My VW Beetle

It is finally happening. I have had my 1970 VW bug for over 15 years and the paint faded terribly. I started work on it last spring by removing all of the exterior elements, covering the rest and sanding the heck out of it. In early summer, I finally got the Bondo placed over the bad parts and re-sanded those areas until my arm hurt! I got the primer on right before summer school started. Now, it is getting the paint job I have been waiting for. At first, I wanted a tye-dyed Beetle, but then since I am a huge giraffe fan, I decided an orange giraffe pattern with eyelashes for the headlights would be FANTASTIC. I chose orange because of our school colors and it is one of my favorites. A former student, who is fantastic with spray paint, is working on it today. I can't wait to put it all back together and drive it to school!

Original color was faded and when sanding I found a lot of interesting things under the paint. Thankful for Bondo!

Primed with two coats and ready for the artistic hand of a spray painter!

It's back to school!

I admit, I didn't really have much of a summer vacation. I spent six weeks of it (two separate three week sessions) teaching summer school from 7AM to 4:10PM. Language Arts grade 9 was a challenge since my focus has been 11 for so long, but I had a great time getting to know those kids and giving them the chance to earn their English 1 credit, even if some of them were seniors! Within that, I took 2 grad classes for Summer 1 and Summer 2. Don't even ask me what I was thinking, I just wanted to accelerate my degree! But you know what? I have learned so much and am actually refreshed to bring ideas to the faculty and push us along in our school improvement toward academy based learning.
I have read so much and typed so much that I think I need to make an eye appointment for new glasses!   Today was my first day back as part of the Educational Leadership Team and the department chair for Language Arts. I will be guiding 15 other teachers along the way to our destination in 2020 of completing the CAPS Academy for all high school students in Casper. I'm excited, but I may not get a lot of sleep! Oh well, that's the life of a teacher, right?

Back to civilization!

We came down from the high country about 6pm this evening and had a wonderful time enjoying the beautiful surroundings. The weather was a little weird in the evenings so we didn't see a lot of animals, but we did get to relax and enjoy comfortable temperatures, good food and great company. The wildflowers were all but gone and the butterflies were searching for food everywhere. I really didn't miss the phone, the texts, or the Internet!!! It was a much needed break.

The butterflies sat very still and seemed to pose for the camera!

This ball of fluff was about 4" in diameter. It was HUGE!

Grasshoppers were everywhere with the dry conditions. 

Indian Paintbrush - Wyoming's state flower. 

Another hungry butterfly.

Diigo Connection 08/06/2013

• Web Accessibility for Older Users: A Literature Review

  This article discusses elderly users and web accessibility. They compare elderly users to people with disabilities.

  Tags: summer13accessibility, elderly, disabilities

  • - By Kelli Gerhardt

• Web4AllLearners - Web 2.0 Access Barrier- Present and Future

  Wikis, Blogs, this, that!!!! Web 2.0 causes so many barriers to different groups of people depending on the tool used. This article is great because it discusses the issue of access barriers and which groups are affected by certain 2.0 tools.

  Tags: summer13accessibility, web2.0

  • - By Kelli Gerhardt

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Summer13T2 Web 2.0 Access Barriers group favorite links are here.

Vacation time!

Finally, the last day of the summer session ended at 4:10. I am so glad to have a week off before it's back to the regular grind. Zoe and I are headed up the Big Horn Mountains with my parents and sisters to spend a little time at the family cabin and scope out the beauty around us. I am so looking forward to coffee on the porch with mom, fishing with dad and 4-wheeling with Zoe. No phones, no Internet, no television! (Thankful for the indoor plumbing, though!)

I will be geocaching this entire trip to let you all see where I go and what we encounter. Stay tuned. It's going to be great!

Last year's mama and baby moose.

Ahhhh, the family cabin. I can't wait to be there!

I am stepping away from cakes for a little while and embracing my other passion: photography. I will finally have a little bit of a break before the start of the school year and I have some wonderful new equipment to play with before journalism starts. I will be going to the Big Horn Mountains and our family cabin to spend some much needed time with my parents. I have been told that the moose are hanging around and I look forward to some wonderful photo ops.

Last night's storm gave me some good opportunities to spend time with my daughter as well as get some cool storm shots. When it got too close, we went inside!

Diigo Connection 07/30/2013

• We All Have Special Needs: Using Technology to Break Down Barriers

  Tags: Edutopia, technologies, potential, iPad, education, assistive_technology

  • - By Hailey Bechtol
  • - By Hailey Bechtol

Posted from Diigo. The rest of Summer13T2 Web 2.0 Access Barriers group favorite links are here.