Dancing Along

february weekend

2012-02-14T16:46:00.000-08:00

Some images from my weekend....(even though it's now mid-week)

Tomorrow my mom comes to visit! I'm so excited for her to see all the changes at my place since she was here in August. I've got a long list of projects I want to do with her.... :)

crisis in public education

2012-01-24T20:50:00.000-08:00

This is in one of the poorest school districts in Pennsylvania. Chester, Pennsylvania is where there was a curfew imposed by the police last year because of all the shootings that were going on.

It is expected that 5 more school districts in Pennsylvania will be in the same situation as Chester-Upland this year.

This is what the governor had to say.

become a cheerleader!

2012-01-24T19:34:00.000-08:00

From an essay addressing the prompt: "Write an essay that explains a talent or skill you have or would like to have."

If you ever want to do a sport. I think you should pick cheer-leading. There's only a few things you have to do. First you have to do these simple thing. First you have to stretch. Then you have to do a split. Then you have to be strong because you're going to pick people up.

....The next one is the cheers. The cheers. The cheers are victory, Red hot and Funky Chicken. I told you they are easy.

-----
I corrected spelling.

Oh these essays were entertaining to read.

Why don't we all pick up cheer-leading and learn the easy Funky Chicken cheer!?

a lot like Christmas

2011-12-10T21:25:00.001-08:00

...just add snow.

time

2011-11-29T09:00:00.000-08:00

Every day, twice a day, I do calendar questions in my math classes.

I ask, "What was the date 1 week ago? What will the date be in 1 week? What was the date 3 months ago? What will the date be in 9 months? What will the date be on the 3rd Saturday of this month?" and other similar questions.

Every day, I write the date on the board.

Every day, I check days off on my calendar of deadlines.

Even with the way I acknowledge the passing of each day, I still don't understand where it goes.

I see the time passing. I see how one minute it's the 1st day of school and the next you are just 4 weeks from Christmas. I see how one minute you are graduating from college and the next you have been teaching for 2 years.

And it scares me.

I'm not saying that at 6 in the morning on a Wednesday I think, "Oh. It's Wednesday already!" And I'm not saying I don't have certain parts of my day that just drag on endlessly. It's that despite this, despite how long each week seems, time still keeps passing.

That's what makes me worry. It is so easy to just LET time go by with things at status quo. It is so easy to tell yourself you'll make that change another day or you'll start later or you'll get your life in shape after _____. But time keeps going.

I've been out of college for almost 4 years now. When going through school, there are all these natural life transitions to go through. Yes, some people still put them off and delay or avoid, but mostly you just sort of keep going, each time knowing where you're headed. Finish elementary school. Finish middle school. Finish high school. Finish student teaching. Finish college. Get a job. And then....there is no longer anything forcing you to change.

As much as I hate change, and as torturous as each of the transitions I was forced to go through were, I think I'm even more terrified of never making another transition.

Will I have the courage to make myself transition? Will I know when I need to?

I do not want to be the teacher who has been teaching at the same school for 20 years. I don't know why, but I just don't. And while it's hard to imagine that ever happening, I've learned enough about time in the last few years that tells me it absolutely will happen before I even know it.

So how can I make sure I stay ahead and I'm in control, not just being pushed along?

oops

2011-11-26T22:00:00.001-08:00

How did I go from having 4 days to get my work done, to 1?

accomplishments

2011-11-25T20:01:00.001-08:00

here

This reminds me of something Eloise would say. And...it totally reminds me of myself. Duh.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T18:08:00.001-08:00

My fourth graders came into the room yesterday holding a scarecrow drawing on cardstock. They asked if they could stay in their classroom to finish coloring them and cutting them out. I agreed, being the flexible teacher I am, but asked what the scarecrows were for.

K said, "I think we're giving them to the pilgrims or something."

I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows in surprise. "Oh," I said. "Do you know who the pilgrims are?"

K said hesitantly, "Um...Indians?" P who was with her, randomly said, "chipmunks?"

When I said that the pilgrims weren't alive anymore, K looked genuinely surprised. I tried to explain who the pilgrims were, but both were just concerned with getting back to class to get to coloring...no matter what the purpose of the project was.

Remember 2 years ago when we were talking about pilgrims in 1st grade and one boy said, "Oh you mean those people that wear the belts on their hats?"

I guess we can wait until they understand the concept of history (things happened before their time and that people lived differently in the past) before we introduce the truth that the first thanksgiving wasn't really like what happened in the picture books.

Gobble, gobble.

introducing

2011-11-09T20:25:00.000-08:00

This little birdie entered the world a few weeks ago.

Her parents are so sweet with her - learning her preferences and anticipating her every need.

How is that once these babies arrive, it's as if they've always been here and we can't remember a time before we loved them?

Maybe we have always loved them, but we just didn't know it.

Welcome to the world Emma.

inspired diy

2011-11-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

Hey. I made something that I "pinned" to my "things to make" board.

How's that for accomplishment?

The pin:

My creation:

all will be well

2011-11-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

listen here.

take my hand, we'll get there

2011-10-29T23:54:00.000-07:00

mat kearney's lyrics are endlessly inspiring.
they are poetic prayers.
when you hear his voice setting the poems to music, it grabs on to something in your heart.
i don't know any other music like his.

chocolate milk.

2011-10-26T08:00:00.000-07:00

My mom tells the story about taking me to a Kindergarten preview day and walking through the lunch line with me (full day Kindergarten). We went to the milk stand and reviewed the options: 1% white milk, 2% white milk, chocolate milk. I asked if I could have chocolate milk. She said yes. I asked if I could have chocolate milk everyday. She said yes.
And I did.

For the next 13 years of school, I never once bought white milk. In college, when skim milk was available, I did choose that option frequently, but I loved to mix half a glass of skim with half of glass of chocolate. I like a subtle chocolate taste.

Now when I buy lunch at the elementary school I work at, I still choose chocolate milk every time.

And I feel like a kid.

And it makes me happy.

Chocolate milk is a comfort food for me.

amazing Ben Franklin

2011-10-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

We made flash cards to help the 4th graders review for a social studies test.

On one side we wrote : Ben Franklin

On the other side we wrote: discovered e_________

My assistant asked, "What did Ben Franklin discover? It starts with an 'e'"?

My student answered: elephants!

That Ben Franklin. Thank goodness for him.

love/hate list

2011-10-24T19:26:00.000-07:00

Here is what I hate:

gray days

Here is what I love:

rainy days

stormy days

snowy days

sunny days

Here is what I hate:

an ache in my back

Here is what I love:

yoga

stretching

Here is what I hate:

getting up when it is still pitch black outside

Here is what I love:

sleeping

Here is what I hate:

a mediocre lesson being observed by the principal

Here is what I love:

the time of my day when I have only one group to work with at a time (1:40-2:20)

Here is what I hate:

eating breakfast in the car

Here is what I love:

eating breakfast on the couch (cereal & milk)

Here is what I hate:

being unproductive

Here is what I love:

completing lists

Here is what I hate:

being bad at keeping in touch

Here is what I love:

my family and friends

Here is what I hate:

goosebumps from being cold

Here is what I love:

fall

Here is what I hate:

not having enough time to teach

Here is what I love:

teaching

at last

2011-10-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

What an exciting day for you.

I return from my blogging hiatus AND I have the 2nd installment of my apartment tour.

Remember, this is the apartment that I moved out of 2 months ago.

I found the first one much more amusing, but felt that I needed to include this one to make things complete. :)

moooooving

2011-08-19T09:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick, quick update. I'm in the process of moving into my new apartment.

So many boxes.

Kitchen (eating area):

linoleum floors (like at school)

Door / Living Room / (little bit of the closet to the right):

new carpeting

1/2 of bedroom:

Bathroom:

pretty, clean, white tile

Bathroom:

Kitchen:

This is the other side of the eating area you saw first. There is a full size washer and dryer in the kitchen! The cabinets are super old and kind of grimy. It's taking forever to put down shelf paper in all the cabinets. I'm thinking about taking the doors off because they're kind of sticky.

OK. Back to work!

all God's critters

2011-08-08T10:20:00.000-07:00

...got a place in the choir. Some sing low. Some sing higher. Some sing out loud on the telephone wire and some just clap their hands or paws or anything they got.

Remember that song? We sang that in elementary school. I didn't go to a Christian school. Hm.

So let me tell you a story about one of God's critters. Last Thursday, around 4:45 p.m., I was sitting on my couch watching Mad Men on Netflix. So, that means it was light out still. That also means that there was noise in the house.

Despite the fact that it was light out and I was clearly home, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a gray mouse meander across the kitchen floor from the corner where the laundry closet is. Usually people describe mice as scurrying. He was not scurrying. He didn't seem to be concerned at all about the fact that there might be someone watching him. He wandered over to the rug under the sink, picked up a crumb (like the only crumb in my whole house people!!), nibbled and then went under the stove.

I was absolutely frozen in fear.

I picked up my phone and as it was ringing, he came out again started heading towards me (probably back to the laundry closet), but it was just too scary so I yelled, "Hey!" and he scurried, this time he did scurry, back under the stove.

My first phone call was to my mom. My mom is great in all situations...except situations involving small rodents. She was just as freaked out as I was and she wasn't even here. Then I called my landlord. He didn't answer. His assistant didn't answer. So I called the front office again and tried to explain my situation. She got a hold of my landlord, but then informed me that he said there was nothing he could do today. What??!!!

Then I called John, Mia and Sophia's dad. I was hoping he'd take pity on me and .... I don't know exactly what I wanted him to do. Move the stove and catch the mouse? He was much more calm about the situation which was frustrating, but reassuring. He stayed on the phone with me while I left the house to go get mouse traps. In order to leave the house I had to walk by the stove which was SOOOO terrifying I was stifling small screams the whole time.

I just kept (keep) imagining the mouse running out from under the stove and latching onto my ankle with his teeth.. Where do I get that image from? Have I been watching vampire mouse movies?

Now, although they are called mouse TRAPS, what they really have served as are little trays for mouse treats. The lever where you put the bait, holds the food (mine is peanut butter and bird seed) at just the right height so the little guy doesn't have to eat off the ground (how degrading). If he happened to put any pressure on the lever, it might snap and catch him under it's bar, but he'd never be stupid enough to do that.

Night one with the traps out: little mouse ate the bait off one trap.

Night two with the traps out: little mouse ate the bait off trap # 2

Afternoon two with the traps out: little mouse ate the bait off trap #3

Night three with the traps out: little mouse at the bait off trap #4

So, as you can see, he now thinks I'm leaving treats out for him. Instead of refilling the traps, I decided to just leave them empty. Maybe he'll move out once he discovers there is nothing else to eat. Or maybe he'll eat the poison in the laundry closet when it's not being compared to tasty peanut butter.

I knew I should have gotten a cat!

This looks like him:

On Friday, Bud the maintenance man came and casually talked about how old houses have mice and since I was near all these fields (what fields??!!) it was inevitable that I'd have a mouse from time to time. He said he'd put out some poison that would kill the mouse once it drank water so I'd find it near a source of water like pipes or sinks. Um. Excuse me??!! I do not want to find a dead mouse in my sink...or under it.

But got out his flashlight and dug into all these dark corners in the kitchen without even flinching. Everything I have to move, I move very slowly so that nothing will jump out at me. Probably just to be more impressive, Bud went down in the nasty basement and checked around in the crawl space behind my washer and dryer. He also checked my boxes to see if anything was living in them. When he told me he did all this, I was really tempted to say, "You are SO brave."

Difference between my mom and I: my mom would have said it. I thought it, but did not say it.

Bud assured me that the mouse would not run out of a hiding place when I walked by, but my mom ruined that comfort after I relayed the information to her when she said, "I guess it won't; unless it has rabies. Then you'd have to call the sheriff to come kill it."

Gee. Thanks Mom. ;)

Please pray for me.

a desperate desk

2011-08-02T20:35:00.000-07:00

This is Anna.

She's wearing my dress. That's what sisters do.

Sometimes Anna scares me.

When your little sister is stronger than you, you really have to watch out.

But really, Anna's desk scared me a little. And she didn't like it much either. So, she recruited my help. (She gets my services for free since she's family and all/has no money.)

Though I'm not an early riser by any stretch of any extremely imaginative imagination, on the day we were going to organize Anna's desk, I got up at 8:30.

Yep. That's how excited I was.

I knew that this organizing project was going to be really satisfying. I also knew that it was just the right amount of work (although near the end I got a little sluggish...). Some organizing projects do take longer than a couple hours and those need to be conquered as well and will certainly be satisfying, but they're not my favorite. It's hard to stop when it's not done.

So this is what we started with:

When you organize one area, sometimes that leads to organizing other areas. In this case, it was Anna's bookshelf/window seat. The girl has a lot of books.

And then she also had these books for a class she's taking and they had no home! How sad!

She could have at least stacked them up though right? (Hahaha. Anna's gonna love this post.)

Our main focus was getting all her books to fit on the 2 designated shelves and making a place that would be easily accessible for the school books. We also worked on cutting down clutter. See how well we're doing so far?

I took down the wire with pictures clipped up (which you can barely see in the first photo due to the blurriness) and I also took down the pictures propped up on top of the little white shelf to the left of the desk. I taped them all up, along with a collection of fortune cookies fortunes, on the wall behind one shelf. It's organized clutter. :)

There was also a significant amount of paper purging done. Anna decided to use a big ziploc bag to store cards, invitations, and all the little bits and pieces she likes to save, but doesn't have a place for. Everything has to have a home. That's what I always say. Well, that and "same with same." (I talk about organizing a lot.) If something doesn't have a home, it will cause clutter. It's home also has to be easily accessible. You won't put it away unless you can get to easily and then it might as well not have a home at all.

For example, say you have a coffee table in the living room. You have a pretty plate with some candles and other accessories on it. Whenever you sit there you also make lists in your notebook so you need your notebook and pen. It's also where you cut your nails. It's also where put on lotion while you watch TV after a shower. Every night if you don't go put each of those things away somewhere else, you'll wake up to clutter in the morning. SOOOO, why not have a little box or basket with a lid and keep those things in the basket?! That way, you just toss them in after you use them and the coffee table is instantly de-cluttered. (This whole paragraph is going to go in my book called, Molly Saves the Day, oh wait, that's already a book...I'll have to think of a new title.)

But that's getting away from the point. Here are some after pictures.

Sorry about the poor picture quality! Bleh! I think I was playing around with settings on Anna's camera and didn't know how to fix it. (Notice how I borrow things and mess them up?)

The necklaces look like they are sort of randomly hanging there, but those nails were already there so it's just a temporary thing. Do Not Worry.

Here's a picture of the picture shelf I was describing.

And then her window seat/bookshelf for all the non-fiction books.

Now, many things will change I'm sure as Anna MOVES OUT to go to Iowa City where she got A JOB!!! Hooray!!

Anna has discovered that though an organization might have a great mission, this does not mean that they will have great organization.

During the process of interviewing/waiting/calling/waiting/calling/waiting/waiting/interviewing/waiting/waiting/calling/being disappointed/interviewing/waiting....she usually looked like this:

Poor thing. Or maybe she just felt like that. But now, she's back to her happy, cute, self, although I'm sure she's a little nervous for all the changes.

It's going to be fabulous Anna!! And most importantly, we can virtually crash your new (yet to be discovered) apartment right here on this very blog!!!

Please note: This is not an example of Anna being her cute self. (Or me.)

too many toiletries

2011-07-31T08:00:00.000-07:00

The Problem: Every time you open a cupboard in the bathroom you see a bunch of stuff that no one uses hidden amongst other things that people do use, but they are not grouped with their similar counterparts and it drives you crazy!

The Solution: Take it all out and sort and purge!

Keep reading to find out how YOU can do this in YOUR home!!

(this large blank area is supposed to build suspense)

You know how on those home makeover shows they always empty the room entirely to begin with? Well I always think that's dumb because people don't really do that. I mean, where would you put all that furniture? In the case of organizing though, that's exactly what you do.

Take it ALL out and lay it all over the floor.

This is not a true BEFORE shot, but was only a few minutes into the project so hopefully it counts.

I removed some items from this picture so the boys wouldn't be embarrassed. ;)

I had already started a small pile of trash and giveaway. I quickly realized that my trash pile was going to be huge...and also that things were looking a little grimy, so I gathered these supplies/my mom brought them to me.

I like to start by matching things that go together. "Same with same," is what I always say. (This is why big box stores with rows and rows of the exact same items stacked to the ceiling make me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. Ahhhh...)

I came across 2 bags of cotton balls. One was practically empty, so I put them all in the same bag! (I hope you're taking notes.)

If you're working in the bathroom with sticky, gooey products like lotions and shampoos, you might come across some yucky things.

If you are working in a house you grew up in, you will probably also find some things that remind you of the good ol' days.

Anna and I were super stylish.

Again, when you are sorting products, always be sure to check the expiration date. Most make-up containers also have a little picture of an open jar which says how long you can use something after it's been opened. If you can't remember the last time you used that foundation and the label says it should be used within 12 months, toss it.

This bottle of anti-itch lotion was past it's prime...

At one point, we definitely had organized the cupboards (although that bottle of lotion seemed to have slipped by us), so there were things in various containers. As I sorted, I emptied containers so that in the end I had piles of stuff and then a whole array of containers to choose from to use for my RE-organizing.

If you did a good job purging, you should have more containers than you need.

This is a blurry photo, but you can see that things are starting to look more orderly.

I know this is a huge disappointment, but there are no AFTER pictures of the shelves. It would have been too hard to photograph and also it's a little personal. I mean geez, why do you wanna see in our bathroom cabinets?

Who are you? George Banks? (scroll to 4:10 to see what I'm referring to).

This is all the trash I accumulated. It's hard to give much stuff away when it comes to toiletries.

I came away with this loot. I considered it payment for my hard work.

Please contact me with any further questions or advice on your own organizing ~~catastrophes~~ projects. There is a $100 fee for my consultation services. Just check out the reviews I got:

"It didn't look that bad before." (Anna - sister)

**Giveaway Alert** You too can come away from this organizing project with loot of your own. By posting a comment on this post, your name will be entered into a raffle to win.....

...a roughly 20 year old tube of teeth whitening paste!!

In a stand-up tube!!

**This giveaway is entirely fake and nobody is going to win.

Apartment Tour Part One

2011-07-30T12:42:00.000-07:00

Look! It's me on video!

The quality is pretty poor...probably because I'm using stupid Windows Movie Maker (not even the newest version). But oh well.

And there are things I would do differently... like the part about my lisp is really longer than it needs to be and the spacing is off on the credits (keep in mind there is not much room for customizing on WMM.)

So anyways. There it is!

Classroom Decor! Sew what?

2011-07-29T11:33:00.000-07:00

Get it? Get it? ;)

Ok. Let's start at the beginning.

Remember when my classroom looked like this?

Yikes! And that was the day before school was starting too. Gives me a panic attack just to look at it.

But not really because I know that now it looks sooooo much better. All those shelves have been reorganized and the whole room redecorated. I made progress slowly throughout the year and then conquered the rest of it (except for one drawer) at the end of the school year thanks to help from my partner in organization. (Can you tell that's a link when it's just a little lighter gray? Click to read Bec's post about coming to help me at school!)

In the picture above I circled (and drew a black arrow pointing to) the lower shelves that run along one side of the classroom. These shelves look much tidier than they used to, but I still thought because of so much open shelving in this room, it would be nice to have those shelves covered.

I've seen other classrooms cover bookshelves with curtains (though actually I haven't seen that in this school, but it's probably because I don't spend anytime in Kindergarten where they tend to do that sort of thing) and I've always thought it looked cute.

At the end of the school year I thought about doing something simple like using plastic tablecloths taped up, but in the end I decided to make it a real project (which will hopefully last longer) and sew some curtains (which sounds impressive) and hang them with velcro (not quite as impressive sounding).

I don't have a sewing machine. I haven't had good experiences with sewing machines. Despite these 2 facts, I was determined to make these curtains. I even had to go back to school after I thought I had left for the summer because I forgot to take measurements. THAT is dedication.

Ok. So, when at home in Wisconsin, Anna helped me pick out some fabric to use. We debated about how gender neutral we should go with pattern design, but ended up deciding that as long as it was not hot pink polka dots, the boys would probably just notice that the room felt nice and homey and not that the fabric had flowers on it.

When we went up to visit my grandparents for the night, my mom and Anna weeded the garden (with the company of many forms of biting bugs) while I stayed inside and began my project (under the close supervision and direction of Grandma).

How nice right? Just 4 simple steps?

Step 1: cut the fabric to the right size.

This involved measuring and drawing straight lines and other things that I do not feel are strong skills of mine. I laid all the fabric out on the floor in the guest bedroom and used the ruler to mark spots so I could connect them and draw a line. What are you supposed to do if the dots won't all connect? I chose to go somewhere in the middle.

Step 2: iron the hems.

Since I decided this was going to be a project done correctly, I didn't want to have scraggly threads hanging off my curtains so I hemmed each side of each panel. In a previous project, I had been taught to use pins to mark where the hem would be, but pins are such a pain. (Literally! Ha!) My grandma told me to just iron the fabric and that it would go much quicker. Unfortunately, this was something I just had to eyeball as I ironed. I folded the fabric over just a little and ironed and then folded it over a little bit again and ironed over that. I was advised that this was better than just making one fold.

Step 3: sew the hems.

I definitely improved in this area as time went by. My lines got straighter (sewing machines go really fast!) and things got less bunchy and horrible looking around the corners. I was even able to solve some dilemmas that arose by referencing the trusty manual.

Step 4: attach the sticky velcro and then sew to reinforce.

This step was a nice idea, but after 1 panel the machine couldn't handle anymore. Unfortunately, after that one panel the whole thing stopped working in general. All thingies were in the right places with the right strings, but it would only sew holes!

Sorry Grandma!

For now, I'll leave the velcro to fend for itself. If it starts to come unattached, I'll pull out my needle and thread and sew it by hand. Haha. Yeah right. (Anyone have a needle and thread I can borrow?)

I'm SEW excited to hang them up in my room. But not quite so excited that I want to do it right now. A few weeks will be fine. :)

photo

2011-07-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

possibilities

2011-07-28T20:59:00.000-07:00

So many things to blog about.

Where to begin?

When to begin?

Well, not tonight.

I'm trying to get on a more culturally accepted sleep schedule. Something closer to 11 pm to 8 am (yes, I need at least 9 hours of sleep!) instead of 3 am to 12 pm. 3 am seems drastic. You are thinking, "She must be exaggerating for the sake of making her blog more interesting." Ha.

You are wrong. My body slowly, but surely reverts back to this sleep pattern whenever it sees an opportunity. It's like that kid in the classroom that sees an inch and takes a mile.

Anyways. The point is, I should be going to bed now which is why I am blogging to tell you I am not going to blog right now.

But when I do blog again, it might be about projects I did in Wisconsin (and how much I love a good mess to organize), it might be about exploring Madison with Marta, it might be about my solo road trip back to PA, it might be about baby Sam celebrating his 1st birthday with a wild pool party, or it might be about my plans (and design dilemmas) for my new apartment (coming August 17th). It might even be about a blog that is totally inspiring me lately and makes me want to DIY everything and also purges my closets and cupboards in the name of living simply.

Then again, I might just show you random pictures of how I've been spending my days this week.

laying in bed (the coolest place in the house because it's under the ac unit) // making stuff while watching stuff (still in the coolest room in the house though not the coolest place) // trying to revive my poor plants who couldn't survive the 104 degree temperatures without me (even though they did have a babysitter) // eating clementines and sorting mail from 4 weeks of being gone // swimming with the girlies (I did get in the pool, but I couldn't very well take a picture of myself swimming could I?)

That's all for now. I'm going to bed so I can get up and actually do stuff tomorrow.

more about madeline

2011-07-16T22:01:00.000-07:00

I made a photo book of our pictures from Madeline Island.

Here it is!

Click here to view this photo book larger

mama

2011-07-12T20:41:00.000-07:00

On Father's Day, I told you all about how much I love my dad and one of the many ways he has shaped who I am today.

Last Wednesday, on Madeline Island, we celebrated my mama's 60th birthday. So now, I'd like to tell you about her.

Here are some things you should know about my mama:

1. She still loves her birthday. She told the waitress at dinner that she was turning 60 and tried to get the senior discount at the museum the next day. She says, "Getting older is better than not getting older."

2. She gets really excited about her presents. She was especially excited about her new water bottle which keeps her water cold for 12 hours which is very important because she LOVES WATER.

3. She loves ice cream.

4. She doesn't like to back up the car because she is afraid she'll run over toddlers.

5. If she is driving behind someone who is really slow or driving like a crazy person, she says, "He's probably having a heart attack."

6. She loves napping. (Sound familiar?)

7. She has EVERYTHING in her purse.

8. She drinks lattes with 3 shots of espresso.

9. She keeps busy.

10. You can get into some pretty interesting situations with her.

For example, you might think that something as basic as a quick trip to the grocery store could never be made anything out of the ordinary. Oh how wrong you are.

First of all, you are sent into the store like you are on a mission. The goal is to make the time in the grocery store as minimal as possible, because although she goes multiple times a week, my mom HATES the grocery store. (Could this be because she goes multiple times a week?)

There is some sort of direction given before exiting the car like, "OK, Molly, you get the blueberries and the popcorn and I'll get the English muffins and the grapefruit and we'll meet at the checkout line."

We always bypass the carts and baskets because, after all, we're only getting a few things. (Sometimes we do big trips, but that's another story.)

After picking up my things and waiting for about 10 minutes at the checkout, I wander around trying to track my mom down. She is pretty easy to spot. The 1 or 2 things under her responsibility have multiplied into so many things that she hasn't even been able to hold them all. Instead of just getting a basket (or really a cart at that point), she empties a packing box which had been used to ship food to the store and then placed on a shelf, and piles all her products inside. The box is heavy though and she carries it around not being able to see where she is going and looking like she might topple over at any minute.

When we reach the checkout, I have to stand there and start going through the line, while she runs off to grab the 1 other thing that we are all out of and absolutely must have.

Once, Anna and my mom were Christmas shopping at the mall. There were tables set up for gift wrappers, but although the supplies were out on the table, there were no wrappers. My mom decided to start wrapping the presents herself. A young guy came along and inquired what she was doing. While Anna stood there looking mortified, Mom stated bluntly, "Well, I'm wrapping my presents because there was nobody here and we get free gift wrapping for shopping here." He informed her that when nobody is there, that means it's closed - which means no wrapping.

My mom has grand (complicated) plans and there are few obstacles she thinks are insurmountable.

One year she decided to take the Vacation Bible School program she ran at our church in Madison, to my grandparent's church, over an hour away. When I say she took the program, I mean that she took ALL the stuff she used at our church, to the other church, including the oatmeal for the sensory table. At this point in my life, I was quite overwhelmed by my mom's choice of projects and although I did help out with VBS that week, I didn't drive up in the car with her and my sister that night.

That was a good decision, because there would not have been room for me. Another thing you should know about my mom is that she is an excellent car packer. While my dad would take one look at the growing pile of stuff we wanted to take to college with us and say, "That's never going to fit," and walk away, my mom believes that cars are like Mary Poppins' bag and anything will fit if you just push hard enough. And I must say, with her, it seems to be true. So, all that to say, she fit A LOT of stuff into her car. So much stuff that there was no room for a suitcase. Instead, clothes and essentials were put in a paper bag and shoved into a remaining hole in the backseat. We couldn't even see Anna's little head when they pulled out of the driveway after 10 p.m.

Oh and the oatmeal, it spilled. (VBS was a big hit. Of course.)

There is no one - no one - like my mom. And that, is a good thing.

Her way of doing things and her complicated ideas used to stress me out, and still sometimes do, but I'm finally realizing what is so unique and wonderful about her is her attitude. She doesn't let little things put her in a bad mood.

Another story - As we packed the car for Madeline Island, we knew we had to leave room for my grandma's bags because we were going to pick her up on our way. Anna and I were already going to have a cooler between us in the backseat, and the bikes were going to be on top of the trunk so that left the task a bit difficult.

Mom informed me that she could get into the trunk through the backseat, so if we just left a space in the back, we could shove Grandma's suitcase through there and be set. So, I did. I left a nice big space in the back of the trunk so we would be sure to have room.

Once we set off, an hour and a half later than planned, I decided to see how this backseat entrance to the trunk worked. It didn't.

After checking the car manual, Anna confirmed that there was no such entrance.

Oh.

So, when we picked up Grandma, we had to take the bikes off and start all over again. Anna and I found this slightly annoying, but Mom's attitude rubbed off on us and we realized it was not only funny, but also not worth starting off our vacation in a bad mood.

If you're moving into a new apartment, dealing with a classroom behavior problem, packing a car, rearranging a room, finding a hotel in an unfamiliar place, taking yucky medicine, dealing with any sort of ache or pain (my mom pretty much has her own pharmacy), trying to get out a stain or having a case of feeling "grovelly" (a word I made up when I was 5 - with a short o), my mom is the one you want to have by your side.

I'm so lucky to have had her on my side.

* Maybe another time I'll tell you about getting in the car to go to a cousin's bridal or baby shower, only to have Mom hand me scissors, tape and wrapping paper and suggest that I wrap the present quickly at the stop lights because it might be kind of difficult to do when the car is moving. As if it weren't difficult enough to wrap a box in a car!

Wow, I could go on about her forever... :)

madeline

2011-07-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow we leave for Madeline Island. We're going to stay for a week. We have a cottage right on the lake with our own private beach.


There are actually 11 other islands near Madeline, but they're pretty tiny.

Our family loves traditions. Especially my mom. Madeline Island is one of our traditions. For several years in a row, we would go and stay on the island for a week during the summer.

We've also done shorter trips to Bayfield and just gone over to Madeline for a day visit.

I have so many memories of our time there. Really happy memories. I wanted to write a whole bunch of little stories about my memories, but I ended up only writing one and even though it doesn't seem like the happiest memory, it is dear to me.

This is about a year we stayed in Whitefish Cottage. I think I was going to be a sophomore or junior in high school.

The cottage we stayed in had stacks of old quilts in the closets. I would pile 3 of these quilts in my arms, along with a book, pen, journal, and water bottle and make my way across the street to the beach.

The sun would occasionally peek out brightly from behind the clouds, but mostly the sky was gray on this unusually chilly week in June.

With one quilt I would make a bed in the sand, and then I wrapped the others around myself to act as a shield from the wind blowing off Lake Superior.

Sometimes I would write, sometimes read, but mostly, I drifted in and out of sleep as I lay on my stomach, my head turned so my eyes were parallel with the horizon. The steady ebb and flow of the lake tide calmed me and grounded me.

That year, grief had made me lose touch with the world around me and with my body itself. Laying so close to the earth made me feel connected to something again. I didn’t quite feel at peace in my heart, but I was starting to understand what peace was again.

I lay there for hours day after day. I didn’t really want to do anything else. Things made sense in that place. I didn’t remember how to pray, but the lake seemed to write the prayer for me.

Years later, I still remember my place on the beach, as the most comforting, peaceful place there is.

how we got here

2011-06-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

Marta and I are both in Wisconsin. I'm usually in Pennsylvania. She's usually in New Hampshire. Today, we are both in Wisconsin, together.

Wanna know how we got here?

Here's the story.

After seeing Mat Kearney (and Owl City) in concert, and touching Mat's hand, and dropping my plants off for Mia and Sophia's dad to take care of, we headed out on interstate 80.

This is what we saw on DAY 1.

We spent the night with Marta's family in Ohio and then began....

These are the things we saw on DAY 2.

And then....an hour later....home.

blue skies

2011-06-23T20:35:00.000-07:00

Life is good. Summer is here.

Hot pink toes:

Babies splashin in water warmed in the sun:

Hazy, humid days on the beach:

...and so much more to come.

summer reading

2011-06-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

This is what is on my reading list for the summer.

(pictured from top to bottom)

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseni
Testimony - Anita Shreve
Dreams from My Father - Barack Obama
Second Chance - Jane Green
Bossypants - Tina Fey
Mentor Texts - a book about teaching writing using children's literature as examples
Nonfiction Mentor Texts - a book about teaching writing using nonfiction children's literature as examples
Day by Day - how to run writer's workshop
Write Traits Teacher's Guide - the teacher's manual for our writing curriculum
Report Form Comprehension Guide - the teacher's manual for one comprehension curriculum
Daybook of Critical Reading and Writing - a book I unearthed in my very own classroom
Idioms Delight - how to explicitly teach idioms to children
Visualizing and Verbalizing for Language Comprehension and Thinking - I also discovered this is my room. It's a manual that goes with a game!! It seems like it teaches kids, in game form, how to think while they read in order to boost comprehension. Sounds amazing, but I haven't opened the book yet.
11 IEPs - planning to read up on my new students

(not pictured, but on my list)
Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Friday Night Knitting Club - Kate Jacobs
Ida Bee and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster and (Possibly) Save the World - Katherine Hannigan
The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life - Rosamund Stone Zander

Oh my. I'm going to stop there. I wouldn't want to make a list I can't complete.

I will have a whole week on Madeline Island to read...so I'm not worried.

philly adventure - saturday, june 18

2011-06-21T11:23:00.000-07:00

Sam and Amanda invited me to go with them to visit Eastern State Penitentiary.

Who doesn't want to visit an old prison on a beautiful Saturday?

the view from the outside

Eastern State was built 1822-1836 and was especially designed to inspire true penitence within its inmates. The original idea was to immerse inmates in complete solitude. The idea reminds me of a time-out. "Go think about what you've done." Except, this was a really long time-out.

the wall is 30 feet above ground and 10 feet underground

One of the really crazy things is that the prison is built so close to downtown Philly.

view from the inside - you can see the Philly skyline right beyond the walls

As time went on, the prison was forced to accommodate more inmates and some cell blocks were built 2 stories tall. Eventually, inmates also shared cells.

This prison's big "claim to fame," is that Al Capone was there for a few months after being arrested for carrying concealed weapons. He was released after 9 months for good behavior.

"Slick Willie" was also sentenced to serve 25-50 years at the Eastern State Penitentiary. After about 10 years, he led 12 other inmates in an escape attempt (this was his 5th escape attempt). They were all recaptured that day and he was then transferred to another prison (where he escaped again).


Amanda is sad about being in prison.

I'm going crazy in prison.

The thing around Amanda's neck is the headset for our audio tour guide. I liked that set up a lot. It told us where to walk and gave us information as we walked along at our own pace.

I was yelled at for touching the door in my picture. The woman told me it was a fire hazard. A fire hazard to hold onto the door? She thought I was going to close it! As if I would want to close myself into that place!!

After we escaped, we explored a used bookstore and ate an early dinner at a converted firehouse restaurant.

It was a fun adventure.

Now we have to decide if we're brave enough to visit Eastern State Penitentiary on Halloween for their annual event, "Terror Behind the Walls." Yikes!

celebrate.

2011-06-20T20:40:00.000-07:00

Although yesterday was Father's Day, another important celebration also took place yesterday.

We grilled hot dogs and sliders, we scooped homemade guacamole onto tortilla chips, we ate outside by the pool, we swam, we ate ice cream cake, we opened gifts, we had a great time celebrating the life of this artistic, thoughtful, quiet girl. I love her so much.

(Can you tell who likes to be in front of the camera?)

Sophia got a big 2 wheel bike from her parents and grandparents. Right now, her feet barely touch the ground, but I'm sure that will change by the end of the summer.

As soon as Mia saw her take off, and all of us applaud and watch in awe, she tugged on my skirt and said, "Molly will you get my bike out?"


"I'm kind of a big deal."

my daddy.

2011-06-19T20:31:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to write this post for awhile. I keep ending up with the wrong tone, or the wrong words.

Really what I want to say is that I'm so grateful for my dad.

For as long as I can remember my dad has told me over and over again that I'm the smartest kid in the world. He tells me I'm beautiful. He tells me I'm brave. He tells me I'm strong.

I think I used to just think it was funny. I mean, obviously I'm not the smartest kid in the world. Many times when he was filling me with compliments, I didn't believe them. I wasn't sure if they counted since he was my dad and he was sort of obligated to think I was wonderful.

I think I'm beginning to understand the importance of a father telling his daughter these things.

Some girls don't know what it feels like to have someone love you so much that they think you're a little better than you really are. It is so easy, and sometimes tempting, to settle into a "this is good enough" mindset and I've wondered why when I come to that thought, I am able to gather the strength to say, "No, it's not enough." I've wondered where this confidence comes from that I deserve to not settle. I've wondered where the confidence comes from that in turning away, or being turned away from, something better will be out there. I'm not saying I never have moments (or days) of self doubt or insecurity. I certainly do. But deep down, I know I am lovable.

As I was thinking about this one day, I gradually started hearing all these familiar phrases in my mind. "You're the bestest little kiddo in town." "I'm so lucky to have the smartest daughter in the world." "I do love this little girl so much." And on, and on, and on. This is what I've heard over and over for 25 years.

Do you know the kind of power that has? It's a special kind of power that a girl can only get from having a loving dad.

I am one of the lucky ones. I really am.

I can't say thank you to my dad enough.

I love you Daddy.

Anna and Daddy

the end.

2011-06-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

pushed in the last chair.

covered the last computer.

shelved the last book.

sharpened the last pencil.

turned in my keys.

recycled the last box.

wiped down the whiteboard for the last time.

and we're done!

solitude

2011-06-10T19:20:00.000-07:00

What Solitude Teaches ... by Marilyn Chandler McEntyre

Source: inspiredbythisfeeling.tumblr.com via Puanani on Pinterest

The difference between alone and lonely

The delights of inner dialogue

Where to find your angle of repose

How to listen into silence

And hear the Spirit speak

A quiet kind of courage

The joy of uninterrupted reading

Or using up all the hot water

The pleasures of puttering

The comforts of quietness

The shape of your own desires

The pleasure of not performing

Trust in God's Presence

when it looks like absence

too hot.

2011-06-09T17:51:00.000-07:00

It all seemed too hot. And it was.

Too too hot. Too hot to post another heat tip.

heartbreak

2011-06-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

I have some sad news to share with you friends.

My one true love, Mat Kearney, is married.

In fact, he's been married for over a year and I'm just now finding out about it.

Bec sent me a link to this blog and I'm not sure if I should love her for letting me know the truth that my dream is over, or if I should be mad that she took away my ignorant bliss.


photo by Tec Petaja

What hurts the most is that we never even had a chance. I haven't seen him since this night a few years ago.

I have tickets right here in my hand to see him open for Owl City, but now I know it's too late.

I just don't know what it's going to be like to see him again in this new reality....knowing there is no hope for the future...knowing he loves someone else.

I hope it's not awkward.

I know, I know. There are other fish in the sea. I will move on. I just need to grieve for a moment.


photo by Tec Petaja

won fryday knight

2011-06-03T21:20:00.000-07:00

Can ewe imagine how terribly annoying it wood bee if peeple wrote like this awl the thyme?

Eye yam knot proud of this, butt eye dew tend two notice misspellings oar incorrect word usage and it always rubs me the wrong whey. Maybe it is the tea chair in me.

Sew it is kind of ironic that eye yam typing this post.

Sum of the thymes, my stew dents right something like “munch” instead of “much,” or…wheel, eye can’t think of anything else write now, but neways, it is so funny to reed and eye just have two laugh, butt knot inn an insulting whey. They usually get it and laugh two.

It is sew inn terroresting that just the tiniest error kan make such a big difference. Eye really bee leave that peeple seem much smarter when they no witch word two use at witch thyme.

Thank ewe four yore thyme. Sari if it was a pane. Eye think eye mussed stop because eye seam too bee in a bit of a days.

Eye also kneed two go two bed before the mourning son comes up.

…buy!

(This vary post wuz inspired bye my deer friend Bec.)

sweet.

2011-06-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

when it's too hot to cook...

...ha. As if I cooked anyways!

summer heat tip #3

2011-05-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

Oh today is a hot one.

But I've managed to stay cool so far. This is how:

And let me tell you, that basement was the creepiest it's ever been on a journey down there. I had to get a broom and remove all the spiderwebs from my path to the door before I could even venture down the steps. And then I had to step so carefully so as not to disturb the HUGE spiders living in both corners at the bottom of the steps. Bleh.

Luckily, I did such a fabulous job protecting my fan in 2 plastic bags, there were no spiders on it (unless there's a massive nest or something inside....).

The funny thing is...last year, I went the whole summer thinking I didn't have a fan. I ended up getting one from John and Vanessa to borrow. Then when I went down in the basement to put something away a few months ago, I realized I DID have my very own fan.

It's pretty high tech. It has a remote. It oscillates. It has 4 speeds. Woah.

Ok. Whatever. Nobody really cares about my fan.

Today is the last day of my 3 day weekend. I'm going to hang out with Amanda in a little bit. (I was going to join her sooner with her parents, but they're wandering around Philly and it's just too hot for that.) I should probably also go to the grocery store at some point. I did the dishes today though, so already I can consider my weekend productive.

Yesterday I slept a lot. I'm not sure why. I think you reach a point where you've slept so much that you can't stop sleeping. I did get school work done while enjoying the air conditioning at John and Vanessa's house. I think I got enough done that I don't need to do anymore tonight. The other stuff I need to do, needs to be done at school.

So the plan for tomorrow is to get to school early and get stuff done.

summer heat tip #2

2011-05-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

the second addition in the series...

Today I spent time cuddling with Mia, Sophia and Bella (the doggie) and talking to Vanessa (in their air conditioned house) until I drove (in my car with air conditioning) to see Bec and Mark and baby Sam (in their air conditioned house).

I love these people.

And I love that I can spend lots of time with them this summer while keeping cool.

Use your resources right?

just the beginning

2011-05-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

Let's just start by emphasizing that today is May 26 (happy birthday Gramma!).

It is not even the end of May. If summer has even begun...it's just barely.

However, outside of Philly today it was 90 degrees......and humid.

Humidity is really what gets me. I can handle heat. I can't handle feeling like I can't breathe because the air is so thick.

It may not look like it at first glance, but this is a pretty bad picture.

Look closely at our smiles and you will realize that we are very uncomfortable.

Another clue is that we aren't even touching each other.

This is Anna and I in Central Park last summer. In July. It wasn't so bad in the shade, but as soon as we stepped into the sun (which was a bad idea in terms of lighting anyways) we were miserable. We didn't even care that the picture wouldn't turn out well.

So, anyways. The whole point of this is that I'm sitting here in my apartment, after a very hot afternoon in my sauna/classroom, and I'm hot. Really hot.

This summer I plan to bring you tips to combat the heat. They will be highly invaluable (or un-valuable).

moving on.

2011-05-19T19:40:00.000-07:00

I'm going to move this summer.

I had been thinking about moving...closer to work...and then I found out that the place I'm living now is going to be torn down in the fall.

So now, I have to move.

I was excited about it. I am excited about it. But I'm sad too. I've been here for 2 years. It's the first place I've had that's been just mine. It feels like home.

I toured 2 apartments after school today and I just had a sad, empty feeling walking through them. Partly it was the generic-ness of the places. Partly it was that all I could see out the windows was parking lots (on 2 sides.) Partly it was the wall-to-wall carpeting and standard blinds. Partly it was that apartment smell and dorm room feel when walking down the hallways.

But partly, it was just that it wasn't home. I guess it would have helped if I could really see myself there, but I have trouble with change...even if it's for the better.

I've been spoiled with this apartment. I keep saying that, but it's so true. It's an excellent deal. There's a parking space right by the door. I have a front and back door. I have a front porch. I have my own washer and dryer. I'm not in a huge complex.

But this is exactly what I do when something has to change.

After 4 years of complaining endlessly about high school and comparing it to being in jail, when it finally came time to graduate, I got all sentimental about everything from the teachers to the tile in the bathroom.

Come on!

So let's get real and remember the things that I will NOT miss about this place.

1. the loud, booming and rumbling and crashing coming from Whole Foods at all hours of the night and day
2. bugs,
3. holes
4. mold
5. peeling, cracking paint
6. thin walls between my neighbor and I
7. location on a busy road and hearing traffic all the time
8. cold, cold, cold in the winter
9. hot, hot, hot in the summer
10. lack of storage space
11. see through blinds
12. stove hood so dirty that it's impossible to clean

So. It'll be OK. I can move on. Fresh start. I'll find something just right.

All photos are of downtown West Chester...where I plan to move.

musica.

2011-05-16T20:03:00.000-07:00

New music that I'm enjoying.

If I've found artists that Anna has not already heard of, and likes, I will have completed my life's mission.

from bobtje's blues blog

This is Marc Broussard. He's almost a little too bluesy for me, but something about him makes it different.

---------------------------------------------------------------------


photo by Lauren Dukoff

This is Greg Laswell. He reminds me of Mat Kearney, who we all know is my absolute favorite. These are some of my favorites of his.

a fabulous list.

2011-05-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

1. rainy night. i love rainy nights at home.

2. i actually got up at 6:30. i didn't want to. but i did.

3. my assistant's substitute was actually helpful and i even had a few minutes to be sociable and polite and talk to her! good thing because she's a parent in the district. ;)

4. i made dinner. and.....wait for it.....i did the dishes too! on the same night!! and i just did the dishes 2 days ago!!!

5. i feel like the thing about washing the dishes deserves two separate shout outs.

6. tomorrow is an inservice day. it would be more exciting if tomorrow were no school at all, but inservice sounds good. not because i don't like my kids, but because, well, it's getting late in the year and the kids know it.

7. i, with my bright green thumb, have successfully revived my impatients which died when i was home for spring break.

8. i left school before 4:30. (this has been a fabulous occurrence for a few weeks now.)

9. after i got home and changed into comfy clothes, i changed back into regular clothes and went out and ran an errand. do you understand how fabulous this is? well, it's not fabulous meaning that it was a good time, but fabulous that i was able to make myself to do that.

10. i have m&ms in my house. and strawberries. yeah.

your turn. find 10 fabulous things about your day.

i'm becoming a bigger and bigger fan of the word fabulous.

dear summer

2011-05-04T19:37:00.001-07:00

I've written this post about 3 times and it is not looking the way I want it to. Boo. You'll just have to click on each line to read it...until I fix it (if I fix it.)
Figured I better post it before I have to change all the numbers!!

change of pace.

2011-04-27T18:50:00.000-07:00

So, I'm thinking this is going to become a bit of a cooking blog. Sorry to make some people feel excluded, but it's actually kind of advanced cooking so, if you don't know what you're doing you might just want to look at the pretty pictures.

Today's edition is called: Chipotle or Molle

(The end of Molle should be pronounced with a Spanish "e" which makes the sound like a long "a" in English.)

Step One: Put rinsed lettuce in salad spinner.
Step Two: Spin the spinner. (Be careful not to spin it too fast and then let it go because it might fly off the counter.)
Step Three: Chop up half a ripe avocado. You should try to do this without using a plate or cutting board. (You want to avoid as many dirty dishes as possible.)
Step Four: Open a can of black beans. Pour them in a saucepan. Warm them up on the stove. (3 steps in one. See what I mean about advanced?)
Step Five: Put a bag of TJ's frozen rice in the microwave for 3 minutes. Be careful when removing it. It is hot.
Step Six: Shred lettuce into the bottom of the bowl. Put avocado on top. Then add rice, followed by beans, and top with the cheese.

You might be thinking, "What? Just 6 steps and she's saying it's advanced?" Well, each step involves many smaller steps and also cooking intuition. I can't even explain everything I did to make this meal. That's why it's so comparable to Chipotle (minus the chicken, tomato salsa and tortilla chips.)

Please let me know in the comments if you would like any further information about my methods or ingredients.

I'll be working on a video and a more specific recipe list which will be available next week for $15.

Thanks for your support.

right now.

2011-04-25T18:34:00.001-07:00

Right now I guess I'm imagining it's summer a little bit.

It certainly felt like summer today.

I came home and put on a short cotton skirt and made dinner (yes, shocking I know) and ate on the couch (not shocking) with the living room window wide open. The sun was setting and I was just the perfect temperature and felt so calm and peaceful and sleepy....I fell asleep.

Right now I'm sitting on the couch right in front of the living room window and if I hold perfectly still I can feel a little bit of the breeze coming in through the kitchen window.

Right now the curtains are still open and the only light in the house is this computer screen.

Right now my hair is damp and my skin is still soft from the lotion I put on after my shower (it claims it's going to make me look tan...we'll see.)

Sitting in shorts and tank top with bare feet and wet hair reminds me of summer. It just does.

Right now I would like a bowl of peaches and ice cream.

I love that I came home from school today and didn't even hardly think about school.

I love that my first day back after spring break I was able to leave before 4:30.

I love that all my anxiety about being back disappeared when the kids walked in the door. I know them.

Right now, because this is what always happens at this time of night, I am sleepy but have so many things I want to do and finally feel like I could actually do them.

This is when my energy starts to come back.

Yes, that is problem. I'm working on it.

No really. I am. I'll keep you posted.

a comparison

2011-04-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

Here is what I like

cupcakes.

Here is what I do not like

missing my sister.

ugly beautiful truths.

2011-03-10T19:12:00.000-08:00

I liked this post a lot on the [i] LoveLife blog.

Here are my ugly beautiful truths.

1) I try to avoid taking a shower 2 days in a row at all costs - and not because I'm trying to be "green."

2) If I buy a bag of chips (a normal sized bag) I always eat the whole bag in 2 sittings.

3) If someone is mean to me, I get really sad, feel really bad about myself and then....I have really mean thoughts about the person who was mean to me.

4) Dirty dishes have been known to sit in my sink for over a week.

5) I can sleep basically all day for 3 whole days before I start to feel like it might be good to get up and move a little.

6) I only use my time wisely about 5% of the time, but 95% of the time I'm complaining about how I don't have enough time to do everything I need to do.

7) I envy certain people's lives, but know that I should be so grateful for what I have.

8) I probably think I'm cooler than you because I'm from Wisconsin.

9) I kind of like some of Justin Beiber's songs.

10) I choose sleep over church many, many Sundays.

11) I still haven't called my grandma to thank her for the cookies she sent me on Valentine's day.

12) I still haven't thanked someone who sent me a Christmas present.

Man, I could go on and on. Please share your ugly beautiful truths to make me feel better.

A+ Work

2011-02-13T09:33:00.000-08:00

This is the best paragraph I've read all year. I had to share it.

"I like snow. Snow is as cold as Antarctica on its coldest day. Snow can be educated and fun. You can play with snow is not bio-hazard. Snow is like white crystals. I like snow because if you don't have anything to do, this a way to unbored yourself. Also you play with your family on snow days. I like snow forever."

I just keep reading it over and over again.

a sign of success

2011-02-04T21:38:00.000-08:00

This week, we worked on similes. Identifying them, critiquing them, writing them. All about similes.

I found a cool smartboard activity online and we did that for 2 days. At the end of the second day, I asked the kids to quickly write down a simile that describes them. We brainstormed some things you could compare yourself to. One student suggested Justin Beiber. I said, "How are you like Justin Beiber?" She said, "Well, we both sing well."

(I considered tossing out a general warning about the implications of comparing yourself to a famous singer, actor, comedian, etc....in terms of talent.)

When the kids finished writing, they turned in their simile and I read them out loud anonymously so we could say 1) is it a simile? 2) what does it compare? 3) does it make sense?

Oh success.

One student wrote, "I am awesome."

Another wrote, "I am as sand."

And another wrote, "I am as fun as a cow."

Ok.

Well.

That's what my room is like.

Then today, the kids were writing about something else and I asked them to include at least 1 simile. A girl raised her hand, turned her head to the side and asked, "What's a simile?" with an emphasis on simile as though she had never heard it before.

No, she wasn't absent earlier this week.

Here's how I felt:
I felt as successful as a squished pie at a pie contest.

We'll try again next week.

image via threechannels.com

measuring progress

2011-01-26T15:39:00.000-08:00

It can be quite discouraging to look at all this data that I'm collecting for my kids sometimes. Sometimes you look at it and realize, "wait, a minute, this is exactly where she was a year ago!" And at first I feel bad for myself and about myself, but then I think about the kid and that is when it gets truly heartbreaking.

My drama queen, who gives my instructional assistant a run for her money, works SO well for me. She knows I like her so she really tries. Her response to just a little bit of praise, a little bit of verbal recognition that, "you can do it!" is astounding. I wish I could just work with her all day despite the fact that her progress is slow, slow, slow and she often backtracks. It can be quite discouraging. But what I've realized is that, in her case, this is even more discouraging to her, so there is no reason for me to get all upset about it.

She is in 5th grade and can't read. At all. I'm starting this new reading program with her and I showed her the end of the book. I said, "When we're done, you're going to be able to read this." Maybe I shouldn't have done that. She didn't get visibly excited and jump up and down, but she just said, "So, I'll be able to read chapter books?" The girl loves stories. She loves acting out stories that she has made up and she listens with rapt attention to anything I read aloud. She gets nothing out of the early reader books that she can only barely read. She asks me at least once a week if there are any chapter books at her level. I try to explain that you have to start with where you're at and you can't skip steps in reading, but she doesn't care.

And she's not the only one. She is the lowest, but there are others who are just stuck at only reading a few words and not really being able to break apart new words in order to read them. It's hard to know what to tell the parents. It's hard to not feel like it's my fault.

THIS is my job. Teaching is my job. If only all the paperwork didn't get in the way of my job.

this is what i mean.

2011-01-26T10:25:00.000-08:00

This is why I complain endlessly when I am asked to revise an IEP for tiny minuscule reasons. It's not something we should be asked to do frivolously.

This month I need to revise at least 5 IEPs to say that students will be taking the modified version of our state test (the PSSA).

I was feeling overwhelmed so I thought, "I'll just make a checklist of what I need to do for each kid. That will make me feel better."

Well, I'm not sure it helped because this is the checklist:
(*a NOREP stands for "Notice of Recommended Educational Placement" and it's the legal document that parents sign to indicate that they agree to whatever their child's IEP says)

1) check if it is already in his IEP

2) if it is not, call parents to tell them about the change

3) add it in under *EDITED* on page 2 and testing page

4) write a NOREP with “regular PSSA as an option considered” and wording about it being a no-meeting revision

5) print copy of IEP

6) print copy of NOREP

7) make 2 copies of whole IEP

8) make copies of pages indicating a revision (refer to #9 for # of copies)

9) distribute revised pages to the following people and get signatures

a. homeroom teacher

b. art teacher

c. music teacher

d. library teacher

e. gym teacher

f. Occupational Therapist?

g. Speech Therapist?

10) send 1 IEP home with NOREP (my supervisor would also like us to send a copy of the NOREP when it is sent home and then again when it is returned. give me a break. that is one step I am allowing myself to skip.)

11) wait for NOREP to be returned

12) make 3 copies of signed NOREP

13) send 1 copy of NOREP home

14) put 1 copy of NOREP and IEP in office

15) put 1 copy of NOREP and IEP in my file

16) send original NOREP and IEP to the administration building

17) Phew. That’s it.

The part that really kills me is distributing this minor, inconsequential to anything else, change, to ALL the teachers that work with this kid. I used to give them a whole new copy of the IEP, but it just breaks my heart to use that much paper, so I've decided to just give them certain pages and they can add it to their files. (Hopefully they have a file.)

The other thing is that this is just a lot of paper to keep organized until it is all complete at step 16. And multiply it by 5 and you're positively swamped with papers. Yikes.

February is really looking to be a great month.

deep breaths

2011-01-25T18:12:00.000-08:00

LaurieCoyleDesigns

1.24.11

2011-01-23T21:29:00.000-08:00

image cayennekisses tumblr

picture picnik

2011-01-21T23:19:00.000-08:00

I'm a little obsessed with picture editing on picnik.

see?

this is not on my list.

2011-01-17T13:26:00.000-08:00

Blogging is not on my list for today. Just thought I should point that out since this is my second blog of the day.

Many of you may have been surprised that I decided to end my long blogging absence with a boring post on recycling. I was also surprised. But it was out of my control.

I thought I should step back a bit and update you on what I've been doing in my blogging absence.

This sums it up.
Please click to enlarge.

(Now, I must return to doing other things not on my to-do list.)

operation recycle

2011-01-17T09:09:00.000-08:00

Many of you have heard about my recycling dilemma.When I first moved into this apartment, almost 2 years ago, I asked where the recycling container was and was told there was no recycling. Hm.

For awhile, I stored up my recycling and then took it to John and Vanessa's house (about a 5 minute drive) weekly. Then John and Vanessa moved.

It now takes 15 minutes to get to their house and so the recycling started piling up for several weeks in a row. I also started to feel bad about completely filling up their containers each time I stopped by. And, in addition to that, I was confused about what the township actually recycles. John and Vanessa throw everything that is technically recyclable in, but when I looked it up, the township actually only accepts plastic #1 and #2 and cardboard and paper.

At this point, I had another idea. I asked my pastor at church if I could add my recycling to the church bin. Guess what she said? She takes the church recycling HOME with her. She said I could drop mine off at church and she'd take it home as well. I did that for awhile, but I just felt kind of bad making her transport all that stuff and I also felt bad leaving bags of gross containers in the church office. Some weeks I would come in and see that the bags from last time were still there. So, I stopped doing that.

Now, when my own recycling container is full, I put it in a big bag and plop it in my car. Sometimes it sits there for months. Luckily, it's winter time so it all freezes and doesn't smell, but it's still gross.

Then, I looked up places to drop off recycling online and found one on the Villanova University. That's not too far. I had an interesting experience when I went to drop off all my junk on January 2nd.

That day there happened to be a basketball game so I had to explain to at least 3 different police officers and parking lot guards why I wanted to be allowed into the V.I.P. parking area. They were nice and let me in, but then once I found the recycling bin, I felt pretty awkward pulling up and emptying my cars of bags and bags of junk. ALSO, it was ONLY for paper and cardboard. So, then I had to sit there and sort through my stuff too.

Clearly, that was not the solution.Today, I used the site 1800recycling.com to find a recycling center that recycles all plastic and paper products. Sad news. I have to drive 30 minutes away to recycle all my stuff. That's sad not just for me, but for the state of the world. If we want people to recycle, we have to make it convenient!

I've always wondered if one misplaced bottle or piece of paper "contaminates" a whole load of recycling. Or what happens if the containers aren't clean like the directions say they should be? What happens if I put Plastic #5 in with what the township does collect? Do they dump the whole load? Does someone sort through it all?

Did you know, greeting cards are an entirely separate "type" of recycling? They're not just paper?

It's so confusing.

It's so sad.

Not only do we throw away sooooo much stuff, but most of it is stuff that could be recycled.

Who knew this would be such a complicated endeavor?

image

Dr. Seuss wrote about IEPs?

2010-12-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

IEPs According to Dr. Seuss

Do you like these IEPs?

I do not like these IEPs
I do not like them, Jeeze Louise
We test, we check
we plan, we meet
but nothing ever seems complete.

Would you, could you
like the form?

I do not like the form I see.
Not page 1, not 2, not 3.
Another change,
a brand new box, I think we all
Have lost our rocks.

Could you all meet here or there?

We could not all meet here or there.
We cannot all fit anywhere.
Not in a room
Not in a hall
There seems to be no space at all.

Would you, could you meet again?

I cannot meet again next week
No lunch, no prep
Please here me speak.
No, not at dusk and not at dawn
At 4 p.m. I should be gone.

Could you hear while all speak out?
Would you write the words they spout?

I could not hear, I would not write
This does not need to be a fight.

Sign here, date there,
Mark this, check that,
Beware the student’s ad-vo-cat(e).

You do not like them
so you say
Try it again! Try it again!
and then you may.

If you let me be,
I’ll try again
and you will see.

Say!

I almost like these IEPs
I think I’ll write 6,003.
And I will practice day and night
Until they say
"You’ve got it right."

Author Unknown

the funniest thing i heard all day.

2010-12-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons, I have a group of 4 non-learning support kids come to my room for support in math.

At my school, they call this RtII (Response to Instruction and Intervention), but it's not really how RtI is supposed to be done. Since it's my first year at this school, I thought I'd just go with it rather than question it.
So, if you were looking for my extensive opinions about our approach to RtII, you won't find it in this post.

I LOVE the kids in my group. The girls are too funny. I could just sit there and chat and joke with them for the whole half hour, but I try to control myself.

Today, A asked me if they could go on First in Math (a super fun math program online which the kids at my school love). I said, "Well, I would say yes if I didn't have such annoying computers. It takes like 2 years for you to just get logged on so it's kind of a waste of time." With a totally straight face, A, said, "Oh please!? Last time it only took me 1 year to get logged on."

Ha!!

I laughed and laughed and she didn't, so then thought maybe she hadn't meant to be funny. I asked, "Do you know why that's funny? Were you trying to be funny?" She said she was.

So I guess she's just good at keeping a straight face. I never am. I always laugh at my own jokes.

heard on the playground.

2010-12-07T18:24:00.000-08:00

What do you think of that for a blog name? Heard on the Playground. or Notes from the Teacher. or The Teacher's Manual. I like that one, but it's kind of misleading.

Anyway. This really is going to be something I heard on the playground. The playground that must have been like 20 degrees with wind chill today.

Two bundled up third grade girls came over to me and calmly explained that this girl they were playing with, because they always play with her, was treating them like a bag of bricks.

Man. I hate it when someone treats me like a bag of bricks.

That was the only exciting thing that happened all recess.

help.

2010-12-06T18:53:00.000-08:00

I would like to say that I am eternally grateful to anyone who gives me any sort of hope that I can make a schedule and organize my classroom and my multitude groups so that I can actually get some good teaching done.

Today it was Sally.

She didn't simply commiserate with me and offer no suggestions. She also didn't blow of my struggles as nonexistent. It's a fine line. (I think I'm easily offended because I'm so worried I'm not doing a good job.) And she walked that fine line well. We're going to sit down and plan some more on Friday.

It's astonishing to me how hard it is to actually get someone to give you GOOD help. Mostly you're just expected to know everything and then you're belittled when "they" discover something you didn't know about and are therefore not doing. When you do know to ask for help there are several things that can happen:

1) the helper blows you off and says she is too busy (the result: you feel frustrated and abandoned)
2) the helper blows you off because she thinks you just want to complain (the result: you feel frustrated and misunderstood and annoyed and avoid talking to that helper in the future)
3) the helper goes on and on, in a very "duh" tone of voice, about what you "should" do, so much that you are totally overwhelmed and also feel awful for not knowing about all this stuff that you should so obviously be doing (the result: you don't do anything because you are right back to square one with not knowing where to begin and feeling bad about yourself)

So, like I said, REAL help...even the offer of REAL help, is so encouraging.

Therefore, Monday was not too bad.

However, when I asked one of my math groups what year it is, the response I got was, "Thursday." I wish I could attribute that to a case of the Mondays.

I also practically froze to death on recess duty. But still, Monday was not too bad.

obsessed.

2010-12-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

I'm a little bit obsessed with Chipotle.

My first experience was the first day I worked at FHE and I have never ordered anything different than what i ordered that day (a chicken salad bowl with rice, black beans, sour cream, mild tomato salsa, and cheese with a bag of chips and Diet Coke).

A few weeks into the school year, I implemented the Friday tradition of picking up a chicken salad bowl to bring home.

I've done well sticking to this schedule, rarely deviating (or at least making sure I don't eat there more than once a week.)

But this week I couldn't do it. All day I just kept thinking, "I want Chipotle. I want Chipotle." I drove by the restaurant on my way home, but still kept thinking, "I want Chipotle. I want Chipotle. I don't want to eat anything else." And then I remembered that one just opened near my apartment. After discussing the dilemma with my sister, (the dilemma being that I had just eaten there on Friday and it seemed excessive) I decided to just do it. (She learned that advice from our mother.) Yum. So delicious.

mondays.

2010-12-05T19:29:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the beginning of a whole new week of school.

Mondays are hard.

Mondays are so hard that last week I ended up staying home on Tuesday just to recover. Monday's weren't always like this. In fact, at the beginning of the year I remember feeling so lucky not to have that Sunday Night Dread come over me. I would have thought it was fun to stay home, but I didn't mind going to work. Now, I more than mind.

I wrote some lesson plans, I stayed late Friday to get organized, I checked my e-mail over the weekend. I didn't finish my T0-Do list, but that's nothing new. I feel like I should be adequately prepared, but who knows what will be waiting for me Monday morning.

14 days until winter break.

14 days until winter break.

14 days until winter break.

Update on a new blog title: So far I have only thought of the depressing titles of "Tears of a Teacher" and "Mission Impossible." Bec and Mark thought of good ones: "Beyond Bus Duty" and "Confessions of a Hall Monitor." Those are much more fun and upbeat, but I'm still thinking.

still here

2010-12-02T19:33:00.000-08:00

It's been almost a full month since I have written.

Work is a little bit all consuming. Can something really be a "little bit" all consuming?

I want to write about work more though. I want to share the joys and frustrations of this year. I want to document my successes in trying to live a life outside of school and reflect on what went wrong when I fail miserably at creating balance.

I don't think that I am "Dancing Along" anymore. That title seems to reflect a sort of carefree and unfocused approach to life and that is no longer where I'm at. (And unfortunately, I don't think I have ever had a carefree approach to life.) That title fit when I was trying to remain open to possibilities and embrace the uncertainty of where my life was going.

Now, I have a focus. I don't consider myself settled in terms of living where I want to live forever, or working where I want to work forever, or even having the job that I want to have forever, but I know that I want to work with kids in some capacity. Right now, I am committed to figuring this teaching thing out. The actual teaching part. I'm not yet convinced it is even possible to figure out how to be a special ed. case manager and be a special ed. teacher, but for right now, I'm still working on that.

The teaching is what I love. I love looking at my list of topics to cover for the year and researching how other teachers have taught this. Then I compile the ideas and teach it my own way. Then I see how the kids react and adjust and reteach as necessary. I love figuring out ways to make my classroom run smoother. I love making charts to organize just about anything that I need to document. I love falling in love with my students.

I do not love, well, you know what I don't love. We won't get into that right now.

So. I think I need a blog overhaul. I don't want to move sites again so the url will probably still be iamdancingalong.blogspot.com because I can't change that, but the title on my page will something different.

These are the names of some teaching blogs I have seen...
Learn Me Good
Confessions of an Untenured Teacher
The Rookie's View
Regurgitated Alphabet Bits
Elbows, Knees and Dreams

(note: these are not necessarily blogs I'm recommending, I just thought their names were interesting)

I like the incorporation of the word "confessions." So...I'll be thinking, you be thinking, and I'll make some changes.

Maybe it'll be therapeutic for me to write this experience down.

Teacher Tip Number One: Kids are less frustrating when you have gotten enough sleep before dealing with them.

So, I'm going to bed.
Thanks for reading.

teaching blogs

2010-11-04T20:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight I discovered blogs written by passionate, thoughtful, smart teachers. Of course if I had really thought about it, I would have said that there were blogs out there written by and/or designed for teachers, but I never thought of it. I don't know why. So, I was so happily surprised to stumble upon one after another that I absolutely loved after following a link from...my mother.

They inspired me.

They comforted me.

I don't get a lot of time to just talk to other teachers about how to teach. Special ed. meetings and inservices aren't about actual teaching, they are about reports we need to write, data we need to collect, procedures we need to follow and meetings we need to hold. When I talk to other teachers at school it is to quickly go over a schedule change or agree that we're glad tomorrow is Friday or lament over a student's low test score and then run off in different directions saying, "I'll catch up with you later."

So after having a tough week that left me feeling very low on hope and inspiration and any good feelings about teaching at all...it was so good to run into these blogs. Yes. I want to be a teacher. Yes. I love teaching. Yes. I want to keep learning and trying new things to figure out what works best. Yes. I can do this.

Then I found this hilarious video. It's more about the ridiculous parts of "well intended" education policies, but laughing is good for you even if it's about something that really makes you want to scream!

book recommendation.

2010-11-04T17:49:00.001-07:00

I just have to tell you how much I loved this book.This is a captivating story that both fascinated and horrified me. Alice Cohen shares her intimate journey with no sense of shame for how she felt during her worst moments. Throughout the book Cohen would list several brief statements under the title What I Know. The impact of seeing such life altering realities listed so basically as if they were bread or butter on a grocery list, was one of my favorite techniques of hers.

Oh I wish I was a better writer. I'm giving up my description and just telling you what the inside cover says:

"With the suspense of a thriller and the intimacy of a diary, Cohen describes her unexpected odyssey through doubt, a broken medical system, and the complex terrain of motherhood and family in today's world. Ruefully funny, wickedly candid, What I Thought I Knew is a mystery, a love story, a philosophical quest and a personal tour de france."

I will try not to give too much of the book away even though there are so many parts I want to share. When Cohen finds out, after being told all her life that she is infertile, that now at the age of 44, she is 6 months pregnant her reaction is hilarious.

She goes to the doctor for a CAT scan because they think she has a tumor. The following is an excerpt:

"Mrs. Cohen. Mrs. Cohen," the doctor says. "We did find something in you, Mrs. Cohen."

"You did?"

"We found a baby."

"What?"

'We found a baby."

"What?"

"We found a baby in you. Congratulations, Mrs. Cohen!"

Obviously, this is a dream. I argue with him in my dream.

"That's impossible."

"Well, yes, we're very surprised. Your medical records say you're in menopause, and we didn't expect to find a baby..."

"I don't believe you."

"We found a baby."

Maybe this is a semantic misunderstanding - a slapstick "Who's on first?" dialogue, with "baby" a proper name standing for something else. I try to figure out the joke.

"What do you mean by baby?"
----

hahaha. I love that. "What do you mean by baby?" You must read this book.

greatest invention ever

2010-10-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

Guess what I found?

After I left work at 7 tonight (yes, 7) I stopped at Target to get something festival to wear to school tomorrow. I found a cute, spider web t-shirt and green nail polish. But who has time to paint their nails? It takes FOREVER and then if you actually touch anything too soon, you've totally ruined it and have to start all over again.
BUT then, right next to the nail polish, I saw this:
Ta-da! It was kind of expensive, but if it worked it would be totally worth it. And guess what?

It works!

Now I have fabulously green and glorious nails. And it only took 20 minutes.

tears

2010-10-15T17:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I cried twice at school.

It was a little surprising. Especially surprising because I wasn't crying about a stressful workload.

In the morning I was in a 4th grade classroom where I co-teach math. The student teacher was teaching and the regular teacher was telling me about a girl in her class who is on my caseload and has a reading goal, but has been receiving instruction in the regular ed. environment. The teacher is very concerned about her performance in class and kept saying how she fell through the cracks and now will be so discouraged if she ends up having to go back to learning support. As I thought about how at the beginning of the school year there were several IEP's that I didn't look at all that closely and how many kids I have to keep track of on so many levels in so many areas, the tears just started filling my eyes because I'm so worried that she will not be the last student that I say, "Oh. Yeah. That was me. I missed that." She represents failure to me. She reminds me of the huge, huge cost of failure in my line of work. And no, we/I have not completely failed her. We'll get it back on track, but the feeling was terrifying. There is constantly, in the back of my mind, the reality that the neediest kids are in my room and I'm supposed to change something about that. It is a much different kind of pressure than the pressure of deadlines. tumblr: mary ruffle

I want to help my kids develop the same sense of urgency that I have about their learning. I get angry with kids who are disrupting my room not because they are not "following the rules," or "listening to me," but because they make precious minutes of instruction dissolve before my eyes.
And "Least Restrictive Environment" is really difficult to successfully implement when, I, as the teacher, am in a very restricted situation of not being able to get out of my room to support those kids who don't need to be in a separate room, but still have goals that need to be monitored and direct instruction that needs to be delivered. This is a serious dilemma that I am very sensitive about. I think that's why I started crying. I just don't know how to help everyone.

The second time I cried was at lunchtime. The kids were having indoor recess and one of my students came in to play on the computer because he was bullied out of the computers in his classroom. This child is so cute and incredibly sweet with a great sense of humor. He also has a HUGE problem with focusing and has actually been observed to walk in circles around the room before remembering where he was going and why (I saw it.) He absolutely cannot sit still. His lack of organization is rather astounding. I describe him as "a mess." The OT who has worked with him for years told me that this behavior is very out of character for him. After combining what the child has shared with both of us, we concluded that he has been going through a lot of tough emotional stuff at home and probably feeling a lot of the stress that his mom is feeling. He breaks my heart. It breaks my heart to hear that he told the OT, "I just have to keep myself moving because I'm so tired." I breaks my heart when I speak sharply to him and he gets this thoroughly defeated look on his face and puts his head in his hands. But what really broke my heart, what made the tears fall for the second time that day, was when I asked him if he buys his lunch at school. He said, "No, I get it for free." He paused, then said, "But I would like to have a lunchbox." I asked what he would bring in his lunch box. He said casually, "Oh, just like chips and a fruit roll-up like the other kids. And a sandwich - just a regular one with bologna." The way he sat there at the computer, totally into his game and said this to me without the slightest bit of self-pity made me want to wrap him in my arms and take him home with me and give him a fruit roll-up and help him with his homework and put him to bed on time. But he's not a kid who's not being loved and coming home with me would not actually be good for him because it's not all about money. He's just so dear and precious... and absolutely exasperating when mixed in with 13 other impulsive and distracted students. Every time I tell that story the tears well up in my eyes. Aren't you crying too?
And the thing is, wanting a fruit-roll up in a lunch box is not the worst of it in this world for some kids. Some kids just want a pair of shoes that don't have holes to wear in the winter. Some just want to be able to drink a glass of clean water. And while it is awful for anyone, any age, to be homeless or helpless or in need of something so basic, when it's a child, it just does something extra painful to your heart.

Say a prayer for my kids. And all the kids. In all the world.

love it.

2010-10-04T19:38:00.000-07:00

I love fall. I totally love it.

I love that all my windows are open and I'm cuddled up in socks and sweatpants and a sweatshirt and I still feel a little chilly.

I love how fresh the air smells.

I love that the trees are just a bit more colorful every day.

I love that when it rains, it's not damp and sticky from the humidity.

I love that I wake up every morning loving fall.

i planted mums.

some casualties during transport made pretty little bouquets for inside.

weekend retreat

2010-09-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

I seem to want to continue to be a youth group leader at my church, but it also seems like I never really want to do any of the activities. However, once they are over, I always think, "Oh, that wasn't so bad."

One of the biggest commitments is the Fall Retreat. This past weekend we took 16 kids to a farm about an hour from church. We weren't camping technically, but it was still "roughing it" for me. Despite the poor upkeep, the cottages were very cute.

saturday morning devotions: we each bent a piece of wire to represent our "mission" in life

the rec barn where we ate and met for activities

the kids :)

one of the several cabins surrounding the rec barn

the girls cabin (with a sign hanging on the door reading "keep out")

painting rocks during arts and craftsinside the girls cabin

the girls like to push the bunks together so amanda and i ended up very close together too!

the boys cabin

he fell in the pond and lost a flip-flop in the quick sinking mud

mmm...

sunday morning pancakes

communion before we left

Good: It was a totally beautiful fall weekend and we were very well fed thanks to all the hard work of our ring leader.
Not so good: I didn't get much sleep and I did get annoyed with the kids a couple times when we had them in a large group.
Good: My art activity was enjoyed by all and didn't take much prep work.
Not so good: I spent 6 straight hours prepping for the school week when I got home.
Good: I got to talk to Amanda a lot.
Not so good: I ate way too much junk food.
Good: I felt like I finally have a relationship started with some of the girls in youth group.

from the classroom

2010-09-17T19:32:00.000-07:00

My classroom has been a work in progress since the day I was hired (the day before teachers started back). It still is a work in progress so I'm not going to show you everything. I'm pretty happy with the furniture arrangement and it seems to be working well for different groupings. What I'm still working on is the best system for organizing materials (students and mine) and filling the walls. I don't want it to be too busy, but I still have too much blank space.This hangs above the desk where my laptop sits. There is a window to the left. I made the little poster.These friendly faces are to the right of the desk that I reserve to spread papers out all over during the day. (So far I've been successful in cleaning it off before I go home every day.)A closer look at the poster. My mom is always telling me to look for miracles. I thought it would be encouraging to read at the desk where I will soon face many stressful deadlines and meeting preparations.Student supply area. A closer look.Some things to notice: 1) I made the quote banners. 2) The 2 easel paper posters of the first picture in this series (on the left side) are "directions" for how to do 2 of the "Daily Five" that we are using in my room. 3) On the white stars on the respect board, the kids have written ways to be respectful like cleaning up materials, helping others, etc. Most of the kids also wrote and decorated their names.

One area for small group instruction. That is a Promethean Board on the right side. I'm excited to use it...once I figure out how.I don't have enough desks in my room for all my kids so if I ever want to do any whole group instruction, I have to do it here. (Yes, the 3 beanbags are a huge source of conflict for my 15 students.)

What we've been learning about as a whole group these past couple weeks is how to do the "Daily Five." There are 5 things you should do everyday to improve literacy. 1) Read to Self 2) Read to Someone 3) Listen to Reading 4) Work on Writing 5) Word Work. The excellent book, The Daily Five, outlines exactly how to introduce each of these activities and explicitly teach the kids what they should be doing. It's so great because you don't just tell kids, "Ok, now you're going to read silently for 20 minutes." In regular classrooms, if you say that, you might have 4 or 5 kids who actually do read for 20 minutes, but most of the kids (and every kid in the learning support room) will take a long time to get started, move around, fiddle around with other things, whisper to other kids and, essentially, waste 20 minutes of their school day. The authors of this book explain how to instill a "sense of urgency" in the kids about why it is important to do "Read to Self," and explain how to help kids build stamina for reading independently (by starting out with just 3 minutes). My kids can now recite exactly what their job is during "Read to Self." 1) Get started right away. 2) Stay in one place. 3) Stay quiet. 4) Read the whole time. 5) Build stamina. I've had kids model the incorrect way to act during Read to Self and then the correct way. They LOVED this.
So, we go through this sort of direct instruction for each of the "Daily Five." We've completed, Read to Self, Read to Someone and Work on Writing. We've still got a lot of work to do, but I'm proud of what they've accomplished so far.

A little Friday shopping? I believe in instilling intrinsic motivation in kids, but a little dose of extrinsic motivation never hurt anyone and it certainly makes my life a lot easier. My kids can earn real money to save up for a "Store" that is only open on Fridays. The above is a photo of my newly stocked Store. It needs a name... Suggestions? Kids will do anything for money. One of my ADHD kids (totally non-PC way to say that) immediately scrambles to get back on task as soon as he hears the jingle of my coin cup. It's amazing to watch.

TV

2010-09-16T20:33:00.000-07:00

I shouldn't be writing this.

I should be doing lesson plans. Or if I'm not going to do lesson plans, I should at least go to bed and get some sleep.

I also shouldn't write this because it really is pointless.

But I'm doing it anyway.

With Netflix and hulu.com, I've discovered a lot of TV shows that I really enjoy.

Sadly, Mercy has been canceled and so has Arrested Development.

And then there are the oldies, but goodies that I watched before Netflix and hulu.

But my all time favorite TV show? Not Dr.Quinn Medicine Woman, or Gilmore Girls or even Judging Amy....image

The last season of Felicity aired on the WB the year I graduated from high school, but I didn't start watching any of the episodes until the following year when I was home for a semester "between" colleges.

What's your favorite show?

I typically put on a show on my computer while I work on my school laptop and do lesson planning or wash the dishes or play solitaire or eat dinner. I realized that I was slowly starting to have the "TV" on more and more throughout the day if I was home or most of the evening after work. Even though watching the show was not my prime focus, I still started to wonder if it was changing the way my evenings went. So this week I decided not to watch any at all. And I have made it this far. I think I will allow it for tomorrow, but I might continue with no TV during the week. We'll see. I do like to have something on while I work and because I live alone, but I've been exploring other options.

sometimes

2010-09-15T19:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes my mom and I hang out...on the phone.

It usually starts out like a regular phone call. We fill each other in on different daily events and have a typical conversation.

Then the conversation slowly dies down, but we don't hang up. At this point I usually put the speaker phone on and she eventually does the same.

We just carry our phones around with us while we do things around the house (or in her case today: go to the store, try on clothes and checkout and then drive back to the hotel). We don't hold a steady conversation the whole time, but say things as they come to mind.

If you haven't met her, my mom talks a lot. And she talks to herself a lot. So, I'll be checking my e-mail or cleaning the bathroom and she just talks away about all the stuff she's seeing or doing and I'll occasionally make a comment or sometimes just ignore her entirely, but I hear her. Sometimes she is doing work so she doesn't talk either and we just sit there with our phones on.

This is how we hang out when we live so far apart.hi mama. i love you.

school work

2010-09-12T20:13:00.000-07:00

Warning: My mom might be the only one interested in this post.

There are several reasons that I cannot use a typical lesson plan book when I plan my lessons.

1) I don't teach whole group lessons because each student comes to my room to work on individualized goals. (For example: 15 kids come to my room for reading, but I don't instruct all 15 of them at the same time because they range in ability from being able to read at a 4th grade level, to not being able to read anything but basic words.)

2) I have kids coming from different classrooms at different times.

3) I don't want to only record what I am directly instructing in small groups, but also what the other kids are doing and what the aides are doing.

4) Each kid has a different schedule due to therapies (like speech, OT and PT).

So, I have to make my own lesson plan formats and it can be very time consuming. I think I finally finished the outlines this week so now when it's time to plan a lesson, I can just go and fill in the boxes. Last year I managed to get each day on a front and back sheet of paper. This year, I have to have a different page for each day of the week for language arts and 2 pages for the week for math.

I took some screen shots to show examples of what these look like. I used Excel.

This is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday math plans. You can see that on Tuesdays things get tricky because some kids come late and stay late, but they are not necessarily in the same math group due to abilities. (Oops. It should be shaded in where it says Special because they are not in my room.)

This is an example of 2 days of language arts. Some kids come for reading, some for writing and some or both and all from different classrooms. (3 days of the week, I can fit plans on 1 page. 2 days of the week I need 2 pages because it's an extended time period.) You can see how I can block out students if they will be gone for a therapy session or any other reason that may come up. I can change lines around depending on how I want to group kids that particular day.

This is Thursday and Friday math plans. It had extra space so I added in a section to remind myself of any materials I needed to gather ahead of time. Using that space requires me to plan a whole week at once. This has only happened in my dreams so far.

Figuring out these schedules is like trying to figure out a rubix cube. It often gives me a headache. When a regular ed. teacher says something to me like, "Oh I scheduled library for 1:30 on Thursday. Is it OK if my kids come with us for a half hour?" I tend to start shaking and sweating. They don't understand that it's just not as simple as that. But hopefully, with these spreadsheets, I can determine who is in my room and what they are doing at all times.

doodle

2010-09-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

Why can't I doodle like this?

Click on the image to go to "the notebook doodles" flickr site and see lots of other beautiful word art and doodling.

sometimes

2010-09-01T19:18:00.001-07:00

(image)

(image)

You, whose day it is, get out your rainbow colors and make it beautiful.
traditional nootka song

fyi: wedges

2010-08-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

(image)

The question was raised....

wedges - shoes with a wedge heel, my favorite kind because they're easier to walk on

first day of school

2010-08-30T17:19:00.000-07:00

seen at FH elementary school today:

1 1st grader in bright blue, perfectly circular, Harry Potter glasses

1 4th grader in a t-shirt that said: "I'm pretty much the most awesome person I know."

several hundred pairs of new white sneakers

3 Kindergarten girls in wedges

1 3rd grader throwing up in the hallway

5th graders walking around like they own the school (I so remember that feeling)

sweaty children lining up after a 1/2 hour of recess in 90 degree heat

goose poop all over the parking lot (but that's not really special for the first day of school, it's always like that)

.................................................

I decided to go in and introduce myself to some of my students (they are staying in their homerooms this week), but stopped after meeting this kid. I said, "Hi, I'm Ms.D. I'm going to be your teacher for reading." He said briskly, "No, I'm not doing that this year." Oh.

I'll meet the rest of them tomorrow...or something.

final project

2010-08-29T18:19:00.000-07:00

The final project of the summer was painting my bookshelf which was previously black. The black hadn't really bothered me that much, but I knew I wanted it to be white. Now that it's painted it fits in so much better. White painted wood furniture is much more me. The shelf on top of the bookshelf was also black before. I think it would have been cute to paint it some other color besides white, but oh well. Maybe next summer.

This is a really cheap bookcase. The kind with a cardboard back. Rather than use up lots of paint, painting the cardboard, I decided to cover it with scrapbook paper. In this picture you can really tell where each piece of paper is because I didn't bother to try and line up the pattern.

Now that the top shelf is in and all the books are on, you really can't see it at all.

Oh, I guess I don't have a picture of it with the top shelf in! Well, basically, now that it's full you can't see the paper, but I like the little glimpses I get of it from a certain angle, or when I get close enough to get something off the shelf.

chin up

2010-08-26T18:15:00.000-07:00

via maryruffle

via maryruffle

Can you read that? It says, "Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart."

I wish I knew how to do that. My life feels the opposite of peaceful right now and I can still remember how wonderful the peaceful feeling was which makes the transition even harder.

cath kidston

2010-08-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

Why am I so in love with this expensive silverware? I love the bold red mixed in with the pastels and I love that there is no purple.

These mugs are a little cutesy, but looking at them makes me happy.

bittersweet

2010-08-24T18:59:00.000-07:00

It's official. Summer is over.

I missed my bed today. We were good, good friends this summer.

I was excited not to have to move classrooms today and my one accomplishment was finally coming up with a room arrangement that I'm semi pleased with. It took a lot of staring and thinking and moving the same desks back and forth from one side of the room to the other.

My other accomplishment was making a friend. Oh, and finding the bathroom.

Tomorrow will be mostly meetings, but I hope to get back to school in the evening to put up bulletin boards and organize my desk.

I'm happy to be where I am, but man, transitioning from summer freedom is a little rough. After 1 day, I came home, got something to eat and promptly fell asleep.

empty desks

2010-08-23T19:33:00.000-07:00

by ne via flickr

The desks will still be empty tomorrow, but the teachers will be back. And I'm a teacher. How did that happen?

I love elementary schools. They make me feel happy. I have to just keep reminding myself of that. And I love teaching. I want to be a teacher. I have to remember that too.

I'm nervous about my first day tomorrow. I have to meet lots of new people and there are lots of things that I still don't know. Like where my classroom will be and if I'll have to share a room and how many kids are on my caseload and what those kids are like and where the teacher's bathroom is and what the schedules are for the classes my kids will be in and who my aide is (I'll spend all day every day with her so it's kind of vital to have a good relationship with her.)
Everyone who has met me knows that not knowing exactly how everything is going to work out is very hard for me to swallow. It takes constant, conscious effort to just "go with the flow." Well, that's not true entirely. I have gotten better about it in some situations. Tomorrow's situation will be a test of this.

I guess it will help to get some sleep.

lifelines.

2010-08-20T22:36:00.000-07:00

What would we do without best friends? Really. What would we do without those people we can turn to and pour out our deepest fears and grief to? People need people. Even introverted people can't survive entirely on their own. They (we) just need a small group of really strong friends rather than a large group of pretty good friends.

When things seem to be falling completely apart, we need to be able to turn to another person and feed off some of their strength and faith and compassion. We cannot do it alone.

And when we are joyful, how much more joyful is it to share and bask in the good feelings with someone who feels it like it's their own joy?

I'm so grateful for my little core of people.

And this girl is one of them.We missed the Colbie Caillat half of the Colbie and Sheryl Crow concert because I got a flat tire in Connecticut which put me very behind schedule. Sorry Marta!
New Hampshire is beautiful. Did you know that?
Maine is beautiful too. We visited 2 beaches in York, took a walk along the coast in Ogunquit, (pronounced like, "I'm gonna quit" being said like you're really cool or something) and then had dinner in Portsmouth (NH).
That visit was just what I needed.

So grateful.

inspired.

2010-08-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

I'm loving art with words lately. I think I could make something like these. I don't believe that it is always as simple for people as saying "I'm going to be in a good mood." Sometimes our brains just don't work that way. I get it. I've been there.
BUT sometimes we do just need a boost of optimism and positive attitude to turn our days around. I think reading positive messages (presented in a visually pleasing way) has a lot of power.

Now that I think about it, I'm definitely going to make some posters. Perhaps some for home and perhaps some for the area around my desk in MY NEW classroom!!! Just found out today. Unofficially. Awaiting the official word....hopefully it comes before the first day of school!

ahh. Nothing like an organized school district.

note: all pictures are from here. take a look. it's delicious.

essence of summer.

2010-08-10T11:56:00.000-07:00

hay bails drying in the sun.
water rippling behind a pontoon boat late on a june evening.
a hammock by the water in virginia.
bare little baby arms and legs painting with water.
that is all.
colorful sidewalk chalk designs at a park in greenwich village.
toes in the sand.
sunsets at the beach.
ferris wheels and bright blue skies.
red, ripe watermelon.
and watermelon toes.
juicy nectarines.
packed for the beach.

this is what summer is all about. i don't want it to end. i spent 7 glorious days last week with no work - all play and projects and relaxation. and then i got sick again. boo. i hate wasting the days inside. 2 days are gone, but i'm determined to get this one back.

thursday, i'm headed to new hampshire for more summer adventures with the best girl around to celebrate summer with. we'll be seein sheryl crow and colbie caillat in concert and elizabeth gilbert's memoir come to life on the big screen. so. excited.

clutch.

2010-08-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

I want a little clutch or wristlet to carry around instead of my big, heavy purse. When the humidity is as thick as it is, anything extra on me, like a purse on my shoulder, seems so uncomfortable. Also, why do I carry that much stuff around with me?

Anyways. I thought the best place to look would be etsy. This was sort of true. There were 600 pages of results. 600 pages takes a long time to look through.

Will you help me decide? These are my top choices.
That's a lot of top choices, but like I said, I started out with 600 pages. Not 600 bags. 600 pages of bags.

Thanks for your help.

dear 17 year old molly,

2010-07-24T17:29:00.000-07:00

It really is all going to be OK. You are going through some tough things and there is more on the way, but remember that nothing lasts forever.

Your dreams of having your own classroom and your own apartment are really going to come true. (You will not, however, have a boyfriend for a very long time, so you might as well just enjoy the other things in your life and not worry about that.)

Be grateful for all the people who love and support you. Make sure they know they’re appreciated.

Don’t let your friends who have been so good to you, slip through the cracks after high school. Put in the effort to stay in touch.

Trust your instincts. If Beloit isn’t the place for you, look for somewhere else. You’ll find it, and it will be the best choice you have ever made.

Be nicer to your sister. It’s not her fault. Soon, she is going to be one of your best friends.

Worry less about earwigs, and just sit on the screen porch. It is heaven on earth.

Worry less about your grades and more about enjoying your life.

Keep stretching.

You are wrong about the girl in high school. She’s never going to be a good friend.

You are right about the girl in college. She is going to be one of the best friends you have ever had, you both just have some stuff to get through first.

Buy a camera before your sophomore year in college!

FaceBook is not as evil as you think it is, but it’s not that great either. Keep a healthy distance.

Cherish your trips to Madeline Island. You won’t get to go every year forever.

There are other things I could warn you about, but you’ll survive all of them and they will make you into either a better, or just wiser, person. Just know, trust, that just like everyone keeps telling you, it is all going to be OK.

You can be happy starting right now. There is no reason to wait for a, b, and c to fall into place. Start being happy right now.

love, the 24 year old molly

That was kinda fun. Inspired by Elise and hula seventy.

welcome.

2010-07-21T20:18:00.000-07:00

meet Samuel.
he is brand new.
he is perfection.
he is love.

babies really are a wonderful way to start people.

i cannot get enough of him and his sweet newborn smell, his little sighs and whimpers, how his expression changes as you move him or even adjust his hat slightly, and the slight warm weight of his body curled and nestled in my arm.

oh little sam. welcome to the world.

somebody loved.

2010-07-18T18:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday started out as an intensely hot and humid day in Richmond, Virginia. At 4 it started to rain, but by 5, the rains had passed and a cool breeze was blowing off the reservoir. At 6, Sam and Amanda got married under an arch by the water. As the evening went on, the light from the setting sun filtered through the tree cover overhead and the breeze off the water got even cooler. Amanda had wanted lights in all the trees, but that had proved to be logistically difficult. The DJ brought lights though and projected them into the trees and it had just the same effect. We pulled Amanda away from well meaning guests who talked on and on and brought her to the pine covered dance "floor" and danced the night away. It was. So. Much. Fun. And man, that girl, that bride - she was so happy. Beaming. Shaking from being so excited before the ceremony, but really just so so happy.

And they danced their first dance to Somebody Loved by the Weepies. Perfect.

I'm so excited to see the photographer's pictures. He was really good.

And now I have to go to work tomorrow? What??

at home: on a summer wednesday.

2010-06-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

my first day at home. in pictures.

here comes baby

2010-06-21T20:24:00.000-07:00

Bec's baby shower was Saturday. The picture above shows Bec and her sister sitting under a Congratulations sign I made (does the "r" seem to be missing?)...as present after present after present is opened. That boy has more clothes than I do.

The parents!

Bec, and baby belly, and me!!

4 more weeks....

quoted.

2010-06-15T19:03:00.000-07:00

"I really love to clean. It's not anything compulsive, it's just that you can see a difference when you're through. Not like raising kids or something that you're not sure how it's going to turn out for a couple decades."

-Jill Churchill

click for source

I think that's how I feel about organizing. Cleaning is more intimidating to me than organizing, but I like it too. Instead of taking months and years to create a life I want, I can just *boom* reorganize my worldly possessions and feel more at ease. And if a week later I decide that system doesn't work, I just change it and it's not a big deal. With life, it's not so easy.

mia and the strawberry.

2010-06-10T19:11:00.000-07:00

"wanna thee my thawberreeth?"

carrying the one precious berry very carefully.
notice the outfit i picked out?
"thith ith my bwand new dreth."
or maybe it's really a shirt that i've had for awhile.

isn't it beautiful? no, i won't share.

mmm. i know how to grow a good strawberry.

so nice and juicy.

let's see here... everything looks good.

mia what did you do with the stem? did you eat the leaves too? "yeth."

oh well.

sophia. hanging out in the pool. shouting "watch this," and "look what i can do molly," every 2 seconds.

i so remember those days of wanting everyone to watch my every move in the pool because everything i did was so impressive.

i'm so excited to get in that pool myself.