Hey There Friend

Well, this past week was a little bit crazy, to say the least. Even though it is April and spring time according to the calendar, here in Colorado it is still winter. The school district in which I teach is known for never closing for a snow day, even when the rest of the city is shut down. Well, this past Tuesday I had a pleasant surprise, and that was a phone call at 6:45 a.m. from a co-worker telling me we had a snow day. To top it all off, we didn’t even have snow! This was the second snow day for us this year in about 6 years, but everybody was closed even though there wasn’t snow. The weather man was telling us we had blizzard warnings across the front range, with very, very strong winds and very little snow. Even though I had the day off, I still couldn’t go back to bed. The call for a snow day usually comes AFTER I’ve showered and had coffee, and that was the case on Tuesday. So, I stayed up and got a little stamping done and started cleaning my stamp room.

On Wednesday, when we went back to school, the kids had a 2 1/2 hour late start which had been planned all year so we teachers could meet in our PLC’s (Professional Learning Communities). That’s a fancy name for getting together with the teachers you work with in your content area to discuss whatever it is the principal wants you to discuss. This time we discussed vertical curriculum alignment. In other words, we talked about what the teachers in the grades below us teach, and what the teachers in the grades above us expect the kids to know when they get to them. I must say, it was a very enlightening experience, and it was good to know that I am doing things right in my classroom. But in spite of the 2 1/2 hour late start for the students, we also had an afternoon assembly which meant I got to see each of my classes for 40 minutes max. I usually have my students for 90 minute classes each day. The kids were wild, to say the least, and I was ready to get out of there by the end of the day.

Thursday was a little better because we had a regular schedule,but Friday was another one of those days when I wonder if teaching is really for me, even though I’ve been doing it for the past 16 years. LOL!

My students have been working on a research presentation on a Great American Hero for the past two weeks. They were each assigned a person from American History, both past and modern-day, and were told to research and prove the person was/is an American Hero. My advanced students had to present their research in a movie, and the others in Powerpoint format. Other than the standard “I’m not ready” and “I still need to print my works cited” responses and the one advanced student that did a power point presentation instead of the required movie, some of the presentations were very enlightening. For example, one sweet young lady, we’ll call her Melody, told me that “FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt) is an American hero because during The Great Depression, he made people feel better about themselves because everyone was sort of depressed all the time. That’s why people liked him!” And another young gentleman, Bernie for these purposes, told me “Andrew Jackson studied law at the bar.” I didn’t go into a history lesson with anyone on Friday, but I will when I get back this week. I love these children; I love all of my students. They are what keep me going everyday. LOL!

On to the card… I used the stamp set from the first Paper Pumpkin kit. I wanted you to see that it can be used over and over and over again. It’s sort of neat that each month you get a new stamp set and ink with the Paper Pumpkin kits. If you are interested in joining My Paper Pumpkin, click on the link that says “Stamps in the Mail” on the right, and it will take you to the website where you can sign up. Remember to put my name in as your demonstrator when you do.