Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Big Lots Lots2Give


Please vote and help my school earn new playground equipment. 
 Oneco Elementary is a Title 1 school that currently serves 580 students. The school grounds have limited space for physical education and recess. Students need recess for their physical and social development, but not the funds to make this happen. Just follow this link to vote http://www.biglots.com/lots2give/vote#spotlight-iframe. Please note that you can vote three times each day until July 7th. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Top Five Most Interesting Days of my Teaching Career (thus far)

Day # 5. Today was the last full day of the school year and we had Tornado Warnings. Yes, that is right two of them within about an hour of one another. Really didn't love the double dose of "The Duck in Cover" in the middle of our end of the year party. However, I do understand and of course I think it was important that we all stay safe. With that said, I have to give my students credit, they were in that position for about forty-five minutes and not one student complained.  

A couple of weeks ago we finished working on a Challenge Based Learning Project on natural disasters and although we did not directly study tornados they applied a lot of the knowledge we uncovered during our challenge to what was happening. There were questions about our school having a weather radio, disaster supplies and if we were indeed in the safest place. I loved that they made and applied those connections!

Days #3 and
#4. The two days that the Norwalk Virus travel through our school.  If you have witness this sort of thing you know what I am talking about.

Day #2. Watching the President's visit to Sarasota, Florida on 9/11, which turned into us watching something else all together. I am sure that day is one none of us will ever forget.
 

Day #1. Is an event that occurred on my very first day at Oneco Elementary, back in 1996. We had only been in my classroom for about five minutes when I went to sit at my desk to take roll.  To my surprise, my chair rolled out from underneath me and I ended up falling to the ground landing on my butt.  Quickly, I jumped up, threw my hands above my head and yelled 9.9. It was right after the Olympics and "The Magnificent Seven" had just won gold. I thought it would be funny, but my twenty-six third graders just stared at me like I had two heads. Meanwhile, I am standing there cracking myself up and having them stare at me like that only made the whole thing funnier. After I compose myself, we proceed on with our day. It was not really spoken of again until our report card pick up night when just about every parent whom I met with asked if I really had fallen out of my chair on the first day of school. I was bit embarrassed at that point, but being a woman of integrity all I could really do was own it. It was a good thing that most of the parents had a sense of humor about it, because at the end of that year I was chosen by my boss to pilot the concept of Looping.  During our three years together, this story was told to every new student who entered our classroom. It just became part of our class's history and in an interesting way helped to bond us as a group. I know it is totally ridiculous, but it is such a great memory for me. Still, after seventeen years just the thought of it makes me smile.