Just do it

What I've been doing for exercise:  Christin and I have been trying to work out a lot lately.  After my kidney stone episode in January, the doctor told me I needed to spend more time getting healthy.  He also noticed a slight curve in my back in the x-ray.  He said it could be corrected with exercise.

I hate running, but Christin and I have found some awesome videos that we do in our apartment.  I don't have the money to go to the gym, but I am motivated to workout in the apartment.  It makes it ten times easier to workout with someone else pushing me.  "Higher high knees, Hillary!"  Christin frequently yells.  :)

Here are some of my favorite videos.

Barre: This is a combination of ballet and conditioning.  Christin and I found this one routine that we love.

Kingdom Come - Barre

Zumba:  I love dancing, and these videos are so fun.  It doesn't even seem like I am working out, but the sweat dripping off our noses and chins indicates that we definitely are burning calories.

Salo - Adrenalina

Salo - Darte un beso (great for a cool down)

Salo - Shawty got moves

Insanity:  This is an intense work out program.  We just use the warm up and the fit tests and get a great workout.

Insanity Cardio Abs

Insanity Warm Up

Insanity Fit Test

Tone it up:  Karina and Katrina have an awesome program.  Their workouts aren't super long, but they kick my butt.  Here are some of my favorites.

Burn it up

Bikini abs

Bikini arms

Hump day HIIT routine

Holiday hustle

Love your body workout

Over spring break a few people noticed that I was looking thinner, which made me happy.  Everyone loves hearing compliments like that.  I want to workout because I love my body, not because I hate it.  Well, I also workout so I can eat yummy things like cookie dough and chocolate.  :)

Lately, curvy girls are taking over the world.  Size-16 model Ashley Graham has been gracing covers of magazines right and left this year.

There is another model, Iskra Lawerence who works with Aerie who posts awesome and inspirational pictures on Instagram.  Recently someone commented on Iskra's photo calling her a fat cow.  She took matters into her own hands and did a little photo shoot with bags of chips.  I love seeing confident women with real bodies portrayed in the media.

from: here, here,

Con mucho amor.

Paper towel and a stone

What I've been doing:  Last weekend I went to the capital for a women's conference with my church.  We left Friday afternoon, spent 3.5 long hours in traffic, and arrived right on time on Friday evening.  The theme of the conference was idols of the heart.

I used to think, oh those stories from the Old Testament don't apply to us anymore.  I don't know many people who have gold cows in their house that they worship.  But we do have many things in our lives that we think about and focus on more than we think about and focus on God.

One of the most convicting things from the weekend was a question the speaker asked.  She said, what do you spend your time talking about?  That is where your heart is.  What do you talk about most?  Work?  Money?  Shopping?  School?  Boyfriends?  Drinking?  Sports?

The second day of the conference the speaker drove in the point that we are BELOVED DAUGHTERS OF THE KING.  What would our lives look like if we really lived out that truth every day of our lives?

So what do paper towels and rocks have to do with anything?  Well here's a little story about obedience.  I share this not to pat  myself on the back.  I share this story to encourage you to bless someone else's day.  Do something so tiny.  You will never know the eternal impact that little act of kindness will have on the world.

Saturday we stopped at a mall on our way back to Santiago after the conference.  My roommate and I had to go to the bathroom, so we left our stuff with one of the ladies, Julissa.  I had never met her before the weekend, but it was fun to laugh and get to know her during the conference.  She is one of the funniest people I've met in the DR.  When we asked her if we could leave our bags with her while we went to the bathroom, she said, "Bring me back something."  Christin and I started laughing.

"Bring you back something from the bathroom?"  She just smiled and laughed as we walked away.

Well, I thought it would be funny to take a paper towel and rip it into the shape of a heart to give to her.  I made her close her eyes and open her hands.  She was extremely hesitant to do it since we had just come from the bathroom.  She was laughing and squeeling as she tried to decide whether or not to trust us.

When she saw the crumpled paper towel, opened it and saw that it was a heart, she laughed.

Our group from Vida Nueva

Sunday morning I decided to write her a little note and give her a love rock at church.  (For more about love rocks - read here.)  It was something so simple and so little.

Yesterday I get a message from the pastor's wife, Kelly.  Kelly said that Julissa showed her the little rock and note.  Kelly said that Julissa has blessed someone else because of my little blessing.  That other person asked Kelly about me and said she wanted to meet me.  I thought, wow, we really never realize the impact of our small, simple acts of obedience to God.  We never realize how He is going to use those to encourage or bless others.

This little Youtube video shows the ripples of kindness perfectly.

What are you doing for others?  How can you share God's love in a simple way today?

Con mucho amor.

Vamos a pasear

Where I've been traveling:  In the beginning of March, I left the city of Santiago for the first time since November (not counting Christmas break in December in the USA).  I got to travel with my students, with friends, and with a church.

New Hope

Thursday, March 10th we took a special day to go to La Vega and help at the New Hope house.  New Hope is a school and safe house for girls.  They just recently purchased a piece of land with a big house.  We went to help paint.

It was fun to get out and serve with our students.  Last semester and year we were helping out at Yve's school, but this semester has been too crazy for us to do that.  Instilling values of service in the lives of others is important.

Sosua

Friday, March 11th there was no school.  We took advantage of the day to go to the beach.  At first the trip was just going to be my roommate and I, but then we invited our friends Lyndi and Corinne.  We made a special trip to eat at Gorditos.

Then we sat on the beach and splashed in the waves.  It was such a nice and relaxing way to spend a day off.  Our bus ride home was a little cold.  I was bundled up.  We went to Mari's Cakes for dinner and dessert when we got back since the bus station was close to the restaurant.

Santo Domingo 

Sunday, March 13th one of the churches I sometimes attend had a national service together in the capital.  We piled in a bunch of cars and made our way to the botanical gardens.

I had never been there before, and I would love to go back and explore some more.  It was nice to sing and be with a bunch of people praising the Lord together.

I also spend spring break (Semana Santa) in Costa Rica with mom, dad, and sis, but that will go in a separate blog post.  :)

Con mucho amor.

Bud, Not Buddy

What we've been reading:  We just finished one of my new favorite novels to teach, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis.  I found lots of resources online that helped me, but I also just love the themes and morals from this book.  It is all about family, growing up, change, and the Great Depression.

One of the parts of the novel that I think is the funniest is all of Bud Caldwel's Rules and Things.  Bud is such a funny kid, and he is smart and innocent.  He has concocted all sorts of life rules that I typed and printed off for the bulletin board.  I would have loved to have time for the boys to create their own.  Next time I teach this novel I will incorporate this activity.

Names are important.  They are our identity.  Bud's name changes throughout the novel, and he talks about the importance of names.  I stole this idea from Miss Christin.  The boys and I looked up what do our names mean.  They had to create illustrations to go with the meaning.

I found a great pdf with ideas that came from a theater who adapted Bud, Not Buddy for the stage.  I absolutely love comparing different versions of the same story, whether from page to stage or screen. One of the activities in the pdf used the text from the novel to compare to the script.  Then, it asked the students to adapt a different part of the novel into a script.  We took the project a step further and acted and filmed the scene.  Here's the link to our version.

The pdf also had an idea to make rock journals.  I just printed off the page and the boys wrote three important days of their lives on the rocks.  It would be cool to purchase real rocks and have them write with a metallic pen on the rocks the memory.

At the beginning of the novel we created Bud's suitcase together.  We talked about the symbolism behind each object in his suitcase.  Then, I had the boys create their own suitcases.  I asked them what symbolizes them.  They wrote reflections on the back of their suitcases explaining each object.

I loved how this unit turned out.  I hope that I will get to teach this novel again someday.

Con mucho amor.

WWI

What the boys have been creating:  We spent the past month studying WWI.  I do not actually remember learning about this war when I was in middle school or high school, so I had to do some research about what happened.  We studied the key players in the war.  We used timelines to show the sequence of events.  We also talked about why the US joined the war.

To finish our WWI unit, the boys created a video about war strategies.  They included trench foot, being tired from fighting, the bathroom issues, and more.  Here's the link to the video that is posted below.

They also did a timeline and a mind map for their final.  Each one was so different and unique.

At the end of the year I want them to create a mega timeline like they did last year with eight or ten important things from the timeline of US history.  I am hoping these tests and evaluations will help them put together all their thoughts and ideas.

Do you have any WWI ideas or resources?

Con mucho amor.

Pi Day

What we've been eating: Monday was 3/14, a very important day in the math world.  Last year I did not celebrate the day with the boys, but this year Christin did an awesome job leading the morning activities.  I had an interview that morning, so I was unable to attend the whole time.

The kids started off reading this awesome article from Smithsonian Tween Tribune.  They had some neat ideas to help celebrate the day.  Here is their list of ways to celebrate and engage students.

There was a pi contest for who could memorize the most digits of the number.  Andrew got to 28 digits and Lesly memorized 30!

There was also a t-shirt decorating contest.  The kids came up with the most creative designs.  Lesly's t-shirt said "QT Pie" with a picture of a pie on the back.  

I found this article with different pi/math themed movies.  We watched An Invisible Sign which was interesting, different, and connected well with Pi day.  While we watched the movie, we munched on Christin's awesome pies.

It was a fun day to celebrate math.

Con mucho amor.

Superhero Writing

What we've been writing:  My mom got me these awesome superhero word magnets.  I wanted to figure out how to incorporate them into a writing assignment.  We also studied homophones this week.  I combined the two into a fun creative writing assignment.

The boys used the magnets as inspiration for their stories.  They loved making crazy sentences with the words.

Then, they wrote their stories and we also spent a day revising them together.  They were so excited to share what they wrote.  Andrew asked me, "We are sharing these, right?"  Here are their stories.

Avengers by Andrew

The most powerful heroes fight day and night, but what do they do in spring break? They go have fun at the beach or that’s what they thought. As Tony and Widow played volleyball the most unexpected thing happened. Angel and Superman came out flying from nowhere. Tony was astonished and worked fast to get his suit, but then he remembered that he forgot it at home. Angel was fighting Superman one-on-one, but that didn’t last long. Next thing Tony knew was that Angel was thrown at him, and he was knocked out. When he gained consciousness Black Widow and Wolverine were at each other’s throats.

All of the X-men which were made up of Marvel characters were fighting the DC’s. The battle was a hard one… for the X-men. “Those X-men people aren’t that strong and would only get in between us,” Superman announced. “The only X-men guys that put up a fight were Magneto and Wolverine. Like come on, one guy is immortal and the other can move metal with his mind. They’re the only ones that we consider the upper class of Marvel characters.” So with the weaker Marvel characters gone, the battle with DC was to finish that spring.

 (Two weeks later) The battle is still going on with the strongest of both sides still fighting. The fighters on Marvel are the Hulk, Wolverine, Venom, Loki, Magneto, DeadPool, HellBoy, and Thor. And the strongest of DC are Superman, Orion, DarkSeid, Wally West, Hal Jordon, and Doomsday. One after another even they started falling like fly’s. Loki and Thor the gods in Marvel were fighting Orion and Superman the gods in DC. For even the immortals from both sides were tired out. The gods battled it out until superman was thrown into a restaurant and landed into their supplies of mussels. Superman looked at the faces of the terrified people and then got up. He flew up to see the others fighting and with a voice so strong the flour on him came off, he got their attention and then pointed down to the city. Then the four gods looked around and saw the destruction they caused and from that day on they would never fight a war this big again.     

Captain America's Spring Break by Isaac 

Spring break starts and I decide to go relax before I have to fight in the Civil War. I drive to the beach with my brand new t-shirt, and Bucky tags a long with me. My head started hurting so I was too tired to go swim. I lie on the sand and see kids playing with mussels then I close my eyes. Suddenly I open them for a split second. I don’t see Bucky at my side, and I get up as fast as I can. I look around and see that no one is near. I don’t know what to do at first so I call out,

 “Bucky??” Of course no one answers. Just before I know it I hear gun shots nearby, and I grab my shield and take cover behind a lounge chair. Then I see that it’s Bucky so I smile and walk towards him with no fear. Bucky uppercuts my chin and I bite my tongue and fall to the ground bleeding.

 I’m confused. Why would he do such a thing? My tongue hurts so badly, but I manage to look up seeing Bucky with a gun pointing directly at me. Right when he’s about to shoot I lift my shield up and block it. I get up really fast and kick the gun out of his hand. Bucky took out his knife and threw it at my leg. It hit my leg, and it started to sting majorly. I took it out and threw it back, he blocked it with his metal arm and took out another gun and started shooting me. With great speed I lifted my shield up blocking all his shots. I summersaulted into the sand behind a boat on the shore.

Why was Bucky acting so queer? What happened to him? Slowly peeking over the boat I don’t see anyone. I slowly walk towards the exit of the beach, but when I reach the exit, Bucky is standing right there in front of me glaring at me. He punched my face and kicked my chest, and I fell to the ground. Grabbing my aching chest I groaned and managed to say,

“What are you doing?” He got on top of me and started to choke me like a bear. With one his other hand he was stabbing me with his knife on my leg. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t and before I knew it I was…

 “Steve, you okay there?” I opened my eyes, and I looked at Bucky who was looking at me in a strange way. Everything was perfectly fine I looked at my leg, and it was in perfect condition. Looks like I just had some messed up nightmare.

“I’m fine, “I said slowly with a small grin.

A Super Vacation by Joseph

Boom! Hulk crushed an alienbot. Hulk turned his head to the right and was already on his target before a penny could fall out of a pocket. Hulk crushed. Smashed. Crushed. Smashed.  They wouldn’t stop coming. Hulk didn’t want to admit it, but he needed help. He gave a very loud roar, and Thor was smashing bots with Thor. This still wasn’t enough power so Thor called Tony who was in his mansion in his Jacuzzi. Tony quickly put on his armor and flew to help. After a long time all the others superheroes arrived to fight.

A couple hours later the Avengers finally defeated all the bots. Hulk was still ready for some action. Everyone else including Thor was very tired. The Avengers all sat at Stark Industries resting. Hulk was outside at the work out gym. He was carrying 10 tons of metal. Meanwhile the others were relaxing. Tony finally got up and said,

“You know we fight crime too much. We could use a break.”

 Thor got up and said, “What about Hulk? I think we all know Hulk can’t stop smashing.”

Tony replied, “Well, we could always ask if he would want to relax on a big boat. That ought to get him quiet.”

Thor then said, “Well who is going to keep the city protected?”

Tony replied simply and said, “Well I guess I’ll just have to turn on all of my iron man suits and put them on auto pilot.”

Everyone stopped and stared at Tony who was sipping coffee. All of the Avengers said together, “You can do that.”

Tony simply said, “yes” and started telling them about how he has accomplished getting so much power for his suits. Slowly the Avengers left their seats so they wouldn’t have to hear him speak.

A day later the Avengers were on a private cruise. Hulk had his anti-smash room. Thor’s room was near the generator were he kept it powered up. Everyone else was doing their own thing. After a week of vacation Black Widow received a call from Nick Fury. It said that the city was under attack, and the iron men suits have failed. The Avengers rushed to the city of New York, but there was nothing there but ruins.  This is why superheroes can’t waste their time having vacation when on the job. Sadly they’re always on the job.   

How are you incorporating student passions into the classroom?  What are you doing to inspire student writing?

Con mucho amor.