The Snowy Day

Good Morning!! We got a WHOLE bunch of snow last night... and by that I mean like 2 inches of powdery, fluffy, white stuff!?!

Wow… it’s been a while, but in my defense, it has been CRAZY busy in all areas of my life. Ok, I’ll try to keep this to one main teaching idea… but I know that won’t last long :)

We've been working on our running record assessments this week. On Wednesday, we had PD in the morning about the Fountas & Pinnell BAS assessments we’ve just begun using this year. The district gave us each a whole day sub, so I was able to test ALL afternoon in a quiet room without my lovely 25 other students asking questions and interrupting! I was able to get almost all of my class tested, and between the last two days I have finished all but one who has been absent! WOOHOOO!

Last testing window was back in … November? Anyway, I was sick of wasting TONS of paper, each assessment is a packet of at least 3 pages (front and back) and often you go through a few packets. I created a template to use for this round. Well, now that I’m done with this round I’ve made a bunch of changes and I would LOVE some feedback! If you have a moment (yea, right?) to look them over, I would so so so appreciate! Feel free to take use it, if it will align with your testing too. As a second year teacher, I feel like I’m missing some of that experience that would tell me what exactly I want my template to look like. Some of the things on the template are specific to F&P or to our district, so if you’d like the publisher file - so you can tweak it to what you need - let me know and I’ll email it out :) 

Running Record (Fountas and Pinnell A-K) and very similar Running Record (Fountas and Pinnell L-Z) 

I am so bummed to say it out loud (and through my blog) because it means that it’s real. My hubby’s job situation has changed and it looks like I will need to start job searching on the other side of the state for next year… UGH! I know that my *two years* experience should help a bit, but I’ve got no contacts over there..! Any advice?? I’m trying to start now, early enough, to hopefully eliminate some of the stress, but I’m not sure that’s working too well!

Thanks a bunch to all you wonderful ladies!

*Amanda

Feeling Blessed?

Ever just stop to think about your life and feel blessed? Not saying that your life is perfect, but just that your optimism outweighs your pessimism. I don’t really have a great, inspirational teaching post… and to be honest, I have been slacking MAJORLY when it comes to blogging… but sometimes life just gets too busy. 

My hubby and I just started a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace class at our church. We just got married in August and we’ve been doing ok since - but I’m just hoping that thinking about our finances together and making that plan for the future, we can set ourselves up now with good practices for the rest of our lives. Anybody else do a Dave Ramsey seminar?? I have heard wonderful things :)

I was feeling pretty icky this weekend but we finally got the good weather we needed for flying, so we went!! This is the first time I’ve been up with my pilot-man in THIS plane.. let me tell you. It was tiny! I mean, elbow to elbow, you move so I move tiny! It was great fun though… beautiful weather! We actually flew over our hometown and both our parents' houses. His parents were home, so I sent them a text and they came outside on the street! It was SO cool to see them, and know they could see us up in the air! I took control once, but this is an old plane (1978) so no radar, no electronic panels with all the gauges, just those old-time, tough to read gauges. I could tell I just didn’t feel as comfortable as I have in the past (he used to fly much newer Cirrus out in Battle Creek) so I didn’t really want to have the controls very long!

Not a great pic - remember I have been feeling sick lately!

A picture of the neighborhood where our parents live!

Last night, we stayed in to watch the game. I tried my hand at Crab Rangoons and we just hung out and played with the kittens - I had that overwhelming feeling of gratitude for the blessings in my life. Sometimes we get so busy and stressed out by the tasks we have each day and it was nice to just sit back and think about all the GREAT things in my life!

Definitely included in the great things category would be this supportive and kind bloggy family! Thank you to each of you for your thoughtful comments and inspiration. 

*Amanda  

Quick Update - what day is it??!

I don't know what happened this week... I didn't even blog this weekend, it has just been CRAZY! When I woke up Tuesday to a flat tire and a ride to work from the hubby on the worst day to be late (staff meeting with the superintendent) ... sigh... I just should have known. 

I saw a post on Christina Bainbridge's blog about Lunch Bunch and I just had to post a quick update about my new program!

This week, I started a program with my students called Munch Math!! I am super pumped about it... and day one went well, so I've got that going for me! I've noticed that many of my little guys are really very low in math, missing a lot of of basic math skills. To help these kiddos, I decided to start a lunch-time math tutoring program. We do Munch Math three times a week, and each time students are invited to work on a certain skill. 

Today was my first day and as soon as I sat down with my little sweeties, one of them (mouth full of Pizza bread) says to me, "So, Mrs. Olson! Why don't you tell us about yourself!". Haha, she just cracked me up! The whole time we ate, she facilitated the conversation, asking people questions and what not :) Too dang cute!

Tell me about any lunch-time programs that your school offers, OR if you have special prizes your students can win or earn like lunch with the teacher!

*Amanda  

oh and ps. I know I was tagged... I promise to post on that soon!!!