Many of you know that my sister is pregnant (the first in our family!!) and is due at the end of May. When I was home for Christmas we set out to find a venue for the shower, and to start planning while I was there (planning when you're 2,000 miles away can be a bit tough).
We were a bit spoiled for her bridal shower, since we through it at her house, and I made all of the food. It saved us some major monies, and it was so relaxed and fun. Now that I'm in a better financial position, I was glad that for her baby shower we could branch out. We're having it at Lakewood Country Club in Westlake, which is actually where my dad works. The even coordinator loves my dad (but really, who doesn't?!?!) and gave us, what I think, is a great steal.
Since it's going to be catered, and pretty much everything is taken care of, I have very few responsibilities (other than writing out a hefty check...). One thing I was certain that I wanted to do was make the invitations.
the world's worst picture of the invites,but a picture nonetheless
I started getting into card/invite making a few years ago. It's fairly easy for me to be creative, in a safe, non-drawing sort of way. I just type things into my computer, print them out, and glue stuff down. I'm really excited for how they turned out, and most importantly, Kat is super pleased with them. The two little cards are actually one card, it's double sided.
I sent about 65 of them last week. It was fun to make them, fun to address the envelopes, and so refreshing to get them in the mail, and to already know that people are recieving them!
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I rarely post about school lessons that I teach, and for several reasons. 1) because I don't want to give away all of my grand secrets and ideas (ha) and 2) because my reader base would dwindle from it's already miniscule number to probably two readers (Maggie and Rachel).
But, I'm reading Hamlet with my seniors. Typically we read Macbeth senior year, but since many of my kids this year took honors English last year, they've already read Macbeth. So I decided to blaze my own trail.
Overall, the kids really like it. They can relate to Hamlet (wasn't that Shakespeare's point?) and think that the basic plot is sick and twisted (something you would find on Real World, Laguna Beach, Gossip Girl and all of the other shows they're watching these days).
On Friday I wasn't completely sure of what I was going to do with the kids. They had a vocabulary quiz (as is the custom on Fridays) and then we had some time to spare. Act III, Scene 3 is fairly short, which was where we are, so we read it as a class. Then, right before my first class was to come in for the day, I had an epiphany. Claudius, the current king of Denmark, who killed his brother, King Hamlet and married King Hamlet's wife, Gertrude, thus stealing the crown and the girl, basically confesses to the audience that he killed his brother. It's a huge advancement to the plot and it really starts to kick the rising action into high gear to set up for the climax. My epiphany was this: to take Claudius' soliloquy where he confesses and have the kids make found poetry out of it.
Perhaps I have lost some of you at found poetry. Found poetry is taking any passage, picking words, phrases, bits of sentences out of it, and making a poem from it. The kids are always complaining about how they don't understand Shakespeare. But they know the words -- they just don't know what he's saying. So this was a cool way for them to be creative with it, and gain an understanding of Shakespeare (all the while making him more accessible to them). Below are some examples (again with the crappy photos, I blame it on poor lighting):
I sent about 65 of them last week. It was fun to make them, fun to address the envelopes, and so refreshing to get them in the mail, and to already know that people are recieving them!
----------------
I rarely post about school lessons that I teach, and for several reasons. 1) because I don't want to give away all of my grand secrets and ideas (ha) and 2) because my reader base would dwindle from it's already miniscule number to probably two readers (Maggie and Rachel).
But, I'm reading Hamlet with my seniors. Typically we read Macbeth senior year, but since many of my kids this year took honors English last year, they've already read Macbeth. So I decided to blaze my own trail.
Overall, the kids really like it. They can relate to Hamlet (wasn't that Shakespeare's point?) and think that the basic plot is sick and twisted (something you would find on Real World, Laguna Beach, Gossip Girl and all of the other shows they're watching these days).
On Friday I wasn't completely sure of what I was going to do with the kids. They had a vocabulary quiz (as is the custom on Fridays) and then we had some time to spare. Act III, Scene 3 is fairly short, which was where we are, so we read it as a class. Then, right before my first class was to come in for the day, I had an epiphany. Claudius, the current king of Denmark, who killed his brother, King Hamlet and married King Hamlet's wife, Gertrude, thus stealing the crown and the girl, basically confesses to the audience that he killed his brother. It's a huge advancement to the plot and it really starts to kick the rising action into high gear to set up for the climax. My epiphany was this: to take Claudius' soliloquy where he confesses and have the kids make found poetry out of it.
Perhaps I have lost some of you at found poetry. Found poetry is taking any passage, picking words, phrases, bits of sentences out of it, and making a poem from it. The kids are always complaining about how they don't understand Shakespeare. But they know the words -- they just don't know what he's saying. So this was a cool way for them to be creative with it, and gain an understanding of Shakespeare (all the while making him more accessible to them). Below are some examples (again with the crappy photos, I blame it on poor lighting):
my attempt at found poetry
each of the colors follows how you should read it
you only read the parts that aren't colored
each of the colors follows how you should read it
you only read the parts that aren't colored
Anyway, there was a unanimous voice that they enjoyed it. So I get Teacher-of-the -Day award.
Also, I'm finishing up reading The Pact by Jodi Picoult. It's dang good!
Also, I'm finishing up reading The Pact by Jodi Picoult. It's dang good!
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