Teacher Workday reflections

                                         

Thursday's Open House went exceptionally well... I was impressed by what appeared to be more than half of the school's parents (possibly even 75% of them) and students showing up for the Open House, standing outside in the heavy afternoon heat, as early as 30 minutes early. We could not let them in, though, because teachers were still getting their rooms into order, and needed every minute of the day given to them.

The doors promptly opened at 7 p.m.

Kids and parents were smiling... I was too. One little fella ran up to me and hugged me, "Mrs. Gilmore!" he said with such glee. Last year during Open House, beginning my first year here, one of the things I missed most about starting in a new school was familiar faces ... none of the kids knew me, so there were no hugs or smiles of recognition from them. This year, it's nice having them smile at me first! And the hugs are sweet.

Today, I spent the day looking at schedules, plans, and spent too much time getting to know our new server on the internet. Everything is different about it, and I'm sure that once I get used to it, it won't seem so awkward and difficult.

I will have to get the stand on which the monitor sits lowered, though, because it is raised too high for my short stature. I can see hours of neck pain if I sit at it too long.

There were some changes in my schedule for the first two weeks, but I will adjust to them. After that, I should be back on the schedule I had originally anticipated.

Teachers have to turn in their lesson plans before they go home every Friday. I stayed in my classroom until mine were finished... it was 5:30 when I went home. I've got to do better than this next week! Still, for me, 5:30 is good.

But if I do run until that late in the afternoon, I will have a good reason to stop at the Gym on the way home. The cardio and upper body work out starts at 5:30, and it's just around the corner from my school. Muscles getting sore from not working them like I had been doing between April and June. Need that routine again.

Thank you all for your support and positive comments in response to my latest endeavor... I've had so much fun, and I'll probably learn more new techniques as the year proceeds. Come back once in awhile to see what new project I'm working on.

                                                                                                                

And a great big thank you to Donna (Nightmaremom)... she emailed the apple tag to me tonight... what a pleasant surprise! And so timely. I hope I saved the sparkle quality.

Did she know how tired I was when I got home today? I fell asleep in the chair (pitiful) before 8: pm... it really has been a full week, and I need to start going to bed earlier. 

 

Students will be in classes on Monday... floors are all shiny in the halls, carpets vaccuumed in the rooms, chairs on desks, lesson plans ready... I think tomorrow I may treat myself to a visit at Barnes and Nobles. There's a new store in town. 

Welcome to CSI!

I haven't mentioned school very much since June because my mind and heart have been in the moment of those two months, June and July, otherwise known as summer vacation. Count only half of June, though (our last day was June 13), and only two weeks of July (VBS took up those two weeks... I enjoy VBS, but it is not part of vacation, you know?).

                             

Before: The before photos were taken two weeks ago. I was in cleaning and organizing mode. Lots to do to get the classroom ready!

If you've been reading my journal for at least three months, you are probably aware that my teaching position was going to change in the fall. A wonderful opportunity presented itself, through a very rare transition, when another teacher moved away, leaving her position as the art teacher open.

It seemed to her and to me that synchronicity was at work in our lives, although we didn't know it until near the end of the school year. Things going on in her life coincided with where I was in mine, and our paths crossed.

It might have been simply being in the right place at the right time, and it could have been about listening to one's heart and intuition. It is definitely about searching for what is true, for what triggers the passion for life, and seeking the love of one's heart. Also, it is about knowing the people one works with, being aware of their skills and talents, and being willing to make changes, and about the support one gets from her colleagues, about receiving encouragement, and being given a gift, a chance to start something new. Again!

                                    

Before: Student desks and chairs are piled in one corner, completely blocking the computer corner. The carpets had been steam cleaned by this time. I didn't know where anything was.

Well, I started working on getting the classroom ready July 31, taking my time, working a few hours a day. I had to find out what materials and supplies I had, where they were. I reorganized everything. I left no corner undusted, no cubbie untouched. Every shelf, box, bucket, tub, or basket was emptied and cleaned out. When I was through, I knew where everything was. When a teacher walks in now and asks me for any material or art supply at all, I know exactly where to find it. I am so pleased!

                                   

Before: So many things had to be boxed before school ended, and put away. If you are not a teacher, you may think we just walk away from our classrooms after we put the chairs on top of the desks, and lock the door. Nothing could be further from the truth. Walls have to be stripped, desks emptied and cleaned, and everything taken off the floor and put away neatly.

This week, all teachers had to report to work for our workdays. Students start back on the 27th. Tomorrow is our Open House.

This afternoon, as I put the final touches on the bulletin board in the front lobby of our school, I couldn't help but compare the combination of feelings zipping through the air to the backstage of a play about to open for its first performance of the season.

Teachers who had finished their rooms were decorating their doors and bulletin boards. Colored paper, scissors, tape, staples, and glue were the supplies of the day. A last minute dash to get that extra desk and chair, or a work table, or to remove items we finally decide we must part with. Schedules were reworked, student roles considered, and books set out on desks. Lots of laughter in the halls, the phone ringing off the hook in the front office, new students coming in with their parents to enroll, the laminator creating saunas out of our workrooms, and the brand new copy machines getting a good work out.

Everyone and everything was working 100%... and then some.

Parents and students will be here for Open House and all will be in tip top shape! Electric!

                                   

Before: One last before shot before you see the video, made just yesterday so you can see what my classroom looks like today! Remember all the photos you just saw. The video is about 2 minutes or less.

                                      

Thank you for visiting my classroom today.

I know most people catching my video will think "boring!" but I'm counting on the 15 or so who might find it interesting. BTW, I did not make the masks featured in this clip... Marie, the former art teacher whose position I have stepped into, did. She has a natural talent for art and teaching. I wish her good months ahead as she faces her own new position as a 2nd grade teacher in the mountains of North Carolina. Thank you, Marie!

Tags: CSI art integration, getting ready for school to start, classrooms

Sidebar logo

I just added a new 'logo' to my sidebar. It says Wanderer.

I didn't design it. The other day, as I was driving down the highway, on my way home to get my forgotten wallet (I do want to forget the incident, but I had such a good day despite the rough start that Saturday!), I found myself driving behind this vehicle:

                                     

I thought it was a truck. I never did see it from the side or front. I just saw the logo "Wanderer Wagon" on the rear. I grabbed my camera and snapped the photo.

Several days later, meaning today, I decided to look up Wanderer Wagon to find out what it was. Here it is... an RV!

                                     

So I took the photo and played with the colors, saturation, and light. I made several images of the word Wanderer, in different colors. Just for fun. I'll keep it for a few days. Just wanted y'all to know that I did not create the logo, just borrowed it for my screen name.

I like the image of the mountains with the name, but if we ever get an RV, I think I'd like the cabin-style RV. It's a fantasy of sorts that both my husband and I share, to be able to drive across our great land and visit the various communities of Americans living in the different regions and climates.

But with the cost of gas... I can't see that happening any time soon.

I wonder if any of the J-land readers own an RV? And if so, when was the last time you traveled in it? Where did you go?

 What would you recommend to someone (like moi) who is interested in seeing North America by RV somewhere near retirement age? What kind of RV do you drive?

Either write in comment section or write a blog entry and leave me the link.

I'm serious... really want to know more about RV traveling from folks that have done it.

Thanks!

 

                                    

 

BTW, I can't remember who sent this to me several months ago ... was it you Penny? Sugar? When I saved it, I didn't think to look to see if anyone's name was on it, like Chris' or Donna's. Let me know if it was you. Thank you who ever designed it...  I love the gold glitter.

Today was my first day back in school. Kids start back on the 27th.

 

 

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Hakuna Matata... No Worries

Children found playing in Durham water fountain on hot summer day.    

                                      BTW, turn up the volume before watching the video!              

        

                     

 

Okay, so they're bronze children.

Statues.

I call it Public art.

Each time I go to SouthPoint Mall (about 4 times a year), I park on the side closest to the lively water fountain. I enjoy walking past it and feeling the cool energy of the flowing waters almost pushing those children into space on their little water disks.

You are probably thinking I've gone cuckoo over making movies, that I have nothing better to do than to sit and transfer my camera videos from my computer to the Windows Movie Maker before uploading them to UnCut Videos. Truth is, it takes so long to complete the process, and I work on it at night after my husband has gone to bed. During the day, I am in my classroom getting ready for you know what to start. Yes, I've even made a video of that, too, though I may not post that one. Got to find a way to make it interesting.

Each time I make a movie, I discover some new feature in the Windows Movie Maker program. For example, during the arrangement of this movie short, I learned how to mute the actual sounds coming from the video, then added the audio music clip from a CD favorite. Not only that, I discovered, through my need to have a very brief musical piece, how to shorten the music clip so that it ended where I wanted it to end. I also learned how to move the audio clip around so that it began just after the title frame. It fades in at the beginning, and fades out at the end.

For those of you who are wanting to do the same with your video clips, it's very easy once you have done a few. I must warn you, though, that if your family is already complaining that they've missed you ever since you started your journal/blog, they will probably forget who you are by the time you have loaded up your first video.

Getting past that first one is the clincher, you see. Each subsequent movie went much faster. Kind of like having a baby. The first one takes forever to birth, but those that follow are generally quicker in delivery. So I've heard, having never had more than one child.

The difference in this analogy is that any pain you experience while transferring your video from computer to YouTube or UnCut Videos will likely be in your shoulders and neck because you are spending too much time sitting at the computer!

As for the song I chose, Hakuna Matata... it sounds playful, and matches the rhythm of the splashing water very well. It also reflects the way I felt the day I was at the mall. Sheria (Aimer) and I had met for lunch. It was a Saturday. I would like to tell you the story of how I drove to the mall twice that day, but it's rather long, and it makes me look very stupid. In fact, I called myself stupid several times that morning on my way home to get my wallet. There, now you know the punch line. The details are inconsequential!

Back in February, Sheria, Caroline, and I met for lunch... our first meeting as aoljournalers. We had such a great time sharing stories about ourselves, and answering each other's questions about ourselves. Caroline couldn't make it this time (we missed you, Caroline) but Sheria and I were able to. She's a fascinating person to sit down and talk with. I learned more about the legislative process during those two hours than I've learned these past few years as a teacher of fifth graders.

I'd like to visit her in our State Capitol one day, at her convenience, and follow her around, like a shadow. She would explain what's going on, point out who's who and what's what in a way that I would understand. That's a teacher's field trip I'd like to go on one day.

After we parted company, I walked past the water fountain, took the pictures and some video. I also filmed someone called Juggle Boy. I'm thinking of posting him next. I'll have to learn how to delete unnecessary footage, though, because it is over 8 minutes long, and some of it is preparatory action, not part of the act itself.

Coming Soon: Juggle Boy at South Point Mall!

 

 

Tags: Hakuna Matata, public art, water fountain sculptures, bronze sculptures, SouthPoint Mall, Windows Movie Maker, making movies for your journal, blogplug

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Seven Spanish Angels in Montgomery, Alabama

I've been hinting at it for some time ever since I got back from Alabama... the video I've worked hard to make into a movie for my journal. 

Without further adieu, here they are, singing Seven Spanish Angels.....

              Dave and Teresa!   

                      

How they met:

Dave and Teresa met at a bluegrass festival, through a mutual friend, in Fort Deposit, Alabama, although Teresa is sure that she probably encountered him originally at Old Alabama Town (where I met them in July). 

There was an acoustic jam session at Old Town every 2nd and 4th Saturday in those days before they met. 

Says Teresa of their meeting, "I never missed a jam session.  Dave only came once in a blue moon.  ... If he came into a room at the jam session, I left and if I came into a room, Dave left.  He thought I sang awful and I thought he had a huge ego.  He heard me singing "Seven Spanish Angels" one time and walked out in disgust."

But fate would have them be together. Their turning point came when Dave performed at a concert at Old Alabama town, when he chased Teresa down at intermission and talked to her.

Says Teresa about that pursuit, "I blew him off but he came to Old Alabama Town where I was working at the time and told me he needed a part-time job 4 days a week.  .... I have a kind heart and got him a job there where he grew on me. We became very close friends." 

Gradually, they fell in love at Old Alabama Town. They ran off to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to be married in the mountains. They honeymooned at Dollywood!

Teresa found a new job soon after, but her working hours were too long. As  newly-weds they were miserable.  The rigorous work schedule cut into their family time (eventually they had three kids).

Teresa had dreams of owning their own business so she could be with her husband and three young children. Now they are back at Old Town, the place where they first fell in love. 

Teresa said, "We knew that Tourists had no where to get refreshment conveniently while touring Old Town from having both been block guides at Old Town.  I thought it would be the perfect place for a coffee house." 

But she had to convince Dave of the dream coffee house location.  With no business plan or money (but for the Grace of God) they opened up the coffee house in November, 2006. 

"We feel like we have come home because Dave had left Old Town that January to take care of our baby full time when my maternity leave was over at Cracker Barrel."

I asked them what drives and motivates them each day:

"We are so grateful when we get to meet new visitors to our area, and love to make new friends . We are glad we can offer refreshments to them,"  she responded.

Their wanting to be together as a family also drives them. A nursery was added in the back near the kitchen so their youngest could be with them all day.

"Dave and I have quite an age difference between us and we don't want to miss another moment together.  Now we have all of each other we can take.

"We sing together as "Dave and Teresa" usually but Dave has a band named "The Blue Valley Boys"  that has been together since 1945.  Dave joined them in 1979 (I was only 8 years old!!!)  The original band members have passed on and left Dave their namesake." 

They play live bluegrass music nearly every Saturday at their Coffee House. 

In her email that she sent me in response to my questions about their life, Teresa wrote:

"It was a pleasure to meet ya'll last week and thank you for your thoughtfulness and sending the pictures.  We don't mind you using them.  Dave and I have actually had quite a few pictures snapped of us over the years due to singing together.  It is amazing how people from all over the world like country and bluegrass and we are thrilled to share it.  If you have any more questions we will be glad to answer for you.  Have a wonderful week,

Dave and Teresa"  

 

You can visit with Dave and Teresa and their family at Nellie Cameron's Coffee House 317 N. Hull Street in Old Alabama Town, Montgomery.

 

Tags: Old Alabama Town, Blue Valley Boys, Dave and Teresa, Nellie Cameron's Coffee House, historic downtown Montgomery Alabama, bluegrass music, Seven Spanish Angels, blogplug

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Our Trip to Alabama

                                           

What's new about this video, for me, is that I've added music. Oh! And a title and credits at the end...!

It was Sheria's idea after she viewed the Red Velvet Ant video I had posted in the previous entry. She had suggested adding music to the ant video... and I think that would be fun... but that project is on hold for now. I decided to add music to my Alabama show instead.

Turn up your volume for this one... it is 3 minutes and 41 seconds long. Five days wrapped up in 3:41 secs.

I don't know the name of the young woman singing this song, but I loved her voice, and the lyrics... those that I understood. The bulk of the photos were taken in downtown historic Montgomery, Alabama, where we had spent the night at Capitol Inn.

It was my intent to put titles over some of the slides so you'd know what you were looking at. For instance, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home in Montgomery, and just down the road, the church he pastored at, or the place where Rosa Parks got on the bus that fateful day, now commemorated with a plaque. You can figure out the State Capitol building easily enough, but there were stories for each of those buildings I snapped, narratives recounted by our trolley driver, Michael. He's in the video as well.

If you ever go to Montgomery, go to the visitor's center and tell them you want to get on the trolley driven by Michael. He was a lot of fun, thoughtful about us tourists, and knew his history.

Like I said, it was my intent. It took me so long to learn how to do the movie making and uploading to AOL unCut Videos business that I had forgotten which building was which by the time I arranged the photos and made them into a "movie."

So, just enjoy the music, with the pictures. The reason I'm in the first part is because they are in order of sequence, and it was my birthday that day. I had asked Steve if he minded taking a tour of historic Montgomery, since we were there. He said it was my birthday... of course! Also, those first two shots (following me) of Montgomery are taken from the balcony of our room. Kind of like Scalzi's View from the Room entries <grin>.

There is one more real video I want to add here, the part where Dave and Teresa sang for us at the Nellie Cameron's Coffee House. (They're the couple singing behind the cash register in the slide show above.) I'm working on that one next.

The purpose of the Alabama trip was to visit my mother... I wrote about her in a previous entry, called Alabama Mama. she's at the end of the slideshow movie. I showed her how to get on the computer and send an email while I was there, but since I haven't received any email from her, I'm thinking she either forgot the steps, or hasn't been able to get to the public library to get on the computer. But doesn't she look intense at the computer? Just like a kid learning something new.

The rainbow at the end was exactly that... on our way back home to NC, there was a rain, and I had to shoot through the window of the car to get it because it wasn't easily shot from the passenger side. Seconds later, it was gone. They are both the same rainbow, two different photos, and I color enhanced one of them to make it more dramatic, and also to learn more about the new editing features on my Zoom Browser. I thought it was relevant and pleasing to end the slideshow this way, with the promise of the Dream that takes us all home.

Tags: Our Trip to Alabama, Montgomery, Gulf Shores, Mobile; Biloxi, Mississippi, historic downtown Montgomery, The Promise, Yanni's Ethnicity Album

My first video upload... drumroll, please!

Well, let's see if it works, then!

Patrick and Greg both gave me some detailed advice and instructions about how to get my video from my Computer to either AOL Uncut videos or YouTube. I'd been having trouble with the file size, but after what, two or three nights of playing with the Windows Movie Maker, I finally realized that the missing puzzle piece was the Movie Wizard... I had not installed it. I tried to do the upload without it.... didn't work.

Without wasting too many words, here is the video I took Sunday afternoon while walking along the lovely Haw River. I just want to preface the viewing with these words: the resolution was greatly reduced to get it on this journal. The original was as clear as any TV movie I've seen.

Chasing this little bug around with a camera just inches from the ground was not easy... it was hot and humid, I had already tried to take a still photo of it, unsuccessfully, and so decided to use the video recording feature in my camera instead. By then I was out of breath from trying to follow it around. The sweat was dripping from my forehead into my eyes... stinging they were.

But I got the movie! All 35 seconds of it.

I titled it Red Velvet Ant or "Cow Killer"                        

                           

If you can't see the video, click on this link to get it: http://uncutvideo.aol.com/users/bgilmore725/3610baa2bf3efc06c6336fff4793a588?index=0

In case you have never seen one (but I've got a feeling you have), its name is a misnomer. The Red Velvet Ant, AKA "Cow Killer," is not an ant at all. It is shaped like one,but is really a wasp. The one you see here is likely a female... males have wings.

According to my internet source, the red velvet-ant is the largest velvet-ant species, reaching about 3/4 inch in length. The one I saw Sunday afternoon while walking the trail along the Haw River had to have been about that length, truly it is the largest red velvet ant I have ever seen in the 35 years I've lived in NC.

If the movie image wasn't clear enough, here is a photo of the critter... I did not take the photo, but found it doing an aol image search here.

                              

If you have never seen one, don't mistaken that rich dark red color to be anything less than a warning!! The females can give a painful sting.

If you are squeamish about bugs and how they live, don't go tothe website I hyperlinked to read about their life cycle. From the point of view of helpless, cocooning, ground-nesting bees, it is a horror story.

If this video entry works, I expect I'll be doing a few more in the future. It was fun and easy once I had the MovieWizard installed, which took only seconds.

So, what do you think? Tomorrow I will work on the Montgomery, Alabama video.

 

Information provided by Texas Cooperative Extension and Texas A&M University, Entomology Department.

 

Tags: blogplugs, Red Velvet Ant, Cow-Killer, Haw River Trail

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