Cleaning Up the Mess

The water is the basement is finally gone. We've spent the last week cleaning up after the sump pump could not keep up with the rainfall. The entire finished basement flooded. Who knew that baby quilts can float in 6 inches of water? Or that cardboard boxes come apart and those important teaching materials that you've stored so carefully to go through some day tear so easily when you try to flatten them out to dry! What a mess! All of the furniture and storage items are now piled upstairs in our main living areas. My husband and I are eating upstairs in our bedroom because the kitchen and dining room tables have things like TVs, lamps, etc. sitting on them. And the restoration people just told us it would be two weeks before they can get back to us to fill in the hundreds of holes they drilled in the walls to pump heat and air to dry out the drywall.

Looking on the brighter side--I don't need to clean house for awhile!

Hope everyone is dry and enjoyed a few days off!

Writer's Block: Anybody Out There?

I'm sitting in front of a blank computer screen today, struggling to "get going." I have a million things to do, but I promised myself that I'd write every day...and not just reports or email.

I find that the computer can sometimes be a bad place to try to compose because it's so easy to stray off the screen...as I am doing right now. I opened a new window to our weblog to see if anyone had been blogging (justifying this because I'm looking for inspiration) and NO ONE IS BLOGGING...

So, I'll close by saying that I'm anxious for us to meet as a group so that we can talk about how to use this site as a place to share thoughts. I'm looking for some right now and don't seem to have any. (When my students would complain of this, I'd send them to their territories, their writing notebooks, their reading...or the blog!)

I'm going to return to my timer and my blank screen. We'll see what comes.

Happy Easter! At Last...Happy Spring!

I don't yet have an Easter picture uploaded to my computer, but here is my happy little Hailey, enjoying the pleasure of family...and new toys. I've gone from empty nest to full house this week, and along with all of this, of course, came cooking, EATING, Easter baskets, and decadent desserts. Oh well, the sun is out, and maybe I can force myself to walk the dogs.

I'm looking at an odd upcoming schedule for the next weeks...makeup days for ice and snow where I can fit them around the MAP, and yet wrap up days for my St. Louis schools. Seems impossible that the year has gone so quickly.

I hope all of you are well and that you, too, enjoyed Easter...and a little sunshine.

Class Blogs

Since our last meeting, two more of my schools have expressed interest in setting up blogs. I am so excited about the possibilities! Right now we are focusing on getting kids to respond to what they are reading in literature circles and sharing their thoughts on the blog. It's a great time to be a teacher!

Planning for next week is calling, so bye for now!

Glad To Be A Part of This!

Wow! Why didn't we do this before? What a great way for all of us to connect! It is so nice to hear from you guys during the times we aren't together for East-West meetings. We spend so much time in front of our computers anyway that to take a few minutes to find out what's new will be a real treat!

I've already checked out the poetry link--great resource. Great idea to add things we think others could use. I am so honored to work with such great minds!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Maybe the snow is about over.

I have a picture, I think.

Who's with me?

Thanks for dinner, katiedog. You're a good friend. It has been a heck of a week. Collaboration in a school. Texas Roadhouse with Kathy. SNOW! New trainers meeting. Cognitive coaching with Sue. New fingernails and Chinese food. More Cognitive coaching. A dozen roses and one husband. Bad news phone calls. And macaroni grill. More snow is called for tonight. I am going home tomorrow if I have to walk. Who's with me?

Screen Cleaning Link!

I am snowed in right now as are many of you. Even though I'm in the throes of the flu, I thought I'd get caught up on organizing my office. I was sent this link to a great "screen cleaning" site, and felt I must share this with all of you!

Van Gogh and Poetry...Katie Paints With Words

Katie actually dressed up for this photo shoot last summer when a fellow art teacher brought paints, paper, and a print of Starry Night to our writing group and asked us to make a list of our impressions and thoughts...What is the message of this piece? ... What feelings do we get from the colors, lines, shapes? What does the setting remind us of, and what are interesting things we find in the work?

After we wrote, she took the print away and asked us to paint our version of Starry Night. All of us painted our own renditions of the scene, each of us remembering different details, and some of us much better at capturing the essence of the original piece.

The part I loved, though, came afterward when we wrote about what we had painted, describing the message the painting might convey and what might make a good story from the setting. We then lifted words and phrases from the writing and painted them into the piece, up in the clouds, along the tree line, around the moon and stars...however the writing fit in.

Wish I could remember mine...my son was home from school and liked my painting and took it off with him ...

Ah, well...it's a beautiful Saturday and time to work in the yard. All of these thoughts came from a journey into my office to check my email when I came across this picture of my incredibly loyal friend Katie dressed as Van Gogh... (At least I left her ear alone!)