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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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.....