Slice of Life #13

Early Spring Eve

Blue sky

Birds chirping

Children playing

Sun setting

Windows open

Cooling off

Early spring eve.

Slice of Life #12

This is not the Slice that I had planned to write.  I had a bad day today.  It started by being awoken by my alarm clock and went downhill from there.  I usually wake before the alarm clock goes off and savor the fifteen or twenty minutes I have to lay in bed and think about the day ahead.  Not this morning though....

After a not so good day, I read How Happy Are YOU? by Pat Johnson at Catching Readers Before They Fall.  I encourage you to take the time to read the post.  I categorize myself mostly in her second type of teacher, "these teachers have a hard time leaving the job at the door."  On my drive home tonight I thought about trying to balance my life and what I need to do in order to make that balance happen.

Then after dinner I sat down to write my post.  As I signed on to my blogger dashboard, I noticed the two most recent postings by bloggers I follow.  The first was by Maria Caplin at Teaching in the 21st Century, titled Slice of Life-Putting One Foot Forward.  From the beginning I could related to Maria's day.  She started with, "Some days are harder than others.  I'm not writing anything that is a big news flash.  But today seemed harder than most."  I felt like she was saying what I was thinking and I could really related to what she was saying.

The second blog, just below Maria's post was by Laura Komos at Our Camp Read-A-Lot.  Ironically titled, Optimism - Slice of Life #12.  I immediately had to read this because I needed some optimism in my life tonight.  Her post is about a four-time iditarod champ who is struggling to finish the race, but remains extremely positive and optimistic--just what I needed to read after a crappy day.  Thank you Laura for reminding me to stay positive.  I also related to her post because at this time of year I am feeling like the race is almost over (the school year) and I question how I will finish.  Have I done enough for my students to help them win?

Thank you Pat, Maria and Laura for helping me look for the happiness, knowing I'm not alone in my bad day and for helping me to look positively and optimistically at tomorrow and as I finish the race!

Slice of Life #11

On my Slice Friday, I made a topic list to think of things that can write about in the future.  One of the things on my topic list was about my daughter breaking her collar bone.  Betsy from Teaching Young Writers commented on my post about being a "Betsy" and breaking her collar bone.  She said she would love to hear the story, so thanks to Betsy's encouragement I am writing about my daughter's experience tonight.

My daughter Betsy has broken her left collar bone not once, but twice.  The first time she was four.  The second time she was seven.

My husband had just left to pick up my new car, the date was March 31, 2006.  It was a beautiful spring day and we had spent the day new car shopping.  I was excited to be ridding myself of a car I didn't like and getting something more family friendly.  I decided to stay home with the kids while my husband went to pick it up.  I was in the basement on my computer when I heard a big thud proceeded by a loud screaming.  It was the kind of scream that you know instantly something is wrong.  I few up the stairs to find my daughter laying on the floor holding her shoulder.  Betsy's crying was inconsolable.  I knew immediately that our first emergency room visit was in order.  Betsy had been doing front rolls off the couch onto the floor for a couple of days.  That night she decided to try a flip.  Fortunately she didn't land on her head, but instead her shoulder took the brunt of the impact, breaking her collar bone.

Almost three years later in March of 2009, Ben and Betsy were play wrestling in our great room.  My husband and I were watching something on t.v.  The fun they were having was making lots of noise and after awhile the noise got to be too much.  My husband told them if they wanted to keep playing to go upstairs.  They were only gone for a few minutes when once again, we heard a thud followed by a scream.  The screaming wasn't as bad as the first time she broke her collar bone.  When Betsy came downstairs with a wash cloth on her shoulder and that undeniable hanging arm and sloping shoulder, I knew it was broken.  Before our second emergency room visit, I made a horrible mistake.  I suggested Betsy raise her arm just to see if she could.  The sound her collar bone made is enough to make me nauseous still today.  That rates as one of my finer "mom" moments!

Using Wonderopolis at Home

Most of my posts about Wonderopolis are about how I use it in my classroom, but we also use it at home as a family.  Many nights as we eat dinner, I will pose the Wonder to my family.  At different times, my husband and children have already checked it out and know the Wonder.  Other times, they haven't and I will share what I learned at school from the Wonder.
For about a month now, each weekend we have been encouraging our children to research something.  One weekend they were asked to research an alternate fuel, another weekend they were asked to research a famous person and yet another they were asked to research a some sort of technology.  After they spent time researching, they then created something to share.  This weekend, I asked them to pick a Wonder and come up with a project they could share with the family.  They were both VERY excited to do this.  My daughter, Betsy has her own YouTube channel and loves making movies.  She picked Wonder #472 Do You Believe in UFOs? to focus on.  Last night she made the video below.  As she shared this video this morning, my husband and I were in awe at what a 4th grader could put together in one evening, given little direction.  Both children also created really neat board games that we played after breakfast this morning.

Betsy created a new YouTube channel so she can make more Wonder videos!

Slice of Life #10

How I Named my Children 

One of the hardest things before my children were born was giving them a name.  I think the decision was more complicated because of being a teacher.  As a teacher there are so many names that you just "can't" possibly name a child, even if you loved the name before.  If you're a teacher, you know what I mean.

My oldest child is Benjamin "Ben" Woodrow.  We considered names like Forrest, Bradley and Jeffrey, but finally decided on two Benjamin and Gavin.  Woodrow was always going to be the middle name because of my husband's grandfather.  We thought since we had narrowed it down to two names we would wait until our son was born to name him.  I thought he would magically enter the world and immediately look like a "Ben" or a "Gavin".  It didn't quite work that way.  After almost 27 hours of labor and a c-section, I was too tired to even consider which name our new baby looked more like.  The next day, every time a nurse would enter the room, they would ask, "pick a name yet?"  This added to the pressure to pick the "right name".   Day one came and went and I still couldn't decide.  At the end of day two, I was really starting to feel the pressure from everyone to just pick one and go with it.  I'm not really sure why I finally settled on Benjamin, but I did.  I can't imagine him being any other name now!

My daughter is Elizabeth "Betsy" Mary.  I knew from the get go that we only wanted one name picked when entering the hospital, so we could avoid what happened the first time.  I've always liked the name Sarah and would have been happy with Sarah Elizabeth, but I made the mistake of looking at the most popular names and it was higher on the list than Elizabeth, so I couldn't go with that.  I like the name Mary and would have been happy with a Mary Katharine or Mary Elizabeth, but my husband felt those both sounded too catholic.  I also wanted to use Mary because my mom is Susan Mary, my sister is Mary Beth and my mother in-law is Mari Lou.  We finally agreed on Elizabeth Mary.  Unfortunately, I have two cousins with girls named Elizabeth, so I felt I needed to come up with something a bit different to call her.  I've known two people in my life named "Betsy" and adored them both.  I also loved the ring that Ben and Betsy had together.  The name Betsy really fits my daughter's personality and I think it couldn't be more perfect for her!

Slice of Life #9

Tonight I am struggling with what to write for my Slice, so I've decided to create a topic list that I can refer back to as needed.  Topic lists are an ongoing list we use throughout the year in my second grade classroom.

• My dog, Sally
• Betsy breaking her collar bone
• Loosing my Tiffany's earring on The Tower of Terror at Disney
• The Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue
• My father in-law who passed away
• The day I came face to face with a sea turtle
• Friendship/Friends
• Lessons I've learned from Slice of Life
• A favorite t.v. show
• What I'm reading
• Why I don't like taking risks
• My favorite drink
• My favorite thing to do
• Planning Literacy Night at my school
• My plans for the summer
• My favorite restaurant
• Special moments as a family

Our Follow up to Wonder #521 - Can you Speak in Code?

Yesterday's Wonder Can you Speak in Code? was an interesting one for my second graders.  What child doesn't get excited about using codes?  The Wonder talked about why the radiotelephony spelling alphabet came about in history and what it is used for.  After we read through the Wonder and talked about the "code", my students each spent a few minutes writing a word using the radiotelephony spelling alphabet.  Some students wrote their names, while others were a bit more creative.  The students are working on writing the alphabet on chart paper to post in the room, so they can write letters to each other using it.  

Below are two students sharing their words with each other.  You can tell all students were really enjoying this activity!