Day in a Sentence

This week Anne is hosting Day in a Sentence with an Olympic theme at her blog, Think, Wonder and Learn with the Web.




Hiking bluff and river trails, admiring the scenery and enjoying the beautiful weather was capped each night watching the Olympics back at the lodge.

Summer Sunset

I took this picture from the back deck a couple of days ago. I think the green of the branch on the left is interesting and I liked the funny little puffy clouds in the middle. I also think that it is amazing that there is a Walgreens just over the berm to the right and a Fitness center sign almost straight ahead. It looks pretty peaceful and for the most part it really is.

15 Words or Less Poem Challenge

Swooping up
Through the air
Ghosts fly swiftly
Into the sky-top towers
For a nightly rendezvous


Laura provides a picture as inspiration for the poem. Check out this challenge at http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/85501.html

Day in a Sentence

This week Jo Hawke is hosting the Day in a Sentence challenge at her blog, MrsHawke.com. Stop by and add your own or check out all the sentences on Sunday.









After about 4 hours, my classroom begins to look ready for students.

Setting up my Classroom

I am going into school to work on setting up my classroom. Why is it assumed that teachers will do this? Technically, we don't go back until Aug. 21 but then we will have professional development activities and there will not be much time to get the room ready. Okay...enough avoidance. At least it is not 100 degrees today, which leads to another debate/thread discussing air conditioning in public schools.

Things to Think About...

I was directed to Katie's list of things to think about for back-to-school (and throughout the school year!) by Mary Lee at A Year of Reading.

It reminds me to keep the students and their needs as my focus. It is not about how cute my room is (or isn't) or the new clothes and supplies or even the what we teach. It is all about WHO we teach and how we can make learning meaningful for THEM.

As my previous district superintendent used to say, "Happy New Year"!

Summer Homework?

What are your thoughts on summer homework? After reading this article in the Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080402231.html?nav=rss_print/asection I will have to contemplate what I "assign" in the future.

This summer my second graders had math "vitamins" to do each weekday. They had 3 calendars (June, July, August) with one review math problem to complete each day. It is not required and they do not return it to me. We encourage parents to check over their child's work so they will not practice incorrectly. I hope that by practicing each day the students will maintain skills over the summer. We compare them to vitamins because we do not want the students to do all the problems in one day defeating the purpose of maintaining their skills.

I also encourage them to read, but there is no required reading list. I guess I hope to instill the love of reading during the year so they will want to read without being required to read. Is this wishful thinking?

I suggest that they continue to write in their writing notebooks and/or find someone to email/snail mail during the summer. This is also not required.

Many of my students are quite busy with a ton of activities during the summer, but I also know that some of them spend the summer at the babysitter. As always, balancing their needs and motivating them to "practice" without a requirement is an interesting challenge.