Here is a video about Friday’s transformation of my room into a football field. I was apprehensive that it wasn’t creative enough, but the students loved it and had a great time! I learned a lot about what to do and not to do, but it was inexpensive, quick, fun, and the students showed their math skills.

Based on some conversations I had over the Summer, here is a quick tutorial/demo on using Pocket to save blog posts and listen to them read to you.

I am so nervous right now!

I just sent an email to the parents of last year’s students. I invited their student to view the first 3 book review videos I have created for them. Let me back up and explain…

I’m not much of a reader – I tend to fall asleep when reading and I always think I have something else I should be doing. It’s not that I have anything against reading, but it just feels so… passive. Well, I know that I am not setting a good example for my students with this. Also, if I can work on becoming a stronger reader, I can more closely relate to my students that struggle also. The other thing is… I’ve been preparing for first grade for most of the past 4 years. My book knowledge has mostly revolved around books for grade-level first graders, not avid fourth-grade readers. I look at the 2-inch thick books they are reading and realize that I have to step up my game.

So I asked my students to put together a list of books they recommend I read. Every student could recommend one book and I would read and review it this Summer.

I’m not sure that I’m going to finish all 24, but I am glad that I am making progress. The problem has been less about the reading and more about recording the videos! I danced around recording them for days before finally just setting up a makeshift “studio” in my office and just recording them.

Honestly, I’m not sure I will accomplish my original goals, but something about this feels right, even if it is a little clunky.

So, here they are. Please be gentle…

 

During an EdCamp in the Spring, one of the classrooms I visited had a raised kidney table in the corner of the room. The chairs were stools and I absolutely loved it! I wanted to do something like that in my room. I already have a bar stool/chair for myself (I’m painting that later this Summer!),the kidney table, and the risers. So, the only thing I am missing is the stools.

My goal was to buy/make/obtain four or five stools for class an decorate them in my superhero theme. I had a neighbor moving out and they were throwing away 2 stools which had been on their back porch in the weather – score! I bought one from Craigslist for $8 – more than I wanted to pay, but I was excited to get them done.

They were in pretty decent shape, so I didn’t have to sand or strip them – just a quick wipe with a cloth and I began to paint. I started with Krylon spray paint, which covered the wood nicely, but went everywhere – concrete, trash cans, other legs I didn’t want to paint – it was quite a mess! After a quick run to Michael’s, I had some brushes and bottles of paint in hand and finished painting the legs. It was looking pretty good and I began to get excited.

But the REAL excitement for me was putting the padding on. It was WAY easier than I thought it would be. First, I went to Walmart and bought fabric squares ($1.25 each) and foam seat cushions (about $6 for 4). The squares were almost the exact size to cover the stools! I traced the foam with a sharpie and cut it. Once that was done, I placed the fabric down with the foam on top, then the stool turned upside down on that. I pulled and stapled opposite corners, then worked my way around the circle pulling the fabric and stapling it.

I am so happy with the results!

I found two more shorter stools at Goodwill for $4 each and am going to be creating a Superman one and another TBD character stool. I’d love to do one with Captain Marvel or Batgirl, but need to find the fabric. Total cost for 5 stools:

• Stools: $16 (2 – Free; 1 – $8; 2 – $8)
• Fabric: $6.25 (5 at $1.25 each)
• Pads: $6
• Paint: $13.74 (3 Spray Cans – $3 each; 6 bottles – 79¢ each)

TOTAL: $41.99 or $8.40 each

I took some time last night and did figure out how to get the Tweets showing up correctly using IFTTT and the Embed Tweet feature. The only thing I don’t like is that is shows retweets and replies. There is a way for me to get rid of them, but I would have to rewrite a bunch of code and I don’t think that is where I should be putting that much energy right now. Maybe another time…

I also added Beaver Builder as the theme, which is my currently preferred WordPress theme for building sites. The site look is definitely not the same as most other teachers, but I’m not really trying to promote anything else. I just want a place that I can force myself to write until I get into writing how-tos for classroom activities, processes, and such.