Woo hoo!

These arrived (after I convinced one of our custodians to deliver them) in my room on Friday.


No offense, I know that the custodians are busy. They've had these for almost a month and I am just really excited...so I went in on Saturday and decided to try my hand at assembling the unit.



I did it! Now I just have to decide and organize what goes in there. All I know is that I will have a great way to display, write, and store materials needed for our reading and writing workshops! A big thank you goes out to my principal who had leftover money and allowed us to buy these!

Funnies from my students

We were creating the -ock family this week: sock, lock, flock, etc. I came up with frock and explained that it was a dress. One of my cherubs said, "I'm going to ask my mom for a prom frock."

They also had a funny discussion about Satan and 666, but I can't remember exactly how it went. I always love listening to their logic...And if you're wondering why they were discussing 666, we were working on math and they were working with 3 groups of 6 on their math paper.

Things that make me HOT!!!

Just talking about these topics lately make my blood pressure RISE...
1. The reading program that we adopted for our corporation next year. I just don't see how what they provide will push my students to grow in deeper thinking skills than what I did this year. Granted, I think the guided reading will be helpful, but when we aren't going to use the grammar component (you'll have to supplement), the writing component, and the spelling component, then why did we adopt it...
2. Next year - I love my class. I don't want to think about starting over yet. I don't want to think about how our community will be split up and I'll have to start again. I don't want to think of all of the things that I have yet to do for the end of the year.
3. Our writing prompt grading session. I received my class' prompts back. I am not happy. There were four papers that I read that received a 3 on the writing development portion that I feel should have had a 4. So, what's a passing score? A 4. I am upset because not all of the teachers who were "scoring" the prompt were mentored by our writing coach. I am upset because I worked hard with my students and they are great writers - writers who use time passes marks, dialogue, series, action, and description and they still end up with a 3. Ugh!!!
4. And after checking brightroom to see my picture after the half marathon...the photographer (I chose not to use an adjective) took my picture of where I wear my medal and smile WHILE MY EYES WERE CLOSED.

So...anyone else feel like venting? Why couldn't I have had kickboxing tonight? :)

Mini Indy

I traveled to Indy with 35,000 other runners and walkers to participate in the mini-Indy (13.1 miles). I finished in 2:43:37. I secretly wanted to finish in under 3 hours and run as much of it as I could. If I picked up a Gatorade or water, I walked through it so I could drink and not slosh it everywhere. I weaved in and out of LOTS of people and at about mile 12 I walked about half of a block to cool down my body a little. I then finished it up with a strong sprint at the end. I hurt now...especially my left knee. But...I finished!!! My sister and her boyfriend had come with me and surprised me at the end with a bouquet of flowers. They truly made my day (if you read old posts, this would be the same boyfriend that helped my sister dumpster dive). I've included a few photos.


Those are socks on my hands. My friend, Katie, recommended to wear them to keep my hands warm before the race. I threw them away as I began my journey. No, I did not create sock puppets and have them talk to each other.


On the journey...

Afterwards, with my sister at her apartment complex.

Poetry

The following is a poem written by a second grade student in my class. Her inspiration - she made it up...but the voice I feel is powerful. I would like to publish this...Teachers, do you have any ideas as how I go about doing this?

Loneliness

I'm sad today
lonely
No one wants to play
with me.
Today's just a bad day.
No one will talk to me
No one will come to me
I don't know what's wrong with me?
I didn't do anything wrong did I?
I try to talk to people but they don't talk back to me.
I didn't do anything gross did I?
I don't know what's wrong with me today?
I guess it's just a bad day today.
They're just playing but not
with me.



Thoughts and comments? PLEASE leave a comment if you can...my student was really excited when I told her I was putting it on my blog.

What a Story!

After heading home from a small run (preparing for Saturday), I cancelled my small group get together. They normally come over every Tuesday and hang out. I had just finished eating and was sitting down to relax when my phone rang. My friend, Megan, called and told me that her roommate, Brandy, had to have us come to get her from college. She had headed to her final (and had been sick during the day) an hour away after the professor said it would be hard to make up the lab.

While taking her final, she felt like she was going to pass out...and she did. Her professor took her (carried her) to the student lounge and while coming to (she had been out for about 30 seconds), she projectile vomited on herself AND HER PROFESSOR. Serves her professor right for making her come to the final when she called and told him she was sick.

So Megan and I drove an hour to get her and then I drove her car back (Love the Honda...must say). I am currently sitting with her in the hospital while she gets fluids...and using the free wi-fi. The story, though, is not about how great of a friend I am, it's about the amazing timing of vomit!!! And the reason that as a teacher, we always say, "if you feel sick...go to the bathroom."

This week

This week we have reviewed for part of our math benchmarks, taken part of it, and written our writing prompt for the language arts benchmark. I've had good moments and bad moments. At some times I was REALLY frustrated with students because they weren't doing things that I know they can do. One girl (who is an amazing writer) put in hardly any ending punctuation. Ugh! And she's normally one of my strongest writers with always a strong voice present. Another girl used the time passed mark (thanks Ruth) twice and did it correctly. Now the question is, do my co-workers know what that means and will they grade it accordingly? Time will tell.

We also worked in reading workshop this week on summaries and will continue into next week. I am hoping to lead back into non-fiction and picking out the main idea of paragraphs and supporting details. Hopefully, I'll still have hair left (if I don't pull it all out before then). After our poetry unit is finished, I'd like to work paragraph writing into their workshop...hoping to prepare them for third grade. We'll see...time will tell and they will direct my decisions.

But most of all, I truly do love my class. The good times and the bad times. They were REALLY talkative today, but I still am so blessed to have the group I do. I am just amazed at how well they mesh together. It truly is a community and while many people can't wait for summer, I am not looking forward to saying good-bye to this class yet!