Slice of Life Day 15: Street Corner Symphony

After a wonderful sunny 77 degree day, we had a busy night.  We went to Hicksville, OH to have supper with one of our favorite people.  We had the most delicious meal and then took off for a concert at the magnificent Huber Theater.  Just to enter the theater and sit looking at the historical building is enough to keep a person in awe.

We then were entertained by the group: Street Corner Symphony.  The members of Street Corner Syphony are from all over the southeast US and are proud to call Nashville, TN their home base. The group swas formed in May of 2010 for the sole purpose of entering the Sing Off, and after many weeks of hard work, they won second place.  While Street Corner Symphony offers a diverse repertoire, the group has a rich heritage in gospel music. Three of the members are grandsons of the legendary southern gospel tenor Bill Shaw of "The Blackwood Brothers."

The music kept us entertained all night.  We couldn't get enough of their unique way of performing. This is the last of the Huber Series we have been attending this school year.  It really was the best of the series in  my opinion and the perfect way to end the season. Check these guys out at www.streetcornersymphony.org 

Slice of Life Day 14: My New Best Friend

Almost everyone has a best friend.  Someone they love to spend time with, telling secrets to, share things with. Someone who is so special you know your life is better just by having that them as a friend!  I got my new best friend just 2 1/2 years ago.  His  name is Dave!

No, it is not my husband...although he really is my very best friend.  Or my son...who I love dearly.  It is a big, loveable golden retriever.  When we lost our last golden, we thought we would never find another one we could love as much.  Then we got Dave.  I can't say we love him more, but just in a different way.

We spend as much time as possible with him.  He is my faithful walking partner.  We walk two miles every morning and every evening.  In the summer we add another four miles to that routine in the afternoon.  We have games we enjoy, like "find it", rope pull, catch the ball and tag.  He listens to my stories about school.  He is the best cuddle puppy you could ask for, too. 

Before we got him, my husband was sure he did not want another dog.  It just hurt too much when we lost one.  However, I kept up the persuasive treatment.  I told him if we got a dog, he could name him.  My husband thought he had me then.  He said, "Okay, we will call him Dave."  He thought I would say, "No way!"  Then we would not get a dog.  Little did he know that I could care less what we called him...I just wanted a dog!!!  So we found our puppy and named him Tucker's Star of David, (his father's name was Tucker).  He became our Dave.  It is the perfect name for him. The perfect name for my new best friend!

Slice of Life Day 13: Is It Really Spring?

Today it was 70 in northern Indiana.  That is unheard of in March!  We are used to having our last snow storms the first weeks in March  during our March-madness basketball tourneys.  I am all in favor of the warm spring weather.

Tonight we took our usual two-mile walk around our neighborhood with Dave, our golden retreiver.  We have been wearing two pairs of pants, a sweatshirt, a hoodie and another heavy winter coat over that.  Tonight we wore light pants and thin shirts...that's it!  So much  nicer than pulling on all those clothes. 

The neighbors were out in their yards.  Young kids were playing basketball in the driveways. We met other walkers walking their dogs, too.  We saw some who were jogging in shorts and t-shirts.  Little kids were playing with balls and toys outside their garages. Boys whizzed by us on bikes. 

The sun was shining.  The air was warm. The flowers are peeking their leaves out of the ground to see if it really is warm enough to come all the way out. I can hear the birds singing even in the early morning darkness.  If this isn't spring, it sure is a bad joke!!!

Slice of Life Day 12: Spring Forward

It's time for the Time Change again this year.  The annual "spring forward" is here.  I am  not a fan of the Time Change.  I am not the type person who resists 'any' change. After all, my word of the year is: flexible.  I am open to doing things in a different, out-of-the-box sort os way.  But, please, don't take my newly lit mornings away from me already!

I know the nights will be light longer.  I know I will fit in that extra walk with Dave, my golden retriever.  I know I will get more done at night just because it has fooled me into thinking it is earlier than it is.  But...

The mornings!!!!  I leave home before 7:00 and it is DARK.  There doesn't even seem to be the promise of light yet at that hour.  When I make it to my destination, it is a little lighter, but not enough.  Just last week I could hear the birds as I walked to my car in the morning.  Just last week I could actually SEE the sun as I walked into the building.  Just last week it seemed that spring was just around the corner.  Don't take my glorious bright mornings from me already!

Everyone says that after Spring Break, it will be light in the morning again.  That's what they say.  But right now, that doesn't help.  It is still very dark as I drive into the big city.  It is very dark when I travel that long highway.  It is very dark when I begin my day.  Hurry up spring!

Slice of Life Day 11: My Special Word

For my Slice of Life piece today, I am going to write about my Word of the Year. It is the word that I find that I need to use over and over and over. The word is flexibility. It seems I use that word in all woalks of my life. At home, I have to be flexible when dealing with my golden retriever, Dave. His schedule and my schedule do not always run on the same wave length. He wants to go out and I want to get some work done inside. He wants a treat and I am busy fixing supper. He wants to go to bed and I still have loads of work to do. I guess we both use flexibility on that one.

I use flexibility at work, too. It never fails that when I have my weekly schedule all set and it looks like everything is going to work smoothly, someone emails and wants to cancel or add another visit. When I have a professional develpment session all prepared, that's when for some reasong it gets cancelled.

For all those reasons, that is why I made flexibility my word of the year. Hopefully, by the end of the year I will be ready to choose another word because I have mastered this one!

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Slice of Life Day 11: My Special Word

For my Slice of Life piece today, I am going to write about my Word of the Year. It is the word that I find that I need to use over and over and over. The word is flexibility. It seems I use that word in all woalks of my life. At home, I have to be flexible when dealing with my golden retriever, Dave. His schedule and my schedule do not always run on the same wave length. He wants to go out and I want to get some work done inside. He wants a treat and I am busy fixing supper. He wants to go to bed and I still have loads of work to do. I guess we both use flexibility on that one.

I use flexibility at work, too. It never fails that when I have my weekly schedule all set and it looks like everything is going to work smoothly, someone emails and wants to cancel or add another visit. When I have a professional develpment session all prepared, that's when for some reasong it gets cancelled.

For all those reasons, that is why I made flexibility my word of the year. Hopefully, by the end of the year I will be ready to choose another word because I have mastered this one!

Slice of Life Day Ten: Kindergarteners CAN write!

For my Slice of Life pieces, I am writing memories of my 43 years of teaching.  This spring, I am planning on retiring, so this is a perfect way for me to collect my stories from all those years.  Many of the years were spent in Douglasville, what I called my second grade classroom, so that is what many of the stories are about.

The piece I am sharing today came from a journal entry that I found about being a district coach and realizing that many people felt that kindergarten children were too young to actually "write".  I knew that wasn't true.  Today's blog is that journal entry from 2009.

The unit of study for kindergarten in our district this month is: Authors as Mentors.  Here's how I look at that: pick an author and become familiar with that work.  What does the authhor do that I could try in my writing? Sound too difficult for a small child just learning letters and sounds?

In Mrs. B's classroom this week we started letting Ezra Jack Keats be our writing teacher. I found some pictures of him and placed them on our chart. I then showed the class six-seven of his books. Some they had seen. Some they had heard.  We read The Snowy Day. It was perfect for the weather we were having. Then we discussed what he did in the book that they could try.  They came up with:
He wrote the words AND drew the pictures; He wrote lots of words on the same page; He wrote few words on some pages; He wrote about what he knew.

We put a picture of the book cover on the chart and listed our finding next to it. Then we wrote. Our conference question was: What are you doing today that is like Ezra Jack Keats? They knew. At sharing time we simply gave a thumbs-up if we did one of the items on our list.

Next day, we reviewed and then read Whistle For Willie and made another list. We put the picture of the cover on our chart. We found ellipsis. We found the same character: Peter!  Then we wrote...Matthew wrote "Chapter Two" on the front of his book. It was about him and his dad playing an alien game. Garrett had on the front cover of his book---illustrated by Garrett.  Tabby had a page with this: Tabby said, "I want to go with you." Yes, punctuated correctly.

Now, you really want to tell me kindergarteners can't write? Don't tell that to Mrs. B's class!

Slice of Life Day Nine: Breakfasts in Douglasville

For my Slice of Life pieces this year, I am writing about my 43 years of teaching.  I thought this would be a great way to keep my memories and stories. 

While teaching second grade I had decided to call our classroom Douglasville to promote the idea of community and bonding.  One of the units of study that we had every fall, was the Food Groups.  This was part of the Health unit, but we incorporated reading, writing and science into the unit. 

We would go on many field trips during this unit of study.  We would always visit an apple orchard in our community.  We had wagon rides through the orchard, made apple cider and of course got to take home an apple.  We used to visit Kellogg's in Battle Creek, Michigan for years.  It was great to walk through the factory and see exactly how they made corn flakes. We all got to take home a box of our favorite cereal. 

We sometimes went to a pickle factory where we saw the vats that kept the pickles. At the end of our tour there, we would all get a big jar of pickles.  A few times we went to visit Atz ice cream and took a tour of the factory to see how ice cream was made. We also went to Seiferts' potato chip factory a took a tour there, too.  We even got to see the famous chips that seemed to look like famous people.  The lady from Fort Wayne who collected them even got to be on the Tonight Show.

After studying the many types of food, we would plan to have a breakfast at school.  Everyone had a job to do for the breakfast.  Then one day we would have toast, cereal, orange juice and milk.  The smells of this food would rush down the halls making everyone else in the building jealous of our feast.  What a perfect way to study health!