Jun
04
2008
This excerpt from Elizabeth George’s book A Wife After God’s Own Heart caught my attention. I’d love to know your thoughts about it!
Ah, home-sweet-home! At last your day at work is over. And now your “job” is to be sure it’s over. Leave work at work! Leave the disputes, emotions, confusion, and any hurt feelings or disappointments you may have experienced on the job at the job. Your husband deserves your attention when he gets home. He is the most important person in your life. He deserves a listening ear, a nice meal, and a pleasant evening.
So train yourself to be all there when you are at home. Pray on the way home. Thank God that your day at work is O-V-E-R! Purpose not to rehash your day and latest office gossip. You are a wife (and a mom and a homemaker) first…and thena worker. So, once again, when you finally make it home, be all there! Give your all. Enjoy your family to the max. Soap up every pleasure home and family bring to your heart! Ah, home-sweet-home!
Click here to see others’ tips WFMW! (I just noticed it’s Mom, I’m Bored week….oops.)
May
21
2008
Want to keep your flowers blooming and your plants extra healthy? Before filling your watering can, pour in a few tablespoons of fish emulsion. Your plants will be happy and you’ll be thrilled with the results! Fish emulsion isn’t like other fertilizers…you can’t over do it! You can find fish emulsion at your local co-op.
For more WFMW tips, click here.
P.S. Fish emulsion may lightly stain your watering can, but the results are worth it!
May
15
2008
Despite your best efforts and those of your students do your literacy centers often fail to meet your standard of tidiness? Keeping literacy centers nice and neat is not always easy, but necessary.
I have two ideas for keeping literacy centers straightened.
The first is to post a photograph at the center of how the center should look when the students leave the center. This provides a visual of the exact expectation. Even if your centers are in tubs, the tub can contain two photographs: one of what the tub should look like when the work is complete and another of where the tub should be put away when center time is over.
The second is to designate a student as Center Inspector. This student’s job is to inspect each center to make sure it matches the photograph. The Center Inspector can carry a small notepad and pencil and write down which centers have not been cleaned appropriately. The last group that was at the center should be responsible for the cleaning. Starting with a student who is a rule follower (but not bossy) as your Center Inspector might be a good idea. After that, a weekly rotation will do the trick. (Make sure the Center Inspector understands the point of his/her job is to make sure the centers are clean–not to point out the wrongdoing of others.)
If you have any other ideas for how to keep literacy centers clean, please leave them in the comments for others to read!
For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, go here.
Apr
30
2008
I am a first grade teacher and it did not take me long to realize that six-year-olds are indeed complex. I certainly do not yet understand all of those complexities, but the realization that age 6 is a special and even difficult year for children helps me be more patient when my students are displaying that Six behavior that some have claimed to be more challenging than the 2’s and 3’s! As a matter of fact, Dr.Louise Bates Ames has written an entire book on the subject of six- year-olds:
Synopsis: The six-year-old is a complex child, entirely different from the five-year-old. Though many of the changes are for the good — Six is growing more mature, more independent, more daring and adventurous — this is not necessarily an easy time for the little girl or boy. Relationships with mothers are troubled — most of the time Six adores mother, but whenever things go wrong, it’s her fault. It used to be, at Five, that she was the center of the child’s universe; now, the child is the center of his own universe.
Parents need the expert advice of Drs. Ames and Ilg during this difficult year, to explain parent-child relations, friendships with peers, what six-year-olds excel at, how they see the world, what it feels like to be entering the first grade. Children need patience and understanding to help make this transition easier.
This is a great resource for parents and teachers to help us understand and appreciate the phase our children are going through so that we can appropriately support and nurture them. Before you go to the public library, swing by Starbucks, and get lost in this book, click over to Rocks In My Dryer for more WFMW tips!
Apr
23
2008
Once you try this popcorn, you’ll never go back to microwave popcorn!
The Office (or movie/show of your choice) + homemade popcorn = a fun, relaxing evening!
Here is what you’ll need (4 servings):
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. unpopped popcorn (yellow or white—doesn’t matter)
3 T butter
In a 2 qt. pot combine all ingredients over high heat. Shake pan back and forth continuously. When the first kernel pops, cover and continue shaking. When the popcorn begins to lift the lid, remove pot from heat and remove lid. Pour popcorn into a bowl and salt. Add a little salt and then taste it before adding more.
Happy popping!
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Apr
16
2008
If your ice tastes like the freezer, I want you to know there is hope. You will once again enjoy your favorite drink over ice without the icky freezer taste! All you have to do to get rid of the awful taste that is contaminating all of your favorite beverages is rinse your ice. Put your ice in the glass, run a little bit of water over the ice, swish the water around, and then pour out the water. Now fill your glass with your beverage of choice! Using this simple technique allows me to fully enjoy my Diet Coke. Enough said.
For more Works for Me Wednesday tips, click here.
Feb
27
2008
I don’t know about you, but before I know it there is all sorts of crud on my wedding ring–soap scum, lotion, cheese dip– you name it. Our jeweler taught me a simple solution–ammonia and a toothbrush. At first I thought it was crazy and that it would surely damage my rings, but it does just the opposite! I just dip the toothbrush in the ammonia and give my rings a quick little scrub and then a quick rinse with water. My diamonds stay shiny and the metal stays clean and shiny, too!
Feb
20
2008
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These are the sweet faces that keep me going professionally and have taught me much personally. I am a better person in so many ways because of these kiddos. June will be bittersweet.
Below you’ll find some literacy center ideas. I am certainly not presenting anything Earth shattering, but I do hope you’ll be reminded of an idea you haven’t thought of in awhile or that you might pick up a new idea you can try in your classroom.
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Computer Center: Students use Earobics software.This software is expensive, but well worth the money. Funding may also be available. When I didn’t have Earobics, my students used this website.
The students use the yellow chart beside the computer to mark the days they use the computer center. This helps the speech therapist and I see at a glance who is using Earobics– I want my strugglers to use it most often, so sometimes they get a turn outside of center time.
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Listening Center: I have a basket of books on tape/CD underneath the table. Students are responsible for keeping the books and tapes/CDs in the correct bag and neatly organized. I only put 3-4 books on tape/CD in the basket a time. I try to change them once every few weeks. I also have an optional form for the students. The can write the date, title, author/illustrator, and what the book was about. It also has a spot on it using facial expressions where they can choose how much they liked/didn’t like the book.
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Lightbulb Lab: Our writing station is located in front of our word wall (complete with a crooked M and missing T–Welcome to first grade). The Lightbulb Lab is stocked with pencils flagged “Lightbulb Lab”, 2 dictionaries, paper with lines/paper without lines (in folders labeled as such), index cards, envelopes, letter stamps/ink pad, and crayons.
At this center the students may write letters, make cards, or draw a picture and write words about it. Some students also write/stamp high frequency words from the word wall. This is also acceptable to me.
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Phonics/Phonemic Awareness: The pouches on this pocket chart contain magnetic letters. The students can use these to build words in the clear pockets. On the opposite side of the letter pocket chart is a plain pocket chart where the students can do some of the activities in the snowman tin.
In the snowman tin there are beginning sound match-ups (picture with letter), an alphabet chart that has been cut up that they can put in order, sorts from Words Their Way (letter name) that we have done in class together (color-coded and organized in snack size baggies), and sight word concentration. I have been so proud of my students for only getting out one game and putting it away before getting something else out. They’ve handled this so well!
Just a little note on the sight word concentration: I cut index cards in half. I made each set with 10 words (20 half index cards))–I wrote a word and made a card with its match. I wrote the words in a yellow marker so the words wouldn’t show through. I coded the two sets by using stickers. When I was finished, I laminated the cards and put them in snack size baggies.
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Classroom Library: This is our classroom library and our carpet area where I teach a lot. I use the bulletin board as an easel. I pin up charts for familiar reading (one a time) and use the pocket chart for our phonics/phonemic awareness time. At one time I had the rocking chair in the classroom library, but I think it’s better for the students for me to be on the carpet with them or at least in a student chair so I am lower to the ground.
In this center students may read big books, books from our classroom library, or books from
their familiar reading baskets. Sometimes they also will do a sort we’re using in phonics/phonemic awareness or read a chart I have posted from Shared Reading. All of these activities are acceptable to me—so long as they’re doing something constructive!
Sidenote: The only books in our classroom library are books that I have read aloud to the students.
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Fluency Center: In the basket underneath the easel I have placed the following items: rhyming books, poems cut apart on sentence strips for the students to put in order, a binder that contains fluency poems we’ve done in class in page protectors, charts that we read together during Shared Reading, and a rhyming sound match-up. On the opposite side of the easel is an alphabet chart that is different from the one we do a few times a week in Shared Reading (and every day in some reading groups), but it still has only short vowels.
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Management: I have 14 students (heaven) and 6 centers. Some center groups have 3 students, but in a perfect world I’d have only 2 students in each group. I should really add 1 more center to even it out. In the groups that have 3 students, I try to put students from different reading groups in the group. Previously I have grouped students for centers according to reading groups, but I quickly found that I had created a situation where the blind were leading the blind or there were too many chiefs and not enough Indians. I now have students grouped more according to personalities and varied readiness levels.
Some of you might be wondering what happens with the groups of 3 when they go to computer or listening. For computer, 1 of the 3 goes across the hall to use a computer in a different classroom and for listening, the group simply unplugs the headphones. Certainly not a perfect situation, but it gets the job done!
The students’ names are on the striped cards below the letters, but I “erased” them for confidentiality purposes. After a center rotation, I remove the group from the last center (F) and move all the names down and then place the group that was at center F underneath A. The students have the rotation down so much that once they have a starting point they know where they’re going next without looking at the rotation chart. It is good for me though because if someone seems to be wandering I can look at the chart and see where that person is supposed to be… but that never happens. 
This rotation is right beside my reading group table so that I can change the groups quickly between reading groups.
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If you would like more information about anything I have shared or if you have a suggestion, please let me know! I need and appreciate new ideas. I am hoping to get new bulletin boards up this week and when I do I will post those ideas, so come back soon!
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Feb
12
2008
While Richard and I were going through pre-marital counseling, Love &Respect was among the books we read. It was by far the most important book we read for us as a couple and for me as an individual. My eyes were opened to so much about men and how to communicate effectively with Richard by reading Love &Respect. I was really shocked by how much I was missing.
The basic premise of the book is that men need/want respect and women need/want love. When a man doesn’t feel respected and/or when a woman doesn’t feel loved, the “crazy cycle” begins. Basically, the author is asserting that the origin of most arguments or rough spots in a marriage can be traced back to a man feeling disrespected or a woman feeing unloved. I know this is certainly true in our marriage.
I was amazed by all of the subtle ways that I had been disrespecting Richard. Disrespect can be as simple as doubting his ability to repair something around the house or his navigational skills. Disrespect can also mean not trusting him to make a decision for us or the tone of voice I use. There are all sorts of ways we as women relate to our men in ways that come across to them as disrespectful. When we do this, the “crazy cycle begins” and our men in turn respond to our disrespect in a manner that is unloving.
This principles we learned from reading Love & Respect have been absolutely invaluable to the success of our marriage. If you’ve got a strong, happy, healthy marriage this is a great book to encourage you to keep up the good work! If your marriage is struggling, this book may just give you the key to unlock the door to effectively communicate with your spouse. As part of your Valentine’s Day, consider committing to reading Love & Respect–give your man what he really wants–respect! and in turn, he won’t be able to resist and will respond lovingly to you!
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Dec
05
2007
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Q: What do I fix when it’s 8:00, we’re both just walking in the door from a long day, and I have 3 things in the pantry?
A: Tyson chicken strips and a loaded baked potato. He also likes the Tyson boneless buffalo wings.
It keeps my man happy and fed and it keeps me sane.
I am very thankful to have a husband who understands that sometimes dinner isn’t going to be a fanciful feast.
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for Me Wednesday: What Do I Fix Edition tips! |