Sonic for the win!

I posted awhile ago about Sonic's Limeades for Learning Program. I hope you found a minute each day to vote to help fund things for public school classrooms to help the students learn in creative and innovative ways. I know I voted! Here is one of the projects that Sonic funded (although they were able to fund many of them!!) I like this one because it appeals to me both as a teacher and as a scrapbooker :)

It Is Time to "Cut It Out Now"

Mrs. Deon

"Home is where one starts from." --T.S. Eliot. 7 hours a day; 5 days a week. We spend so many hours in our classroom becoming a family and a team. Help us make our classroom the most welcoming, bright, and organized classroom around!

I teach at a rural elementary school in Southwestern Louisiana. Our location is within 15 miles of a major U.S. Army Base; therefore many of my students are military children. There is no doubt that the classroom make-up is diverse in cultures. Some students have never seen a large city; others have lived overseas! Our school is classified as a Title I school, with the majority of students receiving free/reduced lunch. Many families live in poverty. My students are eager to voice opinions and take active roles in their education. We operate as a team and family. They believe in themselves and they need you to believe in them, too!

From enhancing classroom bulletin boards to creating personalized student journals, this product will improve our classroom for years! We look forward to using this machine in our Language Arts lessons. We like to do many hands-on lessons and projects related to our novel studies and this will take our projects up a notch, for sure! In addition to enhancing our lessons, this product will help make our classroom more appealing and organized. Our teacher will be able to make labels and nametags galore!

This Cricut machine will allow us to add dimension and creativity to our everyday learning. When one reflects upon what made his/her educational career exciting and memorable, it is the special touches teachers were able to add into the curriculum, not the tests and textbooks. Please help make our school year more memorable and imaginative, turning our classroom into a "home away from home."*

Isn't that wonderful?!!! I just wanted to take a minute to share, so thanks for hearing me out :)
You can find all of the projects Sonic funded on www.limeadesforlearning.com

*copied from limeadesforlearning.com

Running to Learn

Since getting married, my husband has been encouraging me to run with him. Running has never been something I have been inclined to do, nor is it something I particularly enjoy, but I have been keeping up an intense schedule of going three miles and gradually working on running more and more of it. Currently I am at the halfway point.

While I was out the other day, I began thinking about how running is like learning, especially for students who begrudgingly learn (as I run). As well as getting in better shape, I am also getting a better perspective of how students sometimes think.

For students to whom learning does not come naturally, going to school each day is a struggle. Just as rolling out of bed can be a challenge when I am not motivated to run. Blake encourages me when my motivation is low, just as a teacher and other peers need to support each student in the classroom.

The classroom, then, should be a safe zone, where students can feel free to "fall while running" and know that they will be supported by the rest of the classroom. The classroom should be a place where students can help others grow and push themselves to reach places in which they feel are unreachable. But that task is much more difficult, if not impossible, without all students knowing that the classroom is a safe zone where we can be free to grow as learners and as individuals.