My Trip to New Mexico

My mom lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  Last week my kids and I drove from Phoenix to visit.  Unfortunately, it was just as hot as Phoenix.  Right at the New Mexico/ Arizona border you could see the forest fires raging.  This smoke could be seen all the way in Las Cruces.  Here is a picture from my phone of the fire I could see from I-10:

Driving in to southern New Mexico is always an adventure.  Near Deming and Lordsburg you start seeing these signs that make you want to pull off the road.  They start with the dust storm sign seen below:

This sign looked like it was about to blow over anyway.  It was actually pretty dusty as you can tell.  This sign is followed by a sign that says do not stop in travel lanes and yet another that says zero visibility possible.  If that isn't enough, yet another sign says use extreme caution!  These signs are spaced close to one another and you get the idea that maybe you should turn around and go home.   I did make it through the dust storms to get to Las Cruces.  The mountains behind my mom's house look like this:





This picture doesn't really do the Organ Mountains justice, however.  We all had a great time together despite the heat.  All that smoke from Arizona made for some nice sunsets as well:

Teacher 2 Teacher MEGA CONTEST!

Attention! Attention! You don't want to miss out on this awesome opportunity. THIRTY-THREE teacher-sellers at Teachers Pay Teachers donated top notch classroom products for our T2T MEGA CONTEST! There are 3 major contest categories: K-2, 3-6 (1 winner each), and Middle School / High School (5 winners -1 per subject area: English, math, science, social studies / history, and fine arts).


Contest Dates: Starts Thursday, 6/16/11. Ends Sunday, 6/19/11 at 12:00 p.m. Midnight / Central time.

How to Enter: 

• You receive TWO entries for each contributing seller you follow at Teachers Pay Teachers!
• You receive ONE entry for each contributing seller's Facebook page that you LIKE.
• You receive ONE entry for each contributing seller you follow on Twitter.
• You receive ONE entry for each contributing seller's blog you read and leave a comment on.
• You receive ONE entry for leaving a comment on this blog post telling us which category you entered and who you followed.
• You receive TWO entries as a BONUS for every TEN entries you make.

In order to be officially entered in the contest, you must fill out the contest entry form for the appropriate category.  Go to this link for the form:
http://tchr2tchr.blogspot.com/2011/06/teacher-2-teacher-mega-contest.html

Fun Things to Do in Science Class

Before I start my astronomy unit I usually have students do a fun activity.  Students are given toilet paper, construction paper, NASA stickers, foil, tape, and 10 minutes.  Within that 10 minutes they have to figure out how to construct something that looks like a spacesuit on one of their group members.  It is hilarious to watch. 
I did a similar activity in Houston when I was a part of NEAT (Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers).  All of us applied to become astronauts and were invited down to Houston.  During our spacesuit activity we only had toilet paper but were allowed to use anything on our tables.  Since this activity took place after dinner, you can imagine what ended up in our spacesuit.  Salad bowls, tablecloths, and certain utensils made excellent astronauts.  I can remember how much fun we had as adults doing this and that is what led me to repeating it in my classroom.  Excitement works great for motivation!

Scientific Method Template

Here is a new product that my class has used but I thought I would revamp it a bit and post to my store.  Usually, before our school science fair we practice with a smaller format.  Here is  one page of the publisher brochure that I use to have students record their data.

Students can type directly into this template or you can copy it and give it out as a handout.  This is much easier for me to grade than collecting student notebooks.  I usually have them glue it in their notebook after I hand it back.  Students get good practice in collecting data and recording their findings before we actually do a full science fair project.  Here is the link to my store to check it out:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Scientific-Method-Brochure-Template

What I Am Doing This Summer

With school finally over I have time to catch up on some things. Here are some things I plan to do this summer:

1. Design new lessons for my teachers pay teachers store. I have many ideas but usually don't have the time.

2. Read the books I received for Christmas. Yes, I haven't quite finished these yet! I really want to read The Mists of Avalon. It is an older book that I never had the chance to read.

3. Go see my grandma and grandpa in Nebraska.  I haven't seen them in many years.  They are in their 80's now.  I feel like I need to go to tornado alley to see them!

4.  Clean out my bedroom closet.  Well it's just a mess by my standards.  I need to take everything out and start over.

5.  Above all else, spend some quality time with my two kids. We will probably go to grandma's house in New Mexico or something fun.

Join this linky party and tell us what you will be doing!  Link at:
Littlest Learners

What I Have Learned From Teaching

1.  Do not yell!  Have you ever seen yourself yelling?  Not a pretty picture.  That is what the kids see and want to see again!

2.  Be very consistant.  This is probably the most important.

3.  Smile a lot. Kids love teachers that do this.

4.  Don't take yourself too serious.  I used to post  a paper at the back of my class that said remember rule #7.  The kids would ask me what rule #7 was all year.  It was actually just to remind me not to take myself too serious.

5.  Be able to laugh at yourself.  You are much less intimidating when you can do this.

6.  Be nice to your support staff.  They will repay this kindness!

7.  Don't say anything that you don't want everyone to know.  Schools are like small towns.

8.  Plan amazing lessons.  My students told me my rover lesson below was amazing.  Music to my ears!

9.  Not every student learns in the same way or on the same day.  Accommodate, modify and have high expectations while you do.

10.  Enjoy what you do or get a different job.  Anyone who works with kids should love what they do and still be excited about what they teach.

Rovers, Rovers Everywhere!

Well the rover project has come to a close today.  There are so many rovers my entire classroom was completely full.  This was probably the best end of the year project I have ever done with a class.  The rovers were so varied and creative from all of my students  There should be many future engineers, and scientists coming from this generation.

My lesson culminated with building a rover, but first my students had to find out about Mars and pick a mission.  They created a mission patch for their group and named their rover.  They then went about creating their own Mars Rover.  The had to stick to a $2,000,000.00 budget during the project.  That meant that they could not purchase items from me that would exceed that amount.  They could buy things like metallic paper, foil, NASA stickers etc. and my prices were greatly inflated!  This meant that they had to use mostly recyclable items to build their rover.  They used boxes, paper towel tubes, soda cans, plastic juice containers etc.  I think they did an amazing job.  We had a lot of fun the last few days!

If you are interested in this lesson to build rovers in your classroom I have posted it in my store at Teachers Pay Teachers.  Here is the link:
Mars Rovers Project