I am

I am human.

I am female.

I am heterosexual.

I am single and not looking right now.

I am content.

I am a teacher (almost).

I love people, in general.

I am an optimist.

I am a movie watcher.

I am a TV watcher.

I am a reader.

I am a music listener.

I am a geek.

I am a nerd.

I am weird.

I am a history fan.

I am a science fan.

I am a grammar fan.

I am a Marvel girl.

I am a person who likes some math (but not all.)

I am a facebooker.

I am a bit of a techie.

I am a singer (enthusiastically but not well.)

I am a fan of the Oxford comma.

I am unique.

I am loud.

I am an extrovert.

I am ESFP or ENFP, and sometimes I score J instead of P.

I am orange and green.

I am grorange.

I am spontaneous.

I am lone.

I am unsure.

I am someone who double checks.

I am a triple-checker.

I am socially inept.

I am a wallflower.

I am scared.

I am honest.
I am honorable.
I am loyal.
I am a servant.
I am generous.
I am courageous.
I am faithful.
I am hopeful.
I am grateful.
I am prudent.

I am someone who strives for perseverance.

I am working on Temperance.
I am working on Patience.
I am working on Mercy.
I am working on Time Management.
I am working on Grace.
I am working on Strength.
I am working on Humility.

I am a webmaster.

I am a deputy to the Society MOAS.

I am a Youth Coordinator.

I am a presenter.

I am an office holder.

I am a caregiver.

I am a sitter.

I am a nanny.

I am a mentor.

I am a role model.

I am a kid person.

I am a poet.

I am an author.

I am an artist (in my own style.)

I am a stick-person enthusiast.

I am an educator.

I am a student.

I am a learner.

I am smart.

I am a person.

I am someone.

I am no one.

I am someone who likes Star Trek AND Star Wars.

I am a person who likes Kirk AND Picard.

I am a person who likes Shatner and Pine.

I am a person who ignores Episodes 1-3.

I am intelligent.

I am a detective.

I am an adventurer.

I am a scout.

I am a camper.

I am a pioneer.

I am a scientist.

I am an orator.

I am a writer.

I am a thinker.

I am a creator.

I am a re-creator.

I am creative.

I am the person who created ITMCTRAV.

I am plaid.

I am lazy.

I am motivated.

I am enthusiastic.

I am cool.

I am chill.

I am different.

I am Gryffinpuff.

I am divergent.

I am undefinable.

I am rare.

I am a failure.

I am a success.

I am a Lutheran.

I am a Jew.

I am a Jewtheran.

I am a daughter.

I am a sister.

I am a sister-in-law.

I am a niece.

I am an aunt.

I am a cousin.

I am a friend.

I am a neighbor.

I am a community member.

I am me.

I am Sarah Jean.

I am human.

I am - written by Sarah Jean Meyer, October 12, 2016

Boys Club!

Rather than reinvent the wheel and create a long blog post, I'm just going to post the link to my website. I got busier this summer than I expected!

100th Post!

Wow! This is my 100th Post! 
Here is a quick overview of the past 3-ish years 


36 Posts regarding Creativity!

• Album Cover Meme
• Videos
• Poetry

A Dozen Ideas for my Future Classroom


20 posts about TEACHING!



14 Deep Thoughts



8 Book Posts including this great list of Science Fiction/Fantasy Recommendations for youths!



6 Journal Prompts

And Media & Technology are mentioned 4 times!

Leap Day!

Here are some ideas I came up with for celebrating Leap Day in your classroom! 

Links mentioned in the video:

Coloring book

Origami Frog

Album Cover Meme. . . Yes, again - but this time it has more purpose!!!

I originally posted the directions here. I have since modified my own modification, because I'm using it as a writing prompt for my Writing Process class:

How to Make Your Own Album Cover - The GeekyFutureTeacher Way
I modified the original meme to suit my style. (I especially diskined the "third picture no matter what" mandatory-ness of it, and I felt like it was missing some steps!)

1. Click Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random) - this is the title of your band 
2. Click Here (http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3) - use 3-5 words from a quote on this page as the title of your album.
3. Click Here (http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days) - Choose an album cover.
4. Use your favorite photo editor (mine is picmonkey, other people love photoshop) to put it all together (and make it square).
5. Click Here (http://www.manythings.org/rs/svoc.html) -  Click on "three sentences," choose the title of your hit single! (Can be part of a sentence)
6. Pick a genre/style for your band.
7. Write an anecdotal blog post about an On Tour adventure, how the band got started, or a convoluted fan experience.
   
   Rather than take the time for everyone to create their own album cover, I made a few for inspiration:
   (The bonus with this method is that you get to choose which words are the Name, album, and in some cases, song title!!!!)



Learn Me Good

Back to the daily grind! The holidays are over and the countdown to Mid-Winter break has started! I don't know about you, but, I am trying to finish all my books from break before I have to settle in and only read school stuff for the next 4 months. If you are looking for a humorous read that you can pretend is a PD book, I highly recommend Learn Me Good by John Pearson.

Learn Me Good is the hilarious first year teaching fiction inspired by Pearson's real experiences.  The book is written as emails from Jack Woodson, a former cube monkey turned third grade teacher, to Fred Bommerson, his buddy who still works in Heat Pump-land.

I laughed so hard reading this book, and couldn't put it down!
There is also a sequel, Learn Me Gooder, where Woodson/Pearson shares more tails of hilarity, wonder, and weirdness from the classroom. Also check out Learn Me Good on Facebook!

Simply Sponges!

In my Life Science for Elementary Teachers class, we had to do a skit on various invertebrates. And my group got Sponges! So, we did a game show called "Simple Sponges!" I went a teeny bit overboard at Dollar Tree, but we had a pretty awesome game show. We "rigged" it so that it was a 3-way tie, and for the Final Round we each threw a wet sponge at the chalk target on the board. The winner received a container of mini sponge cakes (made by my mom after I jokingly said it would be awesome to have sponge cake) that we shared with the class! Our Name cards are dish sponges, our microphones are sponge paint brushes stuck in a copper sponge, and we had several sponge puns and bad jokes.

Simply Sponges!

The Contestants.

The Host

Based on the color of my face, I just answered the reproduction question. . .

"Final Spongardy"

Special BONUS: Silly Songs Stuck (in my head)

Do you know the Wishy Washy Washerwoman song? It is a silly song I learned years and years (and years) ago at Girl Scout Camp. (I just did the math, it has been almost 20 years since I was a camper!!!)

Anyway, I had only part of the song stuck in my head, just the begining, "Waaaaaaaaay down in the valley, where nobody goes, there's a Wishy Washy Washerwoman washing her clothes. . . " I couldn't recall the rest! SO, I did what any former Scout would do, and I googled it!

Whereupon, I found this GEM performed by male teachers!! This is just totally awesome!

(Start around 1:26 if you want to skip the intro)

They did skip my favorite verse, "Waaaaaaaaay down in the valley, where nobody goes, there's a Wishy Washy Washerwoman picking her nose. She goes Pick-Flick, Pick-Flick, Pick-Flick, Pick-Flick, that's how the Washerwoman pi-cks her nose!" (I learned it that way - without forcing the "wishy-washy" part on the last line.)


The Other song stuck in my head lately is the Boots Song/My Boots/Whatever you want to call it!

I couldn't find anything that wasn't Dora the Explorer related when I searched for it, so I recorded it just for you!

Not your typical PowerPoint

I promised that I would share my PowerPoint Presentation. So here are the slides:

Here is the Video that is embedded into the PowerPoint (the green square)

Click this Slide to follow the Hyperlink from the Presentation.

We had to say what grade we'd like to teach
and the subject we'd like to base our big project on.

Also, I learned about Prezi during class today. Here is the Prezi I made just for this blog!

Play's the Thing

I spent some time today at the library with a 6 year old (we were waiting for her older sisters to finish programs). This library happens to have a puppet theater and several bins of puppets.  I wouldn't let her play on the computer today, so she got creative with her play!

Her first play went like this:

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. 

One day, a bear came along and ate her. 

The End. 

Here is the bear eating the princess.

Her second play starred the same princess puppet, in a different role.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess.

She had a wiggly tooth. 

One day, her tooth fell out and she placed it under her pillow.

 Soon, she fell asleep.

 The Tooth Fairy took her tooth and left a Gold Dollar.

The End!

Then she (practically demanded) that I put on a play for her. I am tall, I told her my shirt was the background. I dug through the bins for different puppets - I found a squirrel puppet and a chicken puppet

Narrator:   There once was a very, sad, lonely chicken crying in the forest.

Chicken:  Cluck-boo-hoo. Cluck-boo-hoo

Narrator:  A squirrel heard her. (Squirrel pops up and sidles next to chicken.) 

Squirrel: Hello!

Chicken: Ahh! (Chicken ducks down and hides.) I'm not s'posed to talk to strangers.

Squirrel: I'm not a stranger, I'm a squirrel.

Chicken: Oh, hello.

Squirrel: Now that we are friends, I will teach you my song:  

Brown Squirrel. Brown Squirrel.Shake your bushy tail.Brown Squirrel. Brown Squirrel.Shake your bushy tail.Wrinkle up your little nose,Put it down between your toes,Brown Squirrel. Brown Squirrel.Shake your bushy tail.

Chicken: Wow. That was a great song. Want to hear my song?

Squirrel: Sure!

Chicken: (Lots of random sing-songy clucking)

Squirrel: Wow!

Narrator: The End.

Her final play was very similar to my play, but instead of singing it ended with a hugfest between chicken and squirrel. (Imitation is definitely flattery here!)

Brain Break

 The Album Meme is my favorite way take a quick creativity break. Instructions can be found Here. 

Band Name: Battine
Album Title: Kind to Cultivate

Hit Single: "They found the box empty"

Genre: Electronica

Band Name: Təzəkənd
Album Title: the name we give our mistakes

Hit Single: "Left the door open"

Genre: Indy Singer/Songwriter

Band Name: National League Division 2
Album Title: Of the General Public

Hit Single: "Marty Named the Baby"

Genre: Techno

Okay, Last one. I promise!

Band Name: Fishtail
Album Title: Not Guilty

Hit Single: "Made him cry"

Genre: Emo

 

I lied. That was depressing! This is the real last one!

Band Name: OSGOOD
Album Title: Keep in the Sunlight

Hit Single: "Interesting Gardens"

Genre: Children's Music

Connecting Social Studies and Math

I had to find an activity that involves mathematical ideals from a non-Western culture. I used Tangrams for my report, but, I decided that I would LOVE to have kids "travel around the world" during Math class (maybe all the other subjects too.)

A Trip to China during Math

Adaptable to any grade level - 

I would setup each activity as a center, quads of students rotating through, at least a week long
I have included a photo and a very brief description. (Each has thousands of resources online)

Tangrams (1 square, 1 parallelogram, 5 triangles in various sizes that form a square, and are used to make pictures)



Congkak (a version of Mancala with 7 pits to a side - and 7 seeds/shells in each pit)





Abacus (Ancient Calculator)



Mahjong (I might do this as a computer station and let kids play the solitaire version, as a Mahjong set is quite expensive and the game can take a long time.)
 

Counting Rods (red is positive numbers and black is negative)



Do you have any other ideas?

Long time no post!

It feels like it has been ages since I posted! 

It probably has, and I should be studying right now anyway. 

School, SCA stuff, Kappa Delta Pi, and Life in general have been keeping me pretty busy.

Last semester I took a Curriculum/Practicum class.

I learned a ton and I had a really awesome Professor.  She had us design a Superhero, we were supposed to wear our costume to class, but, she had to cancel class that day, so we never wore our costumes. However, my mom took photos of me ready to fight bad grammar! My youngest sister designed my logo - which is a G and an Interrobang, my favorite punctuation mark! She also drew a really awesome Comic book cover of Grammatica and included a few panels in the comic book. :) 

In my high school drama class, my group wrote and performed a skit based on a meeting of
The National Organization for Women Super Heroes (NOWSH). We made Grammatica a member too!
(I was Key Girl - the Keynote speaker who held the Key to the City, etc,)

We spent half our time in the classroom learning how to create lesson plans and how to teach a direct lesson, and half our time working with real students!!!  I was in a third grade classroom!  I was there mostly for Lunchtime/recess (they get 20 minutes of recess per day - total :( ) and Math.

We got really good at writing Essential Questions.
One that is important to my developing pedagogy:

What does it mean to be a community member?

One of my assignments was to respond to a chapter in our book any way I wished.  I decided to go the artistic route (Anyone surprised?)

I also had to design my own Learning Hierarchy, 

it is inspired by William Glasser's Choice Theory.

My final project was to teach a lesson to my third graders. 

I had to wear a costume and make the lesson different than what they would normally do. (I don't have any photos of my outfit (Maybe when there is no longer any snow on the ground I will have my mom take some and I'll add them to this post.) As luck would have it my lead teacher was subbing for the principal so she had a sub in her classroom, it was a really weird dynamic in the classroom that day. (She was an ineffective teacher for many reasons I am not getting into now!)

 I became Grammatica's twin sister - Mathematica! 

Mathematica's Magic Words (for this Lesson): Qi Sept Septum! (The number 7 in Chinese, French, and Latin)

Wand swishes in a giant invisible 7.

Rabbit's Name - Epta (Greek for Rabbit)

I had the kids play a gross motor game that makes them sort themselves into groups of a certain number and use their bodies to form a specific thing (like a dragon or a car). Then they sat down and I turned my students into Mathemagicians. They each got a special magic want (I found black pre-sharpened pencils with white erasers!) to use for the lesson. 

I had them help me with a magic trick (that ended up being way above most of their abilities - although it should have been review.) 

Magic Trick:

1. Pick a number between 2-9
2. Multiply your number by 3
3. Multiply your new number by 3.
4. Your new number should be two digits, take those two digits and add them together,
5. Subtract 2 from that number and you have the Magical Number we are working with today!

I pulled a rabbit out of my hat holding a number 7 in its paws (the rabbit was made of craft foam - I will try to remember to take a photo of that too.)

Next, I shared with them a magic way "do math without really doing any math," I called it The Magic Square.  I had them fill in this chart with their magic wands. 

I asked them if they noticed any patterns in the magic squares. (They found some really interesting ones - I love how kids think!) Then we used them to find the multiples of 7. 

I gave them a new sheet and asked them to fill in the Multiplication Wheel (we did the first one together,) 

This part was interesting - I didn't tell them how to come up with the answers for the wheel, it was amazing to me how many of them did not use the magic square, but counted on their fingers instead! When they were finished I also had them color all the odd numbers red - which made it easy to determine if 7 is odd or even. When they were totally finished they were allowed to check their answers by peeking inside my magic hat (where the answer key is located! - again I will add a photo when I remember!)

The very last thing I did was give them a reinforcement activity that was optional.