Summer Work

I have a 5th grader whose work last year was riddled with spelling and punctuation errors. I talked to her, to her parents (who said she was lazy as well as lousy spellers like them), and the Special Ed teacher, wondering if there was possibly a learning disability that was masked because she was also high ability.

It was suggested that I begin the RTI process with her (a way to begin tracking issues to see if there really is a problem), so in April the parents came in and we got things rolling.

One of the things she was to do over the summer was online practice in IXL, a program that can be tailored to the individual child and give them support in weak areas. Sadly, this girl did nothing on that all summer. I was very disappointed, both in her and in her parents who agreed to help her at home.

I also asked that she do some writing.

She really sank her teeth into that assignment! Page after page after page was filled. She even wrote a play!

Clearly, she enjoys writing. Now my challenge is to get her put it into paragraphs, and fix the spelling and punctuation.

Just like last year.

Partial Solar Eclipse

There was a partial solar eclipse Monday afternoon, with its apex at 2:23 PM.

After some difficulty getting eclipse glasses, I was able to find some thanks to my counterpart, the 2/3 teacher, and so we got to watch it. (Lightning delayed us, but we did see the end of it!)

I had NASA's live feed up on the Eno board and we watched most of the afternoon and part of the morning. We tracked the movement of the moon across the sun by periodically drawing a line to mark the edge of the moon.

Craig, lucky guy, drove down to Hopkinsville, Kentucky where there would be a total eclipse.

He sent me this cool picture of shadows on the ground. Look how they are tiny crescent moon-shaped!

Traffic was a bear for him - this is I-69. Coming home, it took him four hours to travel fifty miles as the traffic was bumper to bumper and either at a standstill or moving 5-10 mph!

Other family members took time to watch, too.

Cole and Emily took their kids to a lake and spent the day together watching the eclipse and having fun in the water.

Sarah, in Denver, Colorado, went to a school and watched with the students there.

And Jessica and her co-workers at the dentist's office took some time to head outdoors in Lynchburg, Virginia.

It was a pretty cool sight to behold, and in 2024 there will be another one with the path over Indiana. I am looking forward to that already!

Letter from a Former Student

LC brought me a note the second day of school from her brother, Trae. Apparently he had written it the last week of school that he was in my classroom (four years ago or so) and forgotten to give it to me. So, they had saved it for when LC joined my class.

Dear Mrs. I., Thank you for all of the fun times we had together, and everything that I got to learn in your class. I will miss seeing you and wondering what we will do, such as mummify a chicken or dissect an octopus. These past two years were some of the best I have experienced. Your former student, Trae Cooley.

I'm adding it to my treasures!

Curt's Surgery

I have had two grandbabies born on back-to-school days (Titan in August and Mila in January) so why not have a son who has surgery on the first day of school?

Curt had a hernia repaired at IU Arnett Hospital yesterday. The surgery was in the afternoon and, like me, Curt had a difficult time waking up after anesthesia. He slept and slept. It made for a very long day for all of us.

Craig stayed with Mila and Ian while their parents were at the hospital,  and Lisa and I joined them at dinner time.

 I brought pizza, salad, and breadsticks for dinner.

Afterward, we sent Craig home for a break and got the kids into bed. Lisa then left and I fell asleep on the couch. Craig came back to relieve me at 10:15 PM, and Curt came home soon after.

I'd left home that morning at 7:00 AM and got home at 10:30 PM - another very long day!

Craig spent the day with Curt and the kids today (Vanessa had to go out of town) and is sleeping over at their house. He will be home tomorrow after Vanessa comes home.

Meanwhile, Curt is recovering well.

First Day of School

We had a terrific first day of school yesterday.

 Meet the class of 2017 - 2018!

Lacie C. arrived with a bouquet of flowers for me from her garden.

And Tyler D.'s tee shirt gave me a good laugh.

We didn't do any academics, but we still had a lot to do, so Mrs. Schley led us through some midmorning relaxation exercises to give us a break.

It was a busy day (when isn't it at school??) and I came home tired, but I love my new class and am excited about working with them.

Back to School!

Yeesh! I am sooooo tired. While I have been working in my classroom for over a week, teachers had to be back in the classroom yesterday and today. (Kids begin tomorrow.) It's been an exhausting two days.

Yesterday, I left the house at 7:00 AM and returned at 8:00 PM. I grabbed some dinner, took a shower, and was in bed by 9:00. We'd had our open house that evening, and so it made for a late night for me.

Ten former students dropped by - what a treat to see them! Mary Cate Munn made me this lovely painting.

 I will keep it on my desk all year. She is such a sweet gal.

I was up at 6:00 this morning and headed over to the annual TSC all-staff meeting. I really enjoy seeing the entire corporation together in one room.

Everyone was presented with a nifty exercise band. That's Sally Nixon (2nd grade teacher) and Linda Fields (principal) trying them out. (They were really limber!)

Because yesterday had been so long, Linda told us we were done after the McCutcheon meeting. But most of us, including me, went back to our classrooms and continued plowing through our preparations for tomorrow.

I was glad I did - two former students, Luke and Noah Wert, and their mom, Tina, dropped by to say "hello."

 I was glad to see them and have a chance to catch up. Luke will be a sophomore and Noah a senior. Where does time go??

My room is finally all ready to go, and I cleared away the things I still had out from yesterday's long day before I went home.

 Like this cute backpack Linda made each of us.

 It had a note and two different kinds of homemade snack mix inside!

My goal had been to be done by 3:00, but I didn't finish until almost 4:00. I tidied up the room and then took some pictures.

 The students' supplies are on their desks and ready to unpack tomorrow.

 My desk and the Maker Space are clean and ready to go.

I am so excited to meet my class and get started tomorrow!

Not Common or Mundane but Very Precious

I love spending time with my family as that is just about the best thing to do in the whole world. I was lucky enough to go out to dinner with Lisa, Curt, and Vanessa Friday evening at Cheddars. (Craig was subbing for someone at the temple and could not join us.)

Mila and Ian decided to sit with Aunt Lisa and me while we waited for our food. (Which was delicious!)

 Mila and I took some selfies to pass the time.

Aunt Lisa took some, too. (Ian had decided to head back to the other side of the table.)

There was nothing really remarkable about the evening - it was just a dinner out with family. But those moments that may appear common, even mundane, are the ones that make wonderful memories and strengthen those family bonds. They are so very precious to me.

A Student Teacher

I haven't had a student teacher since we moved here from Illinois. That has been by choice - gifted students learn differently than other students, and I have not felt comfortable having someone else teaching them. (I have had Purdue Block students, but they are only in the classroom a couple of hours a week for nine weeks. Big difference.)

Last spring I looked at the resume of a woman who wanted to student teach at Hershey. Like I had been, she was a non traditional student. A former radiology tech, she wanted to do something more meaningful in her life, and felt pulled by teaching. She's thirty, married, and has a child. I was impressed by her enthusiasm, her philosophy about how children should be treated, and that she could write well. (You might be surprised at how poorly some student teachers write - their resumes are riddled with spelling errors and poor quality sentence structure. I can't have someone like that teaching my students!)

Caitlin will join me in January, but in the meantime, she has to put thirty-five hours in with me for Purdue's Boot Camp - a week long class where the student teachers join their classroom teachers and help set up the classroom and see how the first week of class is implemented. Caitlin spent the day with me yesterday and helped me get some things done. One of them was the bulletin board in the hallway welcoming back students.

The theme of this school year is "Happy Campers." I asked Caitlin to come up with something that also connected to and reflected our class as gifted learners.

One of her interests is Art, and Caitlin jumped on the opportunity to put something together. It will have a caption of "Mrs. I's Trailblazers" and a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote. Little trailers with the kids' names will be inserted on trails in the mountains.

It's beautiful, for sure! But, she worked on it all day, and other things that needed to be done had to wait. I did not say anything to her - she needs to learn for herself how to plan her time and that the demands on a teacher's time are tremendous. By the same token, I think it was important to her to show me what she could do, and it is far better than anything I might come up with. (I can't wait to add those trailers!)

As the day played out, I was impressed with her work ethic and dedication. She thought things through well and made sure she left no mess for the custodians in the hallway from all the little bits and pieces she trimmed off the paper.

I think she's going to be a great asset to my classroom.

Sunday and Stepping Stones

The stepping stones we made at Groompa Camp had cured and were ready for placement. Curt and his family came over for dinner Sunday night, and so I had Ian and Mila find spots where they wanted to put theirs before we went inside to eat.

Mila's is the round one.

And Ian's in the smaller square with the orange decorations. (He was excited to be by JC and Trinity.)

Everyone agreed that Millie's needed to go by Zeus's stone.

That makes twenty stones in the garden, and I still need to make one with Whitney and Kate!

A Second, Sudden, Whirlwind Trip to Florida

We returned from our trip to Florida in the early morning hours of Tuesday, July 25. We crashed into bed, served in the temple Tuesday night and got home from that around 11:30 PM, and then used Wednesday and Thursday to do laundry, catch up on sleep, and work on the things we'd neglected for a week while we were in Florida.

Thursday night, the phone rang. It was Kyle, and he had just been called into the bishopric and wanted Craig to ordain him a high priest. Could we come down again that weekend?

Tired as we were, there was no way we would miss being with him for such a special occasion. He'd been asked to keep things confidential, but he let Lisa into the loop so that she could come with us and share the driving - we were still quite worn out from having driven the sixteen hour trip just a few days ago.

It was absolutely worth the drive down and back.

Kyle and Craig.

Kyle and me.

Braden, Addie, Corinne, Kyle, Whitney, Ashley, me, Lisa, and Craig.

Although we were only there for Saturday, we still got in some good family time.

Addie enjoyed styling her Aunt Lisa's hair before Church.

Mine, too!

Even after Church, Addie was still plying her hair skills!

A nice photo of Lisa. (Kyle built those shelves and the fireplace.)

Just like the previous weekend, Braden wanted to work on his family history. Craig, who does a lot of genealogy himself, was happy to help.

Kyle crashed on the floor - it had been a very busy day for him! Whitney wanted her dad to dance with her as Prince Charming for a game she was playing.

We tried to entice her into letting Boompa be the prince by showing her that he could dance.

She really wasn't interested in having her grandfather as a dance partner.

But we had a good time dancing anyway! 

Afterwards, I took a break on the couch and chatted with Ashley.

Whitney decided that she wanted to cuddle with me.

(All the photos with me in them were taken by Corinne.)

After dinner, we gathered around the table for a family game of Skip-bo.

It was lots of fun!

Then I read aloud a family favorite (especially Kyle's), Caps for Sale.

And then, Kyle continued a family tradition and gave his kids "bee-tato" sacks (potato sacks.)

Bee-tato sacks are where the child is swung across the parents' shoulders like a potato sack and carried off to bed.

Our kids loved this - nice to see Kyle continuing the tradition.

We were on the road for home by 6:30 the next morning. All in all, we were in Florida with Kyle for about 32 hours, but it was a real treat and worth the long drive to be there with him!