Wow!
Today went SOOOOOO much better. I was also A LOT more strict today than I have been for many, many, many, many, many days. I will be doing that EVERYDAY for the rest of the year. Nice is out, Supportive and consistent is in!
Anyways, today was an Author visit. It was really fun and the kids did much better. We finished our Harris Burdick pictures and went over the writing project that Ms. Eldering setup for my students. It is going to be a great project. I think that I will try and squeeze in some time to add my story to the mix (named of course, I don't want to win). She is also doing a edit/critique of my story I wrote. I can't wait to see the review (or corrected copy in this case) and have my thoughts opened up to new ideas and expand my story in positive directions.
What I CAN'T believe is that next week is fall break. It's also my birthday (Monday). I'm getting OLD! I knew today that when I said to my voice student that she shouldn't sound like the buzzer on her oven, and she said that her oven doesn't have a buzzer, that I was older than I wanted to think about. I have students who don't even know who the Adam's Family was. That was when it hit me that every year I get a year older, and every year I will have 11-12 year olds. How depressing. The connection gap will grow larger every year. That and the economy they way it is, I hope my students even have a future to worry about.
I don't know what the answer is to our economic crisis in America. I know that I have lost about 1/4 of my 401(k) over the last 2 months. That hurts. But since I will have to teach until I am 67(and just so you know that is still 34 more years as of Monday- that's LONGER than I have been ALIVE! LOL!) I guess it won't matter. I'll be teaching until I DIE!
I am still laughing about the Magicians Video of my kids. And from that I was able to reconnect with a couple wonderful friends from college (and after) days. What an awesome thing that world wide web is!
Well, I best be off. I finally am completely DONE with my MailBox Assignment and it is going in the mail tomorrow. Hope it makes it there by Monday! Doubt it, but it is always worth hoping.
Later...
Showing posts with label The MailBox Magazine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The MailBox Magazine. Show all posts
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
A Passing Note
Howdy,
I just wanted to celebrate with everyone that I have finally finished my freelance assignment! YEA! I hope everyone enjoyed the little video. I am sure there is more where that came from. Boy am I tired. At school today, the Clark Planetarium came and did some wonderful experiments with my students. I wish they had acted a little more attentive and receptive of the information. Oh well, I guess we can only expect the best and go for it.
Hope for a better tomorrow!
Later...
I just wanted to celebrate with everyone that I have finally finished my freelance assignment! YEA! I hope everyone enjoyed the little video. I am sure there is more where that came from. Boy am I tired. At school today, the Clark Planetarium came and did some wonderful experiments with my students. I wish they had acted a little more attentive and receptive of the information. Oh well, I guess we can only expect the best and go for it.
Hope for a better tomorrow!
Later...
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Our Little Magicians
Hello All,
My wife shot this footage while I was at school. I had to share it with you. I used my movie making software (PowerDirector) and this is what we came up with. I hope you laugh as hard as we did. Watch closely, they do the funniest things. The preview is my little Z. He discovered he was covered in hair. Great exchange between him and my wife. Not the exact exchange, but really close. (I had approval from my wife!)
Enjoy!
OTHER NEWS - OTHER NEWS- OTHER NEWS
On a separate note, we had our guest author, Elysabeth Eldering, in the class today (Google talk rocks). I am excited to HOST HER BOOK NEXT MONTH HERE! But enough of that. Her visit went very well. We almost finished our Harris Burdick pictures. I am so thankful to have found someone that is interested in helping students. She has even inspired me to pull out some of my old stories that I started years ago. Not really with the hope of getting them published, just simply to delve back into the world of writing. (Although being published might be really fun). Tomorrow we have the Clark Planetarium coming to our school. That is going to be really fun. I am also pleased to announce that I have finished my MailBox assignments. Not in submission form, but in rough draft. They should easily be ready to mail by Thursday. YEA!
Well, I have lots to do still. Book Club reading for school (I am a member of a after school book club for teachers- we read books to help us be better language arts teachers), and a math endorsement class assignment to work on, not to mention that I still have to do my CORE Academy project to get college credit as well. So, as you can see, lots to do. Have a great night-
Later...
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Would This Have Motivated You?
Little Zachary was doing very badly in math. His parents had tried everything… Tutors, mentors, flash cards, special learning centers. In short, everything they could think of to help his math.
Finally, in a last ditch effort, they took Zachary down and enrolled him in the local Catholic school. After the first day, little Zachary came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn’t even kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying.
Books and papers were spread out all over the room and little Zachary was hard at work. His mother was amazed. She called him down to dinner. To her shock, the minute he was done, he marched back to his room without a word, and in no time, he was back hitting the books as hard as before.
This went on for some time, day after day, while the mother tried to understand what made all the difference.
Finally, little Zachary brought home his report card. He quietly laid it on the table, went up to his room and hit the books. With great trepidation, his Mom looked at it and to her great surprise, little Zachary got an “A” in math.
She could no longer hold her curiosity. She went to his room and said, “Son, what was it? Was it the nuns?” Little Zachary looked at her and shook his head, no. “Well, then,” she replied, “Was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms? WHAT WAS IT ALREADY?”
Little Zachary looked at her and said, “Well, on the first day of school when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren’t fooling around.”
Isn't that just the best? As a teacher, I think this is hilarious!
Anyways, that great story was given to me when I showed up at tutoring today. I truly appreciated it and had to share. Today was a FANTASTIC day! I was able to tutor and that went well.
Next I headed over to the school where I spent a couple hours planning for Monday and doing a few projects that I had left piled up to do. It felt nice to get them done. Just as I was finishing up, my sister called to say she and her children were waiting at my house and no one was home. My wife had to run to the church to take care of a bulletin board and then to a friends to pick raspberries. Yummy! (We actually had some of the jam my wife made earlier this week for dinner and it was T-A-S-T-Y!!!!). It was really nice to see my sister. I love my family and I am glad that we all get along and have fun together. She stayed most of the day and we actually worked together and got 2 of the 5 pages I have to get done for the MailBox Magazine. I really enjoy freelance writing for them. I get to be creative and share my ideas with teachers all over the USA and world. So, if you subscribe, be looking for my ideas. They appear frequently. When my sister HAD to leave, I was a little sad. But she did have a 1.5 hour drive ahead of her, so I understand.
We had dinner, got the kids bathed, and now they are in bed and it our time to relax and visit. I love having my best friend around all the time. That is what my wife tells people when they ask if she likes living here: "Well, I have best friend and kids, so it doesn't really matter where we live!" I always smile a little when she says that. I love her lots. She is VERY excited because she is almost done making all her sets of words to sell. The celebration is only 2 WEEKS away! I can't believe that. But she is amazing and will be ready. If your near, you won't want to miss her amazing items for sale! (Had to put in a little plug for our booth! After all, isn't that good business?)
I have to tell you that several weeks ago (and I don't think that I ever even mentioned it) I took being a handyman into my own hands and hung some curtains in our formal dinning room (which is NOW a game/exercise room). Check out the picture.
This is the after- I forgot the before. But let me tell you what they were. There was TWO (2) sets of vertical blinds hanging. They went from wall to wall and covered two windows. There are not doors there. It was tacky and UGLY! We lived with it for the first two years, but enough is enough. So I took my little family to price the other night and we invested in new window treatments (as they would say on HGTV). They turned out really nice. We have also since updated the window treatments in our bedroom. We bought window scarfs (???). At least I think that is what they are called. They turned out pretty neat. That's all my amazing wife's job.
Well, I have plenty of other things to share. I have a fantastic picture of my little one after his doughnut and his chocolate full beard. I hope to have those pictures up for your viewing pleasure soon.
Don't forget to check out my BUCKET LIST on my sidebar. See what you think. What is YOUR bucket list? I plan to update it as I decide what I truly hope to enjoy and do before my life ends so day 50-60 years from now! LOL
And on that happy thought,
Later...
Finally, in a last ditch effort, they took Zachary down and enrolled him in the local Catholic school. After the first day, little Zachary came home with a very serious look on his face. He didn’t even kiss his mother hello. Instead, he went straight to his room and started studying.
Books and papers were spread out all over the room and little Zachary was hard at work. His mother was amazed. She called him down to dinner. To her shock, the minute he was done, he marched back to his room without a word, and in no time, he was back hitting the books as hard as before.
This went on for some time, day after day, while the mother tried to understand what made all the difference.
Finally, little Zachary brought home his report card. He quietly laid it on the table, went up to his room and hit the books. With great trepidation, his Mom looked at it and to her great surprise, little Zachary got an “A” in math.
She could no longer hold her curiosity. She went to his room and said, “Son, what was it? Was it the nuns?” Little Zachary looked at her and shook his head, no. “Well, then,” she replied, “Was it the books, the discipline, the structure, the uniforms? WHAT WAS IT ALREADY?”
Little Zachary looked at her and said, “Well, on the first day of school when I saw that guy nailed to the plus sign, I knew they weren’t fooling around.”
Isn't that just the best? As a teacher, I think this is hilarious!
Anyways, that great story was given to me when I showed up at tutoring today. I truly appreciated it and had to share. Today was a FANTASTIC day! I was able to tutor and that went well.
Next I headed over to the school where I spent a couple hours planning for Monday and doing a few projects that I had left piled up to do. It felt nice to get them done. Just as I was finishing up, my sister called to say she and her children were waiting at my house and no one was home. My wife had to run to the church to take care of a bulletin board and then to a friends to pick raspberries. Yummy! (We actually had some of the jam my wife made earlier this week for dinner and it was T-A-S-T-Y!!!!). It was really nice to see my sister. I love my family and I am glad that we all get along and have fun together. She stayed most of the day and we actually worked together and got 2 of the 5 pages I have to get done for the MailBox Magazine. I really enjoy freelance writing for them. I get to be creative and share my ideas with teachers all over the USA and world. So, if you subscribe, be looking for my ideas. They appear frequently. When my sister HAD to leave, I was a little sad. But she did have a 1.5 hour drive ahead of her, so I understand.
We had dinner, got the kids bathed, and now they are in bed and it our time to relax and visit. I love having my best friend around all the time. That is what my wife tells people when they ask if she likes living here: "Well, I have best friend and kids, so it doesn't really matter where we live!" I always smile a little when she says that. I love her lots. She is VERY excited because she is almost done making all her sets of words to sell. The celebration is only 2 WEEKS away! I can't believe that. But she is amazing and will be ready. If your near, you won't want to miss her amazing items for sale! (Had to put in a little plug for our booth! After all, isn't that good business?)
I have to tell you that several weeks ago (and I don't think that I ever even mentioned it) I took being a handyman into my own hands and hung some curtains in our formal dinning room (which is NOW a game/exercise room). Check out the picture.
This is the after- I forgot the before. But let me tell you what they were. There was TWO (2) sets of vertical blinds hanging. They went from wall to wall and covered two windows. There are not doors there. It was tacky and UGLY! We lived with it for the first two years, but enough is enough. So I took my little family to price the other night and we invested in new window treatments (as they would say on HGTV). They turned out really nice. We have also since updated the window treatments in our bedroom. We bought window scarfs (???). At least I think that is what they are called. They turned out pretty neat. That's all my amazing wife's job.
Well, I have plenty of other things to share. I have a fantastic picture of my little one after his doughnut and his chocolate full beard. I hope to have those pictures up for your viewing pleasure soon.
Don't forget to check out my BUCKET LIST on my sidebar. See what you think. What is YOUR bucket list? I plan to update it as I decide what I truly hope to enjoy and do before my life ends so day 50-60 years from now! LOL
And on that happy thought,
Later...
Friday, July 25, 2008
My Lesson for the Day!
Howdy Ya'll,
Okay, so I have learned a very valuable lesson. Okay, I didn't learn it lately, it is one that we all learn hopefully early in life. PROCRASTINATION!!!!! I freelance for the MailBox Magazine (as I have stated in earlier posts)and kept thinking that my deadlines were far enough away that I could just finish with CORE Academey and then focus on it! Oh, No! I have two huge units both due the frist part of August! So I have spent the last two days racking my brain trying to come up with something that would be accecptable. I finally got one unit done and was discussing it with the editor and found out I had to redo the whole thing because of the theme I chose (which was the 2nd one I had tried). I finally got approval for a theme and was able to complete one assignment. Now I am faced with another HUGE one. So I called in the big guns. I called my sister who lives 90 minutes away and begged her to come and help me. She will be here very soon. So Operation "GET IT DONE" is underway. I shall update you tomorrow about how it goes.
So the moral of this post is -Don't put off what you can't remember you even had to do in the first place because it makes you crazy in the second place and you can't even find third place!
Later...
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