Long Weekend

After my first full week of teaching, I really missed my fiance, so I traveled to see him this weekend. While there, I met up with my future mother-in-law and we talked flowers. We went to Hobby Lobby and played with the fake flowers, even though I think she'd rather have gotten real flowers (after seeing how tough fake flowers are to manipulate, I can understand why). It went well, but our search for urns was not going so well.

AND THEN... she invited me in for coffee before we parted ways. Looking at some of the antique silver pieces she had, we talked about using them as the holders for different centerpieces. I love the idea. It is the unique touch I've been wanting, with some history. These silver pieces are various widths and heights and will look beautiful surrounded by little votive candles. I'm pretty excited about this new idea.

In other news, winter weather predictions have the area in an uproar. Schools were let out early today, and my cooperating teacher doesn't expect to be back in class until Thursday. This might mean alternate assignments for me, or make up days during break time.

I was in class this morning; however, and the theatre arts class seemed to like my lesson on character, objective, and environment in improv. The kids, despite being a bit talkative at times, really seem interested in the lesson. I need to keep in mind that this particular group needs very active warm ups, while my other theatre arts class seems to do well with more focussed exercises.

All in all, a good start to the week!

Oh, here are some pictures that inspire me with the silver centerpieces:

Teaching Improv

It was my first day teaching today, and I think it went so well! I have such a great group of students that didn’t seem to resist transitioning to me as teacher. We did some warm ups, took some notes (using the smart board Notebook and a much more condensed version of her notes), and then played improv games. I wasn’t quite sure if I was taking over today because of all of the snow days, but I had enough prepared just in case. The kids seemed to like my approach to lecturing/note taking and volunteered answers and came up to the board willingly.

The best part was I lucked out with the improv games I chose to do this morning. I’d originally planned to do the dating game, questions, then what are you doing, but my cooperating teacher suggested switching dating game and what are you doing. Thank goodness she did! I was nervous about what are you doing at first because I couldn’t quite remember the rules. I started them out with the most basic version of what I remembered. As they played, I remembered more rules. So I wound up building steps of difficulty in the game. The final step really required the students to build structure – the focus of the day. They really saw how much more interesting an improv scene can be when they have structure. Then during the questions game they learned how difficult it can be when you ask questions on stage (one of their “don’t”s is asking questions). Some of the students began to incorporate structure into their rounds, and all of the students stayed engaged. They left the class knowing what I wanted them to know (I think!). All in all, a successful day of teaching!

SMARTBoard and Technology

It's Monday and my second day in the classroom. I discovered today that my teacher has an AirLiner for her SMARTBoard, but has never used it! Well, I spent most of my plan/prep time working with the SMARTBoard, installing Notebook software, etc. The computer still is working differently than what I'm used to, and something is wrong with Adobe Flash Player, so I also installed and figured out how to use my laptop with the SMARTBoard and AirLiner. The cool thing about the AirLiner is that it let's me be mobile in the classroom. I can operate the computer and the SMARTBoard from anywhere in the room.

I love the SMARTBoard Notebook technology. In my technology and teaching class, I was accused of cheating on my SMARTBoard project because I used the SMARTBoard software than she'd seen anyone else do in the class. Technology and I get along very well. I love finding ways to incorporate it not only for my own feeling of accomplishment, but I also feel like it engages students. On the other hand, I don't like using technology unless it's something I can't do without technology.

In wedding related news, I have a picture of a cake I love!

Lazy Sunday?

Today is Sunday, and I got to finally go pick up the dress I bought a couple of weeks ago. It fits beautifully! However, I'd be perfectly fine with it being a little looser come wedding day ;-)

As much as I wish I could just lounge around today, I still have work to do! With the snow days, I'm not sure what class is going to be like tomorrow and what my cooperating teacher is going to want me to do. I'm trying to get as much planned as possible.

It's been really tough coming into a different teacher's classroom and set up. At first I was glad to have another person's structure to slide into, but now I'm getting excited to redesign a lot of what she already has in place. Like her power points. Once I get done summarizing the paragraphs she put on the pages, I'm hopefully going to get rid of the bullet points. That's one rule I'll never forget from my technology and teaching class - no bullet points! You should never read students a power point and call that teaching. Power points should be visual aid, any extra text can go in the notes for you to refer to and for students to look at after class online. I might even get adventurous and put it on a SMARTboard notebook presentation and make it interactive for the class.

When I got into the classroom last week, I felt so intimidated. Now that I'm breaking everything down and making it my own, I'm not nervous at all. I can teach, it doesn't matter if I don't know every play or musical that is good for high schoolers; it's okay that my theatre history knowledge is confined to scenery and costumes. I am an intelligent person, and if I need to teach Medieval theatre to high schoolers, I will be an expert on Medieval theatre in a week (well, at least well informed). It's not about the content, it's about the teaching.

Deep breath..... I CAN DO THIS!!

Flowers and Centerpiece Ideas

My future mother-in-law is a wonderful women. We've always gotten along well, and she's very excited to be gaining a daughter-in-law. She also happens to be a very talented lady and has offered to do all of the flowers for the wedding. Also, as an added bonus, a family friend whose daughter was recently married has 36 different vases and mirror tiles she's letting me use. This is wonderful as it gives me a lot more room in the $10,000 budget given to me by my parents. However, it's also tough because I am also over 100 miles from my mother-in-law (not to mention she's going to have a tough job doing all of the assembling in a freezing hotel room with only a clueless bride and some bridesmaids for assistance). I created a collection of photos for her of flower arrangements and centerpieces I like, and I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you!

The following are different bouquets I like:

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I like this bridesmaid bouquet if it was just a bit more peach, and I love the sleek look of the boutonnieres. Perhaps with some tiffany blue?

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I know the flowers look a little weird on the left, but I love the idea of using grapefruit in the vases to get my peach accent color. I also love the look of the submerged rose petals in the tall arrangements.

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This is the calla lily idea. Calla lilies in low bowls on the bar, some tall arrangements, some lower arrangements in the vases, and get the look on the bottom left.

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I also love the romantic feel of the candles

These hurricane vases come with my reception hall.  Something basic could always be done with them. This is pretty, and I love candlelight!

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I like this table runner and the black urn vase, though I'd like to fill it with different flower more like the one on the right but in peaches. The right one is from Martha Stewart's black and cameo wedding collection.  

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Something simple like this or the one on the right could always work for some simple low centerpieces, very pretty and delicate.

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I love the submerged flowers with floating candle look.

 When done with many vases, it looks so gorgeous!

This is not submerged, but just inside the vase - also very pretty!

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These four are cascading arrangements, which I think are very beautiful when done without the branches and greenery in some of them. I love it paired with candlelight.

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A few more tall arrangements that I'm not nuts about, but are still pretty. I do like the look of the low arrangements paired with the tall.

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 I also randomly liked the look of snap dragons, though I'm not sure they look formal enough to stand alone at my reception hall.

Dress Dilemma

School is canceled again. This means I've spent all morning browsing wedding related websites in my pjs. Soon it will be time to get ready and face a day of planning lessons. But right now, I have a mini dilemma.

I'm wearing my grandmother's wedding dress from 1949 to my wedding ceremony. My fiancé's grandmother has offered to re-stitch the entire dress as the cotton thread has worn out. Then we'll be able to get it cleaned and I'll really be able to try it on and model it. It seems to fit quite well, but the button loops up the back are so worn out I haven't been able to really see how it will look. I'm trusting that it's going to be beautiful though looking at pictures of my grandmother and the picture on the pattern:

 However, as you can see, the dress has a wonderful long train and long sleeves. Something July is not going to go well with. Rather than alter the dress, I've chosen to wear it only for the ceremony, display it at the reception, and take my pictures in a different reception dress.

I ordered a dress from David's Bridal that I really like. It's simple, A-line, strapless, very flattering, and no train. Here it is:

However, in my wedding browsing I just stumbled across a wonderful little dress from The Limited:

I've already purchased the gown from David's Bridal (though it was fairly inexpensive to begin with). I think I might wait to see if any really good offers happen with The Limited. If I can get it for $150 (it's originally $228) I might just order it and decide later.

Dilemma though it may be, I enjoy the options. Now let's just hope there's no dilemma with my grandmother's dress.