Sunday

Lewie's Clan from his World of Awesome!


 
Family Photo
(From Left: Pancakes the Mouse, Bunnelby, Holdemhuggen Owl, Cocoa Bunny, Zing Monkey, Banannas, Professor Hoots and WieWei the Alien with Ally-Gator laying in front)

 
This is Pancakes the mouse.
"Pancakes was a seed of something more...he shall be the sock mouse revolution!!!"Lewie exclaims! We will be seeing more of this mouse's escapades.

 
Lewie has a penance for the soft and cuddly! It is a joy to watch him create these creatures and imagine their personalities.
These are the characters in his
World of Awesome
 I am so proud of his little crew of hand crafted sock animals!

Holiday Cookie Exchange!

 

Today I am off to a Holiday Cookie Exchange! I made Even Sluttier Brownies, a brownie bar some of my students introduced me to...
and then I gleefully packaged them in orange fishnets to complete the spectacle!
Recipe can be found at WWW.FOOD.COM

Tuesday

Delightful!

 
Frosty has made an appearance in the neighborhood!
 
Abundance of snow and beauty this morning in my backyard!


 
Eddie is battle ready... LOOK OUT!
 

 

Snow Days make great Photo Days!


 
Loved stumbling upon this little gem in the back yard!

Monday

Snow Day~!


 
First Snow day of the school year!!! Enjoy the day, go outside and PLAY!!!


Saturday

Educating the Educators...


 

I stumbled upon this article this morning... it is a very interesting read! As a "veteran" (this amuses me, I feel like I just started) teacher I can not stress enough stretching my own continuous education and refining of the craft of teaching. Even after all these years there should not be boundaries, but boundless energy and exploration to keep it relevant and engaging!

Keeping it relevant really relies in huge part on KNOWING your students...Here is a particularly insightful excerpt form the article....

....Thus teaching is a deeply social and emotional activity. You have to know your students and be able to read them quickly, and from that reading make decisions to slow down or speed up, stay with a point or return to it later, connect one student’s comment to another’s. Simultaneously, you are assessing on the fly Susie’s silence, Pedro’s slump, Janelle’s uncharacteristic aggressiveness. Students are, to varying degrees, also learning from each other, learning all kinds of things, from how to carry oneself to how to multiply mixed numbers. How teachers draw on this dynamic interaction varies depending on their personal style, the way they organize their rooms, and so on—but it is an ever-present part of the work they do....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/05/why-educating-the-educators-is-complex/

 Worth the read...

Tuesday

Union Market

 
Took an adventure into DC on Saturday
love to support Small Business Saturday...
We found ourselves at Union Market ... a lovely treasure trove of foodie delights!
 
 
Enjoyed delicious coffee and bagels at Buffalo &  Bergen... then strolled around to the upstairs to a fabulous Pop-Up Artisan Market...
 
 
Turns out we were not the only ones enjoying our Saturday outing...Attorney General Eric Holder was afoot with his family and security detail as well!
 
 
 


Wednesday

Happy Thanksgiving!


My mom and sister are off to find another Thanksgiving adventure..
They have gone to the Grand Canyon on the train, kayaked in Idaho to feast on wine and salmon
and now
Those two curious ladies are headed away to stay the night in a Tee Pee, hike the day away,
take in Evita, & enjoy a Rod Stewart-Tom Jones cover band...
Safe Travels and I'll be thinking of you!

Saturday

Remembering last Thanksgiving fondly...

  
Last year we went to Austin, Texas to spend Thanksgiving at my brother's house...
 
 
It was the first time we were all together at his house!

 
Many a photo were taken...
 

 
And many great laughs were shared...wonderful memories!
 
 
 

My favorite family photo of the that week was our well "deviced" portrait featured above! Is this how Norman Rockwell would paint a modern day family?

Thursday

Holiday Photo Shoot with OHS Photo Phamily...

This past Saturday the OHS Photo Club (Photo Phamily) hosted their
3rd Annual Holiday Photo Shoot.
 
 
It is so much fun to create photographs of our school community.

 
We had the priviledge of interacting with all kinds of personalities!


Babies and little kids always steal the show! 
 




  
 
It is so much fun to ham it up! Even the students got to have a little photo fun! 

 
 
You can keep up with all of our Photo Phamily shenannigans at DslRawr...

Playing in the Night with Light...

 
One of the perks of the fall time change...

 
You do not have wait so long to paint with light!
 

 
So, armed with our cameras and tripods we
headed outdoors to play!

 
We played with multiple lights sources...


 
Sparklers, 
 
 
Finger beams,

 
Flashlights,

 
Glow Sticks...

 
and a healthy dose of enthusiasm!



Sunday

Out and about...thrifting and creating photographs

 
There is no better way to spend a day than with a good friend, my camera and a plethora
of eye candy and treats.
 
 
One of my favorite activities is to go thrifting and treasure hunt...

 
 
Found a strange doll head with full fluttering eyes...

 
  Immediately smitten with this little head I had to take her around and make photographs!
 

 
There is a fabulous place in Buckeystown, MD, Chartreuse and Company

 
And then there is Lucketts too!

 
A treasure trove of possibilities!

 
The dice and the dominoes were also new acquisitions.