How do you do _________? And other Frequently Asked Questions

Many of you have sent me the sweetest emails asking me about this and that… I thought I would put it all in the same place. As of Nov 2013 if you have a question for me, you can comment below and I will add to this post. Ready, Set, Ask…

Q: DO YOU SLEEP?

A: Yes, but not as much as I used to. Adding blogging and Teachers Pay Teachers to my already busy life has cut into my zzzz time. But to be quite honest, I am a bit of an obsessive night owl anyway. Before blogging I would be up sewing aprons or working on our family Shutterfly digital photo books until 1 AM. Since blogging, there may be a coincidence that our 2011 and 2012 books are not completed. Shutterfly is an amazing program. Maria from Kinder-Craze wrote an intro to Shutterfly {here}. It’s a great program, check it out.

Q: HOW DO YOU GET THE ROUNDED EDGES ON YOUR PICTURES and the CUSTOMIZED SIZES?

 

     

A: I use Windows Live Writer for all my blogging. It gives you way more control over the size and look of your pictures. The screen shot {right} is the“picture format” drop down screen. You can also choose cool font colors. See screen shot {left}. I wrote in more detail about Live Writer {here}.

Q: HOW DO YOU GET WRITING ONTO YOUR PICTURES?

A: I use a free program called Google Picasa.  It is so so so so so so easy to use! I wrote a Google Picasa 101 {here}.

Q: DO YOU HAVE A FANCY CAMERA?

A: Kind of.  My camera is the cheapest Cannon DSLR you can buy at about $500, but it has made a big difference in the pictures we take.  Here is a picture my husband took of butter… Why butter? He cooks a lot, and I eat a lot.

Our camera makes it look pretty. But note, butter does not look as pretty once it’s on your thighs, no matter what camera you use!!!  If I had it to do over again I would get the Cannon T3i which has an option to take pictures with a remote. It makes the camera about $100 more which means spending a pretty penny.

Q: YOU AND YOUR HUSBAND ARE BOTH TYPE A! HOW DOES THAT WORK OUT?

A:Many of you know my hubby has a blog. After reading both our blogs you can probably tell we are a Type A couple. Being a Type A couple is great though! Neither of us is flippant. No one is alone during a freak out, since we both jump in and freak out together. Type A people tend to think things through in advance, so I can trust him to not do thoughtless things.  A Type B husband would drive me insane! Type A people can be control freaks, so we have learned the art of negotiation. We seek to find a third way (instead of “your” way or “my” way), and deciding who is in charge of certain things is helpful. For example, I was in charge of our son’s nursery. No negotiating.

We agreed on the jungle animal theme, since it was free as a hand-me-down and was so cute. I wanted polka dots and different colored walls. Justin wasn’t sure about all my ideas, and was doing a good amount of flapping about.  I gave him a very scary look, as only a pregnant woman can. It was established, at that moment, the nursery was MINE.  But as time has gone on…the garden is HIS.  Home décor… MINE (kind of)more like OURS-ish since he has great taste.  It works for chores too. Homework is MINE so dinner is HIS.  Dishes HIM. Laundry ME.  Dog Poop HIM, bathing Jackson ME. This is actually a beautiful thing! Type A plus Type A can be fabulous!!!!

Q: WHERE DO YOU GET THE MOST INSPIRATION?

A: Pinterest, praise music, bulletin boards, and fixing a problem. I like taking a disaster of a lesson and improving it. I like filling brains, but making it fun. I love taking a mess and making it organized. I especially like organizing all of my husband’s messes and ignoring my own. His mess bothers me WAY more than my own mess! I like making my environment pretty both at work and home. At school it’s all about bulletin boards showing how smart the kids are and looking fabulous since I look at them 8 hours a day. At home I like to paint, decorate with clocks, and pick up anything with an Eiffel tower on it.

Q: YOU MUST BE SO ORGANIZED!

A: I am laughing so hard right now… I am not so organized across all areas of my life, but after I organize something I do take a picture. A victory shot so to speak.  Areas where I am organized : my classroom,  school files, my computer files, my clip art, my fonts, our kitchen, my son’s room, and my laundry room. Areas that need a little work… my closet, my desk drawers, the garage, and the hall closet. These are all drop and dash zones. So since I dash about a good deal, these areas reflect the chaos.

Q: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TEACHING?

A: I have taught since 2000. My first year was in 6th grade {shudder}, seven years in 2nd, and the rest have been in 1st. I adore first! ADORE it.

Q: WHAT PROGRAM DO YOU USE TO CREATE PRODUCTS? 

A: I have used Microsoft Publisher since 1996 as a way to make my college papers engaging, but have begrudgingly switched to Power Point. Power Point has a feature where you can save all your slides as jpegs. This makes marketing the unit and blogging about it easier.  Publisher offers you more control making it, Power Point is easier marketing it….  Touch choice.

Q: HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO MAKE THIS UNIT?

A: It’s not fast to create units like mine. Mine are long with lots of descriptions, directions, and tons of engaging activities. I am up most nights creating.  I am a bit of a procrastinator, so often I am up against the clock. I am also a perfectionist so most things could be done faster by a less Type A person.

Q: SHOULD I DO TpT TOO? WILL YOU HELP ME?

A: If you have something that you created, you love it, and it works with your students, then put it up baby! Don’t know how to get started? Click {here} to go to a TpT 101 post written by myself and 4 of my favorite blogging friends.

Q: WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE CLIPART COMPANIES AND FONTS?

A: Click any picture to be taken to their blogs. Each blog has multiple places where you can buy (Etsy, TpT, TN). Each blog also has their TOUs or Terms of Use for using their art on your units.

 Clip Art

Fonts:

WHAT CURRICULUM DO YOU USE? HM RIGHT?

A: You guessed it!

Houghton Mifflin (HM)

Envision Math the Common Core Edition

Science and Social Studies are thematic and usually my creations.  They match our adopted curriculum and we pop in and out of our Social Studies and Science textbooks You can see many of my units along my sidebar ---->

Q: DO YOU REALLY HAVE 3 BLACK AND WHITE SHIH-TZUS? CAN YOU POST PICTURES???

A: Show you pictures of my dogs??? OF COURSE! October 2013 our Shih-tzu census just went up by 1 in the most magical way. Read more {here} Now, I am the mother to three furry carbon copies… We stick with what we like!

     

Here they are in all their fluffy glory!

Poppy Chrysanthemum, Daisy Snapdragon, Zero Cheerio. (Clearly our son did not get the memo we name our dogs after flowers. At least he made the name rhyme! What a great little first grader)

 

What else do you want to know?