We hold these truths to be self-evident…..

After posting my last blog I found out that Al Roker was not doing a public service announcement. He was doing a commercial. I was corrected by my husband who was actually watching the television program. I was multi-tasking by cooking dinner while watching television. I was having a little trouble hearing Al over the buzz of the microwave.

Which leads me to tell you about the Gilmore Creed.

My three sisters and I were the original Gilmore Girls.

                            

                                                        Gilmore Girls In Your Easter Bonnet circa 1964

Here is our creed….

We hold these truths to be self-evident….

Truth #1 You never let the truth interfere with a good story. Don’t you just hate it when one of your kids says, “Mom, that’s not what really happened.” Like it really matters if it makes a good story!

Truth #2 Anything worth doing is worth OVERDOING!

This is especially true when dealing with a large family gathering and food. Someone once told me “less is more”. That is just ridiculous! Less is less. MORE IS MORE!

Truth #3 Everything looks better with a bow.

I am an excellent bow maker. Last Christmas I made one hundred and twenty-three bows for the altar guild at church. Every poinsettia in the entire church had a bow on its pot. It was all lovely!

(Refer back to Truth #1 about a good story and to Truth #2 about overdoing.)

I like to think of it as embellishment!


We are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights that among these are life, liberty and (to embellish in) the pursuit of happiness.

So, go forth today and embellish in the pursuit of happiness!

Last night, Kate was handing out cards from her Fancy Nancy notes to everyone in the room. This was mine…

               Fancy Nancy knows about embellishments!

Welcome Back to School

Last week I saw Al Roker of the Today show on television doing a public service announcement about how much teachers spend out-of-pocket on their classroom supplies. He said that teachers spend an average of $500 each year. I spent 20+ years working in an educational supply store. For some teachers (especially those who teach in the lower grades) that number seems a little low.

One year during Back to School, I was in the store working at the check out counter. In the long line were a young first-year teacher and her mother. Since it was her first classroom her mother had come with her to buy her a few things. The bill came to about $60. When they finished the young teacher turned to her mother and said, “Thanks, Mom, but just think we won’t have to do this next year.” A seasoned veteran teacher was behind her in line. She said, “Honey! (We are from Texas.) You have no idea! I have been at this for 23 years and I am still buying stuff!”

 I have been out of the store for four years now. I wondered if the teachers are still buying stuff so I took a field trip this week to two local stores to see for myself what teachers were buying. (Thank you to Teach Mart in Keller, TX, and Teacher’s Tools in Hurst, TX.)

My Shopping Field Trip

Here is what I found in my research.

Calendars and class schedules are still essentials.













Things need to match!
Poppin’ Patterns make that easy!

Dots on chocolate are really sweet!

My School Field Trip

After a day in the stores, I went to visit some teacher friends at our local elementary school. First grade teacher, Rachel Boyd, was getting ready. This year she was moved from second grade to first grade so she was making a few adjustments in her classroom. Thursday was “Meet the Teacher” night so she had lots to do to get ready before the kids and parents got there.

.....desks to be arranged


…..books to be unpacked


…..games to be organized.







……names to be printed on name plates .

……”Welcome” letters to be written.








Did I mention that it was 103 degrees that day!
What happened to starting school in the fall!

Why do teachers continue to spend money and do this all this work?

If you asked the teachers they might mention that they spend most of their days in their classrooms. They want their surroundings to be pleasant and comfortable. They would surely mention that they want their kids to be successful and to pass THE TEST!

But most of all, the reason they do all this is for the anxious little girl walking through the kindergarten door on “Meet the Teacher” night.

Teachers want each child to feel “at home” and excited and ready to learn!

To my precious friend, Sandi Hill, who gives all her kindergarteners the gift of believing in themselves!

To my granddaughter, Kate, welcome to this new great adventure!

I am so happy that this year the two of you will be together!

                                Welcome to School!

In Praise of Books

Today the children responded with open delight
as I read them a story
which was written over one hundred fifty years ago
and half a world away.
A story which was read to me when I was their age,
every night upon demand.

And now it is their turn, Father,
to receive this story in joy,
and claim it for their own.

What a marvel language is,
that it can freeze an author's thoughts and emotions,
and preserve them,
until they melt into the mind and heart
of the reader.

What a wonder words are,
that they can transcend space and time,
class and race,
uniting your sons and daughters
in literary fellowship.

Father, thank you for books.
Thank you for children.
And thank you for the delightful privilege
of bringing the two together.

Bringing books and children together....

This was a delightful day in April when we had the privilege of bringing the two together.

The poem is from a wonderful little book called Chalkdust...Prayer Meditations for Teachers by Elspeth Campbell Murphy.

The books the children are reading are from CTP's new Fun and Fantasy series from the Learn to Read collection.  To find out more about the books go to www.creativeteaching.com and search for Learn to Read.  You can choose from hundreds of books.

The children are from the Pre-K class at Premier Academy in Keller, Texas. Thanks for sharing your class with us.

But, the sentiment is all mine.....

It is a joy and privilege to bring together children and books.

I Love Chocolate!

I went on an exciting vacation with the family.  I went to New Jersey for a wonderful workshop with a hundred teachers.
Then, I returned home to find that CTP has all the new products for the new release ready to ship. Now, that means I have to go to work....enough fooling around!

One of the favorite parts of my job is to take the new stuff and use it the way teachers would use it.  Working with this release has been fun. Next week, I will have pictures of some of the things that I have been making.   

Yesterday, Trevor informed me that school starts for him in two weeks.  He will be going into fourth grade.  Kate starts kindergarten.  She is SO ready.  I am not sure that kindergarten is ready for her! It is an exciting time for kids and a busy time for teachers!

It is always fun to decorate your class around a certain theme. What is your theme is for this year?  Click on comments below and leave a message or a picture. 
This year my favorite is CHOCOLATE.

CTP started the chocolate craze a couple of years ago and the theme has grown and grown.  Go to www.creativeteaching.com to see all the Dots on Chocolate.  They are really SWEET!

New this year is the Dots on Chocolate Classbook bulletin board.  This is already one of our best sellers. It is a great interactive way to start off the year.

 Haleigh, Trevor, Isabella and Savanah volunteered to help me with this display.  We had a great time putting everything together.  In this picture Haleigh is putting the pieces on a magnetic white board.  Meanwhile,  the others were working on the pieces to go on the board.  After a few minutes one of them said, "Hey this is like Facebook only I can do this!  My mom doesn't let me post on the real Facebook. I can post on this!" 

There is so much to the kit.  There is a poster for class rules, a welcome poster, and well as the "classbook" part.

Post your own rules.  I tried to come up with ones that were positive instead of "don'ts".

I printed the rules on colored paper and posted them in the circles of the chart.

Check out Isabella's profile.  Individual cards are included in the kit so each child can post his or her own profile.  There is a reproducible  sheet inside the bulletin board kit for the kids to write their profile information.   It is like an "all about me" sheet. After the kids complete their information the pages can be bound together to make a class book.  The kids can read to find out more about each other.

My helpers were completing the pages to go in their book.  I heard Trevor say to Savanah , "Oh, you read Harry Potter.  I do, too.  Which ones have your read?"   This book is a good conversation starter.

The last part of the page has a place for a joke.  This is an example of third grade humor. 

Where do Hogwarts go to the bathroom?   In the Harry Potty!

If you mount the major pieces of the bulletin board to a magnetic board you can simply change out the spotlight, blog, newsfeed, and notes by using printed pages attached with magnets.  The teacher or kids can update the blog and news feed daily.  Of course, I covered the magnets with the mini dots on chocolate cut outs to make them sweet too.

 

The bulletin board kit co-ordinates with all the dots on chocolate products such as the jumbo and mini dots, name plates, name tags, letter stickers, border and designer letters in dots and the new designer letters with stitches on chocolate. 

So as you get ready for another school year....

Don't miss out on the chocolate!

What are you doing in your classroom???

An Unhurried Life

Twenty years ago my sister, Judy, and I had a teacher’s store in Texas. Someone told us that we should write a mission statement for the store. So we did. We didn’t know a whole lot about running a store so anything anyone suggested-we did.


Our Mission…To be actively involved in the education of children by assisting, encouraging, motivating and inspiring their teachers.

This mission statement served us well. It kept us on track and helped us remember why we were in business.

The statement remains my professional mission statement. Tomorrow, I leave to do a workshop on Monday for 100 teachers in New Jersey.  I always try to close with my thought for the day. My hope is that it might encourage, motivate, or inspire someone....maybe you! 


This is from a book called The Life You Always Wanted. These are the thoughts of John Ortberg. It has a message for us all.

An Unhurried Life.....The Practice of "Slowing"
Not long after moving to Chicago, I called a wise friend seeking some direction for my life. I told him about the rhythms of my family life and about the present condition of my heart, as best I could discern it. What did I need to do to be spiritually healthy?

Long pause…

“You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life,” he said.

Another long pause….

“Okay, I’ve written that one down,” I told him. “That’s a good one. Now what else is there?”

Another long pause….

“There is nothing else,” he said.

Just that…..
There is nothing else.
You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.

The danger is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for the mediocre version of life. We will just skim our lives instead of actually living them.

The Disease: Hurry Sickness
We suffer from what has come to be known as “hurry sickness”. One of the great illusions of our day is that hurrying will buy us more time.

We worship at the shrine of the Golden Arches, not because they sell “good food”, or even “cheap food”, but because it is “fast food”. Even after fast food was introduced, people still had to park their cars, go inside, and take their food to a table, all of which took time. So we invented the Drive-Thru lane to enable families to eat in vans, as nature intended.

Here are the symptoms of Hurry Sickness

Constantly speeding up daily activities
How many times a day do you say, “Hurry up and finish your work, your lunch, getting dressed……?”
“Quit messing around!" " Hurry Up!”

Multi-tasking
This could also be called "doing more than one thing at a time", but that takes too long.
Hurry-sick people may drive, eat, drink coffee, apply make-up….all at the same time. How many of you had breakfast in the car while driving this morning? (Mothers are particularly adapt at multi-tasking.)

Clutter
Life is cluttered when we are weighed down by the burden of all the things we have failed to say NO to. Then, comes the clutter of forgetting important dates, of missing appointment, of not following through.

Superficiality
Today we have largely traded WISDOM for information. We have exchanged DEPTH for breadth. Think of your most recent conversation with a friend….How would you describe it?  Any depth???

An inability to love
The most serious sign of hurry sickness is a diminished capacity to LOVE. Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love takes time!

Sunset fatigue
When we come home at night at the end of a day’s work, those who need our love the most, those to whom we are most committed, end up getting the leftovers. Sunset fatigue is when we are just too tired, or too drained, or too preoccupied, to love the people to whom we have made the deepest promises.

The Cure for Hurry Sickness

SLOW DOWN
We have to cultivate this practice and deliberately choose to slow down!

PRACTICE SOLITUDE
Find time for yourself! One of the greatest obstacles to solitude is that frequently it may feel like a waste of time. This may happen partly because we are conditioned to feel that our existence is justified only when we are doing something.

At its heart, solitude is primarily about not doing something.


It is so hard for us as teachers to not be doing something……


So today for just a little while slow down and do nothing……

Take out your bubbles
and as Lauren Bacall said to Humphrey Bogart, 
“Just put your lips together and blow!”

Sometimes,

let's just blow bubbles,

For no good reason,

let's just blow bubbles.

Laugh a little, watch them disappear,

not even wonder where.

Smile and touch the rainbow colors

watch them float in the air.

No reason why--

no goals--no structure.

Sometimes...

let's just

blow bubbles...

One of my favorite books is called Sanity Savers by Sharon MacDonald. All of us at one time or another feels as if our sanity is hanging on by a thread. This is her advise….

    On difficult days, teachers benefit from blowing bubbles......


                If the day has been particularly difficult
                and you need to do a lot bubble blowing,
               wait until the children are gone for the day.

Magnetic Receptor Paper

I had two emails this morning from Sue and Rebecca asking about the magnetic receptor paper.  I found it sort of by accident and fell in love with it. By using it you can turn almost anything into a magnet center. You can contact Jennifer at  teachmart@sbcglobal.net to order it. 

It is made by Dowling Magnets by the division that makes the magnets that go on cars for advertising.  When we first starting using it we had to order it in 200 ft rolls that were 24" wide.  I found for most of my projects pieces of 18" X 24" worked best.  I contacted the manufacturer and asked if they would cut it for me.  Believe me it is worth it to have them cut it! So that is how Jennifer ordered it and sells it. However, it can be cut to any shape with heavy scissors.

It is white vinyl on one side and adhesive on the other side.  I usually attach it to display foam boards from an office supply store.  I carry the boards showing my sample ideas with me for workshops. This is light weight and easy to set up.  The adhesive is VERY sticky!  It can be attached to a wall or door or wherever you want a center.  BUT, be sure to put it where you want it because that is where it will stay.  I usually use a border around the edge (that helps it you don't get it exactly straight.) If you want a small sample send me your address and I will send a 3" square.

In this center the kids arrange the words in order.  The words are from the CTP emergent reader, WHO WILL HELP? The kids practice sequencing what happens in the story.
The little mouse is trying to get some help to pick the apples....No one wants to help until the end of the book when all of the work is done.  When it comes time to eat everyone is willing to help!

In this center the kids arrange the pictures in the correct word family.  (This is a one of the new Language Arts Mini Bulletin Boards from CTP.)

The paper can be cut to any shape with scissors. 

I attached the paper to the back of this apple and cut it to the shape.  Place adhesive backed magnets on the smaller pieces. I use craft magnets attached with glue dots.  Works great!

Sue and Rebecca, I hope this helps.  If you have more questions when you start to work with the paper let me know. 

To Jane,

Thanks for the kind note.  I wasn't sure anyone was out there reading my rambling thoughts.  We can both give praises for our blessings!!!

bootsmcblog

I found a wonderful blog that I would like to share.  It is written by Jo Beth....Ross was her maiden name.  We were best friends with her parents when we lived in Arkansas twenty years ago.  We moved to Texas and sort of lost touch except for letters at Christmas.  The kids have a way of growing up into young adults.  Jo Beth was the "younger sister" of the youth group when my kids were in their teens.  I remember her with frilly socks and bows in her "poofy" hair. 

The link is on the left side of this page under recommend sites bootsmcblog.  Do yourself a favor and check it out.  I really like the music that goes with some of the posts.  If you are from the south you will identify with Sweet Tea and the importance of going to the beauty shop on Fridays.  For the best posts (my opinion) click on Tuesday's Child under catagories at the top. 

Remember the rhyme, "Tuesday's child is full of grace."  Jo Beth must have been born on a Tuesday. She is certainly "Full of Grace."   Her photography is great too!  The Old South never looked better.

We leave in just a few minutes to go to Yellowstone National Park.  We are taking our grandson, Trevor.  It is a Disney Vacation to Go.  Last year we went to Washington DC with him.  Disney has a patented way of controlling kids on their trips. 

Looking forward to a great trip and cooler weather.....