Honey Does BBQ

It all started out as an innocent Sunday evening plan to grill burgers and swim at the community pool. We literally tried 3 different grill spots before we found one that works, impressive Camden....

L trying to light the grill.....

And again.... Finally, we found a grill already lit at the community pool as another family was just finishing grilling. Thank goodness!

Yummy! 

Menu Planner Love!

I was constantly printing off recipes and putting them on the fridge to try later. This, however, was a great system of mass chaos. It had to be tamed, and in a respectably cute way. I remembered the amazing menu planner my good friend DeAnna Robertson had created for her kitchen, and I decided to do my own spin on my version of a Menu Planner.

You will need:

• 1- 2 inch binder
• LOTS of page protectors (I got a pack of 100)
• 12 page dividers I used the page dividers that had pockets so that I could put my menu plan for the month in one side, and coupons in the other side 
• Recipes
• Month Menu planner page from bold turquoise's blog
• Sticky scrapbook letters

Step 1:

Sticky letters on front to spell MENU

Step 2:

Write months of the year on each divider tab.

Step 3:

Put your recipes in the page protectors

Step 4:

Plan your menu for the week, month, year! However in advance you want to! Stick it in the divider, put the recipes for the week or month behind that month's tab. I put the extra page protectors in the back, so that I would know where they were for next week!

Happy Menu Planning!

Gifted and Talented or Asynchronous Student?

Yesterday I went to a FABULOUS professional development to earn my 30 hours of GT credit. Let me back track here, my block of 4th grade has been assigned the GT students for the 2012-2013 school year. I am so excited, not because I think that this will be easy...noooooooo! I am excited that I get to challenge myself to teach 4th grade math in a completely different way to challenge my GT students and meet their specific needs! Yeah! (Ok, I'm a teaching nerd - deal with it.) This is my first certificate with my new name and I'm still getting used to it. I still have to think when I introduce myself to other people... :-D


SO, to be able to teach GT students I am required to have 30 hours of GT training in 3 areas: 1. Identification and Assessment 2. Curriculum/Differentiation 3. Nature and Needs


!Rabbit Trail Alert!
One of the things that I love about CY-FAIR ISD is that you have to have 25 hours of professional development each year. Now to some, that may sound like a huge inconvenience, but I would spend all summer in professional development if they would let me! I love learning new things to reinvent my teaching!


Back to my PD, here a few very interesting things that I learned:

• The government really doesn't care about the success of gifted students because there are no federal mandates on their education
• Stereotypes of giftedness can be seen in the characters of The Breakfast Club and Big Bang Theory
• We have Texas laws about gifted education, but nobody to enforce it because TEA is so enthralled with STAAR testing (I guess I don't mind someone breathing down my throat about my GT kids, but absolutely no accountability when that's the bane of TEA's existence!)
• The basic trait of giftedness is asynchronous development. Definition: when a students is out of sync with their peers socially, academically, physically, and emotionally.
• Lewis Terman did a terribly flawed, but still popular study on gifted individuals and his subjects were called "Termans Termites". Cute.
• Sputnik started the conversation about educating gifted students
• Chemical similarities between giftedness and ADHD
• Chemical similarities between giftedness and schizophrenia
• There is a ONE SWITCH difference in the brain between giftedness and autism!!!! 
• Smartest man in the world has an IQ of 246-250, avg person IQ = 100
• (Warning: New Personal Soap Box!) Parent's wear their students Gifted and Talented status like a badge of good parenting, but are not concerned with the education of their Gifted student. Maybe, if we changed the label to Asynchronous Students, parents would be less likely to parade their child's educational needs to the public and be more in tune with what their child needs during school and after school.

I would like to end this post with a story that the presenter told us.


An American man, who is a leader in gifted education, was on an international flight and was sitting beside a scholarly man from China. The man from China said "Our students score higher than the US on math, reading, languages, etc, but we have no Nobel Prize winners. Why do you think that is?" The American man replied "Because you don't allow your students to create."

Welcome to Houston!

We are here! Cypress, Texas, a city on the edge of Houston that combines the convienience of the city while still being close enough to the country to see a little of the green I was so used to in the Piney Woods of Texas!

So far, so good! This weekend we will finish moving into our apartment for the summer, after L's parents bring the dresser and chest of drawers that we so desperately need! (I was spoiled the past two years with a closet that could have easily doubled as a spare bedroom!)

Sunday, June 3, 2012
We arrive home safe and sound from our wonderful honeymoon! First thing on the agenda: Grocery Shopping and shopping with the gift cards from the wedding! We are already so normal...

Tuesday, June 5th
I left to head back to Pittsburg to wrap up things with my old classroom, finish moving out of my little house, and hold a HUGE garage sale! 4 days was not long enough... Thankfully, I was able to get sell most everything at the garage sale and my sweet hubby let me use some of the profits get the Arthur Court A&M chip and dip platter that I had been eyeing since we registered. He is so good to me. :)

Sunday, June 10th
Our first time to go to church as a married couple! In some exploring we had done previously, we found a church that looked promising on the same road that our apartment is located on. By the way, there are TONS of churches within a few minutes drive of our home.
Bear Creek Baptist Church just seemed to jump out at me as we were driving by, and so we decided to try it out this past Sunday. We both LOVED it! There worship was a little bit more contemporary than we are used to, but the genuiness and passion that the worship leader had as he transitioned from contemporary songs to the tried and true hymns during worship really spoke to us. And the pastor was just as passionate about his desire for the church members to be involved in constantly growing their faith and knowledge. Overall, it was a better first experience than we could have prayed for and we are excited to visit their Sunday School classes next week!

Tuesday, June 11th
I got a part-time job with Chico's in the Cinco Ranch community of Katy! It is a great opportunity that not only will provide extra income during the summer, but they are considerate of teachers and will allow me to work a few hours during the school year as well! This has been a great answer to prayer since L will be finishing up his last semester in school and we are still unsure of how our finances will work out during that season of our married life.
One thing that I started praying for a few years ago was to have more faith, and it has just recently hit me, as I look back at all the things that have happened in my life (teaching in Pittsburg, not teaching in College Station/Bryan, moving to Houston, etc.), I can see the hand of the Lord in every single situation and my faith has been dramatically increased. Not only do I say "The Lord has a plan for me." but I honestly and sincerely believe it.

Culture shock: Waiting in line for 6 hours to change the name on my Driver's License! Ugh, worst experience of my life. There are no social classes at the DPS in Harris County. I did alot of people watching during my time there, and I saw the 6 figure making business woman with the genuine Prada purse sitting next to the Medicare recieving individual. Both had to wait just as excruciatingly long to recieve their services. I don't know if I'm glad that they playing field is leveled at the DPS, but I do know that it was definitely a test in being patient and gracious! A smile is contagious! My single victory during this experience is making the lady who changed my information (and took my picture for my new license) smile. :)

Thursday, June 14
I officially sign my contract to be the 4th Grade Math Teacher at McFee Elementary in Cy-Fair ISD!!!!! HUGE PRAISE!!!

This school is one of the closest schools to our apartment community AND I don't have to get on the highway to get there (that was one of my greatest concerns...lol)! As I would interview with other schools and districts, I was looking for something. It didn't have anything to do with their curriculum or technology available. I was looking for the staff relationships. One of the things that I loved the most about teaching at Pittsburg Elementary was that the teachers would do things with each other on the weekends that had nothing to do with school. I loved being able to call my principal my friend. I loved the laughter and the community on the 4th grade hall. I knew that I was going to miss that the most. During my interview with McFee Elementary, I instantly fell in love with the people there. They were passionate, friendly, considerate, had high standards, and HILARIOUS! Within 5 minutes of the interview, I knew that I wanted to work there with those people. Thankfully, the Lord and the administration of the school thought so too and offered me the job at the end of the interview! I am so psyched to be working in the top school district in the state of Texas and to be working with people that are as excited about teaching as I am. :)

I will post pictures of the completed apartment soon!

Love,
Mrs. Sullie