Anahi

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Esmeralda

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Today Was Not Normal

Today was not normal
Thunder and lighting accompanied the dismissal bell. Along with the pollen, the rain washed all the common sense away too. A couple of teachers unfurled their umbrella and led their children around the busses to load them. The result: 1 dry teacher and 15 wet children. Others dumped their kids in the hall and ran. The result: 300 confused kids with inadequate supervision.

I went to Kroger to get gas. The clerk informs me that the system is down and they can’t accept cash. I knew a cashless society was coming, just didn’t expect it to arrive quite so soon. The result: a quick trip to another gas station. In the rain.

Fourth Grade went on a field trip, which meant in an early lunch for them and tweak in the schedule for everyone else. Teachers assumed that dropping their kids off 10 min. early didn’t mean they needed to pick them up 10 minutes early too. The result: 40 minute lunches and chaos in the cafeteria.

I’m teaching myself how to use the Activ Board. Sometimes it does what I want it to and sometimes it doesn’t. The result : Frustration on my part.

K named his blog mmmmm. pickles. M named her blog Fantasy Animal Warriors and D named her blog Fabulous10. We also have NothingAboutCheese by A, Shipo by C and MyFifthGradeLife by P. Last but not least we have The Athlete by J. D & R don't have a blog yet. They will have one next week

Houston we have....

Blogs!

Finally!

Permission slips were turned in and the Internet cooperated. I had fun, the kids had fun and blogs were created. Some are better than others, some need some editing but we'll get the kinks worked out in the weeks to come.

What happened to the Pizza?

Pizza used to be my favorite lunch.
Not any more!!!!!
It's horrid!

New government regulations insist that it be "healthy". Pizza isn't supposed to be healthy. It's supposed to be hot and greasy, not lukewarm and rubbery.

Foiled Again!

The Blogging Club meet today for the second time. We managed to open up Blogger.com but then the Internet failed us. We ate brownies and opened up Word and wrote down the names of potential blogs.

The one problem with a blogging class is that when the internet goes down it is very difficult to blog.

First Forays into Blogging

I’ve wanted to teach a blogging class for our After School Program for quite some time. I’m convinced that blogging helps kids be better writers - I now it’s improved mine.

First hurdle: The district blocked all blogs. Thanks to the efforts of The Librarian Philosopher, Blogger (and some other Web 2.0 resources) are now open.

Second hurdle: Educating the ASP teachers about what a Blog is (and isn’t)

Third hurdle: Getting on the schedule (ASP isn’t always organized)

Two years later I finally got the go-head. The wheels of education turn very, very slowly sometimes.

The first classes meet last week. Of course we couldn’t blog. First there was paperwork to fill out and permission slips to hand out. The district treats anything having to do with the internet very, very seriously.

I explained what a blog was – most of the kids weren’t to sure & showed them some sample blogs. One of the 4th graders wasn’t to sure he wanted to blog – he wanted to go to “technology” which I gather is a computer free for all. I think, that by the end of the hour I’d convinced him to give it a try. Fourth graders take the Writing TAKS test & need all the writing practice they can get.

Next week I’m going to use the Blogging Tips posted on Library2Play and everyone will set up their first blog. That is if the internet is working and the creeks don’t rise.

A couple of the kids turned their permission slips in the very next morning which is a very good sign indeed!