Blog Design

This is my blog dilemma...I would really like to have a cute blog design, including a new background, header, and button. However, I don't use my blog to promote any products, and so I don't really want to spend a lot on it...or anything at all :) So, if you know anyone who is beginning a blog design business, and would like to "practice" on my blog, please let me know! I would be willing to pay a little bit, so if you do blog design, please leave a comment and I will contact you about prices (or if you have a webpage, direct me there).

I would like a nice, unified blog design, but I don't want to do it myself, and I see SO many teacher blogs that are just too cute!

Postcard Exchange

I recently joined a postcard exchange, and the ladies in charge are still looking for more states. I'm glad they needed Kansas because it seemed like so many of the postcard exchanges in bloggy land had Kansas already! (GO KANSAS TEACHERS!)



Anyway, here is the info on Proteacher.

Here are the states that are already participating:
Alabama
Connecticut
Florida
Illinois
Kansas
Louisiana
New Mexico
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Texas
(and I think New Jersey is out too).

Leave me a comment if you'd like to join, and I will forward your email addresses and state name to Emily, who is in charge! Because I'm just helping out, there is a chance your state may be taken, but I'll let you know. You can login to Proteacher and see if you can find another one that needs your state!

Also, last year I struggled to find Kansas postcards that wouldn't gouge me in the pocketbook. I even asked for discounts, and the only ones I could find were $1 a piece. I really didn't want to spend that much, plus postage. I ended up printing out a template on cardstock. The kids decorated the front side themselves with Kansas-themed pictures, and then we came up with what we wanted to say together. I typed it up onto a label, and we stuck it to the postcards. It was all well and good until I got to the post office and learned they were oversized postcards and would cost extra! EESH!! I was so sick of those things I just said, GET THEM OUTTA HERE! However, the kids loved the activity, and receiving the postcards, so it was all worth it.

I didn't want to go through that again this year, and then one day inspiration struck! I have created and ordered many things from Vistaprint. I got their annual clearance email and I saw postcards were FREE (plus shipping), and then I KNEW!

DUH! I could create postcards on Vistaprint!! What was even more awesome is that because Kansas is the Sunflower State, I was able to find several ready-made templates with sunflowers on them. Then, I personalized them with the state name and our class name and WALA!! Much cheaper postcards for our exchange! I am still SO HAPPY that the thought occurred to my overworked brain :) So anyway, that might be an option for you all doing postcard exchanges!

Anyway, hope you can join!

I Survived Linky Party

I know I said I was on hiatus...but I couldn't resist posting in response to Life In Special Ed's Linky Party. Sometimes I feel like I teach in a circus...being in the neighborhood we are in, we often get some students who...hmmm...trying to put this nicely...haven't learned certain social skills, maybe?  Anyway, this story kept me laughing for weeks.

I teach third grade, and one afternoon while the kids were packing up, I was talking to a small group of students when a kid called out, "Mrs. T, why is THIS in my chair pocket?" With one finger delicately held up, he showed the whole class he was holding a TRAINING BRA!! The kids erupted into giggles, and the boys "BLECH"ed, and I couldn't help but just laugh. There was a parent in the room, and when we made eye contact, she looked at me bewildered because she had been standing behind this boy's desk and hadn't seen the training bra make its way into his chair pocket. I went and got it from him, and then half-jokingly told him that I would "cleanse" his chair pocket.

Part 2 came about a week later. Again, we were packing up and I heard one of my students say, "Here's ANOTHER ONE! In JACOB's CHAIR POCKET!" One of my shyest students had this look of complete disgust and confusion on his face as another training bra was pulled out of his chair pocket.

I never solved the mystery of the training bra...I think the first one may have been an accident, because some of the kids bring changes of clothes to school because they are going to grandma's after school etc. I'm guessing it just fell out of a backpack in the end of the day shuffle. The second one?? Well, maybe one of my students has a funny sense of humor :)

And there it is :) I survived the training bra incident (and didn't get any phone calls from parents, CHA CHING!)

Hiatus

In case you are a new reader, I'm on a hiatus while my husband is in Brazil doing an internship for law school (and of course, I went with him!). However, I'm still able to read blogs, and I guess I could post if I wanted to, but I'm having a hard enough keeping up my "regular" blog! So this is my summer break from blogging...but I've been pinning ideas and checking and reading blogs everyday for new ideas!

Thanks for reading!

(the Teatro Municipal in Sao Paulo)