10/24/08

More apples today. :) This is in honor of my students as we made applesauce and pumpkin bread at school. It was all yummy. :)


We also had a fun afternoon of creating. I let them use modeling clay and craft sticks to create pueblos and wood homes of Native Americans. It was hilarious to watch them work together. They had a good time once they understood it was "open-ended" and no right or wrong way to do them. I realize these Native American homes do not really look like they should, but if you could have seen the cooperative learning and fun these kids would have, you would understand why it doesn't really matter how the end product on these looked. They did the best with the materials they had. The giggles, smiles, concentrating faces and overall creativity were a joy to be around.

It seems I have been tagged, again, by my old friend Gretchen. She wants me to give an example of a typical day in my life. Well... here it goes:

4:34 am - alarm starts to go off. My clock is set 36 minutes fast just so I can hit my snooze button 4 times and still get up on time at 5:00. (I didn't used to do that until we got our Sleep Number bed 5 years ago. That thing is just TOO hard to get out of in the mornings! By the way, my number is a 30!)

5:00 - shower/get ready

5:30 - put water in microwave for the kids oatmeal, get oatmeal ready and awaken my sleeping family. My wonderful husband has the hardest time getting up. ha!

5:35 - go back to our room and finish getting ready have a small quiet time devotion

5:55 - kids should be dressed, hair combed, shoes on and ready for breakfast.

5:55-6:05 - finish preparing lunches for the kids and myself. Usually I have most of it done the night before.

6:05-6:20 - breakfast, check email in case parents have emailed

6:20-6:30 - finish up odds and ends with the kids hair/clothing, brush teeth and get in the van

6:30-6:40 - travel to school... unlock back gate at school

6:40-7:30 - work as soon as I get in to my room. The kiddos do thirty minutes of reading for their book minutes.

7:30-7:50 on Tuesdays/Thursdays - have Teacher's Meeting

7:30 - 8:00 on M, W, F - continue working at my desk feverishly to get things accomplished for the day, the week, the next week, the next month, etc. Oh yeah... greet students as they walk in the door.

8:00 - 3:00 - Oh, goodness. There isn't enough room or time to write all that is done between those hours. I teach Bible, Spelling, Writing, Phonics, Language, Math, Reading, History, Geography, Science and whatever else happens to fall in a day between those times. Throw in there three reading groups, stapling daily papers and trying to grade on them, tests, Campbell Soup stuff, Christmas play stuff, voting stuff, well.... can you tell I don't sit often?

3:00 - 3:30 (IF I AM LUCKY, which is not often) - finish up the day, pack up and leave. Usually I do not leave school till 4:00 or later. Depends on what has happened in the day. Today I didn't leave until after 5:00.

4:00 - arrive home exhausted and with no mental abilities.

4:00 - 4:30 - try to allow the kids some outside play time before hitting homework again. That is usually when I am on the computer.

4:30 - whenever - finish up homework/ keep checking email in case a parent emails me. You truly never know when that will happen

5:30-6:30 - have some kind of supper that usually my wonderful husband has cooked. I have no energy to even think of cooking by this point. If I had to do it, we would have cereal every night, probably.

6:30-7:30 - kids baths and read to them... on a good night. Devotions and prayer time.

7:30-7:45 - get the kids to bed. I would not be able to snuggle with them or I would not be awake to grade papers

7:45 - 8:00 - blog, check email, gather things for grading papers... possibly put on a pot of coffee now that it is getting colder.

8:00 - whenever - Grade papers and try to stay awake long enough to do it. Check email. (Yes, I am obsessive over email, but I can't stand to not get back to my parents.)

9:30 - 10:00 - try to get to bed and read. Which... this is funny because I don't always read very much. I usually fall asleep.

10:00-10:30 - turn the lights out eventually after I have laid in bed with my book about to fall on my face because I have already gone to sleep. Wake up with enough thought to put the book up, turn off the light, turn over and sleep until it is time to do it all over again.

Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.