Tomorrow is my official report to work day, but I have already been easing in by organizing my classrooms. This amazing Cow Quilt was made by my mom for a local charity silent auction. She used Lori Holt's cow and zinnia patterns as well as the flying geese blocks found in Lori's Farm Girl Vintage book. The charity is our local children's shelter and they are having a barn dance/silent auction in September. Since we live in ranch country, she thought the cows would be appropriate with the locals and the barn theme. I know the people who own the gorgeous barn venue where the event is being held and I suspect this will be staying with them! While she was over, we dug into my black and whites tub for another cow quilt she is making with black and white cows. This is for sure on my make one list and hopefully soon!
I have been working on these Scrappy Trips blocks--I am planning on 36 blocks and so far I have made 17. Each block takes awhile despite making them from strip sets. I am using this free pattern from Bonnie Hunter http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2005/06/scrappy-trips-around-world.html
I have a white going down the diagonals of my blocks, but the pattern does not show this.
I will be cranking out some more today as I binge watch Bosch on Amazon Prime and enjoy my last day of summer.
I also need to spend some time today slow stitching this label for my Spelling Bee Quilt.
If all you are interested in is quilting, stop reading now. The rest is about my teaching...
At one of my schools, the principal gave of us this fascinating book they are going to be using this year for professional development. I have been teaching for 23 years and I know I connect really well with kids and enjoy teaching, but this book gave me some insights as to why. We took an online quiz where you had to answer each question within 20 seconds. The quiz figured out your top five strengths, then you read about your strengths in the book so you can focus on them more in your teaching. My strengths were: competition, strategic, achiever, relator, and significance. The achiever and competition were no surprise as well as the relator--I win kids over and make them want to learn and perform for me. I see many of these same strengths in my quilting habits too!
When you work at three schools, you have to take some shortcuts when setting up your classrooms especially when your room is shared and used by other people when you are not there. I really like to use black and white and then an accent color to spice things up. I love aqua/turquoise, so that is my accent color. We have to post our daily learning objective for each subject, so I had my hubby spray paint some clipboards black to hold my laminated aqua card stock. He made me three sets! The tissue paper flower I found on Pinterest and I have made a bunch of them--they are inexpensive and can add an extra dimension and pop of color.
I bought a roll of bulletin board paper that looks like barn wood. This room is used for a conference room when I am not there, so I was trying to keep things looking clean and organized.
I painted the paper mache READ letters myself--for on top of this bookshelf. I made another set in aqua for a different room and I am not sure if I have space for some in the last room. I still need to alphabetize my books--another bookshelf collapsed last year and the custodians just shoved my books into this replacement.
I strongly believe that the right books turn kids into lifelong readers, so I have this wall space labeled with each student's name so they can put a post it up with what book they are reading. My name is up there too--I read kids books and try to guide kids to books I think they will enjoy. The more the kids talk about their reading with one another, the more they read!
I actually have to move out of this room midyear, so I like to make banners because they are easier to take down and relocate. I think this simple "Choose Kind" banner says how I expect the kids to behave...I need to remember this as I sit in lots of challenging meetings this week!
I love your classroom(s). I'm a retired teacher and I recognize the depth and complexity icons. Aren't they just the best? We too, took the test for our strengths. I don't remember all but some were achiever and maximizer. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Have a great school year!
ReplyDeleteI loved the peek at your classrooms and how you're setting up for the year. You made me miss it, and not much does, lol! It was important to me, too, to share my reading life with my kids, read the books I thought they might like, and help them find the right book. Have a great school year, Tanya!
ReplyDeleteHi Tanya! Thanks for the book resource....we've been doing "Primary colors" for the past two years with our staff and it's really helped up become a closer team. Your classrooms look fantastic! And....I love the colors used in all your quilts. You always inspire me!!
ReplyDeleteI like your Scrappy Trips with white down the center. Good luck with the school year, Tanya.
ReplyDeleteI like that READ over the bookshelves. How about getting the kids to do the alphabetizing? They might find a treasure while they look at everything on offer.
ReplyDeleteOops ... I’m sure you’ve already noticed that “DEPTH” is spelled wrong. (Just trying to be helpful, not critical. I worked in a school office for 22 years, and it surely ‘takes a village’!). Have a great year!
ReplyDeleteI love both your quilting and teaching ideas. My Husband is a teacher too. His Jr High Principal assigned a book to read for this years Teacher Development too. Good luck on your upcoming school year.
ReplyDeleteLove, love, LOVE your Scrappy Trips project!! Best wishes for an enjoyable school year.
ReplyDeleteThose cows are adorable and I hope the auction is a success. Wishing you a great school year! It always makes me happy to see teachers putting creativity into their work to bring learning alive for students.
ReplyDeleteI love your Scrappy Trips quilt I just made one with black as as my anchor row - I love how the white looks on yours. Makes it look fresh and lively.
ReplyDeleteYour Scrappy Trips quilt looks wonderful, I made one of those a few years ago and you are inspiring me to make another. The cow quilt is terrific, hope it raises a lot of money. Good luck with your teaching year ahead.
ReplyDeleteLove the cows!!! I wish them all the best. They should bring in lots of moo-lah :-D
ReplyDeleteScrappy Trip is definitely time-consuming but so worth it. It is on my to-do list for next year, I think.
I wanted to be a school teacher but never got to do that. I thought that summers off sounded wonderful. I imagine your summer break flies by. You do try to make good use of the time though.
ReplyDeleteTanya, I love what you have done in your classrooms! I'm sure the children will respond positively to all your hard work! Thank you for sharing my Milk Chocolate Cow quilt. The black & white licorice cow blocks are almost done. Love, Mom😘👍🏻
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh Tanya, you make me look like a slug with my classroom work this summer!!! Thanks for the book tip, will look into it and try to get other teachers on board. I teach high school so a lot of these ideas I can't use, but I can use the listing of where we are now. I sort of do that with online blogs when students do Genius Hour (pick your own things to learn about) in my computer class. Good luck this year with the kids. And I love the cow quilt!!
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