Five For Friday...One Day Late

I had such high hopes for linking up with Doodle Bugs Five for Friday yesterday, I even took some pictures in my classroom...but as it seems to be the theme of my life lately I am a day late and a dollar short. But I am not dwelling...I am spending this gorgeous day catching up on my mile long to do list...aren't you jealous!

1 & 2 - The Great Postcard Exchange!

This week in Career Technology we created Postcards. I am all about teaching my students real world skills, like writing checks, building robots and editing pictures...every adult should be able to do all of that right?!? 

Regardless, I decided that we should learn how to properly address an envelope. But envelopes are boring. You know what's not boring, PoStCaRdS!!! 

Example one.

So this week we used Microsoft Publisher to create our postcards, I printed them for the students and then we spent two class periods addressing them and writing messages. Obviously my instincts were correct, addressing the postcards was a very trying experience even with the examples we did together and example on the screen.  

My grading rubric.

Ever heard of ipiccy.com? If you are a blogger you probably have, its similar to www.picmonkey.com but I think their collage feature is so much better in ipiccy.com. I have used both of these websites in Wed Design back when we made our calendars but I hadn't let my 6th graders in Career Technology mess with them too much.  For some of my advanced kiddio's I suggested making a collage for their postcard. And some of kids did an amazing job! I personally think their postcards could be found in airports around Texas, but I might by biased.

 

Probably one of my favorites!

Teacher side note: I had the students create the postcard in Microsoft Publisher then email me the postcard, I then printed the final postcard double sided with a template I made that had all the correct lines to make addressing the postcard super simple a little less painless. You could also certainly have the students create the backside, but as it is this took us 4 class days and I wanted to wrap up this mini-unit.

3 - It Might Be April but I Can Change My Classroom If I Want To

I felt a little silly yesterday moving some things around in my classroom, but I am SO glad I did. It was a really small move like four items but oh the difference it made. Ever since I had my projector mounted in my ceiling I have had cords running across the room that get ripped out by students feet almost daily. So by moving my laptop to the back table and simply shifting a few computers no more cord issues!  Sometimes when you are supposed to writing lessons you need a way to avoid them...cleaning my classroom always wins!

I tried to get my eighth period to ohh and ahh over it, I kept saying "look how much more room we have for activities" but they were too engrossed in their work computer games to get my Step Brother reference.

Old Set Up

New Set Up

 

 

4 - 5th Six Weeks Grades - Done, Done and DONE!

Without fail our gradebooks always need to be locked by 10 am on a Monday. So the weekend before I always end up grading feverishly in order to get everything squared away. But Friday I left the classroom at 5:00 and my grades are DONE! I still need to make new six weeks seating charts but that requires like 15 minutes of my weekend, not my whole Sunday. WOOT! WOOT!

5 - I don't always eat with my fingers but when I do...I make sure its in public.

Last night Mr. B and I tried a new to us place in Austin, Lucy's Fried Chicken. 

And it was AMAZBALLS! 

We shared way too much food a few plates and even walked away with leftovers for today. They had a rib special that were definitely melt in your mouth ribs. Plus we ordered the Fried Chicken Basket...they might have the best fried chicken I have ever had. And I am from the south. And cornbread muffins with tequila butter...mmmmm! Oh and for an appetizer chicken salad with paprika chips. I would totally do something...for that recipe. 

All of the food was finger licking good, and yes I might have licked my fingers in public...keeping it classy.

There theme was very Texas!

We washed it all down with a few adult beverages and then came home and vegged on the couch catching up on our ridiculously full DVR box...80% full daily means we just can't keep up...and a few more adult beverages. It was a WONDERFUL start to the weekend.  

Boots seemed in order for eating fried chicken.

- The Babbling Box!