I love Disneyland. My love for Disney reaches far beyond the park. I love anything that is connected to the name Disney. One can’t help but think happy thoughts when you hear the name Walt Disney. When there is anything Disney related I really try to check it out. Recently we decided to take a trek out to the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, CA. The Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives exhibit were there for a limited time and I had to see it before it was gone.
Back in December, I wrote Part 1 of The Mickey Mouse Over School Dilemma. As a teacher and parent, I have seen both sides of this rather controversial topic within the world of Disney Driven people. In Part 2 of this series, I am going to put my teacher hat on for a little while. I will pretend I am not the mother who is once again planning to take her child out of school and focus on teacher thoughts, challenges, and responsibilities.
Words with Walt or Of Mouse and Man is a theatrical presentation written by Chris Lucas. “I play Walt Disney circa 1965 as he gets ready for the press conference announcing the ‘Florida Project.’ He re-caps his life story in an entertaining and moving way. Chris researched to find stories that most people have never heard about Walt or were not well aware of. “My goal is to have today’s generation realize that Walt Disney was a human being and not just a corporate icon. The show can be as short as 30 minutes, or as long as 2 hours, it varies by the group I’m speaking to. It’s currently on hiatus as I work on my father’s movie, but I will probably resume performances in Spring 2012.”
With so many Disney related web sites out there, do you ever find yourself taking a quick peek at newly discovered ones without much investigation? I do, and after discovering Davelandweb.com I’m rethinking my web browsing indifference’s. Davelandweb.com contains a treasure of both new and vintage Disneyland photos. Along with an entertaining blog and some of his own artwork, Dave is proving that the art of truly great content is perseverance.
“My website started as a means to share my art and photography with others; sort of an online portfolio. The creation of my site began around the same time that Disneyland was celebrating its 50th Anniversary. As Imagineers began sprucing up the park and making improvements that hadn’t been seen there in years, I found myself going much more often and taking more photos. I stumbled upon a few blogs that posted vintage photos of the park and as a result, I started collecting those as well. As an additional way to share those photos with others, I began my blog. That’s when the runaway train left the station. It has been quite a journey since then. Over five years of blogging and countless amazing friendships and connections since, I have to say that I have been truly blessed with so many serendipitous moments.”
Photo Credit: Beth L.
There are definitely some controversial topics when it comes to the Disney Driven Life and the world of education. The first one that cropped up into my head brought me back to December 2008. It was the winter when my husband and I decided to book our first ever family trip to Walt Disney World. When we looked at dates, no matter what we did, school days were involved.
If you’re standing in line to board Space Mountain are you watching the passengers boarding ahead of you or are you looking behind the glass booth trying to figure out what those employees are doing? If the latter, you will probably identify with Tony Caselnova, owner of Disney By The Numbers. “I took my first trip to Disney when I was 13 and became completely fascinated with how things operated.” This fascination led to Tony taking a job at Epcot in 1995. By working security, Tony got a close up view of how things worked. Now he’s taking those experiences and bringing Disney to us ‘by the numbers’.
Like pretty much every other student on this planet, I hate homework. However, I don’t think that schools are going to get rid of it anytime soon. Students everywhere are forced to deal with it, one way or another. Throughout my years of homework doing, I’ve come up with a few Disney related tips to help reduce the pain and stress that homework causes.
1. Snacks- We snack a lot when we’re at Disney, so it’s fun to enjoy the same snacks at home while I’m doing my homework. Unfortunately I don’t have a dole whip bar in my house or an ice cream cart with an umbrella that has Mickey bars and other frozen treats. A few of my favorite “at home” Disney snacks are rice crispy treats, cheetos (the kind that Trader Joe’s makes because they’re gluten-free), popcorn, and barbeque potato chips. I also like a piece or two of Disney taffy if we have any. Thankfully my parents just brought me home a box! Snacking on things that we eat at Disney really make doing homework hurt less.
Photo Credit: Beth L.
Did you celebrate the 100th day of school when you were a child? Do your children?
Times have changed in schools across the country. These days they celebrate various items. Most elementary classrooms will talk about Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, Veteran’s Day, President’s Day and other holidays that most people in our community will observe. Of course, to help with multicultural education, they will scatter in some about Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year and other holidays. On Halloween, most schools only allow really young children to dress up for Halloween. Oh and a lot of classrooms ask children to dress up as their favorite storybook character. Good thing there are Disney books right?!
Photo Credit: Beth L.
Let’s face it, going back to school can be a challenge for all students. Sure they miss their friends, they like the routines, but the unknown is there. Each August and September, kids around the country head back into the classroom. No doubt, home schooling children also wonder what the year will bring for them. As a teacher, I would also wonder about my students.
Hi readers! This week I will be attending the D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center and will be romping around the Disneyland Resort with many of you. We’ll be back to our regular reading schedule next week!
We are currently reading Adventures of Tom Sawyer written by Mark Twain, chapters 15-21. If you haven’t started yet, this may be your chance to catch up. Have a magical week!
Contributed by: Lynnette Johnson (NDM#271) Lynnette is the DDL Book of the Month Blogger.
Photo Credit: Beth L.
I admit it, I am the parent who never introduced her children to scissors early. I know, I know – bad teacher, but it never seemed like the right time. Then, my oldest son NHL was receiving Occupational Therapy and his therapist asked about his lack of cutting skills. He was barely three, but I had to put my fears aside and work on this with him.
Well, we didn’t find any forgiveness between the schoolhouse romantics in these chapters! Tom’s fledgling romance with Becky causes him to wish he were dead so she could feel really sorry for making him upset. But then he comes up with a different plan. As he wanders through the woods, he thinks about how he could run away and decides to become a pirate instead; “the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main.” His decision ends up putting him smack dab in the middle of the adventure of a lifetime.
This week’s reading brings us to a turning point. The whole feeling of chapter 9 is ominous. The quiet, the sneaking out, the graveyard, the men coming towards the boys imagined to be devils, and finally the awful event that Tom and Huck witnessed. So far we have seen Tom’s life as mischief and play but this changes everything. The real world invades boyhood play and becomes all Tom thinks about.
Tom is an ornery little thing isn’t he? The kind of kid that’s so busy having fun that he doesn’t see what could possibly be wrong with what he’s doing. Poor Aunt Polly! Try as she might, she just doesn’t seem to be getting through to him. He’s getting into trouble for one thing and at the same time is thinking about the next thing he could be doing. Or he’s sweet talking his way out of something! Even still, you can’t help but like him. His enthusiasm over what he’s caught up in is contagious.
Illustration from Tom Sawyer Courtesy The Mark Twain House
Photo Credit: Beth L.
Being a Disney Driven person living in an educational world, I quickly grew to appreciate all different forms of art. Not only did I adore original Disney Art cells, but other works that were inspired by Disney. Case in point, the Disney Traditions by Jim Shore. So many beautiful pieces that our entire family adores. While getting my undergraduate degree, I took an art in education course. I loved being able to integrate art into literature, math, science, social studies, and beyond. I even did one of my projects based on Walt Disney related items. Shocked, aren’t you?!
Treasure Chest near rafts to Tom Sawyer's Island at Disneyland, CA (photo by Lynnette Johnson)
Before we dive into our next book, I’d like to thank this wonderful group of readers for allowing me to finish out the school year and letting things settle down a little bit for the summer. I appreciate that! And speaking of which, what do you think of when you think of summer? Hopefully not the dredge of going to work the same as always! Remember when you were little and pretty much had free reign of your time? The end of school was super exciting because it meant FUN! I remember as a kid we’d have neighborhood backyard campouts. We’d rotate houses each week and sleep outside under the stars, telling ghost stories, singing songs, eating s’mores, and just enjoying being a kid. We’d play ditch’em (a variation of hide and seek encompassing the whole street) late into the night and find ice cream sandwiches or Drumsticks waiting when we got home. I love summertime. But nothing beats summertime as a kid.
Fw: [Fwd: FW: Fw: just for you]
If you send this to 20 friends in 15 minutes, you will find $15,000 in your mailbox this week. If you don’t, bad luck will befall on you by three pm tomorrow.
We’ve all received these emails and text messages. I suppose they were created to give unrealistic hope, but usually they just provide guilt- that feeling that makes you want to forward it on because the text says you must. I see the way my 12 year old daughter frets over these messages. She worries that she will hurt the feelings of the one who sent it, but then doesn’t wish to make her other friends feel the way she did when she opened that message. Some of these spark fear with promises of bad luck if the message gets deleted but, for the most part, they are simply nuisances. I wonder if these notes act as a precursor to the more serious ones: The Cyberbully messages.
Photo Credit: Beth L.
Have you ever walked down Main Street USA and an idea popped into your head? This happened to me during a trip to Walt Disney World in May 2009. While walking out of the Main Street Bakery, we saw a Cast Member “painting” something in the street. We did a double take and captured the image above. Although not in a classroom right now, the teacher in me is constantly churning lesson plans in my head.
Contributed by: JB Conway (NDD#27) JB is the DDL Poet. He is also the author of Mouse of Zen: Disney Inspired, Mouse-Sized Poetry.
Photo Credit: Beth L.
Kids all around the country are already on summer break right now. My son will be finishing up second grade this week. Summer time is not only filled with fun in the sun, but lots of hidden learning in our house. As a certified reading teacher, I make sure that we get in some reading with the boys each and every day when we are home. We have a lot of books and go to the library often (hello, air conditioned location). In many of our local libraries, they have summer reading programs.
Contributed by: JB Conway (NDD#27) JB is the DDL Poet. He is also the author of Mouse of Zen: Disney Inspired, Mouse-Sized Poetry. To have your Disney Parks vacation images treated with similar pixie dust, please visit our studios located at KnellStudioWorks !