Thumb Thursdays

So since I'm in "I want to write more in this blog" kick, I came up with a way to at least make sure I would have a reason to write more in this thing. Thus the idea of thumb Thursday.... My way of sharing with you what is thumbs up and thumbs down in my life this particular week.

Thumbs up:

• A huge pink and green thumbs up to my swap partner Sweet, Sassy, and Always Classy http://mysweetandsouthernlife.blogspot.com/ for her amazing gifts I received in the mail just yesterday from our Pink swap through Kappa Prep's blog! All I can say is this girl went above and beyond. I can't find my digital camera right now (yikes!!!) but when I do, I need to put up pictures. First, a wicked cute white basket with pink and white cloth inside, a beautiful pink and green picture frame which will look uber cute on my desk at school, pink and green tissues, nail file, pink heart coasters, a cupcake-decorated spatula, pink kitchen towels, a cute pink mini book on pampering yourself, a pink heart container filled with pink Hershey kisses (yum!!!), a adorable pink heart with sequins and beads on it, and it the list goes on from there. Thank you so much!!!! You are the sweetest and most generous lady! Everything was wrapped in tissue paper and tied with a pink ribbon (how cute!!!!)
• Winning one of Kappa Prep's skirts on ebay! Pictures to follow once it comes it. Its a cute silk spring skirt so I'm looking forward to getting it in time for spring (which we all know will take forever in New England).
• Having an awesome teaching day today! We are getting ready for the Our Town test tomorrow so today we played a review game which went so well. I had 4 rows set up with 6 chairs in each row. The front seat gets a dry erase board and has to answer the question asked (I had 5 categories to choose from, one for each act, people, and potpourri). If the person gets it right, they get up and return to the back of the row while everyone moves up a seat. If you get it wrong, you have to stay until you get an answer right. Not only is it holding everyone accountable (which can be tough when you are doing any time of team games) but I can also use it for informal assessment. The students loved it and I can't wait to try it with my next unit! We also talked about themes in Our Town and I had the class split up into four groups (I choose four themes for this unit) and using their notes and the book, they had to come up with a moment from the play that is an example of this theme. Each group had a different color marker and I had poster paper around the room with a different theme on it so they had to walk around the room, see what others wrote, and come up with a completely different example. Again, it went so well and they did a wonderful job. After the groups finished, we went around the room to share what we wrote and how the example they choose showed the theme. They really did a great job sharing and explaining.

Thumbs down:

• Things in three: I've had three wakes or funerals in the last 10 days so that has been a huge bummer. My oldest friend's mother passed away last week from a short but courageous fight with cancer at the age of 51, my best friend's grandmother passed away yesterday, and finally another of my closest friend's father passed away Monday. Its been a pretty sad week and my thoughts and prayers go out to all of them.

Honestly, its been a good week overall. I feel very grateful for the wonderful things that came my way but also for the reminder that life is short so we have to appreciate life while we still have time (like Our Town tries to teach us!!!)