the teacher is in

It's raining, it's snowing,

2007-12-02T13:14:00.000-08:00

Snowy rain falling and still I managed to make it in to work on a Sunday to get my copying and prepping for the week started.

The new trimester begins Monday, but I'm still finishing the grading for the last one. The "big" projects were an "Ancient Greek Times" newspaper page for my ELL social studies group, A Cultural comparison (home country and the US) for the 8th graders, and the 7th graders a summary comprehension test on a reading excerpt from the story "My side of the Mountain." only the 7th graders are being their typical butt-y selves and complaining, "I don't get it." Seriously, we've being working for two weeks on looking at one story and you don't get it?! They need a lot of hand holding.

Right now I'm in the midst of baking a from scratch chocolate cake. Of course, the baking powder is old and I had to fiddle with the baking chocolate (didn't have any so did a cocoa powder conversion), and almost didn't add enough sugar (recipe said one and a half cups...initially I read 1/2 cup) but a quick taste test got the sugar close. Ran out of sugar as well. It's not like I use it very often! Five more minutes, till I get to check on it.

and now for a little stream of consciousness writing. man it is raining, yay Seahawks managed not to lose, Hanukkah starts this week so I got out my menorah and candles did you know they sell Hanukkah candles? i bought Christmas cards and have addressed most of them but of course have manged to lose Gaia and Tyler's, Alli and Brett's and Laurel's address. No you might not know these people! oh, look time to check on the cake just a sec......okay the cake rose so the baking powder still had some action.

New walking challenge...4 person teams to "walk" to Mexico for spring break. Each person needs an average of 7000 steps. Totally do-able. I decided to do laps around the school on 3-4 day a week...gives me time to pray and adjust my attitutde for classes. Very Jericho.

I am so looking forward to days off

2007-11-21T16:44:00.000-08:00

started the day by opening up the e-mail for school and the first thing I read is from the principal thanking staff members who had helped with the school improvement plan and ending the email with "ponies and zebras frolicking in the meadow....."

My principal is a burly guy with a very deep voice

I laughed out loud as i got ready for my walk before school. my it was cold

four and a half days off...oh the lap of luxury!

going to the island for T-day tomorrow, the island is fine, ferry traffic not so much.

plan to watch hockey on friday (no not at five a.m. with all the sales!)

Praxis update

2007-11-18T17:50:00.000-08:00

praxis test was...well not easy...actually there were a few questions I guessed on...mostly related to things poetry. Quite a few questions on metaphor, simile, onomatopoeia, alliteration and at one point a run of the letter D being the answer (which started to freak me out around the third one, but I checked my answers and still liked them so oh well). The guy sitting a few seats away getting shaking his foot and I was in that state of kind of needing to pee, so really didn't appreciate being jiggled. I finished in around 90 minutes, finally went to the bathroom, then came back in to check my answers. the worst part was my needing to cough during the first 15 minutes....I took a couple swigs of juice, and tried sucking on a cough drop, finally stopped with only a few mild barky interruptions. I'll find out the result in about a month.

Stepping and democracy

2007-11-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

The students are doing a health and fitness challenge through the PE department. During their PE class each student wears a pedometer and tracks how much they moved/walked/ran during the class. Their goal each day is increased but it's around 4000 steps. To help the students the staff are also recording steps throughout the school day for two week periods. The first two week period I averaged 10200 steps per day. Now here's the challenge, increase the steps/activity by 10 % for the next two weeks.

What?! That means I'm trying to find an additional 1020 steps each day! I need a little rat wheel, a treadmill, anything. I am creating jobs to do in the work room and going up and down the stairs three or four times each morning before school starts. A lap around the building is just over a quarter mile. Walked 4 laps one morning and then four more after my day ended. Those extra steps are hard to find...mostly I guess due to efficiency. I mean, really aren't we supposed to conserve energy? I was about 1000 steps in the red for the new goal after three days. On the bright side overall, I have increased my stepping output.

My social studies group are studying Ancient Greece. About half of them met the quotation challenge: "Ours is a democracy because power is in the hands not of the minority, but of all the people." (Pericles, 431BC) The class has chosen topics for research to create the "Greek Times" newspaper pages for class. 8th graders are writing a comparative essay on their home culture and the United States and the 7th graders are working on descriptive adjectives and looking for Cause and Effect reasoning.

less stress this week, have caught a cold and am taking a PRAXIS test tomorrow.

too , too, too

2007-11-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

Too much excitement with another lock down. Too many days subbing in the afternoon when I had plans to do the mundane. Too tired. Too much stress. This time I am being a wimp and complaining. I think, but i can't really remember but Monday might have been normal.

Tuesday, had to remember to bring cookies for the soup and salad type lunch in the staff room. Oh yeah, and remember the book club book to read after i got finished with my classes, look forward to a call from my friend on the east coast, and put my kid who skips my class on a truancy non-compliance thing so I could talk to the parents rather than have the vice-principal down-play the seriousness. So lunch is over, and i decide I'm going to walk for a while before reading. I leave the school and walk out toward the nearby high school. Round the corner and see a guy sitting there. He turns away and seems to be hiding something. Knowing that he is on school property, I say, "you know you are on school property, don't you." Thinking this might be some kid or some kid's older sibling smoking or toking away. He responds something to the effect that he knew and then mumbled something else about security. Weird but oh well. continue walking, get a too short call from the friend (WAY TOO Short!). Walk for another 45 minutes or so finishing up with a mile on the school track. Get back into the building and 4 minutes later we are in lockdown. This one lasts for about 45 minutes. The buses had to stay away until a few minutes after school. Find out later that the police were chasing down and apprehending a suspect who was wearing a read sweatshirt wanted for murder (?). Wait a minute red sweatshirt...that guy on the corner, yep red sweat shirt.
Wednesday, got to work and sat in the car for five minutes and just prayed. Already knew a colleague whose mother is going through chemo had asked that i sub in the afternoon. Okay fine, but of course it was Halloween so kids hyped on sugar and lots of noise during the school assembly. Note to self do not sub on assembly days if possible. Finally had the discussion with student and parent (and other adults) about the truancy issue (ten minutes out of covering class. thank God for para-educators who are flexible. After school I helped out with the diversity club's Dia de Los Muertos. More noise, more headachey stress. Got home later than usual but had to prepare cornbread for a meeting/ discussion/dinner for Thursday.
Thursday morning, one of my team teacher's came into "my" room and asked if I could cover his classes in the afternoon. With my 8th grade ELL students (and if you have ever heard me complain about a specific class last year as seventh graders? well these are the same students). the plan had been to grade papers and get some of the boring school work done, but okay, he's my team. Told the 8th graders during my regular time and some of them cheered when i said i would be subbing in the afternoon! Who are these kids?! took over for the teacher around noon and tried to keep the kids focused on their reading....and all did except one. She kept chatting. So she chose steps. Once she was off she asked to use the rest room and came back with a cell phone. i ask her for the phone, she gives it up and says, "No one is going to like you if you act so mean." My response, "My job is not to get you to like me , but to give you an opportunity to learn." After lunch had my ELL group for math and some asked if i could sub for the other teacher on our team as well. I sort of laughed it off since I knew that although she would be out the next day it was a full day assignment so I wouldn't be subbing for her. After school the round-table discussion thing. All good until the end, when the mentoring teacher says something to the effect, "Remember, you are all still on a provisional contract so you can be fired for any reason." Not what anyone wanted to hear. Got home late, thought, okay Friday, I'm not subbing in the afternoon, so I can go home do some laundry, and get that grading done.
Friday morning...the secretary comes down the hall in the morning with a devious gleam in her eyes. I knew she was going to ask me to sub and I really was going to say, "no," but this time it was the other half of the 8th grade team! No one had picked up the assignment. So again, I would be working with my ELL students in the afternoon only this time it would be for social studies /language arts. The day could not end soon enough. Went home changed and then went out to meet with some of the other teachers from school at a nearby slightly yuppyish place. loud but fun. got home not late but crashed fairly early
just too much of too much this week

observation

2007-10-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

The weirdest thing happened toward the end of the observation...the class started working I was getting some student edits in, different people had moved around to get supplies and then suddenly, like the seven minute lull, everyone was in their seat, working independently, and just doing. I looked at my class, looked at the principal, looked back at my class and said, " This doesn't happen very often. They are acting like the stepford classroom." He, in turn said, that he had poked his head into several classes this week, and each time the students were also at work. Weird!
Oh, and team t-shirts got a lot of positive feed back from other teachers and students. Part of the discussions for citizenship week included a Nickelback video (on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-QfLJbEN3k )

started crying while watching...i'm such a wimp

GO Team!

2007-10-23T15:55:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I get to be observed by the principal again. He's coming into my E.L.L. Social Studies class. This is the group I get to have the best connection with(and not only because I see them for more than 30 minutes each day). Every morning these kids are asking me to sing. I'll admit, I started it. The morning announcement end with : Have a _________ day. And some of the days have been "zippity do dah," "supercalifragilistic," "groovy," or "snappy." And to help explain the word I have sung snippets of songs that have the word. some days, I draw a total blank. Snappy had me demonstrating snapping my fingers and singing a bit of "Fever." (From a PBS pseudo-commercial). So tomorrow, we'll be dressed in our team t-shirts (team international) finishing up the discussion on citizenship week video of the day, and then working on the "This land is my Land" project.
The project has the students studying about their home countries using the five themes of geography (location,place, regions, movement, and human and environmental interactions). So there will be some chaos and only minimal teaching. The best kind of day for me! But not too sure how observable it is. oh well, this was on the schedule, so not changing it now.

Caring and Collaborative

2007-10-17T15:13:00.001-07:00

Another one of those teacher 1/2 days. We started with a staff meeting. Caring and collaborative is sort of the school catch-phrase for how we are to work together as a staff. the staff meeting started with sort of an enforced form of being caring and collaborative members of the school/community. A couple of the United Way folk spent the first fifteen minutes of the staff meeting encouraging us all to give more than we did last time. Admittedly this appeal does not get me feeling at all jazzed and warm and fuzzy. I prefer my giving to be directed in a way that I know that I agree with rather than some blanket organization that has its own people make that decision. This is not to say that i am against the idea of the United Way (supporting a lot of good organizations), it's just that I want more of the control....and yes I AM a bit of a control freak on the things i can control. Then the meeting moved on to Thank Yous. Our principal did this last year, so at least I knew what was going on. Various people gave a verbal thank you to someone on the staff. The principal provided candy for the recipients. Another way to show what a caring and collaborative group we are.
I sometimes question myself..."Am i being caring? Do I collaborate?" I think one of my biggest struggles is that I am used to relying on what I can do, that I don't/won't ask for help. I have a colleague who knows some of the financial struggles last year posed and has offered from time to time to float a loan. (If you didn't know, teachers here get paid once a month so sometimes payday is pretty far off). I haven't taken her up on the offer because of that self-reliance streak that say, "only from family."

So I wonder by not allowing someone else to be caring, am I being collaborative?

And another day of meetings

2007-10-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

I'm not exactly sure which it was today, a waiver day, and in-service, or maybe something else; but for once i found the meeting more interesting than usual. Instead of going to one more ELL meeting (and some of those can be well, let's just say on the somnabulistic side), i chose to meet with the social studies people.

Let me say this first, i haven't had a social studies class for almost six years, so most of the teaching has been pure joy and generally my planning is not a paper thing. Can't write a rough draft 'til after I'm finished, so planning is often backwards for me. I see exactly what i want to teach and then can write it down. We were a very small group (influenced I think by the no child left behind act, many of the teachers who could be teaching social studies are sticking to reading and writing so once again have left behind most of what was once fun about learning...and although Bush may emphasize citizenship, without a model all the readin', and ritin', and rithmatic, can be dull, but i digress). Just some of the sixth, one of the seventh, and a few of the eight grade teachers met to discuss not only what we are doing individually, but also looking at how we were linking to state and district learning requirements.

Since my ELL social studies group has all grade levels, i really did want to hear what other teachers were doing to see if what was in/on my mind fell in with what others were doing. Happy to say that, "Yes, it did. " And now on the front seat of my car is my curriculum. Or the beginning of it. I might even type it up and tweak it a little over the weekend. And i am even a little ahead of schedule is some ways. Coming up in a couple weeks, the school is celebrating "Citizenship Week." I can honestly say the my group has already been discussing what it means to be a citizen. And for a room of mostly non-citizens of this county not an easy topic to grasp. That same week, i will again be observed by the principal (yippee!).

On a family note, remembering Mom and smart, sarcastic, opinionated...i think we all have had at least one of those qualities bite us on the butt....

October and it gets busier and busier

2007-10-10T19:37:00.000-07:00

In the last week i have taught my regular classes and subbed for someone in the afternoon everyday since last Thursday. I'm not really complaining, don't get me wrong, i love teaching little 6th graders about sea-floor spreading and the mid ocean ridges. It's just getting a little tiring when you couple it together with meetings (teacher book club - Tuesday, team meeting Wednesday, MYD meeting -Monday, and volunteering once a week at one of the sports events-usually Wednesday). There are days that I get to school at 6:45 just to get ready for classes that start at 8:20. I can't prep after school since there is someone else in the classroom I share. The computer that I am supposed to use doesn't recognize me and the work order is on back order. it's just a little overwhelming this week. No, I'm not complaining and you can't make me say that i am!
And now for something completely different (thank you Monty Python)... One of my co-workers is doing a canned food book drive. Sounds weird doesn't it. My co-worker is part of a service project for a food bank and is looking for gently used books suitable for children between the ages of six months and 16 years. We can feed the child but sometime we forget that kids need the books that will spark their imaginations. My school district is pretty evenly split in the rich side water side and the poor side highway side. We may not be literally on the other side of the railroad tracks, but what our kids have is pretty sad. So when your thinking about how to create more space in you own homes, if you have a book or two that your own kids have out grown (but not wore out) let me know and I'll find a time to visit and pick them up.

bless someone with the joy you have received

this is not a drill..... Lockdown

2007-09-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

At eight something this morning my school went into lock down. The students go sit on the floor out of line of sight, the lights go off, and everyone goes quiet. I cover up the door window, check the hall for wanderers and lock the door. after about ten minutes the check in call comes and I report that I pulled a student into my room from the hall. Ten minutes later we get the resume class activities but keep doors locked and windows covered.
It seems that someone across the street in the apartments there was wielding a knife....some sort of domestic squabble. The police were called and finally someone was hauled off. One of my students coming to school VERY late had to sit in a police car during the lock down. My students were great about doing what they were told quickly and quietly.

life is not a drill

Five themes and other things

2007-09-17T14:41:00.000-07:00

Today in my ELL Social Studies class I gave the students short oral quiz about the five themes of geography. F or the past week we have been defining and creating examples of the five themes (location, place, human/environmental interactions, movement, and regions). Some days were easier than others...the interactions day probably the hardest. So after going through regions (I cut up a map of the United States and then laminated the pieces) and that we can divide the earth into governmental, landforms, or directional regions; I I asked them about the different themes. They all seemed ready for the real quiz tomorrow. I don't expect their writing style to be very high, but since they have been learning note taking, maybe they will be fine on the written quiz.

My 8th graders are working on Point of View. They have a scenario and a character and must describe what happened in an accident in the first person point of view. Tomorrow all the different characters from the scenario will get together in a group to figure out what happened.The 7th graders had a free write today. Something I will be practicing with them every day. And then we will skim through the first couple of units in the text since some of them have already done units 1-3.

As for me....another busy weekend. I participated in a Radio Programming advisory panal ($50 for two hours!). Then went to the gym and worked out with my sister who was visiting (Happy Birthday, again) then more family stuff with brothers and sisters. I started to yawn by 7:00 and when i got home was falling asleep before 9:00. The typical teacher work day is still in effect for me on the weekends.

Lastly, a friend sent me this in one of those forwarding things (and no you do NOT have to send it on to twelve people while chanting)

St. Theresa's Prayer:

May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.
Amen to that

Sit Tall!

2007-09-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

So the "first week" of school is done and finally today i felt like I was teaching. My social studies class was looking into creating a definition of the word "citizen" and my other two classes were creating their own guiding principles for the class. My shortest 8th grade student thought a good class expectation would be "sit tall." After thinking about it we kept the rule. Sit tall like stand tall can be be proud of who you are and what you contribute to the class. You may be the joker, the athlete, the gamer, or the smart kid but each one of them can be proud of who they are. This 8th grade group are some of the same students who caused me a lot of stress as 7th graders, but we're all going to be sitting tall, me included.

blessed are those who are small but can sit tall.....

Day 1 and 179 to go...

2007-09-05T17:41:00.000-07:00

School started today! Actually there wasn't a whole lot going on, going over school rules and the expectations and making positive choices. I have one class that will be a little challenging (some of the same students who provided interesting challenges last year) but the team that I am working with are in agreement about how we honor the school-wide discipline program.
My other two classes will be good not just because they are small, but because the curriculum will be fun for me.
I get to actually teach a social studies class! Yay! We'll start with the five themes of geography (location, place, human/environmental interactions, movement, regions) and then move on to a linked curriculum to grade level.
And my day ends at 12:30, how sweet is that?

School starts in 10 days

2007-08-25T22:45:00.000-07:00

For any of you who have checked in and found me wanting for a while, I'm back. Last year ended with me having my gall bladder removed the last week of school and then summer school started the following week.

I had a good group for summer school...high school students so a bit different from what I usually do. We used the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen as out main reading text. We had regular quizzes and focused on vocabulary and writing. We Worked on Topic development in "coming to America" and I had the students work in writer's notebooks almost everyday. Not assigned writing but sort of. Each Monday the students would spend about ten minutes coming up with a list of possible topics..."things that bug me..." ; "my favorite places.." "Problems in the world." and then each day they could write about a new topic or continue with a topic they had already started. During the last two weeks I asked them to pick one topic to re-write edit and type up. I enjoyed learning about one boy's joining a salsa dance club and another student explaining how Korea united during the world cup to support the Korean team.
The students said at the end of the summer that they enjoyed the book more than the video! Yay!

last week we had the ELL meeting and this upcoming week starts the in-service teacher days. O and my work schedule has gotten longer ...from a .4 to a .6 contract if we have a contract. It's contract renegotiation time between the union and the district so I'm still waiting.

TESTING IS OVER!!!!!

2007-04-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

Finally my schedule is back to as close to "normal" as I can make it. The ELL Language Proficiency test...Over. The state assessment test (as I like to think of it the no child left behind..ha!)....over! I had students of all grade levels asking me how the WASL will affect their grade and what would happen if they don't pass. They're middle schooler for crying out loud. I kept reassuring them with the "don't worry about it because the only one test you have to pass doesn't happen until your in 10th grade" mantra. But still they worried. I provided them with jelly beans and cookies during the test break so they could make it through to lunch (at almost 1:00). They wanted the coffee and espresso tasting ones the most (hmmmm, wonder if the environment is affecting them?) My sixth graders probably had it the easiest...they only had to test on reading and math. The other test days they were working on finishing the Africa project. I am so proud of them...some of the projects are really well done. I think the "no stick figures" in the drawings helped the projects look better than they would have done. I'm going to laminate some for the hallway. If I can I will put a copy of one online.

And the sun has returned, I put out a couple tomatoes and my azaleas are in bloom and all is right in my world for today.

blessed by peace and finally enough sleep!

"Lost Boys" and Biographies

2007-03-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

That's what's on the menu for class this week. I'm finding the lost boys pretty interesting and have decided to expand the lesson with my class to include a little country research, flag, and drawing. The students of course will do most of the work. They have already read and excerpt from the text and written the summary, tomorrow they will work on their drawing and I will assign countries for them to research....limited to Sudan, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

As for the biographies, my 7th graders are going to choose someone they think is successful (I gave them this caveat, the biography must be in our school library!) and research the person, what makes them successful, and write a 5 paragraph report on the person. We have already read brief biographies in the text on Frida Kahlo, Mae Jemison, Christopher Reeve, Tim Berners-Lee, Maya Lin and Naomi Shihab-Nye. The students have practice interviewing and writing research style questions. Tomorrow they will get the rubric for the assignment.

I'm sure there will be a lot of questions....so time for me to study.

blessings among the chaos!

lather, rinse, repeat...

2007-02-20T15:42:00.000-08:00

last week was a little underwhelming but incredibly packed with students. I mentioned the state based language proficiency test for ELL.....? every morning but one i was testing at one of the high schools for the "speaking" part of the test. For me that means reading a lot of direction aloud and then evaluating the students pronunciation, comprehension, and responses. With the higher level transition students there is almost a conversation going on, with the newcomers...sometimes even the repetition is painful. I think I can recite from memory the script used by the proctors.
This week I am subbing full days since my district takes the "mid-winter" break. I don't need this break, the high schoolers have just started a new semester (so they don't need it either) and soon everyone will be taking the "no child left behind" inspired state assessment of student learning. What joy that will be. So today i was with 9th grade students, tomorrow with seventh grade, Thursday and Friday not yet set.
On a more personal note, I went to see Taiko with my nephew, Finn, a couple of Sundays ago. It was a kids based performances so fun to learn about the drums while listening to the music. Afterwards, we had a family birthday party. Actually, I think that was the first time since November that the parts of my family that live on this side of the state got together.
Still working out, I'm noticing that there is a little more room in the hips of my pants and a lot more energy for me on the cardio days.

wicked tired

2007-02-07T16:28:00.000-08:00

......as in no rest for the wicked. The day started around five and I just got home. I subbed math this morning then had my classes, then lots of correcting. Doesn't sound like much, but in the between times i was writing up the lesson plan for my level three group. Sort of a cross between one of those survival games and decision making. They had a list of some 25 different things and had to decide which fifteen they should take on a camping trip in the mountains and why.

i let them work in pairs to decide but the harder part was actually writing down why you wanted to take the sleeping bag but not the binoculars. Tomorrow we will discuss the choices they made and why, then talk about the excerpted novel "My Side of the Mountain". I read this book when I was in 4th or 5th grade, it's sort of a Walden's Pond for kids.

now to tackle the shopping and the laundry I need to do

....I hope you find blessings in doing all you need to do for each day.

nothing special...

2007-02-04T14:40:00.000-08:00

Feeling better, the bio- kids are mid way through reading and info gathering. Monday they get to research on the web, Tuesday they will be looking at a biography and we'll be talking about "topic sentences" and concluding sentences. Neither of which they are very good at yet.
the Natural world class wrote a quick and dirty paragraph on their chosen animal. After grading it, I will give back and we'll talk about using the same animal to write a poem. ...this loosely based on the unit they are in. My tutoring group has increased from the one student on January second to four students ending the month.
The ELL team is talking about the state English language proficiency test...this is not the same as the state assessment of student learning. There is some tension about the scoring and record keeping....i am trying to stay out of the middle but I may be dragged in.going to hear/see the Portland Taiko group later today with my nephew and then meeting other family members for dinner. We are not super bowling.
Trying to figure out my taxes but still waiting on a few forms....

.....blessed by everything and nothing in particular

and the cough came back the very next day.....

2007-01-25T18:16:00.000-08:00

the hacking left and then returned with a vengeance last night.

Today at lunch was the mix it up lunch. Students were encouraged to sit at lunch tables according to birth month. There were some questions for topics and a few teachers to help the students to talk to one another. After school was an all school dance...also to encourage students to talk, meet and even to dance with someone new.

I couldn't go...I do not want to spread any potential germs....

challenged by rachel

2007-01-23T17:02:00.000-08:00

I went in early today to participate in the Rachel's challenge assembly. Rachel's brother, Craig, who was also a student at Columbine when the shooting happened was the speaker. We saw the presentation and listened to the challenges to start making a change, today. Later in class the students took a couple of surveys about the perceived attitudes and prejudices within our school. My student were almost split down the middle on whether they thought our school was welcoming without prejudice. Sad commentary, since according to our principal, our school is one of the better ones in the district in terms of trying to make positive differences.

Two of the statements Rachel wrote in her diary that affect me the most:

"I won't be labeled as average"
and
"Don't let your character change color with your environment."

two of my students later asked if they could write their Biography report on Rachel

may you be a blessing in every color.........

a full week? what's that?

2007-01-19T18:39:00.000-08:00

I'm looking forward to a full week of teaching next week. I can't remember when i last taught for five full days. Between the snowy/icy days were holidays and pre-scheduled half days. There are some students who don't seem to get that school missed now just gets tacked on in June (or July...we are already up to the last week in June on the new revised schedule). All in all this "week" has been pretty good. My classes are all engaged in their new units and the ELL team is coordinating for the student Language assessment happening in the spring.
next week is a good one in that we are having the "Rachel's Challenge" group in for an assembly and the "mix it up" lunch. Both of these are to encourage changes is the heart of the students to acceptance and less clique-ishness. Rachel is the first student who was killed in the Columbine shooting. If you want more info fo to www.rachelschallenge.com . I have seen high schoolers having a positive reaction to this presentation.
I scored the last home game for the girls' v-ball game yesterday, 8th graders went out with their first home win! Tight game all around no blow outs but strong serves from a few of our girls.
Caught a cold...just tired and a hacky cough that I'm working on. I think I'll be okay for the gym tomorrow. My throat just too dry to go in today. This weekend will be busy with getting a bunch of little thing done.

excuse me while i cough.......

Not Again

2007-01-16T16:36:00.000-08:00

yes, another snow day for my district....getting old. However the neighboring district that I sub for was still operating (and on time) so i worked a fell day in 7th grade science class. They were making poster of a cell analogy. A plant cell is like a school. The principal is like the nucleus and controls everything, the building is like the cell wall, the hallways like the endoplastic reticulum and on. The students made up their own comparative analogy and then had to draw it out and explain. I think it's a pretty cool assignment.....too bad I don't have a cell science section,

Another snow day

2007-01-11T14:28:00.000-08:00

Okay the nature walk didn't pan out...getting too cold and some snow just wasn't worth the possible complaints and mess. Instead we went on line at http://nationalgeographic.com and enchanted learning.com to study habitats and ecosystems. Each student was given a card with the habitat on it sent to the site in the computer lab and then had to write notes about that habitat on the back of the card. you either did the assignment or you goofed (can you guess that some chose to goof!). Today, or rather tomorrow since today is a no school-snow day (again!), we'll be adding information to a big class chart of habitat information.

The trainer called me to ask if I could work out earlier yesterday evening...after a quick 1/2 mile (about 5 minutes) on the elliptical I started lunges. I admit it lunges are not my thing so I wanted to get them over with. down the "lunge-walkway" I went. At the end got water and the first one on the way back something in my right quad goes, "pop, pop, pop." I did not swear since i was right outside the kids' room (and I don't swear that much in public, anyway). Some sort of muscle pull. So i ended up not doing the leg and back work out though still did the back, biceps, abs that was very similar to Tuesday's routine. ughhh!

please, please, please let there be school tomorrow.

new units and the scale of things

2007-01-09T09:28:00.000-08:00

I have started new units in all my classes. the 7th graders are working in the natural world while I am being more consistant in my classroom management and discipline. the result...I had more turned in homework, on time, last week than I had had in the past. We may be going on a quick nature walk today if the weather is okay. try to see an ecosystem or a community around the school. if not we'll finish previewing a the readings and get started.

The mixed level will be doing a unit on challenges and extraordinary people. mostly we'll just be previewing the chapter and talking about people who have influenced us. With maybe a tie in to Dr. Martin Luther King.

My work out this morning, brutal. Abs (crunches and something called planks), biceps and back done in the circuit training mode. Sweating bullets. i weighed in on the gym scale, and it's less than my home scale (I will be official at home).

more storms expected tonight.....hoping you are blessed with shelter and warmth....

this and that and the new year begins

2007-01-03T20:03:00.000-08:00

The "winter holiday" is over and we are back in session. I have a semi-new class of one student. Yes, that's right one. According to the ELL guidelines we can't have more than 30 students in an ELL class so even though one of my students moved..two new students started in on Tuesday. One of the other ones was transferred to another core class and now is "tutored" by me for 1/2 hour every day.This also allows the school the leisure of having a place to put any other "new" students should they move into our district.

What is it with me an quotation marks, today?....you would think that I have been teaching them but I haven't. One group is starting a new unit dealing with the natural world (everything in the natural world is connected) while the other group is doing narrative writing. The natural world group are starting in on latin and greek root words. We spent most of today with vorare (to eat) with the additions of omni-; herba-; and carne-. Tomorrow we'll look a little at classifying some animals by there grouping.

On a personal note. Christmas was a rush of driving to visit my sister (310 miles one way), baby-sitting my god-daughters, and dog-sitting. Along the way still managed to go to the gym or work out nine of the days of the vacation. So no weight gain...Yay!

we have been blesssed by the light of the world.....

Volleyball

2006-12-13T19:52:00.000-08:00

I am now doing the official scoring for the girls volley ball team. Tournament scoring is a little different from my days as a high school v-ball player. The main thing that is hard for me to score mentally is a net serve (hitting the net on the serve but the ball goes over) is played and not re-served. Only one mishap and that's when one of the teams served out of order. I had to figure out what to do and they started before I had a chance to check that they had the right person in....much of the game my head is down. We caught the mistake and it didn't affect the outcome of the game....sadly my school's teams (7th and 8th) lost their matches...but it was fun. The next home game is not until January.

may all who compete be blessed with the ability to lose gracefully

ughhh!

2006-12-11T16:46:00.000-08:00

just started working out at a new gym....with a trainer (two free sessions included in cost of membership) and decided to buy more trainer time to get me more motivated and focused.
started new trimester and already have students not turning in homework on time and instead choosing to fail.
was observed for the first time by the principal...the students were pretty good and there were some suggestions
christmas break begins friday afternooon.

feeling blessed is just that, a feeling, the blessings are always there....

Reading

2006-12-07T19:18:00.002-08:00

a friend of mine had this in her post so I am passing it along:

From Paul's Thinking Place: "I have no clue what a "meme" is, but I saw this one on Mark Ostreicher's blog, and thought it was pretty cool. Most of the time, I find reading other people's "memes" somewhat interesting at the best, silly at worst, but this one actually struck my fancy for what it might say about what people are reading... and authors are writing. So here are the rules:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the next four sentences on your blog, along with these instructions.
5. Don’t you dare dig for that “cool” or “intellectual” book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest!"

My nearest book with more than 123 pages happens to be the teacher's edition of one of my text books. Unfortunately, there's not much there, but here it is.

Discuss in pairs or small groups.
1. How are the two science experiments similar to a mystery story? how are they different?
2. would you prefer to be a detective or a scientist?

I know not great reading. On the other hand the closet non-text book is Kokoro by Natsume Soseki :

"All I wanted to know at that moment was that Sensei was still alive. Sensei's past, his dark past that he promised to tell me about, held no interest for me then. But I could not find what I was seeking, and I refolded the letter in exasperation. I returned to the doorway of my father's room to see how he was doing."

I think I will send this to the staff; see what we as a school come up with.

Honesty and Middle schoolers

2006-12-07T17:19:00.000-08:00

kind of a weird day at schoool today. I was supposed to be observed by the principal today but with so many other things going on he couldn't come in....all the computers and phone lines outside the school were down son attendence was out of wack as were any notifications about things that were happening...and one of my students decided to write on my apple with a marker. I kind of know who it was but instead took the time to make it a "teachable moment" about honesty and self responsibility tied in with the make your day program. Hope something takes. Tomorrow the principal should be in, i have a meeting with the trainer at the new gym i just joined, and there's one more week until the christmas break.....

oh, and the school....just a picture of the one my grandmother went to back in 1917

may I be blessed with patience.......

the new trimester begins

2006-12-02T10:23:00.000-08:00

Finally getting a feeling that I know what I am doing and I know how I want to be doing it. Yesterday my 7th grade team met and talked for about an hour about the goals for our students and some of the across the board expectations. I kind of needed to be in more contact since my schedule barely allows me the time to meet with them. I think I will write up a trimester plan.

Pretty sure there will be students who don't understand their schedules or who want to make changes in their electives on Monday. Fortunately there isn't much of a change for my students. Some groups, same books, better design. My level 2 students are starting a new section on growth. We'll start with units of measurement and then move on to comparisons. For grammar we will still be using adjectives but also going further and making comparisons using " ~er than" . We'll also be working on sequencing and some conjunctions.

My level 3 students three students will be reading a fictional account of Lewis and Clark with Sacagawea and then learning about maps...relief maps in particular and measurement. We'll also be doing some sequencing and the reading strategy of visualizing. I don't think we will have a project for this section because my goal is to begin new units after the Winter Holidays.

feeling blessed with an abundance of little things to take care of....

Finally back at school

2006-11-30T19:24:00.000-08:00

Snow day parts one, two and three are finally over. Today we had a 2 hour late start (which totally does not affect my schedule since I start after 12 noon. About 1/3 of my students were absent...Either they hadn't heard that school was back in session, or they couldn't make it.
The trimester ends tomorrow, so I was printing up individual progress reports so my students could see what they were missing and could turn in things at the last minute. Most of them did fine, except the five who never turn in anything and the one who goofs off ALWAYS! I have done what I could to get them doing the work, but to no avail. This afternoon after school let out I took the first part of the tech competency with the school district. I'm not sure why it is necessary but there are 6 levels in total.....I'm going to check out when I can get in for the next one.
Next week I have my first observation from the principal. I already let the student know that he will be coming in.

Snow Day

2006-11-28T09:30:00.000-08:00

I got a call at 5:28 this morning say "two hours late start." Yep, yesterday's snow day was going to be just a late start for today. I got up and made the call to the next person on the phone tree, and then went back to bed. Phone rang at 6:24, "they've come to their senses, no school today, either." I called the next person again to pass on the new message. It's a lot faster than waiting for the school's name to come around on the news. Yesterday was pretty murky looking, but I went out to the lake. Today is sunnier but a lot colder. I might just have to walk around the lake, at least to go to the store to get some milk and tea. It's too cold to drink anything other than something like tea or cocoa. So time to get out and explore.

blessing can be as small as a cup of hot tea....

checking in

2006-11-26T18:32:00.000-08:00

Snow drops keep falling on my head....really! There's a Japanese children's' song that is loosely translated, " the the snow is falling thud, thud..." and today was it. The driving rain/snow fell most of the day and I have been snug in my apartment going over my lesson plan for the upcoming week. There is a possibility of a snow day tomorrow, but I have to admit, I don't want one.
I hope you all had an enjoyable thanksgiving...mine was very low-key and selfishly relaxed.

I am thankful for all the blessings of each day.

Not so glad

2006-11-16T18:03:00.000-08:00

whimper,
not so glad today
just want to be done training
low blood sugar makes me nasty

GLAD

2006-11-14T17:59:00.000-08:00

All week long I'm doing something called GLAD training. Not just me but several teachers in my building and district are doing this training. It is a designed style of teaching that incorporates strategies of metacognition and participation. Guided language acquisition design it is rather a mouthful but so far there are some interesting teaching styles that i will be able to incorporate in my unit/lesson planning. Saturday and Monday were all day affairs of the trainers training us in their various styles. Today through Friday we observe a class from 8:30-12:00 learning a unit from the trainers and then in the afternoon we work on unit planning of our own. I'm working with one of the others ELL teachers using our text, but trying to meet academic standards of our grade levels. She teaches 6th grade and her writing is more narrative based, while my 7th graders are more expository writing in preparation for the state standardized testing. i started flagging and getting snappish around three o'clock. Partly just tired, partly in need of food and fresh air. All this rain is driving me indoors and I haven't been for a walk in a few days. Tomorrow will be another long day, and there are a few things i want to check on the web before tomorrow so....

I am looking for the blessings of sleep and energy for tomorrow

high watermarks

2006-11-08T08:40:00.000-08:00

This morning, when I went online to check for sub opening, there was a notice that one of my district was closed due to flooding. Only two of the schools are actually in the possible flood plain, but the roads through my old hometown, and out to the highways are threatened and some are closed. Closed roads, closed schools. It doesn't happen that often but at least the kids and buses are not getting stuck in the middle. Smart decision. By the way the plural of school bus is buses, not busses. Busses is to kiss in old English.
I have been participating in the schools "diversity club". Each week there is a project about a different county or culture. The last two weeks have had huge student turnout. Two weeks ago we celebrated "day of the dead" for Mexican Culture. The students painted sugar skulls for the school display case. Last week we made beaded bracelets for Native American cultures. Unfortunately the student who was also going to demonstrate some Native American dances was unable to attend. Still over thirty students showed up for the club.
My 7th graders are still working on a cultural project of their own called "This land is My Land". We have spent the last two class periods in the computer lab getting information from www.culturegrams.com , the CIA factbook, and www.worldatlas.com. I had one student cut and paste and thought he was ready to turn in the work.....NOT! Today they have the day in the library and then the real work begins....Mostly for my substitute.

blessings on those who serve their communities in highwater

a little bit of this a little bit of that

2006-11-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been busy! This past week I have been subbing in the morning with 5th graders and then dashing over to my school for the afternoon. The fifth graders were "challenging." They have a science kit (FOSS science kits for anyone who might have heard of them) that takes a bit of prep and more teaching time than the kits advise. Last week they were learning about mountains and contour maps, elevation, and topography. All fun things, but I think the curriculum was a little difficult to follow so in a few places I re-arranged and re-ordered to give the students a better understanding of the work.
My classes have been working on adjectives and starting a project called "This Land is My Land." Adjectives...well they are pretty self-explanatory of describing words of emotions, size,shape, or speed, and colors. Of course, they are other things, too; but I didn't want to overload my level twos. The "This Land" project started with singing woody guthrie in class and identifying the adjectives and nouns that are used in the song. The project will be creating a poster project of each student's home country. My level threes are mostly Ukraine and Mexico, but we also have Egyptian, Peruvian, Philippines, and South Korea. They will be researching and writing a paragraph about the environment, education, and climate and then two other paragraphs of their own choice. The project reemphasizes what they are learning in their social studies and a little of what they are learning in their science class.
And then i will be doing a training from next Saturday (the 11th) through the following week. So I need clear expectations for the students and manageable lessons for the sub.

blessings on all who labour......

Yay!

2006-10-29T10:33:00.000-08:00

I am starting to catch up. Ms. S, the teacher I share class and student's with, commented that it didn't feel so much this week that she had a roommate. Yay! I also started writing up plans, goals for the weeks ahead rather than just trying to make it through the next day. Also, yay me! This upcoming week I hope to have my students working with grammar, practicing paragraph building, and throw in a little testing on the content they have read and the week breezes by.

on another note, i just saw the house my friend and her fiance are buying, another yay for them and praise God.

blessings sometimes are found in the oddest of places

Expectations and Step Olympics

2006-10-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

Today, I am not feeling as light-hearted as I want to feel. Please feel free to ignore this blog while i vent a little.
At my school, there is a behavior plan called"make your day." No it is not some Clint Eastwood inspired spaghetti western version of classroom rules, it is a plan that is supposed to create an atmosphere of respect for the learning, well-being, and safety of all students. Notice the catch phrases?....Any way when a student "interferes" with one of these area of concern they are sent on steps. Step one is to go sit facing away from the class (for about five minutes for first offenses, twenty minutes for the second offence...Or basically the whole class period in my class), step two to stand up, three to concentrate on the rules and figure out if you wish to move to step four, step four to be sent to the office to call home for an immediate conference with parents, teacher, student and an administrator. So far okay, at each step the teacher conferences with the student before they can move back down the steps. (no conference on the way up). I have a few students who have started to excel in the step Olympics. ... Going to step one, misbehaving on step one and moving to step 2, conferencing going back to one, conferencing and then returning to the learning environment. Then a few minutes later doing something that again interfered with learning (usually that is another name for talking....These are middle school students). In my larger class, there are about five students who choose steps as the alternative to doing class work. At the end of the hour, the student is then supposed to self-evaluate on a scale of 1-4 on whether they have made their day. Four is high 1 is low. It's difficult to get a lesson started because the "expectations" aren't being heard, and the concern is that students are choosing to fail rather than do work. My other concern is that with a large class and no where to go while on steps, steps becomes part of the problem. I feel that I am loosing control of this class, and it's driving me a little batty this week.

may i be blessed with the wisdom of compassion and the strength to meet expectations

Not school at all

2006-10-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

This week, my family has been having a long email discussion on crew and rowing. On of my nieces is starting to row in college and she innocently asked for family info on who had rowed. Although there are those in my family who have rowed all through college and masters, my rowing experience was limited to fall and winter of my freshman year in college.
There is a sleekness in the design of the crew shell that is sexy. The camaraderie of the boat as you tie in and count down your seat. The leap of excitement at the start and the pull through the middle of the race in the power strokes. And then crossing the finish line into a glide.
One of my favorite memories in a freshman four with cox was finishing a glide at the north end of Lake Samish in a early autumn morning. The mist on the lake and steam from sweating bodies rising, the perfect stillness broken only by the ripples of the shell and the drip from the oars, and watching a bald eagle dive for a lake trout and take to flight.

may your memories bring you blessing

bits and pieces

2006-10-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

The weekend...short summary, drove to the eastern part of the state to visit with one of my sisters. We worked out most of Saturday, went home after church on Sunday. Twelve hours of driving (about 620 miles). For the last two days I have been subbing in the morning and doing my regular job in the afternoon. The morning job is as the music teacher at an elementary school. This week the students have the "dance dude" teaching dance during a combined P.E./music class. Throughout the day the grade level classes come in and learn dances for about 35 minutes. For me that means 2 and 1/2 hours of electric slide, west coast swing, and the Virginia reel ( and a few others I can't remember the name of....oh yeah, kindies are learning the macarena)' I am beat! Yesterday, when i got home I got something to eat and then the low blood sugar kicked in and I needed to doze for about half an hour. Today i was smarter and actually brought lunch, so I'm fine.

My regular kids in the afternoon were pills. Talking while getting started, talking while lining up, talking during points. They had had a sub for the two hours before they met with me and were wound up. We practiced lining up three times before they got it right. And it's mid-terms already so I'm meeting with kids who are behind and giving them until Friday to turn in missing work. One assignment can raise a grade from an F to a C, hopefully they will have the missing work. I need to do some real lesson planning today, one of my classes switched books so i need to see what it's all about.

be blessed even in the busy-ness of the day

Soup Day!

2006-10-16T17:18:00.000-07:00

I didn't know that today was going to be quite as long as it turned out. So technically i have been working for a week now, but there are a lot of things that I haven't learned or have never seen.

I went in early because i needed to get some books ready, finish entering in some grades before mid-term comes and goes (only really important for the student who has a "D"or "F"), and then catch up on copying things now that I have a copier code. I wasn't planning on being in at 7:30 and not taking off after a couple hours, I wasn't planning on staying at school until a little after four in the afternoon, wasn't planning on working quite as hard as today.

When 11:30 and first lunch rolled around I realized that carrot sticks and a nectarine were not going to do it. But what I hadn't remembered is that today was soup day. Big pots of hearty beef barley and chicken noodle were in the staff room with rolls and some cookies for desert. Exactly what a rainy Monday needed. I had my lunch and enjoyed not doing something for all of 20 minutes before I was off and running again. I was able to get so much done today that tomorrow subbing as a music teacher in the morning should be pretty easy.

I feel blessed by soup, today

Because I do not hope to turn again

2006-10-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

My mom died ten years ago, so in her honor I borrow from

Ash Wednesday (excerpts) T.S. Eliot

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And I pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer…

Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.

Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain,
spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated
And let my cry come unto to Thee.

blessed are those who mourn

An every day job!

2006-10-09T16:12:00.000-07:00

I was finishing up for the day, one of my students was checking the points that the students do daily, when the principal walked in. First thought, this better not be bad news or I don't think I will be able to regain my composure with students still in the classroom. Instead he tells me that the district office had just called and they were offering me the .4 ELL position that I had been subbing for the last three weeks. I have an every day job!

And now you're wondering what .4 means. exactly like the math tells you 4/10 of a full time job. Full time would be a 1.0. the job is only in the afternoon, so i will still be subbing half days in the morning (hopefully 2-3 times a week). I will be teaching two classes of middle school students in sheltered English Language Acquisition. One class is 7th graders, mostly boys, mostly Hispanic. The other class is sixth, seventh and eighth graders, almost evenly split girls and boys, and almost evenly split Russian/Ukraine and Hispanic.

The cool thing is I will be teaching at a school within walking distance from where i live. I'm already thinking that it will be nice to walk to work a couple of days a week. So I have to wait for the rest of the paperwork stuff to get completed, I have informed my other district that i can only work mornings and re-arranged my schedule so that I won't be stepping on anyone's toes. That means some of my math assignments will have to be cancelled...sadness.

I am blessed

Best Practices? Huh?

2006-10-05T16:44:00.000-07:00

Today i had planned to have leisurely morning of a walk, then going into work after a small lunch, to be followed by an interview for an ESL job.

WRONG! The leisurely part was only beginning because i slept in to 6:45 and I was ready to go for the walk all I needed was to put the shoes on and grab my keys when the phone rang. I almost let it go but noticed it was one of my school districts so i answered. Could i come in as soon as possible to cover for a special ed. class. I thought for maybe ten seconds before answering I would be there in ten or fifteen minutes. Now you think I am some kind of wonderful to change, get out the door, and drive to a school. First off the school is only a mile and a half away. I had already figured out what I would wear to the interview and made only a minor adjustment since i wouldn't be coming back home to freshen up. Then thought about image (it is everything isn't it? i mean that's what all the commercials are trying to sell us) and grabbed a little warpaint and the travel toothbrush and headed out.....forgetting a hairbrush, by the way.

School. I was glad that I had wonderful para-educators for the special ed. The kids were fairly well-behaved (it helps when they recognize you) but by lunch I was starting to wilt. Did I mention the small headcold (yes, I did.) I stayed with the morning group until a replacement could be brought in and I could go to my semi-regular classes. I had prepared while babysitting last night (not that I had the materials, only that I had done the prep work mentally) and had even corrected homework that I could discuss with them before starting a writing assignment. Made it through the rest of the afternoon and am getting ready to leave and go to the interview when the secretary stops me and ask, "What do you know about 'best practices'?" Huh? I'm thinking she's talking in some new anagram and literally stop in my tracks. We call a few teachers, talk to some others before i figure out she's talking about teaching practices/styles for optimal student performance. So with a few crib notes I rush to fix my hair and check my face before driving on the interview.

I'm on time. And strangely the interview team are not district higher ups but the principal and vice-principal of the school where I have been working. The job is the one I have been subbing the past three weeks (long/short someone else hired quit after meeting people first day) but i had been told that the hiring/interviewing would be done by someone else, so this was not meeting my expectations. This school is very big on stating and meeting expectations. The interview was over in ten minutes (thankfully, I did not start hacking and coughing) and now the real wait begins. Until then, I'm subbing for the same afternoon classes that might be mine in the future.

blessing on those who persevere.

head in the clouds or a cold in the head?

2006-10-01T15:11:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but when the weather is changeable I get very restless. Can't sleep, feel slightly congested, my ears get clogged....that was yesterday. I had the sinking suspicion that this wasn't my normal night of no sleep...no I was fearing the first of the dreaded student contact head cold.
The week ended well with me being called to interview for a job that i have been for which I have been subbing since the second week of school (perhaps the call would have come earlier in the week if the person who reviews the files had been in). Yes, that's right I may have a regular job...well not too regular it's not full time, but before I digress into a different story, the weekend begins and I am feeling sluggish. I get out for a walk on one of the local trails but I am not feeling the usual energy boost after I finish. I feel congested, like I have been drinking red wine, like being on an international flight with recycled air, like i have been trimming ivy (I have a slight allergic reaction to cut ivy, go figure)....and then I sneeze.
I have a friend who sneezes when she walks out into sunlight, but that's not me. This seemed to be the kind of sneeze that might require some thing a little more than a back swipe with the sleeve (I know, gross). So i start thinking about where I put the extra box of tissues, do I have any day time cold medicine and why is it i got into a profession where there are hundreds of kids who haven't thought the least about bringing their own tissues to school or washing their hands after hacking away. Oh, and one of the teachers I work with was complaining on Friday how she was feeling the malaise...I am doomed, doomed i tell you.
Today, went to church, came home and crashed on the couch with a blanket around me. Maybe i should get that chicken soup ready.

blessed is he who has regard for the weak

I blame it on the internal alarm clock

2006-09-29T06:37:00.000-07:00

Both my schools are on what's called an "in-service" teacher's day and I did not need to get up early, did not need to hop on the computer looking for a job on the substitute online website, and did not need to be awake at all at 6:30 in the morning....but I am. I blame it on the internal alarm clock. It's not that I set it each night to wake me at a certain hour; I don't try to wake up early on weekends and holidays; but I do.

And so here I am stretched, awake, wondering if I want to make coffee (I sort of gave up coffee over the summer, so this is a strange thing to be thinking) and waiting for it to get light enough to go walk around the lake. This summer I started on an exercise program of sorts. The American Heart Association has a couple different things you can do that are pseudo-online. One, Justmove.org, allows you to choose and track your exercise routine online, will create a calendar of your workouts, and it gives short encouragements on the sign-in page. Totally private....no way for others to view your record. The other one I check is Choose To Move. It's more encouraging and geared toward women. Both of these sites can be found through the American Heart Association. But what I was really saying is take a walk around the Lake. I live near a very small lake and the distance around it from my home is about 2 1/2 miles. Not a daunting work out, but calming and just enough to get started on the day.

I think I have another twenty minutes before i can go out....now what about that coffee....

be blessed in the small things

First time caller long time listener

2006-09-28T15:47:00.000-07:00

Okay that's not really true, but this is my first time publishing on the web for the interested, indifferent or just plain bored person scoping out the lives and insights of others. I have never been much at journaling, keeping a diary, or other forms of written self expression even though I like writing...Bear with me while I figure out who I want to be on this blog.

Could you figure out the teacher thing? I love teaching, it's almost as much fun as "hanging out with friends" but there are also challenges in each day. Take yesterday, I was at a high school in my home town working for a teacher that I have subbed for before. Five classes of high school math.

You think your life is difficult? Try being a student with a graphing calculator in one hand and a book asking you to figure out the angles of a parallelogram that has been bisected through the opposite corners and all the information you have is two angles and one side. SOHCAHTOAH ! That is code for how to figure out various angles and length of sides of a right triangle. Please don't ask me when you will ever need to know that outside your trigonometry class! First time I saw this mnemonic device, I wondered why the students were studying about some obscure native American tribe. Go figure ~

Blessings on your day!