P52 / 22 / Blimey Cow Photo a Day Challenge

For the month of June I am tackling the Blimey Cow Photo a Day Challenge.

It will only really make sense if you are familiar with the insane awesomeness that is the Messy Mondays video series. If you're not, you should head over to their channel and start catching up. I will group the week's shots into one post and continue to post on Sundays.

P52 / 21 / bittersweet

I only have one picture this week, because I went to the 8th grade dinner and awards ceremony with my camera but no memory card. Fail. It's ok, though, because this picture captures everyone's personality so perfectly!!

P52 / 21 / bittersweet

These are my precious eighth graders. I have had the privilege of teaching seven of them for all three years of middle school!! They've come a long way (and so have I) and now all of them are heading off to the wonderful world of high school. They bring joy to my life and challenge me to be a better teacher. I am so very proud of their accomplishments and growth, but so very sad that I no longer get to have them in class and see them everyday.

P52 / 20 / libero

Pictures for week 20 come from my trip with the eighth graders to Lugano, Switzerland. Read about our adventures here.

P52 / 20 / libero

P52 / 19 / crazy

It's been awhile since I've had time to post on here - I am three weeks behind!! This was my week just prior to leaving for Lugano - CRAZY. Pics for this week are courtesy of a last minute spirit day. I dressed as Miss Frizzle.

P52 / 19 / crazy

P52 / 18 / up

This week Germany celebrated International Worker's Day, also known as May Day. The towns put up tall maypoles with decorations, then guard them all night long so nobody from another town can steal them. This week I inadvertently parked under the maypole a few days after the festivities, and when I looked up through the sunroof of my car, this is what I saw...

P52 / 18 / up

P52 / 17 / techno

This week I had the privilege of chaperoning a high school field trip to Winterthur, Switzerland. The destination: Technorama! An incredibly awesome hand-on science museum that I have fallen in love with! Here are few shots from the day.

a two hour drive // finally there!

the science of sound // catching lightning

colored light shadows // hanging out in the coriolis carousel

pi, anyone? // kaleidoscopic

P52 / 16 / anticipation

This series of pictures follows my anticipation for my friend Megan's birthday on Friday. My gift to her was a handmade pearl necklace, as you can see in the last picture.

[With Picnik officially shut down, I have had to find a new photo editing program. I'm currently using PicMonkey but they are still a work in progress and have yet to enable their "collage" feature.]

P52 / 16 / anticipation

P52 / 15 / break, part 2

As you might have guessed, the second week of spring break was also uneventful. For whatever reason, it involved a lot of scrambled eggs. Do you see the face?

P52 / 15 / break, part 2

P52 / 14 / break

My first week of spring break went something like this:

P52 / 14 / break

Don't judge me!!

P52 / 13 / work

During the last week of classes before Spring Break, I put my life science students to work dissecting owl pellets! Yummy!!

P52 / 13 / work

P52 / 12 / planning

This week during our study of polygons, I allowed my rambunctious sixth graders the opportunity to use Geoboards. This genius idea involves using rubberbands and pegboards to create shapes or designs. The downside is that students quickly turn the "geobands" into rubberband bullets. I gave them one warning speech about the dangers of doing this (ie, you give up your geoboard and get dot paper instead...boring!), and that was all it took. These pictures were taken after a quiz on Friday, when I gave the students time to simply "play" with the boards.

P52 / 12 / planning

P52 / 10 / excitement

So, this post is almost a week late but that's what happens when life gets busy!

These shots are from our middle school activity day - we loaded the vans and headed off for a morning at the bowling alley. Watching these third culture kids attempt a rather American sport was fun to watch! And for whatever reason, I managed to score a 122 on my first game! Excitement abounded that day.

P52 / 10 / excitement

P52 / 09 / underneath

I made these tasty treats for a small group get together this week. They were polished off with minutes of the girls' arrival!

P52 / 09 / underneath

P52 / 08 / spirit

My friend Katrina hosted a Dominion tournament for her birthday, and when she first announced the party I followed her around announcing that it would also be a costume party. I started rumors on Facebook, telling everyone who RSVP'd to the event that they needed to wear a costume. She laughed, thinking I wasn't serious. I convinced a few others to go in costume with me - after raiding the drama closet we put together costumes representing various action cards: the Schmied (smith), the Dorf (a royal villager), the Jester, and the Hexe (witch). I also brought along Katrina's monk costume, which represented the Kappelle card (the chapel). The ones who didn't think to wear a costume jockingly mocked us, but we know that deep down, they were just jealous of our epic costumes.

I dressed up in costume to play a strategy card game tournament on a Saturday night.

I am officially a nerd.

P52 / 08 / spirit

P52 / 07 / love

This week I received an outpouring of love from friends, colleagues, and parents of my students on Valentine's Day. Here's just a taste of all the goodies!

P52 / 07 / love

P52 / 06 / lines

P52 / 06 / lines

P52 / 05 / cold

This week I chose a generic prompt from a list I found, which turned out to be very appropriate! Temperatures dropped and snow fell throughout the week, creating a winder wonderland here in Kandern. The top right pic in this collage is my car thermometer one morning (It says -6.5*C), but the temperature has been as low as -11*C at times!! BRR!!

P52 / 05 / cold

**Yes, the snowflakes are fake.

P52 / 04 / travel

This weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Hannover, Germany with 9 other BFA staff members to attend the Association of German International Schools educators' conference. We took the train and spent about 7 hours traveling!

P52 / 04 / travel

P52 / 03 / random

This week's topic is Random. The collage I made sums up what was quite possibly the most random event of my week. Our staff office has two large windows that overlook a field and a small driveway. One afternoon I just happened to look up from my desk to see a group of students dressed in colorful wigs, capes, and oversized sunglasses running wildly towards Brandon, a teacher who was holding up a camera. The whole scene was quite entertaining but SO random. Turns out they were filming a commercial for an upcoming spirit day!

If I weren't relying solely on my webcam I would have much better pictures than this but a crappy picture is better than no picture at all, right?




P52 / 03 / random



P52 / 02 / breakfast

I wish I could say this was my typical morning meal, but unfortunately I am never up early enough to actually cook myself breakfast. Usually it involves yogurt and granola that I eat out of a coffee mug at school while gearing up for my first period class.

P52 / 02 / breakfast