My next year notebook

So I did this ---

Because I like fun little pretty things -- so my planning notebook is all that -- fun and little and pretty. Well, maybe not little. Anyway, I've got pages torn out of magazines, written notes, stuff I copied from the Internet, like from websites, Pinterest, and this one twitter chat I do {yikes - yes, I really do a twitter chat!!!} -- just all sorts of things. 24 pages of things. 

And then one day last week, yes, just one day, I got on my computer to sort through ideas I'd saved on there. That's good, that's good, oh that one is too. 

Are you getting the picture? 

I've got Too Many Ideas! 

Anybody else? I just want to try all these things. Because they all sound -- well, terrific. 

After a couple weeks, I'm going to have to start narrowing some of these down. But for right now, I'll just enjoy my pretty little notebook! :)

And just in case anyone is interested in my continuing saga of difficulties actually posting a post - this was hard, too! Couldn't get Dropbox to let me use my picture. 

Class Story on Dojo

So, we went to visit College Girl for the long weekend, and I went on a walk, stepped off a curb, and crashed! I landed sorta sideways, and my ankle swelled into a huge goose egg. (I never really knew how that term came about until now.) And I realized, in a funny sort of way, God was telling me, yes, take a little break here; catch your breath; relax on the couch for a while -- and since you won't do that on your own, I'll help you. 

I'm feeling much better and able to walk without a crutch, but I'm going to take the next couple days easy. It's given me a chance to watch some videos and etc. that I wouldn't have made time for otherwise. 

And, the biggie! This year I've used Class Dojo to connect with parents. The Class Story feature has been wonderful! I've taken pictures of things we are doing, or something the kids have done and shared it with parents. I have about 2/3 of my class connected, and about 10 parents that regularly check. Anyway, the biggie, I just posted a picture of me reading the newspaper -- and within 5 minutes, I had a message back from a parent telling me what their daughter is reading! Win-win!! 

So I hope to keep this up throughout the summer. Maybe it will help a couple students do some reading! Here's hoping!!

Being Called Mom

OK, first I have to say that I am not happy with Yahoo or Google or somebody who is making it very hard for me to get into my blog.  That's all I'm saying about that!

Second, school's out for summer! And I'm alternating between doing a happy dance, and yelling, "No! I'm not ready yet!"

Third, I have this little friend. Or should I say I had this little friend. He was an interesting character. Always yelling out -- and sometimes the most off-topic things. The biggest one that sticks out in my mind is when he yelled, "I pooped my pants!" Umm, thanks for sharing. {And NO, he had not pooped his pants!} 

Throughout the year, he would sometimes call me 'mom' and a couple times, he asked if I couldn't be his mom.  

The last two weeks, the behaviors were going through the roof, and though I'd made it pretty much through the year without getting too upset at him, the Friday before school was out, I had had it! 

I'm slow to catch on, but a weekend away helped me take a minute to reflect, and I was able to go back with a good attitude on Monday. And part of that was because I realized this little friend is going home to a chaotic house, where "mom" is grandma, and mom, who is around, isn't really a mom at all. Our classroom was mostly stable and consistent. And perhaps unconsciously, he was realizing what the end of the school year meant for him. 

One winter break, I read a blog post by some lovely person {whom I can't remember now} who said something like -- enjoy your break, but remember for some of our kiddos, break is tough; it's not relaxing, it's not necessarily fun. 

This really isn't much more than a reflection piece for me, because I really want to remember my little friend. I want to remember that I was {mostly} able to find a way to work with him. And I wish I could do that with all my kids.  

Phonics Posters

Oh my goodness! It's been so long since I've wrote a blog post, I had to move heaven and earth to get into my settings -- ok, really, I just had to try to remember my password. That's what makes getting a new hard drive so much fun!

If you can imagine, we only have 17 days of school left. No, I can't believe it either! 

I've got all sorts of things that I want to share with you -- I always think of them when I'm driving somewhere, or trying to go to sleep, or something like that. 

Anyway, we did these posters right before Parent Teacher Conferences. Always gotta have something pretty hanging in the hallway. 




Umm, yeah. The mind reading was not working that day. They could not see my vision - at all! Ok, maybe a few came close. 
My idea was to have groups take one phonics pattern we had recently studied and make a poster for it. I had hoped they would put our key word -- like for "ar" it's artist, and then write some other words that followed the pattern, and draw a couple nice pictures. Well, my AR kids came pretty close. Some of the others did, too. 

This reminds me yet again why it is so important to model, model, model what I am wanting. {Will they never learn? Yes, I mean me!} 

Happy Wednesday. I'm off this afternoon to get a filling. Really, as an adult, I should not be having that sort of problem!

Conferences

So my desktop computer was running soooo slow. And a coworker said her husband could look at it. And there didn't seem much he could do, so it's back home now. But running even slower. Time for a new one. 

And this week was parent teacher conferences. In our district, each school sets their own schedule, so my school only goes until 9:20 on Friday. That means I'm up in College Town, visiting College Girl. 

But as for conferences.... For several years, I've wanted them to be more of a dialogue then a talk, if you know what I mean. And at the fall ones this year -- I felt like I did ALL the talking. NOT the way I wanted them to go at all. So I started thinking, and I thought if I ask some questions of the parents, maybe we can start a conversation. I had 6 conferences after school on Tuesday. And I asked those parents, how does your child like school? And I got ... Crickets. Blank looks. Deer in the headlight eyes. And then, "oh, fine." This is something I still need to work on obviously. Any help??? 

For the most part, I enjoy conferences, and the chance to interact with parents. I wish they'd be a little more talkative -- I want to hear from them, just as they want to hear from me. 

And also at conferences ... When I was showing parents data from our district mandated assessments, I got asked at least 4 times, "are you going to retain my child?" Ack -- no! Nobody in my class is being retained. What am I saying to make you think this?? 

Anyway, ready for the weekend and some time with my girl! 

Valentine's Day

Did everyone survive your Valentine's Day parties? Oh, my goodness -- what a day! One of my teammates is pregnant and she started having contractions Thursday night -- too early, she just started her 3rd trimester. Thankfully, she's home and doing fine. However, no sub for her Friday -- so we had to split up her class. Yep! I had 8 extra students. Oh what fun. Thankfully, the principal arranged for them to have their own Valentine party, so I didn't have them for that half hour. 

And hasn't Valentine's Day gotten a little crazy? Like, every child but one brought cards, and candy! The little sack lunch bags we decorated for our Valentines wouldn't even hold it all. And I got 5 stuffed animals and 3 big boxes of candy. I know I'm loved -- but really, I don't need that much chocolate. I told my husband, I wish there was some gentle way I could tell families -- if you must give me something, what about a note, or buy your child a book in my name, or..... 
{however, one little friend gave me expo markers and colored pens -- love, love.}

I've got a couple other things to share, but my desktop was running so slowly, a teammates husband is looking at it for me. So right now I'm just on my little iPad. 

Happy Monday tomorrow. Unless you get it off -- then it's you lucky duck! 

Snow Day

Dear Bloggy Friends and Readers - if there are any of you left! I looked at my blog this morning, and it still had my Christmas header on it. {Don't look now! I fixed it, you silly head!} 

My December and January frankly just stunk. With four days left until winter break, my dad got very sick and I went to be with him, missing the last three days of school. My dad sadly passed away. Then when school started back up, I caught one of the worst colds I've ever had {maybe the two are related??} and ended up missing three more days, spread out over two weeks. 

However, today God must have known I needed just a "catch your breath day" and we got a snow day. I have been doing some "have to" stuff on a very uncooperative computer -- everything is taking at least twice as long as it needs to. And if anyone knows how to easily move iPhone pictures to my desktop -- please help. 

So I have worked like crazy all morning, and now I'm going to relax! So thankful for snow days!