Autism Walk

Friday and Saturday was our school’s first Step Up for Autism Fun Run/Walk. On Friday, we had a 1 mile family walk for parents to walk around the track with their children. Saturday, there was a 5K Fun Run/Walk. Saturday started out with lots of rain and lightning, but cleared up before the 5K started. We were so thankful. I think our turnout would have been even bigger had it not started out raining.

I loved being on a committee where we had such a variety of strengths that everything came together because of all the talents the group possessed. Especially those who were able to get businesses to sponsor the cost of all the t-shirts. The event raised over $7,000 that will go toward the purchase of new sensory equipment and items for our students with autism. They will also use some of the money to create a lending library for parents.

Cole kept shying away from the camera, but here he is with his friend and our Superintendent.

Lisa, a fellow Kdg. teacher, me and Betsy our Secretary.

Our wonderful committee after a hot day Friday outside.

Even our mascot isn’t immune to a leg cramp. :

Cole had the important job of holding the finish line sign on Saturday.

I cannot wait for this event next year!

Waiting for Superman

After school today, a group of over 20 fellow teachers and co-workers went to see the movie Waiting for Superman. The movie was much different than I expected. I was actually pleasantly surprised. Since I don’t like to really get into controversial issues, The whole lottery system for kids getting into charter schools, boarding schools, etc. made me cry. The emotions that the kids were going through like nervousness, anticipation, frustration, etc. were too much.  I guess that is a reality that I am unaware of in my small community.

I walked away feeling like we are pretty blessed to live in an area where teachers genuinely care about their students and are willing to try new things to reach the majority of the learners in our schools. Do we succeed 100% of the time, absolutely not. However, I think that we are constantly striving to continually have high expectations from even the lowest of academic learners. It inspired me to be the best teacher for my students.

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Let the countdown begin…

We only have 24 more days of school this year. That includes only 4 more Mondays. If you take off a field trip day, graduation practice and the last day being a half day, it’s like we only have 21 1/2.

Needless to say, I have a lot to do right now. The end of the year is always insanely busy. This year is no exception. Well, maybe a little exception. I have an ebay customer wanting to buy 6800 bows to donate to the Canadian NICU that her babies were in. So, this adds a little extra pressure. She is suppose to pay tomorrow. I said I wouldn’t begin the order until I actually had her payment, but I’m starting to feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day anyway, so I better get started. If she doesn’t order, I’ll have them ready for my ebay and Etsy customers and maybe I’ll feel like I’m ahead.

On top of this, Sissy has been sick. She is having some horrible coughing rounds at night time. Her days are okay, but nights are awful. Last night, she coughed so hard that she threw up all over both of us. I felt awful for her! I’m hoping that she gets over whatever this is very quickly. She doesn’t think it’s even remotely acceptable for us to deny her playing outside right now. She’s definitely an outdoor girl. Tonight, she was fine with just walking the track around the pond a couple of times and then coming in.

While we were at the pond tonight, a neighbor dog decided to swim in the pond. It was so funny to watch. He would run into the pond and doggy paddle (or is it just called paddling when a dog is doing it?) and then walk right out and play with our dog. Copper, our dog, didn’t initially like the stranger one bit. However, she warmed up to him and they chased two huge bunnies through the field like they were best of friends.

Cole is taking the MAP test the next three days and I offered to make and send brain food on the testing days. Tomorrow, it will be banana bread. The next few days will be pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and to celebrate on Wednesday, some kind of popsicles or ice cream sandwiches.

Tomorrow is our first Families and French Toast breakfast. I think there are 16 people coming in our class. I’m excited about seeing the kids with their parents. We are also starting Kindergarten Graduation practice. This is always a  bit stressful, but I’m hopeful anyway.

Sorry for the random, all over the place post. :) I hope to get some pictures added later this week.

MAP Night

Last Thursday, Cole and I participated in the school’s first MAP night. The kids will be taking the MAP test in just a little over a week. The point of the evening was to encourage the kids to use good test-taking strategies and for parents to see a tiny glimpse of what the test is actually like. The parents and students participated in a mock test. The parents were expected to take a small portion of the test while the kids observed.

It was actually quite humorous! I think the kids enjoyed seeing their parents strain just a little too much! Plus, the teachers had put on a videotaped skit that was academy awards style. The kids seemed to think it was funny, too.

Each family was asked to write a star of encouragement for their child. I thought this was very meaningful. As a mom, I really enjoyed reading the notes to the kids.  Hopefully the kids will find it meaningful, too.

The school served a sack lunch dinner. We sat with one of Cole’s classmates and his mom. We had lots of good conversation. (I think Cole got a little tired of me taking his picture. He kept threatening to smile like this.)

After I finished my first portion of the test, Cole gave me a thumbs up.

When we got in the car to go home, Cole said, “Mom, you did a good job.” Awww, that made it all worth it!

Voting in small town America

FOREWARNING: This post has nothing to do with how I voted. 

I’m pretty sure that there should be a reality TV series about voting in our township. It would be called “If They Want me to Vote, Then Maybe the Polls Shouldn’t be in the Middle of Nowhere”. Well, maybe that’s a little extreme.

However, saying it is out of the way is an understatement. However, the scenery (if you choose to look at it through a glass half full perspective) is beautiful right now!

We had only two issues on the ballot today. A school bond issue and electing school board candidates. As a teacher and a parent, both of these affect me and my family significantly.

So, after school, I headed out to my polling place. It is such a remote location, that they have to place signs like this everywhere so people won’t miss the gravel road.
 
This is the gravel road to Bethel.

Bethel is a cute little Community Building that stills holds pews and a wood stove. There are only two booths/stands from which to vote. The overflow voters can stand and wait for an open booth or vote in the pews. I have been a pew voter before. ;)  We vote with pens on paper.  There are no computers. The building barely has electricity. There is a small, beautiful cemetery right next to the building. We are greeted by people we know and that know our story and our families. Sometimes there are cookies and gifts. In my mind, there are no glitches. This may seem primitive to many people, but it’s simple and amazing in my eyes. I love it!

Cole thinks I’m crazy for taking pictures, but I had to have something to prove I was there. :) Actually, I have taken pictures of him here several times in his life and even though he thinks I’m weird for taking them, I hope to instill in him that this is a valuable right that he will one day be thankful to have. 

On the way to and from voting, we travel over ‘Washboard Hills’ as the road is so affectionately referred to or in true Ozarks fashion, ‘Warshboard Hills’. It’s a series of several hills that pop up and down one right after the other like an old metal washboard. Sometimes, when John drives, I feel like I’m losing my tummy. It’s great!

If you go too fast, your vehicle bottoms out, as evidenced by the marks at the bottom of this hill.

Since it was so windy and we were still a long way from home, I decided to do a little hand surfing. (If you know me really well, you’d know how embarrassed I am that people do this in front of other people) and you would be really proud that I actually took a picture of myself doing it.

Secretly, I love doing it when I know no one is looking! There’s just something great about the wind hitting your hand and it popping it back up that reminds me of being a carefree little kid. But I digress…

Since the polls are in the middle of nowhere and our main road to get home was closed for repaving, we had to take the long way home. We saw some beautiful forsythia bushes. I love the vibrant yellow!

Near our house is a row of beautiful trees in full bloom right now. In the sunlight, they look magnificent. (Ann, this is your niece’s place.)

Regardless of how far we drive or the scenery in the path we choose or even the way we choose to vote, we are so very fortunate to live in a society that our opinion is valued. The fact that we have a voice is something that can be extremely taken for granted. We have rights that people are willing to die for and others, to kill for. Whether or not everyone chooses to vote is a personal decision, but for me, it’s a privilege and I’m proud to say, “I VOTED!”

Help our classroom get an HP Printer!

This may look like a super adorable, cute and fun Kindergarten classroom since I enlisted the help of a fabulous seamstress mother who treated me with ladybug curtains but I can’t afford the necessities for my kids like a printer, let alone, a printer/scanner/copier that actually works. Right now, our printer is so old that it isn’t compatible with the operating system on our computer. Not good! However, you can help!

(Insert shameless plug here)

Currently, HP is partnering with DonorsChoose.org to help fund projects for classrooms across the US. HP is willing to pick up the cost of half any HP product ordered through CDW or Quill. I promise that the grant proposal I submitted was for one of the cheapest HP All-in-One printer/scanner/copiers that I could find. Right now, we are $111.07 shy of having our proposal fulfilled. Please help if you can! You can donate as little or as much as you’d like.

Here's a link to our project: http://www.donorschoose.org/donors/proposal.html?id=368975.

I have had two grants fulfilled through DonorsChoose and have been blessed to know that generous donors are willing to support education.

Here is a link to a peek into our classroom from the beginning of this year. http://apeekintoournest.blogspot.com/2009/08/peek-into-my-classroom.html

Compassion

This past week, our school had the opportunity to participate in two different Haitian relief efforts. We took part in our state department’s hygiene kit program and also a Hats for Haiti fundraiser. Cole had seen on the news that another school allowed the kids to wear hats to school if they donated $1 to the relief efforts. He mentioned the idea to our principal and she told him yes, if he had a sponsor. I willingly offered to be his sponsor because I wanted to encourage and support him in doing something compassionate for others. I’m so glad I did!

Our school district raised enough money to purchase  110 kits to add to the kits the students brought to school. We ended up taking over 376 kits collected this past week. The kits included a full size shampoo, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, a hand towel and a comb. Our elementary goal was to collect 10o kits and we ended up with 273 from the elementary alone. That is practically two kits per three students. I know times are hard for people and this effort came on the heels of a fundraiser for Camp Barnabas, so I was truly overwhelmed with the generosity of our students, teachers and community.

 

Most of all, I’m so proud that my son has a heart that is compassionate. I hope that age and the world will not change his heart. He recognizes the need to help others in need. Period.

Taking the boxes to Convoy of Hope yesterday filled a place in my heart that I will not soon forget. Each and every person we met at Convoy  was friendly, kind and hard-working. They even let Shelly back her truck up to the loading dock so they could unload all of the boxes for us.

 

Although our efforts may seem meager compared to the enormity of needs we have in our country and others, it’s so humbling to know that we have the opportunity to be able to help in some small way.

A super special thanks to my friends, Shelly and Kristi, for staying at school with me until 10 PM on Monday, to count, sort, package and load the boxes to be taken yesterday.  They are amazing!

 

 

We also got to see one of my dad’s childhood friends.  He helped Cole unload everything.  :) (This made it even more special!)

I prayed over the kits in hopes that they will be given to children who will feel blessed, in some small way, amidst all the tragedy that they have seen and endured since the January 12th earthquake.

A Peek into my Classroom

It’s already seven days into the school year and I’m just finally getting around to posting pictures of my classroom. It’s already proving to be a challenging year, but we are taking it one day at a time.   I hope you enjoy a little glimpse into my little home away from home.

Front of my room

Back of my room

This side of my room has almost all of the storage. I used the back of the cubbies as my word wall.

Our reading area

Side view of the reading area

This is the doorway leading into an adjoining classroom.

This little salvaged bookcase was charming with lots of abuse use from another teacher. It holds lots of things for morning play.

Calendar area

All our extra supplies. I’m hoping to get a small bookcase for this area so I don’t have to keep reaching on my tippy toes to add things to the calendar. :)

I hope you enjoyed this little picture tour of my Kindergarten classroom!

***I just realized I didn’t take a picture of one side of the room. I’ll have to add those later.  It includes my desk, the sink, closet, kitchen set, water fountain, etc.

What happened to school’s out, school’s out, teacher let the monkeys out????

I remember singing this in my head like yesterday. Now, here I am back at school getting my room ready for a new and super cute batch of cutie pies. I thought it would be fun to post a few before pictures. I have my work cut out for me this year because I switched rooms again. Why, oh why, do I do this???

I’m pretty sure my Kindergartners will never realize the insane number of hours that go into making my room their school home. However, I love this part of teaching so much.  I love organizing, decorating, rearranging, etc. I just wish I could have the motivation to do it at home at the same time. :) I have 10 days until Open House and 12 days until the kids come. It never feels like I will have it all done in time, but somehow, it all comes together.

This is half of the front side of the room.

Here’s the other half.

This is the front of the room.  Audrey enjoyed running around the room a lot. Hopefully she won’t pick up too many bad habits before she gets in school.

This is half of the other side of the room.

Here’s the other half.

This is the back of the room. (Complete with two adorable children at the back table.)