So, school is out (for the summer, at least) and most of my invitations have been mailed. Yes, that's right folks! I'm gonna do it. I'm getting married! Holy crap. (Breathe.....)
Nick's out of state for a seminar for work, which means I've been stuck at home tonight and tomorrow by myself--doing absolutely nothing! Well, I should clean. Those last few weeks of school were pretty rough, and it's a mess around here.
My Uncle and my little cousin (the flowergirl!) came up for the weekend. We have issues to deal with, mainly that my cute little cousin is now resembling a butterball. No, I let me refine that last statement: She IS a butterball. A big one. And she keeps getting fatter. (More fat? Who cares.)
The problem is, my mom is making her dress. And in two months, I'm kinda nervous about how well that dress is gonna fit after all the pop and ice cream they let that kid shove down her fat pie hole. I'm sorry, that's mean. She's so sweet (when she's not throwing tantrums) but something's gotta give. You just can't let kids eat like that. It's cruel.
I like venting. It's how I release my frustration. It is not healthy for me to keep my mouth shut. It just makes me even more angry. So, after my "fun" weekend at work, I'm ready to quit. I don't care if I had a decent review and raise--its a matter of principle. If I am supposed to be flexible with my schedule, it's only fair my bosses do the same. That's all. I don't think its too much to ask.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
More quotes...
I'm having a lot of fun finding these good quotes. I need to figure out a good way to store them, though. Hmmm...a journal would be great, but then it'd be hard to go back through to find a specific one. I'll work on that.
"When the solution is simple, God is answering."
Albert Einstein
"If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our job more important. "
Barbara Colorose
"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance."
ee cummings
"When the solution is simple, God is answering."
Albert Einstein
"If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our job more important. "
Barbara Colorose
"I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance."
ee cummings
Some inspiring quotes
I saw a quote from H. Jackson Brown, Jr. on a website the other day. I decided to look him up, and I found some more. Even though this site started as an extra credit assignment, I want to continue to post things that matter. Well, some maybe more than others, depending on the day. :)
"Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know if it's going to be forward, backwards, or sideways. "
“Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”
"Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There's plenty of movement, but you never know if it's going to be forward, backwards, or sideways. "
“Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”
“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.”
"Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all they have.”
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Do it yourself!
I am cheap. Well, concerning some things...I am cheap. But that gives me a lot of opportunities to express my creativity. Tonight, I started painting my hand-me-down desk.
It started out (dirty) white with yucky "gold" drawer pulls. A couple summers ago, I got bored and painted the fronts of the drawers lime green, framed each drawer with a blue-green. The effect was distressed and kinda fun, but it only took 2 weeks before I was annoyed.
After dropping off 3 boxes of junk to Goodwill (one's trash is another's treasure) I had enough wiggle room to pull out the desk, unscrew the handles and start sanding. Just enough to roughen up the old paint. I have no desire to sand to bare wood, I'm anxious for it to be done!
After I got done coughing, I wiped most of the dust off with a damp rag, dried the desk and drawers off and got to work. Painting anything in an apartment is no small job--I had a fan going and the window open. Covering up white paint with black takes a lot of coats--I'm on my 2nd and its still not done.
I took the drawer pulls outside to spray paint a nice silver. They're outside drying--I thought this would be a nice way to put that terrible wind to good use.
So, my "vision" of this project is turning my Grandma's white desk to a sleek, modern piece. Plus, I hate white. I was stuck with white walls in my bedroom as a kid and I'm surrounded by white walls in my apartment. And at the risk of being charged an enormous amount of money when I move out, I decided I wouldn't touch the walls.
Does all this have a point and how can this relate to education AND technology?
Well, a lot of painting projects I learned from watching my parents. But, it doesn't help to look for advice on the internet. The DIYnetwork site and HGTV.com are full of information to help you with projects step-by-step. The DIYnetwork also has a kids section that features instructions from the show. This is a great place to find inspiration for classroom projects.
I didn't have a "before" picture of the desk, but my coffee table is going to be my next project.
It was a pain-staking process to paint this, but it no longer fits my 'grown-up' decor. What I'm planning to do is paint it all black, and create a mosaic with glass pebbles around the border where the checked paint is now. Of course, I'm already scouring my favorite sites for directions.
And, incase anyone would like to know--I did design the lizard myself. I outlined it on paper first, cut it out to create a stencil. I taped it to the table (after painting yellow) and outlined it with a black Sharpie, then painted VERY carefully. Ta da!
It started out (dirty) white with yucky "gold" drawer pulls. A couple summers ago, I got bored and painted the fronts of the drawers lime green, framed each drawer with a blue-green. The effect was distressed and kinda fun, but it only took 2 weeks before I was annoyed.
After dropping off 3 boxes of junk to Goodwill (one's trash is another's treasure) I had enough wiggle room to pull out the desk, unscrew the handles and start sanding. Just enough to roughen up the old paint. I have no desire to sand to bare wood, I'm anxious for it to be done!
After I got done coughing, I wiped most of the dust off with a damp rag, dried the desk and drawers off and got to work. Painting anything in an apartment is no small job--I had a fan going and the window open. Covering up white paint with black takes a lot of coats--I'm on my 2nd and its still not done.
I took the drawer pulls outside to spray paint a nice silver. They're outside drying--I thought this would be a nice way to put that terrible wind to good use.
So, my "vision" of this project is turning my Grandma's white desk to a sleek, modern piece. Plus, I hate white. I was stuck with white walls in my bedroom as a kid and I'm surrounded by white walls in my apartment. And at the risk of being charged an enormous amount of money when I move out, I decided I wouldn't touch the walls.
Does all this have a point and how can this relate to education AND technology?
Well, a lot of painting projects I learned from watching my parents. But, it doesn't help to look for advice on the internet. The DIYnetwork site and HGTV.com are full of information to help you with projects step-by-step. The DIYnetwork also has a kids section that features instructions from the show. This is a great place to find inspiration for classroom projects.
I didn't have a "before" picture of the desk, but my coffee table is going to be my next project.
It was a pain-staking process to paint this, but it no longer fits my 'grown-up' decor. What I'm planning to do is paint it all black, and create a mosaic with glass pebbles around the border where the checked paint is now. Of course, I'm already scouring my favorite sites for directions.
And, incase anyone would like to know--I did design the lizard myself. I outlined it on paper first, cut it out to create a stencil. I taped it to the table (after painting yellow) and outlined it with a black Sharpie, then painted VERY carefully. Ta da!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Mnozil brass
I'm not sure how educational this video really is, other than maybe you could say that brass instruments occasionally sound FOWL.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkjfUhPwr3k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkjfUhPwr3k
In My Own Backyard
This post is of the video I created for Ed Media. The purpose of this video is to be used as an example for students when creating their own digital storybook.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
I didn't anticiate posting twice in one day, but I knew I had to when I stumbled across a story on our local news station's website. Researchers found an 1860 recording, which they believe is the earliest recorded human voice. It was made by Scott, a Frenchmen who believed you could understand sound by seeing it. It predates Thomas Edison by 17 years! I guess Scott was very angry with Edison for getting all the credit, but they had two different views of the technology. I found the mp3 file online, so have a listen for yourself...
http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/1860-Scott-Au-Clair-de-la-Lune.mp3
On the educational side of things, this would be a very cool thing to discuss in a Science or Music class. It might be a little easier for older students to understand, but I think its a great topic--students should understand how we came from this to become an iPod generation.
http://www.firstsounds.org/sounds/1860-Scott-Au-Clair-de-la-Lune.mp3
On the educational side of things, this would be a very cool thing to discuss in a Science or Music class. It might be a little easier for older students to understand, but I think its a great topic--students should understand how we came from this to become an iPod generation.
Long day....
After a long day at work, it's nice to come home, take a long hot shower, and then settle down in the front of the TV with a bag of chips and salsa and watch Scooby Doo. Cartoons can be very educational, by the way.. I miss the old Looney Toons, and the classics like the Smurfs, David the Gnome...
Okay, so the reason I'm posting is to tell maybe the 2 people that read this blog about this great site my cousin found. It's called myfamily.com and you can create your own family website. You can add pictures, video, and have discussions. This is great, because I and our other cousins are into genealogy. So, we've set up a site that reaches back to the Spevacek-Veverka line we all share.
My crazy hobby started as an assignment in middle school. My mom had this giant chart of my Grandma's side that went back to the 1850's, when some of my German clan came over. I got more interested by the time I got to high school and had another family tree assignment. Turns out I was related to a few kids in my class.
A couple years ago, I started working on tracing all the branches in my family, and now I have several binders full of documents. The easiest way to get started is on www.rootsweb.com, a free site where you can find discussion boards for a specific last name. Another is www.usgenweb.org. It has links for every county, every state in the US. I have met some amazingly kind and generous people online that have helped me get copies of documents, pictures of tombstones and other information.
A couple years ago when my grandpa was in the hospital, I started on my dad's line. I knew nothing, other than my grandparents and my dad didn't know his family history either. Turns out I had older cousins who have been working on it for years! They sent me a huge packet and I was amazed by what I was reading. My great-great grandparents were from Bohemia, Volduchy and Vojvanov (Czechoslovakia.) Because of discussion boards online, we found cousins in Texas we didn't know about. My grandma and I got to meet them at a family reunion, and they are so much fun!
I am very proud of my heritage, and I think it is such a rewarding hobby to have. I have a better understanding of myself. It takes a lot of courage for people to start a whole new life in another country, not knowing the language, anything.
Okay, so the reason I'm posting is to tell maybe the 2 people that read this blog about this great site my cousin found. It's called myfamily.com and you can create your own family website. You can add pictures, video, and have discussions. This is great, because I and our other cousins are into genealogy. So, we've set up a site that reaches back to the Spevacek-Veverka line we all share.
My crazy hobby started as an assignment in middle school. My mom had this giant chart of my Grandma's side that went back to the 1850's, when some of my German clan came over. I got more interested by the time I got to high school and had another family tree assignment. Turns out I was related to a few kids in my class.
A couple years ago, I started working on tracing all the branches in my family, and now I have several binders full of documents. The easiest way to get started is on www.rootsweb.com, a free site where you can find discussion boards for a specific last name. Another is www.usgenweb.org. It has links for every county, every state in the US. I have met some amazingly kind and generous people online that have helped me get copies of documents, pictures of tombstones and other information.
A couple years ago when my grandpa was in the hospital, I started on my dad's line. I knew nothing, other than my grandparents and my dad didn't know his family history either. Turns out I had older cousins who have been working on it for years! They sent me a huge packet and I was amazed by what I was reading. My great-great grandparents were from Bohemia, Volduchy and Vojvanov (Czechoslovakia.) Because of discussion boards online, we found cousins in Texas we didn't know about. My grandma and I got to meet them at a family reunion, and they are so much fun!
I am very proud of my heritage, and I think it is such a rewarding hobby to have. I have a better understanding of myself. It takes a lot of courage for people to start a whole new life in another country, not knowing the language, anything.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
The crazy week is finally over
Spring Break wasn't the relaxing vacation I had hoped it would be. I went home to work on wedding invitations, flowers--then came back to MY home to work on my Ed Media project and work.
I may have been insane when I decided to make my own invitations and flowers.
However, it was very nice to sit back and admire how gorgeous they look. ;)
This post is a little off topic, but in the small chance that someone other than my family or professors will read this, I'd like to offer some wedding planning advice. I am not anywhere close to being a bridezilla, because I could do without everything else as long as the groom shows up. There are somethings I just don't care about, like spending a ton of money on decorations, programs people just throw away, or expensive gourmet tiered cake. It's just not me. I don't see the point of trying to impress people with money. Sure, I want a beautiful, elegant wedding-- but I don't need a $6000 photo package to do that. I get a lot more satisfaction knowing I worked hard and put thought into my wedding by doing things myself (with a lot of help from friends and family!)
On a technology note--I am using my computer to keep track of my entire guest list, their addresses, # of people coming/# expected, and if we sent a thank you note. This will eventually save me time, even though right now its a pain typing it all now---but then all I'll have to do is enter in the # coming to help with catering, and then mark off people when we write thank you's. I'd also recommend creating a 'wedding folder' on your computer and in a file drawer to help organize everything. I should write my own book. There's a lot of crappy ones I wasted my time reading.
Okay, that being said, I'm really excited but I've got a lot to do for the next 4 months. I find out my what region I'm in for student teaching on Monday, so I'm nervous about that too. One day at a time, one day at a time.....
I may have been insane when I decided to make my own invitations and flowers.
However, it was very nice to sit back and admire how gorgeous they look. ;)
This post is a little off topic, but in the small chance that someone other than my family or professors will read this, I'd like to offer some wedding planning advice. I am not anywhere close to being a bridezilla, because I could do without everything else as long as the groom shows up. There are somethings I just don't care about, like spending a ton of money on decorations, programs people just throw away, or expensive gourmet tiered cake. It's just not me. I don't see the point of trying to impress people with money. Sure, I want a beautiful, elegant wedding-- but I don't need a $6000 photo package to do that. I get a lot more satisfaction knowing I worked hard and put thought into my wedding by doing things myself (with a lot of help from friends and family!)
On a technology note--I am using my computer to keep track of my entire guest list, their addresses, # of people coming/# expected, and if we sent a thank you note. This will eventually save me time, even though right now its a pain typing it all now---but then all I'll have to do is enter in the # coming to help with catering, and then mark off people when we write thank you's. I'd also recommend creating a 'wedding folder' on your computer and in a file drawer to help organize everything. I should write my own book. There's a lot of crappy ones I wasted my time reading.
Okay, that being said, I'm really excited but I've got a lot to do for the next 4 months. I find out my what region I'm in for student teaching on Monday, so I'm nervous about that too. One day at a time, one day at a time.....
Friday, March 14, 2008
How to avoid drowning in teacher stuff
I am not shy about admitting that sometimes...I'm just a messy person. When it comes to organizing my genealogy and computer files...I'm awesome. So why do I have such a hard time carrying it over to other areas of my life?
I have accumulated a lot of things as an education student. My own projects, file boxes, textbooks, websites, unit binders, activity boxes, crayons, construction paper, glitter glue...but where am I supposed to keep all this junk?
Never fear, the web is here! I've searched the internet for examples of REAL teachers and how they organize. Most are 'in-classroom,' but still give good examples on keeping things under control.
Mrs. Levin's Page
http://www.pre-kpages.com/organize.html
Mrs. Meacham's Page
http://www.jmeacham.com/organizing.htm
Mandy Gregory
http://www.mandygregory.com/Trailer%20Organization.htm
Teacherzine
http://teacherszine.tripod.com/teacherszine/organizing.html
Proteacher
http://www.proteacher.com/030003.shtml
Cindy's page
http://www.thevirtualvine.com/room.html
http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/classmanagement/organizingtips/4yourdesk.html
I have accumulated a lot of things as an education student. My own projects, file boxes, textbooks, websites, unit binders, activity boxes, crayons, construction paper, glitter glue...but where am I supposed to keep all this junk?
Never fear, the web is here! I've searched the internet for examples of REAL teachers and how they organize. Most are 'in-classroom,' but still give good examples on keeping things under control.
Mrs. Levin's Page
http://www.pre-kpages.com/organize.html
Mrs. Meacham's Page
http://www.jmeacham.com/organizing.htm
Mandy Gregory
http://www.mandygregory.com/Trailer%20Organization.htm
Teacherzine
http://teacherszine.tripod.com/teacherszine/organizing.html
Proteacher
http://www.proteacher.com/030003.shtml
Cindy's page
http://www.thevirtualvine.com/room.html
http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/classmanagement/organizingtips/4yourdesk.html
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Bookpedia
Okay, anyone who knows me knows that I am a HUGE fan of thrift stores. I have found amazing stuff--(if you count the Grease soundtrack on record as amazing.) I even found a much-loved 1st edition of The Cat in the Hat. You have to appreciate a find like that.
All this rambling IS going to have a point. Eventually.
As a pre-service teacher, I am trying to build my collection of children's literature. My tiny bookshelf is now crammed with books! I stumbled upon an AMAZING piece of software called Bookpedia this summer. I use the program's search engine to find books I own or ones I want to add to a wish list. I can run a search by title, author, or ISBN. When I find the one I want, I just click and...POOF! There it is. ALL my books are cataloged now.
The other great thing about this is you can create a list of "borrowed" books so you never have to wonder who borrowed your copy of Chicken Little. And, it's cheap. Which is great for students...and teachers.
Check it out:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/home_learning/bookpedia.html
All this rambling IS going to have a point. Eventually.
As a pre-service teacher, I am trying to build my collection of children's literature. My tiny bookshelf is now crammed with books! I stumbled upon an AMAZING piece of software called Bookpedia this summer. I use the program's search engine to find books I own or ones I want to add to a wish list. I can run a search by title, author, or ISBN. When I find the one I want, I just click and...POOF! There it is. ALL my books are cataloged now.
The other great thing about this is you can create a list of "borrowed" books so you never have to wonder who borrowed your copy of Chicken Little. And, it's cheap. Which is great for students...and teachers.
Check it out:
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/home_learning/bookpedia.html
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Introduction
Well, this is my first post. I've started this blog to fulfill an extra credit assignment for Ed Media. I am a student at the University of Northern Iowa. I am majoring in Elementary Education and my minor is music. Umm...I cannot describe how much I loathe the weather here now. Summer cannot come soon enough. So, that's it for now.
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