Sunday, April 26, 2015

How tired are you?

It's Sunday night, 6 weeks of school left. And I am tired. The kind of tired when your eyes burn and there is that weird eye lid twitch at random intervals. The kind of tired where you could lay down and be out in 3.56 seconds. The kind of tired when you bring home a bucket of chicken with no excuses or regrets without asking if anyone else wants it. The kind of tired when summer vacation seems like 100 years away.

I hope to accomplish some stuff this week. I want to find out about my possible new job. I want to do some housework. I want to clear some bills. I want to read something for fun. And I want to have a family game night.

I also want to have a great week at work. I want to have some fun with the kids. I want to help out some of the more stressed out teachers. I want to have full days that reek of worthwhile learning.

So here's to my week! May it reek, in the best possible way.

And here's a picture of a Gutenberg Bible. How cool is that??



Thursday, April 23, 2015

I'm emerging

This has been a killer week. STAAR tests are hard core and make students and teachers all feel deflated and weary. But, as I am coming out of the testing funk, I am excited about being able to teach fun stuff again. I got that little tickle in my belly today when I went hunting for enough glue to make the thing we were creating today. I didn't even put a TEK with the lesson. It was just for fun. And, joy of joys, it will shift into tomorrow because we didn't finish today.


Emerging from the testing funk can be accomplished in a couple of ways. My choice is to shower the kids in markers, glue, slightly faded construction paper that has been sitting on the counter since September (the last time we got crafty btw), and a thought to wonder about and see what they come up with. Letting kids be kids instead of data points is what makes the difference for me. For the rest of this week I will not worry about reading levels, grades, TEKS, or lesson plans. My students will read real books that interest them, write about topics that they wonder about, and learn something new that they didn't know was coming when they walked through the door.

Ahhhh, can you hear it? It's the sound of life and learning and teachers coming back to life.

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Who is this?

After a little sabbatical, I thought it was finally time to add another post. Mostly, Mom was anxious and missed reading about my life in this odd platform.

I've been up since 5:25 this morning. My alarm was set for 5:30, so I obviously have to wake up 5 minutes before that. I didn't want to wake up then, but Son #1 had an early morning performance with his church ministry team. Hard to complain about rising early when your 14 year old wants to go and share Jesus with people. I mean, I could complain, but that would just show how shallow I can be.

So, since I was up early and couldn't go back to sleep when I got home, I checked my social media outlets, watched some online videos, and went grocery shopping. Did you know people at Walmart are actually really nice at 7:30 in the morning? One customer reminded me to check the expiration on the milk because he had just found some with a date from 3 weeks ago. Another lady was so polite and wished me a happy day when we met at the aisle crossing. The cashier chatted with me and suggested a fruit dip recipe while she rang up my many items. She even let a lady into the lane even though she was running late for her break. This is a great time to go shopping! I also noticed that all of these kind people were a bit older than myself. Let's kindly say they were in their "fall" years. Way to go baby boomers! You represented your generation well today. And you have inspired me to be more interested in people.

And since you bothered to read my post, here is a bonus picture of a recent trip I was on. You are welcome.  Who doesn't love a big whale?