Cancun Mexico

I had the opportunity to go to Cancun for a friends wedding! It was my first trip for pleasure where I had no itinerary planned, and was ok with it! We stayed at Beach Palace, and everything was so wonderful!

Our room faced the ocean, this was my view each morning, and I felt blessed to have had the time to run each morning on the beach! Even though I was on vacation I will have the Lincoln Marathon in May!

 One of the wonderful restaurants at our resort, enjoying some coffee after our meal!

 The beautiful bride

I didn't take too many pictures because most of my time was spent reading Gone Girl on the beach, started and finished it on the beach! Very well written and really excited for the movie to come out!

I did get the opportunity to swim with dolphins, which was amazing!

 

Stability Balls

 

Loving my classroom with Stability Balls! I teach in a K-6 school and kids know me as that teacher-- they get excited to be in 6th grade! We did reading stations one day in class, here, they were to grab notecards and draw pictures for their vocab words. I told them they could lay or sit on the floor, but they decided to bring their balls over!

Timothys Graduation

 

Congrats Timothy! You are off to do WONDERFUL things! :)

Knitting Club

Here are a couple of pictures from knitting club! I am SO proud of my kids, and I would LOVE to take pictures of them EVERY second knitting! I have 55 of the 60 kids knitting. The boys are always looking for new ideas, and some kids are evening using their talents of searching the web and finding new stitches!! I love their creativity and passion.

 

Making donations for Children's Hospital over the Holidays!

 Volunteers from the community come in and help the kids! I feel so blessed... beyond blessed with the kindness of others!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving!

A day of eating great food, being merry, and playing games with family!

 



September Teaching Ideas

Here are a couple of ideas for the classroom

Bring on the 2013-2014 School Year

I wont give them all to you at once

 

This is the Kansas State Motto:

Per aspera ad astra

"To the stars through hard work"

I had the kids make goals, and write them on stars. The goals could be about school or outside of school!

Manners Manners Manners

I learned from Ron Clark that manners are so important to instill in kids, even in the classroom! So it is more fun to say it in different languages, I will teach one per week and add more along the way!

We have our own photo timeline in our classroom.

I catch the kids looking at this and talking about memories! Good thing photos are inexpensive!

Guatemala

I am BEYOND thankful that I was given the opportunity to go to Guatemala.

This trip will forever stay in my heart-- I will post more pictures periodically because this trip had a big impact on my life.

 

 Going into Market with some of the kids

 The happiest kids I know!- Oscar- he loved to come in our room and borrow our chapstick and lotion!

 The beautiful people of the villages

 Spending an afternoon walking the streets of the village! Eating chocolate covered bananas and going into the teacher store!

 An afternoon hike! The town of San Andres Sacabajo is behind me in the picture

 

 This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip! We went into Market and the pastors wife sells these 'parfait' type desserts with ice, fresh fruit, and flavored syrup. I went with Maria, and she held my hand so proudly walking through town! I feel like I know more Spanish when I am talking with kids because I will more open and willing to make mistakes, I was able to speak a lot of Spanish with her! And she helped me translate while we were walking by the other vendors!