Lemonade out of lemons.......

I mentioned earlier that I had attended an education conference this summer. Though the conference was well done, it was really geared for those just entering the field of education. After 32 years, I found it to be lacking in new information. While dieing of boredom on the last afternoon, I hear the speaker say that she is going to be handing out prizes at the end of the session. Considering the uninteresting subject she was covering, I thought that was a brilliant move to keep her audience from drifting out the door.

The first name pulled from the basket was mine. Wow! I never win anything and here I was the first name called. I was excited, maybe the two days hadn't been a complete loss! What would I win? A new professional guide, the latest children's book? When the nice lady handed me my prize, I couldn't believe it.

It was a 5x5x5x5 square block of wood, the kind that fence posts are made of. The block had been painted black and had clear plastic credit card sleeves attached to four sides. The idea was to slip concept cards (such as letters, numbers, math facts etc. ) into the sleeves and to have students roll the block like dice. Student would then be required to solve the fact or produce a word beginning with the letter sound etc.

Cute idea, been done a million times and usually with far less dangerous materials than this ginormous hunk of wood :) All was not lost though! I saw the wood and immediately knew what I was going to do with it! Meet "Carbon Footprint". My answer to two days of lectures on fairly redundant information. Recycle, reuse, repurpose...........