Physical Therapy

Well I went for my first physical therapy session. My therapist is great. I learned that the knee really only follows the hip and ankle so If I reactivate my big muscles in my leg then I will be able to function without my ACL. I also learned that even just 1 cc of fluid on the knee will affect the muscles and makes your muscles stop working. I have to work on activating my hamstring and big thigh muscle working again. Surgery is still an option but I would like not to have any if possible.

I also found out that even though I am "old" according to my Doc. I still have great flexibility in my hips and hamstrings. This made me feel a little better.

What has made you feel old lately?

Electronics

How did we ever travel without electronics! We traveled to all over Kansas this Holiday break and the trip went so much better with the kids glued to movies, ipods and computers. There was peace in the car. The adults carried on conversations. We even enjoyed the view along the way but what are we teaching our children? They have not learned patience or how to carry on a conversation with others. They are certainly not asking any questions besides "are we there yet". It is important to  unplug and teach our children the wonder of nature and how to ask questions.

I will also add that I will still use videos and ipods but we will turn them off once in a while to work on those skills.

Turkey day

What Part Of A Wild Turkey Is Its Snood?
Thanksgiving is called Turkey Day by many and the turkey is clearly a part of our holiday culture.

This site has a lot of fun facts you can wow and entertain your family with over the holiday break.

Record keeping

As we are getting more into PLC's how do you keep track of the data? What have you found that works the best for the weekly quick checks? Reading levels and notes about reading issues? I am not very adept at excel. I am looking for ideas because my desk in beginning to become buried along with me and my brain. I am getting more and more stressed with the amount of Stuff I have to keep track of and plan for. I need some help with tools to make things easier. Any suggestions?

Break Through

Well I have really been struggling with PLC's (Personal Learning Communities) at my school. I was buried in a lot of random data and overwhelmed with what were supposed to be doing last year. This year did not look any better the stakes were much higher. But today we were looking at some data, pulling information about what we had done and what had gone well. We found the area we had made a difference and discussed what we had done to make this happen and made instructional decision based on this information! We finally did it! I can't believe it and I don't know if we can keep it up but it was nice to have some type of positive moment! 

http://lofflinannotations.blogspot.com/
This blog has an annotation about an article for all you title one schools that have been put on "the list" for AYP.

I am in one of "those" buildings and I am feeling lots of pressure to preform.
Dr. Lofflin is my former literacy professor and is always very thoughtful about her responses.

She reads and annotates hundreds of articles on literacy. If you are looking for specific research her site would be a good one to search.

Have a nice evening.

Homework

What are your beliefs on homework? I work in a low income school and always struggle with how much or if any homework should be sent home. Many of my students don't have a support system at home and they often get stuck in a cycle of not getting it done so then their grades come down which causes them to lose hope. BUT on the other side of the coin they need to learn responsibility outside of the school room and how to manage their time and work to get things done.

What do you do in your classrooms?

website for web 2.0

I have used this site often when looking for ideas. They have a section called edge and it reviews and describes web tools and sites.

This is a free site but does require membership.

You can search by keyword, grade level or type of tool.
http://www.teachersfirst.com/content/edge.cfm

Goodbye Spaceelevator Games

Last night we hosted a party to say goodbye to the space elevator games. My husband was involved with this for 5 years. I wanted to allow him to do this because he was passionate, driven and if he won the games a big pay out. But he gave up 5 years of his life with his family to achieve this. It was hard for me balance being a mom, teaching and supporting my husband. It also cost a serious amount of money that we really didn't have to spend. Last night my husband was thanking everyone and explaining some of the lessons he had learned through this process. One of the biggest lessons was how to manage and work on a team. He said if he had any advise to give to the kids of tomorrow it would be to join a team and learn how to work together. This was a real struggle for him.

So I wanted to pass this onto my fellow teachers that when we are having kids work collaboratively we are really helping them become better people. This is an important lesson that needs to be shared and continued.

I got the opportunity to do some job shadowing in different fields and all of them were set up in a "team" system. This is definitely a trend for big businesses. No longer to people go and work in a little office or cube do their job and go home. The better paying jobs rely on collaborative efforts to get the most out of talent they have working for them.

So when we are faced with that kid who just can't work with anyone, keep trying and figuring out his/her best learning situation so they can be successful.

To learn more about the space elevator go to :
http://www.spaceelevatorblog.com/
and http://www.spaceelevatorgames.org/

another entry

Well we are going to try the blog one more time. I have yet to be successful at this. It is mostly because I am a private person and do not feel the need to bog everyone else life down with my stuff. I keep my own diary of the events in my life to help me keep them straight but I do not feel that everyone should have access to this information. The other issue I have with blogging is that I do not feel like I am an expert and do not feel comfortable putting my thoughts and feelings out for others to comment on. I feel I am a good teacher but do not feel it is necessary to post every idea I have out there.
This is my rant for the day. Which is exactly what I think blogs can becoming a place to vent.

Now saying all of that I do enjoy following hang gliding blogs when my brother-in-law is out of the country flying or when my husband is in another state competing in a Space Elevator competition. But I only want to tune in when I want and not a constant feed all the time.