installation fail...now to muster up excitement for the 13th

let's see...where to begin? i guess i will begin with the fact that i was really happy about my students' work on their comprehension/vocabulary tests this week-i know we still have a lot of work to do.

and after school yesterday, i had to go to an impromptu meeting about our garden installation. there was a mini tour of where everything was going to be in the garden, and what our jobs were to be. please understand me when i say i am not super excited about installing the garden. i WANT the garden, and i am excited to use it to TEACH, but quite honestly it's exhausting to wake up at 6 and work on a saturday--

this is the beginning of our mini pond-awaiting plants and fishies

 it's mapped out and it will be super cool when all is said and done-we were so fortunate to have bank of america donate toward this adventure!

recognition can be a beautiful thing...very classy donor-recognition stone!

 and as people were chit-chatting about something and i was dying to move on (i might be a little impatient..maybe) i noticed our 'reading resource room' shelves. 

hippy shelves...does that mean the shelves believe in peace, hope and love, or that they need a bigger waist size

we left on the note that if it was raining steady at 6:20, they would update the website to let people know that the installation would be postponed until the 13th. so...this morning i was up at 6 to get ready and at 6:37 i checked and sure enough, there was an email saying that it was canceled. on the one hand i was happy to go back to bed. on the other hand i was not thrilled that i had gotten up and dressed, but the boys were happy to go back to bed, as was i! as i was closing my eyes, i had a text, and it was my principal; could i swing by sometime this morning b/c she had something to show me that i might be excited about...i bit, i was intrigued.

i went back to sleep and woke up around 9:30-ish and headed over to school. when i got there, 3 of our rotc kids from the middle school feeder were there to let people know we h rescheduled. i went inside, and dr. hughes opened a locked closet, and pulled out this big ol' case with a lock on it (it was like one of those james bond suitcases, and i was wondering if it came with handcuffs and a secret mission); my principal has the hook-ups! we now have access to i-pod touches for the 4th grade! the only catch is that we film the projects that we do with our kiddos. creative and fun. there are only like 13, but i understand there are 10 more that we can access from the library. good times.

i went from the school to petsmart because i had to get dog food. well, i am a sucker...

but it's always worth it to see them smile.

i thought about costumes, but then i looked at the prices and decided that if they want to start taking out the trash and vacuuming, i would pay them an allowance and they can get their own costumes-i should not enable them...

instead i spent too much money on their treats and crinkly ghost toys...

i was playing with the timer tonight and chaco did NOT like the alarm i picked.he was barking at the i touch..in fact he was so unimpressed that he moved to a different room after barking at me and the device.

it took a little convincing to get him to come back.

i did get to do some paper editing today. the kids peer revised, then edited their drafts this week for certain things, and i wanted to see how they did. well, i'm actually pretty happy with the results. ex....cept one. there was one paper about going to the zoo. in and of itself, that's great. these are supposed to be personal narratives, so when it got to the part where they were watching the lions, and the lions ate a woman and took the hand off of a man and broke another woman's feet...then everyone went running...i don't remember reading anything about that in the news. i think we might have to have a chat to clarify. obviously someone didn't pick up on what a personal narrative is.

i am excited that this week is the end of the first six weeks-i cannot believe how quickly it went by..even though it feels like i've been back in school for about 3 months! i can't believe it's time to change the calendar again!! i've been using the scooby doo stickers to reward agenda signatures-fun leading up to halloween! the kids like them and they look to see what their partner got...dear gigi, i still give them out at random...i have become very intentional at mixing it up if they got a cool sticker the day before or a so-so sticker...smiles.

yesterday i gave my kids the talk about not opting out (since that was our professional development) and they looked at me like i was a crazy lady. probably because i never let them opt out anyway, so this was nothing new to them. but what was even more important was sharing with them some statistics about reading every day. i gave them some fluency stats and the daily reading stats-hopefully it has some impact on some of them. i mean just reading about 15 minutes a day they will have read about 1,400,000 words in a year...i think they were impressed by the big number, but we'll see if it makes them want to be more successful or not.

may you always receive the cool stickers,
julie

oil and water..homogenous, heterogeneous or just water-logged?

it was a good day! we got a lot done-i was finally able to get my isip done, which was a relief! a special thanks to maria for reminding me how to get into the teacher page to print off the student cards! i kinda' wanted to use the time to get something done while they were testing, but i felt the need to walk around and make certain that they were on task so we could make it to lunch on time!

silly test-i wonder how they did.

 today we were learning about solutions in science, so i definitely taught my students the words homogenous and heterogeneous (in spanish, of course)...we will review that tomorrow. anyhoo, we did a little oil and water tower in a little jar(-or rather several little jars) so that they could predict what would happen if they shook up the jar. and of course, i had to repeat this for all three classes. so tonight i brought those little pill-bottle sized jars home to wash. they are so narrow that only one finger fits in there to swish the water and soap around, and i kept jamming my finger in there just a little too hard, and the water kept squirting out at me (namely at my boob-more than once). it was almost like one of those far side comics, in which the grapefruit always squirts into some weird-looking dude's eye.

after a change of shirts, i have decided that the best course of action is to just let them soak for a bit.

bruno and chaco are stoked that the new ncis is on and they no longer have to watch news 24/7, nor reruns.

at school today, we also had a fire-drill; and as i looked down the line, i noticed that dorothy was in our line! returned from oz, because she had on her ruby-reds! and they were sparkling in the sun!

tornado drill might've been more appropriate!

and on the way home i had to stop off at the post office to drop off two parcels for dear amiguitas in other parts of this vast country we live in...when i got there, i was going through my little purse-bag and found a little surprise:

why was there a nut in my purse? and a bit one at that! what on earth? i certainly do not recall putting it in there!

i mentioned that the boys are excited about fresh new t.v. shows playing--this was chaco last night, just chillin', laid back and slightly bored.

and now we return to our regularly scheduled programming...thank you very much

tomorrow we're working on editing-we shall see how that goes, then we should be able to finish our final draft within the next couple of days-interested to see how they turn out.

good night, and goodnight!
julie

showers and islands...and rock candy!

this morning, when i woke up, i did some light cleaning around the house, and i decided that today i must get a little mini-island-thingy for my apt because i have no counter space...nor do i have sufficient cabinet space. (how do others do it? maybe they just don't have cooking utensils or food processors, etc...) anyhoo.

there was a blue balloon there, but i took it off last night to blow it up and it scared the boys...they didn't like the sounds, nor did they like the balloon in and of itself; i guess if a giant were holding something that was 3/4 my size and making loud noises, i would be a little apprehensive as well.

i knew i would have to wait for that because first i  had a baby shower to go to! i do not naturally love showers, but i haven't seen amy in awhile, so i was really excited to get to see her and catch up with all that is going on in her world! she looked amazing and very much ready to be a mom! i'm really glad that kipp got to go as well-we drove together (ok, we didn't really both drive, so actually i guess we drode together...she drove, i rode). that was great too because we don't get together as much as we should. it was great to talk about everything from politics to family to dogs...

back to the shower-the hostesses did a superb job with the decorations!

cute, cute-glad i wasn't the one that had to tie all of the decos up there!

cutest fruit bowl! so creative

 after sitting and chatting for a bit, there was a little question and answer game to see if amy could guess the answers that her husband had been given about several baby questions-she did very well! on the way out, one of the hostesses (hosti?) pleaded for people to make candy bags to take home, so we did!

i have always passed by the rock candy without a second glance. well, this time i added it because i new it would look great in a picture, but then i tried it and wow! i never knew what i'd been missing!

once we got back, there were some new guys moving in across the breezeway. we'll find out what they're like soon enough.

then i went over to big lots because that's where i saw the little cabinet-thingy i wanted. so i went in and found some guy to go to the back to pull the color i wanted. he took it to the counter while i wandered around thinking about purchasing a shovel or a pick, or some power tools. (we have a huge gardening project at school next saturday, but not enough tools)....then i decided against it because that would be silly. i live on the third floor in an apartment...why do i need a shovel? a pick? no...we'll just have to use what is brought.

so the guy took this furniture out to my car and i was so happy that it fit in the trunk!

when i got back to the complex, i saw a little sign out in the drive-i had seen several around the town, and so i took a closer look and they say national night out, oct 9th? or something like that...and they say to call and register. hmm. sketchy. it sounds like something a really smart group of thugs would do, to know when you're out of your house so they can send someone in! i think i will pass on the registration...it's not like you can't participate in going out that night if you don't, right? 

on the way home, i was hoping that maybe one of those guys that just moved in would still be moving stuff, and i could sneak my box into their truck to bring upstairs and then follow them up and say, "oh! thank you-i was wondering what happened to that, i set it down for a minute and turned around and you were carrying it up the stairs! thank you!" but that didn't happen. not a body in sight. i lugged it up myself- all too many pounds of it.

and i got started really quickly-only when i got to the towel hanging thing, these two little pieces almost got lost in the foam and shuffle-they were hiding in a little corner of the empty big box.

whew! 'L-piece' that was close!

i was actually surprised at how fast it went when i was following the manual step-by-step! and once it was complete, i immediately transferred many of my big items to the cabinet!

finally a place to work!

anyhoo, now i am just stalling from grading some science notebooks, so i'd better get to that or tomorrow will be a long day!
julie

up to date on sexual harassment and blood pathogens!

well. it's been a long week. it was a great week in science. we had some heating up and cooling down....investigated and hopefully have a better idea of what condensation is.

on wednesday  we celebrated hispanic heritage month with a little pot-luck. last minute i stopped at the store and got the ingredients fro a little spicy chicken chili and some salsa. good times. there were some fabulous dishes-always love maria's cornbread, velez' flan, and robin's brownies-i had some other delicious items, but i have no idea who brought them. yum-o.

this week i had to finish my compliance videos-which took longer than i might have liked...i cannot believe that the sexual harassment video was so long, and there were so many stinkin' law cases to read about-don't care! if i wanted to read whoever v oncale or whatever, i would've studied law with bmayes and taken the bar. but oh well, 2nd try was a charm, and i got my certificates of proof:

i should frame all of my certificates and post them around my classroom...

 and yesterday, i was so excited that our tamale mom (kinda like a soccer mom...only not really)...anyhoo, i didn't order any, but she had extras and i bought me some tamales!! yippee!!

so good you don't need salsa, but it doesn't hurt either.

so, yes, it was a busy week, and here is something that i did that just added to the 'busy'-my own fault. we had not put our bulletin board up in the bathroom yet, so i wanted to get it up-fall colors, black cat, and i'll change it for thanksgiving again, once halloween's over.

those are actual feathers in his mouth.

 and our little accessory table was removed from the stall at summer break, so i decided to replace it. i went to walmart looking for something cheap. well, i first picked up two yafa blocks and thought i would zip-tie them together, so i put them in the cart, then went to find other materials i might need. then i went back toward the plastic shelving units, just to check. and they were, in fact, more expensive. then i looked at the little box/drawer things made of cloth to set inside the blocks, but they fit really funny. when i turned around, i saw the laundry baskets and decided that was actually a better option, so i took the blocks back and put them on their shelf. i was playing in my mind how i was going to make this work.

when i got home, i pulled out the drill and hinges and made the top shelf to lift up, then i sanded down the top because i didn't like the tacky finish that was on it. then i pulled out my little handy-dandy mastermind saw and cut the corners off of another piece of wood i had so that it would fit as a lid and middle shelf that would lift up. and then i drilled a few holes and zip tied it in the back so we could store things in the bottom as well. i know, clever. it may look a little silly, but it does the job.

the necessities.

oh, and i have a great little book that has some great pictures of signs that people have sent in from their travels, and many of them are potty humor, so i decorated the top with a few of them-perhaps i will add more at a later date.

just making sure everyone knows.

so, the weekend is finally upon us, and i have so much to do. i feel like the weekends have yet to feel like weekends. i have yet to come home with nothing to do. i think that's part of what makes it so exhausting.

have a great weekend!!
julie

beard cutting...good thing bruno and chaco are not amish..i'd be in big trouble!

sit back and kick up your feet...when i go days without posting, it just all seems to build up.

i'm pretty sure that i've mentioned that i am now teaching science (and a language arts class and a social studies class)...well, science has had a great start so far-the kids seem excited and curious-exactly what i am looking for. i am really going to push thinking and finding solutions this year in science. it is going to be very involved-which means it is probably going to take quite a bit of prep work...yummy.

mass...g....volume...ml...l,w,h,diameter...cm...good times!

and after school on tuesday we had got to stay after until 6-something for our garden design and dine. i'm glad i was there, i just hate giving up precious time-i got nothing done on tuesday-that was frustrating. i guess the exchange is worth it, because the garden will be beautiful, i am sure. i mean we all agreed (somewhat) on a brown gazebo and a covering for the sand feature to avoid cat problems (you know, fecal matter and what not).got a picture of our picture taker-adrian is never in photos because he is always taking the photos. good man.

unofficial photographer/arts partner man/computer fun

the best part was the amazing assortment of wraps and the lemon bars! parents and some students were invited to this afternoon of events and i held my tongue as i watched several of the kids walking  back, not with a wrap...but rather a plate full of brownies, cookies and lemon bars. where is the parental accountability. i mean, the parents did not even care! my parents would have made me put them back or give them away!

ahhh, sweet lemon bars...you made me very, very happy!

and last night, yet again i remembered i had not taken anything out of the freezer, therefore i had nothing to eat...i am weak! curses to the builders of the burger house around the corner! i swear, i salivate when i even think about their amazing seasoned fries!!!! no joke. i feel like pavlov's dog. ri-DICULOUS!

and yesterday as we were talking about our civic responsibility in social studies, one of the boys asked if this picture was a boy or a girl:

i had to answer honestly that i thought it was a girl who got a sex-change...no i didn't; i told him i didn't know. i had been wondering the same thing only moments before he asked.

and when i got home yesterday, i was so excited to get a package in the mail-then i saw it was originally for some man, and i only received it because i am OR CURRENT RESIDENT.

men's advanced clinical degree. perhaps i'll take it to school for the boys coming in from recess...hmm..in a word: ripe.

so...as i was driving home tonight from work (remember how school gets out at 3:15, and we have to stay an additional 45 minutes after school, and i had to stay later to finish other things such as: my literacy bulletin board)..left school at 6:56 and there were a few teachers still in their rooms working. i feel inefficient and not nearly as effective as i like to be. boo. but i digress...as i was saying, on the way home, on the radio there was mention of amish beard cutting-which they then said was being tried as a federal hate crime...so i wrote the words amish and beards on my hand because it was so bizarre that it couldn't have been made up! (total snl skit material). *fortunately i will get few hate comments from amish since they don't believe in the modern convenience of electricity. i looked it up, and it was legit-check it out here.

anyhoo, it reminded me of my summer visits to michigan to visit grandpa and grandma and my cousins up that way. there were tons of amish up north. literally we would pull into the grocery store and there would be a buggy or two parked with its horses in a little shady spot. and we used to go to an amish store out in the country occasionally for amish goods like baked goods, nuts, chocolate...good times. it was from watching the buggies as we whizzed by that i learned about the blinders they use on horses to keep them focused. NEED BLINDERS FOR SOME OF MY STUDENTS!

i've started a new training for the boys because bruno has been barking at anything and everything lately and chaco has been peeing wherever he pleases (i moved their potty pad to a new location, and he's not getting the hang of it every time....)so they are both on their leashes...in the house. that way i can catch chaco before he just takes off and relieves himself wherever...and i can catch bruno before he runs to the window and attacks with a string of verbal slurs at the innocent residents below...but we are having peace tonight; it's working!

ok, you can pack it up and go to bed now!
julie

this year is bound to be a whirlwind of different projects-not all school-related

so..on to a new project. i have never done anything stock-market-related. i will admit, i am becoming interested in it now. i just need to understand it better, so i have been doing some reading. when we get our little one-time bonus in october, i think i may be using it toward that end. (although i will be using a baby-chunk for a shelving mini-island for the apt. b/c i am low on space for pans and counter-prep area).

yesterday on the way home, there was a car next to me, and i did a double take b/c the driver had a pair of sunglasses on, and his seeing glasses pushed up on his head, then i noticed the other glasses hanging from the ceiling. what originally attracted me to the car was the open back window with an orange extension cord leading to the roof (there was something up there, but i am uncertain what it was).

it's a little difficult to see, but he does have a set on his face, one pushed up on his head, and 3 hanging from the ceiling.

this morning i was on my way out the door with the boys for our walk, and i had to walk back in and change out of shorts and grab a light jacket-i didn't realize the little cold-front was going to make it that chilly...of course in part because of the light breeze. it was refreshing!

this morning i went on a mission. i was out looking for half dollars. not all banks carry them any more, so it's kind of a hit or miss.

it's a little adventure i'm on.

well, i stopped at the boa on webb chapel, and i was the only white girl in the place. even the tellers were all hispanic. it reminded me of when i lived in HONDURAS, or even when i worked for the airlines and had to do a training stint in mexico city for a month.

then when i got home, i remembered that i needed to try something. so i got a lime out of my purse. yep, you heard me right. renee, our art teacher gave me one to try a little experiment at home. so i squeezed some of the juice out into a bowl and then proceeded to pour it into the syringe (the vet gives them to me for dog-meds)...then i made a design on the paper. it came out interesting-a bit splotchy because of the pulp and seeds, but interesting.

not a hairdryer. that's a very high-powered professional heat gun.

 then after making the design, i wanted to see if my heat gun would do the trick to make the chemical reaction take place quickly. it DID!

lime juice design-from the real lime

 then i wanted to see if i could get a more controlled look. i wasn't sure if the reconstituted lemon juice would have the same effect or not. it DID! anyhoo, so i will take the heat gun for renee to use at school on monday-it will make the process much easier.

that's me!

and so i decided to try one last experiment...i added a little bit of sugar-knowing what sugar does when it gets hot enough, it might be a neat chemical reaction....well, here is what i got:

you can kinda' see how it did harden up and glaze a little bit. cool effect.

oh, and yes, we did have our projects on friday and all but three groups brought theirs. they have the ultimatum of finishing by monday and getting a lower grade, or turning in a report on monday about their scientist. hope they do it! i wasn't sure they'd be able to do a gallery walk and grade each others work (with a rubric) or not, but we got it done! now i need to see if their grading fell in line with mine or not. smile. being the first time, it might be rough.

this week should be a bit more interesting.
julie

meet my expectations! they may be high, but they'll make you better!

well, maybe it was too much to expect all of my kids to be able to finish a project in a week (even with time in class for computer research and time to create a plan and pull together a presentation). welcome to 4th grade little ones, welcome to the 2nd week of 4th grade, i have high expectations....don't let me down-not an option.

so, inspired by another teacher at my school, i am excited to be keeping track of my time card each week (clock in/clock out) to show the hours worked every day. a measure of "really? do-we-need-t-o-have-this-conversation?" so today i will have a total of 10 hours..and i left earlier than normal. hmm. dear district, i just want you to know that even after i put in the extra time here, i go home and put in even more time.

i did have a favorable moment today at school-my smart board is now hooked up and my airliner is ready to go-time to get into some technology love! the kids will be happy.

my friends are all having babies! amy sent out the cutest little shower invite-love!

i'll have to remember this for the next time i have a baby...hmm. never(for now)

i think i included a similar picture in an older post when i was at mom and dad's-i just wanted to add this one b/c it makes me laugh when he sprawls out like this whenever the moment arises.

he makes me laugh!

oh tomorrow, please drift by like a dream-i already need another weekend!
julie

kermit is green, but one day i will be energy efficient!

i wanted to write over the weekend, but i just didn't get around to it.

we didn't do anything super fun and exciting, but i got a call from dad. he said he really likes the saw that i gave him (the one i bought a replacement for) they seem to be putting it to use! yea! i also received a cd-rom in the mail, which i was excited about! i spent many hours of my long weekend watching the videos and reading the manuals...when i get a house, i really want to use solar and wind energy-not so much because i'm dying to be green (that's for kermit, not me)...more like i just want to save $$.

just a few of these on top o' the roof and ixnay on the 'lectric bill!!

ya'all! seriously, i could do this! i will be a beast with the soldering gun!!! then i will use it to fix every other small appliance i have that has loose wiring!!!

 so, i think next time i go to visit mom and dad, perhaps we can put a few together and see if we can put some together! i'm looking forward to it-if we can get it right for them, then when i get a place, i'll know what to do to put my own together! (there were also manuals for solar cooker, solar water heater, wiring, wind power, crisis 101...) i'm set.

so yeah, i spent a chunk of time doing that. another chunk reading a leadership book bestowed upon me from my principal. and my third major chunk yesterday working on lesson plans, trying to get my objectives worded correctly and in alignment with the standards...and in the in between times, we did take some walks in the cool morning, a trip to petsmart, i made my way over to tom thumb for some necessities and i grabbed this just to try something new:

almond milk! not bad!

 and on the way home from petsmart the other day, we saw a raising cane's on the way home and decided it was a 'must stop!' best chicken fingers! thanks to shea, lo and ally for taking me there when i was in ok a couple of years ago for the first time! i think the one here is kinda' new. i need to take the survey on the receipt-drawing for a year of free chicken fingers!!

the sauce is to die for! parents, if your kiddos like chicken fingers, use the kids as an excuse to go here!! you won't be disappointed!

 cute commercial on t.v. cleaning oil of duckies with dawn soap. it reminded me of a visit long, long ago to grandma's and the kids always got the privilege of doing the dishes. well, one time i was doing dishes with my aunt beth, and i recall her saying, "i HATE dawn." she was talking to one my other aunts, and i just looked at her, as i was drying dishes and very innocently said, "it isn't good to hate!" i thought they were discussing a person, and i must have just had the sunday school lesson about hating being evil or something. i'm pretty sure they either weren't paying attention to me, or wondered what in the world i was talking about.

this reminded me of kamp, too. when we go out to camp at k-wet, across the lake to do water sports, we don't get to shower, but we do get to go down to the lake to use joy dish-washing soap to wash the dishes and pans. well, one group we had, i told one of the girls who was new to this camp, "don't forget to take joy down to do the dishes!" and i was told later that she kept asking everyone who joy was...like mother like daughter...i guess that phrase doesn't really work since she wasn't my daughter, but 'like counselor, like camper' makes even less sense and sounds ridiculous.

so, there is this program out to help teachers communicate with parents and students. it's called REMIND 101. i am intrigued, and i am going to try it to send out mass texts to students to remind them of upcoming events an projects, field trips, etc. i am super excited about it, and the best part is that they cannot txt you back because it is done through an alternate #. check it out here. so far only 2 students have signed up, but then, i just gave it to them today. i might have to offer some sort of enticement to motivate them to activate!

why am i still so tired? it's so hard getting back into the swing of things.
julie