there was a troll on the bridge...no wait, it was just a homeless man throwing rocks

half day! LOVED IT!

we were just at the point of getting ready to pack it up and leave when our 'head of security' (the nurse) came over the intercom and advised of a lock down. i thought, "this is silly..." then i figured that it was not a drill, so i began looking for local breaking news to see if there was anything going on in the neighborhood. nothing showed up, so we sat. then they came on the intercom and said students who rode the bus could make their way down to the bus...so i had one and basically i pushed her out the door and locked it behind her...God speed little grasshopper...may you get to your bus. whatever you do, don't come back knocking on the door, b/c i will NOT let you in!

when it was finally over, we were informed that there was a man on the bridge throwing rocks at people and not letting them pass. first thought that came to mind: THREE BILLY GOATS GRUFF. that homeless dude was the troll.

then we had a bday celebration and training. we went over our data, and we have a long way to go to bridge the learning gap with this group. i've never shied away from a challenge, but i fear there are not enough building materials for this bridge to span this broad chasm.

this ed-policy program through the teaching trust is very interesting you can check out their blog post about it here if you're curious to know what it is about. while we were there, they made an invitation to something called pub-ed this monday evening at the west end pub. my understanding is that it is an invitation to educators which will involve discussion about issues, solutions, dialogue...it will be interesting to hear different opinions. urgency is key.

i left right on time today, and it felt good! i went to the office and picked up my package-i LOVE vistaprint!
my 'stuff' came in!

classroom calendar!

mouse pad

Christmas cards!

i was very excited about this package! in fact, i've already finished 3 cards! and so the weekend begins.

julie

YOU tell your own story, don't trust anyone else to get it straight.

today we had a field trip-which went smoothly. i think the students got more out of it because we read the book and did a comparison...the dallas children's theater always does a spectacular job.

like the wolf, you must tell your own story, you cannot trust others to tell it accurately

 then when we got back to school, we worked on a social studies lesson about the play, and then we began working on a play about the original 3 little pigs story. i told them it was a competition and we will be choosing the best scenes and piecing them together to hopefully perform a play for other sections...we will see how that turns out- i am optimistic that they will finish it tomorrow.

last night was the kick-off for the ed-policy fellows group. there are probably about 25 of us in this group. there were several others present as well, including community members from the district, and others who were invited to learn more about the teaching trust, so we got to meet several new people...networking. i need to get better at my name memorizing.

i really wanted to meet senator florence shapiro. i have been receiving her quarterly news feeds, and she was quite interesting. we basically had a session about story-telling...using personal narrative to challenge others.

the food was delicious and the coffee and brownies were spectacular!

and the best news is that they are feeding us dinner every meeting! woo hoo!  i have a lot to learn.

today my dad's Christmas present came in the mail...i kinda' want to use it myself. just the other day i heard a mother at the store tell her daughter, "we don't buy things for ourselves for Christmas, we buy things for others!" i don't think the little girl liked that idea very much...but i feel kinda' like that little girl.

i'm also currently waiting for my new calendar to come in...along with a mouse pad and some Christmas cards...LOVE vistaprint!!

jeans day tomorrow!
julie