My first layout!

I did it!  I made my first layout using SBC Studio.  Pretty easy, but not the page I wanted to do.  I spent hours working on one of the challenge pages posted by pixels2pages but couldn't get it to work with this version, so I decided it was time to give up on that for now and begin my Paraguay travel album.  So far, so good!

Scrapbooking!

I love scrapbooking, but it is a very rare occasion when I have the time or energy to actually pull out my extensive collection of papers and embellishments.  Then when I do, I spend more time organizing myself than I do actually scrapbooking.  I end up mentally drained with out much to show for all of the effort.  That is, until I discovered digital scrapbooking.  I tried this several years ago using a copy of Photoshop Elements that came with my scanner.  I failed miserably.  It was difficult to learn and at the time I was teaching and working on my master's degree.  Needless to say, that effort was short lived.  I got back into the digital world about a year and a half ago to chronicle the lives of the two young foster children that were in our care.  This time around I chose the Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus software.  It worked okay, especially considering it was running via Parallels on a MacBook Pro.  Not the best, but it was easy enough to use and I actually completed albums for them.  However, after I upgraded the software to version 3, I began to have more difficulties:  menus that would not disappear, super slow response.  The only solution to these problems was to shut down the program and start again.  Working on my summer trip to Paraguay was torture, so I gave up and decided to scrap these pictures traditionally.  Imagine my excitement when I found out that CM was releasing a mac version of Storybook Creator!  I downloaded it as soon as it became available and have been working tirelessly trying to figure it out, to the detriment of my classroom planning.  So far there is only basic support for SBC Studio.  I am wanting to try some things that could be done with the pc version, but have so far been unsuccessful attempting them in the new Mac version.  None of the embellishment and paper packages I have already purchased can be used for the mac version, and I had purchased a lot!  Luckily I have 30 days to try it, but I may decide that another software will suit my needs more.  If I actually complete a layout I will post it here!

A Brand New School Year

This is the first time in 7 years that I have had a full first grade class.  Eighteen wonderful children full of energy and ready to learn.  School began a week and a half ago, I am enjoying each moment...and sleeping well!!  It is amazing how 6 and 7 year olds can wear you out!  This year I am trying some new things to enhance student learning.  The biggest change being the implementation of Daily 5 during my reading block.  In a matter of 5 short days, all 18 kiddos have managed to reach 6 minutes of Read to Self time.  A real accomplishment, since after the first day I didn't think we would ever reach a minute!  It now looks like 20+ minutes is actually a feasible goal!!  Yea for first grade!