I'm finding myself with some extra time today. Just as I finished washing my hair this morning at 5:15 or so, the town sirens went off. You never know if that means severe thunderstorm or tornado but after last week in Parkersburg I woke Dan and we went to the basement. After the storm passed I finished getting ready and got a call that school would be delayed an hour because of power outages. Obviously, we still have power.
Last week's storms caused a lot of tree damage just one block south of us. One of the teachers at school lives there and lost a BIG tree and had roof damage. All we had were twigs in the yard!
Today will be first day back for my friend and co worker who recently had a baby. She has to do the last three days of school or take them without pay, which she couldn't do. The substitute and I just finished reading Charlotte's Web so I have planned to watch the movie version today. Monday is "fun day" when the PTO rents and brings in inflatables. With an adapted schedule and two hours of play time, there isn't much for me to do that day. Tuesday is a half day.
I just got another call, now we're two hours delayed, so I'm going to sew for a while!
Friday, May 30, 2008
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Great Weekend
What a wonderful weekend everyone is having! Laura's family is supposed to be celebrating her birthday in Omaha. Happy Birthday, Laura! I'd tell you how old she is, but then you'd know how old I am! Greg and Chelsey are camping and we're (read mostly Dan is) checking on the dogs. I am going to pick up Dan's mom in about an hour and we are going to a baby shower for my newest grand niece in North English. I might try to sneak a stop in WIlliamsburg in, we'll see how tired everyone is.
Last night we had our first fire in our backyard fire pit. Didn't really need a fire, but had to try it out! I am looking forward to many pleasant nights out there this summer. The best part of camping, and I get to sleep in my own bed!
Last night we had our first fire in our backyard fire pit. Didn't really need a fire, but had to try it out! I am looking forward to many pleasant nights out there this summer. The best part of camping, and I get to sleep in my own bed!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
We're planning to go to niece Ashley's graduation on Saturday in Dubuque. We are going Friday night to stay over, perhaps take in a movie or something as we won't have to get up early if we're already there. I can't believe she's graduating already. Next it will be Caitlyn and Ben! I've not gotten the chance to see all of Lynne's pictures of Italy yet, but saw her a week ago after she ran her 5K. She wasn't even breathing that hard! Sounds as if everyone had a great time at Tulip Time. School continues to wind down, lots of field trips messing up my schedule. The boss is supposed to come observe me teaching my math group this afternoon and tomorrow with a fire drill right in the middle of tomorrow's lesson. My evaluation never bothers me too much, but I would like to look like I know what I'm doing!
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Counting down
I try not to do this, but something about this year and this time of year has made me count how many days of school are left. I usually love my job, and want to be here, but... there are 11 days of bus duty left, 10 more days of teaching the before and after school reading program, about 29 days of actual school and tons of reports and meetings left.
Yesterday afternoon at a meeting with the fourth grade teachers, we talked about the mandated changes for next year. No one sounded very postitive - that will make the job go easier, huh? I guess we feel as if we weren't let in on the planning stage to give our ideas and now we're stuck. Our administrator has been having his own problems, I guess. He was to observe me teaching on Monday. I was introducing a new theme in reading and a new story and had really planned some good activities to grab the student's attention and get them motivated. 45 minutes of my lesson had gone on before he came in. He apologized over and over, but what do you say? So, he came to observe me in another class - I was basically doing the same kinds of things, but had chosen the first class for him to observe because of the way the kids react - oh, well, I know he's not going to fire me!
And, it's raining again!
Yesterday afternoon at a meeting with the fourth grade teachers, we talked about the mandated changes for next year. No one sounded very postitive - that will make the job go easier, huh? I guess we feel as if we weren't let in on the planning stage to give our ideas and now we're stuck. Our administrator has been having his own problems, I guess. He was to observe me teaching on Monday. I was introducing a new theme in reading and a new story and had really planned some good activities to grab the student's attention and get them motivated. 45 minutes of my lesson had gone on before he came in. He apologized over and over, but what do you say? So, he came to observe me in another class - I was basically doing the same kinds of things, but had chosen the first class for him to observe because of the way the kids react - oh, well, I know he's not going to fire me!
And, it's raining again!
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Can't wait
I can't wait to get home today! There should be a telescope on my porch. You know we save Coke reward points and after saving a long time decided to redeem them for a telescope. The neighbors are safe no more!! No, we really are both interested in space and planets and stars and now we will be waiting for clear nights so we can go out in the country a bit away from "city" lights so we can use the new toy.
Parent conferences are next week - lots of paper work still to do, but I still have my after school reading group to work with today, then it will be 5:00 and the inclination will be gone! I was here by 6:00 this morning, so maybe I've done my part today!
Parent conferences are next week - lots of paper work still to do, but I still have my after school reading group to work with today, then it will be 5:00 and the inclination will be gone! I was here by 6:00 this morning, so maybe I've done my part today!
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
April Fool's
I hope everyone survived the jokes and tricks from yesterday. I did not have one student tell me there was a spider on me, or my shoe was untied! Behavior was bizarre though, for some odd reason. There were playground fights, one student used the playground for a bathroom, several ran away. Really strange and no one can figure the reason.
Monday I went on a field trip with my two fourth grades to the Science Center of Iowa. One of the teachers gets carsick so had to be in the front of the bus. The other is to give birth in two weeks, so she rode in the front of the bus, leaving me to be the heavy from the back of the bus. Parent chaperones often don't tell people to sit down and be quiet! In all, it was a good trip. The kids behaved well, the IMAX movie was spectacular (we saw Roving Mars) and all the exhibits worked. That is not always true. The only down was that we couldn't be on TV for the noon weather, the weather people stayed in the studio because of fronts pushing across the state.
As we start to count down the days left to go to school, we are looking at next year's calendar. Seems like we usually pick a calendar earlier - but there are some interesting choices - we usually have parent conferences in the spring 3 half days, but looks like they are changing that to 2 half days. That says to me we aren't going to see all the parents, maybe invitation only? It will be interesting!
Monday I went on a field trip with my two fourth grades to the Science Center of Iowa. One of the teachers gets carsick so had to be in the front of the bus. The other is to give birth in two weeks, so she rode in the front of the bus, leaving me to be the heavy from the back of the bus. Parent chaperones often don't tell people to sit down and be quiet! In all, it was a good trip. The kids behaved well, the IMAX movie was spectacular (we saw Roving Mars) and all the exhibits worked. That is not always true. The only down was that we couldn't be on TV for the noon weather, the weather people stayed in the studio because of fronts pushing across the state.
As we start to count down the days left to go to school, we are looking at next year's calendar. Seems like we usually pick a calendar earlier - but there are some interesting choices - we usually have parent conferences in the spring 3 half days, but looks like they are changing that to 2 half days. That says to me we aren't going to see all the parents, maybe invitation only? It will be interesting!
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Happy Easter
After church today we made the trip to my little sister's home. Its a long trip but it was so nice to see family and catch up with them a little. AND we had great food. It was interesting to drive through blinding snow and come out in a mile to sunshine. Is there such a thing a snowbow? School starts up again tomorrow and I have to say though I enjoyed the time off, I missed the kids!
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