Beta as far as the eyes can see

It's time to catch up. I've been away at Beta Convention. My last one, so it was a little bittersweet. I celebrated my 20th year on Friday morning at the sponsors' meeting. 

Maybe it was bittersweet, but there was definitely lots of frosting! Bunkie High (my old school) brought home all sorts of honors. Since I didn't get to Pin It Weekly, I thought I'd pull some BHS photos from Facebook (there are lots!) and show you how awesome this group is. There are, I believe, around 70 students from tenth through twelfth grades. 

They competed in academic, artistic, STEM, and just-for-fun competitions. These are the winners. All of them can now go on to Nationals in Fort Worth, Texas, in June to complete with students from other states. 

Grace won La. State Secretary

Mia placed third in
Special Talent for her song.

Isabelle placed
fifth in Jewelry Design

The school received an award for increasing membership by 10% or better. And finally, they placed first in Group Talent with their modern adaptation of 
The Wizard of Oz / The Wiz.
(This link will take you to the video on Facebook.) 

That, my friends, is pretty awesome! Imagine the preparation it takes to build backdrops (yes, plural), props, record lines and music, and costumes. (Remember the monkey costumes?) Add about 70 teenagers to the mix, teach them your vision of the adaptation, teach them to dance--together and in sync--with the mix recording that, yes! they put together. 

I'm proud of Bunkie High, not because I played my part (however small) but because it will always be in my heart. I have strong ties to BHS and will always love the school, the people, the students and wish them well.

Flying Monkeys ... a costume tutorial

How to make a Wizard of Oz inspired flying monkey costume ... with pictures and directions. Leave the wings off, add elf stockings and, yes!, you have an elf costume! (Directions in red are suggested changes for an elf costume.)

Supplies: shirt, white and red felt
Cut the bottom four inches off the shirts.
(Use a green shirt or change the colors as you'd like for the elf.
Don't cut the shirt at all and you can make the design longer for more color.)

I have one of those friends who signs me up for stuff. And then she tells me about what I am going to do. Then we walk away. 

Make a pattern
cut out the red fabric
(cut two per shirt)

Cut the white fabric adding
1/4" outside the pattern
(cut two per shirt)

Things can be going smoothly, and I get a phone call that reminds me that I was going to do something but I haven't done it. Yet.

Pin the pieces, red on top of white, and pin well.
Cut the tee-shirt between the pattern pieces and sew.
(Create a smaller design to go around the 
bottom of the shirt and don't cut it.)

You know what happens next? The deadline looms.

After sewing, trim off the neckline
and sleeves to make into a vest.

I have to get busy. But this time I got sick. Really sick. Two days in bed sick. The deadline looms ever closer. Get busy and work fast. At least this was easy. 

Cut pattern on paper (I just winged it.)
Cut out on brown felt. Sew to center back of shirt.
The black lines show where to overlap and sew or safety pin.

(No need to bother with wings for the elf.)

So flying monkeys have wings. I tried but failed. Horribly. I won't even tell you my plan. Here's what ended up happening: Using black felt, we cut wing shapes and safety-pinned them to the backs of the shirts. Later we'll use school glue or Mod Podge to make them stiff so they will stay open. I so wish I had pictures!

The hats, however, I nailed! I used the bottoms of the tee-shirts to cover recycled butter bowls. The decorations on the hats sort of match the vests. I just decided to go with a quirky almost matching design. Oddly, it worked once it was on the hat. My own pattern, I promise.

(Directions are for a pill box hat, in which an elf would be extra cute.)
Make a quirky pattern and cut out the red felt.
Cut the white felt 1/4" larger.
Sew on the knit you cut off the bottom of the shirts. 
Measure the knit using the bowl and cut . 
Staple the bottom of the bowl with the knit wrapped around the cut edge.
Gather the top and knot off.

I wrapped the blue knit around each bowl individually to get measurements. To wrap each bowl, I slipped the knit around it and folded the bottom edge to cover the opening and stapled all around. I recommend really cheap, thin bowls as they are easier to staple.


I gathered the top by sewing around the edge in a large running stitch, pulled it tight and made a knot. (See the hat on the top of the stack in this picture.) 
And that was it.

Flying Monkey suits. 
Three in an afternoon. Check!

Prom 2017 ~~ a BHS finish

Yes, it's that time, again. It also happens to be my last prom as a teacher as I plan to retire at the end of this school year. Actually, I bowed out gracefully for the most part. Some of the younger teachers agreed to help my co-cordinator but we couldn't afford to have that many teachers out of the classroom. 

That meant someone had to stay at school and help hold down the fort. I like the fort and decided to hold it down. Besides, prom is a big, really big job. My co-cordinator and friend really did not want to give it up. She's an art teacher who once asked me to consider opening a wedding consulting business together. Thankfully, we came to our senses right after the next prom. :) 

However, bowing out gracefully (or not) doesn't completely eliminate the chores. We needed ten 24" square table linens to add a bit of color on top of the gold table cloths.  

I love the look of the blue as part of the centerpieces, especially with the chairs accessories of black covers and gold bows. The tables are very elegant, which flows beautifully with the rest of the decorations.

Here are a few photos of the rest of the venue all dressed up and ready for the tuxedos, fancy dresses, and high heels. And let's not forget the nails, hair, facials, makeup and, in some cases, massages. Yes, you read it correctly. Not only do they throw after-parties, hire limos, cook breakfasts, they also get massages to relax before the big shindig! 

main backdrop for professional photographs

closeup of backdrop

above the dance floor

entry way

another area

props table

fun decorations in foyer

photo booth to take your own pics

take pictures while waiting in line

close up of table centerpieces

The teachers and students who worked to plan, clean, decorate, and clean some more are people with stamina and determination. It take a full week of building, painting, glittering, shopping and what-not. Then there are the kids. They have to be taught what to do and watched carefully so supplies are not wasted by accident. Once fabric or gossamer is cut the wrong length, well, you know how that goes. 

For the most part, however, they did a fabulous job and the entire Haas Auditorium is decorated and ready for beautiful girls on the arms of handsome young men. Plus, they learned about working toward a common goal with peers, following directions, and sticking with a project even when you're exhausted and want to give up. Some pretty good lessons for a bunch of 16-17 year olds, don't you agree?

Linking up with

Crazy Mom Quilts 

My Quilt Infatuation

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Busy Hands Quilts

After reading some of the comments, I decided to add the following to help everyone understand the enormity of the job. 

Putting on a prom here is like decorating for a wedding. Except it has to be done on half (a fourth?) of the budget! We live in a poor rural area, so kids can't afford to pay $250-300 for a ticket like they do in more affluent areas. We build decorations out of cardboard, foam board, gossamer, paint glitter and who knows what. That car in the foyer...started out as a piece of pink foam board for housing insulation. 

We also save everything and share/borrow decorations from other schools. One year we bought all of the decorations left from a wedding for a very low price (and helped to clean after the wedding). Another year a sister school gave us "the dancing couples"--we've call the three props that for several years now. Some of the white gossamer in these pictures was left over from last year.

It's amazing what can be done (and amassed) for a few thousand dollars when you're resourceful. But it takes lots of work and many workers: teachers to oversee and help students build props, students (who learn many skills that they are completly unaware of), adult chaperones during the dance, and teachers who are willing to take in displaced students because their regular teacher is decorating "at prom." It's a huge event because decorating takes so many hours, after-school for several days and during school for two. 

I chose to baby-sit during school so some of the younger teachers could work at the Haas. "Baby-sitting" as many as 40 kids for a couple of hours is work, but it doesn't require crawling on the floor or climbing ladders--that's a young teacher's job. Never the less, I still showed up for the after-school hours! And offered my sewing services. And was all in the business of brainstorming ideas. (See, you never really bow out completely.)

Welcome Parents Booth

the whole picture

Every year our school board puts on a parental involvement fair to encourage parents to learn more about our schools, our teachers, and our policies. There's all manner of legal must-do and better-not-do rules but I won't bore you with all that. 

I'd rather we just get to the finish of the week. It is sort of interesting in a how-are-we-going-to-pull-this-off kind of way. The central office, preschools, K-6 elementaries, and 7-12 high schools all have to create a booth where parents and community members can pick up information and learn about our services, special initiatives, and programs. 

I won the opportunity to head up a PFE committee. The perk: a half-day off to haul stuff to the venue and create the booth. The theme: Louisiana's Best. The plan: get a committee to help. The committee: administrators who didn't want to have to explain why there was no booth. Okay, then! We are ready to roll.

The front table for meet and greet

The first order of business was to bring everyone up to speed on all the details of the event itself. This event has become something of a keep-up-with-the-Jones kind of thing, but we weren't buying it. We decided we wanted to showcase our school and our new magnet status.

a large screen television to show
videos and pictures of our students.

That being said, we quickly came up with some ideas and pulled together a plan. On Wednesday I gathered all the red/white, panther-like, BHS stuff I could put my hands on. On Thursday I garnered some Louisiana trinkets and home decor stuff. By noon we were ready to go. Our counselor, teaming coach and I arrived at the venue and started setting up. 

The schools next door to us had gone all-out and set up banners, backdrops, pirogues, Spanish moss, bamboo, cypress knees, and a plethora of other stuff. "Too much," we said as we went about our business.

The main stage--mixing it up

We had fun and pulled together a great-looking booth. Parents and others came for visits, picked up information about our new magnet status, and learned about the Louisiana Quick Start Program. 

Decorating became easy as we had all the basic items. Once those were in place, we added Louisiana trinkets, mementos , and magnolia leaves to the mix. And, while we didn't have the biggest or the faniest booth, we are quite proud of the one we did have. 

Is it a finish in the technical sense of the word? Probably not, but it was difficult and creative. Besides, it's all I have for now!

My Example of Teaching

The National Beta Club is a an honor organization, that focuses on service to others. Today we were to have a Beta meeting. We've built our club up so that we can't all fit in any of the available classrooms, so we've moved to the cafeteria and were to begin as the middle school kids cleared out. Imagine tables after 400+ teenagers have eaten. Clean is not a descriptor. 


Because I am one of the sponsors, and closest in proximity to the cafeteria, I arrived early. Middle schoolers were still eating and playing and lining up and being kids in the cafeteria. The workers were in the kitchen and had not begun cleaning tables, so I set my things down and quickly grabbed a cloth and bucket of cleaning solution. 


I wanted to be able to begin our meeting right away because time was limited with lots to do, but I did not want to sit at the dirty tables. By the time the Betas were called to the meeting and arrived, I had cleaned most of the tables. 

They were surprised to find me washing down tables and asked me why I was doing that...it's not my job, they reminded me. Our meeting began on time, and we managed to get to everything on the agenda. Later, when students asked me again about cleaning the tables, I told them simply that the tables needed cleaning. At that point they realized that I'd cleaned all the tables--not just my own--and thanked me. I believe in teaching by example. 

"Children may think about what I say; they learn from what I do; and they never forget how I make them feel."