Worms!

As I popped out the door to the garage this morning, I hit the garage door opener. The door began to rise slowly like usual. I continued through the garage toward the car to stow my bags for the trip to school. As I went around the car, I noticed a definite wiggling on the floor right where the door normally hits. Big worms, little worms, thick worms, thin worms - all kinds of worms were wriggling around on the floor trying to escape the rain soaked ground outside. I must admit that my immediate reaction was “Yuck, worms!” But then as I got in the car, I thought a little more about the poor creatures trying to escape into my garage probably to dry out and be swept away in a round of spring cleaning. Now, I was feeling sorry for the poor worms, but I must admit not sorry enough to round them up and put them back outside.

A Slice of Fear

I just hung up from calling my dad. I called twice and got the answering machine. Mom is very sick at this point, so getting the answering machine causes a twinge of fear to run through me. I am almost afraid to call the cell phone and yet feel that I must. Fear of the unknown is greater than reality for me.

Hmmm...I wrote this earlier but forgot to link it.

Blowing Through...

Today I made it to church. The car battery is holding its own so far. As the minister was delivering his sermon, the wind began to pick up. The building was shaking with gusts of wind. Suddenly the back door blew open. Everyone turned around as if expecting something BIG to happen. One of the ladies came in and shut the door. We turned back to the minister and he continued with a half-hearted joke about the Holy Spirit blowing through. Soon the electricity went out. It seemed as if Someone had a message for us. During the final prayer a beautiful, bright, warm ray of light beamed through the front stained glass window as if to demonstrate Who really was in charge. The storm was over.

P.S. Tonight on the news I learned that straight line winds destroyed much of a little town near my parents’ house and part of a trailer park in my city. Ever since a tornado destroyed part of our city, I find spring storms quite scary!

Crockpot Cooking

Do you use a Crockpot? I found http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ at the end of Stephanie’s resolution to use the Crockpot everyday last year. I have tried the Taco Soup and it was really good. I am getting ready to try the Brown Sugar Chicken. Earlier, I went to the store and picked up some Balsamic vinegar which was recommended in the comment section, frozen chicken breasts and lemon-lime soda. I have discovered that if I put the meat in the Crockpot as I go to bed it is done by morning. I am hoping for a delicious lunch tomorrow. The only drawback is that the aroma sometimes wakes me up!

Teachable Moment

(students’ names changed - I don't think I have ever taught a Billy or a Susie!)

The whole class was gathered on the carpet reading Jack Prelutsky’s poem, I Did Not Eat Your Ice Cream. We were practicing turning and talking to our neighbor. The poem was about a child that blamed everything on his/her sister. The students were generally confused and thought that the sister really did these things. This group has some difficulty “thinking deeply”. So... we were in the midst of this discussion and I was trying to pull thoughts out of them without just telling them what I thought the poem meant. I turned to write something on the chart paper and one of my boys bounced up on his knees to get the attention of the other students and to be silly. I told him to knock it off and he immediately responded, “It wasn’t me. It was Susie!” Tired of this constant denial of misbehavior, I began to scold this child when it dawned on me that this was exactly like the poem we were reading. I’m sure the children thought I had lost my mind when I said, “ And this is just like our poem!” I was on a roll by then waving my arms and talking loudly. Boy, I had everyone’s attention. I reread the lines of the poem and said, “Billy said, “ I didn’t do it and I saw him do it. I know he did it. Who do you think did all those things in the poem? “ Almost every hand is waving. “The poet did it.” “Yeesss!,” I said. “And why did Billy say that he didn’t do it when he really did it?” More waving hands. “Because Billy didn’t want to get in trouble!” “Right again,” I said. “So... why did the poet say that his sister did it?” “He didn’t want to get in trouble!” It was a breakthrough. Amazing. The student that was driving me crazy was what I desperately needed to help the class make the connections they needed to understand the poem. Never underestimate the power of a teachable moment!

Smoke Alarm

The smoke alarm is chirping at me. I’m guessing that I need to replace the battery. What is it about me and batteries lately? The difficult thing is that I am not sure which smoke alarm is making the noise. Hopefully, I can find the right one before bedtime which is rapidly approaching. I certainly don’t live in a mansion so it should not be too difficult. I wish it were an easier process. I suppose that they need to be attached to the ceiling because smoke rises. This poses a particular problem for short people. I will need to drag a chair over under the alarm, climb up and take down the alarm housing. Replacing the batteries is usually not too difficult as long as there are some in the drawer. Otherwise, it will require a trip to the store tomorrow. I am not going back out tonight. The toughest part is reattaching the alarm to the ceiling. It never seems to go back up as easily as it comes down. I guess I better go deal with it.

Tech Stuff

This afternoon I attended a School District Technology meeting. We have these every other month. It is the job of the building facilitators to take the information back to the building staff. I usually distribute the information through email. The hardest part is weeding through the information and trying to provide the information that is the most pertinent to our staff. Not too much. Not too little. And try to make the use of technology look appealing.

District Tech Notes - March 2009

* iSummer classes: information will be distributed soon. Plans are for the week of June 8th and 15th (4 day sessions).

*  Tech Help:  Add problems to the online tech notebook and email techhelp@springfield.k12.il.us Sam, our new technician, will be in the building on March 18.

*  Backup: 250 GB Hard drives ($65) are available from Linda.

* SmartBoard: We saw a presentation on SmartBoards. A projector is needed.

* Video:  Congratulations Becky and Julie T.! We watched part of a 3rd grade book talk and looked at a 1st grade poetry fluency page. Both are on the web. It is possible to place multiple videos on a project page, but be conscious of the amount of space required. Is a CD/DVD a better option? Think about a tripod and how to get the best sound when making videos.

* Learn 360: This site has educational video clips. You can try it out free for 30 days.  http://www.learn360.com

* Funding:  Check out the Instructional Tech web page for suggestions for funding.

* Thinkfinity/World Book/netTrekker: These sites are linked from our library page. They are great resources.

* iPod Touch: This page has many classroom resources/ideas for the iPod touch.

* Google Forms: Think about surveys, quizzes, etc... More information is available here.

Happy Computing!
Amy

Dinosaur Poster Rubric

My Slice of Life for March 3. See the Two Writing Teachers Blog for more information.









I just finished writing a rubric for the dinosaur project that most of the students completed last week. Yes - I know that I should complete the rubric first and share it with the students. I certainly shared all the elements with the students, but they did not have the requirements on a piece of paper. I decided that I needed a piece of paper to help share my thoughts with their parents. This is actually the first year that the students each made a poster. Previously, it was a project developed to focus on research, cooperative skills, speaking skills and multiple intelligences. Each group worked together to make a poster. As requirements changed, the project evolved. Now research skills are a different assessment whereas they used to be included with the writing assessments. A teacher must always be flexible.

Moving Mom

My Slice of Life for March 2. See the Two Writing Teachers Blog for more information.

Today, I took lunch to my parents since I was unable to get there yesterday. Soup for mom since that is about all she can swallow at this point and chicken fingers and potato wedges for dad and me. Later in the afternoon, they decided to try getting mom up and into the wheelchair. (A little background: My mom has multiple sclerosis. She has spent time in and out of the hospital since August when she went in a couple of days before school started. This round has been particularly aggressive leaving her mostly bedridden without the use of any limbs.) Moving from the bed to the wheelchair requires the use of a lift and sling. The lift makes the move easier on the patient and caregiver even though it looks like some kind of torture device. We got the sling under mom and the sling attached to the lift. The lift is then pumped up to raise the patient from the bed. Then the lift is pulled away from the bed and positioned over the wheelchair. The patient is lowered into the chair. This went pretty well except for the problem of mom’s inability to hold up her head. It is a much easier process with two people. Once we had her up and in the wheelchair, she decided that she was ready to go back to bed! So we reversed the process and did it all over again. It is certainly difficult to lose the ability to do things for yourself and also difficult to become a full time caregiver. I am extremely thankful that my dad is able to do this for mom and I try to help out and make things easier as often as possible.

Here is a video of a Hoyer Lift in operation. Mom's lift is a little different. She only has two places to attach on each side instead of 3.

Jose Picardo's I Teach Video

I found the following video from Jose Picardo's Box of Tricks at Free Tech for Teachers. It makes me think about how I teach and why I teach the way that I do.


I teach, therefore you learn... or do you? from José Picardo on Vimeo.

Car Blues...

Here is my first Slice of Life Story Challenge post.

Dressed, packed and ready, I tippy-tapped out the door in my church shoes, threw my bags in the car, climbed in and stuck in the key. I turned the key, but instead of the expected hum of the engine, all I heard was a click - click - click noise. “This is not good”, I thought. I tried again. Blinking lights and click - click - click. I just replaced the battery about a week ago and this seems strangely similar. So I climbed out of the car, went inside and called my dad for two reasons. First, to let him know that I won’t be out for church, dinner and to get the paper and second, to ask advice. Usually, my dad is the one to come to my rescue, but as my mom is now too sick to leave alone, I have to rely on other resources. So, here I am stuck at home probably until tomorrow.

On the bright side, I don’t have any jobs at church this morning. I don’t have to work tomorrow due to the Casimir Pulaski holiday. This gave me some material for my first Slice of Life post, but I hope all the days of March aren’t like this!

Day in a Sentence

On this three day weekend celebrating Casimir Pulaski, I am appreciating an extra day for catching up.

Check out this week's Day in a Sentence challenge at Kevin's Meandering Mind .

Slice of Life Story Challenge 2009

Stacey and Ruth at Two Writing Teachers are hosting the 2nd Slice of Life Story Challenge. The challenge is to write about a slice of each day in March. I would like to give it a try. I will see if I can squeeze a few more writing moments into 31 days. Maybe it will help daily writing to become a habit.

Day in a Sentence

The challenge this week is to limit the week to only 3 words! Check out the results here at Anne's website.

My 3 words...

BIG dinosaur project!

Buying Books

I have partially completed part 1 of Amy's 2009 Book Challenge. I went to the book store and bought a book... for myself...for fun. It is grave surprise by Charlaine Harris. It happens to be the second in a series so I may need to read the first book before reading this one.

Now, for some reflections -
It was/is really difficult for me to go to the book store and buy a book - for me - for pleasure reading. This was my second trip with this challenge in mind! I actively use the library and I buy books at used book sales, garage sales or used book stores. I have always thought that this was environmentally friendly. I believe that this is a personal issue with frugality and being raised not to buy presents for myself. I can buy books that I love or want to read more than once. For example, I waited to read the first 3 Harry Potter books until friends had finished them and I could borrow them. I bought books 4-7 soon after their release. ( Number 6 had to stay in the trunk until I finished a big grad school project!)

I have no trouble buying books for my classroom. I believe that part of this is the book's length. I can stand in the bookstore and read a whole picture book and know if I love it and/or how I can use it. (I bought 3 on this trip!)

I have no trouble buying books for gifts and do so often.

Now the dilemma -
I obviously read all the time and do want to support the work of authors. This has given me a dilemma to ponder that I had never considered before.

Day in a Sentence

Patriotic feelings swell in the midst of Lincoln's 200th Birthday Celebration.

My picture shows Lincoln in Post-It Notes created by Chris Killham and displayed in the windows on the bridge that spans Jefferson Street.

All the excitement was contagious living in Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois. I even was rerouted through the mall parking lot when the Presidential motorcade (Obama, not Lincoln) went by. That certainly doesn't happen very often.

Here is President Lincoln dressed for his birthday at Lincoln Library. (The city library where I checked out an armload of dinosaur books for an upcoming project, not the Presidential Library.)


And one more of Lincoln's home decorated for the celebration. It is only a block from Lincoln Library.

Happy 200th Abraham Lincoln!

Image from The Library of Congress on Flickr.


Last night, I attended Let Freedom Sing! with some friends. This citywide musical celebration was organized to honor President Lincoln's 200th Birthday. We blew into the Prairie Capital Convention Center on a cold night wind. The feeling inside was of warm excitement. The seats began to fill. Preconcert music began to fill the air and musicians began to parade by to take their places. A sea of colored robes from area churches and colored shirts from area schools flowed into the chairs at the front. Instruments marched by as the Springfield High School band and the Illinois Youth Symphony joined the Illinois Symphony orchestra. Jerry Lambert provided a welcome and the show began. Patriotic fever filled the air as the color guard brought in the American flag followed by our national anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance. The music was wonderful and included many opportunities for the audience to participate. We sang an impromptu Happy Birthday to President Lincoln prior to his reading of the Gettysburg Address while the Symphony provided accompanying music. Finally, Abraham Lincoln borrowed the baton from Karen Lynne Deal and proceeded to enthusiastically direct all the musicians in the final song of the evening. It was a wonderful combination of church and state to honor a great President.

Check out the cool picture of Lincoln's spotlighted home.

Skating

Laura hosts the 15 Words or Less Poem Challenge each week. This time I only used 15 words but I also wrote 2 poems. Check out this week's frozen picture and other fun poems at her site.




Come...
You're the first.
Skates on.
Push off.
G-L-I-D-E
Smoothly over
A frozen reflection pool.


Words skate
Across the page
Gliding from
My pen.
Thoughts recorded.
Memories saved.
Stories shared.

Celebrate the Author - Reading Challenge - February

Happy Birthday Meg Cabot! (February 1)

This month I read Size 12 is Not Fat by Ms. Cabot. I read this one all this afternoon. The main character, Heather Wells, is a residence hall assistant that lives with her ex-boyfriend's brother, a detective. Her topsy-turvy life becomes more interesting when some of the residents are murdered! Now I guess I need to look for Size 14 is Not Fat Either.


Becky at Becky's Book Reviews has posted this challenge. Click here to read more.

A Math Challenge

The challenge was to find as many ways as possible to make 100¢. The students could work alone or with a partner. They needed to organize their work. They could only use quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies.




Everybody spread out and got right to work. (One student was sent to the hall to work. One pair had to return to their seats for off-task behavior. Two of the three unfocused students did end up with a product.)




Several examples of completed work are shown here. No one found all of the possiblities and no one used a strategy for organizing their work to make sure all the answers were found. It would be an interesting followup discussion.



In an ideal world, this kind of exploration would be a normal part of the math routine. Unfortunately, I have not found a way to fully integrate it yet. But....I haven't given up!

Day in a Sentence on Stixy

This week Kevin has challenged us to add our Day/Week in a Sentence contribution to Stixy. This is a fun site that works like a bulletin board. Check it out here .

My contribution this week: A math challenge keeps almost all my second graders engaged!

I am wondering if this could be a good place for some staff collaboration. For example, we are currently challenged to integrate productive talk experiences into our daily instruction. Could Stixy be a good place to share/celebrate ideas? Unfortunately, it is currently blocked by the district. I am wondering why.

Buy One Book & Read It Challenge

Amy at My Friend Amy has posted a challenge for 2009. There are 2 options for this challenge. #1: Buy one book and read it. The challenge for me is that it must be a novel read just for fun, not for work or for children. #2: Buy one book and read it each month of the year.

I am going to complete #1 and may increase my goal to #2. If I complete #2, I think that I will expand my goal to include the banned professional and children's books. Since there is only one day left in January, I guess that I get to go shopping tomorrow!

Celebrate the Author - Reading Challenge - January

Happy Birthday Harley Jane Kozak! (January 28)

This month I read Dating Dead Men by Ms. Kozak. Keeping me awake is a feat for almost any book these days and I stayed up reading this one on several nights. Wollie Shelley, greeting card store owner and artist, is busy attempting to date forty men in sixty days while staying in touch with her hospitalized brother. During a visit to P.B., her brother, she encounters a dead body and gets swept into an adventure that involves meeting an interesting guy and trying to outwit the mob. I'm glad that I tried this one and look forward to the next Wollie adventure.


Becky at Becky's Book Reviews has posted this challenge. Click here to read more.

Racing By....

Okay... I can count and realize that this is not 15 words or less as required by Laura at laurasalas
so I did not leave it in the comments. But... unfortunately, this poem really expresses the way I have been feeling about the school day. Laura's choice of picture this week inspired the following poem.

Take a deep breath and...

Zoom!
We're off.
The day has begun.
Here come the kids!
Math is first -
Number one.
Then comes reading,
A trip to p.e.,
More reading ,
And then
Let's go to lunch.

Breathe....
For...
A minute or two.

Inside recess,
Oh what fun!
Some spelling,
And writing
Science is done.
Pack up.
Coats zipped.
Hugs goodbye.
Another school day
Has raced right by!

Year in a Sentence

Kevin at Kevin's Meandering Mind has asked for a sentence describing 2008.

Here is my contribution,

A roller coaster year is completed!

2008 included friends' new babies, friends' and grandma's deaths, friends' marriages, mom's hospitalizations, and my completed master's' degree.

One Little Word

Ali Edwards at {A} encourages the readers of her blog to choose one WORD to focus on throughout the year.

I am loving this inspirational idea. This year I have spent a lot of time with words and just recently found your site through Ruth at twowritingteachers.wordpress.com. After some contemplation, my word for the year is STRETCH. (Not too thin, I hope!) I need to stretch physically. As a teacher, I am always stretched mentally. I need to encourage my students to stretch. I also need to stretch myself out of comfortable routines in order to get more out of life.


Image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/swamibu/2911042795/

P.S. Hmmm... My word was not included on the l-o-n-g list of words at Ali's blog. So, I "searched" for it assuming that it had been lost in the blogosphere. Not true and I was not the only one with this word. Maybe it is some sort of sign that this is not my word. I guess I must think about this some more.

Celebrate the Author - Reading Challenge

Becky at Becky's Book Reviews has posted this challenge. Click here to read more.

I began by trying to find the birthdays of the Lipstick Chronicle authors. I have not read many of their books but enjoy their blog. It was not easy to find their birthdays, so Elaine Viets and Nancy Martin are in limbo at the bottom of my list. Maybe I will discover their birthdays before the challenge is over or perhaps they will need to be part of next year's list. Here is my list of possibilities.

January 28 - Harley Jane Kozak - I read Dating Dead Men.
February 1 - Meg Cabot - I read Size 12 is not Fat.
March 5 - Mem Fox (alternate Lois Lowry)
April 12 - Donna Andrews
May 6 - Kate Collins
June 26 - Charlotte Zolotow (alternate Robert Munsch)
July 29 - Kate Flora
August 18 - Paula Danziger
September 21 - Stephen King, On Writing
October 19 - Sarah Strohmeyer
November 25 - Charlaine Harris
December 19 - Eve Bunting

Elaine Viets
Nancy Martin

Remembering - Creating Memories

Stacey at Two Writing Teachers has made me think again. (That's the whole idea, right?)

At the end of each quarter we try to take some time to reflect on the accomplishments and set some goals for each student. I think this ties in perfectly with Stacey's thoughts.

I found a couple of sites that I think might help us to "remember" first quarter. Beth Lewis has an example of an "I Remember" poem at About.com: Elementary Education. I like how this guides the students to think about their first impressions, a field trip, a math activity, etc.... I also found another sample and an online version that will print the created poem.

Here is my poem.

Instant I Remember Poem

I remember popping into a new school year.
I remember meeting 28 students and their families.
I remember teaching about how to choose "just right" books
and how to build reading stamina.

I remember exploring a nature trail.
I remember shaking cream to make butter.
I remember making an accordion book about the planets
even reading word wall words by flashlight.

I remember writing a story about the Mysterious Squeak.
But my favorite memory’s yet to come!

I love the final line: But my favorite memory’s yet to come. Some memory-gathering at the end of the semester will set us up to write some goals when we return in January!

Clipart from Clipartheaven.com

Purpose?

I believe that it may be time to decide on a purpose for this blog. It was originally started as a class assignment (in other words: something that I had to do, not necessarily something that I wanted to do). Through my grad classes and more assignments to write blogs and read blogs, I have discovered that I tend to read 3 types of blogs: book blogs, teacher blogs and tech blogs. I suppose that I have the most to say about teaching, but I have some reservations about having enough quality information to pass on to others. (Do I really need an audience for this? Would it be helpful?) I also have had difficulty finding the time to write this fall. A plethora of second graders and an ill family member have required a lot of time. I continue to believe the TWT mantra that a teacher of writing must write, but lately I have felt that teachers of writing are too busy to write!

Message for Me?

Today as I wrote "Don't give up" as the moral on 24 papers for students that certainly don't understand the moral of a fable, I began to wonder if the message was really meant for me.

Written in the style of One Sentence - True Stories Told in One Sentence.

Day in a Sentence

Falling from the sky and covering the ground, the orange stars confirm the upcoming appearance of winter.

Brrrr…. I’m not ready!

It's Fall!

Fall has always been my favorite season. Sometimes I feel cheated when we seem to skip fall going from running the air conditioner to turning on the heater. This year has had several comfortable days and the trees have been just beautiful. The picture is of a tree in my backyard. I have a similar one in the front yard and a burning bush that is a wonderful shade of red. So far the leaves are holding on and so I haven't had to start the raking process yet. I am NOT ready for snow!

Master of Arts

I finally finished my Master of Arts degree in Educational Technology through the Independent Option at the University of Illinois at Springfield. I received my diploma and promptly put it in the frame that I had received from my class a couple of years ago. It is hanging in the downstairs bedroom which doesn't seem quite like the place of respect that it deserves. But... there is a nail there and it fits nicely. I will probably move it up to my "office" after I paint someday. Even though it seemed like forever, I actually finished right on my planned schedule. (3 years with 1 class each fall and spring, extras in the summers) I am thrilled that it is done, but why am I still so busy???

24 Hour Read-A-thon

Can you read for 24 hours? How many books are in your "to be read" pile? This is the perfect chance to concentrate on reading and sharing your reading with others by updating your blog. Mark your calendar for October 18, 5 a.m. Pacific. Check out The Hidden Side of a Leaf for more information.

Day in a Sentence

Day in a Sentence is back at Kevin's Meandering Mind this week. The challenge this week is to write about your day/week in the form of a question. From the dates on my blog, there has obviously been no writing time lately. :-( Here is my entry after a difficult week/month.

How much pressure is too much?

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.