Always so much to share

I went to see a show last night! I saw "Exit the King." The comedy play stars Geoffrey Rush. He was Captain Barbosa in the Pirates movies. Susan Sarandon was also in the play. I always think of her as the mom in "Little Women" or the nun in "Dead Man Walking." movies. Some broadway plays and musicals have tickets for college students that are only $26. It makes it affordable to go to see a show. Before the show, I had a small pizza at an Italian restaurant, while I sat at a table out on the sidewalk in Manhattan.

The week's big events were that I finished the Spring Semester at Pace Univ and I went on an overnight with the students in my 7th grade.

Pace classes are done for a few weeks. It feels wonderful to have some space and time in my head to not be doing my own homework in addition to grading my students' work and planning my students' lessons. Whew... nice.

The trip we took was to Princeton-Blairstown Center. It was in NJ, about a 2 hour bus ride on a school bus. When we were there, we did teambuilding activities and games. One of the favorites that my team did was to create a circle, toss a ball in a specific pattern and to repeat the pattern with multiple balls going at the same time. We never quite got it perfect, but they really wanted to try over and over.

Several students who have focus issues were focussed on the bugs. They were not able to ignore the bugs around them. I had one student who tucked his pant legs into his socks, tucked his sweatshirt into his jeans and cinched his belt (too tight) and then pulled the strings on his hoody sweatshirt so that he was completely covered. Of course he couldn't participate in the activities like that. So instead, he would undo his hoody and then slap and swat at the bugs without paying attention to the activity. He slapped his glasses off of his face several times because he was just wild with his arms due to the bugs.

Then there was the student who thought we were going to sleep outside. There was a nightwalk and then a campfire and then we were going to be sleeping in our cabins. So as he headed to the night walk, he carried his sleeping bag. One of the teachers noticed and told him to leave his bag at her cabin and pick it up on the way back after the night's activities. He didn't realize he didn't need his sleeping bag. So we go and do all of the activities. Then, when he arrived in his cabin, he told his cabin leader that he didn't have any bedding for his cot. That means he completely didn't put together that he had left his bag before the activities. Very curious how a student can forget something like this. It's part of the adventure.

The most difficult parts were the lack of sleep (girls were up late, using restrooms in the middle of the night and then up early to shower) and not helping the students solve problems the camp facilitator gave them to do.

Mr. DeWolf and I did a blindfold walk helping each other walk thru a maze of things with one being sighted and the other blindfolded. It was really hard for me to take my glasses off, don a blindfold and trust him in this wooded, uneven ground, lake nearby area. We did a great job. He lead me and I was able to completely trust and listen to his directions. We were a good team.

Enjoy the week!

a Day of Chaos.... could have been prevented

I think I am the only person in the school that did not receive the "Memo" that there was Science state testing happening today and that it would displace me for my first 3 periods.

As I went to my classroom to start first period, my students were telling me that we were relocated to another room due to testing of 8th graders in our classroom. This was NEWS to me. We had two periods of material to cover and now I am in a foreign classroom with the class that doesn't adjust well to change. (I told them over and over that I don't adjust well to change and that they needed to help me through this. It worked like a charm. wink wink)

We did one period in Mr. DeWolf's room and then we relocated to Ms. Bachman's room for the 2nd period of instruction. That was kind of fun, because my friend Ms. Bachman was able to see me teach the class that she and I live with for the majority of our school days. They were great. They learned a lot (I think) and they handled the change brilliantly.

So now I go to 3rd period and thought it was in my room, only to find out that I would be on the 8th floor and I needed to get my teaching supplies. Oy Vey! We rearranged the room we were placed in and used the space wisely. We did 3rd period on one room and then... Finallyyyyyyy we got to go back to my classroom for the 4th period of my 4 period marathon. The sixth grade class also handled the disruption wonderfully and when we went from the 8th floor to our classroom, they did so quickly and smoothly and we just continued the lesson as though we had never moved.

Then.... Then.... my 6th and 7th period class got the giggles and I wasn't in any mood to join in. I had a really important lesson to teach them. I had to teach them how to subtract negative numbers for the first time they have seen it. This is a skill they need to have through all of the rest of mathematics into college. Here I was truly introducing something they had not ever done, and they were snickering and giggling. I asked what was so funny, and none of them knew... they obviously just got the giggles. Darn it. Wrong day. I like it when people get giggly, but this was a hard lesson to teach, and I wasn't able to find a "funny" spin to put on it.

Oh well, another day down.

Swine flu is the only thing the news is reporting these last few days in NYCity. I attend Pace University in Lower Manhattan and I have received notice that a student there may have swine flu. I wash my hands a lot. Masks aren't worth getting unless I am the one sneezing. The subway has been free of sneezing and coughing people as far as I can tell. I do wash my hands after every ride.

Can you tell that I love these kids? Mmmmm Hmmmmm

Yes... I'm washing my hands a lot.

I have probably been exposed to the swine flu. But no real worries. There is another math teacher in my one graduate class who went to Mexico for the Easter break (week after Easter) to help build a home for their equivalent of Habitat for Humanity. She returned and got sick. She figured it was that sickness from riding on a plane... so she went to the doctors and received antibiotics for what they all figured was bronchitis or another bug. She missed class last week. We did a presentation together this week. (We rocked. She played the role of James Lifton and I was an expert in Parental Involvement in a school.) We had a great time. So yep... in hindsite, she things she probably had Swine Flu and so she was going to go back to her doctor to be tested. She wasn't that sick, but did miss a day of school.

There is a weird nervousness on the subway, no one wants to hold the hand rails to help them from falling in fear of the germs. oh well.

That's all for tonight.

Swine FluI

In case you are concerned about Swine Flu. The school where the students have the swine flu is about 7 miles from my house and about an hour and a half bus ride from my apartment. The school is close to Met's stadium and Flushing Meadows where the US Open is played.

I need to write some papers and prepare a presentation.

Pictures from a pizza party!!

More Pictures!

Snow Storm in NYCity

this is an interesting day in NY. Bottom line...

They don't have many dump trucks, so they put snow plows onto the front of all of the garbage trucks. We have 100s of garbage trucks.