Does This Seem Right?

I work at a very small school. we have a total of  13 teachers including our SPED teacher. All of the teachers have 2 days that have 2 specials, 2 days with one special and on Wednesday, no one has a special. 

Since moving into the new wing, we are using the art/music room as a makeshift cafeteria. Since it's not very big we have had to go with 5 different lunch periods. First grade goes last at 12:45.  The past several days when I would go to the lounge, my daughter's teacher was in there. They go to lunch at 11:15. I didn't think that much about it, I just figured her kids were at a special. Then on Wednesday, she was in there again, a day when no one has specials. So I really started to wonder what was going on.

She team teaches with our two fifth grade teachers. She has 26-28 kids. The fifth grade teachers have 15 each. Well, on the way home from school, I asked my daughter how the classes were rotating. She told me that the teachers had combined the 2 fifth grade classes and that each teacher gets a break when she doesn't have any kids.

I really like the teachers and I am hoping that there is some other explanation that my daughter is unaware of. If the extra teacher is tutoring or something like that, then it would be OK. None of the other teachers in the building get a break on Wednesday, surely they would see that this is totally unfair to the other teachers. Right?

On a brighter note, I'm really excited! I am getting a new design for my blog from Barbara @ Ruby Slippers Blog Design . She does beautiful work!  Now I just need to start blogging more. : )

My class is getting a Skype visit with Mr. Marc from Adventure to Fitness next week. If you would like one for your class like them on Facebook, they offer them frequently.

I just bought some Sketcher Go Walks and I have to say that they are Terrific! They are a little dressier than tennis shoes, but just as comfortable. Here's a picture of the two pairs I bought.

I think moving in the middle of the year, really took more out of me than I realized. I have been beat everyday when I get home. I decided that even though I was going to be moving back into the old building at the end of the year, I would take everything out of the boxes. I figured if I didn't I would always need something that was in one of the boxes. Then on top of everything else we got Saxon Phonics that we are supposed to start using in the middle of the year. Yikes!

I want to share this picture of my sister's grandson, it just brings a smile to my face every time I see it. And no he doesn't wear that hat. lol

MLK Jr.

Finally!

Here's the way my time has gone since winter break. Came to school on Friday the 4th, had a workshop Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the following week. Came to school Thursday, Friday, and Monday, had a workshop on Tuesday. Fortunately, I'm finished with workshop, at least for a while.

We have been crazy ever since coming back. It's kind of hard to get procedures going again when the teacher is gone AND we are in a new building with major schedule changes. Now that I have been back, some teachers have been gone and the principal has had to split up the class because there was no sub. We have had a terrible time finding subs this year, my principal said a lot of them are in long term positions because the job openings weren't filled. Anyway, I'm just glad I'm back!

We started Monday with a KWL chart about Martin Luther King. I really had to keep my composure while making the chart. I thought the kids would already know a little about him..not so much.

Know
gave speeches ( I had to guide the student to that answer)
did a good job
was president???
got shot because he wanted blacks and whites to be friends (YES!)

Want to Know
Where did he get his last name?
Where did he get his first name?
How did he become president?
How did he become king?
How many children did he have?
How did he help blacks and whites become friends?

It's going to be interesting to see what the KNOW is tomorrow. I really feel like they have learned a lot! We have learned 2 songs, read several books, watched a couple of short videos and made a book. I was wanting to do an art project I had seen from Nancy @  First Grade Wow (by the way, if you aren't following her, you really should, she has terrific ideas and LOTS of freebies). Anyway, I didn't have it with me, but I remembered that part of it had to do with the kids tracing their hand and arm and it had a heart on it. Well I have this one little boy who wore a snowflake headband to school and wore it all day. The headband gave me an idea of having 2 hands one white and one black clasped on a headband with a heart on it. I just had them write We love MLK! on it. Considering that I had no sample or patterns to use, I thought they turned out pretty cute! It's hard to see the white hands in the photos, but they are there. ;)

Well, I'm looking forward to my three day weekend! Just one more day.

Kelly

Tell Me Something Good & HELP!

I'm joining up with
Rowdy in First Grade
for her Tell Me Something Good linky




Something Good From School: I got moved into my new room and all of my boxes are unpacked. This temporary room I'm in (they are renovating our main building and I will be moving back at the end of the year.) is smaller than the room I was in, but I have jammed as much of my stuff in the room that I could to keep it from going to our district storage. We are still waiting on dry erase boards and tack strips to be installed. I'll post pictures of the new arrangement later.

 

Something Good From Home: I am refinancing my house. With the refinancing and an adjustment for a lower insurance premium, it will save me around $220 a month!!!! Yes, I'm excited, that's a lot of money to a single mom that gets no child support. : )

Help! When I am trying to upload a picture, nothing comes up for me to browse. Used to when I wanted to put a picture on my blog, I would click on the picture button, then click on upload and then browse. It does not come up for me to browse anymore. Can anyone help?

Kelly

Adventure to Fitness

I know most of you already know about Adventure to Fitness, but in case you don't know about it, it is a website that takes your children on a 30 minute adventure. they may be racing to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, participating in the Ancient Greek Olympics, throwing tea into the Boston Harbor during the American Revolution, etc...

 

It is a great way to give your children some activity on those days when you are stuck inside during recess. What makes it special is that the children are learning science, social studies, math and reading while they are moving.

It is easy to use and best of all it is free. Since most of you know about this site already, what I wanted to tell you if you didn't already know is they have a  Facebook and they are on Pinterest also.

I don't know if you are like me and some times have problems with your internet connection or out of the blue the district has blocked a program, etc... Well I haven't been able to get on Adv.to Fitness this whole school year. I was really excited when I saw on FB that they were releasing some DVD's for sale. They have 2 different DVD's available, each one has three episodes. I'm excited to introduce my class this year to Mr. Marc and the gang.
I plan on getting in shape while the children are getting up and moving! ; )  What a great way to start the new year!   Kelly