Learn Something New Every Day

Shimelle's Learn Something New Every Day class started again on September 1st. I first signed up for this class in September of 2006. That was an incredibly eventful month in my life, and I'm so thankful I was taking her course, because I journaled every day. I didn't, however, finish my daily pages. In fact, I completed the book during Lain's Layout a Day Challenge in May...of THIS year! Yikes! So, my goal for this year is to journal daily and finish my book by early October. I came to the realization last night that I simply don't have time for traditional scrapbooking, so I'm going to go digi for this project. It isn't my first choice, but it is far more realistic at this moment in time. Plus, Shimelle has included some great digi downloads for this class, including PDF files for the LOs. That is going to save me a lot of time.

After taking Photo Editing: Frame-ups and Special Effects from Jessica Sprague, I got pretty excited about playing around in Photoshop. In fact, I've downloaded a bunch of free digital designs and have even purchased a digital kit and some embellishments. Now, mind you, I've only ever created two digital LOs in my life! LOL! So, I'm going to use the Learn Something New class to work on my journaling and to hone my digital skills. I'll stick with Shimelle's LOs for the first couple of weeks since school is starting, but then I may try to come up with my own designs.

To save myself some time, I'm using the Ana Reis Designs "I Heart You" kit. I purchased both the paper and embellishment kits because I loved the doodle hearts.

My first page deals with the presentation I gave to our staff about metacognition. I felt good about the presentation but didn't think it was amazing. Throughout the day I was given a lot of positive feedback. My colleagues made me realize that I do a good job and that I should have more confidence. I'm using a horrible photo from a Web 2.0 presentation I gave at a business education conference in May. Yeah...people should NEVER be photographed while they are speaking!

My learning continued at our school district teacher training on the 2nd. I co-presented a workshop on lesson planning using Project CRISS and then went to a workshop about ways students hook us into power struggles. The presenter talked about being intentional in our emotional lives. Negative thoughts impact everything we do even if we don't say them out loud. This made me think about my health and approaching it from a positive POV (e.g. I'm not trying to lose weight, I'm gaining muscle, tone, and a firm core!).

This is a photo from my classroom in May. The presenter also talked about seeing your most difficult student as your greatest teacher in living an emotionally intentional life. Brilliant!