Groups: Revisited

I believe I found a configuration that I like--a mix between rows and groups. Christy and Cathie were at school with me yesterday and we played with the desks for quite some time before figuring out what might work....

 (Christy acting like a sleeping or bored Junior Higher)

(Cathie trying to revive my prehistoric computer)

Now everyone is facing the front; yet, they can easily whip their desks (or bodies) around for group discussion. I think it should work--but, we'll have to wait and see! What do you think?

This Definitely Made the Top 10 List of Life!

Yesterday I did one of the most amazing things I have ever done--flew over and into the Grand Canyon in a helicopter!! I was able to cross off two things from my (never written down) bucket list: ride in a helicopter and go see the Grand Canyon. This was truly an epic way to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.

The van picked us up at our hotel at 0635. We. Were. Tired to say the least. We rode to Henderson airport, checked in with the company, hung out a bit, and were separated into our different groups. We were going to go on this adventure in the hands of Pilot Jake Arnold.

We went on another quick van ride, got some instructions, took some pics, strapped on our floatation devices (in case we accidentally landed in Lake Mead or the Hoover Dam), and loaded up. Mom and I got to sit right up front with the pilot and I was stoked!

As we lifted off, the music playing in our headsets was "Come Fly With Me," and I seriously couldn't stop giggling. I was like a little kid getting a pony for Christmas. I knew instantly that I had fallen in love with helicopters. I need to learn how to fly one--seriously seriously seriously. New life goal.

We flew up and out toward the canyon and I giggled--a lot. Our pilot probably thought I was a nutcase. :) We got to see Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. We saw lots and lots of desert and dry land, and we came upon the canyon grande. We actually flew down into the canyon, pretty close to the side, and I was just slowly dying inside from excitement.

The copter landed in the bottom of the canyon and we were able to get out, walk around, take pictures, enjoy a bit of a picnic, and hang out with the other folks from another copter. The whole time I just couldn't believe it was real.

After about 25-30 minutes, we strapped on our floaties, buckled in (the back this time--we had to share), and took off again. We stopped about 15 minutes later to fuel up, and then went on our way. I was so so sad when we spotted the strip and realized that my epic adventure was too quickly coming to an end. As we touched down, "Happy Trails to You" was playing on our headsets. Loved it.

It was my first helicopter ride, but I assure you, it will NOT be my last. I cannot recommend this highly enough. We went with a company called Maverick Airlines , and I was nothing but pleased with them. Check it out if you're planning a trip to Vegas in the near future. I will leave you with some amazing pictures to assure you of the epicness and awesomeness of this adventure. To see all of the pictures, click here!

 Mom and me--all geared up!

 Pilot Jake Arnold!

 Yah, we were that close!

 The Hoover Dam

 Lake Mead

 Approaching the Canyon

 The Grand Canyon

 Incredible

 Getting lower and lower

 After we landed, walking around

 Madre and me with our sweet ride

 Stripes

If I had 10 thumbs, I'd give this 10 thumbs up

who am I?

"The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing."

~Zephaniah 3:17 (ESV)

The commentary in the ESV study Bible reads: "The previously weakened nation is in the presence of the mighty one, God himself, who, unlike human warriors and heroes, does not lose heart. Instead of fleeing in the face of danger, God can save his people from it. This verse remarkably adds that God himself will rejoice over you with gladness, indicating that when God's people seek him and follow him, and rejoice in him and trust him, then God personally delights in them. This is not an aloof, emotionless contentment, but it bursts forth in joyful divine celebration: he will exult over you with loud singing."


As I read this last night, I kept asking the question: who am I? Who am I that God would save me, rejoice over me with gladness, quiet me with His love, and exult over me with loud singing? Nothing, I'm absolutely nothing; yet, an answer not of myself overwhelmed my soul--I wrote these words in my journal last night.


You are my child. You are chosen and dearly loved. When you seek me and follow me, this is the result. Like Israel, you stray and turn away and sin; yet, my love for you never fades. There is nothing you can do to make me love you any more. There is nothing you can do to make me love you any less.  There is nothing you can do to win my love or approval--that's what's so amazing about my grace, it's free and forever. I love you so much that, not only do I rejoice over you with singing, but I sent my one and only Son to die so that you may have eternal life. I gave you life--and not just life, but life abundant. Now, child, live for me. 


As these incredible truths bathed my soul and humbled me, I also wrote:

How can I not, then, live completely for my God? How can I doubt his plan and sovereignty? How can I not shout this from the rooftops? I have His grace amazing; I have His unconditional love; I have life...


We all go through periods of doubt. Brian, our pastor, actually spoke of that this morning.

"...for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything."

~1 John 3:20

My God is greater than my doubt. He is greater than my wrestling heart. He knows me completely. He loves me unconditionally. He saved me not because of any "good" I ever did (good will never get me into Heaven). He rejoices over me with gladness. He quiets me with His love. He exults over me with loud singing. 

What incredible truths. What amazing grace. What overwhelming love. 

...and it's free....completely....because of Jesus Christ. 

I pray that these truths speak to your soul as they have to mine. 

i heart audio books...

Who knew? I never thought I'd enjoy listening to books on tape. I love reading books, not listening to them...or so I thought.

I kept seeing a commercial for audible.com and how I could receive two free audio books for going to www.audible.com/tvoffer or by clicking here. How could I pass up free? So, I checked it out. It's related to Amazon, so I just signed in with my Amazon info, picked two books, and they automatically downloaded into my itunes. I was able to then plug my phone into my computer, sync it, and start listening.

I purchased The Help...

(picture credit)

and Soul Surfer. I started listening to The Help  right away and I fell in love with it! Not only is it an incredible book, but I get to listen to it in all the amazing Southern accents! LOVE IT! 

I never knew how often an audio book would come in handy: the gym, driving, cleaning, getting ready in the morning, cooking, getting things done around the house, going through the mail, etc. etc. etc. I love listening to this book....have I said that before? My mom finds it humorous that I walk around the house holding my phone listening to these amazing accents....I find it...well, amazing. 

Do it, people, seriously! It's free....how can you not? Even though I canceled my membership right after I purchased these books, I'm sure I'll go back and sign up for a membership because I'm a huge fan--huge. 

What else might I add to the list of what I can listen to while I do my daily tasks? Hmm...perhaps some C.S. Lewis, John Piper, the classics...the possibilities are endless. 

Ok, stop reading and go click on that link and enjoy this as I have. Let me know what gems you find so that I can add them to my collection! Deal? Deal. 

Groups or No Groups...That is the Question!

I went to show Lauren my room today, and we decided to play around with the desks. I pretty much hate having desks in long straight rows (just a personal preference), so I wanted to try to mix it up a bit. This is what we came up with....

There are positives and negatives to having students in groups (as there are with any configuration). I know I'll have to meet my kids and see each class's dynamic before truly deciding what works, but should I leave it like this for the beginning of the year at least? What do you think? Yay or nay? Please take your votes below! Thanks!

It's Beginning to Look Like a Classroom, Folks!

Well, Mom and I headed back to Warren this morning to tackle my overwhelming mess of a classroom.

Hello Warren. 

We unpacked, began putting things up, cleaned some walls, and got quite a bit accomplished before lunch. Here are the pre-lunch pictures. Sorry that they're kind of blurry, I took them all with my phone. 

 We re-arranged my desk area some from yesterday. I much prefer it this way.

 Mom put up my favorite book border under the board. Nicole used to have the same border in her classroom. 

 Mom braved the ladder and put up the giant "Dare to dream it. Work to achieve it." posters in the front of the room.

 She also put up the Language Arts posters on the cabinets. 

Time for LUNCH.

Mom went to meet a friend for lunch and I ran to Walmart to get a few more things for the room. I got back a bit before she did, finished unpacking all of the boxes, and arranged my desk. When she returned, we got right back to decorating. Here is all we accomplished after lunch.... 

 My desk area. It's quite different! 

 Family pics on the shelf, Europe collage on the fridge, lots of friends and family (and Brian Regan) on the board. Oh, my initials are also on there. :)

Close up  

 Here's the bookshelf to the right of my desk. I got those containers at Walmart during lunch. I don't have any drawers around my desk, so the containers work well to hold the "stuff" I might want near me.  

 Here is my desk. I love my desk calendar. 

 The bookcase in front of my desk. On the top are pictures of all of my little cousins and a picture of us with the dolphin this summer. To the left I will hopefully have an actual file cabinet to replace those plastic boxes. 

 Mom put up the encouraging posters above the windows.

 The picture above the board is of Edinburgh. It's AWESOME.

 This is perhaps my favorite corner of the room. Can you read any of them? :)

 Close up on the front of the room. Europe pics on the left, amazing map of the world in the bulletin board. 

 On the right hand side bulletin board we have some blown up pics from this summer. Durham top left. Paris bottom left. Prague top right. Budapest bottom right. And of course, we must keep calm and carry on. 

 Those things on the cabinets each have a picture of a child from a different country and how to say "hello" in their language. So cool!

 We (Mom) moved the wildcat above the door. On the door, I put adhesive dry erase circles. The top one says, "Welcome to Warren." The middle one says, "Read Read Read." The bottom one says, "Words of wisdom: Ms. Erickson is awesome." I have to start them on this line of thinking from the get go. :) 

Oh! This may tie for favorite part of my room--the painters tape that the kids cannot cross. Thanks Nicole for the great idea. Junior highers aren't too keen on the personal space thing--they need a physical reminder not to get all up in my grill. :)

Well, that's about all folks. My room is basically put together! I can't believe we did it in only a day and a half! I'll go back and work on a few last minute room things next week, and then I only have to figure out what to teach--easy (or not). 

Moving Day.

Today was moving day. I dressed appropriately...

I had that lovely feeling in the pit of my stomach as I drove to Thompson--you know, the one you get when something is just not ok. I prayed and shed a few tears and geared up for what was ahead. My mom drove in a separate car (already packed with stuff from home to take to Warren), and we met Sam and Wes at Thompson. Unfortunately, my principal from last year was away at a meeting, but I got to say hi and goodbye to my secretary, VP, and counselor. It was quite difficult.

Luckily, the district had already moved most of my stuff, so we just had a few things to load into our cars before saying our final goodbye...

(Bye, bye Thompson :/ )

We caravanned over to Warren where I met my new secretary and custodian and got my keys. Good news, folks, I got the classroom I wanted (that was a bright spot in the day). We unloaded the cars with the help of my custodian (he's awesome--he already moved all my other stuff into my room for me) and moved all the stuff into my new classroom. To say that I was overwhelmed would be an understatement.

(Before picture)

I seriously just stood there because I had no idea what to do or where to start. Insert awesome custodian again--he just started pulling down desks and lining them up and moving things around for me. As you can see in the picture above, the front two bulletin boards already have blue paper and border up--works for me. 

Sam started cleaning out some drawers, Sam and Mom unloaded some workbooks and notebooks and put them into a cupboard, Wes and I started opening boxes and taking stock of all of what I had. The bulletin board back by my desk was not covered, so Mom and I went to the office to get some paper and we covered it. I put a few things up, but we didn't stay too long because Mom has one of those lovely summer colds. 

We got a few things done, but it's still a huge mess and there's still SO much to do. Hopefully I'll put a good dent in it tomorrow and not remain too overwhelmed. 

Here's the bulletin board Mom and I put up today and the few pictures I arranged by my desk.

The dark blue bulletin boards were already there--the desks are now down. 

 

Still a MESS!

 I need to unpack ALL of these boxes....uggg.

Of course, I had to bring the giant Rainbow sandal even though I no longer have a beach theme. 

Tomorrow I shall unpack, arrange, hang posters, and try not to freak out. I'm pretty good at freaking out.