Texas Retired Teachers Association

The Texas Retired Teachers Association has a classroom assistance grant program that rewards public school teachers who demonstrate commitment to public education and children through the creation of innovative projects, programs, special events, or unique learning platforms. This year they received 104 applications and awarded thirty $500 grants to teachers throughout Texas. 

My grant was to purchase floor robots knows as Blue-Bots to help my ESL students learn skills such as cause and effect, sequencing, counting, letter recognition, problem-solving, early programming skills, and STEM.

#happyclassrooms

Earth Day - Recycle Buttons

In honor of Earth Day, I did a crafty project this weekend. 

A friend of mine is willing to make a quilt for me using my daddy's shirts.  (He recently passed away in July.  We miss him so much - more than I can put into words.)

I decided that I would cut the buttons off the shirts before sending them to my crafty quilting friend.  This was a harder process than I thought.  Not the actual process of cutting of the buttons, but the overwhelming amount of emotions. 

I am okay with using the shirts, but I am not okay with what it means. 

It means my daddy will never wear them again.  

It means I will never see him in those shirts.  

It means he is not longer here to go places with me.  

It means we won't be going on vacations.

It means I come home to an empty house (except for Gizmo).  

It means I don't have anyone to cook for anymore.

It means I can't talk to him any more.  

It means my best friend is gone.

I sat and cried for a long while.  Gizmo knew that something was wrong and he sat with me.  He tried to cheer me up by bringing me his toy.  He kissed away my tears.  I know that I can't say, "Daddy", because that confuses him and he thinks that he is here or that he will be coming home and Gizmo will go sit in the entry way, yapping every once in a while, as if to say, "Hurry up, we are waiting on you."  I think that Gizmo knew those were daddy's shirts.  He sat on them, sniffed them, and at one point wouldn't even move.

So, we took a break, collected ourselves, and started again.  We powered through and managed to get a collection of buttons.  Now we have a lot of buttons, different sizes, shapes, and colors.

Now a quick trip to Michael's to get some tools, jump rings, and a chain.........

We managed to make a necklace!  

We did right by the Earth and daddy would be proud!

Grant from TRTF

I am so excited!  I am going to receive a grant from the Texas Retired Teachers Foundation.  There were over 100 applications received from all over Texas and mine was one they chose.  I hope we can work out a time where they can come to the school and present it to me.  I look forward to spending it. YES - I will be spending it on technology! :)

Say Thank You to Yourself

Make a list of things you want to do to make your situation better.  Do something small to help you reach your destination.  You can do it!  You can make it happen! 

TCEA Has Some Favorite Blog Posts

Here are some good blog posts that might be helpful.  Here is the link...
https://www.tcea.org/blog/tceas-top-20-blog-posts/

Positive thoughts!

Let's think good thoughts! 
Look at where your class was a the beginning of the year .........
then look where they are now!  They have made a ton of progress and that is because of you!