State Park Pass Summer: 2016

A spur of the moment decision in early June lead to a summer of adventures utilizing our State Park System. Wisconsin is beautiful in the summer, and boasts some amazing State Parks to hike, swim and camp. The decision to buy a year pass came on the heels of watching an IMAX movie about the National Parks with the kids earlier this spring. I love a good adventure, and really want to plan a family vacation out West where we stop for a few days, camp, adventure and move on. What better thing to do is try out my plan using our State Parks.

Where we went:

• Rib Mountain: Hiking, observation tower, cool rock formations and easy for small kids.
• Lake Wissota: Prairie areas along with wooded hiking trails made for a fun walk. The kids enjoyed swimming at the beach when we were done hiking.
• Devil’s Lake State Park: Beautiful spring fed lake, well-kept campground, and hiking trails of varying abilities. Nothing beats the view on the Balance Rock Trail despite its difficulty. Super busy on the weekend, so camp during the week!
• Perrot State Park: Small, clean and inviting park near LaCrosse. Hiking trails run up the bluffs for a stunning view of the Mississippi River.
• Elroy-Sparta Bike Trail: 34 miles of biking fun through three old railroad tunnels. I only cried once and it was at the end when it was straight uphill.
• Big Bay State Park: This State Park is on Madeline Island and runs the shoreline of Lake Superior. Wonderful vacation spot for families or a quick get-away as Tom’s and the Beach Club always have entertainment.
• WIllow River State Park: Not a hard hike, but definitely one for the books. Part of the trail is paved and you can hear the waterfalls before you see them. For a view from the top, hike up the observation tower. You won’t be disappointed.

What else did we do??

• Opening of the Viking Stadium Tour
• Minnesota Twins Game
• Kaiser Pool, Chippewa Pool, and Wakanda Pool
• 1.5 million hours at the Bloomer Beach with swim lessons
• Wausau twice to hang with the grandparents
• Pontoon jumping on the Flambeau
• Ingram Days
• Home renovations!! You name it we did it and are still doing it! The appliances for the new kitchen are sitting in the garage!
• Unpacked boxes of stuff we don’t use anymore and then donated it all!
• Taught summer school

Now the leaves are changing and I am planning our vacation for next summer. Hopefully an “Epic Road Trip via out camper out West.

 

The Great Debaters

This trimester in my Public Communication class (otherwise known as Speech), I needed a movie or movie clip to help drive home what a persuasive speaker should look like and sound like. After spending countless hours trying to come up with movies, and numerous debates with my own husband over why I don’t want to show Braveheart, I found the movie The Great Debaters. 

Denzel Washington plays Mr. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College in Texas. He starts a debate team at this college and it is made up of Henry Lowe, Samantha Booke and James Farmer Jr. Based on a true-story of how these individuals had a nearly perfect season and earned their chance to make history by being the first black team to debate on the Harvard campus.

My class LOVED this movie! A riot nearly broke out over how I had to stop it for the day and we should JUST FINISH IT!! I actually believe that watching it a second time was almost better than the first. It was history, but also included my favorite thing in the world, public speaking.

So, if you are looking for a thought-provoking and a movie that will make you wonder where the the last two hours of your life went, check out The Great Debaters.

One more day…back to school. Summer 2015

Endings and new beginnings conjure up very anxiety ridden emotions in me. This is where I am currently at. I remember starting my first teaching job and the summer before, spending MONTHS of time getting my classroom ready and curriculum prepared. Two days before when I should have been finishing up last minute things, I was on the couch reading. It was almost as if I was trying to prolong the inevitable.
Today marks one more day of vacation until I go back. It should be opposite. Kids go back first, I get another week off and THEN I can go back. No such luck. My kids are ready to go back; they might not agree but I NEED them to go back soon. I’m ready for them to have someone else serve them lunch and snack because honestly, I am out of ideas of what to serve and tired of going to the grocery store every day.
Yet, we had a great summer and once again here’s the list of thing we did.
End of May: Camped in Chetek

Swim lessons at the beach-along with a 100 pounds of sand in the back of my van

Had great roommates that moved out half-way through summer and my kids haven’t been the same with out having extra playmates around.

Jeff (hubby) bought himself a truck and got personalized plate “Hunky”

Summer school (all of us)

Camped in Door County

Eau Claire Express Game

Minnesota Twins Game

Irvine Park Sprinkler

Carson Park Playground

Wausau-Kaiser Pool, and my parent’s house

Landscaped-otherwise known and hauling yards and yards of mulch

EC Children’s Museum

Jellystone Campground in Warrens

Stoney Creek Campground in Osseo-the campground that claimed Avery’s permanent left front tooth

Sprinkler parties in the backyard

TWO baseball games per week for 10 weeks…yes, I know, many teams played longer than we did but that was A LOT of balls I put on tees this summer. We also have the best (and littlest) fans also!

Safety Town-Gage

Camping in Hayward (twice)-went to the lumberjack show that ended in one of the lumberjack’s being taken by ambulance to the hospital

Spent some time in a cabin in Winter

Hayward Flea Market

Rump’s Meat Market-weird item right…but we got one of everything from the case and had a taste testing night. It was one of the best meals I had all summer.

Rendezvous with the Bakkens…because we love our college friends.

Five jars of jam, because that is how many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were consumed at my house this morning. I would share the number of corn dogs, but it is cringe-worthy. I also won’t share how many freezies or juice boxes.
I am beyond blessed for getting to share my WHOLE summers with my kids and squeeze every last ounce of fun out of summer. We nap, we play hard, we enjoy this time. I hope everyone has a safe and fantastic school year. For me, t

Why Poetry??

https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=my+name+is+mayhem+poets&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

I am teaching a summer school poetry class and my hope is that one of the kids in my class makes a connection and uses poetry as an outlet for creative writing and letting feelings fly. I’ll keep you posted on our progress 🙂

Restoring Faith in Humanity

http://http://www.ted.com/talks/hannah_brencher_love_letters_to_strangers

There are times that we are down on society, those around us, or even ourselves. In a day in age where we do most of our correspondence digitally, there is still a beautiful art form called letter writing. For any of us who have waited by the mailbox for a letter to be delivered, this video should ring true for you and send some inspiration your way.

Effects of Social Media

In English 10, we just finished discussing propaganda, effects of media, and product placement. Every night during that three week unit, I took the book Humans of New York home with me. I sat and brainstormed “how” I could use this in a classroom lesson.

Fast forward two months later, and my lesson is here…just a bit late.

Last week on Facebook, the Humans of New York Blog featured a young man named Vidal. He was asked one question: “Who influenced you the most?”

His answer…

His principal Ms. Lopez and Mott Hall Bridges Academy.

Why might you ask did this one post earn over ONE MILLION Facebook “likes.”

Because many students take going to school for granted. That many educators are trying our best to “parent” them in the right direction, many times exhausting ourselves in the process. Ms. Lopez calls her students “scholars.” She is in the trenches with the teachers, helping them help students learn.

Best of all, she talks to the kids about life. WHY they need an education, and does what she can to support them. I love Ms. Lopez.

This story is good for the soul, and it resonates in people because for many, all we want to do in life is make a difference. And boy did this post make a difference. In two weeks, they have raised over one million dollars to take students on trips to Harvard. Everyone deserves an education. It never depreciates in values and learning is truly a gift.

Follow them on Facebook: Humans of New York

Exceptional Moments

Exceptional Moments.

Exceptional Moments

This video showed up on my Facebook feed a few weeks ago and I knew I had to set aside a few minutes to watch it. I have many students who are talented athletes and excel in the sport that they are involved in. This young lady serves as an inspiration to all of us that even when the cards are stacked against us, we can inspire others to do great things.

Paper Towns

I spend a lot of time talking about great reads and sharing my love of reading with my students. Reading provides you the chance to live 1,000 different lives in one lifetime.

Right now, I have an independent study student who is working on book talk presentations since she is an avid reader. This consists of putting together 25 minutes of interesting material on 4-5 different books. She shared this clip with my 10th graders on Wednesday while promoting John Green’s book Paper Towns. Since Paper Towns is coming out as a movie soon, I thought I’d share this as inspiration, since just listening to the author read the first part of chapter one makes you want to run to the book store (or hit download on your Amazon app).

Enjoy!

http://elitedaily.com/life/motivation/this-video-uses-jelly-beans-show-you-how-much-youre-wasting-your-life-video/

I spend a lot of time wondering about what ifs. Is my house clean enough?
What do I need to get done next? Will my kids die early of heart disease if I make chicken nuggets again for dinner? Deep breath, exhale…

But in the past year, I have tried to take that worry time and help someone else, embrace life every chance I get and put my family first.

I love this video and plan on using it to kick off my Tuesdays with Morrie unit in class. ENJOY!!