Tech and Teachability

This week was a bit of a blur. It started by me staying home on Monday because I've got some sort of illness that isn't Covid, Strep, or Flu but it knocked me on my ass.

It's taken all week to recover and finally on Sunday I'm feeling a little relief. I've been exhausted. It's just so much. But I suppose I am grateful that this is the first school year in 3 years where we haven't started fully masked and I've only been sick twice!

For the days I was at school, we managed to get several things accomplished. We sorted out small groups for testing, I scheduled several blog posts, and the school board finally voted on our swing space for the next two years.

We are getting a new school built that is set to open in school year 2025-2026. So we have to leave our current school, they'll tear it down, and rebuild our new fancy school.

Have you ever moved schools like this? I've done some research online and found several articles about individual teachers moving schools or classrooms but I've not found much on moving complete schools. While I was sick at home I worked on THIS checklist as kind of a starting point. What do you think? What should I add?

We also had a book reading for Read Across America Day. One of our school's graduates, Ashley Cavalier, wrote a book called "Doctor Do You Know?"

She read the story to every grade level. It's such a great book based on her real life experiences and her real life doctor.

This week we also celebrated Lilo's second Gotcha Day! She has been such a joy in our lives. Super hyper, super active, and super cute.

This is how she woke up that day.

Every night she squeezes her way in between the two pillows and lays directly on top of my head. I have to always readjust so we are both comfortable.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I got a new Scentsy warmer. We supported a local school for Friday Fish Fry. We went to this huge thrift sale called Attic Trash and Treasure where I found a crepe maker, Carly got a Crock Pot and food chopper, and we saw a ton of tchotchkes and other useless items. It was super packed but fun!

And as always I missed Disney like crazy. ALWAYS. I've already got next year's school trip planned and it's only 392 days.

Have a great new week.

Jessica

Need a quick last minute activity for your kiddos?

I used to do this with construction paper and glue and feathers and lots of other craft stuff, and that's FABULOUS if you have the time, but let's face it---who does? So I switched to a digital version.

Check it out:

These are just a few of my kiddos Disguise a Turkey pics. I gave them all a template in Google Slides:

Then I let them use the various tools available to make their Turkey into something else. They used the fill tool, line tool, search tool, insert and format menus, and more.
Once they were done, I had them save the slide as an image (Download as PNG) and then I sent them to a group slideshow. I had made a slideshow in advance and added each student's name to a slide. They found their slide and inserted their turkey image. Then we had a parade of "not" turkeys!
I am always super impressed by the students and their imaginations.
Grab your own Turkey Template HERE.

Jessica

We finally made it to September. August seriously felt like it would never ever end. But here we are.

It's time for all things pumpkin, spooky season, and cooler weather. I don't know when we will get that weather, but I've already decorated for Halloween (I needed the endorphins) and I'm well on my way to baking all the pumpkin goodies.

Spice Cakesicles!

Macarons! They WILL turn your mouth black. Oops.

Truth.

But I'm aware that not everyone is as pumpkin loving as I am. So I have this fun APPLE themed freebie for you.

September always makes me think of Apples. Target has a delicious apple pie ice cream that has pieces of apples and oatmeal and brown sugar crumble and Carly and I DEVOURED a pint in about five minutes flat.

So in this digital freebie, kiddos will click and drag and drop Fact Family Apples on trees to match the numbers.

It's great practice for click and drag on Chromebooks or tablets for little fingers.

At work we got some new cameras and a new teleprompter!

I'll be using these to teach the kids about photography. I used to teach this to middle schoolers at my old school, but I'm going to adapt it to 4th and 5th graders. We will be documenting each grade's journey to their productions, and I want the kiddos to be the ones doing it.

Here is a Google Slideshow I'll be using. It talks about the different types of shots that can be taken with a camera or video camera. Click here to grab a copy for yourself.

And finally this week ended on a positive! Two, if you count the fact that it's a three day weekend!

Admin came in clutch with these nachos for lunch.

Cheeky little sign. I love nachos with jalapeños and these were no exception.

I hope you have a great holiday weekend!

Jessica

This third week of school was super long, as have been every week of School and literally all of August. WHEN WILL THIS MONTH END???? We still have three days of it next week. 😩😩😩

But we did manage to get a lot of things done! First up, THE DISNEY TRIP HAS BEEN APPROVED!!

I am so beyond excited. This trip has been postponed since May of 2020 (Thanks, Covid). But this year we are going, come hell or high water or zombie apocalypse. We will be participating in the Walt Disney World Imagination Campus. I'll be taking 4th and 5th graders to experience Immersive Storytelling (hopefully) and get hands on learning about the arts in action. We'll be going over Mardi Gras Break and during the Festival of the Arts so that's super exciting. I'll be blogging all about the process and experience so stay tuned!

Secondly, we got club letters out. At our school, every afternoon from 2:45-3:15 our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders are in clubs such as orchestra, Speed Stacks, news broadcast, dance troupe, and more! The Arts teachers host the clubs. It's also intervention time for students who need it and for grades K-2. My club is WBRC - our news station. This is the first year we will having clubs in the afternoon. In the past it would be in the morning for about 40 minutes and then I'd have all day to edit the show together. So there's many obstacles to overcome in regards to how I'm going to have the kiddos script, practice, film, gather b-roll in just 30 minutes each day. But we shall see. I'm also starting an after school robotics club for K-5 for about 10 weeks which will be fun!

And thirdly, I finally got Internet back on in my office!!! It only took two weeks. Which may not seem like a long time but it was pretty much infinity since I'm the tech person and the assessment coordinator so everything I do is online. It's not been fun at all.

Behind the scenes in my personal life, Carly Summer started her final semester as a College student.

I made her a sign and I packed her lunch for the first day because I'm that extra. It's so exciting that she'll be graduating in December!

Also personally, I've found this premium alcohol seltzer, Press, and I love it! Press is a woman owned company started by a Wisconsin mother of two who started experimenting in her kitchen. There are lots of flavors but my favorite is Pomegranate Ginger.

It has been raining and storming literally every day for as long as I can remember. Well, of this summer at least. Lilo does NOT like storms so she retreats to the hallway corner and hides. If I'm in my room its the closet for her. Poor thing.

It was Mexican week and I thoroughly enjoyed my Mason jar taco salads for lunch!

We also had Tamale bowls, chicken tortilla soup, and chicken enchiladas.

Have a great weekend!

Jessica

We are officially 10 days into the 2022-2023 school year! It has been an unbelievably rocky start to the new school year. For starters, we don't have a counselor or an ESS teacher. Thankfully the rest of our staff is full but these are two very important positions we need filled ASAP. If you are in the Baton Rouge area, give me a call!!

My job hasn't gotten any easier either btw. So much to do to get the technology up and running, make sure all the students have access to a working device, make sure the teachers' tech works in the classroom, printer problems, student login credentials, and so much more. On top of that I have to prepare for all the assessments this year because I'm school test coordinator. UGH!

AND ON TOP OF THAT - I haven't had Internet in my office for over a week!!!!!!!!!!!! So that makes my job incredibly difficult. I have to use a hotspot, that isn't so hot, with my personal computer because I need programs that don't run on school Chromebooks. They say it could take a month or MORE to fix this issue of a cut fiber. I just want to cry.

Speaking of school technology, we arrived one day to see this disaster. Absolutely no clue as to how this happened. It was fine the night before, the next morning it looked like this. Crazy, right??

I got my new ID! Our theme this year is "BRCVPA: All Stars, All Day!" So everyone dressed up as a team player! With rainbows, of course.

With everything I'm dealing with at work, I still kept on track with my workouts. I'm on Phase 1, Day 20 of 80 Day Obsession. I'm beginning to feel a bit stronger so I'm lifting a bit heavier. All I have are up to 12 pound weights right now so I can't really be getting too crazy.

A friend of mine requested some succulent and crystal cookies for her daughter. This is what I came up with!

Had to throw in this picture of Lilo in what has to be the most uncomfortable position ever, but she seemed happy. She's a grazer with her food (whereas Chip devours everything in one gulp) so every once in a while she will take a tiny bite. Then she went back to this position. Weirdo but we love her.

My meal prep this week was so delicious! Blackened Chicken Salad, Cheesy Steak Skillet, and Broccoli and Chicken Mac and cheese!!

So I haven't been feeling my usually cheery and bubbly self lately. Between starting school, working out, funky sleep schedule, and some personal stuff, I've just been feeling really down and out. Not really wanting to do anything. I'm hoping this is just a simple funk and nothing more. I started cleaning out my computer, because, well, when I can't sleep what's a little more blue light exposure amirite?

I found these bright and fun positive posters hiding amongst my old files and they brought a smile to my face so I thought I'd reshare them with you.