missouri

We began our Missouri adventures at George Washington Carver National Monument. We went in expecting to learn more about the "Peanut Man" and were pleasantly surprised by the incredible life that this man led. From being raised as a slave at the end of the Civil War to teaching individuals how to become self-sustaining, G.W. Carver made a difference in the lives of others. It was simply by chance and an itch for adventure that we were able to learn more about his life, principles, and practice.

on the carver trail

on the carver trail

george washington carver

After leaving Diamond, we drove to Van Buren where we settled in for a couple of days at Ozark National Scenic Riverways. Our time in Van Buren was filled with trips to Big Spring, exploring the few trails that were available, riding our bikes, and floating on the Current River. We had a great campsite, even if a tree branch did find its way through our rainfly and tent one afternoon while we were out exploring. With a little bit of duct tape and seam sealer we made a patch that kept the rain out; with some packing tape we made a patch that kept the bugs out. It was a great couple of days and we fell in love with Missouri.

nothing a little duct tape won't fix

floating on the current

big spring 

big spring

big spring

butterflies were everywhere

big spring in action (13,000 liters per second)

everyone needs a good accidental photo

something in-between a trail run and a hike

Our time in Missouri did come at the end of our summer grad school course, and so we did need to spend one day putting adventure on hold (for the most part). We found a great little public library in Farmington where we wrote our final papers for the summer. Then we found that we could squeeze a little adventure into the day and drove up to St. Louis for a trip to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. We ended what began as a subdued day in the library with a trip 630 feet up into the arch and with a walk through the Museum of Westward Expansion.

the arch

us outside of the arch

a long way up

us inside of the arch

With nighttime upon us, we began our drive to the next adventure. Nighttime driving inevitably means a night in the car as opposed to the tent, but once again, it means we're up and moving first thing in the morning. Check back soon for our adventures in Ohio!

ack

Life has been beyond crazy since Spring Break. We enjoyed a nice week outside, camping, hiking, and playing by the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park. We finished up the week with a race in the Tijeras Mountains outside of Albuquerque and then jumped right back in to the remaining weeks of school.

Since that time, we have wrapped up all final projects for the spring semester of graduate school, finished our district mentoring binders, have been assigned new principals, and are gearing up for the final weeks of school. It has been a non-stop effort to keep things moving in the right direction. 

It is my hope that one day soon I will really be able to update things here and get everyone back in the loop of the adventures that make up my life in the classroom and our lives outside of the classroom. Until that moment however, enjoy the weather! Spring is here!

a spring break selfie until I am able to get a real post from those adventures written

bummer

Well, it is looking as if our summer off from grad school will be no more. Our beloved professors are both moving on in their lives - one is retiring, the other is moving north to be closer to family. As a satellite campus for WNMU, this means that we are unsure of what classes will be available to us in person in the coming year. As a result, it looks like the mister and I are going to jump on the opportunity to take one of our three remaining classes this summer while it is being offered online. It isn't ideal, but it will get things done. That means next school year we'll be looking at two remaining classes - how we'll earn those credits is to be determined. Hopefully they won't only be available online, but if they are, at least we tripled up this year so that we don't have so many classes to worry about in the future. The good news is that the University has stated that we will be able to finish our degrees. Thank goodness for that.

explosion

Not to worry, there haven't been any literal explosions. But, figuratively, my life has exploded. This semester is taking over my life with the addition of 20 hours of service work added to my graduate course load. Additionally, the school district has decided that all of the teachers should take an online course in assessment. I'll mention only briefly that I took a three hour graduate course in assessment this summer. So yes, it is easy (as my principal said it should be if I have just taken a class), but it takes up that little bit of free time that was nonexistent to begin with.

While life has taken a turn for crazier, I will say that I enjoyed my first afternoon/evening of volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club on Friday. I was immediately roped into painting nails and I was able to talk to a lot of fourth and fifth grade girls about what they like to do. Surprisingly (or not), it's not that different from what my kindergarteners like to do - with the exception of liking boys. As much as I'm dreading the loss of a little bit of me time, I am looking forward to getting to know this different group of students. Life will resume again in a couple of months - but until then, blogs may come at a very limited rate.

one hundred

I have survived the first one hundred days of the school year! So have my kinders. We've had our highs and lows, but I like to think that we're kicking this year's behind.

Counting 100 Objects (They were a little off, but we got it sorted out in the end!)

Aside from being the hundredth day of school, we also had the pleasure of having Explora, a pretty awesome science exploration organization, come and lead some experiments in reflection and symmetry for the kindergarten and first grade students. The kiddos loved it, and I think that anyone in the hallway where they were working knew it. If you want to entertain a kindergartener for an hour or so, give them two small mirrors taped together and let them explore.

Friends Playing With Mirrors 

I See You!

How Many Do You See?

Symmetrical Wormy Reflections

I personally enjoyed closing out my hundredth day with setting a PR on the Pyramid Trail (55 minutes,woohoo). I had had to leave school early to check in at the Boys and Girls Club about volunteer opportunities (yes, volunteer opportunities...). One of our grad classes this semester requires 20 hours of community service work, so the mister and I decided that reconnecting with our After School roots would be fun. Once I got that squared away though, I went and did a little trail running. And it felt great.

A Quick View From the Top, Before Running Back Down (to beat the sunset of course)

spring

I may be jumping the gun a bit here, but it seems as if spring has come to Gallup. Last week we had afternoons in the fifties, contrasting heavily with the mornings in single digits, but that's spring in the desert. 

Spring has also come to the Hall House. With this spring semester we found ourselves exhausted by the start of a new semester of grad school and we found ourselves sifting through items that we rarely use and making trips to Goodwill to donate that which was still in good condition. (We even managed to drop off our goodies without going in to replace it all, as is our usual modus operandi.)

It has been fortunate that we had a three-day weekend following our first week back to our very busy lives. We have been allowed to mix work with fun, cleaning with relaxing, and all in all, have a pretty balanced weekend. Sure, there are chapters to read and papers to write, but we're taking things at a more relaxed pace which is nice.

For me, this is quite the change. Perhaps a good one. I generally go full force, right out of the gate. But, maybe after so many years of go, go, go, I'm figuring out how to apply my slow and steady running strategy to life. When I have a due date that is several weeks away, I don't need to be working on the assignment now. I can balance my drive to be successful in school with the joy that I find in long, lazy runs and afternoons of crafting.

Spring is here. A time of new growth, of blossoms, of sunny afternoons. For me, it may just mean a time of growth in how I approach life. Spring is good.

yes please

Short and sweet. That was grad school tonight. Our professor is one that we have not had before, but one that, upon first impression, I would be more than happy to have again. She is direct, opinionated, and wants to make us think about what we think and why we think that way. To that I say yes please, and thank you. I'm looking forward to where this course will lead me in my thinking and in my educational philosophy.

figured out

Well, yesterday afternoon I worked on getting all of the TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) junk cleared up. It turns out that the district office had lost all of my paperwork for everything - my application for working toward my TESOL endorsement (meaning they also didn't have me in the system for a TESOL stipend) and my application for TESOL course reimbursement. As a teacher I don't make much money, and as a grad student, the money that I do make is spent on tuition. Hopefully having these issues straightened out will help out a little bit.

As for now, it's back to the grind. Another grad school class tonight. This week is feeling really long already. I'll be thankful for our day off on Monday, from both teaching and grad school (it will mean I can do work for teaching and/or grad school).

back to reality

Last night grad school started back up. It will be so nice when we finish up our program next year. The mister and I have once again tripled up on classes, which will mean a busy semester. However, it also means that we will not have to take classes this summer. It also means that we will have a comparably light year next year. Our capstone course will require a lot of work, for sure, but we only have nine credit hours to complete over the course of the year. We just may be able to breathe a little bit.

Reality this semester also includes the implementation of the school district's turn around plan. While my principal is retiring at the end of the week, our interim principal will only be here through April. The superintendent announced yesterday at a staff meeting that the changing of principals throughout the district will take place in April, following the culmination of state testing. This way, principals will be a part of the decision making when new hires are made for next year, when goals are submitted to the district and state for next school year, and when budgets are made. It all makes sense to me, but it will also mean a lot of change for a lot of schools at the end of the school year. I guess it also means teachers will be able to decide if they want to stay at their current school with a new principal or if they want to move elsewhere prior to next school year.

With the coming of the new semester, I was also reminded of how disjointed things in our district are. One of the programs in the district provides tuition assistance for teachers seeking TESOL endorsement. I applied for this assistance in November. Yesterday, the mister received notice of a purchase order being placed for his tuition assistance, my name was not on the list. I emailed the director of this program today and she said that she must have misplaced it. I will take copies of my application over to the office today, but she cannot make any guarantees that I will receive those funds because she lost my original paperwork. Needless to say, I went to bed a little angry last night.

My anger was calmed a little though based on the fact that I received a nice little check from Target yesterday as a result of their Field Trip Grants program. In the fall I applied and our trip to the Albuquerque Zoo is now 70% funded. Yay!

everything but the kitchen sink and then some

What a busy couple of days! On Friday we were go, go, go in Room 1 Kindergarten. We had our weekly review sessions followed by our end of week assessments in reading and in math. I was observed by my principal for our lovely new state evaluation system for teachers. We had a rushed special at the computer lab and then wrapped up the day with a parade to celebrate the close of Red Ribbon Week (a week against bullying and drugs).

After school was over I squeezed in the finishing touches on prep work for the coming week as well as a little bit of grad school work, and then I was thrown back in the trenches. My school had our annual Fall Festival Friday night and I was on the face painting crew. With my iPad on hand I was able to look up whatever designs the kiddos wanted and then tried to carry them out with the horrible face paints that the school provided. Grease paints may wash off easily, but it's really hard to get any color to show up when they are dollar store grease paints. Oh well, everyone walked away happy with their transformer, vampire, zombie, and kitty cat faces. In the end it was a fantastic evening - even if I didn't get to leave my table until 15 minutes after Fall Fest ended. I was able to whisper a quick hello to the mister when he stopped by, but didn't have a break to say much more as I had a little one that just kept asking me to paint different colors on her face. She had no clue what was going on, other than the fact that people were getting their faces painted and she wanted in on the action.

Yesterday the mister and I took some time to soak up the sun and get a good hike in before our trails start to be covered by ice. He took me on some new trails and then we wrapped up the miles by coming back on an old standard. We saw tons of animal tracks and while we were hopeful to see some mountain lion tracks (there is a warning sign up that mountain lions have been seen on the trails this year), all that we got to see were those of giant rez dogs that were chasing after deer and some jack rabbit prints. The afternoon consisted of some grad school work before going out to try a new (and delicious) restaurant. When we got home we watched some Dr. Who (a new favorite for me) and I finished up a birthday present for one of my adorable nieces.

Today I've been back at the grind. I started out by getting a good workout in, but then had to go about my usual cleaning routine. After that, it was all grad school. However, I won't complain because I am now done with one of the three courses that I was taking this semester. With any luck I'll be done with the other two before Thanksgiving!

Hope you had a restful weekend and are ready for the week to come!

five little jack o lantern ghost witches

Oh goodness. Next week is Halloween. The kinders are super excited. Lesson planning for next week is rough and plans this week have gone out the window. Thank goodness it is only a three day teaching week.

Next Thursday, all of the kindergarteners from my school are going to the local nursing home to provide some entertainment for the residents. That means that starting today we have roughly 7.5 hours of practice time that we were able to fit into our schedules. This means that I have crazy Halloween songs going through my head all day, we have props to make, and the kinders are going to complete some art projects to decorate the halls of the home. 

Everyone is excited about meeting the "special grandparents that live in the special home" and so in the time leading up to and immediately following our song practice sessions the kinders are amped. That means our learning takes a hit. But, they are loving it and I think that the folks that we visit will love it too. In the meantime I have jack-o-lanterns, witches, ghosts, and Frankenstein running through my head. 

As an added bonus though, this field trip will also count toward a service learning project that I need to do for grad school. Sure, it may be double dipping, but my students are being reminded of the Navajo tradition (and hopefully every other culture out there's tradition) of respecting and honoring their elders. I think that this is an important tradition to instill in our youth, and so we're talking about why we're visiting the home - it really is about more than the fact that we get to trick or treat while we're there and show off our fancy costumes.

Oh life, sometimes you work out so well!

productivity

This weekend has been a productive one. I was sick for the majority of the week and therefore spent all of my time at home asleep or mindlessly watching Netflix. I didn't have the energy to do anything, but all of that has changed this weekend. Thanks to a quick trip to the doctor's on Thursday and a round of antibiotics to clear up a sinus infection my green light has come back on.

This weekend has been spent catching up on the cleaning that I did not do last weekend due to not feeling well (and of course our trip to Canyon de Chelly on Saturday), writing papers for grad school, and working on a birthday present for one of my nieces.  It's nice to have some energy again and to be back at life.

Tomorrow it's back to school for some good old professional development, followed by parent teacher conferences on Tuesday. That's right, we have another three-day week here. Then we have Halloween, an early release Monday, no school on Veteran's Day, and then a week off for Thanksgiving. When will I find time to teach you ask - I am asking myself the same thing. The year is going so fast that I don't know what to do with myself, and with all of the days off coming up I am at even more of a loss. If you have any ideas, feel free to share!

reset

Happy fall break! I just returned from about seven hours in my classroom. Go me!

Last night I had a great discussion with a couple of my classmates about classroom resets. This idea sparked something in me. During the last couple of weeks I have noticed that my students are starting to get snarky with one another and there have been a few tearful outbursts due to comments and actions made my some of the students. When one of my classmates brought up the idea of a reset, I was hooked. What a great time - we're on a break, the first quarter just ended, and we have a new friend in our class. All of these elements seemed to come together in my mind and my reset plan evolved. 

Today, I had intended to go into my classroom to get my planning for next week wrapped up and to close out the first quarter. While I did do those things,  I also made anchor charts for listening skills and appropriate group work behaviors. I made six-inch voice ribbons to help us keep our conversations at a reasonable level when in small groups. I built rule-reset time into my lesson plans for next week. I restocked our table supply boxes and finally managed to find inexpensive dry erase markers to restock that supply (and subsequently glued pom poms on the ends to serve as individual erasers while students are working on write and wipe pockets). Our classroom is reset. 

We will start over on Monday and rebuild our positive environment. We'll refocus our attention on all of the great learning that we have been doing and stop worrying about other students' behaviors. We will worry about ourselves only. I am going to keep affirming these statements with the belief that my vision will come to fruition over the next week and that our class will reset and continue to make incredible progress.

Of course, after getting my reset planned, I had to plan all of the academic stuff. I also organized and reset student data folders for the second quarter. Busy as a bee, but it paid off. Now my plans are in order, the materials needed for next week are all laid out. My first quarter is wrapped up so I do not need to worry about grade verification because everything is entered and I just need to sign off on final grades next week when our clerk is in the office. 

Now I can enjoy fall break to the fullest.

Oh - and it snowed today! Not a lot, but I love seeing the white stuff falling from the sky.

frogger

I wish that I were talking about the old Atari game. It was one of my favorites, in terms of video games. Every rendition of it that I have played since Atari went out of style just hasn't been the same. Instead, today's frogger is the result of something else that I love to do - crochet.

There is a very special little girl in my life that has a birthday coming up on Friday. While I cannot spend her special day with her, I can send her something that was made from the heart, and not just purchased from the store. This morning after going on a short hike I spent the bulk of my day crafting this little guy (and taking breaks here and there to do some grad school reading and writing). 

Happy Birthday Maddie J!

One of the things that I enjoy more and more, as I crochet and do more amigurumi projects is being able to make something up and go with it. Patterns aren't necessarily needed any more, because the base of these projects are pretty universal. I decided that since I know this little girl loves her daddy's aquarium and the little friends that live in it, I would send her a little aquatic friend. I hope that she likes it as much as I do!

collision

Today, teaching and grad school collided. This isn't exactly an unusual thing, but today it happened in an exciting way.

For my reading class I have been assigned the task of doing a miscue analysis on one of my students. Essentially, this entails having a student read a selected text that is slightly higher than their reading level. You analyze their reading to identify strengths and weaknesses in their reading so that you can develop a plan for helping the student improve their reading.

Today, I chose my highest reader to help me with the task. While students were working on a fall craft project I pulled him out for about ten minutes to have him read to me. I chose a story that we will not encounter in our independent readers for nine more weeks and he did an amazing job. He sounded out words and blended them almost effortlessly. He made self corrections when something didn't seem right. He worked through challenging passages and made it to the end, averaging 12 words a minute. It was fantastic for a beginning reader. I was am so proud.

Now I just need to go through and re-listen to my recording of him so that I can write up my report. I have a feeling that that will not be quite as exciting for me to do, but I'll be glad to have an idea regarding how I can help him continue to excel.

Sometimes it is fantastic when two worlds collide!

dead battery

It happens to all of us. The battery dies on something. In recent years I have heard complaints of batteries dying on Kindles before someone is able to finish a book, or the battery on their phone dies before they are able to take a quick photo of something that is priceless. Today, the battery that died was mine. Well, my computer's battery died as well, but that wasn't until after my personal one did.

It take a lot of energy to teach. Last year, I think that I lived in a little bubble of confusion that kept on bouncing me along, somewhat effortlessly. It's easy to have energy when you do not fully realize the implications of your position, how to meet the goals and objectives of your position, and when you don't really understand what you are doing wrong or how you can fix it (or at least try to fix it). 

This year I am tired. I had the summer to really evaluate what it means to be a kindergarten teacher. I have a better understanding of my goals, and as a result I am pushing my students further. To do this, I am also pushing myself further. I spend time trying to develop dynamic lesson plans that fit within the district mandated curriculum. I put myself out there to try and keep my kinders engaged in a less than exciting lesson that just needs to be taught. I spend endless hours looking for new and exciting resources. I write grants. I develop hands on materials (manipulatives). I teach.

Today, I was super excited to see my kinders after being away from them yesterday. We had a fantastic morning that was focused on oral language development (a fancy way of saying that we talked a lot). We did center work. And more center work. And we celebrated National Book-It Day. Then we did more centers in math class. Then I had a meeting. Then we did our exciting smartie pants end of day wrap up (I swear, I'll actually write about this one of these days). Then my kinders left. And with them, my energy vanished. My battery died on the spot when the last student climbed into his father's truck.

Still, I went back to my classroom and had a meeting with my mentor. As a second year teacher I am a part of a mentoring program to help me to become a more effective teacher. This means more work. And of course, on top of that I have grad school work. And lesson planning. Do you get the point? I am exhausted. 

This afternoon though, my computer's battery died. This year I have taken to leaving my charger at home. Today, I found good reason to do this. When my battery died, I had to leave (well, not really, but it seemed like a good excuse).

The good news is that we have fall break next week. Four whole days of no teaching (just planning, grad school, yada, yada, yada). I am ecstatic. 

busy busy blah

Saturday and Sunday flew by once again. Saturday morning the mister and I walked downtown to peruse the farmer's market and to grab a few goodies from the co-op. Then it was home with our noses tucked into grad school work. We did manage to go out with friends on Saturday evening through, which is always a pleasant escape from the world of work and more work.

Yesterday was a fantastic day. The mister and I both ran in a local half marathon. It was a little chilly, but we had a beautiful day out on the trails. We both ran faster than we did last year (an easy feat for me since I did not run last year). Of course, once our time on the trails were done we rushed home to more work - chores, planning for the week, and grad school work.

Today was my blah. I was in training all day, which I will say was fantastic, but the energy that I have while teaching was missing. I don't know if that was the result of running yesterday, but I suspect that it was the result of sitting all day and listening to someone talk. The presenter was really engaging, but I am used to getting up and moving around nearly every fifteen minutes - I have grown accustomed to the attention span of a five year old.

Now it's off to more grad school. Tonight is a reading class, and thankfully it should not entail more sitting. We have a gallery walk of how our school and/or classrooms promote reading. Here's a little look at what reading looks like in my classroom and school.

sped on by

It all started with a speed workout this morning. Then I was engulfed in sped all day long. Special education that is. 

One of the graduate courses that I am taking this semester is an introduction to special education. I am learning about the legality of the system, the exceptionalities that students may be diagnosed with, and the implications for me, a general education teacher. As with all classes, I have assignments to complete, and today seemed to be the day when I was able to get them done - or at least started. 

This morning I was observed by my instructor during my morning meeting. I was able to share with her one of my most favorite times of the day - the time when we all say good morning, get to share a little bit about ourselves, do a group activity, and work on our literacy development. I am always excited by this time of day and it helps to get our class started on the right foot. This assignment will continue through a process of feedback from her and my reflection on that feedback.

My instructor left right as we were beginning language arts time, and from there the morning took off. We flew through different activities, focusing on high frequency words (have & is this week), the letter a and the /a/ sound. Reading and listening comprehension. Facts about flowers. Comparing and contrasting. And, before I knew it, the kinders were lining up for recess. This is how the majority of my mornings go. I become engaged with my students and before I know it, it is time for a break. I love it!

After recess the students worked with my assistant, as is usual and I worked on preparing some materials for a lesson that will be given next Monday when I am out for a training. The students worked on their letter sounds while I listened in the background and checked in on their small group projects. When lunch rolled around we were in a rush to line up and get to the cafeteria in time, because once more, we were engaged in our assignments and forgot to look at the clock.

At lunch time I was engulfed in sped work again. Another assignment for my class is to interview someone from the special education team. Today was my lucky day as our educational diagnostician was on campus. She only stops by occasionally, but I wanted her perspective since it is the one that I know the least about. We sat and talked throughout my entire lunch, meaning I only ate a few bites of my delicious salad. My kinders were great coming back into class and my assistant did her amazing thing where she got math class started so that I could at least eat my salad.

Math was a breeze, reading 1 Hunter, by Pat Hutchins and practicing numbers that are one more than the previous. The kinders were really engaged and involved in the counting of animals and figuring out what the number would be if there was one more animal. They then completed their worksheets with flying colors. Once again, time flew and before I knew it we were being called to the cafeteria for a fund raising assembly.

And, just like that the day came to a close. We had a short intervention session where I worked with some students on one to one correspondence (counting in normal people terms) and then I brought out the smarties. I'll need to share about smarties another day because for me, my day will continue with more special education. Tonight I have class to learn even more about this field of education so that I can improve my practice!

Happy (crazy) Wednesday! I hope that yours sped on by as well.

all caught up

On sleep. And other things too. But seriously, on sleep.

Reaching six weeks into the school year must have been some sort of milestone, because I am beat. Friday evening I didn't feel like moving, and the same predicament came over me yesterday. I did manage to get a nice five mile run in with the mister before the unpredictable naps came into play. I tried my hardest to commit to my grad school work, but that didn't really work out. I would read for a little while, then wake up a little while later. Such is life.

Today however, things seem to be back to normal. I got (most of) the cleaning done. Laundry is washed, folded and put away. Groceries are purchased and put on the shelves. Meals a prepped for the week and tonight's dinner is well on its way. And, I finally made it through all of my grad school reading without falling asleep. 

It's nice to have some energy back and to feel caught up on life.

How'd your weekend go?

get it done

As usual, the weekend has been full of getting things done. School things, home things, life things. It's nice to have the weekends to help make the rest of the week run more smoothly.

Yesterday I had a fantastic day of food, fitness, and a little bit of fun. I took a break from my usual long run and did some walking to accommodate for a slightly sore ankle. I walked downtown to the farmer's market and co-op and came home with a couple of bags full of goodies. Our countertop filled up with fruit, veggies, homemade jam and bread. 

After dropping off those goodies I drove out to the state park and hiked my favorite local trail, Pyramid Rock. With all of the rain that we have been getting the desert is green, green, green. It's fabulous! I followed up my hike with a trip to the grocery and wrapped up shopping for the week. 

In an unusual mood for making food, I started prepping food for the week. I got fruits soaked (in water and white vinegar to help them last longer and clean off any junk that they acquired in transit) and put away. I prepped a veggie lasagna with squash, eggplant, and mushrooms. I made hummus from scratch. I made beans (also from scratch, a habit that we acquired in Peace Corps). Things are looking pretty spiffy around here considering we have two nights of grad school this week that we'll need quick food for.

We topped off the evening by going out to Gallup's monthly Arts Crawl. We saw a friend perform with the local belly dancing group and watched some other friends workout with a local fitness group called Iron Warriors. We also got rained on. After checking out our favorite art stores/galleries we decided to call it an early evening and got to the car right before a blinding downpour began.

Today has been equally productive with cleaning and laundry done before noon. Grad school has been thrown into the mix, with the mister wrapping up one of our group assignments for our technology in education course. We've had some more good food and are building up energy for a busy week to come.

Happy Sunday! Remember to rest and rejuvenate!