Letting My Passion flow..

This week was about doing something that maybe gets pushed to the side during the week when all my time is consumed by school. I’m going to be honest; I had no clue what thing I wanted to focus on. I tend to do many things at once because I get “inspired”(or as my fiancé would say distracted) by many different things, which is what happened this week! I am happy it did though; it was nice to be excited to have so many things to finish. I did little things that were really not productive, like enjoying a few tivo’d shows that I have missed for the past 3 weeks. I also read about 7 magazines that were also waiting till I had time to get to them. Then I did more productive things, write thank you notes for wedding gifts, clean my house because I get OCD about certain things. I finished up wedding plans, which I think was probably the least enjoyable (extremely stressful). But, I think the thing that I really spent most of my time working on though was my new obsession: Pinterest. First let me say I am getting married in 18 days in Ventura so this website has been a lifesaver with communicating with my family about the wedding. I have been able to show everyone exactly how I want things to look like through Pinterest. While I was obsessively scouring Pinterest for wedding inspirations I started to find interesting posts for cooking. There were lots of many recipes that I look forward to trying. This then led into craft ideas. I started a craft board that was general ideas I wanted to do. This board then got broken up (I still need to create a few more) into craft categories. I love to sew and is something that I am very proud to know how to do. It is something that I can share with my grandma. I have 3 older sisters, none of whom can even sew a button on. I love being able to sew and create things out of just fabric. I also love to crochet and knit (something else I share with my grandma). I found AMAZING ideas for both sewing and crocheting that I am hoping I can try this weekend! If I have time to make anything I will defiantly post it. I also like to make my own cards which I now have many ideas to do for Christmas, which makes me super happy! I also found amazing garden ideas to start now (many of them upcycled). There are also many projects for my house that I can’t wait to begin; sadly they will have to wait till my life is a little less hectic. Until I can do these projects I will be hitting up garage sales to find my treasures for these ideas! While pursuing Pinterest for projects I started to find ideas for my classroom! I was amazed about how many ideas were on this site for the classroom. So many of these ideas are simple and most of them use materials that are recycled or free! I am going to use a lot of the word ideas for my classroom. So not only did I cumulate my Pinterest site I ended up finding blogs from these Pinterest (some educational, although mostly are not!). I am so excited about the ideas I found. I also even pinned other ideas I found from the web and have been repined as well, so yay! Pinterest gave me great ideas but it also gave me entertainment while I was stuck in bed sick on Friday. 

Give a Vote!

So I have been working with the school that I am teaching at (Crown Point Junior Music Academy) to help save our music program. One way that would be wonderful is if everyone could vote for our school to try and get more votes! By the way, I shot the whole video in one day and edited in two! Click the link below and please, Please, Please VOTE (and keep voting)!!!!

Vote Crown Point Junior Music Academy 

A Whole New Mind

First I have to say that I totally queue the soundtrack of Aladdin (i.e. A Whole New World) whenever I read this title. Which I guess kind of fits because this whole new mindset will basically equal a whole new world of doing things. Pink in his amazing book, discusses the Conceptual Age, which is mostly ruled by the idea of creativity. This conceptual age is going to be very different from the Left-Brained Information age. This new age will rely on empathy, emotion, and creativity (yay art!). This is going to be a huge shift in the way people function, because its no longer dependent on being able to apply theoretical information and knowledge.  Students need to be able to have the ability to problem solve creativity and have emotions base their decisions, The Conceptual Age is more personal in the sense that it will involve more of person’s own opinion and feelings (maybe even passion!) I love this idea of the Conceptual age because to me creativity is extremely important in making people individuals as well as productive citizens.

Visitor or Resident...

  After our discussion last week in class, as well as the video that we watched Visitor or Resident, I would have to say that right now I am definitely more of a visitor in my current state of my life. The past two years I have switched between being a visitor and being a resident. During my undergrad schooling I was definitely a resident. I was very involved in my online being. I had multiple social websites, many online tools and completed many of my classwork all online. I was connected daily(usually hourly) and definitely had a presence online. This past spring I decided to close all my accounts and relied on the Internet for basic information and to randomly pay bills that I forgot about. I decided on closing all my sites because I felt that Internet started to take away from other more important things in life. I think this is when I switched from being a visitor to a resident. I am trying to get back into the mindset of a resident...it's proving very hard. It is taking a lot of perseverance. It may be harder than me trying to stick to a workout. I am trying to find time to make my presence visible online so I can become a resident for my development as an educator. Hopefully I will make it to resident status in a way that I can still be present in my online PLN and still enjoy my current lifestyle.

Finding My Passion

I have many different things that I am passionate about in my life. One thing that I love is art. I have a great passion for art and art education. I was so fortunate to grow up with the ability to participate in art while in school. During elementary school I had art class every week. It was so much fun and I still have projects that I created. During middle and high school I continued my passion for art and signed up for classes whenever I had to ability to find an elective. I also continued to take art classes once I got to college. Art is something that is a part of me, I feel more complete when I am able to do something in the arts. I think my parents figured this out when I was very young. Besides participating in art class at school, I also participated in art after school and during the summer. While in elementary school I participated in the Reflections contest every year. I won quite a few times, which is probably why I continued to do it (besides being artistic, I tend to be very competitive). I loved being able to do art all, the time. My parents allowed me to take art classes after school (drawing and painting are the two I remember the most). I went to art camp during the summer. My parents bought me tons of art supplies whenever I wanted them. Not only did I participate in the common "art" classes: painting, drawing, sculpting, pottery, acting; I did music as well, which is an art form of its own. I started in elementary school playing the clarinet; I was part of the school orchestra and did many performances. In middle school I decided that I wanted to learn to play the piano and took lessons for 4 years. Then in high school I decided to learn the guitar (which is probably the most painful instrument to play). My parents were always supportive of whatever instrument I wanted to play. Now having taught at a music school I give them much props for letting me learn all these instruments and having to listen to me practice. I still play the piano to this day! I love playing piano; it's very soothing to me. I also still paint and draw at home when the mood strikes me. I love art because it is so cathartic. It's a very personal process in which you can express yourself and create something that appeals to you. I think one of my favorite things about art is that there is no wrong. It is such a subjective subject that you can never be wrong. That is why when I'm teaching I try my hardest to include art. I feel that students have so many tests that they take and skills that they have to learn. The have so much pressure of being right all the time. Students need the time to not have to be right or wrong, but just be what they want. Whenever I teach an art lesson the first and most important thing I tell the students is that no matter what you do it's fine. I want to see each person have a different thing. There is no right or wrong in art. Art is something that is so important to me and has played a large part in who I am.