Southeastern Stamp Expo

Click here for pictures.

This past weekend, my husband and I went to the Southeastern Stamp Expo in Atlanta, GA.

I wish more young people would get involved in collecting stamps because it is so educational. I talked to two people at the American Topical Association who shared with the Stamps Teach program which is a great resource for the classroom. These would be great to use for lessons in language arts, math, social studies, and science. There was also a table labeled Stamp Explorers for young people under 18 to start stamp collecting.

We attended the dedication ceremony for the First Day of Issue for the new Forever Flag stamp.

The Master of Ceremonies was Mary Anne Penner, Director of Stamp Services, for the USPS. The national anthem was sung by Dewaine Johnson and Clarence Johnson who did an outstanding job. Speakers at the ceremony included Jeff Williamson, USPS Chief Human Resources officer and Executive Vice President; Mick Zais, President of the American Philatelic Society and retired Brigidier General of the US Army; and Edwin L. Jackson, Senior Public Service Associate, Emeritus University of Georgia.

The stamp was based on a photo taken by Tom Grill of New City and designed by Greed Breeding of Charlottesville, VA.

The stamp features a billowing Stars and Stripes image.

The first US stamp to feature the US Flag was a 30-cent bi-color of the 1869 pictorial series. Some stamps were printed in error, with one of the colors upside down or inverted. These are some of the rarest stamps of the United States.

It was fun after the ceremony to get everyone involved in the ceremony to autograph our programs.

If you ever get to go to one of these ceremonies, I would high recommend it! If you have been to one, please share.

Back of the Book Blurb #45 Challenge

From Sioux's Page, Sioux offers this challenge.

She posts a picture and you need to imagine it as a graphic for a book. You choose the genre and book title, and then write a blurb that might appear on the back of the book.

The blurb should be 150 words or less (not including the title).

The genre is wide-open.

Each blogger should include their blurb on their own blog, and link back to this post.

Have fun with it. Go to the other posts and comment on the other blurbs. 

You can do fancy techy things with the photo.

(Join in if you dare...! It sounds like fun! I think this would be a lot of fun to do with students especially since they would be expected to write 150 words or less!)

Never Too Old

Izzy knew her 90^th birthday was coming up but she hoped that she could keep it low key. By not bringing attention to it, she hoped to have a quiet evening after knitting group and going home to listen to her favorite music and read a good book. Her knitting group had other ideas. She knew they were planning things behind her back. When Izzy showed up for the weekly get together, she knew she was in trouble when someone put a Mexican sombrero on her head! The group didn’t just have activities planned for this night but had crazy things planned all year long! Oh, my goodness! Did she have the stamina for all this? They say you are never too old. Read on to find out what zany adventures were in store for Izzy. (136 words)

Useful Information In and Out of the Classroom 1/27/17

Here are some interesting sites that I’ve found this week, thanks to my PLN. As a teacher, I feel we have to keep up to date concerning research in our field and current issues in the education system. I hope some of these inspire you, inform you, and even have you asking questions. Thank you for coming by and visiting!

Note: Each resource is labeled with a level and subject area to make it easier to use.

Levels:  E: Elementary; M: Middle; H: High; G: General, all levels; SN: Special Needs; T: Teachers

Subject Areas: LA: Language Arts, English, Reading, Writing; M: Math; S: Science; Health; SS: Social Studies, Current Events; FA: Fine Arts; Music, Art, Drama; FL: Foreign Language; PE: Physical Ed; C: Career; A: All

Pass the Past – free iPad app; “"Pass The Past" is an educational game to help students prepare for Virginia's Standard's of Learning (SOL) exams with a focus on World, United States and Virginia history, civics, and geography” (L:G; SA:SS)

Help Teaching – “Printable and Online Tests, Activities, Lessons, and Games for PreK-12. A platform for educators: teachers, tutors, trainers, and homeschooling parents.” (L:T; SA:A) 

Learning to Ride a Bike – a great article about learning to ride a bike. It is great for helping teaching children to ride a bike or for adults learning to ride a bike. (L:T; SA:A)

Colds, The Flu, and You – a YouTube video put out by SciShow kids (L:G; SA:S)

Localingual – Click on the map and hear the different languages, dialects, accents for that area. (L:G; SA:A)

Original photo by Pat Hensley

Return to Digital Scrapbooking

One of my goals this year was to get back into Digital Scrapbooking. I used to do it a lot until the scrapbooking community website that I loved closed down. A knitting friend of mine told me about another site, Gingerscraps, that is a lot like the one that I used to belong to.

One reason I like doing digital scrapbooking is that I can use the kits more than once. I also don’t have to worry about cutting in a straight line which I’m not very good at doing. I use the software, Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 that I’ve had for years (now they are up to PSE 15).

I think it is a great way to preserve memories and write about the photos so I don’t forget what we were doing or where we were at the time. I have a lot of photos from my parents that I have no idea who the people are or where it was taken.

This would also be great for students to do for projects. By doing a scrapbook page, they can share their knowledge about something specific but be more interesting than a traditional written report.

Do you have your students do something like this? If so, please share.

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Here are some examples of my recent pages: