Five For Friday Lessons Learned

I am excited to be joining  Doodle Bugs Teaching and the other great bloggers for the Five for Friday linking party.

Time to reflect on five random things from my week!  

Last weekend, we helped our sons complete their entries for the PTA Reflections contest (visual arts contest based on a theme). I absolutely love what they came up with and their final products are precious. 
My 3rd grader created a video about dreaming about flying. His Dad helped him use his camera and they took some awesome footage flying with their remote control plane. The boys had fun playing with their toys and my son loved getting a chance to use Dad's big boy toys to create his video. Want to see the video? Click here
My 1st grader took photographs at big brother's flag football game and captured an awesome coach/team moment. 
Lesson learned: Have the boys enter different categories so they are not competing with each other. 

Got back in the workout routine this week. Whew, taking a week off meant this week was brutal. I wish my scale read lower numbers, but I am feeling better and stronger. The best part is the time I am spending with some co-workers, and that we are encouraging each other to work out 3 times a week. It is nice to have a support system and other people to keep me on track. Teaching is an exhausting job and it is easy to just skip the workouts, our team approach is making the difference. Lesson learned: I am out of shape, but working out a little bit each week makes a difference. 

Fads, fads, fads! The rubber band bracelet has taken over our kids. Unfortunately we have a rubber band thief looming nearby so I spent more time than I desired on the topic of the current fad. Lessons taught: don't bring something to school that you wouldn't want to disappear, don't take things that don't belong to you, be honest, if you want something someone else has ask them if they can help you out, and don't try to start a business in school because it will be shut down. Lesson learned: loss of recess is not enough to get the thief to confess/give up their goods (major disappointment on my end).

My hubby rocks! I dropped my phone on our tile floor last weekend and the screen broke completely. When we looked in to the insurance I have been (over)paying for, we discovered that the cost to replace was high. Hubby has been tossing around a bunch of ideas on how to solve my problem. Well, timing is everything and he won an auction through work on a brand-new phone for me. The cost is the same as insurance but instead it is a new phone and the money he paid goes completely to a non-profit. Since it goes to a good cause, it was not as difficult to cut that check. Loved his determination to win the bid, he won in the last 3 seconds.  Lesson learned: Buy a protective case.  

Finally finished the Civil War! I feel like I could teach it all year and my kids might still struggle, but we got through the key information. I will have to spiral review all year so they remember the key people/events/places and the difference between Missouri Compromise and Compromise of 1850. Being in the South puts a different twist on the lessons as well, and really led to some interesting conversations about the history of the area. They now understand the meaning behind the term "rebel", the rebel flag and many questioned why people glorify the flag since it is connected to slavery. Lesson learned: PowerPoint presentations keep my students' attention in Social Studies. 

Hope you has a fabulous Friday! Check out the other blogs at Doodle Bugs Teaching.