Christmas products almost ready for bundle!

I have been working on my PowerPoint skills to create some stylized Christmas goodies. I am slowly adding more to my TpT store and I even got my first two sales from these adorable winter clip-arts, frames, and borders!

Link to my Christmas frames and clip-art here! or  Link to "Baby it's Cold Outside" digital papers here!

While I worked on each of those I created a separate set of snowflake art, using the design from the snowflakes I created in the blue and white snowflake background. Each thing I work on, seems to inspire a new creation. As a matter of fact, the candy-cane designs I created in the first two sets were the inspiration  for a much larger set of candy-cane art.  

 

Link to my snowflake collection here!

I decided to try each design in 11 different colors tints and shades, with one set in standard flat colors with outlines, and another set using matching gradients and no outlines!
I just finished my new candy-cane collection and I put them up today! (I thought they would be easy.) These may not look extremely complicating, but they took a long time and a great deal of precise placement. Even though they are created for these winter months, some of them can also be used throughout the year.  

 

Link to my candy-cane clip-art and frames here!

I have to say, when I am in creation mode, I am always thinking of new things, new ideas, ways to expand on what I'm doing, and subtle additions and changes to make more clip-arts. Then I have to decide, 'Do I really want to put in all the work and add more and more, should I stop and get it out there, should I create more sets to sell separately, or should I just put it all together?' With the candy-cane art, it got to be so huge, I finally decided to separate it into two individual items. I have one set of clip art and frames (shown above), and another set of backgrounds (shown below).

Link to my candy-cane backgrounds here!

My next creation will be traditional Christmas clip-art, and I hope I don't take long since Christmas is almost upon us! Then I will set out to make one large Christmas bundle of all of them! I know I got a late start on some of these, but that's fine. They will be all ready for next year, and I'm sure I'll make lots more then. 

I am still learning a lot, and I have a lot to learn. I am enjoying my new work, creating digital art for others to use and enjoy. I hope some of my visitors will stop by my teeny tiny store and take a peak, and just maybe you might find something you like. Who knows, it may even find a new home with you!

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is here, it's really here! I have so much to be thankful for! I will be visiting family in a couple hours. It  should be a wonderful feast, and best of all it will be with wonderful people! We are watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade while we relax a bit before the drive.

Here's a link to one dish I made for Thanksgiving.

This year I had the great pleasure of seeing my son's 2nd grade class present to their book buddies in fourth grade. Just another fabulous reason to volunteer in your child's classroom! The class of approximately 30 students was separated into groups of 4-5 children. Each group was provided a region of native Americans to learn about. They all researched, put information together, printed it out, cut it out, and created their own projects on pasteboard. All with no help from us parents! Each group presented their projects to the entire fourth grade class. They also sported some conduction paper head gear, beaded necklaces, and they created some adorable kachina dolls. The teamwork was fabulous, and the presentations were wonderful!
Here's a link about Native American dolls.

What is included in educating students about thanksgiving in your school, class or home? What traditions do you follow at this time of year? Do you have anything you are really grateful for this year?  You can post comments in the comment section below.

Bullying post from another blogger.

Bullying is Broken | The Hero Construction Company I came across this on another blog. It's right on about not having a clear definition of bullying, each person having varying views. However, I don't see banning the word as an option, rather we should try to find a more concise definition that most within the school can come to some agreement on. We also need to clarify what it means to each person.

The insistence on zero tolerance policies are not going to fix the problem, and make no attempt at working at the roots of the problem. They are inflexible, and often unconscionable. Also, though some things in the list on the blog may seem small and petty, not important enough to consider bullying, when done often enough, demeaning others, and diminishing their feeling of self worth can cause serious severe harm. We also need to remember that emotional damage can cause far more lasting problems than some physical damage, and all of it has an emotional attachment which can remain long after the abuse stops and the bully is gone.

Conflict resolution?

As a parent and educator there will be many occasions that a child will come to me, to inform me of the horrible acts of another. How do you respond to these accusations? In some cases, we may want to jump in and come to their rescue. In other cases, we may see this as petty tattling, and brush it away. Either way may not be the best approach.

When we jump in to handle a problem, we essentially make it our own problem and release the child from responsibility. It sounds like a nice, quick, easy way to remove conflict. However, the quick easy way is not always the best, or even the correct way. When we brush the problem away, we choose not to deal with the problem. While we may have reasons, that we don't have time and the problem is petty, we ignore other important and more long lasting problems. This can leave the child to feel that we don't care, and allow the other child to continue the behavior without consequence. After all, we have demonstrated that we aren't going to do anything about it. It must not be all that bad, if the teacher or parent doesn't care.

Maybe that sounds harsh, or a little over the top, but try to consider how your actions may appear to each child. In the first possible response, the children can hand responsibility over to someone else. They don't have any need to handle it, because an adult will do the work for them. They do not learn responsibility because the adult is taking responsibility. They do not learn to handle their own problems, because an adult will handle them for them. In the second possible response, the problem is brushed aside, so no one deals with it. The children may begin to feel that there is no point in saying anything, because they feel that nothing will be done. The other child may continue to behave inappropriately, since there is no real consequence.

So what can be done in situations such as this? We shouldn't have to take complete responsibility of their problems because they need to learn to take responsibility. We shouldn't just ignore it or brush it aside, because nothing gets solved, and problems can fester and expand. I am a big believer in empowering children to handle their own problems. However, we shouldn't expect them to do this on their own, with no guidance. I'm sure there are many methods we can use to help empower children to handle those frustrating situations, which often send them straight to an adult. There are also many ways to provide guidance in helping them take charge of their own problems.

One of the things I have done with my own children and with students, is to direct them to sit down together and discuss the problem. With my own children, I tell them they can get up after they have discussed the problems, created a plan together to fix the problem or make it better, and brought the plan to me for final approval. They don't always get approval the first time around. I ask them to tell me what they decided the problem really was, and to explain their plan to fix it, compromise, or make it better. We then discuss if this should help or solve the problem, if it is reasonable for all involved, and if each person is likely to stick to it. If any of these "tests" fall through, I ask them to sit down and come up with other options.

In a school situation, however, time is far too limited to accommodate this lengthy process. I usually just ask them to sit and discuss the problem, and I tell them they are free to join us after they have come to an agreement or compromise. If they are not ready to speak to each other, I usually have them separate and work apart from each other for a while. After they have had time to calm down, I allow another opportunity to discuss the problem. For very young students, I prefer to set up a game plan ahead of time. I usually have a specific place set aside for the students to talk to each other. During the beginning of the year, we set up guidelines, and try to walk students through a process of describing the event or problem, saying how it made them feel, using I statements, and trying to think of other ways to handle the problem. We can include pictures or posters to help remind students of the guidelines. One idea that I really like, involves setting up an area with hand puppets. Each student selects a puppet, and then they attempt to recreate the situation, discussing what happened, and how it made them feel. Using the puppets allows them to step outside the situation and imagine it involving someone else, yet it still allows them to acknowledge their true feelings. Another option I have heard of is pretending to set back the clock to before the event happened, and coming up with different actions to change the event for the better.

What ideas have you used for your own children, or for your students? What other ideas could you try? 

Science is for everyone!

I am a big fan of TED. This great educational TED clip does not disappoint! Have a look and tell me what you think. Maybe this will inspire some awesome lessons. Beau Lotto + Amy O’Toole: Science is for everyone, kids included | Video on TED.com