Welcome!

This began as a blog of my Adventures In Moving & Living. I moved across the country and it was a way to keep in touch with friends and family without sending out massive e-mails. It began at a different blog site, so earlier posts are in a weird order. Often posts with photos will have the photos at the beginning. This makes it easier for you to know when you get to posts that you’ve already read, although most of the posts actually have no photos at all.

This blog format isn’t pretty at all, but it’s the only one that allows the entire photo to show. When I use other versions, people in the right half of the photos are cut off. On wide screen monitors, everything is just right. On narrower monitors, the photos spill over onto the sidebar. That’s still easier than going through and shrinking all the photos.

For those unfamiliar with Weather Pixies, this weather pixie shows the temp/weather where I am.

posting

So last Wednesday I wrote this long post — and then a cat hit the keyboard and erased it. So I haven’t exactly been inspired to write again for a while! But that means you’ve been deprived of the tale of my root canal, which apparently isn’t even over yet.

My appointment at the dentist last Wednesday for the root canal was 3:30. They close at 5. Usually. We were done at 6:06!! I need two shots of novacaine, but he gave me three, and still he needed to give me another one later because they wore off! That’s how long I was in there! Part of the problem was that my roots didn’t just go straight up but went for a stroll somewhere after that, so there was some curving and whatever involved. I’m not that sure, since I was under the influence of nitrous oxide and my brain cells weren’t talking to each other very well. And yet my mouth still doesn’t feel healed. In fact it felt better the day before the surgery than it does today!

Then there’s the FedEx Saga. I got home on Wednesday from the all-day ASIP thing, and FedEx was in the parkinglot. I thought that was great — he would deliver my package. No, he hung out and then talked to a guy in another FedEx truck. Eventually I had to leave for the dentist. While I was gone, they decided to stop bonding and deliver my package, but I wasn’t there, so they left a slip. I signed the slip and left it on my door the next morning when I went to work.

On Thursday, when I got home from work, there was a second slip next to the first one. I tried to call the number on the slip twice. There are no number choices, just voice. So I’d clearly say “other options” and they’d say “you want to schedule a delivery? Great! What’s your account number?” So I hung up and tried again and they thought I wanted to place an order. Talking to an actual human wasn’t an option. So I found their web site and sent an email.

That night I got one back, saying that someone had to be there in person to sign for the package. They also needed to know my address and phone number again. I told them I’m not home before 4, gave them the info, and believed them when they said they’d pass along the information to the driver.

The next day, there was another notice. I got an email stating that I wasn’t there when they delivered at 9:30. Really? Do you suppose that’s related to the fact that I said I wasn’t going to be home before 4? So the next person said they’d deliver it Saturday. And so I spent the day home, waiting for a package that never came.

Their next email (after mine) said that the guy couldn’t find my place. He needed directions, my address, and my phone so he could call me if he couldn’t find it still. Really? I didn’t move the building since the other three times that they came, and the information hadn’t changed since I gave it to them on Thursday! But I gave it again. They promised to deliver it today.

Nope.

Chats

So my students like to chat with me. When there is time, they come over and just talk to me. So Friday, J said that his birthday was Saturday. (He was sick today — must’ve been some party! Well, actually, he wasn’t feeling that well on Friday.) So we talked about birthdays, and T said that hers is in the summer (June) but they never celebrate it (her foster family).

Later in the day, we tired the little angels out. They were getting squirrely from not being able to be outside and having to be careful once they’re there because of the thick mud. We’d decided that on Thursday afternoons, the different fourth grade classes would run/walk playground laps together, but the next two Thursdays it was too awful to do so (rainy, muddy, etc.). So on Friday I asked another teacher if she wanted to “practice” at 1:30. It gave our kids a chance to start getting back in shape. Y (ya gotta love her) says “But Miss! I like being fat!” So after a while we herded the pooped little angels back to the classroom with promises of water and that the bell was going to ring soon so they could go home. “Just think,” I told them. “You get to go home and take a nap! I have to stay another hour!” T said that no, she couldn’t, because she’s in a program. I asked what kind of program. Day care. She’s in day care until 7 every day after school (they get out at 2:06 except Wednesdays, when they get out at 1:06.) I asked her why she’s there until 7, and she said “Because that’s when they close.” So the child who was adopted by T’s foster mother gets picked up at 2:06 and taken right home, and the younger one is home, but T has to stay at a day care center until 7 every night. And yet, from what she said today, being there beats being home with the foster mom all weekend.

Then there’s B. He’s allergic to homework. And the truth. Today he didn’t have his homework done, for the ninth or tenth time since we returned from winter break less than a month ago. Last week I spoke to his father, and he’s grounded, but that had no effect. Part of the grounding is no doubt for lying. He told me that he couldn’t do the work because he was helping his father. We have phones in our rooms, so I told him to call his father and have his father tell me that. Well, his father said that he sat all the kids down to do their homework, and after doing reading, B insisted that he didn’t have any other homework (like the math he was avoiding). The father asked two or three times. Then B helped him for like ten minutes.

He’s also on detention until he can manage to turn in his homework five days in a row. He was up to three. So I made him write a note to the assistant principal who’s in charge of discipline matters. He left a lot out, but did say “don’t call my dad because I’m already in trouble!” Well, at the end of Christmas break I made these data notebooks, based on what I’d seen other teachers do on-line. So I added more (and more accurate) information to the bottom of B’s note, and put it in the data notebook, and sent him to the office. The notebook included two calendar pages showing which days he did and didn’t turn in homework (one for math, one for reading). Another two pages where his MEP scores. This is a new test we did at the end of October, which is supposed to be an AIMS predictor, and showed that where he was at for that point and time was that he wouldn’t pass the AIMS (which I could’ve told you without the test). All his math test scores for the year were there, and his two writing (essay) test scores (one each quarter). I also included in the note that this quarter he was dropped down to a lower reading level.

The office loves data. Here, with the notebook, I was able to show that he is not exactly on the path to success. She called me with him in the office and said that he said he’s only missing reading homework but did all the homework for my class. I pointed out that he lies like a rug and if she looks at the math page, she’d see all the times he didn’t turn in his math homework. So basically, he’s toast at the moment. But there’s still time for him to turn things around and pass the AIMS and pass fourth grade, and this is the point. He was behind before he came to us at the beginning of the year (and then went to a different school for a few months in the middle of the year), and can’t afford to just not feel like doing his homework.

I hate full moons.

Wednesday, for lack of a better title

So I looked up the sculpture on Google, thinking there might be something worthwhile that I could tell my class about it. I love Google. I play a game, seeing how little I can type before it lists what I’m looking for. Here’s what I found — my sculpture is part of a village! Here is one of the set, and here are some others. There are a lot more out there. I was surprised, but it did answer one of the kids’ questions.

Speaking of surprises, we have this calendar that the leadership team I’m on created for what will be happening at Wednesday’s meetings. Apparently the powers that be looked at it for today and had no idea what that meant, so they did something entirely different. Fine. Except that entirely different thing means they volunteered those of us from the leadership team to facilitate groups on the different parts of our ASIP goals. When did they share this tidbit with us? When we got to the meeting. Lovely! On the plus side, it was a fairly useful and productive meeting, unlike some. But still!

And then I let slip to one of the assistant principals something because I get tired of hearing how we’re supposed to wonder why other teachers are getting better math grades than we are. What are they doing right in their lessons? So I mentioned that what at least one teacher is doing is sending the kids back to correct incorrect test answers before she grades the test. I mean, let’s get real. If you’re a better teacher than I am, fine. If you’re cheating on tests, that’s a whole different ball game!

For those of you who live elsewhere, it’s been a cold, rainy week. Well, by my standards. Rainy as in it’s rained a few days in the past week or so. Cold, as in … well, you know the difference between cold there and cold here. Still, it does give us something new to whine about at work! So for those of you who have replica of Noah’s Ark in your yard periodically, just in case, ignore this paragraph!

Did I mention that I was on the radio yesterday? My radio station asks an “Impossible Question” every Tuesday. I guessed “writing in cursive” but I was wrong. Even so, they thought my answer was good and they talked about it, so I was on the air. My thirty seconds of fame.

Roots…

…and their canals. Yep, I am now on antibiotics, and a week from Wednesday I’m having a root canal on the tooth that was most recently crowned. On the plus side, what I have to pay really isn’t that much because they tend to manage to get more out of insurance than they originally expect. That means I have money in the dental slush fund, so to speak.

In a previous episode, following the OMA workshop I did a writing assignment based on a painting. This week we’re doing writing based on sculptures. We’re not talking expensive sculptures in a museum. That would involve … dare I say it … a field trip. I think I vaguely remember what a field trip is. So I looked around my house and found this one:

It’s made of paper treated with something. The base is wood, the pot clay, and I’m not sure what the face is made of. My regular class wrote about it as they did the painting — their questions and thoughts. We’ll do this with another one, compare and contrast, and write the C&C up in short essay form. In the meantime, their world just got a little bigger.

I had the statue still out during tutoring. Yes, tutoring has resumed. We are one of the few schools that were targeted to continue the tutoring program. Well, my ELD students were just as fascinated with the statue, and maybe even moreso. They don’t get the writing time the other kids get during the day because of the Avenues program they’re stuck in as ELD students. So we brainstormed some pretty wild ideas, and they got to do creative writing. Said wild ideas included the woman previously being young and beautiful until she met up with La Llorona, or a ninja under the outfit, or a spy wanted by the CIA, etc. That’s what I’ve learned about fourth graders, or at least the ones at my school — even the most reluctant writers will be happy to write a story if you make it weird enough.

My classroom was pretty busy today during SFA! First the SFA coordinator came to observe (we were getting ready for a test), then the man who does Resource came to help during the test (since I have two of his students), and then one of the assistant principals came (the three were each observing one grade during SFA — is something up?). But the SFA coordinator liked what she saw, and added helpful ideas. Mr. C and I noted how hard the expectations of the test were (I hadn’t done one like the test for that book before) and I’m going to modify it for everyone next time I have one like that. The assistant principal liked what she saw, and I was also able to take care of some business — showing her where the lesson plans and materials are kept, since that came up in the last PD meeting (everyone has to tell the bosses where to look, since it’s one of the things they’re supposed to check for as well as the first question when there’s an unexpected sub). I also gave her my “general” lesson plans — a daily routine, with all my students’ ins and outs throughout the day and week thrown in. That saved me a trip of having to take it to the office.

Then at lunch I went to the SFA room to get my next book. Apparently I said something at the last PD that I don’t even remember saying, but the SFA person really appreciated it! I do remember her going over the new rubrics, and apparently when someone sitting by me was being whiny and snivelly I pointed out to them that this “wasn’t about them” or something to that effect. Basically some sort of “get over it” kind of comment. I don’t even remember! But the SFA person does listen, so I said that what she had us do (look at last quarter’s data) was a waste of time for me and most of us because we don’t have those students this quarter. It would be much more useful instead to look at data in the middle of the quarter, thus giving us time to remedy whatever needs to be remedied. She liked that idea, especially since the end of the quarter is so hectic with the various report cards (regular cards and SFA cards) and so the data is old by the time we get around to it.

ASIP and Precip.

Did I post these?

Spent a LOOOOOOONG day (even though it was the usual number of hours) working on the ASIP goals again. We were supposed to bring our laptops and divide into groups and do stuff that … we never did. That will be next time, Feb third. I had mine, though, which turned out to be extremely handy. One person was writing on the paper on the wall, and scribbling out, and people were adding and subtracting information, and it was all very confusing. I started trying to type it up so it made sense. Well, at some point someone figured out that we just just plug me into the machine (Promethean?) to project my laptop onto the screen. This was because somehow I’d manage to distill all the different things people were saying at the same time into something that made sense. Plus, I know that there are a number of people who can better contribute if they see a starting point in writing first, and so it worked out.

The funny part was that at first, they had the laptop on this small table, so I was kneeling when I was typing. They asked if I wanted a chair, and without thinking I pointed out that I’d been a nun and was a professional kneeler. I could handle kneeling on a hard floor for hours. That cracked them up. We did eventually fix the arrangements, but we got a ton done because I type fast. After a while, though, I was getting frustrated because people wanted to do something here and then there and then here again, so when we finished one of the goals, I asked if someone else wanted a turn. Someone took me up on it and she typed the rest of it.

In the meantime, we’ve had bizarre weather. Some parts have had blizzard warnings while we had tornado watches — all a few feet from each other because the weather in the mountains is different from the rest of us. Someone said the washes were nearly flooded, just from the rain we got in the past couple days. More is expected!! So it was quite nippy today!

“Jefferson” pics

Did I post these yet?

*sigh*

OK, so I get offended when people put down teachers. But then, I spend time with teachers, and …

Today we had the usual meetings. The second one was all about norming how we grade our reading (SFA) tests. There are usually six questions — some long answer and some multiple choice and some might be a combination of the two. Here’s how I grade them: if the answer is right, I mark it right. If the answer is wrong, I mark it wrong. Yes? And one teacher said to me — and I’m not making this up — Well, then, how do you get a percentage grade? Honestly! If you student scored 4 out of 6 correct, you can’t find the percentage? You can’t divide? Compare 4/6 to 2/3? Use a calculator? Use a grading chart? You have no skills that tell you how to get a percentage grade?????????

So here’s what we have to do for each question that’s not multiple choice: 5 points if they just get it right but don’t write a complete sentence. 10 points if it’s right with a complete sentence. 20 points if they have details added in subsequent sentences. We pointed out that a student could get every question right and still flunk the test!

IN the earlier meeting, the other fourth grade teachers said they wanted to express their concerns to one of the assistant principals about something. That’s swell. I can support that. Well, not exactly. They really believed that she should change the school’s daily schedule to accommodate their concern. THEN they were saying that we should each get our share of the plastic fraction manipulatives for the next unit. Fine. But then they were taking them all so that each pair of students in their class would have a set, leaving three for me to split with another teacher. Three. So one of the teachers pointed out that our students could also use the paper copies. Good enough for mine but not yours? Riiiiiiight. So I just left.

As the Classroom Turns

Amazingly enough, I still have all the same students I had in December! Once Brandon returned, my room hasn’t changed!

However, in other news …

As you may or may not know, I’ve been doing the “Compensatory Ed” tutoring after school three days a week. This was to go until the end of March, right before the AIMS. This would give the English Language Learners more help, a boost as it were. Or were not. Today during tutoring, and announcement came over the PA system: Thursday is the last day of tutoring. It’s one of the things that got cut due to funding cuts by the state. So yeah, children who need extra help still have to pass the AIMS, but we’re going to remove that extra help. Who knew that you had to get a lobotomy to run for state office?

I called the dentist first thing this morning. They have this dental credit program, so they had the form waiting for me after work. I told them that I needed a root canal and needed the financial aid. So I got there after work and they’re saying “What root canal?” Well, this one tooth is extremely sensitive to both heat and cold. I have to either drink with a straw or drink everything at room temperature. I’ve seen this movie already. Many times!

I spent yesterday afternoon (well, part of it) cutting file folders up so that I could run them through my printer. Then I printed large tangram patterns on them. We’re doing geometry, and I sure miss my tangrams that I had in Wisconsin! I had a plastic set for each student! Of course, the current class really doesn’t get to spend much time cutting things out, so they were OK. They cut out the huge pieces and had some time to work on trying to make patterns>. Each group had a set of these in black and white, and then one of the pages in color. They seemed to enjoy it, and none of them said they’d done this before.

Pics — Christmas at Carla’s

Pics — Christmas day at Lorinda’s

The subject of fostering and adopting a child had come up off and on over the years. Last year, when I worked together with Ms. D’s third grade class for the writing project, I met a child (with a twin brother) in her class and got to know her. They’re in a foster home where the mother is reportedly just in it for the money. She has other children, including a foster child she adopted, so the twins were sort of treated like stereotypical “stepchildren” out of awful fairy tales. For a while they were sent back to live with their stepfather in California, but all parental ties have since been severed.

Well, I liked her and asked for her to be in my class this year. I figure everyone (in theory) should have a teacher who likes them, and many of our teachers aren’t actually prone to liking their students. Plus, since she wasn’t getting positive attention at home, according to all reports, at least she’d have a safe place in my class. In the meantime, her brother has been in and out of Juvie this year. Since they’re fourth graders, that means he’s 9-10. She came to school one day with bruises on her neck where her brother had kicked her in the throat.

They aren’t severed from each other yet, so if I survived the whole process that gets you into being a foster-to-adopt parent, she probably wouldn’t be available (because I don’t have room or sanity to handle the brother). But there are many other children out there as well, languishing in the foster care system who need a forever home. So I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and talked to some people who actually didn’t laugh in my face but thought it was a good idea.

I went on the web site>. I’ll be going to the orientation in February. The lady who sent me email information is going to send me more information about the program and process by snail mail. I’ll keep you posted.