our home away from home.

and when i say "our" i don't mean my husband and i, i'm refering to my students and myself!
we spend so much time at school that i wanted it to be a calm, warm, welcoming environment. how'd i do?

vintage abc printables from the handmade home

dollar store magnetic trays and containers



jumpin' on the crayon wreath bandwagon.

i just love the look of crayons, markers, pencils, rulers, ok, so any school supply. so when i saw them used on a wreath, i about died.

here is my version of the wreath.

i had to make my own wreath form because i didn't want it to stick off the door too much.

because i have slight OCD, it bothered me the crayons weren't wrapped all the same. i would love a world where the black swiggles lined up. but since that seems to be the only thing wrong, i decided i needed to get a life and worry about other things such as world peace.

TGILDS

Thank goodness it's the last day of school!

I actually wanted to say, praise the lord, but deleted that a couple times.

I'm exhausted. I'm cranky. I'm thankful. I'm grateful.

Even though summer school starts in 4 days, I'm still enjoying the fact that today was the last day of school.

How am I celebrating you ask?

I'm drinking a diet coke at 10 pm on a school night. In your face.

What is home to you?

As this school year winds down, my mind is onto to next year! My theme for next year is going to be "Home Away From Home," with some "Oh, The Places You'll Go!"

I'm going to be incorporating many home touches like photos of my student's families, artwork, etc.
I already use lamps instead of the over head lights, a couch for reading, pillows and tons of stuffed animals!

As I start making and collecting decor items for my classroom, I was wondering, what does home mean to you? What items are a must in your house to make it a home? As a parent, student, fellow teacher or visitor, what things would shout "home!" when you entered a classroom? I want my classroom to be a home, not just a classroom with blank, white walls.

speaking to me.

Jamming out to Pink's Perfect on grooveshark; on repeat.

This song speaks to two areas of my life:

• my husband: I want him to ALWAYS know that he isn't perfect in everyone's eyes, but he is more than perfect in my eyes. He is so patient, kind, loving and thoughtful. When it comes to living with, and being married to me...patience is the only thing I think that would get him through the day. And just for that, he should be perfect in everyone's eyes..if it wasn't for him taking me off the market, some other dude would have to put up with this! ;-)
• myself: Do you ever annoy yourself? I have many quirks, attitude problems, OCD tendencies, attention issues, etc. Sometimes I complain too much about my job career; many times I don't look at the good I AM doing, and only focus on what I can't do for these kids. But don't we all do this to ourselves way too often?

This song gives me power. It makes me stop and look at the wonderful person I am, to focus on the good things I am doing, and to help me remember that even "that" student is perfect. The perfectness might be underneath behavior issues or sassy 'tudes, but all they need is a little polish and for someone to tell them to "never ever think they are anything less than perfect." Because I know, I might be the only person they hear it from.

I know you're not used to reading :deep: posts from me, but as you know, I am upredictable sometimes. I have tendencies to always jump from one mood to another, from one topic of thought or conversation to another. Again, one of those wonderful things about me, that my husband hates loves about me, because I know to him I am nothing less than perfect.

if the camera adds 10 pounds...

then how much weight does a camera and sweatpants add?

I'm not counting today as a remix day...since no where in my challenge picks was there a pair of sweat pants...but come to think of it...maybe I should have included some sweat pants. But knowing me, if I had sweatpants in my mix...that would be the only pants I would wear, ever.

Today was the first of our "warm up Wednesday"s. Every Wednesday we are holding different review activities and test taking tips until our state's standarized test in April. I for one, am pumped for sweatpants.

Did I mention that today was also my formal observation and evaluation? That's right. I sported these sweet pants while I shaped the minds of the future. Scary huh? At least I color coordinated my shirt.

and yes, that is a studdly eagle on my pants. jealous? I'm sure I could get you a pair.

classroom support

Did you know...

• 79: Percent of teachers who say their classrooms lack essential items such as paper and art supplies
• 97: Percent of teachers who say they've spent their own money on supplies for their classrooms.
• $623: Amount of his or her own money that the average teacher spends each year on supplies.
• 13: Percent of teachers who say they spend more than $1,500 a year on supplies.
• $250: Maximum federal income tax deduction available to teachers who spend their own money on their classrooms. No matter how much we spend!
• $4 billion: Estimated total annual amount that teachers spend on school supplies.
• 28: Percent of teachers who say their families have had to "sacrifice extra luxuries" because of money they'd spent on their classrooms. source

About a month ago I set up a project on donorschoose.org in hopes of getting donors to support my classroom in getting a class set of the book The Giver. I am almost half way there! Can you help?

Check out my project!

Literature Circle: Donor's Choose

Any little bit helps!

no cows left behind.

NO COW LEFT BEHIND


By Kenneth Remsen



As a principal facing the task of figuring out all the complexities of the No Child Left Behind legislation and its impact on education I have decided that there is a strong belief that testing students is the answer to bringing about improvements in student performance.



Since testing seems to be a cornerstone to improving performance I don’t understand why this principle isn’t applied to other businesses that are not performing up to expectations. I was thinking about the problem of falling milk prices and wondering why testing cows wouldn’t be effective in bringing up prices since testing students is going to bring up test scores.



The federal government should mandate testing all cows every year starting at age 2. Now I know that it will take time out of the farmers necessary work to do this testing every year and that it may be necessary to spend inordinate amounts of money on the testing equipment but that should not detract us from what must be done.



I’m sure there are plenty of statistics to show what good milk producing performance looks like and the characteristics of cows who achieve this level of performance. It should, therefore, be easy to figure out the characteristics necessary to meet this standard. We will begin our testing finding out which cows now meet the standard, which almost meet the standard, which meet the standard with honors and which show little evidence of achievement. Points will be assigned in each category and it will be necessary to achieve a certain average score. If this score is not achieved, the Department of Agriculture will send in experts to give advice for improvement. If improvements do not occur over a couple of years, the state will take over your farm or even force you to sell.



Now I’m sure farms have a mix of cows in the barn but it is important to remember that every cow can meet the standard. There should be no exceptions and no excuses. I don’t want to hear about the cows that just came to the barn from the farm down the road that didn’t provide the proper nutrition or a proper living environment. All cows need to meet the standard.



Another key factor will be the placement of a highly qualified farmer in each barn. I know many of you have been farming for many years but it will be necessary for all farmers to become certified. This will mean some more paperwork and testing on your knowledge of cows but in the end this will lead to the benefit of all.

It will also be necessary to allow barn choice for the cows. If cows are not meeting the standard in certain farms they will be allowed to go to the barn of their choice. Transportation may become an issue but it is critical that cows be allowed to leave their low performing barns. This will force low performing farms to meet the standard or else they will simply go out of business.



Some small farms will be probably go out of business as a result of this new legislation. Simply put, the cost per cow is too high. As taxpayers we can not be expected to foot the bill to subsidize farms with dairy compacts. Even though no one really knows what the ideal cost is to keep cows content the legislature will set a cost per cow. Expenditures too far above this cost will be penalized. Since everyone knows that there are economies of scale, small farms will probably be forced to close and those cows will merge into larger farms.



Some farmers may be upset that I proclaim to know what is best for these cows but I certainly consider myself capable of making these recommendations. I grew up next to a farm and I drink milk. I hope you will consider this advice in the spirit it is given and I hope you will agree that the NO COW LEFT BEHIND legislation may not be best for a small state like Vermont.



source: Kenneth Remsen is the author and is the principal at Underhill I.D. School in Jericho, Vermont.

oh back to school, back to school.

Well not really. I've been back for 3 weeks now; 3 very long weeks. I am teaching a 4/5 split this year; and yes it sounds just as hard as it is! I thought I was going to have high 4th and high 5th graders...AKA, high level thinkers and doers. Not that that would be easy, but having students who struggle to do independent work, makes it extremely difficult to teach the other grade level. But I think I've finally got the swing of things. I'm starting to enjoy my kids, and work on my patience (which was my goal after last year.) I changed my theme this year. I wanted to use animal print...because...well...it's fun. So I went with "Mrs. K's Split Safari." Come take a stroll through our jungle..

team caddies; drink carrier repurposed!

thanks for visiting!