Saturday, March 19, 2011

Angels Walk Among Us...


Not just heavenly angels, mind you, but everyday mortals who touch the lives of others in immeasurable ways. One such angel is right here with us, my dear friend Peggy, who blogs at Middle Age Ramblings.

If you look through her blog, you'll see what I mean. She's a wonderful friend to young Joseph and his mom, she visited Rwanda, donating cameras to the residents there, gave away hugs in New Zealand, and most recently gifted my classroom with a flip Video camera. Awesome, amazing, generous... that, my friend, is Peggy.

Peggy has a passion for life and a mission to make the world a better place any way she can. How absolutely wonderful it must be to live with such zest! Thanks to Peggy, my students will have opportunities to create short videos based on stories we read in class. No more read a story and answer questions. Instead, they will be able to act out parts, extend the story through acting, and do so many things we haven't had the opportunity to do before. Having the video camera right there in my classroom will make it easy and accessible. I can't wait to get started!

So, thank you Peggy. Thank you for caring about my 8th-grade students and for giving them something to smile about!

For those of you who are teachers and haven't heard about DonorsChoose, go.there.now! The site allows you to post projects that you would like to implement in your classroom. Donors from all over the world search for projects to support, make a contribution, and if all goes well, your project receives full funding. In addition to having friends and family contribute to my projects, I've had total strangers provide substantial gifts to help fund them. These gifts provided my classroom with an Elmo document camera, a laminator, and now a flip Video camera. With salary cuts and forced furlough days, I haven't been able to spend as much money on my clasroom. Thanks to DonorsChoose and people like Peggy, I've been able to use technology and create learning resources to help my students succeed.

** The photograph above is of Peggy while she was in Rwanda. Here, the children are watching themselves on video.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

I may be two days late...


but I'm a firm believer in better late than never.

And even though we celebrated his birthday on his birthday...

I'm letting the world know

that my husband is the best guy ever.
That he works hard to provide for his family.
That he gets up early every morning to
prepare breakfast and pack lunches
and then cooks supper at night.

That he understands who I am (for the most part),
and puts up with the insane hours I pour into
work, or sometimes, just doing nothing
because I just put in insane hours
at work.

Who has been an amazing father to our daughter,
and continues to amaze me each and every day
with his generous spirit and loving attitude.

Happy birthday! I love you!