Sweet Home Alabama...

It's a pretty catchy tune, you can go ahead and sing it!

I can't even count how many times I've driven through this state on the long trek from Charleston, South Carolina to Austin, Texas. Alabama was our "half-way point" and where we stayed the night on most trips. I didn't pay much attention to it then...but I should have! We just found out Blaine will be attending Air Command and Staff College in good 'ole Montgomery next August! Come July, we will make Montgomery, Alabama our new home for about a year or so. Of course, this is a bittersweet time as we have made Hawaii our home and love it here...what an amazing island rich in history and culture! While I'm sad to leave paradise and the wonderful friends we've made on this journey, I'm really excited about this new adventure and the pros that come along with it...

1. We will be within ONE day's drive of BOTH of our families and LOTS of close friends!

2. We will be back in the South...I love the South. :)

3. We will have somewhat normal fall and winter weather...it's just not the same sipping pumpkin spice lattes when it's 85 degrees outside.

4. Charleston and Austin, two of my most favorite cities, are only a day's drive away.

5. We can watch college football (Clemson and Texas) again as I'm sure it will be televised in Alabama much more than it is in Hawaii! And the games will be shown at normal times and not at 5 a.m.!!

6. I will have access to real shopping (and fave restaurants) again...I can't wait! I've already researched the area for a Hobby Lobby, a Home Goods store, Potterybarn, Chick-fil-a, and Olive Garden. These are all things I never knew I'd miss so much until living thousands of miles from them! My first stop will be Hobby Lobby, followed by lunch at Chick-fil-a.

7. Above all, perhaps the top pro is that Blaine has been given this opportunity to attend school...something we are so very grateful for! Thank you, Air Force, for being so generous to us.

So, Alabama, here we come! We look forward to seeing where this chapter in life takes us. What else does this all mean for YOU? Our time in Hawaii is quickly dwindling down...we hope you'll find the time to visit us and enjoy all that this amazing island has to offer!

Some October Happenings..

Ahh, what an amazingly beautiful sunrise on the North Shore! Why was I standing on the beach at 5:45 a.m. all the way up on the North Shore last Saturday morning?? My first senior class camping trip, that's why!

I am a senior class advisor at school and last weekend was our first camping trip. The trip is meant for bonding and fun around a campfire, which is what happened for the most part. The other part...well, you can imagine what it's like camping overnight with 20 teenagers. Lots of laughing, little sleep, and some whining from all. ;) It was such a neat experience as we, the four advisors, did not intervene much and allowed for this to be a learning experience. The students were completely responsible for organizing this trip. Great examples of teachable moments...when you're feeding 25 people (principal included), you should make sure you have enough food. 50 hot dogs are great...but not with 24 buns. Also, if you plan for scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, you should probably think to bring PANS and cooking spray in order to cook them!

The best part, I thought, were the activities. Not because I was in charge of the activities committee ;), but because the students planned some fun things! We played Hide and Seek and Capture the Flag in the dark with glowsticks...and we also did an improv-"Whose Line is it Anyway" game around the campfire! Our students have such creative minds...we were laughing all night! Another favorite moment for me was roasting marshmallows and making s'mores. One of the students had never made s'mores before and I really enjoyed teaching him to make them. I felt the bonding! Aside from the whining when it came to cleaning and packing up, we had such a great time and I think we achieved the bonding piece!

Back at school the following Monday, my Chemistry classes celebrated Mole Day! I'm sure you all celebrate this well-known holiday each year, as well. ;) Mole Day is a Chemistry-holiday, only celebrated by the nerdiest of the nerds, I'm sure, to bring awareness and fun to Chemistry...namely to Avogadro's number. Ring a bell? I had to refresh my memory, too. Avogadro's number, or the mole, is a HUGE number used to measure quantities of atoms. A mole is 6.02 X 10^23 OR 602,000,000,000,000,000,000,000! A mole of anything has this many things, if you will! So, I asked my students how much paper you would have if you had one mole of sheets of paper. They all guessed, some said a football field length and some guessed a skyscraper high. I then asked, "Would you believe me if I said you would have enough paper to stack from here to the moon and back?" Some jaws dropped...and then I said, "Would you believe me if I said you would have enough paper to stack from here to the moon and back 80 BILLION TIMES?"! To which their little minds started to spin. ;) That's how huge this number--a mole--is! I followed this up by showing them an aluminum foil sculpture of a mole (the animal kind) that I sculpted and held in the palm of my hand. I then told them that I had exactly one mole of aluminum atoms in the palm of my hand. The SAME number of sheets of paper from my previous example! And now YOU, too, have had a Chemistry lesson! :)

The point was to show them just how BIG Avogadro's number is and just how SMALL an atom is. For our activity, all of my students weighed out one mole of aluminum atoms (aluminum foil is pure aluminum)...one mole of aluminum atoms (foil) weighs 27 grams. Then they all sculpted their very own aluminum foil "moles" (the animal kind). Of course, no celebration would be complete without treats...mole cupcakes and leMOLEade! ;)

I decorated my classroom with balloons to get in the "celebration" mood! My students do have faces in real life instead of black circles. ;)

Students making their mole sculptures...I was surprised at how excited they were to make these!

And, for fun, here's a picture of what my classroom door looks like right now. I have some very artistic homeroom students (six boys!) who insisted our door needed to look like this. A far cry from the bright, pretty colors I use inside. ;)

Last, but certainly not least, Blaine and I recently ran in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. You may remember that I wrote about my aunt Diana, who was battling breast cancer, a couple of months back when I first mentioned this race. I'm sad to report that she passed away on September 15th, a couple of weeks after I wrote that post...all the more reason we were so honored to support such a worthy cause. One day, there will be a cure!

So, that's what we've been up to lately! Tonight marks our neighbor's second annual Murder Mystery dinner party...more pics on that to come soon!

A Teacher's Smiling Heart!

I can't tell you how much my heart smiles when I see a student actually applying a concept from my class to real life. On our recent Chemistry exam, some of the "more gifted" students were given the question below. They had to choose properties from a list of 22 different properties of matter and relate the two. Oh, how amazed I am at the creativity of my brilliant pupils! :)

Checking in...and a fun giveaway!

I love great ideas and get really excited when I see or hear of one. The latest great idea comes from my friend and blogging sister, Lauren! She found a way to get lots of replies, followers, and shout-outs to her blog by doing a simple giveaway! Genius!! Check it out here and enter to win the yummy prize! :) AND, I learned how to include a link in this blog without having to include the entire URL, thanks, Lauren, for the much-needed lesson!

In teaching news, the job is getting much better now that I am finding my niche. Planning lessons for four subjects is a bit crazy and it was consuming all of my time. Not to mention the need for differentiated instruction within those lessons...I was finding myself not even getting to that oh-so important part because I would run out of time. My students NEED that differentiation because they are all on different levels and all have learning exceptionalities...it's the nature and foundation of this school! We are entering the second quarter on Monday and I feel I finally have a good grasp on teaching these students and meeting their learning needs. It took a while for me to get it and to get to know them, but I have come to the realization that my students need lessons in life skills JUST AS MUCH as they need lessons in the content. So, I am revamping my teaching style this quarter to include those lessons and we'll see where it goes!

Whatever I'm doing content-wise seems to be working, though...I had one of my lower-performing students come to me yesterday morning before school to tell me he needed help with the material that would be on yesterday's test. Up to that moment, I didn't think he was really comrehending too much of the Chemistry content, until I started going through the concepts and asking him questions. I asked him questions pertaining to every section on the test, and he answered all of them correctly! These are the moments teachers live for...I am so proud of him! :)