Day 116- Teammates for Kids and Boot Camp
This day marks a very important anniversary. I have now been totally, completely, head over heels in love with Trisha Yearwood for a year. Over the past year, I have sampled numerous recipes from her cookbook and added every single thing I've tried into our rotation. Trisha has impeccable taste. Girlfriend knows what she's doing in the kitchen. It's hard to believe that we've only known one another for a year. Yet, at the same time, it seems as if our first chicken piccata together was just yesterday (this may be partly due to the fact that we did make this on Sunday).
Trisha doesn't have any charities listed on her website, but Garth has one of his own. You know... Garth Brooks (her husband and the recipient of her cooking). I made my donation today to Garth's charity to show my adoration for his talented wife.
http://www.teammatesforkids.com/
"The purpose of the foundation is to contribute financial resources to selected nonprofit organizations that effectively serve and benefit children with an emphasis on health, education, and inner-city services. "
******
If you haven't heard from me in a couple of days, don't take it personally. I've been wrapped up in creating a boot camp. It started as a small idea. I said to myself, "Self, your students have come a long way and learned so much. What can you teach during MAP testing? Ahhh... I know! These kids need a grammar boot camp." Yes, I talk to myself. Yes, even when I'm talking to myself I ramble and may take slightly longer than needed to get to the point.
Did you noticed I said it started as a small idea? Once I was set on this boot camp idea, it spiraled out of control. I have trouble doing things halfway. On our first day of basic training today, my little boot camp idea had turned into a full on THING. Since I had to cover all of my content related posters for testing, I figured I might as well cover them with camo. Since I will have my classes in a crazy schedule for the next two weeks while we're testing, and since I have students who span a wide range of ability levels, I figured I might as well make multiple stations with multiple levels. Since I was already invested in the whole thing this far, I "might as well"ed my way into all kinds of other things... complex spreadsheets and team rankings, grammar cadences, military clip art, a multimedia PowerPoint, a drill sergeant oufit... bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger...
I just can't help myself sometimes. All the time.
I was worried that after all of this work I had put in, the kids would roll their eyes and be too cool for it all. My other concern was that they would think that I was off my rocker. While I may have convinced a few that I am crazy, the buy in today was better than I could have imagined. They loved it. A few of them even went out of their way to tell me this as they left class. I believe they have reinforced my behaviors and there will be many more themed units in my future planned down to each and every ridiculous little detail.
I'm okay with that. The kids are excited to learn grammar and to earn their military rankings and to compete with their companies and... I won't bore you with all of the details (unless you want me to, in which case I'll talk your ear off about my masterpiece for hours). For now, I'll leave you with a small sample of my large issue with not knowing when to stop myself. Please disregard the boring seating arrangement (dang testing rules).
Thank you, boot camp, you made my day.
Trisha doesn't have any charities listed on her website, but Garth has one of his own. You know... Garth Brooks (her husband and the recipient of her cooking). I made my donation today to Garth's charity to show my adoration for his talented wife.
http://www.teammatesforkids.com/
"The purpose of the foundation is to contribute financial resources to selected nonprofit organizations that effectively serve and benefit children with an emphasis on health, education, and inner-city services. "
******
If you haven't heard from me in a couple of days, don't take it personally. I've been wrapped up in creating a boot camp. It started as a small idea. I said to myself, "Self, your students have come a long way and learned so much. What can you teach during MAP testing? Ahhh... I know! These kids need a grammar boot camp." Yes, I talk to myself. Yes, even when I'm talking to myself I ramble and may take slightly longer than needed to get to the point.
Did you noticed I said it started as a small idea? Once I was set on this boot camp idea, it spiraled out of control. I have trouble doing things halfway. On our first day of basic training today, my little boot camp idea had turned into a full on THING. Since I had to cover all of my content related posters for testing, I figured I might as well cover them with camo. Since I will have my classes in a crazy schedule for the next two weeks while we're testing, and since I have students who span a wide range of ability levels, I figured I might as well make multiple stations with multiple levels. Since I was already invested in the whole thing this far, I "might as well"ed my way into all kinds of other things... complex spreadsheets and team rankings, grammar cadences, military clip art, a multimedia PowerPoint, a drill sergeant oufit... bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger...
I just can't help myself sometimes. All the time.
I was worried that after all of this work I had put in, the kids would roll their eyes and be too cool for it all. My other concern was that they would think that I was off my rocker. While I may have convinced a few that I am crazy, the buy in today was better than I could have imagined. They loved it. A few of them even went out of their way to tell me this as they left class. I believe they have reinforced my behaviors and there will be many more themed units in my future planned down to each and every ridiculous little detail.
I'm okay with that. The kids are excited to learn grammar and to earn their military rankings and to compete with their companies and... I won't bore you with all of the details (unless you want me to, in which case I'll talk your ear off about my masterpiece for hours). For now, I'll leave you with a small sample of my large issue with not knowing when to stop myself. Please disregard the boring seating arrangement (dang testing rules).
Can I still ask the kids to call me "Sir, yes sir!" after this whole thing is over? I'm enjoying that more than I realized I would.
Thank you, boot camp, you made my day.
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