Thanksgiving Hurdle

 For the first time in 12 years, I have to work Black Friday. My family took it in stride, but it has been a mental adjustment for me. I don't mind working it, but I have to adjust how I plan my Thanksgiving. My family is great and adjusting our meal to earlier in the day to ensure I can get home at a decent time. 

Since we have to work Black Friday, our department makes the best of the day. We will have 12 holes of putt-putt available. Unlike the engineers, I won't have much to do that day. I volunteered to design and run a hole for our cubicle row. My row is getting behind it, and volunteering how to help setup for it. They have never participated this way in the past, and I'm excited to get them more involved. 

We are going to run with a theme of Jurassic World and a server room as my cubicle row is the server team. I guess a couple of them have 3D printed mini servers that I can use in the design. I will borrow some dinosaurs from my son. For the hole, I want someone on the team to 3D print a ramp and then I'll use a giant t-rex for the ball to go into its' mouth and come out the hole on its' bottom. It could look horrible, but we are going to have so much fun!

I may be designing putt-putt holes, but I still have time to design put my teacher hat on too. I put together a fun article on the Macy's Day Parade with comprehension questions, and there is a STEM activity too! The STEM activity is the popular build your own Macy Day balloon. I love that activity and seeing all the students creativity with it. You can get them separately or bundle them together. 

Fall! Fall! Fall!

 It is officially safe for me to talk all things Fall! My husband can't tell me, "it's too early!" We are past the official kick off date for Fall, and now we are in October. Game on! I've had all these fun ideas for Fall activities in the classroom, and I've been working to build and post them. In my store, I've grouped them by the tag Fall. Check them out and let me know what you think!

Interactive Classroom Games

I've had these game concepts circulating in my head for a bit. I took the time to update two products in my store, and then create two customizable options. Essentially, they are digital game boards to display while completing the activity. 

How many times have you played bingo and students ask what has already been called? I found a way to digitally call the cards, optionally show the answers, and display the previously called cards for the duration of that rounds play. You just store the file in a drive, and open it when you are ready to play. It will open in a browser, but it does not need internet. Then, you can laminate your bingo cards to use over and over! 

Next, I redid a classroom favorite, Order of Operations Basketball. All my future professional ball players loved this activity. In teams they solved problems, and then they could use a small basketball to shoot at a Little Tikes hoop. Most of my dry erase board was covered by my TV that was used for teaching. We didn't have much room to track scores. When I rebuilt this, I wanted a digital option to display for displaying teams, tracking their scores, and keeping time. Not everyone will want the noise from students actually shooting hoops. That is where I added the option to virtually shoot hoops and it has an algorithm to randomly score or miss. 

After creating all this I started to think how I could enable others to use one of these tools, but add their own custom problems. I was able to build it with a built in downloadable template. Add in your questions and answers, and then upload it back into the board. Then you can run the board with your content. For the customizable boards there are two options - basketball and football. I plan to build out soccer and hockey options as well. 

Leave a comment if you have ideas or suggestions for the current boards or future ones!

Ozobot Fraction STEM Challenge

It doesn't matter what age students are, but they love being hands on in their learning. I was that middle school teacher with robots, legos, lincoln logs, race tracks, etc. I tried to find any way to take a simple worksheet and make it engaging. Students weren't trying to hide due to their lack of ability, but they wanted to know the skill to engage in the fun. There were a lot of laughs in my classroom. 

Ozobots are an easy tool to add into math curriculum. You can turn any boring math worksheet into a coding worksheet for the Ozobots. It then becomes a 2 for 1 deal. Students are solving math, but they are also working on coding and algorithms. Definitely check it out and start to think of different ways to you combine coding into your curriculum. 

Fall Activities

You may not be able to wear white anymore, but you sure can go Fall crazy! I thought I would kick off Fall with some cute Fall activities. Check them out and come back to see as I add more. 

Rid Yourself of the Toxicity

 4 months later and the blows keep coming from my previous job. In all transparency, my unemployment was denied. I am in the process of appealing it. Yesterday was the hearing for the appeal. That was the first time my former employer ever shared what "confidential" information I shared and caused for poor performance. I'm thankful the hearing was by phone. When I heard the lies they were sharing with the judge I was sick to my stomach. My emotions were all over the place. This is the company that I devoted nearly 12 years for, and they were making up information to ensure my unemployment was denied. 

One of the lies came from private conversations with a former co-worker. We had many theory and thought sessions. They were between us, and just theories. We were two managers that were privy to many of the changes happening in our district. Somehow they were reported to HR, and they twisted the theory and added an audience. 

The other lie came from a private text conversation on two personal, non-district, cell phones. A close co-worker, and manager, had texted me after I was suspended. They started the conversation. I never violated my suspension. Somehow HR was able to share the conversation word-for-word and insinuated I had started the conversation. 

If I gained anything from the hearing, I at least gained closure. I now know they really had nothing on me, which is why they've never answered that question. I know they will stoop to any level to protect themselves and get their way. I learned that two former co-workers, whom I trusted and considered friends, betrayed me. I put together an organized appeal with strong evidence, and asked questions of the district on their evidence to poke their lies. I truly gave my all, and will accept the outcome. 

Over the summer, and now going into the Fall, I have been picking myself up. I have been redefining who I am and want to be. I let myself be consumed by that job. I truly believe it was worth it for the students and families, but not for me in the long run. I'm in week three at a new job, and I love it. I'm setting boundaries, but ensuring I'm still doing the job that I was hired for. I've started to pick up ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) reviews since I read so much. I've always wanted to that, but never had the time. A couple months ago I started a book page on Facebook to go along with my hobby. Definitely check it out and give it a follow! A couple times a week I try to share free ebooks that I find. 

No First Day of School in 12 Years

 A few weeks ago, my former district returned to school. It was the first time in 12 years I wasn't a part of it. Well, my first year I was hired 5 weeks in, but same thing! Either way, it felt really weird. There was no stress in preparing for a class or deploying district technology. It felt really good. 

There were friends, that are teachers, that reached out to ask questions on why items in technology were or were not happening. I had to explain I wasn't there, it used to be my job, but I don't know if anyone knew I did that. Either way, it wasn't my problem. My Facebook friend suggestions were interesting. It was completely filled with staff that I normally supported at back to school time. It appeared they were looking for me. I would say sorry, but I stand by my statement that "I did nothing wrong."

Things get even more interesting. A friend of mine had a principal reach out asking if they knew where I had gone. They shared that it appears my former department is in shambles. I don't wish that on my former friends, but it kind of is karma for the district. They truly did wrong on multiple good people. 

I'm now two weeks into my job, and I LOVE it. The culture is laid back. I haven't met a person that wasn't welcoming. I'm still adjusting to the pace as they don't work like everything is on fire, but I'm sure I'll acclimate pretty quick. 

Today, I had the opportunity to network with others in the business world, and that have some hand in technology. It was interesting to see all the different jobs they had, and to hear all the different ways we are using AI. Many struggled with my job title as they assumed I did some coding in my job. I felt like I confused them when I explained what I actually do. It truly is the analyst part that is throwing them off. that is unique to the company as I work closely to FinOps and Procurement. I see today as a step in the direction of building new connections outside the education world.