Today's #kinderblog challenge is to write about five things I eat or drink everyday. 1. Water - I didn't grow up drinking water. We lived on a farm with really, really rusty well water, so we mostly drank juice and pop. I've been trying to train myself to drink more water, and I've been quite successful. I typically drink a few bottles of water a day. 2. Bread - Toast is my favorite easy breakfast. I'll throw a couple of slices of honey wheat bread into the toaster while I feed the cats and get my lunch around in the morning. It's warm and tasty. Even if I don't have toast for breakfast, I often have a sandwich for lunch. 3. Cuties - I absolutely adore Cuties! They are like candy for me. I frequently pack four of them in my lunch and munch on them throughout the day. Yum, yum. 4. Diet, caffeine-free pop - I've been trying to wean myself off pop, but I still allow myself to have it every once in a while. I stick to diet, caffeine pop, even though I know all of the chemicals are terrible for me. I don't want the calories of regular and I don't need the caffeine. 5. Peanut butter - Recently, I've started to eat more of this. I'll put it on my toast in the morning, or put it in my sandwich. I've been eating it on celery the last week or so. Sometimes I just have a spoonful of it.
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The #kinderblog challenge for today asks where I would live if I could live anywhere in the world. I'm torn between two places. My happy place is definitely Maui. I went there on my honeymoon, and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. It was absolutely perfect. I took this picture on Kaanapali Beach on the first morning we were there. It was absolutely stunning there. I could have stayed there forever. On the other hand, I would love to live in Paris. The richness of history and culture has always attracted me. I've never had a chance to go, but I'm still holding out hope for the future.
Yesterday's #kinderblog challenge was to write about what I love. I didn't know how to choose just one thing, so I'm picking my top five loves! 1. My husband - He has been working really, really hard the last few weeks. A big project's due date is coming up, so he often works 12 hours a day. This, of course, means that I don't get to see him. I've missed him a lot. He got to have a weekend this weekend, so we've been enjoying seeing each other. We haven't done anything all that exciting, but that doesn't matter. It's just nice to be together. 2. My students - They have provided me with so many chances to laugh, smile, and be happy this week. How could I not love that! My favorite was this conversation between me and a student. Student: (Holding the book, A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon) Mrs. Hansen, I love this book! I read it at the public library! Me: I love that book too. It's one of my favorites! Student: Yeah! I read it, and it blew my mind up! 3. Daily 5 - My students are rocking this process, and they are quickly falling into a love for reading. I can't wait to get past the behavior management part of the beginning, so we can start doing book talks and recommending books! 4. Eggs - For whatever reason, I have been craving a lot of eggs recently. I love them scrambled and boiled. Yum! 5. My kitties - While they cause all kinds of trouble getting into things and knocking things over, they are great companions. Right now, I've got one draped over my arm while the other one sleeps beside me. It's nice to be liked.
I'm a day late for day 17 of the #kinderblog challenge. I looked at the prompt last night and didn't have the energy to tackle it then. This is a hard one for me, because I have to separate the teacher I want to be in order .
I really want to be one of those teachers who is hardcore-devoted to technology. That certainly seems to be the trend now, and I want my students to have all the opportunities other students have. Technology is wonderful; it's a great way to make connections around the world and to open up learning outside of the classroom. I'm just so not practiced in it, and I don't believe it's the most important aspect of school. In my classroom, I have four student computers (though only two of them work), one iPad, and my Mac Book. I use all of those on a regular basis, but I'm struggling to find ways to make the amazing things I read about on Twitter and in blogs happen in my classroom. I also really want to be one of those teachers who says amazing, inspiring things about play. I believe in the importance of play, and my students have over an hour of play time in my classroom each day (between center time and recess). When I taught preschool, most of the time the students spent in my classroom was devoted to play. I struggle with it though. I struggle to create play environments that encourage growth and learning. It would make me a hypocrite if I started writing about play. My real passion is in reading. My students light up at the mention of Read to Self. I asked them why they liked it, and they said things like, "Because I get to read my new books," and "Because it's easy." (Believe me when I say this too: Read to Self has not always been easy for my kiddos. They have grown so, so much this year!) This is what every student would believe if I ran a school. If I ran a school, students would have many, many, many opportunities to read books of their choosing. They would recommend books to each other and talk and meet with authors. Then, they would write their own books. Teachers would be reading right along with their students. They would be given a chance to recommend books to their colleagues and to share books with their students. There would be no basal readers or systems like AR. Teachers would teach reading strategies and check in with students on how they are using them. They would conference with individuals and work with small groups of students on certain skills. The students would use books and technology to explore content areas of their own interests and create amazing projects to share that information. If students want to learn about penguins, the teachers would connect them with books, websites, or people to learn more about penguins. Our library would be enormous! Not only would it contain thousands and thousands of books, but it would be a cozy place for students to go to read, research, create, and collaborate. It would be a place for classes to work together and to share the joy of reading. I have loved watching the love of reading grow in my students. They are so proud of themselves with they read a book, and many of them are really taking off as readers! It's amazing to be a part of that process. I wish every teacher had a chance to experience this. I seriously get butterflies in my stomach from all of the excitement when I think about this! The #kinderblog challenge for today is to revisit the resolutions we created at the beginning of the challenge. I didn't join in until after that day, so I don't have any resolutions to revisit. Instead, I'm going to go ahead and write about a resolution I made but didn't write about.
After last year (the nightmare of all years both professionally and personally), I want this year to be different. My school year got off to a rough start. (I talked about that here). I was really unsure of how the rest of my year was going to go. I dug deep, though, and found the courage to make some changes. Things are much, much better now. Just today, my students worked on their writing in complete silence. (Please don't think that I stifle my kiddos' creativity and need to collaborate by asking them to be quiet. My point is in their focus and dedication to their work - not in the noise level. It's just that it's easier to be focused and dedicated when distractions are limited. We have many times during our day when we can be loud.) The focus, in and of itself, is a huge accomplishment for my class! My principal stopped in during my planning time to ask how my kiddos were doing. I said, "If you had been in here when they were writing just now, you wouldn't have even known there were kids in here." His reply, "That's awesome!" Their writing is amazing too. I wish I had snapped some pictures to share. To quote one of my lovelies, "I read it and it blew my mind up!" We still have our rough patches. Certain parts of the day are much more difficult than others, but I don't end up in tears every day. My goal is to keep this up. To do this, I need to stay confident in myself. My principal told me at the beginning of the year that I was hired for a reason. I was very transparent at my interview. They knew what they were getting, and they wanted that teacher. I need to be that teacher. I am a guarded person. I've been forgotten and stomped a time too many, which makes it hard for me to put myself out there. (Whoa! I totally sound like a contestant on The Bachelor... Sorry about that) My resolution is to abandon my insecurities and be myself even if that means I make a mistake from time to time. At least then I can say I was doing what my heart was telling me to do. So, how have I been doing with this? I feel I've been doing pretty well with it. I've got my kiddos in a great place with the Daily 5 process, even though the other teachers haven't started it yet. I've been adding my own projects and activities into my weekly plans, and I've started some character education with my group. I'm doing my best to be the best teacher I can be to my students. They are different than the other classes. We can't all be the same. The #kinderblog challenge for today is to write about a goal for my classroom for this week.
I have been working on fully implementing the Daily 5 - the way it's supposed to be done, not my modified way from last semester. We've been building our Read to Self stamina and our Work on Writing stamina. Since we were doing this (just in a slightly different format) before break, the students are doing a great job with this process. My goal for the end of the week is to have Read to Self, Work on Writing, and Work on Words in place. The surprise snow day today might throw a wrench in this plan, but I'm going to shoot for it anyway. I've started to introduce some of the new materials I got for Christmas (magnetic letters, letter play dough stamps, and letter stamps) to my students to use for Work on Words. They already know some activities from before break. Hopefully, by Friday, we can get this rolling. I'm so, very proud of how well my students are doing. I can't wait to give them the choice of which Daily 5 they would like to do! I am totally seeing everything I read about in the book about how giving them ownership eliminates unwanted behaviors. Once I get my kiddos going (and sometimes it takes a few tries), they are golden! I also want to have some fun with the books The Mitten by Jan Brett and Snowmen At Night by Carolyn Buehner.We'll be doing some mitten glyphs and making a fun snowman craft to go with our snowman writing. Both projects use glitter! (I'm a teacher who LOVES glitter. The messier the better, I say!) Let's be honest, we can't do a winter theme without glitter. Winter is certainly the most sparkly of day I'm finally catching up on the #kinderblog challenge! Today's prompt is to list five songs that make me sing or dance or both. I'm not gonna lie, I love to dance. I don't do it often, because I'm absolutely embarrassed by my lack of skills, but I love it. It's much easier to dance with my kiddos. They don't judge. Here we go! (I'm really excited about this!) 1. The Cupid Shuffle - DJ Casper - Who can resist? Seriously? So much fun! 2. Gummy Bear - Just Dance Kids - Love doing this with my kiddos! (I'll stop with the videos now. Those two are just too fun!)
3. Shout - Isley Brothers 4. Footloose - Kenny Loggins 5. When it comes to singing, I really love to belt out a (horrific, I'm sure) rendition of Carrie Underwood's Blown Away. Today, the #kinderblog challenge is to write about my favorite article of clothing. For me, that's very simple. I very, very rarely can be seen without a cardigan. I absolutely love them. They are the perfect layering piece and can wrap an outfit together easily. Colorful cardigans are a great way to throw in a splash of color to a neutral outfit. They can easily turn summer clothes into winter clothes too, which is ideal for me.
I currently own six cardigans in various colors (pink, blue, purple, white, tan, and black) and sleeve lengths (long sleeves, 3/4 sleeves, and short sleeves). I got all but one of them at Target. My husband laughs at me every time I buy a new cardigan. He tells me they make me look like a teacher. I don't really care though. I am a teacher, and I'm perfectly okay with looking like one. Here's how I'm wearing one today! Yesterday's #kinderblog challenge is to write about books that make you tear up. My list could be quite long. My heart gets heavily involved in my reading, so I tend to keep a box of tissues nearby no matter what I'm reading. Here are the top five books that make me cry: 1. Penny's Christmas Jar Miracle by Jason F. Wright. This story is about a family who collects their spare change in a jar throughout the year and gives the jar to someone at Christmas. It's Penny's turn to choose who to give the jar to, and she decides to use the money to throw a party for her neighborhood. When she finds out her elderly neighbor will be too sick to attend, she changes her plans to help include him. I use this as a read aloud at Christmas each year, and it's hard for me to get through it without crying. 2. I think nearly everyone has heard of Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper. Briefly, Anna was born to be a donor for her sister, Kate, who became ill with leukemia. She is now 13 and has decided she doesn't want to be a donor anymore. All kinds of family drama ensues. The ending, who is a shock, gets me every time. I was sobbing by the time I finished it the first time. 3. Battlecry Forever by Joanna Campbell was one of the first books to make me cry. Ashleigh takes on the challenge of breaking Battlecry, which is not an easy task. She works and works and gets him ready to race. The ending is what made me cry. 4. This gem of a book surprised me. It's totally unique - it didn't remind me of anything, and I greatly admire that. In it, two girls, one who lives in the Appalachian mountains and the other who lives in a rich suburb, switch lives as a part of an exchange program through the school. I loved reading about the lifestyle differences of the two girls. Again, the ending is what made me cry. 5. Of all the Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay did the most to my emotions. When I finished reading this book, I just felt awful. It's a great book, and a great ending to the trilogy, but, holy cow, I needed someone to warn me about that ending!
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