We all need each other!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 
to the Tuesday Slice of Life sponsored by 
Two Writing Teachers.

I pull off the freeway, glad to be out of traffic on this dreary day, chanting three phrases to remind me of the the stops I need to make so I can return home and stay there.  "Bread - Gas- Post Office."  I stop at a grocery store where I usually don't shop, trying to plot the quickest path for my three stops.  I step out, needing an umbrella, but refusing to dig mine out of the back seat since Seattleites don't use umbrellas.  There's something about real rain in Seattle (as opposed to our usual gentle mist) that brings out the hermit in me.  I just want to finish my errands and hibernate, out of the rain and the cold.   Just my luck, the bread I want to purchase is sold out!  How is that possible when 3/4 of our community is away skiing in the mountains or sunning on the beach in Hawaii?

I force myself to add a 4th stop to the list by stopping at my usual grocery store.  I grab the loaf of bread and a couple of other items before dashing back to the car.  Only two more stops and I can head home where I'll stay dry and cozy for the remainder of the day.  I pull up behind another car at the gas station.  Since no one is getting out, I hope the customer is almost finished so that I can pull in out of the rain to fill my gas tank.  After waiting a few moments, a little old lady steps out.  I sigh, back up, pull into the road and circle around so that I can easily access the gas tank out of the rain, except that this rain is blowing a bit sideways so really there is no out of the rain for anyone today.  I fill the tank even though I'm tempted to purchase just a few gallons because it might be raining again the next time I need gas.  I'm glad that I'm wearing my winter fleece.  The breeze and the rain is bone-chilling.  I can't wait to finish up, only one more stop - post office - and then home.  

I glance over my shoulder to see the same little old lady in the next lane trying to reach the opposite side of her car with the gas nozzle.  She gives up and returns the nozzle to the pump, baffled by her situation.  I walk over and encourage her to pull out, turn around, and come back in so that her tank will be next to the pump.  I vow to hang around and give her a hand when she tells me that her husband always did this for her.  He's in the front seat, but no longer able to help her.  

When she gets the car turned around, I step over to help her with the automated process and encourage her to use her Freddy QFC number because she can get 30 cents per gallon discount with it.  She inputs her phone number, but the machine doesn't recognize her number, and then we are unable to start another transaction.   After several tries, she heads inside to see the young man and get  his help.  He comes out, and is also unable to initiate the transaction.  She follows him so that he can scan the credit card inside.  All this time I'm standing beside her car in the rain worrying about her because she is only wearing a light jacket, and I'm shivering in my fleece jacket.  I keep reminding myself that this could be my grandmother, and I would hope that someone would help her out in a similar situation.  

He scans her card and motions that it's okay for me to fill the tank.  I begin the process, using the top quality gas that she insists her husband always buys.  I'm holding the handle because there isn't one of those silver thingys to keep the gas flowing.  The young man inside comes out to tell me that there is no need to keep holding it since it's automatic.  I reply that it doesn't have the silver thingy, and he shows me that it doesn't need it.  Hmmph!  Apparently the pumps on this side have a new technology that hadn't reached my side yet.  I needed the silver thingy.   By now, I'm realizing that keeping up with technology is a lost cause, and this little old lady couldn't be my grandmother, but she might be my mom, and I would want someone to help her.  

We finish the transaction, and I explain to her about the click she needs to hear when she screws the lid on the gas tank.  When you don't do that, you end up with an unneeded trip to the dealer and a promise that they will charge you the next time this happens (voice of experience speaking).  I can't resist telling her that she really should wear a heavier jacket when the weather is so inclement.  She replies that she hasn't had a cold in eight years (not a claim that I can match).  

As I pull away, I hear her car alarm going off!  I watch in my rear view mirror to make sure that she figures out how to turn it off and pull away chanting, "One more stop - post office- and then I can go home."  

I also realize that this lady could be me in ten years.  Heck, it's me every day as my students watch my feeble attempts to utilize technology in my classroom.  It makes me appreciate them even more!  

Continuous small treats!

                                 So excited to join Saturday Celebrations with Ruth Ayres! 
                       It is fun to live my week thinking about what I will celebrate on Saturday.

                                    A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!


1.  Woo Hoo!  When I copied and pasted the header for my Saturday Celebration, it came out centered without any extra work.  That's never happened before.  One of the mysteries of my life is the technology issues I face.  But any day when technology works for me is a day to celebrate.

2.  Linda's quote inspired me to share this favorite quote by Iris Murdoch:  "One of the secrets to a happy life is continuous small treats." 

3.  This was our midwinter break, and I savored many small treats:

• baking oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for hubby to take to friends in TX, 
• spending the day in PJs while I graded a mountain of papers into a small hill,
• reading People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks for a google chat book club with two dear friends, walking with a friend, dining out with friends, sipping hot chocolate with a friend, and watching an afternoon matinee of "Monuments Men" with a friend!

SUNRISE WITH THE MOON'S SOFT GLOW

4.  I visited my favorite spot this week at sunrise after dropping hubby at the airport for an early flight to TX.  The twinkling lights are from Seattle.  

SUNSET WITH BILLOWING CLOUDS OF BLUE

5.  And I stopped by the park one evening to share the predominant color of our mid-winter break.  However, I celebrated each sun break during the week with a happy dance.  


Have a wonderful weekend filled with small treats!

My Cocoon of Comfort

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 
to the Tuesday Slice of Life sponsored by 
Two Writing Teachers.

Celebrating a cold?  Certainly, when it arrives right before a break with no sub plans to write.  I survive Friday and crawl into my cocoon of comfort at 3:30 in the afternoon where I stay for the next seventeen hours.  Strange dreams trouble my sleep and confusion abounds . . . cousins, classrooms out of control, people mixed up in time. Saturday I take several naps, file a report, and then crawl back into my zone of comfort. Sunday is another day of rest, but no church for me because I don't want to share these germs.  Monday arrives, and I finally tackle the mountain of papers awaiting my attention. The sun comes out, a welcome friend from the predicted week's forecast of rain, showers, and more rain.  I venture to the grocery store, planning my trip so that I can stop by my favorite spot to savor some thinking time.  As I drive to the grocery store, I'm disappointed that there is no glorious sunset to pursue.  I purchase a few items and drive to the pocket park to capture the gloom of a February day.  Instead, I'm rewarded with ribbons of pale pink, a bit of lemon yellow as the sun sinks below the horizon, and Old Glory rippling in the breeze.

Saluting President's Day!

Poetry, snow, and colds!

                                 So excited to join Saturday Celebrations with Ruth Ayres! 
                       It is fun to live my week thinking about what I will celebrate on Saturday.

                                    A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!


1.  Thanks to Julie Johnson's post about the Poetry Box Project, I threw my hat into the ring and received this email on Sunday from Kevin Cordi:
"Dear Story Ambassadors,
I want to inform you that you have been selected to receive the Children's Poetry StoryBox at your school and/or community. We know that you will be a great StoryBox Ambassador as kids and adults are encouraged to finish the poetry of National Children's Poets.   J. Patrick Lewis and myself are overjoyed with the response to the invitation..."
Thanks, Julie, for writing about this opportunity on Celebrate Saturday.  I'm thrilled to be a part of this project!


2.  We had snow on Saturday night and Sunday.  The kids loved a day to play in the snow, and it was sufficiently melted by Monday that we didn't even need a late start.  I know many of you are tired of the snow, but it was our first real snow this winter.  I loved enjoying the day from inside my cozy home.

3.  I picked up the cold that's been circulating at my school and in my classroom.  I'm celebrating that I have this next week off for mid-winter break, so I'll have plenty of time to rest and recuperate and no sub plans to write!

Necessity is the mother of invention!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 
to the Tuesday Slice of Life sponsored by 
Two Writing Teachers.

Sometime during the fall, I agreed to January 27th for our team field trip. Around the middle of January I realized that our field trip conflicted with the date for the ALA Midwinter Media Awards.  I do Mock Newbery literature circles each fall and our culminating activity is enjoying breakfast together as the awards are announced.  A quick meeting to announce the awards before the field trip did not allow us to have our usual breakfast celebration.  So, I created an event to honor the Newbery awards, recognize the winners (current and past), and allow my students to have food in conjunction with the event.  After all, everyone knows that middle schoolers, celebrations, and food are all closely linked! 

I named our event Share the Newbery Love. In preparation for our celebration on January 31, students made a list of Newbery books they had read.  Amid groans of "I haven't read any," or "I've only read two," I encouraged them to look at the list.  I reminded them that they could include Honor books as well as the Newbery Medal winners, and they were welcome to include any book they had read or someone else had read to them.

After they compiled their lists, I asked them to write a book review of their favorite title. Students brought in copies of books they had read to display with the list and book review.  I set up the room with two rows of desks facing each other and we walked through the classroom as if in a gallery to view the lists and book reviews.  Students recorded titles in their WRNs (writer's reader's notebooks) for their Someday (I Want to Read) lists.  I asked that they record at least three Newbery possibilities during our gallery walk.








Almost all of the students discovered that they had read or listened to more than a few Newbery titles.  One student had 44 titles on her list.  We created a special recognition known as the Newbery Decades Reader for any student who has read at least one title from each decade. Two students earned the recognition that day, and several others are working toward receiving the recognition.

A Newbery Decades reader who has read 44 Newbery Medal and Honor books!

This week we moved our lists and book reviews to the hallway bulletin board so that we can share our Newbery love with the school community.  

The pink hearts bordering the display list each student's favorite title.
On Valentine's Day, we're inviting other students and teachers
to stop by and add a heart with their favorite Newbery title.
We hope to see this board jam-packed with Newbery love on Friday! 

Smaller classes top this week's celebrations!

                                   So excited to join Saturday Celebrations with Ruth Ayres! 
                       It is fun to live my week thinking about what I will celebrate on Saturday.

                                  A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!

One:  The Seahawks Victory Parade on Wednesday in downtown Seattle meant that approximately 1/2 of my students were absent from every class.  My students who came to school on Wednesday enjoyed smaller classes, tickets for cookie bars, and leftover chips and pretzels from our Newbery celebration the previous week.  

Two:  I won the drawing sponsored by our Social Committee at Wednesday's District Directed meeting - a $25 gift card to Shell!

Three:  I attended a poetry writing workshop this afternoon sponsored by Nathan Cummings, a local senior who is one of five National Student Poets.  We wrote exquisite corpse poetry and created beat poems from song lyrics.   I can't wait to invite him into my classroom for our poetry unit.  

It was a mind numbing day!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 
to the Tuesday Slice of Life sponsored by 
Two Writing Teachers.

We're doing something new this year - reading screenings in 6th grade.  It's something I've begged for ever since I started teaching at this grade level in middle school.  I always "kind of knew" where my students were in reading, but I never had data to back up my assumptions.  Now we find ourselves in the position of administering a screening tool to students from both of our blocks in one day, three times a year.  The district brings in subs for the day and we pull our students out of classes to complete the screenings.  I like that I was able to screen all of my own students this time, but talk about mind-numbing!  I'm not sure how elementary school teachers do this.  I want to create a fractured tale from the three samples our students read.  I know I can't, but it appeals to the writer in me.  It's certainly something to keep me chuckling as I listen to 50+ renditions of the same stories.  How about it?  How do you keep your sanity when administering the same assessment tool over and over and over and over and over? 

Phones, teammates, parties, and books!

                                  So excited to join Saturday Celebrations with Ruth Ayres! 
                     It is fun to live my week thinking about what I will celebrate on Saturday.

                                  A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember!

 One:   I celebrate phones!  The bill from Ma Bell no longer frightens me.  I don't have to set a timer or remind myself that each minute I chat is costing me money.   Fox Photo is no longer a major budget item.  I celebrate the ease with which I can take many pictures, delete the bad ones, save the good ones, crop a picture, enhance a picture - all with the push of a few buttons.

Two:  I celebrate my content team!  I'm blessed to work with a team that inspires me, pushes my thinking, helps me iron out my technology mishaps, shares freely, and makes me laugh.  Our time together is always fun.

Three:  I celebrate our Share the Newbery Love party!  Our Monday field trip and the shortened time to celebrate the Newbery announcement forced me to think outside the box.  The new event I created encouraged us to celebrate all the Newbery winners.  I'll write more about it in my slice of life on Tuesday.

Four:  I celebrate books!  After I watched the ALA Youth Media Awards on Monday, my fingers were busy requesting titles that I hadn't already checked out from the library. 

Look what was on my hold shelf at the library yesterday.  I can't wait to dive into some of these books this weekend and share with my students on Monday.