Teacher stuff & other stuff

It's been a nice day off, went to a fabric store and Joann's with my mom this morning..didn't really get much but some Valentine's Day pencils and bags for my class. Speaking of Valentine's Day, I finished my felt heart for Chris. I think it turned out cute and will be fun to use to write him notes to tell him I love him or to have a good day!

I have also been busy with school stuff, I have my observation tomorrow by the principal. This will be my last formal observation for the school year, until next year. I will be doing it during science time. We have just started our plant growth and development unit. It's going to be a lot of fun for me, since I love gardening and plants in general. Tomorrow my lesson will be on "What is inside a Seed?" The students will observe their soaked Lima bean then get to open it up to see the parts inside that make it grow. They will also be drawing a scientific drawing of the bean and doing some journal writing on what their predictions are and what they have learned from that lesson. I feel that it will go well since I've done the material before and I'm confident in my teaching and the effort and passion I put into it as well.

Here is what I get ready every week for my workshop board. The students complete 20 different things that are based off of what we're learning or have been learning in all different subject areas. I really want my students to grasp concepts, not just with the lesson, but by repetition and seeing it and doing it in different ways. My favorite thing this week on my workshop board is my Power Test. It's where I get my students up and moving and helps to get their ants out of their pants too. The will be doing the YMCA song actions and then the bicycle for 2 minutes (that's where you lay on your back and peddle with your legs!) They really enjoy doing the whole workshop and I see them really grow from doing it! That's the best part.

Back to Work

Back into the swing of things again..dragging a little bit though. It was all in all a good first day back to teaching and my class seemed well rested and ready to go with the second half of the school year. I reminded my third graders that they are half way to becoming fourth graders, I got several wide eyes, thinking like whoa. But I had to tell them it is important to focus and get into gear because they want to be successful for these next two quarters. I am quite surprised as to how fast the school year is going. I think the whole past year went fast in general.

It did not help that Monday was a very rainy day for us. This meant, kids having to "go to the bathroom", but in reality, just wanting to go out into the rain. This also caused lunch recess and and afternoon recess to be held inside my classroom, just when you need a break from them, you can't get one! I survived and they were pretty well behaved with not being in the swing of things because of the break and because of the rain.

I had my class journal write about some goals they wanted to make for this upcoming year, 2008. I told them it would be good to have at least three goals, one for home, one for here at school, and a personal goal, like their character. Here are a few of them:

*To stop arguing with my friends
*To have better handwriting
*To work on my frustration
*I want to get up earlier
*To be more organize
*Less talking at school
*Fixing my bed in the morning

I thought this was a great way to get their mind thinking of ways to make life better for them and to get them in a good mindset for life in general.

My feelings so far for 2008 are great! I things organized here at my house and then at work..I'm going to try to stick to that. I want to learn how to cook new things, master knitting, and so much more. I'm excited to see what this year brings!

Arts & Crafts

Any time I pull out any of my artsy stuff, Chris always says "It's arts and crafts time!" With it being one of my last days of freedom before I go back to teaching, I felt like doing something crafty. While cleaning this Winter Break, I found tons of felt. I was inspired when I thought of making a tiny heart pillow.This is a little pouch to put love notes or whatever in for Chris. I thought it would be a fun little thing to have for Valentine's Day! Hopefully he isn't sneeky and reads that's what I'm doing! It's turning out cute.

Learning how to Knit

I have been inspired to start knitting and here are my first three balls of yarn. I love the purple blue mixed one the best! I've gotten the hang of casting on my yarn, now it's just getting the knitting part down. I've found that my new smaller knitting needles help, the longer ones I had were just awkward.

When looking at knitting stuff at JoAnn's with my mom, I found two awesome books to help me and inspire me. Someday I want to make a hat just like the one the girl has on the front cover. I love how they incorrporated beads to it as well! I know with practice I will get it down and be able to make great things. I just stood in Michael's today looking at all of the yarn. I saw tons of yarn I wanted to get, but I'll wait until I've had some more practice. I'll be like Sarah with her basket full of yarn! Sarah mention to me that we should have knitting/movie nights when I go up there to Idaho this summer. I think that's a great idea.

There is so much you can make, there are some really fun mittens with pink poka dots, socks with fun stripes, and so much more. I will show you som of my work in progress when that time comes.

Fresh Start

I have felt very motivated to write on here again and try to keep up with it. Maybe it's been my time off from work that has caused me to float around in the Blog world. My other thing is to work on doing more photography, so that I can have pictures to put up on here. Let's see if I can really stick to that! It's a new year, a fresh new start.