Family Quote of the Day

JK: "Mama!"

EK: "Yes?"

JK: "Can I have some help putting my clothes on?"

EK: "Yes.  Bring them here and I will help you."

JK: "I can't."

EK: "Why not?"

JK: "I have a naked bum."

Randomography: Water Play

Luddite?

 I am quite behind in the latest technology trends.  I don't have an iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, Android or any other portable electronic devices.  Yes, I do have a Kindle, but it took me six months to buy one after my spouse wouldn't share the first household Kindle.  I'm not familiar with "apps" or "ghosting" or "facetime".  My laptop is eighteen months out of date.  The family cellphone is almost ancient, and not far behind is my Nikon D80 camera. This is going to date me, but in my first year of high school I learned to type on a typewriter (typing).  The following year computers were introduced at school and I learned to write/type simple BASIC code.  Today, I teach my students "keyboarding", but with touch screen technology, I wonder sometimes, what's the point?

So, what happens when the long promised and awaited iPad's finally show up at school? Steep learning curve, that's what.  While most teachers yesterday oo-ed and aah-ed over their new shiny toys, downloading apps, music, programs and other things I can't begin to remember, mine stayed in its box until today, when I finally had courage enough to open the package to check out the contents and turn on the technological marvel.  I'm actually intimidated by my spouse and father-in-law who seem to have already figured out the ins and outs of the iPad in just a few short hours (though it seemed like minutes).

Sigh.  Am I slowly becoming a Luddite as time and technology marches on?

Word Play

While driving to school this morning there were several conversations going on at once. My spouse and I were talking about some school related issue while the Sprouts in the back seat interjected their own thoughts into the discussion. Often the thoughts were random and totally unrelated to the topic being discussed in the front seat. For example, JK kept asking questions about Pop ("Why is Pop at school?") and the previous week ("Mama, what did I do last Friday? Oh, right, I was in your classroom."). JK was in my spouse's classroom before 12:00 PM because it was a payday Friday and junior kindergarten students are dismissed earlier than the rest of the school.

The main conversation continued, but JK kept up the random thinking. "Pop is at school working"..."I had pop on Friday with my lunch"..."I like my Pop"..."pop tastes yummy". Then, some connection was made and all the random thoughts joined together in JK's mind and out came an emphatic: "HEY! There are two pops.  Pop the man and pop the can!"

Maybe I should ask the little Sprout to come in and teach a Word Study class for me...

Monthly Photo Challenge: Alliteration (Part 1)

The photo challenge for August was alliteration. If you don't know the meaning of the word alliteration, you can look it up here. I'm a little behind due to the start of school, though I have a second batch of pics to process and post (alliteration!) sometime in the next week or so. Here are the pics:

Sunset Skier

Powwow Potato Partners

Handstitching Happiness

  


Bemused Boy

Butterfly Blowing in the Breeze

Too Much To Say

Often I read on blogs that have not been updated for a while that the author states that he/she had nothing to say.  Sometimes that is the case for me, too, but this week was the opposite.  Is it possible to have too much to say?  The problem, of course, is that this past week was incredibly busy with school meetings (an overload of information, but so many cool, new things this year!), preparing the classroom for the first day, lesson and long-range planning, getting to know new staff and reconnect with returning teachers, making time to play with the kids, cook dinner, keep up with the household chores (I still can't wrap my head around how much laundry we have to do) and trying to stay sane.  The week provided a plethora of source material for blogging, but I didn't have the time to process the information to be able to write coherent blog posts (unless you enjoy reading gibberish, which I can write on request).  And now that I have a little time, well, I'm already thinking ahead to this coming week.  Last week's ideas and possible posts seem almost irrelevant.  I think instead I'll just jot down my ideas and thoughts on paper today, enjoy the quiet and savour my cup of coffee.

A Google A Day

I found an excellent bellwork activity for my students. A Google a Day is a daily puzzle in which a question is given to be solved using the Google search engine. This would allow students to develop and hone their reading comprehension and search engine skills. Now I have to figure out how to use it in a classroom with only one computer (I'm envious of some of the grade seven and eight classes in Ktown that received netbooks this past year).