Friday, 1/18/13

It's Friday!! It's Friday!! Are you doing a happy dance with me??? Not only is it Friday, but it's the Friday of a long weekend, which could not have come at a more perfect time. The other night I was cashed out on the couch by 9:00----my brain clearly needs rest so I'm grateful that this day off is finally here. People always give teachers a hard time about their days off, but I'm here to tell you, if it wasn't for an occasional extra day to rest and regroup, not many people would survive this profession with the strength and grace that it requires. So, cheers to Dr. King!!! Not only because of our day off, but most importantly because of how he led our country to change. Even when I'm reading books and teaching the kids about this time in our country's history, I find it hard to imagine what it must've been like back then. I love the History Channel, and particularly things about that time in our country; so much turmoil, yet so much change and strength. I can only hope that these tumultuous times that we are living in now will also go down in history as a time of positive and forward-moving change. I don't think you can know that its happening when you're in the eye of the storm, but hopefully with time comes perspective. (How do you like that, I'm getting all philosophical on ya for a Friday, eh?)

We will be taking the test on double-digit subtraction with regrouping (aka borrowing) next week. If you have time to fit in some practice, that sure would be great. The kids have picked up the concept, but it's one of those that needs much practice before it is concretely cemented in their brains (how redundant was that??). If you need a little "trick," we use the following in class:  BBB  Which means:  "If the BIGGER number is on the BOTTOM (in the one's place), then you must  BORROW." I encourage the kids to write BBB on the top of their papers--some do, some don't, most need to. It's very very helpful, especially when they remember it. ;)

I'm off to start my weekend! Enjoy yours and stay warm!! I hope that this cold sufficiently kills off all of the flu germs floating around and all of the box-elder bugs that are hibernating. I had a horrible lot of them last fall and they said on the news that it was because we never got a good solid freeze last winter--so now I really want a "good, solid freeze!!"