Day 1 but really 2

Today was day 1 back as a whole staff but actually my 2nd day officially back (I was back with new teachers on Friday and you can read about that over here.).

Yesterday we snuck into the school (the AP, two secretaries, book keeper and myself) to fill our principal's office with red and blue BALLOONS. Her birthday was July 28th and she claims that everyone forgot her birthday so this was happy birthday +30 days. She just brought her son to college so the balloons were also to distract her today from thinking about her young man away at school. Since today was our first day back the balloons were also a welcome back and 2012-2013 kick off surprise! We blew up over 150 balloons and attached coupons, QR codes with messages, pictures, voice and video, Clorex wipes and Cool Ranch Doriotos. Here are a few pictures of Operation Helium. We had a lot of fun sneaking in and being silly on a Sunday night.

For lunch we were each asked to bring a food that describes ourselves! This was a repeat activity from last year because we had SO much fun with it and learned a lot about each other.  I did not say all of this but this was my thought behind it. I highlighted the most important parts to make my speech short for the staff! You can see that I created a beach which is my favorite place to be and where I was married this summer but something you cannot see about my dessert is that it represents my collaboration skills. My AP had suggested I do a sherbet beach dessert to represent a beach which I thought was a great idea. As usual I consulted Google and Pinterest and put my own creative twist on the original idea. The two teddy grahams are me and my husband, the two Sweedish Fish in the jello are Lilly and Gremmy (my puppies), the bright colorful umbrellas are my fun, sunny, positive personality, the fruit roll up towel is fruity and a bit crazy which I can be. The beach welcomes everyone, is always open and can be very therapeutic which is how I feel my classroom is to both students and colleagues. There are always kids playing at the beach which represents my passion for teaching. I spent lots of time vacationing on beaches with my family growing up so this reminds me of them and they are very important to me. Like a beach I can be calm, patient and relaxing but mostly not, I have a strong personality like the waves and I am loud and full of excitement. The QR code links to my wedding pictures which was the best day of my life. It also represents that I am a nerd and will try to integrate technology in any way possible and my desire to help others see how technology fits even when it might not be obvious like on a dessert. The pictures also represent my love for photography and  the relationships that I've built with my students and parents (a former parent who is also a photographer traveled all the way to OBX from VA to shoot our wedding photos).  The whole dessert represents my "overachieverness" and my perfectionist side. I like to be crafty and do things that are hands on. In a nutshell that is ME!

Meghan who is my PIC (partner in crime), co-lead mentor, support system and one of my nearest and dearest friends had the brilliant idea of changing our outfit all throughout the day! Over the years we have accumulated TONS of school logo attire and our closets literally have a section of red, white, blue and black! We found OVER 20 different shirts that we could change into throughout the day in addition to gym shorts, sweat pants and hats! This morning we found 9 twin outfits and began our silly experiment! We really wanted to show off or STAR QUALITY of sense of humor to show everyone just how fun we are, how much we love working at Porter and really to just add something funny to the day. It was so funny watching people make faces, question our switch and crack up laughing. Here are just a few of our changes!!!

I know there wasn't a tech tip today but I have something SUPER cool to show you tomorrow...cliff hanger I know... you might not sleeping wondering!!!