Crazy vs Lazy Celebrations

Thank you to Ruth Ayers 

at Ruth Ayers Writes-Discover, Play, Build

for hosting this weekly event!

BTW-Ruth will be celebrating 100 Posts for this Community in September!

Woo-hoo!  Hope you'll join in the fun and learning!

The writer in me felt excited to share all of the happenings from this week but wanted to share them in a clever way...I was thinking and typing and playing...I tried two different apps Piktochart and Venngage as I was inspired by 10 things to Try this Year via Alice Keeler -specifically #8-create and use infographics.  I needed to have a paid account to do the things I wanted to do...so for now I will stick with my pictures to enhance my description of celebrations...

http://neswork.com/logo-generator/google-font

Google Apps for Educators.  I am celebrating all the percolating that occurred in my head as I learned about Google Apps and how they could be used in the classroom.  I can hardly wait to share my learning with the teachers at my school and try things out with the kids.  During our Winter Site Improvement Planning training, I created and shared this emaze documenting our work at Barber.  At our presentation, I ended with-"The world is going Google and you should too!"  Now, I've learned so much more and I'm brimming over with possibilities.

Kam had basketball camp this week at the University of Akron.  He attended with his whole team and they "had a ball"!  I'm glad he got to go.  I decided to make sugar cookies for the little team party they had on Thursday.  I tried this new recipe to make the cookies.  They turned out ok but I didn't have unsalted butter.  If you try it, make sure you don't add the salt if you don't have unsalted butter.  They tasted a little salty...

Another celebration this week was finishing up the building of the book baskets.  I worked closely with my friend Rosemary to get the books sorted into tubs and labeled for delivery.  We are so excited to have the books ready for the Akron Reads volunteers who will be tutoring our students this Fall.  Our next step is completing the training for the volunteers.

The week began "Crazy" and shifted down to "Lazy".  On Friday, we visited the library and checked out some new books.  After we got home, I got a big sheet and laid it out on the grass.  Natalie and I read books together in the shade and laughed and giggled as we read.  We spent time just looking up at the sky too-my favorite shape Nattie noticed was the cloud that looked like a giant hightop shoe.  

My attempt at an infographic using Venngage!

Create infographics with Venngage

A busy yet relaxing week...was yours busy or relaxing?

Basketball A-ha

Slice of Life-Thank you to the Two Writing Teachers Blog for 

hosting the weekly Slice of Life! Every Tuesday

"Momma, is Kameron going to walk the yellow brick road?"

I giggled, thinking of how Nattie remembered this concept from two weeks ago when Kameron was at Basketball Camp.  "You know what?  You're right.  He was late last night.  Maybe he should walk the yellow brick road!"

"Yes, Momma, I think he should!".

So, I thought about Basketball Camp for my slice.  I reflected on the things that Kam and even Nattie learned from the coach in just a short amount of time.  It was a four day camp from 9-3 each day.  The campers lived and breathed basketball and the skills that are part of the game-including life skills.  I want to share these key ideas.

1.  Don't be late.  If you're late, you have to skip on the yellow brick road.  The coach demanded this expectation from day 1.  If you're late, you had to skip on the yellow brick road.  This was embarassing as the boys who showed up late, even parents had to skip through the road of boys and sing the munchkin song.  It motivated Kameron, Nattie and me to get moving in the morning so we were early almost every day.  It was a fun topic of conversation too.  The boys (about 200 of them) made two lines, creating a road down the middle of the gym.  The friends who were late had to skip down the road and sing whatever the coach made them sing.  (All in good fun of course-but it sure motivated a lot of boys to hustle and be on time!)

2.  Basketball takes practice (skills are part of that).  The coach taught the boys skills that they could practice daily to improve their game.  I thought of this in terms of writing, reading-anything that a person would want to get better at...takes. practice. daily.

3.  There is no "I" in team.  Kam shared with me that the coaches were encouraging the boys to work together and get to know their teammates and play to each other's strengths making the whole team better.  Surrounding yourself with people who bring out the best in your work will result in greater success for all.

And last but not least of the key ideas-
4.  Just do it.  Our game is not improved by sitting on the sidelines watching somebody else play.  We have to get in on the action to really get better.

I think all of these apply to life skills that anyone wants to improve...hopefully you can see the connection to your own life.

Which one is your favorite?