Well the weather outside has become frightful. I'm taking advantage of how quiet the building is right now. Everyone left ASAP, so I've now got my iPod fired up and am getting some catching-up done. My workout class was cancelled. All after-school activities were cancelled. Homework---cancelled!!! If everything else in the world was getting cancelled, I decided my kids should have something cancelled as well, and what's better than a homework cancellation?? Nothin', that's what!!!!
We again took advantage of our Smartboard and weather.com today and periodically checked the radar to see where the storm was. If one of these guys grows up to become a meteorologist, you'd better believe I'm going to expect a shout-out in his/her autobiography!!! ;) I showed them how I was able to back up the view of the map, and oh sheesh, did they get excited at seeing the other states. So science gelled into social studies and it took all I had to force myself to do the lesson that was on the books. Don't worry, I can multi-task, so I just snuck back and showed that radar again every hour or so.....those are the bonus lessons, right? The unexpected ah-ha's that pop up that we have to take full advantage of??? You're with me on this, right???? I know you are....no need to answer. LOL!!!
Okay, it's starting to come down harder out there, so I should wrap it up and go be the good Chicago girl that I am. Snow? Puuulllleeeezzzz--- I got this!!! Be safe!!
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Monday, 2/25/13
Happy Monday--and after last night's Oscars, what a Monday this was!! Why do they have to run over every single year??? Don't they know we regular people have to WORK?? Oh well, they did numbers from 3 of my all-time favorite musicals, so I forgive them. CZJ doing All that Jazz, JHud doing And I'm Telling You and the cast of Les Miserables doing One Day More-------to put it simply, I died!!! My arms were up in the air; I was in all of my glory!! I have, at one time or another, been completely obsessed with each of those shows (I was at the theater seeing Les Miserables for the 3rd time yesterday--I've seen the stage show 5 times....obsessed....). Okay, enough of revealing more of my weird self to you. =)
Today was great. There was a tough math lesson first thing this morning, which my brain was not communicating very well. Luckily, I've shown the kids that I'm not above asking for help and/or having one of them take the reigns, and thankfully one of my little cuties was ready for the job this morning. He came up and shared the Smart Board with me, and between the two of us, we eventually got through the lesson. Luckily tomorrow's a new day and we always get do-overs in life!!
The kids are currently in the middle of evatluating their own (snow day) writing and making improvements. I've yet to read them, although I'm dying to. Perhaps tomorrow will be the day. With the weather that is being predicted, it may feel quite apropos.
I think that's all I have time for tonight. I have to get out of here and take my car to the emissions place. Could my life be any more exciting???? ;)
Have a good night!! XOXO
Today was great. There was a tough math lesson first thing this morning, which my brain was not communicating very well. Luckily, I've shown the kids that I'm not above asking for help and/or having one of them take the reigns, and thankfully one of my little cuties was ready for the job this morning. He came up and shared the Smart Board with me, and between the two of us, we eventually got through the lesson. Luckily tomorrow's a new day and we always get do-overs in life!!
The kids are currently in the middle of evatluating their own (snow day) writing and making improvements. I've yet to read them, although I'm dying to. Perhaps tomorrow will be the day. With the weather that is being predicted, it may feel quite apropos.
I think that's all I have time for tonight. I have to get out of here and take my car to the emissions place. Could my life be any more exciting???? ;)
Have a good night!! XOXO
Friday, February 22, 2013
Friday, 2/22/13
Oh Friday, how I love you so!! I just got into my classroom and it's a pigpen from the day, so I'm going to be brief. Today, since we finally had some snow, I was able to do one of my favorite science activities with the kids. It involved thermometers, tap water, snow and hot water. Even my quietest of students let about a bit of a "shriek" of excitement when watching the thermometer's molecules move from having snow in his cup to having hot water poured in. We had some great discussions about atmosphere, molecules and their movement based on temperature, snow and rain. It was AWESOME, and I hope that you hear all about it.
Speaking of awesome, check this out: Those are dominoes spelling out my name. I have such genius children in my class, and this was developed from the creative brain of one of those geniuses!!!! It's the coolest!!
Speaking of awesome, check this out: Those are dominoes spelling out my name. I have such genius children in my class, and this was developed from the creative brain of one of those geniuses!!!! It's the coolest!!
Have a great weekend!!!
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Thursday, 2/21/13
Of course today all anyone can talk about is the impending winter storm, so it caused a great idea to sproing into my brain (pardon my Clementine reference---I just really get her!!) while the kids were at library. When they came back in the room, I pulled up weather.com for our area. There was a great short video clip of the storm: its intensity, its path and the area over which it will cover. I showed the kids how to read a weather map using the key, etc. With that they slowly came to the thought that a snow day could be a part of our future. Now, you and I both know that the chances of that are very slim, but it's fun to think about. I encouraged the kids to think about what their day would be like if there were to be a snow day---would they stay in their pajamas all day? Play video games all day? (NO!!!) Cuddle up by a fire and read a good book? (YES!!) Miss their teacher terribly? (OF COURSE!!) And then came the T.W.I.S.T.
What, I asked them, did they think that their teacher would be doing if there were to be a snow day??? And from there a writing assignment was born (my original thought was to have them write about what they'd be doing if there were a snow day, but midway though our conversation I thought of how much more fun it would be to change it to what they thought I would be doing). I'm absolutely dying to see what they've written.
I tossed in the idea that this was a writing contest in hopes of elevating their consciousness of word choice, content and language-skill usage. I am taking them home with me (in case there's a snow day ;) ). I'll report back on how they did!! Fun fun!!!
What, I asked them, did they think that their teacher would be doing if there were to be a snow day??? And from there a writing assignment was born (my original thought was to have them write about what they'd be doing if there were a snow day, but midway though our conversation I thought of how much more fun it would be to change it to what they thought I would be doing). I'm absolutely dying to see what they've written.
I tossed in the idea that this was a writing contest in hopes of elevating their consciousness of word choice, content and language-skill usage. I am taking them home with me (in case there's a snow day ;) ). I'll report back on how they did!! Fun fun!!!
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Wednesday, 2/20/13
I just looked at the clock and panicked. I have a lot to do and not much time to do it in tonight. The little devil that sits on my shoulder is telling me not to panic, just skip my workout and get my work done. I'm going to ignore that devil, but I just had to tell you in case you can relate to that little evil voice. :/
We had our Character Counts assembly at the end of the day today. When it first began I had a near calamity as the microphone wasn't working. I had all of the students, staff, a few parents and my boss looking at me as I tried to not let the freaking out show across my face. I had 15-20 little children about to read to the school, I couldn't do it without a mic! I ran up to the control panel and tried to turn some knobs in hopes that it would help. Nope! Then I told the kids I had one more idea and asked if they would cross their fingers for me. I jiggled the connecting chords and viola--it worked! Phew!! I didn't have a plan B, so those kids and their crossed fingers sure helped me out! The kids who read did such a great job and the kids who Shuffled worked it up on stage. It was a lot of fun.
Well, in an effort to hear my shoulder angel's voice telling me to get to my workout, I'm going to sign off for tonight. Have a great night!!
We had our Character Counts assembly at the end of the day today. When it first began I had a near calamity as the microphone wasn't working. I had all of the students, staff, a few parents and my boss looking at me as I tried to not let the freaking out show across my face. I had 15-20 little children about to read to the school, I couldn't do it without a mic! I ran up to the control panel and tried to turn some knobs in hopes that it would help. Nope! Then I told the kids I had one more idea and asked if they would cross their fingers for me. I jiggled the connecting chords and viola--it worked! Phew!! I didn't have a plan B, so those kids and their crossed fingers sure helped me out! The kids who read did such a great job and the kids who Shuffled worked it up on stage. It was a lot of fun.
Well, in an effort to hear my shoulder angel's voice telling me to get to my workout, I'm going to sign off for tonight. Have a great night!!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Tuesday, 2/19/13
Happy Monday! Oh, I mean Tuesday. Geesh, did it ever feel like a Monday! The kids seemed to have a harder time than usual getting back into routine after the long weekend. It probably didn't help that we started the day with an incredibly difficult math lesson and we ended the morning with reading testing. Blech! Not the greatest day we've ever had. Luckily the afternoon had gym and music for some relief.
Today I sent home the career day choices for the kids. I'm so excited that it's our career day time of year. We are so fortunate to do such fun things for the kids in second grade. We had Starlab here for a week in October, our trip to the planetarium in January, career day will be in March and the end of the year is chock full of special "privileges" for the second graders before they leave us for Franzen. Ugh-that's a subject that I'm not ready to think about yet. We've gelled into such a fun, strong, thoughtful class, I hate to think of them leaving me at the end of May. Blaahhh---not thinking about that right now.
Tomorrow is Caring Day at Benson. We celebrate the pillars of Character Counts throughout the year and January and February's have been Caring. I run the assemblies, but I'm feeling incredibly rusty. I did something completely out-of-the-ordinary for the assembly back in October. Then we were supposed to have another one in December, but I'd lost my voice, so we had to cancel. I've been doing them for over 10 years now, so I'm certain that it won't be a big deal, but it's just so weird to think that I'm so out of the routine. On that note-I'd better go get things prepared. =)
Have a good night!
Today I sent home the career day choices for the kids. I'm so excited that it's our career day time of year. We are so fortunate to do such fun things for the kids in second grade. We had Starlab here for a week in October, our trip to the planetarium in January, career day will be in March and the end of the year is chock full of special "privileges" for the second graders before they leave us for Franzen. Ugh-that's a subject that I'm not ready to think about yet. We've gelled into such a fun, strong, thoughtful class, I hate to think of them leaving me at the end of May. Blaahhh---not thinking about that right now.
Tomorrow is Caring Day at Benson. We celebrate the pillars of Character Counts throughout the year and January and February's have been Caring. I run the assemblies, but I'm feeling incredibly rusty. I did something completely out-of-the-ordinary for the assembly back in October. Then we were supposed to have another one in December, but I'd lost my voice, so we had to cancel. I've been doing them for over 10 years now, so I'm certain that it won't be a big deal, but it's just so weird to think that I'm so out of the routine. On that note-I'd better go get things prepared. =)
Have a good night!
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Friday, 2/15/13
Today I wore flats to school. You can't imagine the number of comments I got after having worn such fanciness all day yesterday. I'm not usually in flats to begin with, although I've tried to wear them more to be preventative to problems in the future blah, blah, blah, so I get that people make their comments. Once the kids got here, it started all over again. Questions about if the shoes hurt yesterday, or if it hurt to be in flats today kept coming up. So funny!! I must admit, when I first began wearing flats, it always felt like I was falling backwards, but now I'm more used to it.
Last night I emailed my parents the pic of the shoes. My dad called and sounded very confused by them. He asked me if they are 'practical.' Oh Dad-----shoes aren't supposed to be practical, they're supposed to be cute!!! You'd think we weren't even related! Good thing I get my logical problem solving and work ethic from him, otherwise he'd probably never claim me!!
Today we went to an I.E.P.T.O. sponsored assembly that taught the kids about fables. It was so great for the kids to learn about this interesting genre of story-telling. I'm so thankful for any opportunity we have to bring culture and new experiences to our students. We are blessed to have the I.E.P.T.O. financially take care of bringing these experiences to the kids. Thank you so much to all who have contributed to their fund-raising efforts!!! It truly goes to a worthy and educational cause!
Enjoy the long weekend!!!!
Last night I emailed my parents the pic of the shoes. My dad called and sounded very confused by them. He asked me if they are 'practical.' Oh Dad-----shoes aren't supposed to be practical, they're supposed to be cute!!! You'd think we weren't even related! Good thing I get my logical problem solving and work ethic from him, otherwise he'd probably never claim me!!
Today we went to an I.E.P.T.O. sponsored assembly that taught the kids about fables. It was so great for the kids to learn about this interesting genre of story-telling. I'm so thankful for any opportunity we have to bring culture and new experiences to our students. We are blessed to have the I.E.P.T.O. financially take care of bringing these experiences to the kids. Thank you so much to all who have contributed to their fund-raising efforts!!! It truly goes to a worthy and educational cause!
Enjoy the long weekend!!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)