Category: Celebrate This Week

My weekly celebrations.

Celebrate 9/20

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This week I am celebrating…

HUGS—I love hugs. I love that fourth graders are not too cool for hugs. I love the fact that one of my students came running back to the classroom on Friday to give me a hug before she left.

WAVES—I love the fact that my former students, those middle schoolers that are too cool for hugs, knock on the window on their way past my room at dismissal so that they can wave to me.

STUDENT COUNCIL—I gave out applications and received so many back from the middle school students. We will have a good group of students again this year. I am so excited to get started with them.

DOTS–We celebrated International Dot Day on Monday. My students were so creative with their dots. I will post a picture once I have the display up in the hallway.

READING—The one thing that is absolutely up and running in my classroom is reading workshop. We have already finished Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and will be starting The One and Only Ivan on Monday. We have learned about Metacognition and have worked up to 30 minutes of stamina in independent reading. I got to conference with my students this week and loved the first round of conversations.

COMMUNICATION—I am using ClassDojo this year. I got my technology handouts out to parents and at least half of them have signed up for accounts on this website. I love that there is a messenger right in the ClassDojo website. I got multiple messages this week from parents and I know that this will be an excellent communication piece.

DOGS—My dog has been especially cuddly the last two days. I was busier than usual this week and she missed those extra hours that she usually gets with me. It is so nice to have such doggie love.

LIBRARIES—I went to the 10 cent used book sale today at our Central library. I bought about 40 books and spent less than $5. I am thrilled to add these books to my class library. I love the fact that our library does these sales.

What do you have to celebrate today? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

Celebrate 9/13

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I have all kinds of celebrations this week, big and small. 
Wednesday was our 15th wedding anniversary. I cannot believe it has been that long! We actually went out to celebrate last Friday night. I had a Groupon for a fun restaurant, The Melting Pot. It was a neat experience eating fondue for dinner and we really enjoyed the food, but I was really glad we had the coupon.  That place is sooooo expensive! Anyway, we have had our ups and downs, our challenges and our easy times, and I am glad I have such a great man to share my life with. 

We made shrinky dink magnets for the classroom. I am so excited about these magnetic boards! I got the idea for the magnets from one of the articles on Choice Literacy by the Two Sisters. My students loved the magnets and wanted to take them home. I see another shrinky dink project in our future…

My students have done a stellar job of working up their stamina for independent reading. We started at 3 minutes and built up from there each day. There are a lot of kids in my class who are very easily distracted so I am pleasantly surprised that they were able to get to 30 minutes in just 2 weeks. Sorry for the blurry picture.

I read Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson with my students while making a “reading salad” to mix together text and thinking. The idea for this lesson on Metacognition came from Comprehension Connections by Tanny McGregor. It worked so well and my students wanted to do it again with the next read aloud we did. 
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing is a big hit and my Judy Blume basket is empty because students are reading her other books for independent reading time.

I started using GoNoodle for brain breaks throughout the day. It is a really cool resource and my 4th grade students are loving it!

I spent Wednesday and Thursday nights helping a group of staff members to finish setting up their grade books online. It is quite a cumbersome process because of the way our district wanted it set up so I knew people would need more help. I was there until 6:30pm both nights and we got it done for most people. The celebration for me is the positive energy sent my way from these colleagues that are so appreciative of my patience and willingness to help out.  
Tuesday I started a yoga class. I have been wanting to go to do yoga somewhere and just had not put my butt in gear to get there. This Yoga class for people with MS is a ten week class and it came along at just the right time. I also got up early on Monday and Wednesday to do my exercise bike before getting ready for work. I am happy I got some movement in this week.

What do you have to celebrate this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

Celebrate 9/6

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This week I celebrate school. 

Tuesday was the first day of school for our students. I loved meeting this group of fourth graders. I love working with kids of this age. They all want to help. They are riveted to read alouds. I shared some favorite books and read my favorite Shel Silverstein poem. There were so many giggles. 
One of my students had an apple for me on the first day. 

I made a word search with all of the students’ names for the first day. They LOVED it. They thought it was magic or something that their names showed up in the puzzle. I watched as the students moved around the classroom helping each other find names. I am excited about the way this group gets along. 

We worked on stamina for independent reading this week. I love seeing kids start along this path. I love the silence of seeing kids absorbed in good books. I love that they beg for more time to read. 
We did paper blogs this week and all of my students commented in respectful ways. They listened to directions and wrote about the topic rather than about the writing. They begged for more post-its so they could write more comments. 
We started the number of the day routine. I love doing this because I love to see how creative students can get with getting to the number.  So much number sense is developed through this open-ended activity. 
My student council students all were asking about when we would be starting this year. They are chomping at the bit to get started. I love that group of students and I am looking forward to working with them again this year. 
When we were in the hallway and the 8th grade class passed us, I heard one of my former ELA students telling his friend, “There goes my favorite teacher.” The whole class was happy to see me and I loved being able to say hello to those kids.  It is always nice to hear that kids enjoyed your class and appreciate your relationship with them. 
The biggest celebration for me is the feeling that I am doing what I was meant to do. I am so much more comfortable with this grade level.

What do you have to celebrate this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

Celebration 8/30

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This week I am celebrating positivity and a new beginning.

I am so relieved to be starting the school year with a team of colleagues that are positive about the job and what kids can do.

I love my classroom and what I was able to do with it (alas, I forgot to take pictures on Friday).
I enjoyed meeting some of my students and their parents at our Open House on Thursday. It was great to see the students gravitate right toward the carpet area and the library. 
I had the privilege and the challenge of training some of my colleagues on the new online student information system we will use this year. Compared to the old dinosaur of a system we were using, Infinite Campus is amazing and will be great. However, setting up a grade book online is a big challenge for some of the computer-phobic folks in my school. I had volunteered to work with the group that needed more support because I knew that they needed slow and patient instruction. Although everyone’s mind was blown by the end of the 6 hours of training, I received several compliments on the way I worked with everyone to help them. The next day, I even got a thank you card from one of the teachers I helped. It is so nice to be able to help people feel less scared of technology. 
The new music teacher saw my display of books that I read over the summer and came into my classroom to talk about the Cassandra Clare series. LOVE that these displays start great book conversations. 
I’m not ready yet, but I will be by Tuesday. I love the energy that surrounds me as I plan and prepare for my first day with students. 
It really has hit me how very negative I had become in the middle school position. I am so glad this opportunity to move to 4th grade arose. I needed the change in scenery and the new start. 
What do you have to celebrate? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

Celebration 8/16

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The first thing I want to celebrate this week is medicine.  I had another bout of Diverticulitis last week and I am thankful for the quick acting antibiotics.  
The second thing I want to celebrate is rest and relaxation.  On Monday, my husband and I took the dog and drove to my parents’ camper in a campground a couple hours from here.  We had fun spending time with my mom and stepdad.  It was fun to take our dog down to the small lake and take her swimming.  She is part lab so we knew she would love it.  She was quite cautious at first, but by the end of our two days she was a swimming pro!  
The third thing I want to celebrate is all the amazing ideas out there for classroom organizing.  I will be starting to set up my classroom next week and I love the way the internet is just bursting with DIY ideas and videos and articles about setting up good creative spaces.  I spent a good couple of hours on the Choice Literacy site finding really helpful ideas about creating learning zones.  I have also enjoyed reading some of the articles on Edutopia.  
Last, but not least, I want to celebrate the life of a creative genius who has affected us all in at least one of his many roles.  I was devastated when I heard the news that Robin Williams had died.  When my husband and I started to list his movies, we really understood how many great roles he had played.  My favorite movies of all time include many that he stars in.  I am so thankful that we all were able to learn from having this incredible actor in the world for the time that he was here.  
I also am thankful for the way that his death is bringing out discussions of depression and the need for people to better understand this condition.  I lived for years with a person who was living in the dark space of depression.  I went to work every day and prayed that I would not come home to discover that he had killed himself during the day.  I watched the desperation and listened to the irrational thinking.  I lived with this dark abyss.  It is not something that people can overcome without help.  Luckily for me, he got help and rose out of that place.  However, I would not have thought him selfish if he had not.  I would have understood that the hopelessness that he felt had taken over.  I hope that the many heartfelt things being written about suicide and depression will help some people to have more compassion and understanding for those with mental heath issues. 
What do you have to celebrate today?  I would love to hear from you in the comments!

Celebrate 8/2

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This week was full of celebrations, big and small.

On Monday, we went to the art museum with my mom.  We all wanted to see the Kandinsky exhibition that is currently at the museum.  The exhibit was really well done and the audio guide had just the right amount of information. Also, they have now made it free admission to all K-12 educators in Wisconsin.  I love our Milwaukee Art Museum!

Then, we walked through downtown Milwaukee to go to Cubanitas for lunch.  We had a perfect lunch of Cuban sandwiches and plaintain chips with guacamole.  Of course, we also had a nice mojito.

Thursday was my birthday. I had a nice relaxing day and some fun treats.  For lunch, we went to one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants.  Then, I went to Starbucks for an afternoon fancy coffee drink treat.  Then, we went out to dinner at the Brazilian steakhouse in town.  They had a crazy good deal on Groupon and I was happy we could have a nice dinner for a good price.  The food was so good!

The best part of my birthday celebration was The Phantom of the Opera.  When I heard that the tour was going to be here over my birthday, I immediately got tickets.  It was fun to take my husband to see this show.  I LOVE Phantom and I was happy to experience the new pyrotechnics that were added to the show.  There is something magical about that dramatic Phantom music being played in a theater with an orchestra.  It wasn’t the best performance I have seen of this musical, but I still enjoyed sharing the experience with my husband.

Wednesday, I enjoyed going to the annual sale at The Learning Shop, which is a local teacher resource store.  It is so much fun to share this part of the anticipation of setting up my classroom and getting ready for the school year with my husband.  I wasn’t just dragging him around the store looking at my stuff, he was wandering around looking for his own stuff.  Although this is a little dangerous for our wallets, it is so fun!

Lastly, I worked again to make writing a priority this week.  I missed a couple days, but I definitely am developing much more of a habit.  I started drafting another incarnation of the novel that I have drifting around in my head.  The narrator who emerged in this draft surprised me, but it feels right so now I will play with this version to see what comes out.  I also experimented with writing in the present tense, which was challenging, but felt right as well.  We shall see where it goes, but I am celebrating the seed that might grow into something good.

What do you have to celebrate this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments.

Celebrate July 26 (Better Late Than Never)

Join this fabulous group of bloggers as we celebrate our weeks. You can link up on Ruth Ayres blog at www.ruthayreswrites.com

I had a wonderful week full of things to celebrate, big and small.

1. I went to the tea shop this week and bought two different flavors of loose tea.  I really love the new Blackberry Mojito Iced Tea Lemonade at Starbucks and had not known that there were teas out there with that type of flavor.  I bought Watermelon Lime and another tropical flavor tea and will be having some fun refreshing iced tea to drink at home.  I love that this is an option for sugar free yumminess (and some antioxidants too).

2. On Thursday, my husband and I remembered that Milwaukee Ale House does free river boat cruises for patrons.  They did the cruises earlier than usual so there weren’t many people.  We basically had a private cruise out into Lake Michigan.  It was a gorgeous day for boating.

3. On Friday, we went to the campground where my parents just bought a trailer.  It was fun zooming around the campground on the golf cart, sitting at the beach, and then having a nice campfire to roast marshmallows and make smores.

4. On Saturday, we spent the day with my mom in Madison.  We went to the Farmer’s Market, toured the new library, and then spent some time at Memorial Union terrace.  We miss some of these things and it is always nice to be able to do them when we are in town.

5.  My cousin is going to be leaving for an international teaching job in Turkey.  She had a going-away party on Saturday night.  I am so excited for her.  It will be a big adventure for her since she will be doing her first year teaching this year and it is in a foreign country.  That is a lot of adjusting to do.  Good thing she is young and full of energy.  It was nice to see my extended family at the picnic and to catch up with them.

6. My dog had a mini-vacation at her favorite doggie spa.  We love the place where we board her.  She has so much fun there and LOVES the place.  She can tell when we are packing her stuff up and starts to get excited then.  The car ride is a noisy time as she vocalizes to let us know how excited she is.  Then, we pull into the parking lot at the place and we almost need ear plugs.  She can’t get in there fast enough and she does not look back when they take her into the play yard.  It is so nice to have a good place to leave her in really great hands.

I also did more writing this week.  I have been reading some books about writing and doing some of the exercises that were suggested.  I was really good about daily writing until Friday, when we were with my parents.  I will get back on track this week.

What do you have to celebrate this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

Celebrate July 19th


Join this fabulous group of bloggers as we celebrate our weeks. You can link up on Ruth Ayres blog at www.ruthayreswrites.com

I had lunch with a friend on Tuesday.  It was nice to catch up with her and to talk a little bit about ideas for next school year with her.  She is going to be teaching at a different school this fall and I will miss her greatly.

I FINALLY got my hair cut.  It has been a long while since the last cut and color.  I was way overdue for the haircut.  Although the stylist left my hair a little too short, I am happy to have hair that I can do something with instead of crazy frizzed-out tangles.

My husband and I went on a tour of the SC Johnson headquarters in Racine, WI.  This is just a 40 minute drive from home and I had never been there.  This summer, they opened up the research tower to the public for the first time in fifty years.  It does not exactly follow fire codes so they had to get special permission to allow tours of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed facility.  Both the research tower and the administration building were fabulous examples of his amazingly forward-thinking architecture.  We almost didn’t go on Wednesday, but we were both glad that we forced our lazy butts out of the house and went on this tour.  I don’t have many pictures because the most interesting things were inside the buildings and pictures were prohibited there.

I did a lot of reading and writing this week.  I read some amazing books and I am so happy to have the time to really savor some great literature.  I also am working on making writing a daily habit.

I went to an inservice on Friday.  It was very difficult to get out of bed to go there.  However, I am so happy about the fact that we will be using Infinite Campus this year.  The information system we were using was such a dinosaur that the company didn’t provide support for it anymore! My district was waiting for Wisconsin to decide what the statewide system would be before purchasing a new one.  It was so nice to work with a system that actually makes sense and will work with our standards-based grading.  It will also be great to be using a web-based system.  With our old dinosaur system, we had to log into a VPN server from home, if we could get it to work.  Report cards and grade book entry will be sooooo much smoother!

My husband and I took the dog up to the beer garden in our park this week.  My dog is really embarrassing to take anywhere because she wants to meet everyone and is very vocal about it.  She cries and cries.  We figured out that the way to get her to be quiet was to have some food on the table.  That way, her intense energy is all focused on begging. Getting the dog to be quiet was a thing to celebrate.

After we were done eating, the dog went behind me to eye up the table back there where they were eating and feeding a baby.  She definitely saw that this could be a good situation for a dog.  At one point, she got extra excited and I looked to see what was happening.  The baby was making faces at my dog and waving to her.  It was so cute to see the dog and the baby excited about each other.  The mother of the baby brought her over and it was so fun to see my dog interacting with her.  She did such a good job.  It was one of those hallmark moments that you wish you could record. 

I started watching and catching up on this season of So You Think You Can Dance.  It is so cool to see how these young people are so talented and have such good stories.

What do you have to celebrate this week?  I would love to hear from you in the comments!  Have a wonderful week!

Celebrate July 5th

Join this fabulous group of bloggers as we celebrate our weeks. You can link up on Ruth Ayres blog at www.ruthayreswrites.com

This week I have to dig deep to find celebrations.  I spent the week in bed and am still recovering from Diverticulitis (an infection in my colon).  
I am celebrating modern medicine and the CT scan that quickly let the ER doctor know what was wrong. 
I am celebrating pain killers and nausea medicine. 
I am celebrating the antibiotics that I hope will kick the infection to the curb. 
I am celebrating my husband who has had to be a nurse and has gone to the store multiple times looking for soups and popsicles that I wanted.  
I am celebrating the fact that ABC is showing the World Cup game this morning so I can see it from home.  
Last but not least, I am celebrating the e-mail received from a student this week wishing me a happy 4th of July.  So nice to know that she is thinking of me during the summer.  
What are you celebrating this week?  I would love to hear from you in the comments! 

Celebrate 6/28

Join this fabulous group of bloggers as we celebrate our weeks. You can link up on Ruth Ayres blog at www.ruthayreswrites.com

My celebrations this week:

Comfort: 

We had a new air conditioning unit installed this week.  Our old one had been on its last legs for two years.  It is nice to know that the a/c will kick on when we turn it on this summer.  
We figured out a way to rig up the computer and use our bluetooth speakers so that we can watch the World Cup games on the television.  We don’t have cable so we have been watching the games on Univision.  This makes it so much easier to view.  

Health:

My dog is all better.  She spent about a week in pain after having an abscess on her anal gland.  It was uncomfortable for all of us.  I celebrate the expertise of veterinarians and antibiotics that rid her of infection.  
Extra sleep has been really good for me this week.  I have been able to take naps when I am tired and this is helping to clear up the lingering cold I had.  

Entertainment:

Because we wanted a change of scenery, my husband and I went back to a bar/restaurant that we haven’t been to for awhile.  We discovered that they have gone back to a very good Happy Hour deal and that they updated their menu and improved the food they were serving.  Now, an old favorite will probably become a favorite again.  
The license was approved for a new beer garden that will be opening in the park that is three blocks away from my house.  It will be fun to be able to take our dog and go have a beer or soda in the park.  Beer gardens are a Milwaukee tradition that people are trying to start up again.  Love it! 
More time for reading! More time for writing! More time to watch some mindless television! More time with my husband! 
Last week, I attended the Fierce Reads tour.  It was so much fun hearing all four of the authors talk about their books and their writing lives.  I really like this panel format because the authors play off of each others’ answers and it seems like you get so much more spontaneous talk.  Leigh Bardugo, Ava Dellaira, Jennifer Mathieu, and Emmy Laybourne were awesome to listen to.  
What do you have to celebrate? I would love to hear from you in the comments!