Batteries & Bulbs Investigation

I got to teach my Batteries & Bulbs science lesson today in the 4th grade class. The kids had so much fun! It went over really well, and most of the groups figured it out without any help, so that was awesome. I took pictures and videos. The teacher in there said as long as I don't put the kids last names on them, I can use them for anything I want, so I am going to blog with them. :)

Speaking of my teacher in there, this is what he wrote on the critique of my lesson that I have to turn into my professor:

Mrs. Little came prepared for her lesson! Her lesson actively engaged the students and kept them on task, motivated, and excited. The directions to the experiment were listed on a worksheet and the students read them aloud and discussed each step before the materials were presented to the students. Mrs. Little used the smartboard to construct a KWL chart with the students and took pictures as the students were working. During the experiment phase, she walked around and actively monitored the students progress. The students enjoyed the lesson.

Woo hoo!! I was so excited that it went over so well, with both the students and the teacher! And I had a blast too. Just look at the pics of these kids involved in science investigation!

They had to make predictions and draw diagrams.

They were given a bulb, a battery, a copper wire and tape and had to figure out how to make the light bulb light up!




The tested their theories.


Those that figured it out first got to come up to the smarboard and draw their diagram and explain it to the class. And check out how the rest of the class is looking up at the board and paying attention to their peer, I didn't even have to tell them to!





The classroom was buzzing with activity!

Woo hoo! Success!!

so very sad....

Friday, March 27, 2009

So very sad..... Current mood: sad

There's this girl in one of my classes, we have had several classes together over the last few semesters, as most of us in the teacher program have, and before spring break she was telling me how she has been taking her youth group from church skiing each spring break for a few years now, as an adult sponser, and how usually someone gets really sick or something, and it usually isn't a very fun experience, but she still goes each time. She doesn't ski, she just sits at the lodge with those too sick or injured to ski. Well when we got back from spring break I asked if this time proved to be a better trip, and she said no. A 15 year old girl from the group hit a tree head on, and was unconscious and actually still in Colorado, because she was too unstable to move. Her family has set up a page for her on www.carepages.com (you just have to sign up to the site to get on it, and you can search for her name) and they blog daily about her condition and what they are going through, and they have a page set up for her on facebook. If you are a praying person, I encourage you to pray for her and her family. Her name is Jessica Boone. I kept meaning to get on here this week and post it, but things were busy and I'm just now sitting down to blog all the things I've been thinking of blogging! I just can't imagine my 15 year old daughter going away on a church ski trip, and not coming back. I pray that this beautfiul girl wakes up and is ok. And I pray that her family has the strength to endure. Here is her profile from the care pages website:

Jessica's Story
Jessie Boone loves skiing! She was so excited to go skiing on Spring Break with all her friends from church! She was doing great but hit a really icy spot and went out of control and hit a tree with her head. Some of her friends went right to her and got help quickly. They airlifted her out of Glenwood Springs, Colorado to Grand Junction, Colorado to St Marys hospital which is a trauma center. She had a depressed skull fracture on her Right forehead and had to go into surgery that night. Mom and dad flew in around midnight and met Justin and Erin and Scott and John who were with Jessie. She now has to recover from her surgery which will take a long
time.


It's a reminder about how life can change in the blink of an eye. :(

Still waiting for my snow......

Friday, March 27, 2009

Still waiting for my snow........ Current mood: hopeful

So they said it would be here by now, where is the snow?! I'm ready to build a snowman!! So this week went by in a blur, as it seems each and every week does these days. We only have like 5weeks left of this semester, which is just crazy to me! They keep flying by! I did well onthe 2 tests I had this week, and now I have 3 projects to work on this weekend. I went to my student teacher meeting, and it looks like I can find out where I am placed as soon as the grades are in from this semester. Well, if I pass my OSAT test on April 18th, which I have high hopes that I will pass it on the first try. We shall see. If I do pass it on my first try, I may use the next test date, which is in May I think, to take the english and social studies sub-tests, which will cerify me to teach english and/or social studies in the middle schools in addition to an elementary teacher. I really don't want to teach just one subject, I want to teach them all, but I figure if I have them I have more chances of getting a job somewhere, so we shall see. Of course, I have to pass them though! I can't believe I am about to be in my student teaching semester!! I am so excited, it felt like it was never going to happen!

I had fun working the book fair yesterday at the boys school, as always. I love book fairs. There was a 5th grade girl though that came in, her shirt said "Voted most flexible by your boyfriend". I was like, seriously? First of all, who buys a 5th grader a shirt like that, and second who lets her wear it to school? And why didn't the teacher make her turn it inside out or something?! This is ELEMENTARY school people! A dad that was working with me in there (we've worked like 4 book fairs there together so far in the last 2 years, I think he works every single day when it comes!) stopped her and asked her where she got that shirt, and she said a garage sale, and I said I didn't think it was very appropriate for school, and she said "well the only reason I wore it was it was my only clean shirt." Let me tell you something girly, it's not a clean shirt.

So I have been really struggling with what to do about the Special Ed. class I visit. I think that's why I put off blogging about it for so long, although I wanted to, I just didn't want to deal with it or think about it, but the more I think about how the teacher treats the students, the worse I feel about the situation. And I try to justify & rationalize it, like maybe I just am making a big deal out of nothing, or that maybe I just don't understand because I've never been in a Special Ed. setting before, or whatever, but I can't make peace with it. And then I think, who am I to come question the teaching methods of a teacher who has been teaching for 30 years, when I am just a mere student? and who is going to listen to me anyways, when she is one of the school's 'star' teachers? And who would I tell anyways? And then, do I really want to 'rock the boat' so to speak at a school that I would one day really like to apply at to work for? But if I were the parent of one of those kids, wouldn't I want to know if they were being treated unfairly? I just keep going back and forth, back and forth. And I think, what if I was put in that class for a reason, to speak up for these kids that don't really have a voice? How can I not say anything? And the worse part is, if in a regular classroom you get stuck one year with a teacher that isn't really that great, at least you get to move on after a year. These kids, are in this room with this teacher for the duration of their time in Elementary school. They have a special ed teacher for pre-k through k, and then her who teaches special ed 1st-5th. So a kid could come to her in 1st grade and not leave until they are in the 6th grade. I couldn't imagine being a kid and dealing with that day in and day out for all those years. I don't think they are learning as much as they could, or being given a chance to be successful. It just seems like a really stagnant place to be in. So, after laying in bed for hours the night before last, trying to figure out what it is that I should do, I e-mailed one of my professors last night, the one for the class that I have the observation in. She e-mailed me back right away and said we could talk about it after class today. She came into class and asked what school I was at, and I told her, and she actually knows and has worked with the teacher in questions for years, and she said she could see her being the way that I described. My professor said this teacher is almost bi-polar, like sometimes she is a fantastic wonderful teacher who does wonderful things, and other times she is crazy and mean-spirited. It really felt good to tell someone though. She said that the name calling, belittling, mimicking, etc is just mean-spirited teaching, but what bothered her was letting the little girl sit in her own urine for hours, and how that was abuse. I told her more about that incident, and how I've never seen the teacher say a nice or positive thing to this little girl, and in fact on my last visit she wouldn't let the little girl go to lunch until she answered some math questions correctly, and the little girl was crying and answering different numbers and the teacher would just say "no, when your done playing games, you can go to lunch,. What is the answer?" and that over and over again, and the little girl didn't know the answer. And instead of helping her , or explaining it, or anything the teacher just wouldn't let her go to lunch until she answered it correctly. I couldn't even watch it, I just said it was time for me to go and I left. I don't even know this little girls name, she's always behind cardboard boxes so no one can see her, and if she smiles at me, she gets yelled at. They say she just bats her eyes at peope and thinks that being cute will get her out of everything. Anyways, my professor said that yes, this teacher is abusing this little girl, and something does need to be done, and she will figure out a way to deal with it where I'm not really involved at all so I'm not put in an uncomfortable situation. She said she had a friend that was a principal and she would talk to her about it this weekend and she would get back with me about it on monday. So I feel a little better knowing maybe something will come of it, and maybe this little girl, and my little Katie, will have a better experience because of it. I hope so anyways. I just don't want that teacher to know it was me that "ratted" her out. I want to continue to be able to go to that class and work with these kids, and I really do want to apply at this school one day, and I don't want to make enemies!

My hobby

I love scrapbooking. I wish I had more time to do it. As it is, I only seem to get the time when I go away every 6 months to my scrapbook retreat. I may never get caught up.

I have a scrapbook book shelf in my room, filled with my scrapbooks. I have so many, some that are just sitting there waiting to be filled, nothing in them yet! The kids are all color coded; Starla's are pink (except for her 1st year album, it is purple), Roman's are red and Bourbon's are blue. They have a 1st year album, a 'hobbies & activities' album, a school album, a book of birthdays album, and a 'the life and times of ______' album.

Roman's albums
Starla's albums


The Christmas Albums!

I have Our family adventures (trips) album, our wedding album, our 'love story' album, my family tree album, my album of my life, alan's life, an extended family album.... it goes on and on. Which is why I may never get caught up!

But they all look so nice and organized on my shelf! I have high hopes of one day having them all complete. And our family, and our lives will be thoroughly documented! Maybe they will still be around in 100 years when I am no longer here. Family heirlooms. It's nice to think that someone will keep them anyways. :)

I even have albums waiting, just in case we have another kid. As seen in the above pic, there is a lime green one in case we have a boy, and 2 bright pink ones in case we have a girl. And I figure if we don't have another kid, they can be used for something else, but until we figure it out, they sit there and wait. :)

flexibility

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

flexibility Current mood: discontent

Lots of teachers tell me the best quality a teacher can have is to be flexible, and to be able to go with the flow, since things change all the time. Case in point, Mr Ray (the teacher whose room I'm in this semester doing my observations) forgot about me doing my electricity lesson today, and asked if I could wait until next week. No big deal. Since I wasn't all that prepared anyways, this will give me a chance to become more familiar with the material. I think I am going to do it with the boys. I let Bourbon play around with it last night and he made the light bulb light up, but maybe I will let Roman do it, and actually teach them the electricity concepts in the process. Gives me the practice, and gives them some additional science (since this is test prep time, and science & social studies are thrown out the window during state testing crunch time. Don't even get me started on that......). So today I graded papers, made copies and prepared materials for the students, and watched them do an hour of practice test material in math. Then they went to lunch and I got to go visit my Special Ed class for about 40 minutes until they went to lunch.

I really enjoy getting to spend time in the special ed class. On one hand I love it, and on another hand I don't love it. I don't want to judge, or say that the teachers in there aren't good teachers, because they seem like very intelligent, good people. But I just don't understand some of their methods and such in there, and it kinda makes me sad. The main teacher has been teaching for almost 30 years, and she has tons of great information and tid bits and advice that she gives me, so she's not a terrible person or anything. And the teacher assistant in there seems very knowledgable and is very helpful answering my questions and such. And I don't deal with the stuff that they do all day every day, so maybe they do what they do because it is what they have come up with that works. Or maybe it's just their personalities, I don't know. The first odd thing in that room is they are sitting pretty much the whole time, which is rare for teachers. They have desks that are facing eachother, and the kids raise their hands when they need their work checked or if they need to read out loud, or whatever, and they call on them and the kids bring their work, books, etc up to their desks. The teachers never go to them. Each kid has a clipboard with a daily list of work that they do, and they just work on their own individual stuff. There are kids from 1st-4th in there, all working on different stuff. They just take their clip board and start working on the daily list, and getting it checked by the teacher as each assignment is done. The kids might raise their hands for 5 minutes before the teacher aknowledges them. They say they have to ignore them sometimes because they just want attention. But to me I see kids who raise their hands and need help wtih work, and need something checked off so they can move on, and they just sit there. Not because the teacher is busy, but because they just choose to let them sit there. It's very odd. There are kids in there that range from autistic, to slightly delayed. There is a wide range. The teachers tell me all about the things the kids "have" and what behaviors they have and such, even their home lives and negative stuff, all in front of the kids. They tell me how the kids need high praise, lots of support and lots of encouragement, but I don't see them doing it. They seem to belittle them. They mimic the students in unflattering ways, call names (from knucklehead to liar), are short with them, ignore them, etc. It makes me sad. Again, I hate to judge them. I really like these women and I enjoy visiting with them and learning from them, but I just don't like how they act towards the students sometimes. They get onto the kids for smiling at me, saying they just are so attention seeking and think that the whole world revolves around them, and that they are just princesses, etc. If they turn around in their seats and smile at me, they get in trouble. Now I would think that since some of these kids have social problems, they would be praised for being social. Ya know? My favorite is Katie. She is such a mousy little thing. She is autistic, she's 7 but looks like she's much younger. She is tiny and has a baby voice, and talks about herself in 3rd person. But she is sooo smart, and reads better than some of the 4th graders in there. She doesn't seem to have any self-confidence, and I have seen the teachers make her cry in their attempts to get her to do stuff, which seems very harsh and not encouraging at all. She doesn't make eye contact much and they told me on the first day I was there that they are working on that, and make her look at them when they are talking to her. Yet she is the one that now turns around and smiles at me when I get there, and they yell at her. I just don't get it. I worked hard at getting her to even aknowledge me, she wouldn't look at me, or even acted like she could hear me when I talked to her. But the past 2 times I have been there she now turns and smiles at me, which of course melts my heart. And makes me so sad that she gets in trouble for it. I just know she could thrive and do so much better in a more supportive environment, but there's nothing I can do about it. It breaks my heart. The first time I was in there, for the 3 hours, not just visiting, Katie was in tears trying to do some math, and they just kept saying "go do it. you can get it done, stop being a baby, go" and just not very helpful, and just stern and harsh. So I took it upon myself and just started talking to her saying "Look at all that work Katie's done, you can do it! Katie can do it!" and kept repeating it over and over, and she wouldn't hardly look at me, just maybe out of the corner of her eye for a split second, but she calmed down and she slowed down and got it done. And it made me so happy, and I loved helping her. I just want to help her, and spend time with her! I want to pick her up and take her away from that classroom and make it all better for her. And I can't. So I visit everytime I am there, in hopes that I will get to help her or work with her. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Just depends on what the teachers tell me to do while I am in there. I don't approach any of the kids without them telling me to for the most part, because I don't want to get the kid in trouble. And maybe they think the tough love approach is the best, they complain all the time that the parents baby the kids so much that they expect everyone to do things for them and won't do it for themselves, so maybe there is logic to thier behavior, and I just don't understand it. I don't know. I feel like I learn a lot by being there and working with the kids and talking with the teachers, I just don't know that what they are doing is the best course of action for those kids.

It's manic monday...ohhhh ohhh

Monday, March 23, 2009

It's manic monday...ohhhh ohhhhhhhh Current mood: stressed

It's so hard to get back into gear after a break. Today was LONG, or so it seemed. I really should have done more on the break!

I get to teach a lesson in my observation class tomorrow and I am excited. I picked electricity out of the science text book, but I tweaked it all and came up with my own lesson plan and am just using the text book a bit here and there. I got all the materials (at the last moment I might add.....) and am all ready for a fun time! I am going to have them work with a partner, and I am giving them a D battery, an insulated copper wire, and a tiny flashlight bulb and they have to figure out how to make it light up. It should be interesting. I knew how, and it still took me a minute, so we shall see if they can get it! But I have hints and clues and such to make the investigation keep going and try to nudge them in the right direction without actually telling them. I was so excited that my science professor gave me the tiny light bulbs, because I was having a hard time finding them. I asked him today where you get them and he said I could just have some of his. Score! I only have to teach one lesson, as far as the assignment goes, but I am hoping my mentor teacher in the class will let me do another one and I want to make electromagnets with them too, with batteries, wire, and a nail. Fun stuff! I am excited. Wish me luck, I'm hoping to be able to pull it off without using my 'cheat sheet' paper with all the explanations and such on it too much!

I can't wait to be a teacher. I get to go to my student teacher small group meeting wednesday, which should be interesting. I'm not really sure what happens at it, or what it really it, but I assume we get more info about the student teaching process and what happens next. Which would be good, cuz I really don't know!!

Bourbon has started writing songs, tonight he had some lyrics:

aaaahhhh. How do we know that the sky isn't green, and we're all just colorblind? How do you know!!???!! How do you know?!???!!

Hee hee, how stinkin cute! What deep thoughts for a 10 year old. On a less amusing (well, that depends on who you are, not amusing for his parents, amusing for everyone else) note, I found a paper he typed up while we were in duncan (they have an old school typewriter and the kids love to play with it) that said:
Stew and Bourbon are pimp dawgs. Bitch were (I'm assuming he meant we're) wild.
Lovely eh? Stew is his ghetto-fabulous friend who has introduced him to lots of interesting terminology and rap music. So I had to sit him down and ask if he even knew what a pimp was, and explained it as best I could to a 10 year old who has only had 'the talk' about 6 months ago or so. And how that wouldn't be something that he should want to be known as, blah blah blah. Plus I had to address the 'bitch' word, cuz he KNOWS that is a bad word. And how our actions define us, and if we act a certain way we end up being a certain way, and how one bad choice can lead to another, and how we don't have to try to impress friends by acting this way, and that they will either like him for who he is or they aren't his friends, and all that good stuff parents try to teach their kids. I asked how could I be sure that he wouldn't be willing to try smoking, or drinking or drugs if Stew asked him to since Stew seemed to have a great deal of influence on him, and how was I supposed to trust him to make good choices and blah blah blah. He is grounded from all electronics for 3 days, and not allowed to hang out with Stew for a week. He helped come up with that punishment. He actually said 2 weeks, but I said 1 week would be fine. I can just see him being the kid that is peer pressured into anything. I hope I am wrong.

Roman on the other hand blurted out to my mom today that he has been talking about sex with his friend, but then clammed up and got upset and said he would get in trouble if he talked about it and wasn't going to talk about it anymore no matter how much my mom prodded him. So looks like 'the talk' take 2 is in order. I'm so glad that Starla is eons away from that. dealing with it with the boys is fun enough. I'm so not ready for all of this!

Momma's night on the town

My friend Kristi turned 40, so we went out to celebrate. We started out having dinner at Cafe Do Brasil. They had lots of cool decorations!

And a guy in the corner playing music, who busted out just about every instrument you could think of! He just kept switching around!

Alan liked this gal in the corner. :)

Here is the birthday girl with her husband Troung

Jamie and Sundai

Me and mny hubby. We seem to always match these days when we go out. He likes to color coordinate!

I couldn't pronounce anything on the menu, but it sure was yummy! I had a mojito to drink while we were there. And I had cod fish in a creamy coconut cream sauce with veggies and spices, served with rice and steamed veggies. It was a bit salty, but very good! Alan had a steak with collard greens, and beans cooked with potatoes, eggs and bacon.

Then we went to the Bricktown Brewery. I started off there with a drink called a blueberry press, with blueberry vodka. It tasted alot like the cereal boo berry. :) It was VERY blueberry. But it was good. I don't drink often, so I decided to try out some different things!

Alan & I

The first round of shots Troung ordered for us all. It was a lemon drop.

I told Alan he better start taking a pic of me with each of the drinks, so I could keep up with how many I drank!

Cheers!

Josh & Andrea. She wasn't drinking due to medicines that she was taking, so she started picking out my drinks for me. :)

Oh, so it's THAT kind of party eh? :)

Here I am with my pomtini (pomegranate martini!) and the next shot Troung handed me. I think this one was a sex on the beach.

Double fisted drinking at it's finest! I think my smile gets bigger with each drink, lol.

Andrea & Kristi

The girls having fun!

At this point I stopped asking what I was drinking, I just took what Troung handed me and drank it, lol. Alan was my driver, so he wasn't drinking, but Troung didn't take no for an answer and got him a shot of patrone anyways, even when Alan said no. lol. So here's Alan pouting that he was being forced to take a shot. It was his only one of the night though.

Shot # 3

Jamie appears to be quite 'happy' too. Her smile was getting bigger as the night wore on too!

Shot # 4, the last one.

3 drinks, 4 shots. Not bad for momma's night on the town. Lol. I haven't drank that much in eons. I was a bit tipsy! Not smashed though, just happy drunk! But I still managed to get up and go to church and serve in the nursery and function throughout my day. :) I really didn't feel as bad as I thought I would this morning, just tired.

Thanks Troung & Kristi! :)

A trip to the dentist

Sunday, March 22, 2009

A Trip to the dentist

I don't know why I can't copy and paste from my blogspot to blogspot blogs. The pictures won't ever show up. I can copy to myspace, but not to blogspot. Oh well. Because I didn't feel like uploading all of the same pictures again, which is typically what I do when I put the same post on my friend blog and my family blog. But today, I am lazy, so you can just click on the link above and it will take you to my family blog and you can see the trip to the dentist. :)

Bourbon's podcast

Bourbon is on the Pod Squad at school. They use a computer program called Garage Band to create podcasts about books. They write the scripts, pick the music and sound effects, pick the images, and edit it! Here is a link to the podcast Bourbon made:

http://podcast2.mid-del.net/groups/pbryant/weblog/3cfa9/

breezy saturday

Saturday, March 21, 2009

breezy saturday.... Current mood: drained

I'm so tired, I don't really know why. I have been dragging all week long. I need to snap out of it!! :)

We got up bright and early this morning and went to the first baseball game of the day at 8:30am, in the freezing cold and slight rain. I spent most of the game with Starla wrapped up in a blanket on my lap, trying to keep us both warm!! Right after the game was over, I had to get the kids to the dentist. I have pics, that I am sure I will post soon. I'm such a pic-a-holic. Not to mention a blog-a-holic! It was Starla's 1st visit, fun fun. :)

Then after that we had to run home, and I had to feed Roman and his friend Mathew (who stayed the night with us last night) lunch quickly and get them out the door to the next ball game. Which thankfully, Alan was home from work in time to take them, so I could get Starla down for a nap. Which I did, but then when Nanny came over to pick up Bourbon to spend some time with his cousin Destiny at her house, Starla woke up, and now won't go back to sleep, although she is still very tired and cranky. Fun, fun.

I have a ton of schoolwork I need to be doing, but I can't quite get motivated to get it done. Sigh. I can't wait until I am on the other side of the table, giving homework instead of doing it. Of course, gradins papers and writing lesson plans will keep me plenty busy too.

Tonight is our friend Kristie's birthday party, so we are taking the kids to nanny's house, and heading to some place called Cafe Do Brasil for hopefully some yummy food and good times.

I need to go write up my lesson plan that I am teaching in my 4th grade class on tuesday. Electricity and circuits! Fun stuff!

Our Spring Break

It went by way too quickly, but we had a great time.

I didn't get near enough done, or much of what I wanted to get done, but that seems to happen alot. I often have lofty goals with break time. :)

We spent some time at the zoo (Bourbon's friend Stew joined us)

We went to the St. Patty's day block party in bricktown.

yum, frozen margarita!

Bourbon had stayed the night with Stew and we met his family up there the next day.

We played at Nanny's, with her new puppy Rascal

We spent some time at the park, and flew a kite.

We went the 'the bear store', as we like to call it.

We went to Roman's first baseball game of the season, a tournament that will last until tuesday....

We also got to attend an adoption anniversary party, spend the night in Duncan with the in-laws, and have a picnic in the park with friends, but I forgot my camera at each of those times!

I still have quite a bit of homework to do, and my house is a pit. So for the next 2 days I will be doing those, and attending Baseball games.

I watched entirely too much TV during the break too, but I suppose I shouldn't give myself a hard time, since I don't get to do it very often. :)