Ketchup

Hello out there! I'm still here, alive and well. I haven't posted in a while because I had been doing a lot of posting on my Colleen's Friends & Family Facebook page for Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month. Within the last month, I've finished my sixth year of teaching, did a two week round of Cipro, found out I've been approved for the Monarch Vest, and had an amazing turn out for Great Strides.

The last post about my health discussed how I was trying a not-as-strong antibiotic that was breastfeeding friendly. Well, I took it for two weeks and ended on a Saturday. By Monday, I was already feeling crumby again. I don't know if the antibiotic just didn't kick everything, or if I caught something over the weekend, but I just wasn't back to feeling how I wanted. I decided, despite the difficulties with breastfeeding, that I needed to go on Cipro. So, for the last two weeks of the school year, I pumped and dumped while at work, and Calvin got extra frozen milk I had pumped earlier while he was with the babysitter. Aside from the nasty case of sun poisoning I got on my legs, I'm happy to say that I'm finally feeling back to normal lung-wise since having Calvin almost four months ago. We'll see what my numbers look like at the end of this month.

Later this week, a Hill-Rom representative will be coming to my house to bring my new Monarch Vest and will show me how to use it! The Monarch Vest is a portable, battery operated Vest!! Which means anytime we go out of town for the weekend, I don't have to lug my machine, tubes and Vest!! I'll be sure to post pictures once I'm familiar with it and use it for the first time. I've been trying to get a portable Vest for a few years now, so this is really exciting for me. :)

Another really exciting thing to share is the success of Great Strides this year!!! Our team walked in the Champaign, IL walk at the beginning of May. This was a new site for us, but I was a little bummed to see the turn out wasn't as large as I expected. Although, our team was wonderful!!!

We had over 30 walkers and raised over $3,000!! I'm hoping we'll be able to reach our goal of $5,000 before the year is over. I want to sincerely thank everyone for making the trek to Champaign to show your support for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, everyone fighting with CF and for me. It truly means a lot to me that you show up and walk with me & my family. :)

Last week wrapped up the end of my sixth year of teaching. This was my third year teaching third grade and working with my amazing partner. I'm sad to say that she's leaving our building, moving on to bigger and better things (she's going to be a kick-ass union president!), so I'll be getting a new partner this fall.

I'm also about half way done with my Master's program - woo hoo! This summer I'm taking my fourth class (research and statistics, ew!) and will only have three left (2 in the fall, 1 in the spring) until I'm done!!! So far, I've maintained a 4.0 GPA which I'm pretty proud of! I can't thank Lindsey and Alycia enough for doing this program with me; they're definitely helping me get through this!!

So now, here we are, the first week of June. I've already worked 2 days of my summer, with 11 1/2 days of professional development scheduled -- who says teachers don't work over the summer?! But in between PD and Master's assignments will be lots of time with my babies! I can't believe that at the end of this summer Anna will be four years old and Calvin will be six months old!
Today we signed up for the summer reading program at two local libraries, enjoyed a walk downtown, went to a new park and went to Steak n Shake for lunch. This afternoon, Anna and I created a Summer To-Do List, and we are slowly filling up our summer days. I love being able to spend this time with my kids because I feel like I miss out on so much during the school year.

Donor's Choose

This year, I've decided to begin my Master's degree. An amazing opportunity came up last spring that allowed me to attend professional development all summer and for the next school year on incorporating Engineering, Math and Science into my curriculum. Through this grant project, I am also able to receive college credits towards my Master's degree, so along with three of my co-workers, I'm on track to have that finished in the Spring of 2019.

This summer I spent over 80 hours working with my colleagues to develop Engineering Learning Cycles for my students. So far, I have an entire unit on Force and Motion that allows students to create and arrange their own playground to consider predicting future motion and avoiding student collisions. I also have an entire unit on Weather, Climate and Hazardous weather where students will build a house, following certain constraints, to withstand wind (simulating hazardous weather).

I've completed the Force and Motion learning cycle with both my class and my partners' class so far this year. Both classes loved it and grasped the science concepts, while doing a Tug of War, exploring playground equipment, and building their very own playground out of Legos.


Anyway, I've been having a really fun year with my students and I know that they're ready to do more projects like these. Unfortunately, with teaching, my Masters, raising a family and a newborn on the way, another 80 hours of my own time to create more of these units seems unattainable right now. Thankfully, I was able to attend the National Science Teacher Association Conference in November and learned of a book for teachers that already has several lessons like these created! I fell in love with this book after attending an hour session about it and immediately went to purchase it from the bookstore at the conference.

It's called Picture Perfect STEM Lessons for grades 3-5. It incorporates all subjects (math, science, reading, writing and social studies) into units that fit our grade level standards. It starts by introducing the topics through picture books for the students. It has lessons, activities and projects all mapped out
for teachers. The only problem is....I need the picture books. My school district does not pay for materials like these for teachers. This is something I'd have to buy out of pocket - over $300 in pictures books for my students.

This is where I'm asking for help, which is hard for me to do. I've filled out a project on Donor's Choose (a website that helps teachers get their projects funded by donations). This week only, Donor's Choose will match any donation up to $50 towards my project. I would LOVE for this project to get funded so I can better the learning environment for my students. They loved Science this last semester and have been begging to do more. I would love to incorporate this learning style throughout my day, not just in Science. If you click on the link above (or here), it'll take you to my project information on Donor's Choose. If you have any questions, feel free to ask! You're welcome to share my link with anyone who would like to help out a public school teacher looking to get more resources for her classroom.

Thank you so much for always being awesome readers!!! :-)