Winter Weather Advisory: Artic Cold Front

When I read that I said "greeaaaat" in my head. The temperatures actually don't look too bad. I just have to remember to part my car facing South at the Grocery store. And make sure my trash can is facing the right way so he wind doesn't catch the lid and send it flying. I guess we are going to make up for that lovely sunny weather we had last week. bummer. You know I shouldn't complain about the wind though because we rarely have those inversions like we had at home. So that is good for my allergies I am sure.

I accomplished a lot this weekend but still it didn't feel like I accomplished enough. Sigh. I have meetings after school then a couple of errands to run. The exciting news is the District Carpenter came in and started building Cabinets in my classroom. I finally have places to put things AWAY!!! I also was able to remove a lot of the bulky moveable shelves that weren't really doing a good job. It is very exciting. Only 4 momonths left of school and my room is finally getting organized sigh. Well someone will appreciate them next year. I am having students rate their own behavior. It is quite entertaining to find out just how well behaved THEY think they are. Our opinions differ but it does make me laugh.

Not Friday...not really

Since we have 4 day school weeks many people assume I am free as a bird on fridays. Some I do have free but usually they are taken up with meetings, classes, preparation time, and now tutoring. I will be doing some training afterschool today to tutor every friday. I am looking forward to working one on one with students who are struggling. I think I will be working with students on writing. Which don't judge me by all my errors on here ( smile) I am purty (ahem) good at teaching. So I am excited about it. Right now we only have 6 students signed up but I imagine that will expand as we continue. So that is new. This weekend is a busy one. As I dreamed of sleeping in... well that isn't to be this weekend but I am sure I can find time at least for an afternoon nap.

Not sure how cold it was last night but when I arrived at school this morning it was 13 degrees with at Wind Chill Factor of -1 degrees. Not cold enough to freeze your boogers(hee hee) but cold enough to crave some hot chocolate. I make hot chocolate on chilly mornings for our crossing guards. With enough left over for me to taste test of course! We are supposed to get up to 44 degrees today which is VERY WARM. Tomorrow is supposed to get up to 48. We make up for those nice warm days with nice chilly nights. Anyhow I will keep you posted on how the tutoring goes. Also, that Patriotic program we are working on.

Have a great Day

Duck, Duck, Goose!!!

The classic children's game played on playgrounds across the country for..ummm decades? Century's? I HAD TO EXPLAIN TO MY FATHER WHAT IT WAS TONIGHT!!! He say's he plays duck, duck, goose... but he doesn't have much luck with goose at the hunt club. I was shocked and appalled. That's all for today... It will take awhile to recover from that one!

Boy...definitely a boy...

Gets a drink from the drinking fountain. Then expels a deep loud burp. Pauses then says "Excuse ME"........ another pause......."Chicken Heads". I turned the other way to smile widely. This is the same kid who alll last week decided to wear his coat backwards. It gets worse it was.. Backwards with his HOOD Over his face. Yep THUNK RIGHT into the doorjamb. He didn't mope about it though. He just moved over and walked out then put his hood over his face again. "Get your hood off your face" was a combination of words he just didn't comprehend. Soooo....This weekend I go to the Grocery Store Walk around a corner and there he is walking through the store with his hood over his face. I didn't say a word as he blindly followed his mom's voice whacking stuff with his flailing arms. I don't know if he finally decided this was dangerous ...but this week his coat was on the right way.

Kistler

Quite awhile back my cousin K reccomended Mark Kistler's Draw squad. I wish I had the dvd's for it as well. However I have been giving a lesson or so for 5 minutes in my 5th grade classes. Some are taking it more seriously than others. Typicall 5th graders. Anyhow the ones that are using it as an opportunity to learn more art concepts are really making some creative drawings. It is fun for me to see what they will come up with. The lessons are brief and teach the very foundations of drawing. Each lesson builds on the previous one though and if the students have been paying attention their skills are growing. I don't know how many will really use what they've learned but it is worth it for me to do for the few :)! I am also doing it in one 4th grade class that has trouble following step by step directions. This has really seemed to make a difference for them. This class is very motivated in all things art.

It has been an interesting week. Someone elses attitude can bring a person down quickly. I have been making a very concious effort to ignore the "nay-sayers" (which are in abundant supply here) and think of how I can accomplish goals and ignore all the reasons why it is "impossible". One way to do this is choose the things that you know you can do and build on them. The nay-sayers will still say "impossible" but if you know it is you can counter all arguments. It is good to have people look at something critically and make sure you have thought of all the problems. However, if all they are capable of is finding problems and not possibilities then one needs to ignore them and move forward. This happens in so many of my meetings here. So I try to find the one person who also sees the possibility. That one person can help you move forward. What I have been noticing here is exclusivity, burnout, lack of sharing, snottiness, and general bad attitude. I know many things that could solve those issues. However, I am not the person who can change it in a big way. In my little corner of the world though I can. I may have made up a couple of words there in my description but I think they apply.

Famous

A teacher told me lately that sometimes she doesn't want to be famous. We were talking about small town life. There are some days you don't want to go to the grocery store and be famous. It is impossible to run to the store and NOT see someone you know or one of your students... and some days you just don't want to be famous. I thought that was a great way to describe how that quick visit to any store in town but mostly the grocery store can sometimes feel. I try not to chat with people I know at the grocery store. I say a quick hi and keep shopping because maybe.. just maybe.. they don't feel like being famous either.

I had a great trip this weekend drove into a bigger city on this lovely four day weekend. It was such a treat to get out of town. Not only that it was very refreshing to have a change of scenery. I not only got to see "old" friends but "old" family. I really had a great time. I got to hear some live music which I always find fun. I think in the winter I get stuck in my rut. So I was very glad the weather warmed up a bit and it made it possible to get out of town. The drive was beautiful with all the snow on the mountains. I felt like I was chasing the setting sun. The sunsets on the way there were beautiful. On the way home I was watching the moon rise in the sky and watching the fading sunlight reflect on the snow. It was also a beautiful drive.

So this week I can start refreshed and ready to go again. Hurray!!! I am starting to prepare the students for our Patriotic Program coming up next Month. YIKESERONI... there just isn't enough time to do it all!! I can't believe there are only 5 months left of school... it has flown by. Anyhow Tomorrow is monday so I am off to bed. G'nite ( I hope to post some pix soon)

HEAT WAVE!!!!

25 degrees. Had to take my coat off. My nose didn't freeze on my 5 minute walk to school. I didn't have to sit on the radiator. It was wonderful!! Okay there are things you never expect to hear. Don't eat the salt is one of those things. Okay I am not anti-salt don't get excited. On the morning announcements the kids had to be told that the salt that was put on the ice wasn't like salt we eat... it would make us sick. So don't eat it. The same announcement was made today. The first time I heard it I had a good laugh. The second time I heard it I couldn't believe they had to repeat it. So all of you out there who might be tempted... DON'T EAT THE SALT!!!

It seems like all spare time had been taken up with meetings lately. Meetings can be motivating, inspiring, and great places of learning. Other times they feel like something is coming out and sucking all the happiness from the room and from life. Sometimes all they do is make you contemplate how to sleep with your eyes open. Anyhow our vast array of meetings is going to continue for awhile. I know I will never master the sleeping with my eyes open thing... but I have mastered intent doodling. It may look like I am taking a lot of notes but I am probably just drawing some abstract flower.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 35 degrees. That kind of heat will be difficult to work in! This morning we took turns hopping out of the car (heater running) to greet the buses. I did eventually warm up though. Since our low tonight is 8 I think I will still build that fire and hit the hay.
Goodnight
By the way... if you want these posts to continue... let me know you read them once in awhile!! :)

How cold is it?? Cold enough to Freeze your snot!!!

I walked to school this morning and had to defrost my nose when I got there. It wasn't a good feeling. I knew it was cold... but I didn't realize it was THAT COLD. We all had indoor recess which leaves a lot of students one big "LIVE WIRE". Some teachers have gotten clever with their Hallway Games to keep the kids busy. I had bus duty this morning and my co-duty friend was wearing snowpants and several layers. It didn't seem to matter though, we both needed quality time with the radiator when we got inside. I have been making hot-chocolate for the crossing guards because they are out there being miserable as well. SO this morning I made us some extra. I am big on chocolate but this a.m. I was more excited to hold the cup for awhile.

I know I have mentioned before that I love my fireplace well I REALLY LOVE MY FIREPLACE! There is no way to keep up with these kind of temps. My fireplace once going heats the house really quickly. I also found out where to get accurate weather for our town. www.weather.com and type in the name etc. I would read all the weather sites and know they were incorrect. Especially when they said 1-3 inches and we got 1 foot and then another foot. I found this out because our Principal said oh yea so-and-so out at such-and-such sends it in to them. So I learned something new.

I had a lot of quality time with our ancient laminator today. You know teachers spend a lot of time, cutting, copying, gluing, and laminating. You'd think those were very simple jobs... but do them at the end of the day and you will glue yourself to the table, copy all the wrong pages 150 times, have all your laminating over-lapping, and cut yourself. It is such an easy job that you can't figure out how to do the simple things at the end of the day. This week I have begun preparing 2nd grade students for their Annual Patriotic Program.. revolving around presidents day. Yeah that was sprung on me last week. Just when I think I am program free... NOPE WRONG!!! Anyhow I need to go pull off some layers
STAY WARM...