A Nerdy Teacher's Closet: Week 4 (9/24 - 9/28)

This week's theme was exhausted. I was operating under a constant cloud of physical and mental exhaustion. I had been preparing for our District Family Game Night since the summer and, what I thought I would have help with, I was doing 95% alone. Between the promotions and wrangling up raffle prizes, to organizing permission slips for my club kids and fielding questions from parents... I don't know how I survived. I even had another mental slip-up day where I forgot to wear one of my planned shirts. But things came together to provide a unique week of dress-up.

Week 4: 9/24 - 9/28

Monday, September 24, 2018
Today my students were going to start to investigate how to create a better energy source to help emergency respondents when they go into rough situations. Why worry about their battery running out? Since we had used the Because Science video on the how Captain America's shield works, I decided to wear my blueprints shirt. This shirt came in a Loot Crate.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018
I can't remember exactly why I chose this shirt. Maybe because of our small moment stories and mine has to do with Peter Pan? I was too tired to try to figure out the connection. Maybe I wanted to take a trip so that I didn't have to deal with all the stress building on my plate. You can purchase this shirt through WootShirt!

Wednesday, September 26, 2018
I was extremely exhausted from prepping for the district game night alone, to finding out I was duped by a coworker regarding co-curricular support, then all the normal kid stuff, and also my outside of school. So I felt I needed to remind myself that Goonies Never Say Die. This shirt came from a Loot Crate.

Thursday, September 27, 2018
This day ended up representing how I was feeling, which is reflected in my pathetic face. I felt like I had been broken down into pieces and being hauled off for scrap. I just had so much going on and the exhaustion just doesn't get any easier. Sadly, I also forgot to wear my "literal" shirt, because I was so stressed the word wasn't on my mind when I got up. Oh well.  I got this shirt through WootShirt!

 The Rainbow Dash headband came from the Target $1 area. I was just trying to brighten my day and contemplated a look for Picture Day.

Friday, September 28, 2018
Today was Picture Day, so I had to get at least a little bit fancy. I packed a few shirt options, though, because this was the night of our first District Family Game Night. I had to have a shirt to wear for the event and I wans't sure if I wanted to wear my club shirt or a different game shirt. But before all of that, I had to rectify the mistake from Thursday. I wore my "literal" shirt in honor of the quiz. Sadly, I never changed my shirt and wore my "literal" shirt for the rest of the day. I got the shirt from Snorgtees.com 

IGGPPC Camp 2015 - Camp Reading Game

1. Read with a child - We read with our daughter almost every night. Today her Ranger Rick, Jr. arrived in the mail and we read through it and she worked on her spelling and word recognition. Good times!

2. Super Hero Comic Book - I read Ms. Marvel, again, as part of the Comic Book Bootcamp Day 1.

3. Listen to an Audiobook - I'm listening to Armada by Ernest Cline (Ready, Player One) and it's read by Wil Wheaton. Seriously a fan of Wheaton's audiobooks. Started with his own publications and then I listened to him read Ready, Player One and Redshirts by Scalzi.

4. Read your favorite Kids Book - I read Calico Captive, which was one of my favorites as a kid. I remember laying in bed at night and my mom would read it aloud to me. I remember being snuggled under the covers and the big comforter and my mom was laying on her side on the left side of the bed reading it until I fell asleep. I can't remember how many times I read that book.

5. YA Novel - Calico Captive is a young adult novel. I can't wait to get it into my classroom.

6. Book with an animal on the cover - My daughter asked me to read her one of her Jurassic World books on her Kindle. She LOVES dinosaurs right now. So we read through it together.

7. Poetry - I have been rereading Shel Silverstein's Falling Up. Looking for some fun poetry pieces for Forensics this year.

8. Graphic Novel of your choice - March Book 1 by John Robert Lewis. A power graphic portrayal of one Civil Rights activist's struggle in America from his childhood through some of his most influential moments. Lewis shares the shocking details in a way that will grip young readers who are unfamiliar with the reality of what happened in our history, but also enforce the injustices suffered for those who are familiar with the events. Worth the read and a share. On to Book 2.

9. Book that deals with Diversity - March Book 1.

10. Non Superhero Comic Book - I've been participating in the Comic Book Bootcamp! Read Manifest Destiny and Lazarus. Loving the new comics. Totes inspired!


11. Goosebumps or Are you Afraid of the Dark? Book - Goosebumps #45 - Ghost Camp  I can't believe I did it! These books became really popular at the tail end of my appropriate reading age for these, so I wasn't ever really super into them. I was the Christopher Pike and R.L. Stine (um... pre-goosebumps) kid. I watched the show, though. Again, I was a little old at the time.

12. Book that takes place at camp - Goosebumps #45 - Ghost Camp. I now feel bad that I didn't read the watch-along selection.

13. Short Story #1 - The Hunter by Wil Wheaton

14. Read with a Pet - I read The Hunter with my Lessa-poos by my side. She's so cuddly and we share the bed together at night. Granted, she fell asleep while I read and snored like a chainsaw.

15. Short Story #2 - The Monster in My Closet by Wil Wheaton
After I had read The Hunter, I saw there was another short story by Wheaton, referenced in a review of The Hunter. Since I enjoyed The Hunter, I turned to this one. It was pretty twisted. The resolution was a bit too quick and could have been drawn out a little more, but the plot thread was really enjoyable.

16. Read an Essay - I read an essay about the importance of social skills to the success of students and how schools, especially for Kindergarten, should be focusing primarily on social skills and put academics more to the back burner. Social Skills are important, but social skills are life itself. School is for academics and studying. The social skills and social activities happen, but it shouldn't be the focus of school.

17. Post your pic of a book and your drink 

18. Book with a Pirate in It - As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride  It's a club book I've been meaning to finish! :-)

19. Read Outside - Finished reading As You Wish outside on the patio in my snugglie hammock!

20. Book from the Library - I checked out Fullmetal Alchemist. It was a manga I've been wanting to read and now was my opportunity. Loved it bunches and bunches. Want to keep reading!

21. Manga - Fullmetal Alchemist. I'd watched it on TV, but now I had the chance to read it!  Thanks library!

22. Book of Choice - Um.... You're Never Weird on the Internet.... because it's awesome and I've been waiting for it and literally purchased it on my kindle, hardback, and audio. I just like to have my reading bases covered!

23. Book with more than 300 pages - THE ABOVE! I mean, seriously, at this point I've been reading like a crazy person!

24. Read in your blanket fort

You can't really see us, but we were in our little blanket/table/pillow fort reading. I don't fit very well, but that's alright. Bed time stories are the best!  We've been reading My Little Pony: Pony Tales, Vol. 1.
(Picture didn't turn out and you can see certain bits that I'm not okay with....)

Happy MLP Halloween

My daughter and I decided over the summer that we were going to be Rainbow Dash and Applejack for Halloween. We had the knit hats and matching scarves and my mother-in-law would maybe my daughter's costume. I would wear jeans with boots and a cutie-mark t-shirt. All was right with the world.

Then I became greedy and wanted my sixth grade co-workers to dress up like ponies, too. There was some minor resistance (ponies or Milwaukee Brewers Racing Sausages), but we made it through. One of my co-workers made the ears on the headbands. The same co-worker ended up having to print the t-shirt transfers (which I felt so bad about. . . but my printer didn't work and I couldn't find a place to print them).

Bottom line, we all tried to fit the personalities of our characters and I did a lot of coaching and prepping for most of these, but it worked out. We even made our only guy teacher Big Mac AND got make-up on him. It was super perfect.

Here are the costumes, which worked out perfectly.

Then I had two different costumes... the one with the hat and the one with the knit hat.

My daughter's costume is so gorgeous! It's a full body suit made of that really plush, soft fabric that they make comfy pants out of. My mother-in-law followed a pattern she found for the suit proportions. There's a detachable tail made with colored feather boas. She also made a matching hat, gloves and shoe covers, but we already had knitted gloves and a knitted hat. So we went with that, as per my daughter's request. She looks adorable!

She was thrilled and I was happy to have a real costume. Thank goodness I had co-workers who knew how to do makeup for the ponies to really add to the awesome. It was a great My Little Pony Halloween!

I'll leave you, this Halloween, with a Geek & Sundry video spoof of my Tabletop Game Club's favorite game, Werewolf!

Rainbow Dash Perler Design

My daughter LOVES My Little Pony. Her favorite is Rainbow Dash, but her answers vary depending on the week, day, hour, minute, and second that you ask her. So I found a perler design for Rainbow Dash on Pinterest and went to work sorting out the beads and making it happen!

Materials

• 48 Toothpaste (the light aqua looking ones)
• 75 Light Blue
• 14 Red
• 14 Orange
• 11 Black
• 10 Yellow
• 5 White
• 4 Magenta
• 5-3/4 x 5-3/4 inch Perler Board

Template

In-Process

Final