Student Notebooks, Part 1: Learning Inventories

All of our students have data notebooks that we are using to keep track of their academic goals, achievements, and progress. Research shows that students that keep track of their learning goals and achievements are more successful than students that passively receive (and disregard feedback) such as quiz scores and test grades. On average, students that tracked their own progress had a 32 percentile point gain in their achievement. You can read more about Marzano's research HERE. We decided to implement that research this year by creating student data notebooks.

Student Notebooks: Notebook Covers
To help students take ownership of their notebooks, they have been working hard on the notebook covers. There's room for them to fill in information about themselves, and it's a fun and creative way for students to tell us who they are and what they like. This is important because it helps us build rapport and trust with students. You can download a copy for yourself by visiting Science and Math Doodle's Teachers Pay Teachers account.

Student Notebooks: Learning Inventories
There are five tabs in each student's notebook. The first tab holds the learning inventories we conduct during the first week of school (or during the student's first session with us). These inventories tell us how strong each student's intelligence is in eight areas.

According to Dr. Howard Gardner, a professor of education at Harvard University, "students possess different kinds of minds and therefore learn, remember, perform, and understand in different ways." According to his theory of multiple intelligences, "we are all able to know the world through language, logical-mathematical analysis, spatial representation, musical thinking, the use of the body to solve problems or to make things, an understanding of other individuals, and an understanding of ourselves. Where individuals differ is in the strength of these intelligences - the so-called profile of intelligences -and in the ways in which such intelligences are invoked and combined to carry out different tasks, solve diverse problems, and progress in various domains."

In other words, all students (and people) learn differently. Our brains have an easier time learning and remembering information when it's presented in a style that suits our intellectual strengths. Our intelligences can change over time. In our tutoring sessions, we use knowledge about how our students learn best to make the curriculum they are learning in their classrooms more accessible.

Let's take a quick look at three of the intelligence graphs completed last week.

Student 1: Jake (not this student's real name)
According to Jake's graph, he has heightened visual and musical intelligence. People with visual intelligence think in terms of space, such as architects and pilots. They are very aware of their environment, and they often enjoy puzzles, drawing, and daydreaming. Tools such as models, graphics, charts, photographs, drawings, 3-D modeling, video, videoconferencing, television, multimedia, and texts with pictures/charts/graphs will help Jake learn and remember new information. People with musical intelligence show sensitivity to rhythm and sound. They may study better with music in the background, and they can be taught by turning lessons into lyrics, speaking rhythmically, and tapping out time. Helpful tools include musical instruments, music, and multimedia.

Similarly, because his verbal intelligence is the lowest, he might not always think in terms of words, so demonstrating his knowledge through writing or speaking may be more difficult for him than it is for other students. This doesn't mean that he's not able to write, play word games, read complex texts, or understand poetry; it simply means that he will require additional support for those tasks, and when given those tasks, they might not represent his actual knowledge.

What does this mean for our tutors? It means that we adjust our instruction to make use of his strengths and develop his weaknesses. We can take a list of vocabulary words and make up song lyrics to help memorize definitions. We can review the steps for a long division problem by writing the problem on the ground with sidewalk chalk and then moving from part to part to "walk through" the steps (divide, multiply, subtract, bring down). It also means practicing skills that help develop the other intelligences, and building lesson plans that use at least three intelligences. The more strategies we use, the more likely the student is to remember the material.

Student 2: Olivia (not this student's real name)

According to Olivia's graph, she has heightened kinesthetic intelligence. People with kinesthetic intelligence use the body effectively, like a dancer or a surgeon. They have a keen sense of body awareness, and they like movement, making things, and touching. They thrive when taught through physical activity, hands-on learning, acting out, and role playing. Helpful learning tools include equipment and real objects.

Similarly, because her verbal intelligence is the lowest, she might also struggle with word-based learning and assessment tools. For her tutor, this means that using real objects such as coins, clocks, counters, word sorts, crafts, and puzzles will help Olivia learn best.

Student 3: Frank (not this student's real name)

According to Frank's graph, he has heightened naturalistic intelligence. People with naturalistic intelligence have the ability to make natural distinctions amongst things found in nature, and have ecological sensitivities towards nature. This ability was important to our evolutionary past, and people with naturalistic intelligence often pursue careers in biology, marine biology, food science, farming and agriculture, and zoology. Students with this intelligence crave connections between their learning and their natural environment, and many prefer to be outdoors. 

Similarly, because his logical intelligence is the lowest, he struggles with math. To bring math concepts to life, he needs instruction that utilizes movement and connections to nature to keep his interest and make the learning goals accessible. To practice finding the mean, median, and mode of a series of numbers, we might take a walk around the neighborhood together and count the number of trees on each block. We could use the numbers from our walk to practice calculating these averages, and then appeal to his visual intelligence by graphing (and comparing) the numbers.

Why is this so important to us?
With an average of 30 students per classroom, teachers simply don't have the time to complete assessments for each student and then tailor their instruction to the needs of each student in the class. At best, they have the resources to vary their instruction to address each intelligence in their instruction. However, most textbook companies don't create curriculum that accommodates all of the intelligences, and so it's left to the teachers to help adapt the curriculum.

We use our one-on-one tutoring sessions to help tailor our students' curriculum to their strengths, weaknesses, interests, and intelligences. We love getting to know our students, and know that presenting knowledge with their intelligences in mind helps make our students successful.

Click HERE to read: Student Notebooks, Part 2: Common Core Standard Bubbles!

A Behind-the-Scenes Look At A Reading Workshop

We have been having so much fun in our Bookworms reading workshop this month! The workshop focuses on 5 areas of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, sight words, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Let's take a look at a few of the activities we've done.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds-phonemes-in spoken words. Essentially, it's being able to listen and distinguish sounds from one another. For example, the work "tick" has 3 phonemes (sounds): /t/ /i/ and /k/. The final sound, /k/, is spelled with two letters, but those letters make one sound together. Before children learn to read and spell, they must develop these listening skills. 

One of our phonemic awareness activities was identifying the place in which we hear a particular sound in a word. If I asked you to identify where you heard the /i/ sound in the word "tick", you should be able to tell me that you hear it in the middle of the word. I read off a series of words, and our students had to use cards to tell me whether they heard the sound in the beginning, middle, or end of the word. This is a really easy activity to do at home, so they got to take their cards home to practice even more.

Phonics

Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing by developing phonemic awareness in order to teach the correspondence between those sounds and the spelling patterns that represent them. For example, the /k/ sound you hear in the word "tick" is spelled with 2 letters, c and k. The /k/ sound can also be spelled with just a /c/ or just a /k/. While phonemic awareness uses ONLY sounds, phonics uses written words. 

Many young readers look at the first letter of a word and then spit out a word that starts with that letter. Sometimes the word makes sense, and other times it doesn't. It's important to slow down and blend each sound together. We use these linking cubes to practice reading through the whole word, identifying words that rhyme, and see that the words rhyme because they end with the same sounds. They sure do love these cubes!

Sight Words

Sight words are words that young readers memorize rather than decode (sound out). Many of these do not follow the rules of phonics, and therefore cannot be sounded out correctly. Instead, we teach children a few of these words at a time. Most of these words occur in beginning text frequently, so they are worth memorizing. 

One of our favorite games involves a popcorn tub filled with popsicle sticks. Each stick has two words written on it, and students take turns pulling one stick out at a time. If the stick is green and they can read both words, they get to keep it. If they cannot read it, I help them out a bit and then it goes back in the tub. If it's red, they have to give the stick to the next student and put all of their sticks back in the tub. We play this for 5-7 every week, and they LOVE it!

Another game they like to play is called "slap". I put some sight words face up on the table. I call out a word, and the first student to find it and slap it gets to keep it. They love this one also. I'm afraid to see how excited they would get if I let them use fly swatters.

Fluency

Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression. Fluency is what bridges word recognition and reading comprehension. In other words, it's what helps us make sense of what we are reading. If you read too slow, your brain has a hard time understanding what it's reading because it's working so hard to actually read it. Young readers tend to sound like robots when they read because they read one word, and then another word, and another word, and so on. A fluent reader is able to reads a series of words as a phrase and gain meaning from what they read. 

One of the fluency activities we did for this workshop focused on punctuation. The students read words with punctuation marks to practice taking pauses and reading with inflections. They were able to take home punctuation posters to help them practice at home. One of our young readers has improved so much now that he's paying attention to punctuation.

Reading Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability to read text, process it, and understand its meaning. There are many strategies that you use while reading that you probably don't even realize you use. While we read, our brains are busy making inferences, connecting ideas in the text to our own experiences, creating a series of events, and discerning between main ideas and details (just to name a few). In each session of the workshop, we focus on a different strategy. 

In the first chapter of Frog and Friends by Eve Bunting, we had to make inferences from the clues that the author wrote to figure out that "the THING" in the story was just an orange balloon. It was funny for our readers to feel like they had insider knowledge that the characters in the story didn't have. We identified where in the story we found the clues, and we talked about how using text evidence is super important. We practice each strategy with a short passage, and then we apply that strategy to our book for the week. The BEST part is that the students get to take the books home with them!

*A note on the books used in this workshop*: The I Am A Reader! series is absolutely amazing! Even Bunting, for example, is one of the authors in this series, and she's tremendously accomplished. These readers go BEYOND leveled texts. They are clever and funny, and if you have a reluctant young reader at home, I can't recommend these enough. For you educators, the back of each book features the corresponding grade level, guided reading level, RR level, ATOS reading level, Lexile measure, and word count. AMAZING! Parents, you can simply look at the grade level and get a good indication of whether or not it's an appropriate book for your reader. If they can read all but 5 of the words (or less) on the first page, take it home with you. 

The Amazing Machines series by Tony Mitton is also fantastic! The non-fiction books are fun and easy reads, and they have great information in them for curious, young minds.

Next week, we will be reading a book from the Mini Mechanics series that comes with STICKERS INSIDE! There are activity pages throughout the book, and the students use the stickers to go back and locate information. Genius, right?! I know. How come I didn't think of that?

This workshop ends next week, but we will start up a new one in September. We sure hope you'll join us! 

Summer Reading GIVEAWAY!

Summer is right around the corner, and we know that parents are actively searching for camps and activities to help prevent the "sumer slide" from affecting a year's worth of hard work. Before we reveal the goodies in our Sumer Reading GIVEAWAY that one of our lucky Instagram and Facebook followers will receive, we'd like to talk a little bit more about the summer slide and how you can prevent it.

What is the summer slide?
The summer slide is a term used to describe the backtracking that happens when students do not read over the summer. Did you know that students can lose 2 months worth of reading performance if they don't actively engage with text over the summer? That means that your student could be 2 1/2 years behind their peers by the time they enter middle school.

Hasn't my child spent enough time reading at school?
NO! Did you know that, on average, children spend 7,800 hours at home and 900 hours at school annually? You have a lot of influence over your children's interest in reading. When students enter kindergarten, close to 100% of them are interested in reading a book outside of school. By 4th grade that drops to 54%, by 8th grade that drops to 30%, and by 12th grade it drops to 19%.  What causes that drop? Many experts believe it's caused by a drop in parents reading to and with their kids.

What's the difference between reading for 20 minutes a day and reading for 5 minutes a day?
A student that reads for 20 minutes a day reads 3,600 minutes per school year, which amounts to 1,800,000 words per year. These students tend to score in the 90th percentile on standardized tests. A student that reads for 5 minutes a day reads 900 minutes per school year, which amounts to 282,000 words per year. These students tend to score in the 50th percentile on standardized tests. Sadly, a student that reads for 1 minute a day reads 180 minutes per school year, which amounts to only 8,000 words per year. These students tend to score in the 10th percentile on standardized tests. Those little bits of minutes add up, so find a way to make it part of your routine.

How do I choose a book for my child?
There's a 5-finger rule that teachers use in the classroom. Open a book to any page and ask your child to read it aloud. For every word that they don't know, put up a finger (somewhere where they can't see it). If you put up 5 fingers for one page, the book is too difficult for your child, and they should select another book.

How can I read with my beginning reader?
Here are a list of strategies that you can use:

• Encourage your child to use their finger to track the words they are reading.
• Read a sentence and have your child repeat it.
• Take turns reading sentences or pages.
• Make predictions about the story and read to find out if you're correct.
• Read your favorite books over and over again! Repeated reading helps build fluency and reading intonation.

What can I do to help prevent the summer slide?
There are so many things that you can do to make sure your students are engaging in text this summer. Here are a few ideas:

• Find interactive books and games on your iPad that address reading and/or phonics.
• Show your children all of the things that you read in your daily life. This might include recipes, directions, assembly instructions, or mail. 
• Read to your child and let them hear the rhythm of words and exaggeration and expression in your voice!
• Play games! Some games, such as Apples to Apples, encourage reading and are really fun to play. Slap some sight words onto Jenga blocks and read a block every time you draw one.
• Set a good example by letting your children see YOU reading. Send a message that reading is valuable and important.
• Visit your local library! Libraries are a great place to explore, and many local libraries, such as those here in Long Beach, offer summer reading incentives. 
• Leave books for your child in the three best places, also knows as the three Bs: bed, bathroom, breakfast table.

What are some websites with FREE resources?

• starfall.com
• speakaboos.com
• spellingcity.com
• wegivebooks.org
• interactives.weebly.com

What is this GIVEAWAY all about?!

Alright, let's talk about this giveaway. Having something tangible helps our tactile learners and also serves as a reminder to read. Our giveaway features the following items:

1. $10 Target gift card to be used to pick out a fun new book!

2. Retell stick: This is a stick that has one side for fiction text and one side for non-fiction text. For fiction text, students place buttons on the stick, one by one, as they tell you the characters, setting, beginning, middle, and end of the story. For non-fiction text, they place buttons on the stick as they tell you the main idea and three supporting details.

3. Reading scavenger hunt: This is a treasure map that students follow as they complete reading tasks, such as reading a book that's been made into a movie, that takes place in your favorite city, etc. How fun is that?!

4. Response sticks: These are two sets of color-coded sticks that have comprehension questions on them. The blue sticks are for non-fiction (blue = true, get it?), and include questions such as, "What was the main idea of what you read, and what were the supporting details?" The yellow sticks are for fiction, and include questions such as, "If you were interviewing the main character, what questions would you ask?" This set also includes a dice, numbered 1-6, that can be rolled to determine how many sticks your child must draw and answer that day. Throw these in a small bucket or box by their books and keep it easy!

These are items we've used in the past, and we're so excited to offer them to you in this giveaway to keep your kids reading this summer! The giveaway runs from Friday, May 22, 2015 at 8:00am PST to Saturday, May 23, 2015 at 9:00pm PST. One winner will be announced on our Instagram page within 24 hours.

To enter: 

1. Follow me on Instagram @kidsunderconstruction

2. Tag a friend on my Instagram post in the comments

3. Like our Facebook page 

4. For an extra entry, share the link to this post on your Facebook page

Good luck and happy reading!

campCORE: KUC's full-day summer camp for elementary students

Ssshhhh! Don't tell the children that they are actually learning anything during these camps! We walk a fine line between learning and having fun, so you can send us your kids knowing that they will have fun while they keep their minds active all summer long!

Kids Under Construction is excited to offer a full-day academic camp this summer! We know that many of you are looking for day camps for your kids this summer, and we think that campCORE is the perfect camp for parents that want their students to use their minds and have fun. You can enroll your students for a day or for the whole week, so we're hoping that your youngest students will join us.

What is campCORE?
campCORE is a full-day academic camp that helps keep students' minds alert using some of our most-loved games and activities. Students will create (C), observe (O), report (R), and explore (E) their way through some of our most-loved games and activities while reviewing common core standards to prepare for next year.

Who can enroll in campCORE?
We invite students entering grades K-5 to enroll in campCORE this summer. We are able to accommodate a wide range of students in these camps because students will move through a variety of stations that are grade-level appropriate for them.

What kinds of activities do you have planned for campCORE?
We've taken some of our favorite games and activities that we use to help students achieve common core standards and put them altogether in this camp. Here's a sampling of some of the activities we have planned:

The week of August 10th is BASEBALL WEEK! Baseball means popcorn, soda pop, snacks, and good ole fashioned fun. We will read about some of the players, calculate some statistics, and enjoy cracker jacks for a snack. One of the math activities that we will play is called popcorn math. Students get a bag of "popcorn" and practice math facts, compare numbers, and more.

Who doesn't like a delicious bag of chips with their hot dog at the baseball stadium? During baseball week, we use Cheetos to learn about how bugs and insects pollinate plants. Did you know that the cheese coating on Cheetos is sticky like pollen?

After reading about some of baseball's greatest heroes, we'll review some of the new vocabulary that we've learned with a fun game of muffin tin toss. 

You can't sit through a game without some soda pop to enjoy alongside your hot dog and chips! Some of our younger students will practice counting syllables by sorting words printed on bottle caps, while some of our older students will practice arranging numbers (including integers and fractions) from least to greatest. 

The week of August 17th is GAMES WEEK! You know that games are fun, but did you know that games are a great way to practice important skills? We will have all kinds of fun bowling, building with Legos, and playing board games (with a twist) like Candyland. One of the reading activities that we will play is called Candyland comprehension. Students pull a color card, and depending on which color they pull, they will have to read a short passage and answer a comprehension question. So for example, if a student pulls a purple card, they will have to identify the main idea of a short reading passage. Passages are anywhere between 5 and 8 sentences long, and we have them at a variety of reading levels. 

We turn our patio area into a bowling alley and attach all kinds of activities to them. We've used them to attach writing prompts, math facts, science review questions, and lots more.

Who doesn't love Legos? Our youngest students use them to make letters, spell words, and practice counting. Our older students use them to create multiplication arrays and calculate areas and perimeters.

Every week is jam-packed full of fun activities and tasks that students will have fun with. When you register, we will contact you to find out more about your student so that we can plan their activities.

What does a typical day look like at campCORE?
Camp starts at 9:00am and ends at 2:00pm. Here's our daily schedule:

9:00-9:15a : OPENING
9:15-10:15a : math centers
10:15-10:30a : SNACK
10:30-11:30a : reading rotations
11:30-12:00p : LUNCH
12:00-1:00p : group science activity
1:00-1:15p : BRAIN BREAKS
1:15-1:45p : enrichment (Spanish, art, engineering, history, writing, memory)
1:45-2:00p : CLOSING

What are the weekly themes for campCORE?
Every week of campCORE has a different theme. For example, all of our math centers for baseball week (8/10) will have something to do with baseball. The theres are as follows:

WEEK 1 (7/6-7/9) : candy
WEEK 2 (7/13-7/16) : oceans
WEEK 3 (7/20-7/23) : CSI
WEEK 4 (7/27-7/30) : planet Earth
WEEK 5 (8/3-8/6) : wild animals
WEEK 6 (8/10-8/13) : baseball
WEEK 7 (8/17-8/20) : games
WEEK 8 (8/24-8/27) : the human body

How much does tuition cost for campCORE?
Tuition for campCORE is $345 per week or $95 per day. You can enroll for just one day, or you can enroll for the entire week! If you know you've got a crazy week coming up sometime this summer, or a day when you need your kids out of the house, give us a call!

Are you as excited as we are?! There are no tests, no quizzes, and no homework, so campCORE is pretty much like the best day of school ever. Except that it's not school. And you can sit next to your friends.

Fall Workshops: Math Potholes: Multiplication

This is the time of year that we hear lots of parents stressing about math facts. In Long Beach, students in grades 2-5 are required to answer at least 65/70 facts correct in under 10 minutes (approximately 9 seconds per fact). In order for a student to receive a 4 on their report cards, they must be able to answer 68/70 facts correct in under 5 minutes (approximately 4 seconds per fact). This does not leave room for students to use aides, such as their fingers, a multiplication chart, or pictures. To help students pass these benchmarks, we use several different strategies.

First, we look at the four different ways that we can show multiplication using pictures. Here's an example:

Source: Natalia Ginns

Then, we show students how they can use a multiplication chart to help them when they get stuck. This is a nice visual for three main reasons. 1) It's easy to find patterns in a multiplication chart that help you remember some of those tricky facts. 2) When students use it, we have them circle the product that they got stuck on so tha we can keep track of their "hard" facts. 3) We like to show students how the chart can be folded in half, demonstrating how there are only half as many facts to memorize.

Source: Guru Parents

Once we feel that students understand what multiplication is and how to represent it visually, we shift gears into multiplication memorization. We have all sorts of tricks for memorizing facts, and a variety of ways that students can practice them and drill themselves. One of our favorites are multiplication wheels.

Source: Practical Pages

Another favorite is math towers.

Source: Teacher Tipster

If you missed our post abut our math facts Jenga, you can view that post here.

We can't wait to help your students memorize those facts!

Fall Workshops: Fine Motor Fun

Research shows that fine motor skills are linked to success in writing and academics. I just HAVE to share some of the super fun activities that we we used for our fine motor workshop last fall. They are geared towards students in Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, but the activities are so fun that even I had fun! This post contains affiliate links; read more about them at the bottom of this post!

One of my friends from my undergraduate days, Christie Kiley, is a pediatric occupational therapist and has a blog with many wonderful ideas! I help contribute to one of her fine motor boards on Pinterest, and this workshop encourages many fine motor skills that she explains on her blog. Here's a snippet:

Pincer grasp: Pinching with thumb and index finger. 

Finger isolation: Activating a single finger on command (such as the index finger for pointing and pushing). 

Thumb opposition: Coordinating the thumb with the other fingers to help with holding, squeezing, and strengthening the space between thumb and index finger (known as the “web space”).

Tripod grasp: Pinching with thumb and index finger while resting the object on the middle finger, much like you’d hold a pencil. 

Hand-eye coordination: Coordinating hand movements based on what the eyes are seeing. Also known as visual-motor integration. 

Bilateral coordination: Coordinating the use of two hands to accomplish a task, such as stabilizing an object with one hand while working with the other. 

Midline integration: Being able to come to and cross over the invisible line that separates the left and right sides of the body. This contributes to the development of hand dominance. If your child struggles with this, encourage midline crossing by placing desired items on the side opposite the hand they are using so they have to reach across their body. 

Here are some sample activities that we did together:

Students dug up sight words and then wrote them in the sandbox. Each student went home with a set to use at home since we live so close to the beach. Use non-toxic play sand to keep it safe for little ones. 

This activity helps strengthen those little muscles that support the pincer grasp. Make sure you use washable paint so that you can easily wipe the paint off of desks/tables/little hands.

These sensory bags are great for all students, but especially for those with sensory processing difficulties. We practiced prewriting skills and letter formation with these bags. You can use this non-toxic orange hair gel for a bright and fun pop of color.

This activity is great for practicing that tripod grasp that helps with writing. Students practiced making patterns, letters, numbers, and pictures. You can use an old bulletin board at home, or use these cork tiles to set up a rotation station. I'm loving these push pins to make it extra fun. What kid doesn't love decorative office supplies?!

Here's a three-for-one activity that practices letter recognition, spelling, AND fine motor all at once. These bright and colorful, wooden clothespins are great for adding visual stimulation.

This is another pencil grasp activity that helps students hold onto pencils correctly. If you have a clothespin handy, try this one out at home.

What kid doesn't love Play Dough and Legos?! Students practiced forming letters and numbers, and also created pictures using the Lego pieces. You can grab a 36-pack of Play Doh and either let everyone keep a canister in their desk or have enough on hand so that you can divvy them up into your centers boxes/storage. If your home isn't littered with these little sharp corners of death all over the floor, you can grab this Lego starter kit or ask students in class if they have any extras at home that they'd like to donate.

This is great practice for manipulating small objects. These yellow and white golf tees are easy to spot if they fall onto the floor (or into your carpet). How cute are these glass marbles?!

This is a great competitive activity that encourages muscle control and coordination. Students are given one minute to grab as many as they can, and then we count and graph how many marshmallows each student grabbed. We love to incorporate math concepts when we can! Grab 40 pairs of chopsticks and set some aside for other centers.

This activity is great for correcting students that hold writing materials inefficiently AND for students that need to strengthen their hand muscles. We used a variety of materials to keep this one fun. If you can't find these at the Dollar Tree, you can order a set of pom pom balls for less than a latte AND use the leftovers for warm fuzzies (hot glue a pair of goggly eyes to the pom pom balls and give them to students when they say things to you or other students that make your heart feel warm and fuzzy)!

Our fine motor fun workshop began with a station rotation in which each student got to practice a series of skills on their own. One of the stations was one-on-one with the instructor. This allowed us to monitor and help each student in the workshop.

We hope you can replicate some fine motor fun with your students!

AFFILIATE LINKS: This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission if you make a purchase using this link. I purchased all of the items myself, and all of the opinions expressed here are my own.