas for each individual shape, added together.
So the formula for finding the surface area of a square pyramid is: lw + 4(1/2 bh)

Each problem gives the kids the measurements for the length, width, base, and height.

We practice picking the correct formula for each problem (as we learn 3 different shapes and their formulas).

Then we go through the steps to solve this problem.

There is the BIG PROBLEM!

I realize that a lot of the kids do not want to follow the steps, write down what they should be doing, stay organized, pay close attention to what they are doing, or double check their work.

It does not seem to matter how many problems we solve independently, as a group or on the boards. Some will follow the steps and find success. Others will ignore what their classmates and I are doing and continue to try it their own way.

Vince says that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

Yesterday, I had one class talk about tips on how to work these problems and get them right every time. What did they tell their classmates? Follow the steps, check your work, stay organized, use the right formulas.....the same advice I have been giving. I thought that perhaps if it came from their classmates it would have a greater impact.

I was wrong. I still had some of these kids today ignoring everything we spent the past 3 days on.

But we need to move on.

Next hurdle...formulas for Volume.

Mucus and Tissues

Having just recovered from a two week illness, I realize that I spent a lot of that time thinking about mucus.

Yes, it is not the most pleasant of topics, but one that I want to discuss briefly.

As I used up hankie after hankie attempting to rid my sinuses of this stuff, I wondered why (and how!) I could produce so much in just one day.

I found this article on eHow.com: How Does Mucus Production Occur.
and found out that 'adults produce around 4 cups of mucus each day just from the sinus cavities and nose. It is also produced in other parts of the body. Mucus flows from the nasal passages down the throat, to the stomach."

Yuck.

And that is under normal circumstances.

"Also, as one of the roles of mucus is to remove particles, mucus production is stimulated by airway infection and irritation." So that hayfever, or allergy, or cold will allow your body to increase its mucus production. As long as there is irritation, there will be excess mucus.

Well, I found it difficult to bring enough hankies with me to school, so I resorted to a box of tissues. I have not purchased or used tissues in more than a year so I had to search for a box that I knew I had hanging around in my car. It was rather crushed, but the tissues were quite serviceable.

Unfortunately, I used that box up in a day. The next day, I raided the classroom stash of tissues and worked my way through that box.

At night, I used my Seventh Generation Toilet Paper until I washed the hankies. Unfortunately, my nose did not like the TP. After half a roll, I had a rather sore nose. I did a load of hankies and since those are much softer than my TP, my nose was a bit happier.

I realized that I love my hankies much better than my TP for managing my mucus. I also am now in a situation where I no longer have a spare box of tissues hanging around. I wonder what will happen when the next excess mucus producing event occurs!

Resolutions: February Update

I spent last weekend nursing my cold and so I did not get to post this update! However, with a month filled with Snow Days off from school, I have had time to make more progress on some of these resolutions!

So, here we go, February's update on my Resolutions

1. Cease drinking soda. I had one glass of Coke from a bottle that Vince brought home. I did not actually enjoy it and found that I was drinking it very slowly while working in my studio.

2. Do not purchase new clothes for one year. One pair of jeans purchased!

3. Save the savings. This month's grocery shopping netted a whopping $1.75 in coupon savings!

4. Reduce my personal belongings. Four paperbacked books went to Gleaners. I did purchase 6 new books though. Two of them are for my Professional Development resolution, two were fiction and two are for school. I also donated 4 pairs of shoes to the Soles for Souls collection our class did.
5 pairs of jeans/pants left as well (although I did bring in one pair of jeans--unfortunately I needed a bit more room in my jeans!) These jeans along with 2 shirts are up on Freecycle.
I found a home for the Tupperware sifter (Thanks Cat!) that I had replaced with a metal one in December.


I also found a home for the extra Tupperware Quick Shake container (Thanks Sherry!)



5. Read at least 3 books to improve my teaching skills.
I am still reading "Differentiating Math Instruction", in fact I may have to start over as I have become lost in the technicality of some of the material. It focuses on a new teaching technique called Response to Intervention (RTI). My brain keeps shifting to how to apply this in the classroom as I am reading about it. I need to focus just on reading the book through before I focus on how I am going to apply it.

6. Keep my tax records more organized for 2010. Things are filling in nicely here.

7. Walk 10,000 steps each day. I wear the pedometer every day that I am not home. I do not wear it around the house as I know right now, I am not walking very many steps at home. Once the weather warms up I will be out and about while home.
I am still averaging 7,000 steps a day.

8. Reduce my fabric stash. I finished the Car Club projects (that used up 10 yards). I also finished the Cat in the Hat baby quilt for Amber (who loved it!). I started a baby quilt for Jennifer (using hexagons that I already had, and fabrics for the background and borders that I already have in the stash!)
Janice gave me some leftover fabrics that I stitched into a small girlie quilt. I used a yard for the backing. That quilt is basted and ready for quilting.
I put borders on a patriotic stack a deck quilt (1/2 yard) and located backing fabric for that one.
I pieced a backing for the Prairie Schooler quilt (2 yrds). That quilt is basted and ready for quilting.

So total used: 13.5 yards!
PROGRESS!


9. Make time for ME! Reading and quilting were this month's activities! I finished two of the books I received for Christmas. I also started the first book in a 12 book series of which Rob bought me the most recent one for Christmas. I am one of those people who cannot remember what happened in a series (especially one this long!), so I re-read the series from the beginning when the newest edition comes out!

10. Blog about these resolutions every month. DONE!

Words of Wisdom from a Seventh Grader

One of my students from last year stopped by my classroom yesterday to visit. I asked what advice a Seventh Grader could pass onto a Sixth Grader to help them prepare for Junior High School.
Here are some of the tidbits:
Study your grammar. Teachers in Junior High School expect you to be able to write. You have to write a book report every month and the book has to be at least 100 pages long.
Pay attention to your teachers. Teachers in Junior High School expect you to listen in class.
Take notes. One teacher lectures and expects you to take notes, and then quizzes you on the information.
Do your homework, every time. In Junior High School, they are much stricter about that.
Don't be late to school. You can get ISS (In-School Suspension) for being late.
Obey the Dress Code. They are strict in Junior High School.
Keep your locker organized. Then you can find what you need.

I am sure there were more words of wisdom, but what I enjoyed was hearing my own comments come back to me. I wish I could arrange for some seventh graders to come back and talk to the sixth graders. Then maybe they would understand why I do what I do!

DonorsChoose Project has been FUNDED!

Yesterday, as I was checking up on my DonorsChoose projects, I found that both projects has qualified for a "Double Your Impact offer". That means that half of the funds needed for the project are provided by an organization once other donors fund the remaining half. That was EXCITING!!!!

Then earlier today, I found out that in honor of Presidents' Day, the Pershing Square Foundation is funding history, government, geography and civics projects down to $98--on the condition that citizen philanthropists take these projects across the finish line.

The offer is the first in a new series called "Almost Home," made possible by a $1 million grant from the Pershing Square Foundation. Over the next four months, funding will be implemented as five site-wide "Almost Home" offers, each pegged to a specific theme day. For a limited time each month, "citizen philanthropists" will be challenged to activate matching funds from the Pershing Square Foundation by completing the funding on classroom projects meeting the theme day's criteria.

I thought WOW! So, I planned to arrive home and spread the word!

Upon arrival home, I received an email that one of my projects had been fully funded! My class will be receiving three different news magazines for use in our classroom! FANTASTIC!!!

My other project: What did He Do to Become Famous?, also qualified for the Pershing Foundation Offer.

I only need $97 worth of donations to make that project a reality too!

SO, here I am , spreading the word! If you are interested in supporting a classroom, or know someone who is, please help us out! It would be wonderful to be able to take advantage of the Pershing Square Foundation's generosity!

Thanks!

UPDATE!!!!
What did He Do to Become Famous? has been FUNDED!

Made in the USA

I teach Ancient History to sixth graders. On a daily basis, I work to relate what we are learning to real life. We were discussing the history of Ancient China and one student commented about the number of items we buy that are 'made in China'.

This lead to a discussion of why it 'costs' less to make items in China (and other places) and why Americans will buy cheaper products. Most of the kids were nodding their heads in agreement about saving money on cheaper items. We also discussed why items made in the USA can sometimes cost more.

We then discussed an item's 'lifetime'. One student observed that sometimes cheaper items do not last long, they break or wear out quickly. Good Observation there! Of course, the comment was also made that because kids outgrow clothing quickly, the clothing does not always wear out before they outgrow it. Another good point.

This comment then lead to their weekend homework assignment. They are to go through all of their shirts and pants that they own and make a simple tally mark chart to indicate if the items were made in the USA or in another place. I did not ask them to specify where the clothing was made other than USA or non-USA for simplicity's sake!

This lead to a few exclamations about the amount of work that would involve! In clarifying that I only wanted them to count shirts (not sweaters, sweatshirts or jackets) and pants (not shorts or skirts) they were a bit relieved. I did comment that if they thought that they had too many shirts and pants to go through in one weekend, then perhaps they had too many articles of clothing!

I too, will be going through my shirts and pants for this assignment. It will be interesting to see what the class results will be. Look for a graph later this week.

Remember: if you must shop, shop locally, shop USA made products! http://www.madeinusa.org/ and http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/
Thanks!

UPDATE: FEBRUARY 12, 2010
My students brought in their results yesterday and we were not surprised at the outcome.

Here are the results:
Shirts: Made in the USA: 133
Made somewhere else: 645
Pants: Made in the USA: 233
Made somewhere else: 570

Please note that this is a class of 27 students. While the fact that most of the clothing was not made in the USA did not surprise me, the fact that these students own so many clothes did!
There was one student who had 95 shirts and 65 pairs of pants! That is just amazing!

We talked about how we could change these numbers. The students talked about buying clothing that was made in the USA. I challenged them to find clothing in physical stores that was made in the USA. I believe that they will have a hard time finding clothing easily that is made in the USA. Since it requires more effort to shop American, most people will not do it. In order to make an impact, not only do we have to increase awareness of the situation, but we have to act on it. Even one more person taking action makes a difference.
The difference is you.
Can you do it?