Donors Choose

Two years ago I was introduced by another teacher to a website that has quite literally changed my teaching~
http://www.donorschoose.org/mrs.fehr

The above link is my homepage- where all my current projects needing funding are listed, completed projects, and pictures/thank you notes.

From Donors Choose: "Our mission is to improve public education by empowering every teacher to be a change-maker and enabling any citizen to be a philanthropist.Our vision is a nation where students in every community have the resources they need to learn."

As a teacher, creating a project is actually very simple

• Create a catchy title, something that will catch the reader's eyes and pique their interest
• Shop for the items that you wish to have in your project. I have had best luck with keeping my projects under $200- if they are any more then that, chances of being funded are less likely
• Now, write away! Tell about your students, the demographics of your school, why this project is important, the challenges as a teacher that you and your students are facing, and most of all, what you are going to do should you get these supplies! The more appealing you can make yourself be to the donors, the better off!
• Once you are done writing, there are a few other minor questions to answer and you are done. Your project will be posted soon and then you can compulsively check the website hoping to see donations..oh wait, is that just me?!? :)

I have received in the past two years over $2,500 worth of supplies and materials from generous donors from Donors Choose. Almost all of them were people I did not know, who were simply wanting to become a citizen philanthropist for schools in need.I am forever grateful to Donors Choose- they have made teaching for me ten times better and thus also benefiting my students as well! WE LOVE DONORS CHOOSE! :)

Running- A Chance at Humility

Our race on Saturday went ok. It never ceases to amaze me how HOT it can be on race day!! It was about 80 degrees at 7am and 2745% humidity!

Consequently,this greatly affected race time,with it only being 28 minutes, 1 minute WORSE then last time. Ouch. Talk about humble pie- especially because I have been running so consistently and I thought I'd do much better.
Oh well, I'm going to blame the insane humidity for this one! Hopefully by the time the real race hits in August, I will be well versed in heat running. I ran 5 1/2 miles this morning in 79 degree weather and 81% humidity. I also did it in 53 minutes- little over a 9 minute mile. I was pleased!

Summer truly is a lovely time. Sleeping in late (ok like 8:00 but compared to 5:30, it's majorally late), eating whatever I want whenever I feel like it, cleaning our house regularly so it's not a dump on the weekends, pool time, seeing friends & family more often, catching up on all the movie and TV shows I never have time for during the school year, no alarm clocks screaming at me ever ;even during naps I might want to take, working out and running in the morning when I'm fresh instead of after school and have no energy! Oh and one more great thing about summer, I can actually COOK real food!!! Ahh, I got so tired of eating grilled cheese and cereal every night.Poor Jason probbaly did too but he never complained! :) I'm trying THIS recipee tonight. We'll see how it goes!!

Running

My second 5K is this Saturday. Last one I did in 27 minutes- a 9 minute mile which is pretty good for me! After running this week, I'm hoping to do this one in sub 25 minutes. We shall see though. After running yesterday morning and then going to a total body conditioning class last night,my left ankle feels weird. I was telling a running friend that it doesn't hurt, it just feels weak. And not normal. That's the only way I know how to describe it- but hopefully resting today (cross training day) and tomorrow (no running the day before the race, just a nice long relaxing walk w/ the hubby!) will put me in good shape for the hot and humid race day on Saturday! Bring on that turkey trot race! :)

I've really been wanting THIS for some time now. With all my running lately, I think it would be a great help as I try to keep a good pace as well as my distance. The other day I thought I had been running 3.5 miles and turns out it was only 2.75! Not cool!

However, the prices is a bit steep. I'm going to keep thinking about it and maybe a bit later I'll take the plunge and spend almost half a paycheck on a small little device such as this! :)

Rain Rain Go Away...

I feel BLAH on day such as these! I despise rain and I can't go out and run so thus what do I do, lay on the couch! So far today I have caught up on the Bachelorette (Why do I get hooked into these scripted reality tv shows? I don't know, but I must watch every week!) and watched the :

It was a great movie, a classic that I apparently had been missing out on! I also spent a few hours researching stuff for school- I can't seem to get away from thinking about school!! I think I have a sickness- it's call obsessive compulsively wanting to always improve and try new things out! It's a very expensive sickness!! :)

As a way to be productive, I am attempting to complete our wedding scrapbook. It's been almost 3 years and I'm barely half-way there. It's driving me crazy to have an undone project!!!

School To Do List

So, I clearly cannot just enjoy summer and relax because school has been on my mind all day! I've only been off school for 5 days!! Ahh, you can take the teacher out of the school but you can't take the crazy obsessive teacher out of the school! :)

Here are some things that I need to do/research/plan, especially because I'm switching grades and will have LOTS of new things to figure out. I love changes and challenges and this will be a good mixture of both!

-Figure out a schedule
-Plan out first week's lesson plans and activities. Make sure to include lots of routine practice in order to acclimate students to school!
- Look in Daily Five Math and see if that can be incorporated into K. If not, research effective math instructional plans for K as well as purchase some literature that can be used to introduce math concepts
- Look at K standards and figure out science/SS integrated units
-Come up with individual behavior management plans
- Come up with classroom wide behavior management plans and rewards
- Create lists of play centers to be used during Fun Friday
- Purchase b.day and star of the week bulletin board sets
-Plan bulletin boards in classroom
- Plan out first 6 weeks of D5 Launching Lessons
- Create K pacing map for literacy using D5, Treasures, and the CAFE emergent/regular literacy menu
- Plan out morning work and create poster for morning schedule
- Print out Reading AZ books/lesson plans and purchase 7 drawer set, label and organize books
- Figure out Daily Five word work and letter work ideas
- Create new CAFE headers that match my jungle theme
- Find Treasure's word wall words, supplement if needed, and type up all words on computer on cardstock as well as laminate
-Plan student of the week activities. I'm thinking about doing something like this one

Well, I can't think of anything else,but I think that's enough to keep me busy! ha! I have my work cut out for me, but strangely I'm rather excited. I love school, organizing, and learning so this fits me to a T!

Worrisome Worries

Being able to have so much free time this week has been fantastic for my devotional time. I have majorally slacked with that during the school year. There is no excuse for my pathetic efforts- I couldn't do it in the morning because I had to get up at 5:30 and then I would be too exhausted at night and crash before I could crack open the Bible. Most days were a mumbled prayer of, "God, please let me survive the day." I'm going to have to do some intense prayerful soul searching to decide how I am going to keep God in the center of my life once school starts again.

When it's summer, spending time with God is FUN and AWESOME! Why can't it be like that all the time? Why am I so selfish when it comes to sleep and everything else I'd rather be doing then spending time with my savior?




Today, I was reading Fear Not Tomorrow, God is Already There and what an inspirational book it is! I saw this book at the library and thought it might be an interesting read- it definitely is! In her book, she mentioned that often times while we are worrying about the future, we are so far removed from God that we cannot focus on him whatsoever. When this happens, we need to remove ourselves from the situation, get along with God, and pray. I have been worrying a lot about my future (and Jason's!) and what it might and might not hold. I am hoping that this book might free me of my worries- which are not things that I share with too many people. I'm a private, prideful person who likes to appear as if she's got it all together! Oh don't we all have that problem!? :) And admitting that things scare me seems to be admitting defeat. I'm really not even sure if Jason has any idea sometimes on how much I stress over the future.

From Bible Gateway reads Matthew 6:25- 34.

²⁵"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^b]">[b]?

²⁸"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

These verses encouraged me so much. It puts everything in perspective- why am I worrying about these things? If God takes care of the flowers and animals,surely he will take care of me, his daughter. My father in heaven knows what I need before I even realize it and he also knows on what I DON'T need,which is sometimes different then from what I think. My prayer is that my thoughts, needs, and wants, will be aligned with God's and his purpose and desire for my life,which will lead to freedom from the burden of worry.

Summer To Do List

I have a great deal of things I wish to accomplish this summer, so me, being the teacher I am, decided I need to make a list to keep me accountable. Otherwise, I can see myself wasting my days on the computer and at the pool! Don't want that!

• Train for a half marathon by running every day
• Go to the gym and lift!
• Finish our wedding scrapbook (it's only been almost 3 years...)
• Plan our FL vacation
  
• Get an A in my graduate class
• Complete my teacher class at ROE
  
• Read lots of fiction books- nothing heavy! The library is my new best friend!
• Organize all the closets in our house
• Buy curtains and decorative stuff for the living room- it's so bare!
• Remodel the office & paint
  
• Try new recipes that will be good to make during the school year!
• Go to the pool and get as tan as possible! :) :)
  

Memorial Day

Well, summer has officially arrived. The living is good and it was a day like today where I truly appreciate my job as a teacher!

Summer has started and this means the start of many goals and ambitions. I'm such a freak when it comes to organzing so I've written a very long list of things to do and accomplish. We shall see how many I actually do!