Talent Show

We had a little talent show in the classroom on the day before Easter vacation.  Or, should I say, Spring Break.  We just did it for each other, didn't invite parents so it was low key and lots of fun.  I had the kids sign up on the board.

Got Carina all settled in at HealthSouth, a rehab facility to allow her to get intensive physical therapy.

School today

One of Scott's students was reading with the reading aide and they came to the word, wastebasket.  The aide noticed a vacant look on the student's face, so she asked, "Do you know what a wastebasket is?" The answer?
"I think it is something you wear around your waist and put things in."

Then...
One of Mary's students had a problem at recess today, which I couldn't solve for him.  Or maybe, I just wouldn't.  He explained that he forgot to tie his shoe.  And... it just FLEW off.  Right onto the school's roof.  I was on yard duty, but I was not going to climb up and get his shoe.  Mary sent him home with one shoe off, one shoe on.  Just like the nursery rhyme.

Pastry or dogs?

Spelling really is important.  My top student wrote this sentence yesterday:  "I ate toast instead of a beagle." A lot less furry, I think.

Happy Valentine's Day

I got a box of See's from Scott.  Yay!  I have already eaten the scotchmallow.  Those of you who don't think marshmallow, caramel and chocolate are perfect are living an empty life.  Scott said he wanted to get me an iPhone or iPod, but truly, I would rather have See's.  The only problem I have is WHAT TO DO WITH THE FANCY RED HEART BOX.  It looks very pretty, but when you are done with the candy, the box is too pretty to just throw away, and yet it is not really a practical size or shape or store things in.  So, everyone, give me ideas...what to do with an empty heart box...

Letter writing an obsolete skill?

I caused quite a stir in the teacher's lounge the other day when I shared the light bulb of inspiration that had illuminated my poor little archaic brain earlier in the day in the classroom.  One of our most worked on and most emphasized writing standards in second grade is writing a friendly (as opposed to business) letter.  You know, that piece of writing from one person to another on a carefully chosen stationery,  then slipped into an envelope, stamped, driven to the post office and personally delivered by postman to the cherished friend.  The students I am teaching, I realized, would probably never use this skill of writing a letter.  They don't need to know the five parts: date, greeting, body, closing and signature.  Because they call, they email, they text, they twitter and they, yes, blog! But they don't write on paper.  I used to love roaming the aisles of the local stationery store, thoughtfully considering the choice of stationery, sealing wax, and pens.  But now the kids wallpaper their cell phones, and put badges and widgets on their social networking pages.  Teaching them to write letters is like teaching them how to look up information in an encyclopedia.  Obsolete!  But we do still teach it, and we teach them how to look things up in an encyclopedia, even though no one even owns an encyclopedia (how proud I was to be able to spell that word in second grade!)  We should be teaching them about privacy settings and how to edit in html and all kinds of other things that I don't even know that I should be teaching them.  Maybe it's me that is obsolete...

Thanks, Marc!

I finally got to see Marc's pictures from Spain and Portugal. I love this picture he took of the three of us in Seville from 2007.