A Merry Little Christmas Party

Last year I co-hosted a Christmas party with my brother to inaugurate his new basement and, of course, to celebrate the holidays! Since I never shared any of the crafty decorations I made for it, I figured a solid year later would be perfect timing. :P

Using some of my favorite crafting media (book pages, branches), I set about making decorations that incorporated materials that I had on hand, or could obtain for cheap. One of my favorites turned out to be the little trees you see lining the window sills above. I got the idea from my bestie, Martha Stewart - the original craft is for place cards, but they made the cutest accents as well. And after the party, I sent them home with guests as mini favors.

The sprigs I snipped from greenery in surrounding areas (like my apt. complex, outside my office, on the way home...lol)

Continuing with the natural theme, I looked for ways to incorporate branches and fresh greenery into the décor.

Always have to have the red and green M&Ms!

 
Evergreen sprigs, bits of holly, pinecones, and magnolia leaves worked as well to bring a bit of the outdoors inside. Going with the whimsical, I framed out illustrations from a copy of Alice in Wonderland to hang from the branches of my arrangements. The largest one I adorned with popcorn garlands and mini wreaths in addition to a few paper ball ornaments I made with leftover pieces of patterned paper.

I also used a few of the pages to line the backs of cookie-cutters, turning them into ornaments. Another Martha-inspired craft, although the original craft used wrapping paper instead of book pages.

You might have noticed the little paper trees peeking in the background of different pictures - they were really simple to make, instructions here!

I also used book pages to make a banner (I drew on the letters with Sharpies)...

... and these really sweet wreaths! They were a little time-consuming, but not very difficult. I used some German playing cards that I had on hand to cover the center portion where it tends to get messy (where all the cones come together). You can find the tutorial I used here.

The icicles are just tissue paper!

Cheery fire

A few other fun accents were paper chains, paper medallions, and cheery luminaries lining the front walk. The paper medallions were made using seventeenth-century newspaper articles I had printed out for one of my grad classes (recycle, right?) and old Christmas cards for centers. The luminaries consisted of red paper bags layered over white ones - I used an Exacto knife to cut out a simple design on each of the red bags, then placed Mason jars with tea lights inside (it was a windy/rainy night, if I recall).













We had a full potluck dinner, complete with an impressive variety of desserts, and a white elephant gift exchange, where I'm pretty sure this was the top steal. :) A fun time was had by all who attended!

Found Poems

One weekend last month my mom sent me this pin on Pinterest that she thought I'd like. Well, I didn't like it... I loved it! I immediately set about incorporating it into my lesson plans. My seniors had recently finished up a unit on Romanticism, and while they were slightly burned out reading and analyzing poems, I figured they would still be up for writing some. Or finding them!

"Seek reason for being,
explain the necessity of time."

I began with a brief PowerPoint introducing my students to the concept of found poetry. Found poetry is "a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text, thus imparting new meaning" (source: Wikipedia). I showed my students examples such as Jonathan Safran Foer's Tree of Codes, Ronald Johnson's Radi Os, Tom Phillips' A Humument, and Jen Bervin's Nets for inspiration. Once they started to see what it looked like (complete with a step-by-step guide I had created the day before, composing my own found poem in the process), they were ready to set to work! Luckily, I ALWAYS have book pages on hand for crafting, so I simply passed out pages at random and set them loose!

Before I show the finished results, here's the step-by-step process I gave my seniors to guide them:

Step One: Look at your page of prose – do any words stand out to you?

Step Two: Trace a logical path through the text with your words – a theme will emerge along the way.

 

Step Three: Treat the rest of the page in a way that emphasizes your “found poem.”

...BUBBLED!

Bubbling...

...Bubbling...

 So yeah, pretty cool, huh? After passing out the pages, they all settled in to work, and I was so pleased with what they came up with! Check 'em out!

(Click to Enlarge)

He was the only one to
try this technique - and
he worked meticulously!

A nonsensical poem,
sparked by the discovery
of the word "bear."

A few students opted to
incorporate visuals to go
along with their poems.

 

There was such a variety of techniques and color schemes that they employed!

 

And no, they weren't just "pretty" - check out how profound my students turned out to be! ;) 

"Philosophy is reckoned by me."

"God created worlds, planets and comets, found in immense
spaces and all qualities observable."

"Failed writings remain unknown..."

"The body remarkable
but judged by the lives of many."

"The great demonstrations of a Perfect Being,
the existence of God."

I was so proud, I HAD to display them after I laminated them  (probably one of my favorite aspects of working in a school - access to a laminator!!). Using the wall space between my room and my teacher-neighbor's, I created a "Found Poems" display. These pics only show my students' work (the ones who wanted their poems displayed) - my colleague followed suit the next week, adding her students' poems to the display. It has garnered lots of attention these past few weeks, which is AWESOME. :) Highly recommend.

Handy Halloween Treats

Yikes, this is overdue, but I wanted to put it up now - better late than never, right? These are some handy treats I whipped up for my colleagues right before Halloween this year. The ingredients are simple: clear plastic disposable gloves, popcorn, and candy corn! I wish I could remember where I first saw this idea, but it's been years. I think it was a magazine. At any rate, the process is so easy - the hardest thing is probably tying off the bags once their full, since you tend to have slippery fingers (from the buttery popcorn!). Just drop a piece of candy corn in each finger, then fill the glove with popcorn - you made need to work it a little to fill out each finger. Then tie it off with a twist-tie - I slipped notes on mine as well. Fun, cute, and easy! :)

Door Décor: Fall Frame-Out!

My mum has lost a bit of luster, sadly.

Happy Fall! Ok, I know fall has been here awhile, but in true fall fashion, I've been so busy that it's taken forever for me to put together a seasonal front door display. I acquired and arranged items in bits and pieces, but this weekend's craft was the final touch I needed! Before this weekend I had picked up the little pumpkin from a roadside stand, purchased the mum from Lowe's, and found a cute little pumpkin sign at Dollar General for $6. It's metal and wood, so I'm excited to reuse it each year! My front door was bare, though, and the giant screw sticking out at eye level mocked me with the ghosts of decorations hung by previous owners.

Last spring I posted about my mom's door décor - taking inspiration from her (a common thing), I set about collecting materials to create my own version. I found a spray of cheery yellow (fake) flowers, a spray of fall leaves, and a large photo frame (I popped off the back and removed the glass for my purposes) at Dollar Tree. I picked up a little bud spray from a local craft store - it's well-made and I've been wanting to check out the store for awhile, so win-win. :) The ribbon, cardstock, and French magazine (peeking out of the top of the cone) were all items I had on hand. I simply used my trusty hot glue gun to attach everything. It took a few tries and different ideas (I'm beginning to understand why door wreaths/arrangements are so pricy - it's not as easy as it looks!), but I think it came out really cute!

 

 

Frame - $1

Yellow Flowers - $1

Fall Leaves - $1

Spray Bud - $2.50 (splurge, I know!)

Cardstock/Magazine Pages - on hand

Ribbon - on hand

Project Total: under $5!

Cheap and Easy Whiteboards

Whew, this week was looooooooooong. End of the first quarter came on a Wednesday, with no inservice/professional development day. Fellow teachers, you can appreciate the exhaustion I'm still feeling. Since this was my first quarter at my current school, I used it as a chance to feel out my students and the general school atmosphere... and I realized that absences and makeup work are major issues.

It's a well-known fact that absences are a major contributing figure to students' overall grades, but for me as a teacher, they have been causing a bit of chaos in my daily schedule. Students would stroll in at the beginning of the period and ask, "So, what'd I miss yesterday?" Often I'd look at them blankly and be like, "I just taught seniors about Macbeth for an hour and a half, and I'm trying to switch tracks to sophomore English - there was school yesterday?" Looking backwards whilst moving forwards in the moment is a bit difficult and time-wasting, since the rest of the students are ready to start class. Also - the rhetoric in the student statement above insinuates that it is my, the teacher's, responsibility to catch them up on their missed work. There are waaaaay too many students and waaaaaay too many absences (I had five students out from a single class period on Friday!) for that to be realistic. And the fact that I teach high schoolers should also weigh in here. So, in the spirit of a new quarter, I have made a few changes (students received copies of my new late work policy already!).

One idea I had was hanging a whiteboard in the back of my classroom where I could either record or have a student record our daily activities (we're talking quick jots here) so that I can simply send students there to look and collect their missing work (I have an extra desk and trays standing at the ready!). I started looking around for a weekly whiteboard that was nice and big for my plan, and I discovered that wow, whiteboards are pricy! And most are smaller than I wanted. So, on to DIY!

While Googling, I came across this post that contained the awesome idea to use panelboard as whiteboards (there are tons of suggestions online for various materials, but panelboard is cheap and easily obtainable). I followed the author's suggestions and went to Lowe's this weekend on the hunt for panelboard. I found sheets of 48" by 32" for roughly $11 - score! I plucked out a sheet, then found the wood-cutting area and had the guys at Lowe's saw it in half lengthwise. It was my first time doing this sort of thing, and it was pretty empowering, let me tell you. ;)

Each piece measures roughly 4' by 1.5'

Pleased with my new pieces, I brought 'em home, cleaned 'em up, and set about making them into my weekly work boards. Apologies in advance - my night-crafting habits have once again resulted in poor pictures.

I measured out five equal sections and lined them with Sharpie so that I could erase without fear of messing up the board. I felt pretty confident, since I had already double-checked on whether or not you can erase permanent marker from whiteboards (there are a variety of ways) so my bases were covered.

To make it easier on myself, I divvied up the remaining 3" into border space, so my 5 sections were equal.

Matted, Marked, Delivered!

After measuring and marking out the sections, I rummaged around my on-hand materials for an idea for a border (panelboard is unfinished, and like the author warns in her post, the board often splinters a bit at the edges when cut using the store's saw, since it's not made for this material). I found some leftover patterned duct tape that I had used previously to mark out my apartment number on my curbside trash can (you can ALWAYS incorporate flair), which I thought would work perfectly. I had just enough to frame out the boards... though I admit the job is a bit imperfect. However, I seriously doubt my students will mind/notice, and I'm pleased with the look.
 

It was easier to thicken the letters from the bottom!

 After I did that twice, I had my two boards! But, they were missing one final thing - weekday labels! So I dug out my colored Sharpies and set to work. I chose colors that matched the border design and varied my fonts to help differentiate the boards for my two grade levels. They came out so nice, I think they'll help ease the annoyance of having to track so many absences/makeup work. :P Here are a few shots of the finished products!

And here they are in their new home! Together with the trays for makeup work, I think they will really help me (and my students) stay on top of missing work. When students come in after an absence (a daily occurrence), I can send them to the back and say, "Look at the board and your period's tray." Zero excuses, little students. Zero excuses. ;)

 It's much easier for me to toss in makeup papers per period than return to the task later. Also, since the trays are in the back of the room, I can simply add the number of makeup papers with the papers I'm passing out to that row already and have a student place them in the appropriate tray. I also am thinking of asking different students to record the day's activities at the end of the period (one less thing for me to do!) - thanks for the idea, Mom!