At Last...President Barack Obama's In Da House

The last time I cried this hard was Nov. 4th 2008. Pics borrowed from LA Times and Huffington Report. Congratulations Mr. President.

Various Sisterlocks Styles

OK, as usual, I'm a little slow with trying out new things and for the longest I'd been saying, "click on the widgets" in fotki. Well, FINALLY tonight I clicked on the widgets and what a pleasant surprise, slideshows like slide, photobucket and flickr!! Since my blog community and my fotki community aren't all together the same folks, I thought I'd share some pics that may have never made it to my blog. This is called the "stack" and is quite easy to do...in seconds as a matter of fact. Just click on the picture and the stack will shuffle. Only problem I saw was that it will show pics randomly and not in order , thus making you think you've seen all the pics or it will lead you back to my fokti page if you click on the small arrow on the top right of the pic. So if you want to just view the pictures of various ways I've styled my Sisterlocks and remain on this blog post, click on the middle of each picture. Here's a tutorial on the fotki widgets, if you're curious. I guess fotki figured they'd better jump on the bandwagon. We love slideshows!!! I hope the pics post big enough. Enjoy!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Well, well, well. 2009 is already here and no better time than now to update my lock family with my 5 yr update. My locks were born 61 months ago, November 28th 2003. If you would have told me then that the results would be what you see in this post, I would have said, "Naw, my hair could never grow that long." Well, boot my nerves!! I still have a tiny bit of color left from when I got my hair colored two days before Imani Nash-Bey locked it. I'm seriously looking into a Henna Golden Brown color in the near future. I still have a thin crown, but nothing a pony can't easily cover. Boy, how time flies. I've been super lazy over the holidays, and haven't put any videos together. Maybe later. For now, enjoy a few pics of me and my locks. The lock community has been such a blessing not only to me but to hundreds who just needed a little encouragement to take that plunge and get locked up! I just can't imagine any other options.



Below is a video of me and Kalee being silly Christmas. I'll add a collage later. Until then, keep it locked up!!!!

From Willis Family Holiday 2008

Visit Other Locked Blogs

Locked Hair Blog Exchange

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jen and I didn't travel anywhere this year. Dad came by for a spell and hung out. Mom had plans over a cousin's house. We just chilled. I'm sure Christmas will be different.
We will however be heading to Dallas for our nephew's playoff game at Texas Stadium on Saturday. He's a Senior leading running back at Arlington Bowie. He's always had football in his heart starting at a young age. Travis is strong and has a lot of tenacity! Go Volunteers! Well, I thought I'd share a Thanksgiving pic. Tomorrow's my 5 yr anniversary! Another big post awaits!!!! Blessings...

Once In A Lifetime - Go Vote Now!

Introducing Dalton Sherman-For All Educators

OK, I'm inspired beyond belief!! You will be, too!

Kalee's Married now!

Introducing Mr. & Mrs. Mark Perkins!

Kalee's getting married!

Jen and I are heading to Houston/Galveston for my god daughter's wedding on Saturday.
The older picture was taken almost 8 years ago when I had my 1st and last two-strand twists. I was so nervous heading home to Houston from Sacramento when I got my hair done. Everyone was used to me having braids in my hair alll the time. Of course three years later I got me some Sisterlocks. More updates when we return. Wish us safe traveling grace, please.

Heading to CAMT in the morning! Plus Teaching Update

I'll be attending CAMT until Friday in Dallas and hope to bring back a lot of useful material to use with my students. I'll be rooming with some other teachers from another district at Hotel Lawrence but the meetings will be at the Sheraton, formally the Adam's Mark. I am thankful the school district's professional development department is helping me attend this much needed math conference. Thank you Dr. H. and WISD!

I realized I hadn't given an update on my students with their 7th Math TAKS test. We made our number, however our school is still rated unacceptable by TEA standards. We didn't meet the standard in another subject/grade level. Even though TEA closed down two of the four schools who were in the same situation as my school, the strides our students made across the board in all other subject areas didn't warrant closing our middle school. Whew! The kids worked really hard. I had only four students get commended, but many were eight or less questions from getting commended. The end of the year was easy breezy because the kids were feeling "so smart" because of their successes. We ended the year on a great note! I did have more than I wanted who failed, but most were to be expected from being a couple of grades below level, poor attendance, behavior, and a sour taste in their mouthes about Math I just couldn't sweeten them up on. I tried my best, and only anticipate more improvement from them next year and years to come.

One of the sweetest memories I'll have from my babies was having a few of them tell me constantly at the beginning of the year, and throughout the year for that matter, that they hated math and didn't understand why they had to do it. Some of those very same students not only passed their math TAKS test, but came to me before school ended and said, "Miss Evans, I used to didn't like math, but I kinda like it now. Thank you."

Well, to add more good news, a few who were over-aged went to accelerated summer school and will be skipped up to the 9th grade, their right grade in the fall. You don't want to know how many over-aged students I had. I think it's an epidemic. Nonetheless, you keep on striving, never giving up.

Not because I intended it or planned it, but by timing beyond my control, I was offered a transfer back to the school I subbed 8th Math/Algebra 1 long term back in the fall of '06. I will not be a grade level math teacher, but primarily focusing on TAKS Math & Reading. It will be a challenging assignment as I will have 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, for both Math and Reading. My biggest concern is that since this is only my 2nd year teaching, I'll be struggling to build up my supplies without having to constantly "borrow" other teachers' supplies.

With that being said, I am doing what I put off doing last year, which is having an "on-line" teacher shower. I'm asking for anyone who wants to "donate" to my supply fund, to do so by either my email address, mymk1070 @ yahoo.com paypal account, or by sending donations directly to the teacher supply places in town The Learning Center. I also find plenty of manipulatives and supplies at Mardel, Office Max and of course Walmart/Sam's. I lived in each of these stores, mostly dreaming of supplies I wished I could buy for my classroom and the kids. I know I gave probably a whole paycheck easily to them last year, cause it was just necessary. I know it will be the same because I'm not "taking" over another teacher's position, with their Math and Reading supplies on the shelf. That very thought scares me. My principal assures me that I can use anything in the "math closet", but for those of you who are teachers, you know that having your "own" TI graphing calculator is not the same as a teacher as "checking" one out. So for those who would like to share in my on-line "teacher shower, please do. I appreciate any help and thank you in advance. Blessings and good night!

My Sisterlocks Slide Show

Here's a slide show from the beginning. There's lots of pics, but they move pretty fast. You can choose to view with music or mute sound. Enjoy!

So much to do...so little time

I can get a project done. My problem is, I get bored easily and find myself looking into doing something else. I know I have TONS of stuff on my plate (cleaning my house would be #1), however I get easily distracted. For instance, I have soooo many videos from previous lock gatherings that I wanted to upload. See a year or so ago we had this big idea to put something together to send to Oprah, with hopes she'd invite Dr. Cornwell on the show to talk about natural hair, specifically Sisterlocks and the such. Well, those many videos are hidden on my external hard drive feeling much neglect. So as a forewarning, those of you ladies who volunteered to allow me to video you, just know that you will see some "way back" videos of your own hair, which will give testimony of how far you've come from. Sooo, please be patient with me. With that being said, I planned on doing a good ole' video of my 2, 3, and 4 yr mark and it never transpired. I did however find a sister who posted someone's 4 yr anniversary on her blog and it gave me inspiration to get something accomplished this summer while I have a little time off. So, here's the video. Enjoy! And look for something from me in the near or distant future. Peace...

I was getting a little nervous

Most bloggers, like myself, who like to have a big intro or pics/slideshows at the top of their blogs may now see future dating when they publish. I used it last weekend and thought it was pretty cool, to do a double post and spread it out over a span of time. Then I was wondering if it would impede my having a future post that would only be "scheduled" and not "planned" as a current post with a future date. I went to the Blogger Buzz and found the updated info on the new changes. Check it out here!

http://buzz.blogger.com/2008/05/blogger-now-schedules-future-dated.html

And by the way, it's 8:51AM and I'll be "future" posting this tonight!