Almost there...

So this is it, the last week before Christmas vacation! It will be so refreshing to have a few weeks to relax and sleep in. I have been so busy with school, basketball, and parent meetings that I rarely have time to do anything that is just for me.

This is what this week looks like for me (besides the obvious, school 8-4)
Monday: Basketball practice 5:30 - 7:00. Christmas program 7:00-???
Tuesday: Leave school early at 1:40, basketball in Bonanza at 3:30, bus doesn't leave until the boys varsity game around 9:30.
Wednesday: Practice 4:00-5:30, school parent meeting 7:00-8:00
Thursday: Basketball game at 4:30
Friday: leave at noon for Gilchrist, game at 3:30, boys at 6:30, return home
Saturday: return to Gilchrist, come back home.

Despite how busy it is making me, I really am loving coaching baskeball. My JV team lost 12-41 to Chiloquin in our opener. (At half time we only had 4 points and my motivational speech was "Let's try to get our score into the teens." We came close.) Hopefully we'll do better tomorrow! Our varsity hasn't won anything yet either :(

After the semester break, which is the end of January, I will take over as the 1st grade teacher because our current 1st grade teacher is going on maturnity leave. I will have my 2nd graders about half of the day and the rest of the time they will be with the 3-4th graders. It will be a big adjustment for all of us. It is tough but the economy is how it is and we couldn't afford to find a long term sub so I was the lucky winner of that one who gets to teach the first graders. At least I already know all of them because I have them for P.E. My student load goes from 9 to 18, plus I will have the 9 2nd graders for part time, so sometimes up to 27. It shall be interesting.

I'm looking forward to the holidays and desperately wish I could see all of you.

8 Things

Okay Bonnie, I'll play along, but only because I haven't posted anything in forever! And I am also going to take the liberty to change favorite bands/singers to favorite books because I just really only listen to the radio.

8 Favorite TV Shows (of all time)
1. Alias
2. The X-Files
3. Grey’s Anatomy
4. NCIS
5. How I Met Your Mother
6. Criminal Minds
7. Realities: Survivor, The Amazing Race, Big Brother (season 7 in particular with Janelle and Kaysar)
8. Comedies: Friends, Gary Unmarried, The New Adventures of Old Christine.

8 Things I Did Yesterday
1. Tried to settle my students down
2. Had a meeting with Shauna
3. Learned I get a new student starting Monday!
4. Ate a delicious Thanksgiving Feast with my students
5. Coached basketball
6. Made dinner from the box (the only way to do it, really) Pizza pasta, yu ummy!
7. Watched NCIS!
8. Watched The Mentalist

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. El Mariachi
2. Samoa Cookhouse in Eureka!
3. Red Robin
4. Abbys Pizza
5. Mongolian Grill
6. Winger's
7. Blondies
8. Starvin' Marvins!

8 Favorite Movies
1. This is way to hard for me to choose, sorry.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

8 Favorite Actors/Actresses
1. George Clooney
2. Michael Weatherly
3. Cote de Pablo
4. Jennifer Garner
5. David Duchovney
6. Victor Garber
7. Patrick Dempsy
8. Jon Jin

8 Favorite Books
1. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
2. Night Sins by Tami Hoag
3. The Pact by Jodi Picoult
4. The Shining by Stephen King..such a classic.
5. Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
6. One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
7. The Client by John Grisham
8. A Child called "it" by David Pelzer (but only because I just read it).

8 Things on My Wish List
1. bills to go away
2. a nicer house
3. the gift of organization
4. summer
5. for my students to get along
6. to have restful holidays
7. to have an impact on my students
8. a coat

Morning Prayer

Every morning right after we say the pledge of allegience we have prayer time. I ask the students if they have any prayer requests. After all the prayer requests are in I ask the class if anyone would like to pray. I allow anyone to pray if they want to and we usually go around in a circle and I always close the prayer out. Praying with 2nd graders is the funniest thing. Here are samples from our morning prayers...

"Dear Lord, please please please help my mom say yes when I ask her if we can go to China!"

"Dear Lord, please help my big Poofball to stop scratching me and for the kittens to stop chasing me."

"Lord, I pray for the eagles so they won't be extinct."

"I pray that my dad will get off work on time on Thanksgiving so I don't have to eat at MIDNIGHT because I was so STARVING last year." (Yes, the capital letters do denote screaming at the top of her lungs).

There are a lot more funny ones that I just can't remember right now but I'm sure I'll post more in the future.

My Birthday

My birthday was 2 days ago. I love my birthday. No matter how old I get I can't help but feel "special" on this day. I know I'm a nerd but it's true, I just love when it's my birthday. I really try to squeeze all that I can out of it too. Kyle laughs at me because on the 23rd (my bday's on the 24th) we were deciding which show to watch and I explained to him that because it was my birthday eve I definitely got to choose. Eventually birthday eve goes on to be "well, it's my birthday month, therefore..."

Anyways, I had a good day at school with my students. They all made me cards which were very sweet. I brought treats for the students and I even let them watch The Lion King. Yes, my kids get spoiled when it is my birthday. Kyle delivered flowers to me at work which was very surprising and sweet and we went out to Abby's, our favorite pizza place, with my parents and Kyle's parents. This is one of the many reasons that I enjoy living in the same town as our parents! Thanks mom and dad.

Overall it was a very fun birthday. It was extra cool because I turned 24 on the 24th. Now I have to wait 6 months until my half birthday. Until then...

I guess I'll start this up again...

So I started this blog more than a year ago because it was one of my assignments in Ed Tech, a course that was required for my masters. Since all of my siblings now have a blog, I find myself wanting to share moments from my life and I figure the best way to do that is on here. So I shall resume this blog and I will try to be fairly regular about it...I hope. Have fun reading.

Technology in the Next Decade

I found Larry Cuban’s article Public School Teachers Using Machines in the Next Decade to be very similar to the last article we read. It was basically questioning how much computer technology will be used in the years to come in elementary and secondary schools. Cuban points out that the reason that integrating computer technology into the schools has been slow is because school is an entirely different organization than worldly businesses that have boomed with technology. He reasons that in no country, or in no time in history have schools ever made quick leaps with technology. He blames this not on inadequate funds or unprepared teachers but on “dominant social beliefs about what teaching, learning, and proper knowledge are and how schools are organized for instruction.” My reaction to this is a good one. Technology is a wonderful thing but I think that if you let it overtake your teaching and rely on it for everything and add nothing of your own style into your day’s work than the kids will really be missing something. Kids need to learn skills that are outside of the computer world. Obviously I know that in today’s society that students must learn computer skills to even be able to get a job when they get out of school but I think that teaching all lessons with the help of computer technology is a mistake. There are so many great, fun, exciting lessons that can be taught away from the help of technology. I can think of several that my teachers did when I went to school.
Cuban predicts that the future of schools and technology will see “slow but dynamic changes in both teaching and school structures that will occur as more hybrids of old and new forms of instruction are merged with the next generation of computers.” I agree with him on this one. I think that the merge will come slowly enough so that teachers will have plenty of time to learn what they have to teach concerning computer technology. Amen!

Teachers Views of Computers as Catalysts for Changes in their Teaching Practice

Technology is at an all time high right now in our society so I would imagine that classrooms would be full of computers and that they would be integreated into all lessons but by reading this article you can see that this is simply not true and as an upcoming teacher, this comforts me quite a bit.

I am not the most technologically savy person and I feel that I wouldn't be able to do as effective a job if I had to use computer technology for everything. Mixing technology with my own creativity would be my choice on how to teach my students. It seemed to me like the teachers in the articles that were interviewed didn't really use computers very much for lessons but used computers mainly for entering grades and mainly for the teachers own use. In my own experience when I helped out in the 4th grade classroom, there was a single computer in the back where the students could get on and play fun games if they displayed good behavior or sometimes they just rotated stations so everyone got a turn on it. There were various learning games that the kids could use but probably the most popular was "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." The kids would always want me to help them and would laugh at me when I would get the question wrong. The kids would sometimes even opt out of recess to play the game. They really loved it and this showed that the kids nowadays would really love to be taught more computer technology because in this day and age the kids are basically growing up on computers so as teachers we have to be aware of this and not completely dismiss it, but instead try to learn more about computers ourselves so we can teach the students something that they can grasp on to.