An Even Lovelier Day

Today was amazing! I don't think I've had a better birthday (other than the surprise 30th - which also tells you now I am over 30...but not by much). These are the highlights...

• sleeping in
• applying for my passport (which helps with my 10 for 10)
• going to the dentist for a cleaning and listening to Josh Groban while on happy gas (a beautiful tradition that I highly encourage and all of my friends make fun of me for)
• shopping at the Loft (and hearing Michael Buble's new song...love it!) - found a few shirts - very springy and feminine
• lunch at Flat Top Grill (free)
• skinny cinnamon dolce latte (free)
• a trip to Barnes and Noble (books for the class...they'll love them)
• my friend, Jennie, called and her kids sang happy birthday to me...so precious!
• two hours of Zumba (I even got to pick some of my favorites :) and then Kelly played a different cool down song - a Latin salsa Happy Birthday song)
• a hand written happy birthday note on my door when I came home
• a surprise visitor - my little sister Amanda who brought flowers and a card - we hung out and laughed and just enjoyed catching up together
• FB messages - I cannot even count how many happy birthday wishes I've received.

It's been an amazing birthday!

A Lovely Day!

I have been a bit under the weather the past few days. However, today was wonderful! My sister came home this weekend to celebrate my birthday with me and I'm so glad she did.

After discount grocery shopping on Saturday morning, plus an amazing lunch at Cerulean, we played Train with our mom Saturday night. We finished the game up Sunday morning and had my birthday meal of chop suey followed by creme brulee. Be still my stomach. I'm saving my angel food cake for dinner with some close friends this week...

I was able to open up my presents from my parents and my sister. My sister is amazing at finding perfect gifts...she's just like my mom.

• Vanilla Bean Noel air fresheners
• back massager from Bath and Body Works
• rain galoshes (black with polka dots) - fun
• SF Cinnamon Dolce syrup from Starbucks
• Colts long sleeve T-shirt (my first)
• Chicago Cubs T-shirt (really cute...can barely tell it's Cubs)
• a new hair dryer
• DVD/VCR (which I may take back since the one I have now is still working...I thought it wasn't)

I still haven't opened my gift yet from my dad...I'll wait till Tuesday for that.

Even better than my presents from my family so far, was the time I got to spend with my mom and sister and just enjoying time together...it was really nice! And very needed!

Multiple Words

My student teacher was sharing with the class that as they read, they need to be aware of pronouns and keeping track of who or what the author is talking about. The sentence was "We decided to take the shortcut." As he asked the class, "Who is we?" The kids began answering out loud a variety of answers.

"Who's we?"

"We don't know."

"It could be anybody..."

At that point, my lovely one said, "It could be Wii Fit."

If he only knew that Wii and we are two different words. Can't wait to do homophones and homographs with the kids!

If they only knew...

First off, just so you know, I don't feel that I am a racist or prejudicial, so what you are about to read is funny only because of the innocence of students.

My student teacher was reading with a small group of students a story about a family watching dragon boats. It's obviously another culture, probably Asian. I'm imagining Chinese simply because of the dragons...but as he was talking with the students about the culture of the book, one of my girls piped in. She said, "They're Chinese. No, it can't be. The book is in English...maybe Mexican."

We live in an area that has many Hispanic families that do speak English, so I am assuming that that is why she said what she did.

Funnies from my students

I love them...they make me laugh. Here are some of the great ones from the past few days.

• I had a student who had had an eye appointment and came back with some amazing shades to help after having his pupils dilated. First off, my students were VERY concerned after he walked back in. They thought he was blind. One student was so concerned and asked, "How are you going to be able to watch the game (referring to the Superbowl)?" He let him know that he could take them out and throw them away. The other boy breathed a sigh of relief and then said, "Good, cause you look weird."
• On Friday, our school celebrated the opening of the Winter Olympics with our own parade. Our class was the last one to walk and as we got going, the music began with some great upbeat music that you just had to dance to. So, I did. Unfortunately, one of my girls that was leading our class didn't think it was so great. My student teacher overheard her say that she was glad I was in the back because I was embarrassing.
• Later in the day, the same girl that I had embarrassed, asked me if I knew what word it was that meant you were all about yourself. I thought for a minute and then came up with vain (which we had discussed in our book about Edward). She said, "Yeah...that's me and my sister."

Oh these students just make me smile!

My 10 for 10 update

This year, I am trying something new. I have 10 goals. And some of you will get to help me with them (my running friends)! This will also help me become intentional, I believe.

1. Read three professional books
2. Run 5 5K's
3. Run a sub 30 5K
4. Pay off debt to dad (and thus, be debt free except my mortgage)

• uh, yeah, I'm debt free!!!!!!!!!!

5. Go to Honduras on a mission trip (scared of flying)
6. Clean off all of the clothes off my floor and have them put away
7. See a movie by myself
8. Give blood 4 times (one down and three to go)
9. Write my compassion children three times each this year

• wrote each one once so far

10. Finish reading whole Bible (on track to finish mid-July)

Learning

Trying Learning...

And I finally did it! Learned how to do the strike through!!!

And realized I am constantly on the edit html page and not compose. No wonder I couldn't do bullets. Don't worry, bullets will come soon!

How does he know?

Most of my friends know about my quirky habits in finding fun and exciting recipes that hide vegetables and other foods in them. The other day, I took some friendship bread into the classroom that hadn't risen and was as dense as bricks. As I was handing out pieces of bread, one of my boys asked, "Is there celery in that?"

I have yet to bring in any foods to my class where I am hiding vegetables, but maybe now I'll try. :)

Bitter

I'm becoming...bitter. I notice that I want to snap at my student teacher more often. However, I think this is due to the fact that he is getting so much more time with them...reading to them, hearing their thinking, conferencing with them...ugh! I miss them. And only five more weeks. He'll be taking our morning meeting and writing workshop next week. Oh my...

Don't get me wrong. My student teacher is great! He wants to do what is right for the students and wants to get better. He takes home all of the books (probably more than a dozen) and reads through them to soak up the information. I couldn't ask for a better student teacher.

I just miss my class.

Better

Today was better. We set goals in our writing workshop. The students had to fill our their gaggle of goals. I think it helped. And what made it even better was hearing from our student teacher that one of my students during writing workshop, while two other students were talking, walked over to their desks, tapped on them, and reminded them that they had goals today. LOVE IT!

For reading workshop, we talked about synthesis and created something new out of our thinking. I used different ingredients and made chocolate mousse to represent how we mix our thinking and it grows and creates something new.

Later, I invited writers back to the room who wanted to try a glossary in their writing. Seven students came! Woo hoo! They were excited to try it and we ended up eating chocolate mouse (with crushed cookies mixed in). While we were discussing glossaries, one of my outspoken ones was wondering something. Out of her mouth came, "And don't even get me started about Gail Gibbons. She doesn't even do glossaries." She paused and continued, "And she doesn't do the table of contents." I could tell she was very frustrated with Gail Gibbons (a great author for informational text), and I told her that she could write her a letter and ask her to maybe try it. I don't doubt that I'll have a letter to read tomorrow.

Tell Me How...

How do I get my boys to write? How do I get my boys to focus and work? How? Because if today's classroom happens again, I'm not sure what to do.

Granted, it's not all of them. But it more than not, so, any ideas out there? We're currently working on our informational books (and to the moms that read this...I don't think your boys would want you to see their papers yet). Any ideas that anyone can give would be great!