It's Blogging Day...so here's 10 things about your student teacher

Greetings 2nd Block! Today is our first day of blogging and to celebrate, I thought I would share a few things about myself that you may or may not know. Check out my post below if you feel you simply must know more about me!!! :)

1. I love to teach! It's so rewarding, if challenging, and definitely an excellent way to spend my future. Try talking to high schoolers about poetry. Oh yeah...nevermind.


2. Travelling!!! I LOVE TO TRAVEL.

This picture is me in London three years ago. We were only there for ten days, give or a take one or two traveling, and it was the most brilliant thing I have ever beheld.

3. Until last summer, I had never been to St. Louis. Call me crazy, but I've lived in Missouri my entire life, and St. Louis was apparently just too far way. I went with a friend of mine and actually touched the Mississippi River. Not too shabby, eh?

4. I am a musical nut. I love musicals. You name it, I probably love it. This summer I saw Wicked in Tulsa, OK, and I've also seen Phantom of the Opera live.

5. Movies. Movies are my thing. I love literature, but I also feel like film is an excellent medium to study. A new favorite of mine is Cloud Atlas, which raises questions about life, death, and love across time and space. It is not cheesy, however, just in case you're interested.


6. I'm a gift giver. Giving people gifts makes me happy. I'm that person on Christmas who is more excited about watching people open their presents than actually opening my own!

7. I have three younger siblings. My sister is a freshman at MSU and I have two younger brothers, ages 16 and 13. They attend school at Logan-Rogersville.

8. Pins. I am an amateur pin collector, but I'm afraid to lose them, so I only use them to decorate and not actually to put on my bags or lanyard. What's the point, then? Well, I'm not quite sure.

9. I LOVE ART. I believe that anything can be considered art, from paintings to films, architecture to literature. My best friend took this picture on our second only trip to Jeff City and I think it is quite magnificent.


10. Last month, I saw Richard Marx in concert. If you don't know who he is, it's okay. Apparently, the 80's days of soft rock and love ballads are past. But, if you want to know what songs he sings, check out the lame videos I took with my camera here.

Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoy the blogging experience. It's going to be fun, yeah?

Twelve Curious Things About Me...

That's me in the middle flanked by two buddies!

*Some years ago I broke both my right wrist and my left ankle, and while I was convalescing in a wheel chair, the school year started without me.  This is when I began blogging with my class as a way to meet my new students and for them to get to know me.

*I love to dress my dogs in the costumes of the characters we read...Katie's poster of Van Gogh hangs on our classroom wall.

*My childhood nickname was Barbie and my first boyfriend was Ken.

*I live in a menagerie with my dear dog friends Miles and Artie and my cat Simon. 

Grandkids Hailey and Porter and me celebrating the New Year!

*I am a better driver today than I used to be. I once sideswiped my sister's garage while trying to park her car, but when I backed up to get a better aim, I ran over the water meter!

*I don't like heights or snakes.

*I wish that it were stylish to be chubby.

*I love to hear books read aloud and I love to read aloud.  This summer I read David Copperfield aloud in its
entirety.

My son Kevin and me in Shanghai last year.

*I have lived in my current home for almost 28 years, but before that I lived like a gypsy, nesting in four countries throughout  my journeys.

*I don't travel as much as I'd like to anymore, but if I could, I'd spend the summers wandering the globe. (I'd have to travel like Liz Taylor used to with all of her pets loaded onto a beautiful ship!)

*I enjoy long walks, a cup of tea with a good book, and the company of family and friends.

*I understand why grandchildren are called GRANDchildren...because they are.  I have a seven year-old granddaughter Hailey and a three-year old grandson Porter, and they are the absolute BEST.

Shall We Blog?

Welcome to our online classroom!

Blogs are an interactive way to share our writing, and we're excited for you to create your own. Ms. Reaves and I are providing written instructions on a handout, but we think you'll really just learn as you go. What we’ve set up here is a central class blog where we will post assignments and writing by both Ms. Reaves and myself.

When you create your blogs, each of them will be added to a "blog roll" on the right hand side--this page is where you can hop on and see what everyone else is up to, and we'll be looking for you to make supportive and appropriate comments on your classmates' blogs, like you did in our poetry "verse" gallery.

Some things to know/keep in mind:

A post is a new entry you create from scratch with your own thoughts and ideas. A comment is an idea or thought you attach to someone else's post.

Since this blog is part of our class, we aren't using our blogs for socializing like Facebook or texting. We hope you're kind and friendly to one another, but resist posting casual messages or silly small talk or really anything not related to our work together as a class.

When you've created your own blog today, leave the name and url as a comment here. Ms. Reaves and I will link all of them to this page and this will be our home base. We do hope you enjoy this process...we’re here every step of the way so don't hesitate to ask either of us if you have questions or want some guidance.