Thursday, April 9, 2020

Quarantine Easter and Jesus

So I find myself typing this for,I guess, more a documentation of this state of affairs we are in right now as a world. Not to document the sadness or negative and not even to take a stance on anything. Maybe more for myself like a journal entry as one would. Blogging has never been a "diary" for me. I don't really put down daily or weekly happenings- not many would honestly care about any of that. Truly. I like to put out ideas and hopefully inspiration (not in any way a self help guru AT ALL), but if it falls upon my heart to put it out in the world, I usually will. This post will act as a time stamp for quarantine for me, but also holds a random idea/moment that I didn't want to forget. If you find it useful then- added bonus!

So Easter is this weekend. I have such fond memories as a child of celebrating together and remembering HE IS RISEN! 

This is not necessarily one of my "faith" based posts, but I mean how can we not shout out our Savior and HIS PROMISES. 

While it is ALL about JESUS and his resurrection (can I get an AMEN for that?!), I also have memories of all the egg hunts we'd have as kids. Running, pushing, shoving...oh wait that was just me and my sister? I mean... all the civilized egg hunts we'd have as a family.


Okay I digress for a bit. Well it may look a little different this year for everyone. Celebrating together in general will be different. My husband's birthday will look a little different too. We won't be able to celebrate the same way as we would being able to go out and about. 

Well thank goodness I am an OCD organized hoarder of certain things (is that even a thing?). I just so happen to have plastics eggs on hand....not because we have kids and not because I plan an egg hunt each year.  Maybe because I am a teacher and that's what we do sometimes. Say: "I might need these one day." Sound familiar?

Anyways, Easter + eggs + quarantine + Hubby's bday=inside the house egg hunt for him/ scavenger hunt/ who knows all the crevices I placed them all and how long we will be finding eggs in this house. But isn't that part of the fun? 

So this is just what I did, but you could totally modify to your people and needs. Again, this is a time stamp mainly for me to remember- but if it works for you-have fun!

So I filled the eggs with some of his favorite candy, some words of affirmation, and some "coupons" I knew he'd appreciate. Like...play video games 48 hours straight without interruptions. Just kidding. Kind of. 

I then piled them in my sweatshirt and started quickly placing them in places I knew, well hoped, he'd come across organically. 

Side note- since in quarantine, he is working from home. So I had to try to be quiet and sneaky. Didn't work too well. I was in the closet placing eggs when I heard him running to find me (probably to scare me) and I had to dump all the eggs out into the corner of the closet. He walked in as I was frantically shoving eggs under my clothes and inside shoes. I don't think he fully understood what was happening. That doesn't surprise me though-mainly because I think after 10 years of marriage he has come to realize he married a very random human being. 

Moving on,  I kicked him out of the closet and proceeded to find hiding locations. I did place this one on the door handle of the room he is working out of-so when he came out the next time it would be the first one he found. Inside was a little note about the egg hunt- to give him some background info)


Here are just a few. So not totally "hidden" but still not sure the time frame he will actually come across them. It could be all weekend and into his birthday he's finding them. Or next year. You know just keeping things interesting over here. 



I mean I guess if I was really prepared I could have bought the over sized eggs and hid TP, sanitizer, Clorox, etc inside each one. You know the treasure of 2020. But seriously who could have predicted this. Well I guess maybe....no this isn't that kind of blog we will not be getting into that rabbit hole. 

Overall- keep being good to one another, pray for one another, pray with one another, be loving, give grace, help each other, check on each other, PRAY BIG PRAYERS for our world. 

I know we may be in a tough spot right now and I can't in any capacity speak truth to the situation ( I am just an IC hiding eggs over here) but what I DO know is that our GOD is bigger and HIS son IS RISEN. He is our hope. This life was not meant to be easy or give all the answers. We will suffer and feel pain. We will also experience joy and love. Often time not understanding the mix of all of those things. If we were satisfied with this world we would never YEARN for our eternal home. This time away from society and self discipline (yes and some pain) can only bring renewal, thankfulness, and perspective. At least that is what I am praying for-for everyone. God is a God of MIRACLES. 

"He is risen, just as he said." 
Matthew 28:6

"Put your hope in the Lord, for with the Lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption."
Psalms 130:7

*Update 12:02 pm - I haven't even published this post yet (well I have now that you are reading it) and he already found the first egg (outside in his shoe when he took the dogs out) His face was hilarious and now he keeps walking around saying, "Where are the other eggs?!" I keep saying "What other eggs?" and just walk off. This is fun. 

Monday, March 30, 2020

Vocabulary PD 101





Well hello there! Thank you for stopping by- hopefully you are here for some vocabulary! This will be a quick post all about integrating vocabulary into your classroom and how we provided  a fun and easy PD opportunity for staff! We did this back in February, but in good fashion I am just now getting around to creating the blogpost- better late than never eh? Bookmark it if you are not needing a vocabulary idea just yet! 

First off, this PD centered all around the book below:
101 Strategies to Make Academic Vocabulary Stick
by: Marilee Sprenger

Click HERE for pricing on Amazon
(I am not an affiliate for Amazon for this book-just wanted to provide a direct link for you)

Here is an overview of what is included in this book 
(excerpt from ASCD.org)

You'll find:
  • -An overview of how the brain learns and retains new words, including the three stages of building long-term memories: encoding, storage, and retrieval.

  • -Encoding strategies to introduce words in novel ways and jump-start the memory process.

  • -Rehearsal strategies to help students put words into long-term storage.

  • -Review strategies to help students strengthen their retrieval skills and gain the automaticity needed for reading comprehension.

  • -Ways to address planning and assessment as crucial, intersecting supports of a robust vocabulary program.



If you are someone preparing for the PD here are your deets:

-We printed out the cheat sheet with all 101 strategies out for every teacher (white paper). They were also printed on large posters in color for every team to have at meetings for future reference. (This was from ASCD and I beleive you'd need a log in to access the resource- it is not a must have but is a complete poster reference-if you have just the book you would be okay too!)

-Created a VOCAB board for every staff member- this was utilized during the PD for notes

-Each strategy we focused on during the PD was put into a drawing (obviously we could not do ALL 101 strategies during the PD so the admin team each chose 5 to add to the board).






Once you are ready to have your PD:

-At the PD each staff member drew a strategy and that was the group they were in.

-They found their group members and had a short amount of time (10 min or whatever you choose) to research their strategy together and create a 1 min or less overview they would present. This could be a skit, visual poster, etc.

-After the alloted time to collaborate with their group we came back together. We went down the VOCAB board columns and when we got to their chosen strategy they came up with their group and quickly presented! The rest of the staff could take little notes on their VOCAB board.

-Once all the strategies on the board were presented we were done! (25-ish minutes)


Super Easy! Fun! Great information! 
It really was a quick way to dive into a professional reading resource and have essential take aways that could be applied the very next week! 

Hope this helped spark an idea for a whole staff PD that is easy to prepare for and quick to implement! 

"Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens."
Psalms 68:19