Le Tour

For the past 5 years I had been talking about going to France for the 100th Tour...long story and the plans never got made...I wanted to see two days of the race and The Captain had other ideas about what a vacation would look like. So here I sit watching it on TV...with all those stupid commercials.

*LIVESTRONG*LOVESTRONGER*LAUGH HARDER*GO RIDE A BIKE*

SuMmEr

SuMmEr...finally!
Lots of sun...over 100 degrees in fact. No more camp...or moving children 230 miles from storage to new house...dental appointments finished...kiwi boyfriend flew back to N. Zed last night...and Daughter #2 will fly down there in 6 weeks for another year on a Work/travel visa....so for now it is just time to do whatever I want for 2 weeks until we climb HALF DOME!! 

I am excited! I applied for permits way back in February...and when I got the dates, July 17 seemed so far away. It is the first of our summer adventures. Now if the weather just complies we will make it to the top...me, The Captain, Daughters #1 and 2 and two friends. We will leave from the parking lot at around 10 p.m.- last year it was 80 degrees when we left the lot. Last year I didn't know I was going until a half an hour before we left home....and I had ridden in a 100K bike ride that morning....so this year I will NOT do the bike ride that day but the weekend prior. We will hike throughout the night and be on the top of Half Dome for sunrise. This year I will have my good camera for photos.

What are your summer plans?

*LIVESTRONG*LOVESTRONGER*LAUGH HARDER*CLIMB THE CABLES TO THE TOP*

 

Summer Scamper

It was overcast and humid...and then the sun came out for mile two just to toast us for a minute or two...but I beat my last time by 7 seconds even with my rolled ankle...I came in at 28:54- Finally getting past the 30 minute mark again...

After the run: Daughter #1 and I ...and Kira and her husband who placed first overall with 17:00!! Kira ran slow with 20:10! They were enjoying bananas and bagels by the time I came in to get ice on my ankle. I am only 24 years their senior...that's my excuse.

It was fun to see three students from my school and one who was in my class the past two years...all of whom run in my Running Club two mornings a week during the school year.

Now on with summer! (Even if the weather forecast is rain for this afternoon!)

**Official results just posted:
I beat my record by 8 seconds!! And I was 6th out of 51 in my age group...I am excited...maybe that's what I need to run more...now that my ankle feels okay to run when taped :)

*LIVESTRONG*LOVESTRONGER*LAUGH HARDER*TAKE 7 SECONDS OFF YOUR 5K TIME*

Let SUMMER Begin!

On Friday I loaded up my car with Club Ed books and craft items and bid farewell to that classroom until next summer. The sun was shining and I was on my way to work out with The Captain in no time at all.

Today I spent enjoying the sunshine, sewing and reading up on word study for second grade. We went to breakfast with our friend and his mother who is visiting from Guatemala -doesn't help that I know only a few words of Spanish -but it was a good time. Then tonight we went to a spaghetti feed for an Avon Breast Cancer Walk...and The Captain won a "Pamper Me Beauty Basket" and I won a $20 Starbucks Card....funny how I don't drink coffee but always win or get those cards as gifts...but I will use it in New York for my favorite unsweetened black ice tea lemonades for breakfast while I check the internet.

Tomorrow Daughter #1 and I will run in a 5k at Stanford...which benefits Lucile Packard Children's Hospital where Daughter #1 spent 3 years of her life...and she will now run as an honoree. I will be testing out my ankle- I have run barely a mile a few days this week and it is still tender...but should be fine for a slowe 5k...and I can always walk.

*LIVESTRONG*LOVESTRONGER*LAUGH HARDER*ENJOY SUMMER!*

Eric Carle Camp

Today was the first day of Eric Carle Camp- Club Ed. I had 6 students on my roster on Friday and this morning had 11. Good thing I bought extra snacks :) 

Coming off a loooong week last week where I got very little sleep- due to:
*Report cards
*Moving my classroom- complicated by the speech teacher who was "working" and didn't pack up her things so I could move in...until Friday WHEN EVERYTHING I OWNED HAD TO BE OUT OF MY OLD CLASSROOM!!!!

*Student awards
*Silly awards
*Completing embroidered towels for every volunteer mom/dad in my class.
*Writing thank you notes for each mom/dad who volunteered.
*Copying off worksheets for summer letters that I send to students- 5 over the summer.
*AND collecting items that had to be moved to my garage for the Teacher's Rummage sale that I do in August and do as a fundraiser for Camp Olizu- a cancer camp for children.

My mind did not spontaneously combust and I survived.

Last night was Trivia Night a little pub and THE LAND SHARKS won one round...GO TEAM! Then we walked home and I got things ready to bring to my classroom...today we made Very Hungry Caterpillar scenes...which turned out very well.

4 more days of camp :)

*LIVESTRONG*LOVESTRONGER*LAUGH HARDER*SUMMER VACATION IS HERE*

 

What are the odds....

... that two of my students would have appendicitis this school year?

I am not even sure how many 6 or 7 year olds get appendicitis...but the odds should be somewhere like winning 5 of 6 lottery numbers on a quick pick wouldn't you think? But it happened it room 14 for the second time yesterday.

At any rate- TOMORROW IS THE LAST DAY OF FIRST GRADE!!

I will be moving every last thing out of my classroom and returning it to the state it was in when I moved in two years ago....nothing but a telephone...only this time there will be a white board on the wall....and a whole lot of drawings that I let my kids do...with Sharpies right on the wall...because the walls are coming down. How often do you get to do that to the classroom walls? Without it being something you would be in trouble for.

*LIVESTRONG*LOVESTRONGER*LAUGH HARDER*SUMMER IS HERE*

5 MORE DAYS!

For the 2nd time in my life there are only 5 more days of first grade....the other was way back in the 1960-something....when I could spend time playing all summer with my friends Kathy and Susie- going to the beach with their families and roasting in the So. Cal sun.

This morning I would go for my usual 5K run- BUT last Sunday as I ran down the hill to do my 5 mile Sunday loop I didn't make it. On the way down, I can feel like I am 20 again...running a sub 8 minute mile pace for the first mile(all downhill)...then it levels off and begins a slight uphill grade and I resume my old lady pace....so here I was speeding down the hill like my old 20 year old self, when I stepped on a branch that someone had pruned from their tree (and did not courteously not disposed of properly,) I rolled my ankle- I stopped- sat on the curb and rubbed it. It stung, but has before and was fine. So I put my shoe back on and proceeded to run slowly down the hill. But my ankle did not feel better. So I walked to the school parking lot and called The Captain to come get me. By the time I got home and walked down my slopping driveway I decided to go to Urgent Care. 

Thankfully no break. So some ice, a wrap and a cane later I came home to rest it. Monday and Tuesday I hobbled around work on a cane. But I still had to move boxes to storage and to my new classroom...I  had 5th graders help push the cart and unload. I was able to swim on Wednesday and yesterday I rode the spin cycle and but not the stair climber.

I need to have a healthy ankle for the Stanford Lucile Packard Children's Hospital run on the 22nd...Daughter #1 runs as a honoree and I am honored to be her mom.

*LIVESTRONG*LOVESTRONGER*LAUGH HARDER*RUN CAREFULLY*MOVE 

A ROOM*5 MORE DAYS OF 1ST*

Reading Assessments Part II

I have a giant box for reading assessments....everything you wanted to know and more. My job is to level the each student's reading...which means I listen to each child read a book from the giant box (and mark errors on a paper, time the reading then add and divide errors by self corrections and then figure words read per minute )... There are two books from each level; a non-fiction book and a fiction book. In the fall I used fiction books...generally easier to read and appropriate for beginner readers. 


This first grade reading stuff is all new to me...I didn't have texts or a reading program to use so every month I went to the library and checked out 70 books from a leveled book list online and we read...and read. I read Henry Huggins and Beezus and Ramona books aloud....Magic Tree House books (ghak!!!,) and every book about silk worms and caterpillars and the water cycle I could find....and hatching chick eggs and every Mo Willems' book at least 50x. We looked at books inside and out....where was it published?...when was it written?...Who was it dedicated to?...Does it have a table of contents? We learned to read the pictures...starting with Rosie's Walk...did you know the inside cover has a map of the farm? And you can follow her path by studying the each picture?

And consequentially, the kids learned to read....some of them so well that they surpassed the benchmark for end of year first grade and well into second and some at beginning third grade. I guess I did something right.

So here I am at the end of the year, listening to each child read to me from the non-fiction books in the assessment box. And that stupid bubble book is one that every child has read to me....it is actually a fun, factual book....but after hearing it read, 9 times in the two hours I had to assess on Thursday, I could feel the heat rising from the vapors in my brain- my cerebral cortex ready to explode- or spontaneously combust at any second. I do believe I heard it in my sleep Thursday night...I think the dog was reading to me....

But FRIDAY morning, when I opened the inbox of my work email I found wonderful news!! I was accepted into the Reading Institute at Columbia University in August! I was on the wait list since the end of March...I had been in contact with the person who does the admittance and I think that helped get me in. So I will be flying myself on airline miles to New York City!! I will be paying my hotel- since the dorm rooms are all booked- and my school will pay the $700 institute fees. I was able to attend two years ago when I was enrolled in the Kindergarten institute....but teaching reading beyond kindergarten is a whole different ballgame...and moving onto second grade in the fall I feel totally in need of assistance. I am sooooo looking forward to this....and I love New York City! I love the heat smacking me in the face when I leave the hotel in the morning and how the transit system can take you anywhere at anytime. I am very lucky to be returning to New York!!

*LIVESTRONG*LOVESTRONGER*LAUGH HARDER*LEARN TO READ*