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| 2048 - I won! |
I finally beat 2048. Thanks for all your lovely advice. I finally found a strategy that worked for me. Pick a corner. And, make sure your highest tile stays in that corner. It's a lot harder than it sounds. I've tried to beat it again to prove that my one win wasn't a fluke. Yeah, that hasn't happened yet. My sister said this doesn't count as proof of winning because I didn't screenshot the "You win!" screen. But, if you look closely, you can see my 2048 tile below the "Try again" button!
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| Calculators |
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| No Internet Letter |
School without the Internet is chaos. After Spring Break, we returned to our classrooms to find this note. One morning without Internet. That's doable. No e-mail. No printing. No gradebook. It's inconvenient, but I can survive. Monday afternoon arrives, and still no Internet. It turns out the part is still sitting in Atlanta. Wednesday, the part is delivered. The server is fixed. Life is good once again. For days, we have reminisced about the things we used to be able to do. Thursday morning, something happens. We once again have no internet. And, it wasn't restored until Friday afternoon. You don't realize just how many of the things you do rely on the Internet. Thankfully, everything seems to have been working well of late!
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| Drunk Driving Poster |
It's April, and I've already cried my quota of tears for the entire year. A couple of weeks ago, we had a drunk driving assembly at school. It actually began outside the school. After first hour, there was an announcement that everybody needed to report to the northeast side of the school. Upon going outside, we noticed that there was a wrecked car in the road. Two of our seniors were in the car, made up to look like they were injured/dead. As the students form a group outside, sirens are heard. Multiple police cars come racing to the scene. Police officers get out and check the pulses of the students in the car. Not before long, we hear the honk of the fire truck as it comes racing to the scene. Soon, the firemen have the jaws of life out, and they begin their slow extrication of the students. One student leaves the car alive. He is taken aside by a police officer and tested to see if he has been driving under the influence. The other student is extricated from the car and confirmed dead.
I look up the road and see a hearse pulling up. When the people that organized this demonstration told the student volunteers about what was going to happen, they neglected to tell the student that she was going to be strapped down to a stretcher and placed in a hearse. Needless to say, she suddenly became VERY uncomfortable with the entire situation. As she told me later in class, "I rode in the same car that dead people ride in!" As she is wheeled into the hearse and it drives away, the other student is handcuffed and placed in a police car which also drives away.
Next, the wrecker service shows up to load up the wrecked car. After the car is hauled away, the entire student body reports to the auditorium for the remainder of the assembly. The assembly is put on by an organization called Victims' Voices. The organization was started by one of our school board members. Shortly before graduating from college, her twin sister was killed by a drunk driver. She made a promise to never stop talking about her twin. And, she keeps this promise by speaking to groups of students, community members, and DUI offenders. Though I've known her for two years and taught her son last year, I quickly realized that I knew very little of her story. Another member of the panel that told her story was also from the Drumright area. Because students were very familiar with 2 of the 3 speakers, it made the assembly extremely emotional.
I have a tendency to cry a lot. I cry when I read books. I cry when I watch movies. And, I cry when we have sad assemblies. I hope our students take the message of the assembly to heart and make wise decisions.
One of my main takeaways from the assembly was a quote that said something along the lines of: "We aren't born winners or losers. We are born choosers. Every choice we make has good and bad consequences.' I need to make a poster that says this to hang on my wall for next year!
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| Happy Easter! |
I hope you all had a happy Easter! My sister drew this Easter egg for me at church on Sunday. :)
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| Good Things |
My classroom is turning into a zoo. We do "Good Things" on Mondays. To spice things up, I added a clip-art camel to the slide. Students protested that I wasn't allowed to include a camel because it wasn't Hump Day (Wednesday).
While practicing drawing ellipses, one of my students noted that the ordered pair (0, 0) looks like an owl. I put my amazing(ly bad) artistic skills to good use and drew an owl, using the ordered pair as eyes. I'm actually pretty proud of this owl!
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| Ordered Pair Owl |
These basketball homecoming decorations made me smile. Tornadoes can be cute. Very cute!
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| Basketball Homecoming Decorations |
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| World's Cutest Tornado |
I may have a slight addiction to stickers. I've got a 3-inch thick file folder of them. But, you can never have enough stickers, right?
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| My Sticker Obsession |
April is Math Awareness Month. I got this free poster in the mail, but I haven't really done anything with my students to celebrate. At my school, April is standardized testing month. I'd have much rather spent this month focusing on mathematics, magic, and mystery!
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| Free Math Awareness Month Poster |
I'm especially intrigued by this fancy piece of felt. This is going on my summer to do list!
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| Math Puzzle |
Student Council's Blood Drive was a success. I learned a lot this year. And, I know next year's blood drive will be even better.
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| Blood Drive Signs |
I was told by a coworker that I have the handwriting of an elementary school teacher. Hmmm...
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| Blood Drive Permission Slip Folder |
A couple of months ago, I got the chance to play detective. One of my students noticed a pill laying on the floor during class. I immediately went into teacher/detective mode and confiscated the pill. It sat on my monitor until the end of the day. Sure that I was about to uncover a drug distribution ring that would make the town's weekly newspaper, I entered the code from the pill into the computer to identify what type of drug it was. I was very disappointed to find out that it was only Midol...
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| Random Pill Found in Classroom |
Hats On Day was less of a success. We made less than $20. Depressing...
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| Hats On Day Poster |
Okay, I think that's enough randomness for today. If you made it to the bottom of this post, I'm impressed!