A little girl misses her brother...

Young Heather Martin, 6 years old, sings a song that her mother wrote for Heather's older brother, Shaun, who is serving in Iraq. The song is written from Heather's point of view. I hope you can see the video here. The lyrics are provided below. 

                           

                           When Are You Coming Home?

You were almost sixteen when I came into the world.
Mom and Dad had you first then 3 more boys I'm the baby girl.
I sure have a lot to look up to in you, you're really smart and funny with a big heart too.
After one year of college you knew what you had to do.
It's just like you wanting to help with the war.
So you joined the army when I was only 4.
This time of year we talk of big plans but you're over seas in some distant land.
You can't be here for Christmas, I don't understand.
Chorus:
When are you coming home, Shaun?
When are you coming home?!
We lit up the house like we always do but it doesn't seem bright 'cause we can't have you.
In my prayers I ask God to keep you safe.
And I'm trying to be really brave.
Tell me that the fighting's through.
Come home!
I really miss you.

It's hard to enjoy the holidays without you.
But we're so proud of you and all the red white and blue.
Remember that Jesus is your best friend,
And someday our families will be together again.
Wow! You know we'll have a great big party then.

Chorus

I want to show you how tall I've grown and introduce you to my new friends at school.
Maybe we could go and get some ice cream together but I really don't care what we do.

Chorus

I read a description which says that at the beginning of the video, where she looks like she is crying, she is just rubbing her eyes like any 6 year old does. She had been acting silly just before singing the song. Still, it is a very sweet message.

I found it at YouTube, of course. Proof that there are some very good things coming to us from YouTube.

This is yet another entry to link you to children who inspire. Other children who inspire: Bindi Irwin, Akiane Kramarik, Mattie Stepanek, and the Invisible children of Uganda

YouTube Video Link

 

Tags: Heather Martin Video, soldiers in Iraq,

Retiring Principal and Students' Writing Improves!

BRRR! So cold outside today, but not near as cold as it is in the northern states. But I did have to leave my water running (a steady slender stream) in my little classroom to prevent the pipes from freezing since temperatures are expected to be around 20 tonight. Sounds like a waste of water, and the school will have a water bill to pay, but that must be much less costly than repairing bursted pipes.

I heard some rather unhappy news (for our school) today... at our staff meeting our principal announced she indeed was going to retire at the end of this school year. She's been teaching, vice-principaling and principaling for forty or more years, and she wasn't too happy to tell us that she was leaving. There have been health concerns with her husband, he's been declining in this condition, he needs a daily caregiver now, and she wants to be the one to take care of him. She has grandchildren to spend time with, and the rest of her family... it is a good reason to retire. If anyone deserves it, this woman does. I'm happy for her in that regard.

I've only just gotten to know her. She was elected Principal of the Year in our school system for 2006-2007, and has an outstanding reputation in the educational realm here in NC. I am proud to be working in her school. She says it's our school, that the teachers and staff made this school, not herself. She is a modest woman as well.

I also heard some exciting news earlier today. Well, for me it was very exciting. Teachers live to hear good news about the students they teach. They love to hear that their students were excelling in some area, that they behaved especially well for the substitute, or on a field trip. We find ourselves beaming with pride, and taking just a wee bit of credit for the good that they do. We are not far from acting like parents, at times.

One fifth grade teacher, as she passed me in the hall today, was all smiles as she approached me. "You are going to be so surprised when you see how they did on that writing test!" she tried to whisper, only it came out a little stronger than a whisper. I was overjoyed!

                                               

My fifth grade students, who took the writing test two weeks ago, did very well it seems. Of the eight who are in my writing class, three have passed, two were only one point from passing it, and the rest earned a higher score than the last time they were tested. There is going to be another writing test in April I believe. I hope by then I will have given them the instruction they need to write a persuasive essay.

I asked their regular ed teacher what had she noticed about their writing this time ... what had improved the most since their previous test? She replied that their writing had more structure this time. They were weak in the use of conventions (capitalization,spelling,and punctuation), though, and that will hurt a fifth grader.

Yes, I did beam a little myself today after hearing the good news. Can't wait to tell my students tomorrow!

 

I don't know to whom I should credit the smile frog. Do you? He came to me in an email last year, and I thought he was too cute. If you know where it came from, let me know so I can add the link or at least the credit of its creator! Thanks. bea

You might like what Barbara wrote. I did.

Barbara has an exceptional little story to tell in her journal tonight. I wanted to plug it because I thoroughly enjoyed the analogy. She said someone had sent it to her.

It's called "God's Coffee."

Before and After

Welcome once again to the inside of my classroom. I so enjoyed taking you on a tour back in August when I first moved in.

I like seeing progress, and I love photographing it. In my life, I see progress reflected in my classroom. The building, the kids, the teacher. But here, in this entry, I'm going to show the changes that have taken place in the room itself since August.

In the beginning, you might recall, I had only a room full of desks, more desks than I needed, but I wasn't about to give any of them away. I had very little in the way of storage space... like bookshelves. When I first entered my classroom, I saw two bookshelves, two empty closets with deep shelves, a seven-foot tall cabinet, and enough cubbies to accommodate about 30 students. Which I didn't have at the time.

For my progression shots, I chose the view along one wall. On this wall you can see the 7 foot tall cabinet, and a green paper-covered bulletin board. This photo was taken a few days before the kids started school. The green bulletin board is a reference for you.

                                    

Below is another view of the same wall from a different perspective, taking in the greater classroom. This photo taken just the day before school started. Please notice the desks lined against the green bulletin board wall. No bookshelves there. I was in dire need of them, but used empty desks to store containers of math manipulatives, and other materials and resources. I didn't like the clutter, but knew it was only temporary. Also notice how you can see clear across the room to the wall at the far right, and a short, beige wood bookshelf facing right.

                                    

In photo below, I created a working area of sorts, setting up baskets to hold materials and books for each of the grade levels I was teaching. It was my preferred method of organization. I could put the things I needed each week in each basket, and quickly have access to it all week, and when I was done with the materials, I would drop it back into the basket. At end of week, I could clear the baskets out and replace with new materials for the following week. Teachers love those white baskets you can find at WalMart or the Dollar Store. Great organizers. As you can see, no bookcases yet. But they are never far from my thoughts. This photo taken a few days after school has started. Notice the incomplete bulletin board.

                                    

Ah, now here you can see what a Christmas Wish List can do for a teacher. Our principal had told us to give her our Wish List before we went home for Christmas vacation. She said no guarantees that we would get what we wanted, but if we didn't give her the list, we were sure not to get what we wanted. So I sent in my list, with a request for 2-3 short bookcases to fit right under that bulletin board. They were delivered to my room last week!!! And now look at that little work area ... only one desk against the wall. Bookshelves do wonders for any room. I still use the remainder desks as a work area, and keep the organizing baskets on top of them.

                                   

Below, I have backed off to the wall opposite the green bulletin board so you can see the entire other half of the room. The cubbies hold teacher materials, reading assessments, writing materials, and paper. At the round table I do running records with my students. The desks in the foreground are where my 8 fifth grade students sit for reading and writing. This is my favorite class, if I'm allowed to have favorites. I believe I communicate best with the fifth graders. I do wonder sometimes if I should try middle school?

                                    

In the photo below, you can see how the room looks now with the room dividers. I put them together as the need arose. I have two classes going on at the same time (2nd grade and 5th grade) in this room for over an hour. The dividers keep down the visual distractions, but do very little to block our voices. If you followed my journal over the summer, you know that I painted some vivid desert backdrops for our Vacation Bible School on tall canvas covered frames. One canvas frame was never painted, and there it is in my classroom, begging for color. Plans are underway to do that. The blue divider is a spelling words pocket chart attached to a metal frame clothes rack I found at WalMart. On wheels. So easy to move about. The TV on the TV cart and a short bookcase also act as visual barriers between the two areas of my classroom.

                                    

In the photo below, I am standing behind the same desks as above, looking toward the white-board where I teach from. You can see my overhead projector, my computer, and my desk.  I spend very little time at either the desk or the computer, I might add.

                                    

Finally, a view from the other side of the dividers. On this side, the second and firstgraders learn reading, writing, and math at different times throughout the day.

I don't think the VCR player works. I haven't tried it out yet, but this week, I will be needing it for a lesson on visualization with my fifth grade reading class. We're going to read a passage from Dances With Wolves, discuss what they imagine from the words, then I'm going to show them the 3 minute video clip of the same scene we read about in the book.

                                   

You might remember the scene, where Dunbar tries to leave Two Socks behind, but Two Socks follows him. Finally, Dunbar jumps off his horse to scare the wolf off, but it just prances around the Lieutenant. I want the kids to compare how they imagined the scene from the book to how the director imagined the scene, and how the actor portrayed it. Last year, the fifth graders loved doing this little visualization exercise with me. I hope this year's kids will too. The best thing about this lesson is that none of them have seen the movie! They're gonna love it.

So, my planning is complete for the week, thanks to my student teacher. We met for a few hours today, and everything is good to go.

It's going to get down into the 20's tonight. Brrrrrr! But at least it will be dry.

I hope it's warmer where you are. Or at least I hope it is snowing gently. Leave a comment. What's the weather like where you are?

Tags: Classroom, changes

A surprise meeting of families

Saturday:

I slept late today. Blame it on the horrendous headache I had when I went to bed last night. I had taken a PM headache tablet, which so thoroughly helped me to sleep that I slept right up until 11:00 a.m. this morning. 

I woke up guiltily, still with said headache, realizing that though I had planned to help with clean-up at our church's community breakfast, I had completely missed it. I could only hope that there were enough people there to do the job. I don't usually miss these fundraising breakfasts, but bright lights and loud noise would only have made it worse for me.

Sometime during the day, the headache disappeared. Just in time because I got a phone call from my student teacher. Her parents had driven in from Maryland, and they wanted to take me and my husband out to dinner while they were in town. Of course, I was delighted at the prospect of meeting her parents. There was much I could tell them, of what a good teacher she will be, and already is.

I told her we'd meet them at the Outback at 7:00, and then went into high gear (while the headache was away on leave) to find some photos I'd taken with my digital camera. I wanted to print out the pictures of their daughter teaching in my classroom. I knew she would have some stories to tell them, and the pictures would be make fine visuals.

I found quite a few, taken in various classes throughout the past two months. I knew she would love them. I had been promising to email them to her, but always it seemed to slip further down on the list of things to do. Today I did it.

We met at the restaurant, and were seated within 15 minutes (it helps to call in ahead). Her family is not so different from ours. In fact, though they live in MD, both her parents were born and raised right here in NC. We spent 2 1/2 hours talking, maybe ten minutes eating. We talked about children, teaching, winter weather, city vs country living, and their daughter, my student teacher.

My favorite moment came when J showed the pictures I'd taken to her mother. As her mother scanned each 4X6 photo, I watched her face. I knew what she was feeling as a mother. Her daughter, far from home, about to graduate, is interning in school. She must be so proud. She gazed at one photo of J in a teaching moment, and said with a hint of surprise, "Oh, she looks so grown up here!" Her husband leaned in to look.

I smiled. Just like parents. They see their baby daughter where I see a budding teacher. They let her go far from home to seek her life and I welcomed her into my classroom to practice what she had learned in school. They were going to see their daughter in a new light after this weekend visit.

I did tell them how well she was doing, and shared a few stories. They shared some stories too, of when she was a little girl and how she played at being the teacher with her stuffed animals. We laughed a lot tonight. My husband spoke with J's dad and mom, I spoke with J and her sister. There was lots of talking across the table... J's mother is going to school to be a special ed teacher too. She will graduate a year after her daughter. This is a story of a mother following in her daughter's footsteps!

So much talking, so many stories, and through it all, Ms. J enjoying having her family with her again.

It was 9:30 pm before we decided it was time to go. I could have sat there longer talking with them... they seemed like the kind of folk you'd love to have for neighbors and friends.

It's hard not to feel like a mom in this situation, but there is not much difference in being a mom and being a teacher. A mom doesn't have to create lesson plans with focus and objectives... not in a formal sense. And usually a mom doesn't have to manage a classroom of 7 or more students (up to 25). But when a teacher meets her student-teacher's family, it's very hard not to feel like a mom.  In fact, it's the only way I know how to feel when I'm not in the classroom (and sometimes when I am)!

I wasn't thinking professionally at the time, and so, I hugged them all goodbye.

Snow Day photos two days late.

Two days late, but proof that we did have a milder form of the winter weather this week. It was expected to be much worse throughout the day, and so schools were closed here for students on Thursday.

                                 

These two photos show the kindergarten and preschool playground. Wouldn't the kids love to be playing in it now?

                                  

I don't know when the playgrounds were built, but they've been there awhile. What a treat for them to play in this miniature town!

 

                                    

See, it did snow for a few hours, but by 2:00 it had turned to slush by the rain.

                                                        

Evidence that there was not much traffic into my classroom this day. I love teacher workdays as much as I love to teach. It was a quiet and peaceful time to catch up on organization and paperwork.

By 1:30, our principal had announced that she was locking upthe building and turning on the alarm at 2:15, so everyone had to leave by 2:00. She didn't have to tell me more than once. I locked my door at exactly 2:15 and drove home feeling at ease.

The roads had not yet turned icy, as the weatherman had predicted. It would have been a safe day for the buses to be on the road afterall, but there was no way anyone could have known how things would have turned out. I'm not complaining. I did get a teacher workday out of it!

                                   

Back home, I could see that the snow was rapidly melting, so I snapped this picture at the top of our driveway. I remember when the street would have been lined with snowmen and snowforts on days such as this. But alas, the kids in our neighborhood have grown up and gone to college or gotten married. There are other kids, the newest neighbors, but they aren't old enough to be outside on their own on such nasty days.

One time I came home from school on such a day, a few years ago, and as I approached my driveway, I could see a well assembled snowfort on the side of the road, in the snow-covered grass. I slowed down because I saw a peek of legs and a quickly ducking head. I knew who it might be, and so I gave her what she wanted. As I drove by the fort, she jumped up from behind the fort and pelted my car with snowballs! Laughing the whole time. I was laughing too, knowing the fun she had all day long building that fort and anticipating my coming home from school. Just so she could throw a few snowballs at me.

I miss that!!

Tags: Snow day, teacher workday

Something is not working tonight

I tried to make an entry with photos tonight, but after several tries, gave up on it. Will try again later.

Had some great classroom photos.... both inside and out...

Got the teacher workday I've been wanting. Kids had no school due to inclement weather. It was wonderful. Peaceful, quiet, paperwork had to be done, cleaning, organizing... I took some photos of my classroom... it looks different since the last time I showed you.

I'm not happy about not having the winter pictures, though. Nothing pretty, but for the record, you know?

I'll try again tomorrow. Stay warm and safe, y'all.