Go Packers!

Hi all... sorry for the lack of blogging... this week is extra-crunchy crunch time (with no end to the crunching in sight)

HOWEVER..... I had to share this as its one of my "to-look-forward-to" things.

My Daddy is taking me to the pre-season Broncos-Packers game on August 22nd! YAY!! GO PACKERS :)

He sent me this picture:

Cow Racing, Swimming, and The Library

So my weekend has been a good combination of fun and productiveness! Saturday I spent some time cleaning up the house, organizing, etc. I also played with the pooperdog and napped with the fat kitty. Then it was off to Marci's house for some fun with friends. I finally got a reason to open the raspberry framboise that Justin gave me for my birthday a few years ago back in Ketchum! Everyone loved it! Yum!! It was such a fun night, and so nice to get some downtime with the friends.

The best part of the whole evening (other than just the overall fun) was playing their Wii gamestation. There was fishing and shooting and... best of all.... cow racing!!! My cow's name was Stella (STELLLLLAAAAAAAAA!!!) and she was a very fast cow :)

So Sunday morning I got up early so the pup and I could get some nature-time before I had to meet some of the crew at the library for work-time. As it was suppose to be another scorcher, we drove up to the reservoir. We hiked around a different area, chased some geese (by "we" I mean Sherlock), and we both ended up taking a few dunks in the nice cool water! Just about the time we had to head out the big clouds rolled in, so it was perfect timing. I booked it back down to the Springs and then made some good progress at the library.

Tonight I watched the last stage of the Tour. Cadel (my pick for winner) got 2nd overall, but Sastre deserved his victory, so it was all good! Those men are just unbelievable athletes... I think its on my life list of things to do to go see that race in person. Maybe Mark will fly me over next year ;)

Tomorrow I don't have regular class as we have loads to do we are getting some time to do it, so while I plan to sleep past the regular alarm time, I will be back on campus getting some more work done! One week for the science project, two weeks until the school year starts, and three weeks until the second chapter of the Masters paper is due! Eeeesh!! Guess I'll rest my brain so it can get crankin tomorrow! :)

My new hat!

So here is the present I got from Julie. When she took me to the teacher store, School Crossing, before Whiz Bang started, I saw this fantastic hat. She has a birthday hat in her classroom, so when someone has a birthday they get to wear the hat! I thought it was just the cutest idea ever, but I decided not to spend the money until I had an actual classroom of my own. Julie decided I needed it anyway :) She's the best!! It isn't Sherlock's birthday, but he offered to model the hat for the picture... the yellow candle in the middle is attached to the hat, and the rest are velcro-bottomed, so you can pick the colors you want. There are only 6... so I might have to find some more if kids want to put their age on there... we'll see. I love it!!

If you want to wear it on your birthday, you'll just have to come visit my classroom!

Waterwheels and Soap Sail Boats

So today was the last day of Whiz Bang Science. It was a week shorter than the Gifted/Talented program, but it felt just as long. Probably because I was more "in charge" of teaching this time, and because there was a lot more content/planning to teach vs. Shakespeare. We did solar cells, balloon race cars, ivory soap sail boats (they were awesome!!), planted sunflower seeds and beans, made our working water wheel do work (also awesome!), made gravity-boats, and visited the CC organic farm. Whew!! No wonder I am tired!

The farm was yesterday, we took both classes and it was a great trip. The "farm" is actually just a big garden in the backyard of the CC president's house that is managed by CC students. It was in walking distance of campus, so we just herded them over and back. It was really hot, but the kids got to plant the seedlings they had been growing, pet some chickens (who weren't thrilled with that situation), smell the compost ("Ewwwww.... can I touch it?"), taste some broccoli, peas, carrots, etc. and of course, most importantly, run through the sprinklers. Well... my kids did at least :) It was a fun day for them.

Today we made renewable-energy-windchimes out of recyclable stuff while waiting for our turn to go out and join the picnic line. We got lots of hugs (yay!) and compliments from parents. It was great. They are so creative!! I think the best part of my entire week was presenting them with a "challenge" question and hearing their answers. Since we talked about waterwheels, I told them about overshot (water goes over the wheel) and undershot (water goes under the wheel) and told them one of them was better/more efficient. They had to tell me which one and why. Some great thinking!!! And it was just so great to get one-on-one time with each of them.

If you are waiting for me to tell you which one is better... you'll have to think about it and let me know what you think and why!! (And don't look it up! That's cheating!!)

So after we cleaned up our room, we headed over to one of the mentor-teacher's house to have an afternoon of chatting, munching, beveraging (yes that is a word), and overall-winding-down. That was a lot of fun (although I could have used a nap first). A few of my fellow students are taking a certification test this weekend, so they were all picking my brain about the science section. In case you are interested, the plural form of mongoose is mongooses!! Hee hee. Anyway, it was just good to have time to just be mellow with no class and no planning and no kids. And then it was time to go home. Now, after letting the pooperdog run around the park with one of his neighbor-dog-friends, I am catching up on laundry and seriously thinking about cleaning my house. Yes -- thinking about it... I haven't gotten farther then that yet. On tap for this weekend is a social gathering tomorrow night, some homework (we have a big science-project thing to due over the next week) and the much-neglected Masters paper. Luckily we have a day off from class on Monday to get some work done, so I plan to be productive!

I should go check my laundry and start cleaning, but I think I will veg in this chair for a while longer. Oh!! And when I find where I put my camera, I will post a picture of the delightful present I got from Julie today :)!! But for now... me and the chair are just going to sit here :)

Weekend? What weekend?

So this weekend was not so much fun. I feel like I am fighting off a bug, or I am just way behind on sleep. Or both. I slept a lot. The rest of the time I did homework. My fat kitty enjoyed the snuggling nap-time. And Sherlock had to settle for ball-time while I was reading. By settle I mean he didn't get to really go anywhere, but he got to play ball a-LOT! It was really hot here this weekend too, so it wouldn't have a been a lot of fun to go anywhere anyway. (That's what I am telling myself to make myself feel better). So I got sleep, and got homework done. Not enough of either, but enough to make me feel a little better.

Sherlock was happy that an Aussie won the stage (of the Tour de France) today :) I was bummed that my honey dropped out of the race - although he wasn't in it to win this year, so it was expected... I still missed him today. He needed to go home and rest up so he can win some gold next month! Good luck in the Olympics Mark!! :)

Time to finish up some some homework. And just in case your weekend was kinda poopy too... here are some smiles brought to you by my nephews :) They never fail to cheer me up!

Sam

and Max :)

My Boys!

Mark Cavendish won his FOURTH stage of the Tour !!! Yay!!
If you haven't been watching the tour, you should at least go to
http://www.versus.com/tdf
and watch my boy do his stuff!

I think I should send him myself in a box for a congratulations present :)

And I had a fantastic (but exhausting) day of teaching my science-boys today. They designed some pretty awesome ivory-soap boats :)

Time to sleep!

Loves....

I'm in love with.... teaching! (and I think also Mark Cavendish!)

So my 16 boys are just fantastic (ok, not all of them, some of them I want to tie to their chairs) and so much fun! Actually today we switched classes, so I had the other (girls and boys) 3rd grade class, and I missed my boys! They are loud and crazy, but they are so smart and energetic!! Controlling chaos is so much more fun than rolling rocks uphill. The other class is very mellow, which is great if you are watching a video or something, but when we tried to have group discussions, or even ask for volunteers....
.....
...
chirp-chirp (that's the crickets!)
....
.....
Nothing! Uuugghh... it was so painful. Definitely a good experience for how the same "lesson plan" can make two totally different lessons happen depending on class dynamics. I still have to teach that class a couple more times, so it also helps me mentally prepare, but I am glad I have my boys back tomorrow.

Its been a fun couple of days with the kids:
~~ pretending our class was in plant factory and watching the plant workers (that's us with head-bands on our heads with flowers sticking out on them) go through the photosynthesis process (aka collecting balloons and popping them!)
~~ experimenting with different insulators to see which one keeps in heat better
~~ playing with solar cells and trying to figure out if we can make them work in the shade (hint... try the mirror!!)

Tomorrow we are studying wind energy by making balloon powered race cars and ivory-soap sail boats! AND... it will be Friday!!! (I'm more than a little behind on sleep this week!)

Oh -- and Mark Cavendish is a very adorable British cyclist who won his third stage of the Tour today!!! He doesn't know it, but I have a crush on him :)

Frustrating!

Ok so the science camp is great! The boys are great (so far!), my teacher/partner is great (and goofy!), our ideas are working... its all fantastic.

My actual "class" on the other hand is insanely frustrating. Its also hard to describe why its frustrating..... so I will try and if you don't get it.... well I'm too busy to try something else. So, imagine that you can juggle... you have practiced so much that juggling is in your muscle memory - you do it by habit without actually thinking about what you are doing. Now imagine that someone is trying to re-teach you how to juggle. As soon as you start thinking about what you are doing - what happens? You drop all the balls!!!!! Especially if someone is trying to teach you in a way different than the way you learned.

So that's the best way I can explain what is going on in my head right now. I completely understand that someone who doesn't know how to juggle (aka teach science) needs a clear/concise explanation. I also get that it is a fantastic idea to re-evaluate how you do what you do (think, juggle, teach, whatever) so that you can keep a fresh and open perspective. I even get that seeing/understanding that there are different ways to do something helps you be better able to explain how to do that something to someone else. Unfortunately none of that "insight" helps me not be frustrated with the situation. I'd much rather be facing the "learning how to teach science" facet of things like the rest of my class rather than my current "I need to dissect my own thought process, explain it, try to adapt it to a different method, and maintain forward progression all at the same time."

To add to my pleasure, my professor seems delighted with my frustration and is very interested to see how I overcome the challenge. Well that is just swell. I have to say that he is actually fantastic (not Dr. Wagner, but high up on the likeable-professor scale), but that answer was about as far from helpful as it gets.

Needless to say I am in an overall grumpy mood. So my kids better behave :)

Renaissance Festival

So I've been to a couple of different renaissance festivals, and I think I've always enjoy them... and this one was no exception. In fact, their set-up is pretty impressive! This one is located about halfway between the Springs and Denver; apparently they do it every summer, so I think a lot of the buildings are permanent. The best things were:
1) the crafts! I wish I wasn't a poor college student!!
2) the food yum!! :)
3) The jousting (cute guys on horses with accents in costumes!)
4) the general fun atmosphere, costumes, friendly people, etc.
5) going with Jess - it wouldn't have been as much fun by myself!
We actually didn't see any of the "shows" other than the jousting because it was pretty hot and we didn't feel like sitting in the sun that much... but we walked around to all the shops and chatted and had a good time :)
I still would have preferred going to the zoo with my nephews in WI, but it was still a very fun day. Then I came home and took a nap :) And now I need to finish all the homework that I have been avoiding!
The kids -- or should I say boys -- come tomorrow!!!!

Smiles :)

Its been a long week, but instead of griping, I figured I would list some of the things that have made me smile lately:
~a lovely long-rambley-chatty phone call from Stephanie
~my WhizBang (WB) mentor teacher - Julie. She does something silly daily and we make each other laugh :)
~the very cool waterwheel that Julie and I created from a hoola-hoop, pvc pipe, and cups...we are very proud of it!
~getting to spend CC's money shopping for the WB kids
~the mascot stuffed cow that plays "don't worry be happy"
~watching the Tour de France (not only impressive athletics, but international eye candy too!)
~my Mommy leaving me a nice voicemail so I wouldn't worry about her :)
~Julie took me to School Crossing -- a fantastic store that could be called Teachers-R-Us -- I could have spent thousands!!
~my puppy dog that reminds me its always good to go enjoy a walk
~my fat kitty that reminds me its always good to take a nap

I am sure there are other things I have forgotten, but those were some of them at least! My family (Mom, Dad, Brother, Sis-in-law, and nephews) are all up in Wisconsin this weekend for a Frostman-side family reunion. I'm bummed that I can't be there :( But I'm looking forward to working with kids again for the next two weeks. This weekend Jessica and I are hoping to hit the local Renaissance fair... so we'll see! Yay for the weekend :)

2 teachers + 16 boys + 0 girls = ???

So we got our class roster today and since we are planning to have them in multiple groups throughout the program, we figured we would do a boys vs. girls tally... so I started going down the list... boy, boy, boy, boy, Boy, BOY, BOY!! BOY!!!?! BOY?!?!??!?!? Yes. That's right. 16 boys. 0 girls. Wow. The other 3rd grade class of 15 kids (which I will also be teaching sometimes as we are switching for lessons) has 9 more boys and 6 girls. Needless to say I am a little worried about how classroom management is going to play out. At least there are only (only?!?!) 16 of them.... right?

The nice part so far is that my partner 3rd grade student-teacher-person (one of the 9th semester people, not one of my MAT crew), and I are splitting the lessons. Since we are spending two days each on solar, wind, and water energy, we are each planning one lesson and then teaching it twice, once to our own kids and then the next day we'll switch kids. It will give us both a chance to teach all 31 kids and a chance to see where a lesson might need improvement or tweaking and have the opportunity to tweak it.

So... back to lesson planning...

How Science Began...

So it was a little hard to get my brain back in gear today... I definitely did NOT want to get out of bed this morning (and my fat kitty didn't want me to either!) and it didn't help that it was very cloudy and gloomy. But up I got anyway, and off to school I went!

We met up at the Education House and our crew of 6 were joined by a few others. Two of them are secondary MAT students who are working with the 6th grade classes at the science camp so they can have the middle-school age experience since their student teaching will be in a high school. Two others are undergrad students who are doing CC's "9th semester" program which is a Colorado teaching certification (without the masters degree). So there are a total of 10 of us, along with 11 teachers (one of them doesn't have one of us) along with our professor and his co-director of the science camp. The Wiz-Bang Science camp is divided into grade levels (instead of class topics like the GT program was) and there is an overall theme (I think the theme-thing is new this year) so this year we're all "Going Green." I'm sure there will be more on that later.

So anyway! We all piled into a few cars and drove up to the CC cabin. Just as a side-note... Woodland Park and/or Divide have been added to the list of places that I could see myself living after school is over. The CC cabin was just past Divide, and although it had dirt road access, most of the cars parked off the main road and we hiked the short 1/2 mile up to the cabin. Its a really beautiful setup and I could definitely see the benefits of bringing small classes there. It was still cool and cloudy, so we were inside for the biggest chunk of the morning. My one criticism of the day was that there wasn't a big group introduction/team building activity... we ended up in lots of different groups throughout the day, so eventually it worked out, but there wasn't a lot of cohesiveness to start with. Especially with the camaraderie of the teachers who have done this through many years. There also needed to be a mental-gear-shift from the program we were just in to this one as they are VERY different. This will definitely be a good thing, but it just wasn't something they offered up as a point of clarity, and it certainly would have made a difference to me ... at least for my thought processes throughout the day. So to make a long story short (too late) we spent the day doing a variety of experiments and group-exercises led by the different teachers. It was fun, although I'm a little worried that the "science" that I really enjoy is the stuff that it takes years of "basics" to get to... and therefore I might find it difficult to "dumb it down" for the elementary grades because I feel like I am not giving them all the information (which in science can translate into a misunderstanding!) We had also kind of been told that we got to make up our own curriculum for the program, which is not true, so I was bummed about that also... but we'll just see how it goes. I'll be teaching 3rd grade (We also thought we would be in different grades than we will be in the coming school year, but that we were misinformed there) and my mentor teacher seems very nice. We spend a good chunk of this upcoming week planning for the kids, so I'll fill you in on that as it goes along.

All in all I'm glad we had this transition day before we're thrown back into the classroom. I don't know if having "the break" this weekend helped or just made me more tired, and I am sure I will feel more into it tomorrow, but tonight 13 more months of this seems like a very very long time. Everyone says that this first summer is the hardest, so hopefully we'll all get over this hump and then at least have some forward momentum to work with on the other side. But for now... we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Can we add one more day?

So, as predicted, my "time off" went way too fast... I'd love to have one more day of leisure before the crazy pace starts up again... but oh well. I still enjoyed my weekend.

Friday evening Sherlock and I were able to see both the firework display at the Broadmoore and the one from Memorial Park from our hill, and it was nice to just walk out to the park and sit and watch them and then go home to bed.

Saturday morning I got to stay in bed which was very comfy :) Then I made some progress cleaning up my house and went to meet my Daddeee for lunch! He treated me to a very yummy bagel sandwich and then he had to catch a plane, so I went vacuum shopping. Not very exciting, although I ended up with a purple one, which I was tickled with. So I came home and cleaned some more. So my house is 89% clean, which is a lot of progress from what it was and I feel very productive! I spent the rest of the afternoon reading The Tale of Desperaux which was a gift from Dedra. Its a delightful fairy tale and I enjoyed it!! I look forward to reading it to my class(es). Sherlock enjoyed me reading in the park since he got to play :)

Sunday I got up and caught up on some laundry, went grocery shopping, helped a neighbor (Sherlock's best dog-friend Andrew the corgi's Dad) move in a new TV, and then the pooperdog and I headed for the hills. We spent a couple of hours at the reservoir until it started raining... it was actually lovely and cool in the rain, so we stayed and got a little wet (well, Sherlock was already wet from swimming) and then jumped in the car. It wasn't raining once we got back to the Springs, so we stopped off at the dog park and Sherlock played with some Aussie-cousins and his frisbee. He is an officially pooped pup tonight! I took advantage of that to brush him (he wasn't thrilled with that) and now he is very fluffy :)

Tomorrow we meet on campus @ 7:45 and then are all heading up to a cabin that CC owns somewhere up near Woodland Park. We spend the whole day up there which sounds fun to me, so... even though I'd rather have another day to sleep in, I'm looking forward to it!

To Nap or Not to Nap? It was not even a question :)

MMMMMMmmmmmmm sleep!! :) Napping is soooo nice when you are very sleepy! Especially when you have a lovely big fat grey kitty who likes to curl up next to you and purr. Now I feel a little more human, and thought I would catch you up on life.

So that (title) will be the last Shakespeare reference for a while as the show is over! The kids were absolutely fantastic today. They were great yesterday too, but as it was their first time on the stage and doing the play all the way through without stopping, there were a few flubs, and overall I would still call it the dress rehearsal. The kids in the other classes that came and watched them yesterday were very impressed, and the parents today were delightful. Everyone said they couldn't believe we had accomplished so much in only three weeks!

The cute tech guy lost some points as the lighting program didn't work yesterday (made for an interesting scene with me laying on the floor and flipping through touch-screen menus to see if I could fix it!) But it turned out so-so yesterday with my fiddling, and this morning cute tech guy came and re-programed them (earning extra points!) so it was perfect!

The kids came early both yesterday and today to get makeup (hilarious with some of the boys "ick!" reactions) and hair done, and they looked amazing! They even brought Dedra and I flowers, treats, and thank-you cards. I got so many great hugs today -- I couldn't have asked for more!! :)

We walked over to the theatre and got some great smiles from people on campus, and they really were just wonderful today. A few of them hammed it up, and pretty much everyone did the best they had ever done, which was great! After the show we got everyone out of costume and gave them some icecream, and then cleaned up the classroom we had used all week. Finally we all (teachers and MAT students) had a nice lunch together and then it was naptime :)

Tonight there are supposedly fireworks around town that I will be able to see from my house, so no big plans for this evening. This weekend is the first time in the last month that I have nothing to do (other than work on my masters paper... which I may or may not do) so I am definitely looking forward to a little free time. I am sure it will go WAY too fast... and Monday starts our science class (yay! science!) so I am going to enjoy my weekend off.

Fingers & Toes Crossed!

Thanks to those of you who sent me smiles after my crappy start to the week :) It has still been a very long and exhausting couple of days, but definitely still better... so thanks for the good thoughts! Tomorrow is our first Shakespeare performance, so we are keeping every finger and toe crossed. Today was the first day we let them practice in costume, and I took a picture to put on the program, so you all get the preview:

They certainly are a bunch of characters :)