My First Blog Award!

I've seen all sorts of blog awards floating around, but I never thought I'd actually get one. Apparently Miss L didn't agree with me, because she gave me the Liebster Award!

The Leibster Blog Award is awarded to blogs is awarded to a blog that the awarder enjoys reading, and that has less than 200 followers.
Well, I guess I qualified for that! I have 13 followers. And one of them is me.
Why am I following myself? I have no idea!
I want to thank Miss L for giving me my very first blog award. In case you don't know her, she began student teaching right around the same time when I did. Her passion is Whole Brain Teaching, and she writes a lot about what she learns. Even if you don't feel like totally switching to Whole Brain Teaching, there are a lot of elements of it that you may like to adopt as your own. So, go over there and say hi to her! All 13... er, 12... of you!


Here are the rules: 

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

2. Thank the giver and link back to them.

3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

Okay. Now I must find five of my favorite blogs, which have less than 200 followers, to post here. I guess I shouldn't nominate Miss L, although she is one of my favorites... then she'd have to come up ith five more people!


1. First, a blog that is very dear to my heart. This particular blog is fairly new, although the blogger used to have several other blogs that I followed for years. Many years ago, Michelle adopted her first child, a kiddo from the foster care system who was about 8 or 9 at the time, The little girl had been through hell and back, and had gone through a lot of trauma, and Michelle worked as hard as she could to give her the stable, loving home she deserved. After her first daughter got a little older, Michelle started fostering more children. At one point she had six kids, including two toddlers and two teenagers... and all this while being a single mother! I read this blog religiously... I want to be a foster parent someday soon, and I will probably be a single parent when I do it, so this blog was very interesting to me.    The two toddlers, by the way, were Jon Dalton and his sister Torianna. They ended up staying with her for longer than any of the other kids. In fact, in 2010, after the children's birth mother's rights were terminated, Michelle adopted them! The following year, the family discovered that Tori had neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on the nerves, especially the brain and eyes. Little Tori had tumors in her eyes and in her brain. Earlier this year she had brain surgery to remove the brain tumor, and she is now going through chemotherapy to remove the eye tumors. Its been very hard on her. Michelle created a new blog to document Tori's fight. That's how Team Tori came to be. Its really Tori's blog, but she's only 7 and can't type particularly fast, so her mama does the blogging for her! Tori does contribute with videos and critiques of Dancing With The Stars! Go over there, say hi, and buy a T-shirt!


2. Next... another brand new teacher who did her student teaching at the same time as I did... Emily Brown! She formerly blogged at Circus Of Learning, about her student teaching experiences. But now she has a job as a 5th grade science teacher, so she's started a brand new blog called The Science Life. This is your chance to follow a new teacher from the moment she steps into her new classroom!


3. While we're on the topic of science, here's another science blog! Its called The Science Penguin.  If you're like me, maybe science was not your favorite subject in class... too much note taking and movie watching and possible chemical burns! Maybe you kinda dread trying to teach it to your own class. The Science Penguin makes it easier! Her goal is to show you how science can be fun, motivating, inspirational, hands on, and super educational... for your students and you! Check it out and get some ideas for next school year!


4. Then, there's Kara at Sped-Ventures. She teaches middleschoolers who have physical and cognitive impairments. Kara's blog is always full of interesting activities she does. Whether you teach younger children, typically developing children, or children with special needs, the hands-on activities Kara writes about will give you great ideas for your classroom or for doing with your own children! By the way, Kara has 128 followers. Maybe you can push her up to 200!


5. Finally, a blog I just started reading very recently: Fanny Harville's Unschool Academy. I know some teachers (and people in general) have very strong opinions against unschooling or homeschooling. If you envision homeschoolers and unschoolers as children sitting around the kitchen table reading Bible verses, you should read this blog.  Whatever your opinion is, in fact, you should read this blog. Its about two literature professors and their 7-year-old son. Peek into their window (or their blog) and you may find them reading a poem about trains to each other and discussing how the rhythm actually sounds like a train on the tracks, and comparing it to other poems that have the same type of rhythm; visiting museums, working together to build a raised garden and learning masonry techniques in the process, playing strategy and logic games, putting puzzles together, doing science experiments, learning a foreign language, and of course, doing a ton of reading! Many of their educational ventures are based on their son's interests in different topics. You'll love this interesting family! 


Alright, that's it for my Liebster Blog Awards! I hope you liked them! Thanks again, Miss L, for giving me my first award.