This slice is part of of the March Slice of Life Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol25. I’m slicing every day in March. Thanks for stopping by!
Another person asked me today, “How long until you can retire?” So basically now I have a complex. I mean, I’m using the under eye cream my daughter gave me for Christmas, so what’s going on, folks?
I drove by my old street today and told my dog, “Hey! That’s where I used to live when I was a kid, right there.” I pointed and he turned his head to look out of the window. Totally normal, nothing to see here.
Somehow today I didn’t do any school work. None! This should feel relaxing, but it turns out… not so much. I guess it doesn’t matter how much you work during Spring Break, you still won’t feel ready for school to start again.
Today my son flew back from Spain, he’s on his way from JFK right now so I am playing a little game called “How much TV can I watch to pass the time?” In other news, there are never enough Thin Mint cookies, and it doesn’t really matter how many you buy.
This slice is part of of the March Slice of Life Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol25. I’m slicing every day in March. Thanks for stopping by!
More Spring Break, Please: A Limerick
There once was a teacher at home For spring break she did not roam She did a few chores instead watched Gilmore Girls and read ”Just one more week!” she pled.
A Teacher on Break: A Clerihew
A teacher on break Has so much at stake There’s only one week to fill So instead of chores, she chills!
Short Spring Break: A Than-Bauk
I did not know Break was so short But, oh! It was
Last day: AMonostich
this day, this Friday, is the last day before the two day weekend, then school.
This slice is part of of the March Slice of Life Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol25. I’m slicing every day in March. Thanks for stopping by!
After spending a chunk of this beautiful Spring Break day working on my progress reports, I thought it might be a good idea to give Spring Break its own.
Spring Break Progress Report
Rests Fluently: Approaching grade level standard Pleasure Reads: Approaching grade level standard Appliesskills and strategies to comprehend what a Break is: Not yet meeting grade level standard Spends time with Family: Approaching grade level standard Evidence of Chore To Do List being completed: Not yet meeting grade level standard Writes to share an opinion, tell a narrative or give information: Meeting grade level standard Communicates Mathematical Thinking by getting Taxes Done: Not yet meeting grade level standard Demonstrates Signs of Spring: Consistently Gather and apply information from maps to travel: Not Currently Emphasized
Comments: Spring Break has consistently been working hard to show signs of spring. The warm weather is appreciated by everyone! Spring Break is working on knowing how to rest fluently but it’s hard for it to totally detach from work, or truly know what a break is. Continuing to practice its pleasure reading skills will go far in making it more confident to put off the pressures of the upcoming school week, and relax with a book. Although Spring Break has spent some time with its family, it would need all children home in order for it to meet the standard. I am impressed by how Spring Break keeps writing even when it’s tricky, or it is tired! I will continue to encourage Spring Break to check things off of the to do list including the tax mathematics. Getting these things done will go far in helping Spring Break have the confidence it needs to continue growing. Maybe next year Spring Break will be ready for a new unit of study: Using Maps for Travel.
This slice is part of of the March Slice of Life Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol25. I’m slicing every day in March. Thanks for stopping by!
I think I have the dust from 500 old books under my nails and in my nose but there are so many things (not just books) in a school closet
post its magnets foam rectangles yarn (in tangles) buttons, beads soil, seeds toilet paper tubes and unifix cubes exactly how many popsicle sticks does one grade level need?
I have wise words for anyone who, like me can’t concentrate on report cards until a closet is clean— don’t do it yourself, you need to be a we, a team! sorting, storing, supporting throwing away trash, moving bin upon bin hoping the trash can still has room for more trash to fit in finding more popsicle sticks at every turn (the amount of stuff in this closet was a real concern)
lucky for me I teach with Becky who seems to agree that a big job is an adventure and adventures are better with laughter
This slice is part of of the March Slice of Life Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol25. I’m slicing every day in March. Thanks for stopping by!
I’m accepting gold stars for making myself go to my canceled, rescheduled, canceled, rescheduled dentist appointment today.
I really didn’t want to go. My day was already a day. Plus it’s a new dentist since my dentist retired and he’s’ nice enough but he’s not my dentist. I mean, he’s my dentist, but he’s not . . . My dentist. Just my new dentist.
My new dentist asked me what I teach, and then he threw me off. He asked me if I was Pennsylvania born and bred, and then, get this, he said “Oh, great! And you’re still working?”
Um. Do I look like I’m retired? How old do you think I am?
It was a long day, that’s all. I might be in my pajamas because it was pajama day at school today, but I’m not retired! It’s the kind of day it’s been. I’m just plain tired.
Speaking of planes.
My son is on one flying to Zurich after being stuck in Philadelphia since yesterday. Then he’s off to Spain.
So maybe I’m a little on edge.
I apologized to my student teacher today, I explained I was feeling the anxiety creep in. He said, “I can tell,” with raised eyebrows.
Cool, cool, cool.
It’s the kind of day it’s been.
But, it was pajama day which I fully support. (Suggestion: Maybe once a week would be appropriate.)
Lucky for me, I got to go to the dentist today, in my pajamas, with my anxiety. That’s sarcastic luck, friends. It’s the kind of day it’s been.
The hygienist, making conversation, as they do, said “Oh when my son, he’s 19 now, a few years ago he convinced me to watch Sweet Magnolias. Have you watched that? It’s a really sweet show about a group of women who are there for each other through all the ups and downs of life. The little town they live in is just full of people looking out for each other.”
I laughed, even though her hands were in my mouth, and she took a break, as they do, so I could respond.
“Well I guess there are different kinds of teenage sons,” I started, “because my 18 year old son, a few years ago, he convinced me to watch Breaking Bad. I feel like that might be the opposite kind of show.”
She asked me if it was a good show, and what it was about. I told her the basics, and then said, “it’s actually a really great show once you get past the episode where they have to get rid of the body with the acid. And you have to be okay with the violence and the drugs and the language.”
“Oh, so just those things to get past?” She said, and we laughed.
I don’t think we talked much after that. It’s the kind of day it’s been.
But, when I was leaving she said, “Breaking Bad? I’m going to try it.” The hygienist in the next room looked out at us and said, “Breaking Bad? Are you corrupting Renee?”
This slice is part of the March Slice of Life Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol25. I’m slicing every day in March. Thanks for stopping by!
I might have cried a couple times today.
Did you know that kids don’t really know Puff, the Magic Dragon anymore? Well they don’t. Yet another reason I am feeling O. L. D.
Today someone wanted to use the word puff in a poem and I said, “Puff? Like the magic dragon?”
I got blank stares all around although one kid said, “Yea, I think so…”
So I sang a little bit of it, feeling old, wondering why we don’t play a little Peter Paul and Mary anymore.
It was fun to sing with the kids – well not with, but to the kids. Even through they looked at me like I may have finally lost my mind.
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff And brought him strings, and sealing wax, and other fancy stuff
So cheery! A magic dragon! But, when’s the last time you listened to that song?
Because, it’s a sad one, dude! SAD!
A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys Painted wings and giant’s rings make way for other toys One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more And Puff, that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar
His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave So Puff, that mighty dragon, sadly slipped into his cave
I might have started tearing up as soon as I sang, “A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys!”
Did I tell you that tomorrow my little boy travels to Spain for like a million days? (Okay, he’s 18 and it’s for a week and a half.)
Today, I might have cried when I was telling him how proud I am of him for all his hard work lately.
Today, I might have cried telling my parents how anxious I was about him traveling so far away.
But my first cry was this morning when I accidentally started singing Puff, the Magic Dragon. So I’m blaming Peter Paul and Mary, I guess.
This slice is part of the March Slice of Life Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol25. I’m slicing every day in March. Thanks for stopping by!
My “now stop your couch coffee and get up to get ready for school” alarm just blasted on my phone. But, my cat is so cute and sweet and I’m not done with my coffee and also what if I wrote instead of rushing to shower?
Maybe I can pause this morning before I start.
It’s quiet here in my family room, I can only hear the noise of my heater kicking on, and the cat is purring and doing that little squeak meow she likes to do. Aside from those quiet noises, it’s just me, and the clicking of my keyboard. Morning ASMR, I guess.
Any minute the dog will realize I left the bed and I’ll hear his tap tap tap coming down the stairs. I’ll take him out, even though I’m cold just thinking about it. I’ll feed the cat and the dog, grab my laundry from the dryer and head upstairs. I’ll shower and get dressed in my spirit day animal print. (Can you believe I have animal print?) I’ll wake up the teenagers, remind them that it’s trash day, reheat my coffee, cut up an apple to bring to school, fill up my water, yell to the kids to please, for goodness sake come down and give me a hug before I leave. “Don’t forget to take out the trash and recycling!” I’ll probably say, before adding another “I love you! Have a good day!” You can never have enough of those Love You’s called out to grouchy morning teenagers, you know? Then I’ll rush out the door, at least 10 minutes later than I had originally hoped, drive to school with my morning music blasting, and the Monday at school will officially start. I’ll be teaching kids in an hour and a half or so – and that hour and a half will go so very quickly.
Now the cat has gone off to do her cat things again, my coffee got cold halfway through the cup, and I might have heard the dog jump off the bed. But I think the sun is starting to light the morning, so it must be time to actually stop my couch coffee and get up to get ready for school.
But it sure was peaceful, my fleeting morning pause.
This slice is part of the March Slice of Life Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol25. I’m slicing every day in March. I hope you’ll join me.
The kids are back from special, and it’s our “chill out time.” Soft music plays, the lights are low and everyone does the quiet thing they need to do to get ready for the rest of the day. Some kids are coloring, some are reading, some are resting.
A 7 year old asks me if I want to learn how to make an origami Peter Pan hat he invented. He looks at me with wide expectant eyes.
“Yes. Yes of course I do.”
Yes is the only right answer.
He reaches for the closest paper from my table, a piece of purple from our poetry work. But, I ask him to use orange because every time copies come, there’s more orange paper stuck between the copy sets. We have a lot of orange paper.
He’s fine with orange, but I wonder if I should have offered green. It is Peter Pan, after all.
I have to concentrate to keep up with the directions, but I do it.
“Fold in half. Fold in half again. Fold three down in a triangle shape this way. Fold the other piece down the other way. Puff it out, and it’s a Peter Pan hat!”
We put our hats on our heads, and pose for a picture.
“What a cool hat you figured out!” I tell him.
He smiles, shakes his head. “The funny thing is, Ms. Gabriel, I just accidentally made this! I wasn’t even trying to make a Peter Pan origami hat!”
Across my table another student looks up and says, “That looks just like the origami boat I know how to make.”
The timer goes off, it’s been 5 minutes already, and now it’s time for math!
Tomorrow starts the March Slice of Life Challenge on Two Writing Teachers! #sol25. I’ll be slicing every day for all of March. I hope you’ll join me.
March Eve
This blank page will visit me every day next month tomorrow and I will remember what my students feel when they stare at their blank page so blank
Today we generated ideas for next week’s poetry and one boy wrote stuff stuff stuff like he was an advertisement for a tired second-grader resistant not to writing but to directions
I wrote a terrible poem today with my class but they liked it with smiles and laughter chatter chatter chatter which just goes to show you that the writer often doesn’t know what the reader will like
In reading today, my student teacher asked How do you feel when you read? What emotions do books give you? I watched as kids wrote the words calm, happy, funny I listened to one student say That doesn’t make any sense, there are no emotions inside a book! Which just goes to show you that the reader often doesn’t know either
So tomorrow there won’t be school Saturday Saturday Saturday But I will still feel what my students feel when they stare at the blank page
This slice is part of the Slice of Life on Two Writing Teachers! #sol25. I’m slicing on as many Tuesdays as I can. I hope you’ll join me.
I can’t stop thinking about this comment I saw – let it go, I know but This curriculum coach I don’t even know wrote something I must be misunderstanding in a facebook group I don’t even like and like what is going on with teaching, right? She said, and I quote, “Our goal is… not asking students to write but showing them how.” and now I’d say I don’t have the words but I actually have a lot of words for cowards who don’t know what they are talking about but tell people what to do who let ships sink saying they believe in something that isn’t true who put kids last last! explaining how their misguided data is skewed
On the other hand I’m glad that the goal isn’t for students to write that would be like, so, like, hard to fit in I’ve got worksheets to cover Skills to explain calls for my kids to respond to in unison not to mention the grammar and fill in the blanks my days are packed, man just like those assessments
Don’t tell anyone that I um secretly teach kids who write poetry just when they speak they make stories with blocks, legos, and play run mini book making factories throughout the day my underground workshop is hard to fit in but it’s kinda my job to keep teaching even when cowards on Facebook spew official advice luckily it’s not really my job anymore to pretend to be nice
On a Thought 