Gallery Night Scrapbook Page

Cleaning off my hard drive I found this folder of photos from my Advanced Photography Class Gallery Night this year so I decided to make a little scrapbook page. If you were in the class or attended the gallery night and want a copy of the page leave me a comment and I'll send it to you so you can print it out. It's originally sized 12 inches square so it can be printed any size square.

I used parts and pieces from lots of different kits. so here goes. The background is a paper I recolored from the Take a Dip kit by Digi-Designs by Nicole. The string and the flowers are from different kits by Shel Belle Scraps, both recolored. The glittered alpha is the Seduced Alpha recolored as well by Sarah Bryan. The staples are from the Staple Fun Pack by Gunhild Storeide and finally the font is Pea Natalie by Fonts for Peas. Whew! It would be so much easier if I could just find the one perfect kit to scrap a page, but I'm too picky :)

Enjoy!

Giving Gallery Video

MISD TV posted this video of my students presenting the check to the Education Foundation...it's pretty fun so I thought I would share it with you. Thanks Jerry and Richie for filming it and putting this together!

Giving Gallery Update

Today a group of my advanced photo students took a big check over the the Mansfield Education Foundation to surprise the Executive Director Linda Bacsik. I think she really was surprised and the kids had a great time finishing what they started.

In case you haven't been following my story I'll give you a recap. The Mansfield Education Foundation awards innovative teaching grants

to teachers in MISD. When a teacher wins they have a prize patrol that comes to the teachers classroom with a big check for the amount of the grant and balloons. The prize patrol consists of school board members, the superintendent, members of the foundation and the media. It's all very exciting for the teachers and students.

I have been the lucky recipient of several innovative teaching grants. I won my first one in 2003, my first year teaching in Mansfield for a grant I called FACES: Friends Across Cultures Experience Success. I was so surprised and excited, that year they even had our school drum line marching through the halls as part of the prize patrol! This fall I won a grant called

The Giving Gallery where my students would host a galley show and sell their photos in a silent auction donating the proceeds to charity. Since the Foundation has been so generous to me and my photo students I thought it would be appropriate to donate the proceeds to them and my students agreed.

Our show was a huge success and we raised $1815 through our silent auction. We decided that it would be fun to turn the tables on the Education Foundation and have our own little prize patrol to surprise Linda to give her our donation. Richie, Terry and Jerry over at MISD communications helped us set her up with a "meeting" so she would be in her office when we arrived and Richie and Jerry came with us to present the check. It was great! Thanks to all the people who bought prints at the auction and supported my students. Thanks to all the people who helped us with our prize patrol today. Thanks to all my students who inspire me to be a

better teacher every single day.

If you are interested in making a donation to the Education Foundation to support innovative teaching grants, please visit their website.

Gallery Night

My students hosted two gallery nights this year. The first one was hosted at Marty Seybold Gallery in Arlington, TX and they showed 32 photos. Only the advanced, i.e. second year, students got to show off their photography at this show because it is a small intimate gallery. The second show was much bigger. 206 photos. yes 206! all the students got to participate and we help the show at the school. We had 70 of the photos framed and on easels and the rest were hung on the walls. I was a little worried some of the photos would fall off the walls before the end of the night but they stayed up and our visitors were quite impressed with the students quality of work. All the photos were offered for sale in a silent auction and now that all the checks have come in I am proud to announce that my kids raised $1815 to donate to The Mansfield Education Foundation. I am so proud to see my students donate this money to the MISD Foundation since the Foundation has been so generous to them by funding several Innovative Teaching grants that I have written. This year alone my kids got two digital Rebels with CF cards and camera bags, a set of tungsten studio lights and the frames and easels for the gallery night all from the Education Foundation. Giving back feels good.