Five for Friday!

Happy Friday! I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for one of my favorite linky parties...

Genius Hour has arrived in my classroom! If you aren't familiar with Genius Hour, it's a set time every week that students are allowed to work on any project of their choosing. You can read more about it at www.geniushour.com. They suggest a set hour every week, but my plan is a little more flexible than that because we don't have an extra hour in our schedule!

Credit: http://marinasandoval.weebly.com/genius-hour-curriculum.html

So far my students and I are all so excited about these projects. I have students who want to convince the government to reopen the Space program, one who wants to learn about and create fashion designs, several who want to learn website/blog creation & design, and so many more great ideas. One pair even intends to "raise awareness for spider safety" by researching and creating a video on all the reasons we need spiders.

Once we get things going a little more, I will definitely be doing a detailed post about how I've implemented it and how it is going.

Wednesday, I had my first substitute of the year while I was out at training. The first sub day is always a little nerve-wrecking for me. (I'm not sure if I'm more worried about my kiddos or the sub!) I was out at a training for Schoology, an online learning management site that our district has adopted. All in all, it wasn't bad for a training day. We had lots of time to actually work in the system instead of being lectured to! I'm sure there will be more info coming about Schoology and how the Teaching Trio uses it to facilitate our Flipped Classroom lessons!

Today, I get to present two PD sessions at my school. The first is on Schoology, which you just read that I went to a training for on Wednesday. The second is the one I'm excited about though... Teachers in my building frequently ask me where I find such great ideas. As much as I wish I could say that I am just extremely creative and talented, I think we all know the answer is "I get them from the internet." In fact if you're here reading this, chances are good that you get a lot of your ideas online too! 

I'll be sharing the best blogs and Pinterest boards I know with them, and I've created a couple of linkys on my Chalk & Apples site for them (and blog-world) to refer to. I'd love some more of you to link up your blogs and Pinterest boards that are filled with great ideas, not just products. Head over to Chalk & Apples to link up. Blogs are here. Pinterest boards are here. Feel free to link up more than once!

My favorite season has arrived! No, not fall, it's hotter now than it has been all summer, hovering around 100 degrees most days. I'm talking about FOOTBALL season! College football to be exact. Don't get me wrong, I'll watch the NFL with my hubby on Sundays, but Thursday night and Saturday is where it's at for me!

Where else can you watch a team who's down 3+ scores in the third quarter play like they were only down one and their lives depended on this win? Sadly, I'm referring to my team, who just lost our season opener to a team whose initial ranking was way below ours. :( Lucky me, I'm familiar with the rise and fall of emotions in college football, since my team seems to be best at raising expectations with several great games, and then crushing them with a big loss. What can I say, I'm a loyal fan! You'd be hard pressed to find a Gamecock fan who wasn't loyal. 

By the way... ^that^ is the best place on the planet to watch college football! Magic happens in that stadium. Sadly, I'm 9 hours away from home these days, so my best hope is that we get tickets to watch my Gamecocks play Vanderbilt since it's in Nashville this year. (Hear that, hubby... September 20th... a couple of weeks after my birthday... just sayin'!)

Last but certainly not least...

This guy comes home tomorrow! (That's my favorite picture from the last time he came home.) He's only been away a month this time, but if I had to choose the worst month to be single-parenting it, I would definitely say August. It's just tough to get everything done for back to school, plus all the TPT back to school madness, plus trying to still be a good mom to my little guy. On a side note, if you're a full-time single-parent-teacher, you have my utmost respect. I don't know how you do it all the time.  I feel a little like I've been running a marathon for the past month, and I can't wait to s-l-o-w down! Fingers crossed that he gets to take leave during our Fall Break, and we can do a relaxing family vacation. I know we all need it!