NOT A FUN SUNDAY

The day started as any other Sunday, with me rushing to make it to church in time. I am so lucky to have someone always saving a seat for me. Even now that my best buddy, Grant, is off visiting family in Florida, I have someone who stepped up to the plate and is keeping a seat with a bulletin on it for me each week. Whew!

After church and Sunday School class, I came home to begin my schedule of all clear liquids today. That may not sound too bad, but believe me, chicken broth and jello is not my idea of Sunday dinner. Now that 5:00 has come, I have to take the dreaded Prep! Every 10 - 15 minutes in comes the Big D with an 8 oz. glass of cherry flavored goop. Don't let the cherry flavor thing fool you...it is not good. It is like salt water with cherry added. No kidding! I chug it down because it is overwith sooner that way.

Tomorrow morning after all the adventures of what that liquid is supposed to bring about, I will enter DeKalb Memorial for a colonoscopy at 9:00 a.m. That is the EASY part. They strap me down with a line that comes from a bag of clear liquid (not again!). That seeps into my veins and then they add the meds that send me off to dream land. Well, I guess only part way because they can still talk to me and I do respond...or so they say. When I feel that stuff begin to hit, I simply close my eyes and blank out. Usually that is the last thing I remember until I get to hit Steak 'N Shake. That is the only GOOD part of the whole ordeal.

After a day of being uncomfortable I can get on those scales and see a much lower weight than I have had in ages. The problem is that chocolate shake afterwards. If I could only by pass that. Oh, shucks, that is the only thing I have to look forward to right now. Uh, oh, here comes the Big D again.

Hope your Sunday is better than mine!!!

GREAT IN-SERVICE WITH DAN FEIGELSON

I just came from an amazing workshop in Kendallville. If you haven't heard Dan then you need to grab his book on punctuation. The session today was for principals and administrators. I only got to go because two of the principals I work along side were going. The added bonus was that my boss, Natalie, was also going to be there.

Dan is from NYC and works as a literacy consultant in NYC schools and around the country. That's not all. He was one of the original members of the Teachers College Writing Project with Lucy Calkins. He also was a teacher at PS 321 in Brooklyn. He became a principal for five years and is currently a Local Instructional Superintendent in NYC's Region 9.

Oh, yes, the book you are to grab is: Practical Puntuation...from Heineman. Check it out to see what you missed today!

Elementary Literacy Framework

Today was E.L.F. training. No, not like in Santa's Elves. That is what we call the literacy framework for our Elementary schools. We have training for new teachers or new teachers to their grade level several times throughout the year. There are two groups of them:K-2 & 3-5.

During the 3-5 session, the teachers were asked to take some time to write. They wrote about some emotion they had experieced this last week. After they wrote they did a small share with their groups. Then all 50+ got into a huge circle and shared just one line from their writing. I was shocked to hear how many of the lines were about the frustration the teachers were feeling. They told of feeling overwhelmed, exhausted and just plain tired.

Teachers do have so much on their plates. They not only teach each day, but then there is the testing, data to analyze, and meeting to attend. Their schedules are bursting. I sat there listening to them share and realized how much they all put into their lives. They continue to do everything asked of them and do it with a smile and kind word for each student. I am honored to be working with such dedicated individuals.

I'M BACK!

It has been a while since I blogged. The reason: couldn't get on the site. Now I could use it if I was on my laptop, but not my p.c. I could read the blogs, but not sign in. How frustrating! I was getting so desperate that I contacted my Norton antivirus team via chat room. One of the service department men signed on. We chatted, did a question/answer interview and then he took off. He got on my computer via remote and the rest is history. Within a half hour I was up and running with my blogger in tack.

Glad to be able to blog again. But more importantly to me, I'm glad to be able to comment to my friends on their blogs. Sorry, if you haven't heard from me, but you will now!

I'm a BIG fan of the Norton Antivirus team!!! Thanks, guys!

How Audrey Is Changing!

We had not gotten to see Audrey for a few weeks and we were so surprised to see how much she has grown. We had so much fun watching her play with her toys and scoot across the floor in her new Christmas car.

It is amazing how much babies change in just a few weeks. Audrey is a very happy baby and loves to have people to "talk" to and play with all the time!

Christmas Is Not Over Yet!

We were so glad to get to spend time with Emma and Adrian. We played games, had pizza and played legos. What a fun night. We got to give Adrian and Emma their Christmas gifts when Andy came back to Indiana from going to school in Arizona.

We were so glad to see Andy. We can't wait until he comes back again!

Kindergartners Can't Write!!!

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 author 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 6-7 of his books. Some they had seen. Some the 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. We put a picture of the book cover on the chart and listed our findings next to it. They came up with: He wrote the words AND drew the pictures; He wrote lots of words on some pages; He wrote few words on some pages; He wrote about what he knew.

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.

The next day we reviewed and then read Whistle for Willie and made another list. We put the picture of the cover on the chart. We found the ellipsis. We found the same character: Peter.

And we wrote....Matthew wrote chapter two on the front of today's book about him and his dad playing an alien game. He had written the first chapter yesterday. 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, she had it punctuated correctly.

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