My name is Ms. Book Lady, and I have a problem with Pinterest.

(aka, how I spent two nights in a row cutting out 900 construction paper circles)

The first step is admitting your problem right?  A couple weeks ago I found this:

http://kidworldcitizen.org/2011/11/26/my-place-in-the-world-project/ 

It looked like such an awesome project, and it meets standards for first and second graders about understanding their place in the world so I couldn't pass it up.  I (plus my para and a parent) spent almost a week tracing and/or cutting out circles for this project.  Plus, now that classes are finishing up, each has to be hole punched and string tied (oy vey).  Thankfully next year only 1st grade will do the project, because doing this times 200 is getting ridiculous.

(Pictures coming soon!)

Oh, but while I'm whining about Pinterest, I guess I should show you all the cool stuff I've done from it:

I've used Pinterest to do other projects for school... like this:

http://keepingupwithclass.blogspot.com/2012/03/adjectives.html (the wordle suggestion).

And this Book Fair idea (so students don't have easy access to all the 'junk')...

http://threeringlibrary.blogspot.com/search/label/book%20fair

And Bulletin Board ideas up the wazoo!

I've also found cute stuff for friends gifts/super smart ideas for around the house:

http://gadgetsin.com/tag/great-ideas

and

Seriously yos... even if it keeps you up at night cutting out circles, it's worth it.  People think the ideas are awesome sauce and your students will thank you over and over again.  There is absolutely no reason to reinvent the wheel.  None at all.

random musings on a weekend from an elementary TL...

...how sad is it that I want to listen to my "school mix" over the weekend? (It's full of children's singers and Disney movie soundtracks.)

...I probably shouldn't have left my book at school over the weekend.

...oh goodness, my to do lists were in that book...even worse.

...you know you are stressed when you are doing everything by hand and paper rather than on the computer.  Something about an actual pen to actual paper calms me down.

...Crock Pot Chex Mix (inspired by, you guessed it, Pinterest) worked!  Recipe coming soon.

...I think I may have just planned out a rough sketch for the rest of the school year (minus 3rd and 5th grade).

...DVR is one of those inventions that I love to hate...

...good friends let you disappear from the face of the Earth for some time (weeks, months, years), but still welcome you back with open arms.

But since I'm currently going through the 300+ personal emails (oops), and now have to transfer my pen/paper musings to the computer, I should get going. 

More later...

thoughts on being "professionally developed" on the Friday of Spring Break...

Conferences can be awesome.  Professional Development can be awesome.

But as many teachers/adult learners know, TALKING to us ABOUT engagement, differentiation, technology implementation is vitally different from TEACHING us WITH engagement strategies, differentiation strategies, and showing us examples of real live technology implementation.

I attended the Colorado Library Consortium (CLiC)'s Spring Workshop in Ft. Morgan @Morgan Community College.  Wow.  It was the Friday of my Spring Break, and a drive that required me to set my alarm for a school-time wake up (let's just say there was a 5 at the beginning of the time), and while it was something I was excited about when I signed up in February, I'll admit I was second guessing it Thursday afternoon.  At that point, lesson planning, grocery shopping, errands, and sleeping all seemed equally as important as furthering my learning.

I'm so glad I went...

Not only was I able to revive and reenergize my push for the end of the school year, with great ideas to hold me until Technology in Education (TIE) @Copper Mountain this June, I was able to chat with some awesome librarians and remind myself how much I love my recent career choice and how much other librarians rock this world (and more specifically this state).  I have got great story time/early literacy foci for my K-2 babies, and new Web 2.0 tools to engage my 3-5 (pre-)tweens in April, through May, and even the beginning of June (aak!).

(Oh, and I was able to start taking pictures of Flat Stephanie, who will be joining me on my travels this Spring and Summer as I push region, state, and city studies with 3rd and 4th graders!)