A Day in the Life: Student Work

Just on here to share some wonderful photos of my student's work. It's been kind of crazy this past week and weekend with the whirlwind of finding out service selection and then finding out that the woman who worked at the Country Club we're having the reception at no longer works there. And we haven't been contacted by the new person who works there. Trying to figure that out and get everything else done.


Anyway, enjoy some of my student's work!

Let me know if you want to hear the lessons behind these products! Happy Monday & enjoy your week!

Marine Corps Ground!!!

Well the title kind of says it all, doesn't it? Not really, there's a lot more to it than that.

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Here's how it went down:
This is what I know. After lunch today David went back to his company's ward room and they were each given envelopes, one by one. In their envelopes were tiny strips of paper that had their selection typed out on it. Meanwhile while he was waiting to pull the paper out of his envelope, I was getting ready for Kindergarten to come in for class. We were painting again today - aka a mess!

I knew I couldn't talk to him until after school and I told him I wanted to hear his voice tell me rather than read a text message. So I waited and waited. I'm sure my students in the last couple of classes were a little crazy because I was nervous and getting anxious. After my 2nd grade class left and dismissal began I just started to clean paintbrushes. (PS I feel like cleaning paintbrushes is ALL I do anymore!) Then a fellow teacher (she's been a long term sub for a while, is getting married in May & her fiance will be in the Marine Corps) stopped by and gave me this "well, what happened?" look. I told her I didn't know and then paced back and forth, deciding if I should call David even though my student helpers were still in my classroom. I called - no answer. Back to cleaning paintbrushes.

Eventually I got through & David said "well, I have no hair on my head" which meant he got MC GROUND! I actually freaked for a little when he started saying "I have no..." but I wasn't patient enough to wait for the rest of his sentence.


What MC Ground means:
1. I know we will still be living in Virginia for a little while longer while he goes to TBS in Quantico.
2. I will be marrying a man in a black & white uniform instead of an all white uniform.
3. I need to learn the ranks in MC terms because they are different than the ranks in Navy terms. (Not like I knew the Navy ones anyway.)
4. I need to buy some Marine paraphernalia aka hit up the Mid Store.
5. Other states we could eventually end up in would include North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Georgia, Hawaii & there's a Satellite Base in Florida.
6. David should always be ripped (major +)

Semper Fi

Nervous, Anxious & Excited

Those would be the three words I would use to describe how I'm feeling about Service Selection tomorrow. Right after lunch (i think) David is going to go back to his company's ward room and a small 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper will tell him what he will be doing for at least the next five years of his life. And yes, I will be joining him where ever he goes. Duh - I'm marrying him.

I honestly don't know what will happen if he gets one of his bottom choices. I guess nothing can really happen. We just go with it. So tomorrow is a big day for the future Mr & Mrs David Phillips. Keep us in your prayers as you go about your day. I'll surely let you all know what we find out tomorrow!

All that I have to remember is what God promises in Jeremiah 29:11. "¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Isn't life just that more promising when we know that God is looking out for our best interest? It's always hard to see the positives in some instances, but when we look back on events, at least for myself, I can see why God set certain things in place.

Thanks for your support!

Edenton Love

Now this is long overdue, but I absolutely need to share my fabulous adventure to Edenton, North Carolina with you! I was on a journey to visit my best friend. We roomed together our junior and senior years at James Madison and honestly, she has been one of the greatest blessings in my life! Brittany Morgan is a fabulous friend who I had to visit. We kind of made this deal where we would have girls weekends at least every four months so time was up! I went on my big adventure back in October and yes, it has taken me this long to share it with you.

First here is the fabulous Brittany & myself:

Let's be honest, she probably thought I was a total weirdo when I first met her through a good friend. I was on the hunt to collect walnuts to make walnut dye for my Fibers & Weaving project. (I was dying silk.) So we collected walnuts off the Quad & then went back to her room to play Bananagrams!

Okay, back to Edenton, NC. So Brittany lives in Edenton which is probably the most darling town ever. She works at an elementary school in the area through Teach for America (TFA). She is the greatest fifth grade teacher in all of North Carolina - just saying. I had told her I would visit by October, so during the second to last weekend I took the 5 hour trip down there and spent the weekend with her.

We were going to go to the Outer Banks but it was freezing that weekend. We ended up driving around North Carolina in the hunt for bargains and antiques. Unfortunately, all of the antique shops seemed to close at 4pm and we missed out. But we did have a delicious meal at an awesome local restaurant on Saturday night and a cute meal in a little Soda Shoppe Diner on Sunday afternoon. We also got to enjoy bits of a wedding celebration on Saturday night! Enjoy some of the pictures from our adventures!

Reminiscing on times when we shared a hot chai together.

At the local soda shoppe. Still reppin' their 13 stars flag!

Gorgeous best friend!

At her future house

I cannot wait to visit again - really just see Brittany again! I told her today that our next girls adventure will be in Italy. Yes, I know that may not happen for a while, but I cannot wait until our best friend adventure in Europe!

A Different Kind of Thanksgiving

Last week was obviously Thanksgiving & it was definitely a different one for me. I didn't eat stuffing or pumpkin pie. No sweet potatoes or green been casserole. Definitely a Thanksgiving to remember. The thing is my family and I were in Michigan for Thanksgiving. My dad grew up in Saginaw so that's where my grandparents live. We weren't exactly there for the feast on Thursday though. Last Saturday, November 19th, my grandfather entered eternal bliss. It just so happened to be my mom's birthday as well. I guess we will never forget that date anymore!

I cried at the thought of not seeing him at the lake in Michigan. I laughed as I thought of the hilarious times with him. The millions of times when he asked me to "pull my (his) finger" and I did so just to find myself stomping on "barking spiders". The time when we went fishing just to come back to the cabin with my bass lure stuck in his head (woops).

There's not much else I can say but when I talked with him on the phone for the last time on the Monday before he passed I knew his stubbornness wasn't leaving anytime soon. He told me on the phone that he would see me in heaven. I just kept telling him that I loved him. It broke my heart to hear him so weak but I knew he was in so much pain. The Lord let him hold on for almost a week longer and then he went on towards the greatest feast of all after 83 years on this earth.

Unfortunately I don't have many photos of him, seeing as though Grandpa was always the one behind the camera. He loved his little film camera. He never liked technology.

At our finest in 2008. Grandpa always rep'ed John Deere.

Grandma & Grandpa's photo op.

I know Grandpa is feasting in heaven & I know there's far greater joy to come. I'll miss him, but I know he has gone on to better things. I am excited for the day when I'll be feasting along side him in my heavenly home.

Gettin' Hitched: Save the Dates

Sorry it's been basically forever since I've been on here. First quarter grades are due this week and I just finished them up today, so I'm all yours. Today is just something quick but something super important (at least to me) when it comes to the wedding day! We ordered Save the Dates through VistaPrint which offered 100 free postcards. All I had to pay for was shipping and a small fee to upload a picture. You can basically order anything from that site.

The front is a picture of David & I that we had taken last Spring by the fabulous Sonya from Sonya Ruth Photography. I'm keeping it a surprise! Here's what the back looks like though:

What are your thoughts on Save the Dates? Necessary or waste of moohla? Should be electronic?

P.S. The Service Selection Date has been moved up a week so November 30th is the big day we're waiting for now to basically see where we are headed for the next 5 years!

A Day in the Life: Classroom Management

Classroom Management is something you cannot live without in! From the time I was in Elementary School I feel like times have changed. As a teacher I feel I have to be extremely careful not to get on a parent's bad side. I am so blessed to be at a school where the parents and teachers work together. The parents know that they can trust what the teacher has to say about their child's work. Unfortunately, I know that's not always the case. I have also been blessed by students who (in most cases) behave extremely well & there are rarely any instances where students need to be sent out of my classroom [knock on wood]. Here are a few ways I've been managing in the classroom. Some work better than others and honestly, its all about your students and how they take to them.

Cute classroom

First thing you absolutely need to have is your classroom rules posted! You should go over these rules the first day you have students in your room, but always leave the rules up on the wall. My rules are pretty simple and the other art teacher in my building has the same five rules, so that when students have a different art teacher the next year, they shouldn't be surprised by new rules.

Some Methods:

I started the "Artist of the Day" pretty much at the beginning of the year. Each student should receive an artist of the day prize by the end of the year. Basically students get selected at the end of their class period for staying on task, working hard, showing a new technique, etc. Inside of my prize box is basically the dollar store. I stay away from candy - you never know with all the allergies these days. Pencils, mini play-dough, temporary tattoos, stickers, bookmarks, erasers, pencil sharpeners. Goodies.

One of the other first methods I tried was to create a pocket chart in which every class had a specific pocket. Inside of those pockets were a yellow "so-so" face, and red frowning face and a green "super" smiley. Each class period my goal was to give them a particular card depending on their behavior. The first class to get to five green smiley's in a row would get the silver paintbrush. For the older grades who didn't really buy the "silver paintbrush" idea I was going to give them free art time. While excellent in theory - it just didn't work out for me. I could never remember to change the smiley at the end of the period because it's sometimes chaos when we are cleaning up. I thought there had to be a better way.

This other method I am attempting to get started has a daily reward. I made three separate letters, that when placed together spell "ART". I just got them laminated and placed magnetic tape on the back. You can also just write the letters on the board and erase them as necessary. Each time the class is misbehaving, just too loud, talking to others instead of listening to directions, etc. I automatically take a letter down. If, at the end of the class period, the class has ART then they receive a golden paintbrush. If students have a RT at the end of class the get a silver paintbrush & if they have just a T then they do not receive any paintbrush. From other teachers who have tried this method, the only problem is getting the paintbrushes back. The teacher should return in to your mailbox at the  end of the day (or else I would have to buy 42 paintbrushes and paint half silver and half gold)! I think I may give that "special" job to one of the kids in the class. They love getting special jobs and usually do a pretty good job!

The last method (which I had to resort to) is about table points. I have a 4th grade class of 33 but I only have 32 seats at the four tables. I ended up placing at child at "Paradise Island" (I can show you a picture of the sign I made for that later). The first few weeks with this class was just insane. We took an eternity forever to get things done just because they were always talking. Anyway, I created four different sheets based on their table colors. Tables could earn a point each class by focusing on work instead of socializing. In my classroom, more than one table can earn a point each class. It's completely up to you if you want to allow that or if you only want to give one point per class. My Paradise Island goer got to select the table they wanted to be included with. Here are my signs:

Do you have any classroom management strategies that work especially well for you? Have you tried strategies similar to the ones I have been using? I'd love to know!