We're back! (for a little while)

I don’t know where to start.  I am a complete failure at the multitask of writing a blog and teaching.  When I come home from school, in order of priority, my tasks are:  change my shoes (Mr. Rogers style) eat snacks, greet my husband (that sometimes comes first), check my email and facebook (guilty pleasure), and sit down.  Usually once I sit down, it’s hard not to lay down, and then I convince myself to close my eyes for a few minutes. Soon after, dinner is usually ready.  If I don’t have planning, grading, preparing, reflecting, crying and venting to do, we watch an episode of THE WIRE (new favorite way to take my mind off of school, also responsible for the development of new, disturbing dreams).

Seriously, this show has gotten me through my first month of teaching.   It puts everything into perspective. 

I’ve just finished teaching ELL students idioms, so appropriately, “at the end of the day,” my life is great right now.  I am so challenged and fulfilled with my students.  And I am lamenting the possibility of leaving so soon.  Thankfully, our last day of school before their winter break, was a great one.  My plans and activities went off smoothly, my “Compliment Christmas Tree” (students created “compliment” ornaments for each other, and pasted them up on our tree) was successful in fostering increased classroom community and kindness, and our Holiday Party was great.  My students were surprised to find that they actually enjoyed my old fashioned Holiday videos.  At my school, it is tradition for each classroom to get to watch a holiday movie on the last day of school.  Of course my students requested Ironman and other mostly inappropriate movies, and of course I decided to show PBS holiday programs that I checked out from the library.  One was the history of the man who figured out how to photograph the snowflake, and the other was a LeVar Burton (LOVE HIM) Reading Rainbow holiday special.   As they ate their terrible snacks that they brought in to share (flamin’ hot popcorn, doritos, and sweets), I was thrilled to see engaged eyes and quiet voices. 

Nick came in to help me out with a math fraction holiday food lesson on Thursday, and students also got to feast on our creations during their holiday party.  We are learning about fractions: finding equivalent fractions, adding and subtracting fractions, and accurately making mixed fractions from improper fractions.  Earlier in the week, I gave my students a math challenge problem that involved writing out their thinking process while figuring out the correct quantities of Holiday chex mix for 25 children.  It was a simple adding mixed fractions problem, but for some reason when it’s a word problem, students freeze up.  Anyway, after figuring out the math, Nick facilitated actually measuring out the proportions of M&M’s, corn chex and pretzels.  I am so bummed I didn’t take pictures, it was so successful!  Kids were motivated to discover proportion, fractions, and measurement in a real life contextualized experience.  That night, I took the mix home and added the fat to make it delicious.  Butter, peanut butter, and marshmallows completed the treat, and the kids got to sample it during their holiday party.  

This is a slightly gooeyer version, but close to what we/ Nick and the kids  measured out. 

I miss them!  Its only been a few days, and I just wish we were in school, there are so many things they need to learn, and I have so many ideas I want to try out before time runs out. 

Right now we are driving Northwest to Dubuque for a short visit.  It seems like I’m always writing in the car--- it is one of the few times I slow down and process.  As we leave Chicago behind and drive into the sun the differences out here couldn’t be more stark.  Where in Chicago you might see beautiful snow for a few hours, out here it’s pristine.  Driving along the snowdrifts look sculptured, painterly as the sun sets on the whiteness.  Animal tracks leap from the snow, you can see where they’ve come from and where they’re going.  It’s a little bit magical, the snow on the trees making them white on their southern sides.  We are passing through canopied Tapley Woods, and it reminds me of Narnia in the winter.  

(Can't take credit for this internet photo, but this is what Tapley woods looks liked like today.)

Reindeers should be walking through, snow creatures are in bliss.  But my cynic is wakening with all this talk of beauty because it will be most definitely less so when I get out of the car and my eyes are frozen open because its about 1 degree out there.  Our windshield fluid is frozen, and I’d rather stay in the car than do anything else. 

For us, and with the cooperation of weather, the next few days hold a bit of traveling.  We are planning on being in Dubuque for a few days to visit with family, then heading to Cincinnati on Thursday for a brief stop over.  My high school , SCPA, has an annual Alumni Day on the Friday before Christmas, and I can never go because I am always working.  This year, since I have a generous winter break, and because it works with our holiday plans, I get to check out my high schools new building and maybe visit with some old friends. After Alumni Day, we are heading south.  Not sure where, I just know that I am craving sun and warmth, and the possibility of walking through the woods without fear of frostbite.  We might drive south, we might find a last minute flight out of Cincinnati, not sure.  As is our way, we will figure it out when the time is right; the path will be revealed.  

As a side note, we are passing through Galena, IL right now, on the way to Dubuque, and Nick and I agree that this little historic town is one of the more beautiful ones when covered by snow and decked out in holiday cheer.