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.