Tag Archives: teaching

A Blogger Blogging about her Blog {and such.}

Hello friends. Good to see you. New visitors welcome.

It’s another beautiful day. There is a smell of fresh brewed coffee. The kids are playing and the sun is shining. I live out in the country surrounded by fields of vegetables and orchards.

Because of what is called the lowlands, in the morning there is a nice white fog that extends the distance. It looks as if God painted a huge moving glorious postcard.

Sometimes while I’m driving to work, I see this white fog after a snow fall. It’s quite magical actually. It reminds me of the scene in Narnia when Lucy enters into the magical forrest.

I’d have to say it’s my favorite time of the day when you are between two places, home and work, just looking at the countryside, watching the birds take off. I see the same man jogging rain or shine.

Figure it out, figure it out, if you don't know how to do it, figure it out.

I notice the colors of the old withering farmhouses. I try to think of words that describe the soft colors of Italy.

The best words that I can come up with are soft butter, avocado and peach. Most of the old buildings are crumbling. I dream that I rebuild the home into a villa. Then I think, no, why would I do that? It’s so beautiful just the way it is.

The anticipation for spring is so strong, your hearts and minds start to see flowers. It’s a thrilling moment when the same snow covered field one day blooms. As we drive past fields of flowers, our family likes to say the colors, pink, pink, yellow, red, white, look, there’s purple.

Foggy mornings turning into sunshine days. Yeah!

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. Emmerson

It is nice to have you here with me. When I was just a little girl hum Doris Day, I wanted to be a published writer. I bought the beautiful empty diaries with angel covers. The first entry on the first page was always exciting with the anticipation of what I would write.

Life presents us with the solutions we are looking for.

As I write, I think of the people who have come across my words. Is writing crazy? Is it the same as talking to yourself in the mirror? If so, or, if not, even if people comment, the actual ACT of writing is me talking to me, right? Or is is you? See the confusion? I do. It’s ok though.

Be awesome. Be authentic.  Be inspirational.

Zero to Blog the film, the movie, the ebook

My ebook, Zero to Blog has been a journey of it’s own. I feel like the book wrote itself because it is information presented in a clear way to help people get their blogs on line.

I painted these for my sister. I see them when we Skype.

As a blog writer you have to figure it all out. I like that though. As my Uncle says, Figure it out, figure it out, if you don’t know how to do it, figure it out.

I suppose I watched too much TV and thought there was an actual book launch party. Maybe there are. In my real life, it didn’t quite go that way. The book launch party idea was to have a giveaway and a book signing. Well, it’s a digital book.

No bookstore. No signing. Or, digital bookstore online books signing party!

Beautiful just the way it is.

Now it’s your turn. I would like to know what you are working on. What is your favorite time of day? What images make you happy? What are ways can you describe color? What does your commute to work look like?

How do you sell your work. What has worked for you?

Thanks for stopping by, your comments are welcome.

6 reasons my blog readers rock. ❒ ~ check ✔

Muah ♫.•*¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.• {blows a kiss.}

Muah ♫.•*¨`*•♫.•´*.¸.• {blows a kiss.}

Welcome back visitors for yet another pot of freshly brewed hot blog copy, using homegrown partially recycled pure grounds. Whatever that means.

Blog copy. Try saying that ten times fast.

I wanted to start off by saying I’ve had a few readers who have been such loyal blog followers leaving comments, hitting the facebook ‘like’ button, encouraging me.

I thank you for being my constant inspiration. Believe it or not, some of you wonderful readers have sent me long inspiring letters AND super cool REAL presents. That’s just too cool.

Like This!

Now my readers are going to ask What does blog copy mean? Then they are going to ask me what fresh brewed has to do with blog copy. I’ll have to send them to an expert because I have no idea.

Bwah ha ha

I’m digging myself quickly into a hole on this post. I can feel it spiraling down.  I still have friends who don’t know what blog means.

Note to self.  Should I start calling it an online journal?

❀ I know you are there. I can see you and it makes me happy and sad all at the same time.

❀ It's okay to take a break. ❀

1. I love my readers. Some of them I have known for ages and others are new. They continue to inspire me to write.

They tell me nice things like you never know Julie, maybe you will make someone’s lives better. They say things like they love to read my blog. I don’t know if that counts though because it was probably my mom. ;)

2. I love writing. To me writing gets my thoughts on the page and out of my head. Yesterday while shopping with my kids I sat down and wrote a list of 15 things I had to do. I felt overwhelmed and getting my list on the page made me feel like I could accomplish it. I’m just taking baby steps one at a time. Stay with me folks.

3. The more I give the more I receive. My friendships have been growing steadily and so is my reader base. I feel like I have never learned so much about life, love, laughter and people as I have in the last couple of months since sharing my life with others.

I had a lot of fears to overcome. I think we all get used to talking to our inner circle of friends or to ourselves we think that if we wrote it for all the world to see we would be drastically made fun of.

4. My learning curve is out of control. The minute I hit the publish button on my first blog entry most of you know I couldn’t sleep. I thought, Oh great, delete, delete, delete. My husband is currently worried about me because it has been almost all consuming.

I just read. I want to know what makes a blog successful so I just click away. Luckily I’ve been super peaceful and smiling.

I'll forgive you. ´¯`»¸¸.·☆

It's a new day and new dawn and I'm feeling good.´¯`»¸¸.·☆

I’m not so certain that spending more time online is a good thing though.

I have always sustained that a to be happy in life you have to find a balance of work and pleasure.

I’ll give you an example. Say you are successful. I ask you how you are spending your days. Are you spending them alone or with other people? What percentage of your time are you dedicating to your family, to your work, to entertainment?

How much of your time are you dedicating towards being a good person, toward helping others? How much of your time are you dedicating toward making yourself a better person?

As my best friend says it’s the doing that makes the difference. In writing and sharing, I’m a do-er not a be-er. Note to self: don’t forget to hyphenated the word be-er.

This chick is so cool. She's thinking about you. ❀

I can see you. Just tell me everything is going to be okay. It will! ´¯`»¸¸.·☆

5. People are curious. I think one of the reasons people are reading this now is because they want to know what it is like to live in Italy. I think I should write more about that. I’ll tell you. I spend a lot of time with my family, cleaning, cooking, writing, drawing,  a lot of time with my friends – as much as possible and the major part of my time taking care of life.

6. I push myself to succeed. I strive for excellence. I strive for peace. I model good behavior. I strive to be a better person. I’m crazy scared that I’m going to bomb in front of all of my peers so I’m doing all I can do to make this great.

I know it’s not. But like I tell my kids, I’m not a great mom, I’m not even a good mom, but I do try. I make it a goal. I know they know that. Making it a goal shows you care. I tell them I love them every day so many times. They know the story because I tell it to them every night before they go to bed.

I tell them I love them more than the moon, more than the stars, and more than all of the oceans.

Tell people you love that you love them. I don’t think you can ever say that enough. Be the change you want to see. Be inspiring. You think you don’t know how? I’ll give you a start. Smile at someone you don’t know. Live your life with passion. Pursue excellence. Take care of yourselves.

Until we blog again. Uh hmm, I mean journal. Have a good one.

Julie

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13 excellent blσgs for your reading and viewing ♥ pleasure

иєω σяlєaиs ¢ιту♥ Be lovely. ♥ Be inspiring. ♥ Be generous. ♥ Be kind. ♥ Have integrity. ♥ Believe in love. ♥ Believe in yourself. ♥ Never give up. ♥ Be the change you want to see.

иєω σяlєaиs ¢ιту♥ Be lovely. ♥ Be inspiring. ♥ Be generous. ♥ Be kind. ♥ Have integrity. ♥ Believe in love. ♥ Believe in yourself. ♥ Never give up. ♥ Be the change you want to see.

Hi guys, welcome back. Good to see you. New visitors, welcome, join, comment. Grab a cup of fresh brewed blog copy. Sugar? Milk? Beuller? Anyone?

Today I’m talking about what makes a good blog based on scientific evidence also known as my opinion. OK OK, I’ll throw in some scientific evidence.

Here are the 13 best blogs who have gotten my blogging bum in gear and motivate me to be a better blogger. Try saying that 10 times fast.

1. BJ at Tiny Island This blogger lives in Singapore. She has a nice style of writing. I go back to her blog because not only is has she become a blogger friend, she has great information on living in Singapore. I feel like I’m travelling without leaving my home when I visit her blog.

2. Tana @ From Kenya with Love If you haven’t read about Tana, my friend from Junior High School, who moved to Africa from California when she was young and raised three gorgeous girls on her own, then now is your chance. Tana tells awesome stories of adventures in Africa that will have you cry, laugh and worry. You’ll love her blog.

3. Michelle @ Bleeding Expresso The Godmother of blogs. I kiss her ring. Based in southern Italy, when I got the nod from Michelle my visitor hits soared. Her blog is FULL of useful information, wit, charm and pictures. She captures the spirit of Italy way better than I can. But best of all, she’s got a goat. Actually three goats.  I’m telling you I have yet to see a cuter goat.

Like This!

4. Matt @ ma.tt This cool blogger who designs blog platforms likes to play jazz in his free time. DID YOU HEAR ME? He’s young, talented, traveling the world and has provided half of the world with a FREE place to write your words. We bow down to our youth.

5. Chris @ The Art of Non-Conformity This guy is AMAZING. I admire him. I came across his blog when doing research for my ebook Zero to Blog and saw the fantastic headline 279 days to overnight success. His ebook is FREE and downloadable now.

Chris’s mission is to travel the world and share his stories. Let’s see if he will dominate the world with his World Domination Manifesto. I found his blog absolutely packed with valuable information – for bloggers, travelers, doers and dreamers. Not only THAT, he’s making this world better place. Five star blogger.

6. Anne @ Anne on Life http://anneonlife.com/ – This lovely mom gets an A in my book for being excellent. She does it all, the mom, the blog, the math, the homework, giving her kids the jeep, but what I love about Anne is NOT only did she go back to continue her education in the later part of her life, she got outstanding grades. When she commented on my list of 7 killer buzz words, she got me to snicker when she wrote:

I love ‘hiney’. Uh, that didn’t come out right.

7. Barbara @ Blogging without a blog I can NOT emphasize enough how much I love clicking and going back to Barbara’s blogging without a blog. She and I have similar tastes in books and motivators such as Wayne Dyer, Byron Katie and Tony Robbins. Written in a classroom like setting, when you click over to Barbara’s blog you a guaranteed to learn something new every time.

purple flowers

I smell spring.

7. Pam @ bored cook Good recipes, good stories and a good blogger. She’s actually gets you cooking delicious food. I love her stories about being young and visiting Italy hoping to bet pinched in the bum.

8. Linda @ Lindaloumac This nice English lady moved to Italy after she raised her lovely girls. She keeps us up on her adventures at her blog. She’s also an avid reader and shares tons of information and book links.

9. Katie and Krystyne @ Tres Chic – Two newly graduated high school students embark on their journey to France to study abroad for four months. Read about their adventures and share their journey.

10. Dr. B @ Dr. Tom Bibey Blue Grass Physician I love love love love going back to read Dr. B’s blog. His visitors are like his patients and he takes good care of us all. His mom was an English teacher and his best friend passed away. He keeps his soul alive telling us what it is like to grow up in a small town where you get to the local diner by turning left at the oak.

Plus, he does it with grace, beauty, dignity and love for his wife and family.

There was not a whit of culture or refinement in me or my brothers.  We were just wild sunburned boys who ran all day and stayed covered in red clay dust.

11. Jeff R @ The Anti ignorance Blog
This young fellow is discovering the world through his words. He’s not bothered by visitors or by growth. He’s just writing. Isn’t wonderful that we have the opportunity to read about what our youth think? Give him a visit and let him know we aren’t all bad.

12. Miss A. Topp @ Love, Literature & the Pursuit of Happiness Enthusiasm, smiles, friends, a big family and willingness to tell the truth. Miss Topp is a young teacher and a lover of books. She’s working on her latest novel. In the mean time, feel free to follow her blog at http://msatopp.wordpress.com/

13. Julie @ local food.

One of the perks of coaching our 13 year-old son, Jack’s soccer team is getting to know the parents of our team members. Disclaimer: Joe does the coaching, I do the Starbucks run and cheering. One of the families we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know is Vince and Denise Brigantino. As a thank you gift for coaching (and cheering), they gave us a lovely bottle of their family grown Cabernet Sauvignon. We uncorked it tonight, let it breath for about an hour, and served it with Baked Ziti – yum!

When Julie writes you enjoy the northern California lifestyle along with her.

Thanks for joining me. Leave a comment. It’s how we little blog writers get paid. : )

Julie

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I ♥ my readers. Great minds can make anything happen when working together.

Each time one of my readers leaves a comment I’m scared to look at it. I sometimes can’t sleep thinking oh great I’m going to wake up and some nut in cyber world is going to have written something mean on my blog and I’m going to have to delete it. Instead I wake up and I see words like excellent and exceptional.

Bike today.

I’m getting to know you all better and I thank you so much for participating in life, love and laughter. You guys are my extended students outside my classroom. I’ve particularly liked meeting people who need help on their endeavors like web site advice feedback. It’s nice to have found a fun creative place to play.

Whenever I’m in a classroom situation my students generally flock to me for information. Why is that? Even when I was little I remember the teacher asking me to explain simple concepts to the other students. I can only attribute it to the fact that both my mother and my grandmother, bless their hearts, were teachers.

If you have read my entire blog you will have seen that I used to write travel diaries from when I was younger. I travelled to Europe mostly before I moved here.

Back to you. My reader’s comments.

My first comment on my first post was from my friend from high school who I call double G. That’s for Gigi. Isn’t that the coolest name – Gigi? She said she’s adding me to her RSS feed. I seriously had never heard of that so I had to look it up on Google. I then read my comment from Pam at Bored Cook and she said Excellent. I felt like I got a good grade on a paper.

It's all an illusion.

One of my favorite comments comes from the nicest guy named Jeff. He wrote I find it hard to believe this isn’t the most popular self-improvement blog out there yet. I about flipped. I’m a new at this. I’d say it’s luck and passion. I also like to laugh and love to write. You guys made my dreams come true for getting 1,000 hits under two months. I’m aiming for another 2,000 in two more months. Does that sound about right to you?

A couple of years ago I was working at a Jr. High School here in Italy. You know what my students like to do? Before I walk in the class they like to write on the blackboard Prof Angelos is the Best. They also like to pass me decorated graffiti like notes written Angelos on them. The kids are 12 years old and so smart.

More Reader’s Comments

It’s your uncanny way of never “seeing” the obstacle of things and situations that make you a great motivator for me. Anne Marie

Your writing style feels like I’m sitting in your living room drinking tea and shooting the breeze. Jeff Burke

I love reading your blog! Miss A. Topp

The articles here are fantastic. Shane Mosley

Hey there. You might be new, but I enjoyed your commentary. Dr. Tom Bibey

Cool and funny tips! … I like the way you write and you have another regular visitor in me! Tomas Z.

Truthfully, this was a really outstanding post. Rosa Planting

You must be a wonderful teacher being who you are. Jeff R

Strong Voice. Shufina K., contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle

Not all reader’s comments have been positive.

On about my third day of blogging I tried adding my blog to a search directory and a guy said he though maybe I was writing satire. I had to look that up. If I’m writing Satire I’m unaware of it. That particular comment is not on my blog because he wrote it on the web directory.

Is this a positive or negative comment? I’m undecided.

The other comment I’m not sure was good or bad was a friend of mine on facebook. When I wrote I’m getting teary eyed when I see babies in strollers Tim wrote Careful, Nietzsche felt the same way about horses.

That comment was so above my head. Maybe some of you readers can explain it to me. I looked it up on wikipedia and it said Nietzche ended up in an insane asylum.

Before this starts sounding like too long of an undeserved Booker Prize speech I just wanted to say you have all been wonderful motivators for me. I write about motivation because I like to get my students thinking. I like to see them smile. I like a good laugh. Life is good. Life is wonderful.

Two quick and funny stories I’d like to share with you.

The first is about my holiday experience at school last week. The school was closed due to snow so the remaining teachers sang and danced. It was a moment I wished lasted forever. When is the last time you can imagine teachers singing and dancing in a teacher’s lounge? Kind of crazy.

And the second

I embarrassed myself on Sc.tt’s website that you can see to your right on my blogroll. I introduced myself as an English teacher and then I misspelled a word. I wrote back to ask him to please not publish it. I wrote through not threw. By that time it was already on his public New’s Feed. No going back. I then went to comment on one of his articles he wrote on a FOO camp – I had never heard of that so again I had to look it up. What I saw was a picture of a beautiful house and a bunch of tents in front of it.

It was hosted at a guy’s house named O’Reilly. I commented that I couldn’t believe Bill O’Reilly wouldn’t invite people in to his house or host them at a nearby hotel. Kind Scott corrected me saying it’s publisher Tim O’Reilly. Who would have known? I tried a third time to correct my mistake by telling him he ‘sited’ O’Reilly four times without giving the first name so my mistake was honest. By the time I hit the return button I saw I wrote sited instead of cited.

For the third time in a row I saw my name on the new’s feed calling myself an English teacher. Oy Vay says my sister. Oy Vay.

When travelling we always run into funny stories of miscommunication. Would you like to tell me yours?

Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Julie

How to be successful without even trying.

Mimi Weddell Blogger

Develop a love for learning. ♡

If we can all agree that we got here now today thanks to the support of friends and loved ones I think we can also agree that it is also thanks to people who have motivated us.

One of my favorite teachers whom I’m grateful to is a man named Mr. Phil McGreevy. For some reason when I was going into high school I was told there was an experimental math class where ‘bright’ students were going to be experimented on. Like little hamsters. I still consider myself to be lucky that I was chosen to be in this class because the 24 of us had the honor of having the same students with the same teachers for the four years of high school.

Consistency, Relevancy and Going the Extra Mile.

Mr. McGreevy was a great teacher for so many reasons but mostly because he took the time to slowly explain everything from the start to the end. I always felt I could ask him at any time any question with out him getting angry. I loved the way he wrote on the blackboard because he had nice writing. He was consistent because he did things like draw squares around the answers. He also seemed to choose relevant homework.

Even though I had him for four years I remember one day when he asked who was interested in getting straight As – he was offering a Saturday workshop. Like most of my students they’d LOVE to have straight As but for various reasons their grades are all over the board. Most of them do follow what Mr. McGreevy called the Bell curve where he demonstrated that most students lie somewhere in the middle. I always wanted to be one of the students with the As. Maybe if I just did that little bit extra it would pay off.

Pay attention ~ here’s the key.

I attended his class and after doing various exercises and reading he got to the point of the argument. He said,

If

If

If

If you want to get straight As then all you have to do is develop a love for learning.

I was shocked. I was little bit disappointed because I thought he was going to give me the answers to that Friday’s test. I had to love learning?

Who loves learning? We only went to school because we had to. Love learning. That was the key. He was right. I don’t care how many times my mother could tell me about the starving children in Africa who didn’t have shoes or school it still didn’t make me want to study.

I don’t actually remember doing homework although I do remember it was assigned. I’m pretty certain I did it either during another class or before the class started. I’ll have to check with my classmates on that one.

I do agree that the key to learning is to develop a love for learning. I since have gone on to become a teacher. I found something even more important and that is the love of teaching. I truly love being infront of the kids and seeing them smile. I feel like it is an enormous privilege and honor to have this responsibility. I try to do my best with it.

One day I’m going to retire from teaching and just be an American living in Italy with her family and garden. God willing. In the mean time, I’m going to love learning.

243 days to overnight success. Thx Chris at AONC.

I’m heading towards a new milestone on my blog and it’s my 6,000 viewer mark. It sort of seriously freaks me out. Who ARE you people? ;) I wonder when it will REALLY freak me out. A million? 7 trillion?

Numbers. That’s all they are. Or is there something more?

♥You're an angel.

I spend a lot of time in the class room talking about grammar, parts of speech, adjectives and motivation. I found after fifteen years of teaching that not too many teachers actually brought up subjects like how to get good grades, developing good study habits, LIKING or even LOVING learning and one of my favorites, brushing and flossing.

Maybe that is why I started a blog, so I could spend more time thinking, writing and talking about what I find more important than grammar ~ inspiration, motivation and becoming a better person.

If you like what you are learning you are going to study harder. It’s just a theory. What do you think? Do you agree?

Like This!

Adjectives and numbers.

One of my friends asked me how I was going to measure the success of my blog. Well, define success. Is it when I make my life better somehow, your life better? Is it when I make a certain sum of money? Is it when I get a lot of compliments or comments on a post?

Or, is it when someone notices a small detail like having a band aid on my finger in my video? {if you answered yes here, please give yourself two points and a coffee break.}

How do you measure success?

Is it when you have fallen in love? Is it when you have a certain amount of money in your bank account? Is it when you are able to travel somewhere you have always wanted to go?

Or is it losing weight? Stopping smoking? To me, success is stopping, enjoying the moment and living in gratitude. For some reason, I always got caught in the belief system of needing and wanting more. I worked, and worked hard until I obtained my next goal. For some reason, there is always another goal right around the corner.

♥The gift of the blessing.

Lately I read in a book by Gregg Braden, called IQ Matrix, that all words are just words given to us to label things as children and we just accept them. I also learned lately that the opposite of whatever we believe can be proven true. So what is the truth? A collective consciousness? Is it when we have the house, the car and the family?

He also wrote some incredible insights about our DNA and how we are all interwoven in a divine, sort of holigraphic type way.

I think happiness is when we finally stop looking outside of ourselves for and accept ourselves exactly how we are; creatures of God, with our defects and our glory. Believe it kids, it’s self love at it’s finest.

I had earlier called my blog Serendipity because it means an unexpected result, I think. Well, what I did not expect when I started this blog was that I would get an extremely supportive and loving audience to write to. I didn’t expect I would find a way to show off my art work.

I didn’t expect that I would be making and sustaining more new friendships than I have in a long time. In a way it’s a bit sad that our society so openly embraces internet relationships when what truly matters are the people you have in front of you.

I didn’t expect I would be able to provide the tools necessary to good or great people to help their ideas become even better while some truly flourished.

Somewhere along the lines, my real life and my virtual life are becoming blurred. A teacher called me out of class today while I was teaching. It was super strange and out of the blue. She had heard that kids were making fun of my accent.

I was six inches away from her face looking at her eyes and thinking what is she saying? Has she called me out because she cares? Because she wants to know me? Because she is reprimanding me? Because she is praising me?

For goodness sakes I was in the middle of a lesson, half way through the sentence on the blackboard: A lorry is bigger than a van. That sentence must be more important, right? Or is it the face to face contact?

I think it’s communication. It’s an attempt to make our current situation a little bit better by talking. That’s our job, right, Chass? Just to make this world a little bit more beautiful?

You truly ARE angels.

I love that I have someone to write to. I love that you share. I love that you have become part of my life, virtual or real. They are all just words anyway.

Julie

Now it’s your turn.

I’d like to know how you evaluate success? What are the labels that society has given you that you just don’t agree with? Do you think the teacher pulled me outside to praise me or to reprimand me? What’s your view on virtual vs. real life communication?

Mostly, what kind of things can you and I do to make this world just a little bit better or more beautiful?

Thanks for reading. Comments are not only appreciated, they are paid. ;)

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To put the past in the past, completely, now and forever.

Thanks LousBoosandshoes.

Sometimes ♡ You have to immerse yourself in an unfamiliar world to truly understand your own.

I deleted my last post because I thought it was totally insane. I learned that you should never write anything in the middle of the night because we think we are lucid but IN REALITY we aren’t. I reread my post this morning, lowered my head in shame and hit delete faster than you can say Hey Mom, what did they put in her Jello?

I went on over to facebook and tried to let my friends know what in the world I was thinking because I had some pretty funny comments in my in box.

It’s one of those days where I think each key on my keyboard should be labeled delete. That way I might stop embarrassing myself with my lama rama ramblings as my friend Pam so aptly calls them.

Back to reality.

It’s spring out here in Italy and the flowers are blooming. Being from So Cal it’s crazy beautiful. It’s the moment that I wish was all year long. I feel like writing.

You da bomb

Well if that wasn’t a bomb of a last class I don’t know what was. I had three hours of teaching today and if you aren’t a teacher you MIGHT not get this but I had a bunch of kids complaining about their grades.

What the mind can conceive the body can achieve.

It got to me because I think of myself a generous teacher so I don’t take to critcism well. One girl wrote the following sentence in English and she wondered why I didn’t give her a good grade.

She had put the following words in order:
discover / will / life / on / No, / they / scientists / won’t / Mars.

She came up with
Will discover mars life of scientists, no me won’t.

I’m chalking it up to being the last hour of the week and we all were tired.

Counter Point

My other two hours were AWESOME. We laughed and smiled. We spent about an hour translating motivational sentences like like Take 100% Responsibility for your Lives, Stop being a victim, Accept and Love your Body, Dream, etc. I think they liked it because they listen, smile and their eyes look alive.

Another cup of delicious fresh brewed blog copy.

I’ve been actively participating in blog discussions. One of my favorites so far is Barbara’s blog called bloggingwithoutablog. She has set her site up to be an active classroom. It’s fun. I love the people in there. One guy just cracks me up with his post called North Dakota Doesn’t Exist.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I knew it was a myth.

I also follow regularly the blogs you see to the right on the sidebar called Reccomended Reads.

Man On Road – Italian Translation Cracks Me Up

I was driving on the freeway a couple of days ago and there was an overhead sign in GIGANTIC orange flashing lights that said Man On Road. I just had to laugh. What in the world does that mean? I think they meant Men at Work. I don’t think there was a man on the road because I saw the same sign at least three times.

Thank you for sharing my blog journey with me friends.

Care to share?

1. When do you find it is the best time to write? Morning, noon, late evening, or when you are inspired.

2. What’s your favorite season and why?

3. Have you ever written an article in the middle, published it, then went back and not understood parts of it?

8 life hacks to turn your end of semester blues into all the colors of the rainbow.

Talk

There is a field. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. Rumi

Here are 8 ways to turn your upside down days right side up.

1) Care I was saddened yesterday because I saw a fellow student get a bad grade and her world went to pieces. Her eyes went red, her tears started flowing, her lip was trembling and she started writing frenetically in her notebook. How can we as a society be completely unmoved by things like this?

2. Pray – True story. Not too far from my house a kid’s teacher finds out he was smoking and he jumps out the second floor window of his school because he’s afraid his parents will find out. He’s still in a coma. My class and I are praying for his recovery. When I talk to my students I’m so careful to encourage them. It would have been so nice if we could just communicate.
It’s life and death.

3) Offer Encouragement. I have a soft spot for kids who come from broken families. I am one of those and I can tell you it has been my defining moment as I grew. I rarely talk about it because I feel like mentioning the word divorce would break my mother’s heart again.

The wind longs to blog in your hair.

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen. Emerson

Still, I offer encouragement to kids going through difficult times. The other day I was in the class room and there was a new kid. He’s a cool kid. He talks when he’s not supposed to and sometimes doesn’t listen to my answers but I understand him. I understand him because I took the time to find out he’s new because he’s no longer living with mom, but he’s living with dad.

4) Contribute I contribute what I can to make my home and family a happy one. Not all the time. OK, I’m far from perfect.

Rather, there’s ROOM for improvement. OK I’ll do better. I promise.

We all have the power to add special touches that make our lives better, such as putting out some flowers, some candles, some spices in the garden. I do it as often as I can because I love to share. I recently added my dot com name, my logo and my shop. Pretty soon I should be giving away a beautiful picture, if I can manage to part with it.

Sure my shop doesn’t actually work YET but I’ve put down the corner stone. It’s a wheel in motion and I’m enjoying the process.

5) Communicate Teachers: Don’t wait until the end of the semester to tell your kids how they are doing in class. Parents: Find out ahead of time by meeting up with the teachers. Kids: Ask your teachers how you are doing – don’t let them intimidate you.

Do what is asked. And then some. Please don’t push your children or students too hard. THEY have to WANT to learn. Guess what? Children love to learn.

6) Do your best and then a little bit more. It’s a triangle that has to work together: parents, teachers and kids. The reason this sweet little student was upset is because she’s scared to talk to her teacher because every time she asks her something she gets scolded or a bad grade.

7) Have a Positive Mental Attitude Find what’s good. Find what’s good. Find what’s good. I have to turn in my semester end grades day after tomorrow. I pray I’ve been fair. I think so. I have worked hard at teaching. I tell my kids my goal is to be their best teacher. I want them to succeed.

*8) Go the Extra Mile I particularly remember a mom who asked how her son could improve his grades. I said do something extra. This kid would bring me a translation on a weekly basis. Was I ever impressed. I’m certain his grade reflected it.

I wrote the girl who cried a little message. I told her I hope she knows that there are more things in the world more important than grades. But in her world, there aren’t.

What are your experiences with teachers and bad grades? How do you get your kids motivated to learn? Do you think it’s better to award good grades, punish bad grades or something in the middle?

Thanks for your comments.

74th day blogging with 1650+ visitors. WT? Cranking out fresh smiley blog content daily.

I’m going to remove my blog stats feature from my blog about Italy. Blogging has taken over my life. I’m going to try to only check my blog visitor stats once a month. Uh huh. Yeah. Right.

Love life! painted by yours truly Julie.

I just want to let my nice readers know how I appreciate each and every click you have made. I have a feeling it’s probably just one crazy maniac who wants me to think I’ve got a cool blog and has nothing better to do so he/she is clicking endlessly on my site. Thanks maniac. You’re keeping me sane.

Today’s theme is going to be about multi-tasking and/or doing one thing at a time. How many things can you do at once? Or is it better to do one thing at a time?

I feel alive when I am doing a zillion things at once. I can have two chats going on in facebook, the phone up on my ear as I’m skyping with my mom watching my children and husband play, listening to a cd while the television is on in the background and the teapot is about to whistle that the water is ready. I’ve also got 10 windows open on my computer and am reading, writing and watching a youtube video. Did she really just say that?

On the other hand I consider myself an entirely simplistic person. Breathe in, count to 10, hold, count to 20, breathe out count to five, repeat. Relax, eat well, do yoga. You can only do one thing at a time if you want to do it well so stay in the moment and concentrate, right? Focus. I’d call this a dichotomy if I knew what it meant. It’s sounds like a fitting word, doesn’t it?

I just looked up dichotomy in wikipedia. It’s actually fitting. Take that Mr. ‘I’m moving on’ blog spam man.

Surprise!

What do you prefer? Everything at once or just one thing at a time?

Hey kids! How are you?! Great to see you. Guess what we did AGAIN today? Yes, we went to the theater in the center of town and got a tour back stage. I went with two shiny teachers and a class of 22 bright students. All the world is a stage. I’m singing and dancing. I happily volunteered to go on stage while the lighting technician showed us how the spot lights work. I must be attention starved because before you knew it a girl named Giada and I were making up a dance routine.

We got booed. We bowed.

Arena del Sole

Tomorrow evening we will all be attending a show. It looks interesting considering the main actor is a man dressed as a woman. Is this appropriate for teenagers? We learnt that the theater used to be a convent with nuns then Napolean was in town about 200 years ago (uh huh) – anyone checking this for correctness? Then the theater got auctioned off to a crazy man who sold leather goods. At least that’s what our guide said.

As far as multi tasking in concerned.

For some psychotic reason I decided to write a guide ebook to getting your blog started and how to make it bloom. I noticed some people are having a hard time getting their blog off the ground so I wanted to share that information. Then I started writing it. It’s not a bad book by any means but still? In Italian they have a saying called ‘chi melo fa fare?’ It means who is forcing me? Everyone I’ve ever met in my life is writing a book so what? The world needs MY information? I don’t think so. And secondly, why would I do that? To prove I can? Breathe Julie Breathe.

I could just take off the picture and that would be that. Only problem is that I’ve already written about 24 pages. Once I start doing something I like to follow through. I just don’t want to put out a mediocre product. I’ll let you know.

Hope all of you are fine out there. Have a great day. Be inspirational. Make the changes you want. Be the change you want. Believe in yourself. You can do it. I know you can.

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Swim AWAY from the Cake – updated motivational technique.

I am putting every ounce of myself to becoming a better blogger, writer and communicator. More importantly is that I am trying to make a positive change in life. Thank for visiting if this is your first time here. Welcome back visitors, feel free to leave comments.

What motivates you?

My best friend Anne Marie kicks my bum in tennis and probably anyone else’s. When we were playing at university we were great partners. We spent our time between matches actually doing cartwheels on the court. We were paired up with a couple of Chinese guys who were so serious about tennis. One day our coach pulls us aside and assigns us new partners. ‘Not the Chinese, Not the Chinese’ we chanted – they’d kill us at tennis. Sure enough, Anne Marie and I found fantastic new partners.

I’m building bridges here.

Stay with me folks. There IS a reason I’m telling you this.

The reason is this. When I am in the class room in front of my students I ask them ‘What motivates you most?’ Is it someone who comes over, puts your hand on your shoulder, smiles, and says good job, or is the person who gets behind you and yells ‘DO IT!’?

When I was on swim team in high school, my sister was my best motivator. She’d follow me back and forth across the lanes and scream ‘Go Julie!’ Her coaching strategy was swim toward the chocolate cake and away from the shark.

Just pretend

Be a kid and pretend you are the best. Walk across the room at this moment as if you have a cape on your back, I don’t care if anyone’s watching – all the better. Our mind will literally follow suit.

When Anne Marie and I were back playing singles tennis, she’d say ‘Julie – You’re going down’ with such conviction, I had no other choice then to let her win. Ha ha ha, Anne Marie, who’s getting the last laugh now?

Point is, get out there, do your best. That’s all we can ask, isn’t it?

Have a nice day and thank you for visiting.