Five Favorite Front-Page Features

With it being Sunday, we take a day off from A to Z Challenge...so I bring my current events post to Sunday for this month instead of Friday :)

5. Margaret Thatcher died...a great example to women everywhere---you can run a country! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1034634/Lady-Thatcher-honoured-State-funeral.html

4. The weather!! Goodness gracious...how crazy is it?  This was my "favorite" video from the week...I grew up near there!  http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/374535/3/Shenandoah-Valley-Elementary-School-damaged-no-class-Thursday

3. Catholic Priest earns Medal of Honor....this is a very cool story.  It is great for those that he was with were able to see this awarded http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/catholic-priest-medal-honor-18936141?tab=9482930&section=1206853&playlist=18936680

2. Gun Control....more discussion this week. The big thing that happened? The Senate voted to debate the issue....and apparently this is a huge deal.  I liked SNL's skit last night....and I don't even watch this stuff usually.



1.  It would be nice to not have North Korea on here again next week....but I kind of doubt that.  Do they have a missile?  Don't have one?  On Thursday I was "attacked" by my students to find out if our security threat had increased to Def-Con 2 with everything that had happened. The only thing that I had heard was the South Korea had increased theirs to Def-Con 2...if we had it was for a short time because by the time I was able to look it up it looked like we were at Def-Con 3.  The interesting thing is that today/tomorrow is the anniversary of the founding.  Sounds like another "enemy" that likes to play chicken...

How long will you keep playing?

L is for Like

I saw lots of people were doing the word "love" today...so to be a little bit more original...I thought I would do the word like.  We use this word in a variety of ways.  Lets explore this today... :)

According to dictionary.com like means:

1.

of the same form, appearance, kind, character, amount, etc.: I cannot remember a like instance.

2.

corresponding or agreeing in general or in some noticeable respect; similar; analogous: drawing,painting, and like arts.

3.

bearing resemblance.

4.

Dialect , likely: 'Tis like that he's gone mad.

5.

Dialect . about: The poor chap seemed like to run away.

preposition

6.

in like manner with; similarly to; in the manner characteristic of: He works like a beaver.

7.

resembling (someone or something): He is just like his father. Your necklace is just like mine.

8.

characteristic of: It would be like him to forget our appointment.

9.

as if there is promise of; indicative of: It looks like rain.

10.

as if someone or something gives promise of being: She looks like a good prospect for the job.

It is also the only word that I am aware of that can be considered an adjective, preposition, noun, verb, and interjection. But seriously...we use this word for A LOT OF THINGS!! Like seriously :)

How many of us know a "valley girl" or a teenager that says "like" every other word...or it is there version of the word "um". Facebook has completely taken this word and made it a phrase like "Google it" specifically go "Like It".  

In addition, it is like the number one phrase at the beginning of a relationship...you don't want to say that "L" word so you end up asking...."Do you like me, like do you like me like me?"  See how I was able to do that..I used it four time in one sentence.

So....from all middle and high school teachers everywhere....lets get a thesaurus and come up with a different word. 

K is for Kimberly

So...maybe I'm just lame....but I had trouble thinking of a good word for K today. I had lots of ideas but no real winner. Then I thought of the fact that the A to Z Challenge is suppose to help other bloggers to learn about each other.  So today I will give you some more information about me...through an "I am Poem"

This week for National Poetry Week in World Geography and World History we talked about the theme of "Impact of the Individual" and did these poems about different influential members in history.  I thought about having them do themselves....so I'll do one for myself instead. For the format go to Read Write Think. Though actually this is a different format than we used in class.

I am organized and smart.
I wonder where I will be in a year.
I hear my to-do list in my head.
I see the day that is not so busy.
I want to feel successful.
I am organized and smart.

I pretend that I have a clean house.
I feel the feelings of inanimate objects.
I touch student's minds.
I worry that I will just coast though life.
I cry for hopeless matters, because there is really nothing we can do.
I am organized and smart.

I understand that even though I'm organized, I am really messy in other places.  (However, I don't understand why).
I say effort is required in everything.
I dream of the day that motivation is easier to come by.
I try to get my work done.
I hope for the day that I feel like I was really really accomplished.
I am organized and smart.

J is for Joel, like Billy Joel

Time to share another lesson plan idea! Though I can't take full credit it for it....I stole and combined.    With April being National Poetry Month, I have been trying to bring poetry into not just my English classes more but also my Social Studies classes as well. What a perfect way to do that than with a song like We Didn't Start the Fire.  How many history teachers love the fact that it is a whole list of historical events (even if they might not be really historically significant in everyone's mind).

This week, in U.S. History and Government we started a project that asks the students to figure out what all of the events/people are in the song.  In preparing this lesson I learned that Billy Joel actually wanted to be a history teacher at one point and was shocked when someone told him that nothing happened in the 1950s. So he wrote a song (If you believe Wikipedia that is).  I also learned while preparing this is that he actually does it in order by year through the 1950s and 60s. A great place for the lyrics is here because it has the years listed.  If you watch the music video that Joel made it is really kind of random and the kids won't fully appreciate the song...so I actually show this historical based video.

So what did we actually do? I passed out the lyrics with a bit of an introduction and we watched the video.  Then as influenced by this facts list I split the students into groups and split the lyrics into sections.  Each group researched what each person/event was.  Later on we will write our own lyrics to the song for present day as influenced by this site.

I was a little bit worried about what the kids would say...it is an old song and maybe not readily appreciated.  But they actually thought it was pretty cool and enjoyed the scavenger hunt idea of it.  And they actually asked if they could come up with their own and were pleased that eventually we would.
 

From the actual video...thank you to http://www.metrolyrics.com/we-didnt-start-the-fire-lyrics-billy-joel.html 

I is for Inspirefly

I thought with the letter I, I would talk about why I call my blog Inspirefly.  It wasn't exactly easy to figure out a name for a blog....as I'm sure my fellow bloggers are aware. I wanted to be able to cover so much stuff on my blog that I needed it to cover a lot of areas.

So I made a list of what I really wanted to talk about: knitting, lesson plans/teaching, and books.  I came up with a lot of words that might fit these topics.  I found a couple of word/title creators through a Google search, putting all of these topics into the generator. They would sometimes add endings....that's how I came up with "fly". I realized that I wanted to be inspired by what I experienced, saw, did, etc. so I combined the two together and Inspirefly was born.

H is for House

So...I was thinking earlier today what to do for H--nothing seemed obvious until Brian and I went and looked at our first house option today.  EEK!  I can't believe that I am really thinking about buying a house.  We have talked about this on and off for the last six months or so.  We have really been thinking about this because of how much money we have been putting into rent for the last 4 years we've been married...and our time before that too. So it is hard not to think about how much money we could have been putting into a house.  I mentioned once on here before that last year was the first time I had never actually moved...so I think that's another reason we are looking at our options.  We've been in our little town almost three years now so that seems to be a bit permanent.  BUT....!

Buying house=SCARY!!!

So seriously I know like nothing about buying a house.  People throw out these fancy words like escrow...inspectors...offers... Realtor....closing costs...etc.  So that makes it really really scary.  Then there is the money thing--do we really want to spend this much money?  Do you realize that a 30 year loan won't be paid off until 2048! That's intimidating....and the fact that you need to be in the same spot for about 3 years to make it worth it....that is worry making too. I can't predict where I will be in a year....maybe I have just learned with my life constantly changing.  But seriously if I keep thinking that I will never buy a house.

So we are starting to stick our toes in the water...we might not end up buying a house but we might....stay tuned!

P.S. Any advice?

G is for General Conference

Getting back on the A to Z Challenge today...with the letter G.  This weekend I had the opportunity to participate in the 183rd Annual General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For those of my readers/visitors that are not aware, this is an opportunity for the leaders of our Church to instruct us all weekend long.  It is a spiritual feast even if you don't believe in what I do...you can appreciate being able to be instructed in what you believe in for 2 hour periods twice a day in a weekend.  Today I will do my favorite parts of each session.

Saturday Morning Session
Memory: I got to be at the Conference Center for this session.  So that was awesome! It was great to hang out with cousin Thomas!
My favorite speaker: This session was a tie between Sister Dalton and Bishop Davies.  Sister Dalton talked about the power of women and Bishop Davies talked about the strength that comes from a sure foundation in the gospel.  Both were what I needed!!

Saturday Afternoon Session
Memory: Cuddling with my nephew Evan--he did such a nice job staying quiet for everyone to be able to hear.
My favorite speaker: Elder Cook talked about finding peace in this time...another thing that is really need!

Sunday Morning Session
Memory: President Monson...he put Vivian Park on fire!!
My favorite speaker:  But really President Monson was my favorite speaker because his talk reminded me that obedience is the thing that I really need to focus on.

Sunday Afternoon Session 
Memory: A very hungry Avi and "Stuff a turkey through its beak!"
My favorite speaker: That quote came from Elder Holland--all about believing!!

The Conference Center!